Torontoist Environment Editor Chris Tindal is currently engaged in a federal by-election campaign. This weekly column is an attempt to offer a "behind the scenes" glimpse into what it's like to be that mysterious Other: a politician. A strange thing is happening here in Toronto Centre: Barack Obama seems to have become a candidate. Not literally of course, and (as you'll see) it's not clear what party he's representing, but his presence is certainly being......

Barack Obama lays down the smack in South Carolina's presidential primary. Obama won by an enormous 28-point margin, prompting Bill Clinton to afterwards comment that this was no big deal because Jesse Jackson, who is a black man, like Barack Obama, won South Carolina when he ran for President, and did he mention that Barack Obama is black just like Jesse Jackson? (Also black: Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and that R&B star that had......

The Star reports that TTC operators have a rate of post-traumatic stress disorder four times higher than Toronto police officers. The syndrome is often a result of witnessing, or becoming the victim of, physical violence, and is now the second leading cause of missed work days at the TTC. Arming operators a la Mad Max probably isn't the right solution, but hoping that the assholes who assault drivers will magically disappear may not be......

The last few years have seen a steady erosion of the stuffy formalities associated with sharing information. If you haven't already heard, the lecture is yesterday's news. Young artists and designers would rather share ideas in a more relaxed and less hierarchical environment. You can see evidence the world over with "open-source" collectives like Dorkbot, Share, Pecha Kucha and Le Placard, which allow artists and the curious public to come together to perform, present......

In Selling Venus / Vénus au miroir, Winnipeg-based artist Dominique Rey articulates the complex relationship between femininity and spectacle, exposing the fine line between subject and object; public and private. The exhibition, which consists of portraits, a video projection and an attendant essay by Steven Matijcio, documents the lives of exotic dancers working at the Crazy Horse in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (Rey also worked as a dancer, and as such, openly addresses and deflates......

If you happened to read The Toronto Star on Sunday, you may have seen a short excerpt from novelist, historian, and journalist Lawrence Hill’s new novel, The Book of Negroes. Tonight, This Is Not A Reading Series invites you to the Gladstone Hotel to celebrate the book’s launch. The novel concerns Aminata Diallo, who is sent to South Carolina to work as a slave, eventually wins her freedom – signing her name in the Book......