Selected Work

FEATURES

VC Funds Are Dominated by Men. These Women-Led Firms Are Trying to Change That

Despite evidence that diverse and women-led teams outperform men-led ones, the massive VC funding gap between start-ups founded by men and women has hardly closed in the last few years.
Canadian Business, September 2022

Child Care Revolution: What Canada Can Learn from Germany

Over the past twenty years, huge social and policy changes have ­significantly remade child care in Germany. In 2008, the Childcare Funding Act was passed, granting parents with children over the age of one the legal right to subsidized daycare spots beginning in 2013. Enshrining the right to child care in law changed the game for parents.
The Walrus, May 2022 cover story

Don’t say ‘privilege’: can the left find better words for talking with people on the right?

Polarizing words may be throwing progressives off course – but research might hold lessons for the left on how to have more meaningful conversations
Guardian, October 2021

Inside the scramble to find culturally competent care for elderly immigrants

Wait times, which can be up to nine years for mainstream LTC homes, are often even longer for culturally specific facilities. In the absence of truly accessible options, immigrant families are making tough choices about care.
Broadview (cover story), June 2021

The Open Border Effect

Germany offers a window into what can happen when a wealthy Western country undergoes a mass migration without assessing the migrants’ potential for the labour market.
Maclean’s, February 2021

Can Canada’s universities survive COVID?

Fewer international students, half-full residences, shuttered food services and empty parking lots add up to devastating revenue losses. And public funding has fallen over the past decade. Universities are in for a reckoning.
Maclean’s, September 2021

The struggle to stay safe from COVID-19 in a refugee camp 

The UN is taking measures to protect those in refugee camps from the spread of the coronavirus. But there is little room for social distancing in the camps, where people often have to line up for food and water.
Maclean’s, March 2020

The rise of white nationalism in Germany

For most Germans, the dangers of nationalism are obvious and there is a willingness to vigorously defend democratic values. But there has been an alarming rise in extreme-right views which has already spilled over into mainstream politics. And if Germany is struggling to contain this threatwhat does that mean for countries that haven’t been as vigilant?
Maclean’s, October 2019

What Do Borders Really Do?

Lines on a map confer advantages on some and exclude others. This serves political needs, but is it morally just?
University of Toronto magazine, October 2018

What it’s like to be LGBTQ at a Canadian Christian university 

The fight against a Trinity Western University covenant effectively banning same-sex relationships on campus was framed in court as religious freedom versus LGBTQ rights. But the issue looks very different on a campus where some LGBTQ students don’t see their sexuality as being in conflict with their faith.
Maclean’s, October 2018

‘Everybody fits in’: inside the Canadian cities where minorities are the majority

Canada’s official policy of multiculturalism states that other cultures are valuable as long as newcomers are willing to integrate into “mainstream” Canadian culture. But what does mainstream look like in cities where the primary culture is neither English nor French? And, as Canada’s population is projected to be nearly 30 percent foreign-born by 2036, what does integration in these cities mean?
Guardian, September 2018

A Year After The Quebec Mosque Shooting, Has Anything Changed?

The deaths of six men last year revealed a terrifying strain of Islamophobia in the city — one the province has failed to confront. In the wake of the violence, Yousseff and Mulka Cherif wonder if they are better off leaving Quebec altogether.
Chatelaine, January 2018

Male Infertility Is On The Rise — So Why Aren’t We Talking About It?

Sperm counts have been in a free fall in Western countries over the last 10 years, yet infertility is still largely seen as a women’s issue.
Chatelaine, May 2018

PROFILES

Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon is saying what others have left unsaid

Broadview, June 2022

Genre-hopping author Naben Ruthnum won’t be pigeonholed

Globe and Mail, June 2022

Simu Liu is on the cusp of superstardom. But that isn’t his end game.

Maclean’s, August 2021

Rajni Perera is the artist Toronto needs right now

Toronto Star, March 2021

‘Diverse from what?’: Dionne Brand on art for all people

Globe and Mail, September 2018

ESSAYS & OPINION

Canadian Media Is White AF — I Want A Mentor Who Has Felt That

Refinery29, July 2020

Pick our fruit, get COVID-19

Maclean’s, July 2020

Terrorism laws have long been used against brown and black men. When will they be used to protect them?

Maclean’s, May 2020

Our Moral Responsibility to Asylum-Seekers Doesn’t Change During a Pandemic

VICE, March 2020

The Witches That Terrified Me as a Kid Are Actually Feminist Heroes

VICE, February 2020

Trudeau’s Best Costume So Far Has Been ‘Woke White Bro’

HuffPost Canada, September 2019

What Donald Trump’s presidency means to me

Chatelaine, January 2017

Here’s how multiculturalism has failed people like me

Chatelaine, July 2017

REVIEWS

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid

Toronto Star, July 2022

Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

Toronto Star, May 2021 

Theory by Dionne Brand

Toronto Star, September 2018 ​​

Not That Bad, edited by Roxane Gay

Toronto Star, April 2018

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

Toronto Star, June 2017

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Toronto Star, February 2017

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad

Toronto Star, February 2016

Q&As

Salman Rushdie On His Prescient New Novel: ‘I Would Rather Have Guessed Wrong’

Chatelaine, September 2017

Arundhati Roy on friendship, fearlessness and her return to fiction

Chatelaine, July 2017

Zadie Smith on class, race and Prince Harry’s new relationship

Chatelaine, November 2016

Madeleine Thien, Canada’s latest literary star

Chatelaine, November 2016