Globe and Mail

In two capitals, pressure grows for an end to Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Through private meetings with ministers, rallies online and on the streets, through fundraisers pooling hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, the Syrian-Canadian community has been an active player in Syria’s resistance movement.

But as the violence escalates and spreads, many of the more than 30,000 Canadians who trace their lineage to Syria are calling on the government to act: It’s one thing to pay lip service to Syria’s opposition, they contend; but it’s time for Ottawa to put its money – and its might on the international stage – where its mouth is.

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Poor prospects: Toronto’s impoverished are working hard and hardly earning

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Armira Varga moved to Canada from Colombia 23 years ago, built a life for herself and her kids. Now, out of a job and juggling multiple new gigs, she's joined the growing ranks of Toronto's working poor.
(Photo by Moe Doiron / The Globe and Mail)

They’re often single and not originally from Canada. They work close to full-time hours but likely bring home less than $20,000 a year. In the first Canadian study of its kind, the growth of Toronto’s working-poor population has been charted, and the results are shocking: Even during times of economic prosperity the number of working people unable to make ends meets grew by 42 per cent in the GTA, a figure that shows no sign of stopping. Anna Mehler Paperny reports

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Ontario crash shines light on Canada’s migrant workers

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Photo by John Lehmann/Globe and Mail

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY and DAKSHANA BASCARAMURTY

They pour coffee, care for children, pick berries and wrangle chickens – unglamorous, often low-wage jobs that are vital to Canada’s economy.

The umbrella term “temporary foreign worker” covers upward of a quarter of a million people coming to Canada from 80 countries every year. Many are recruited by private agencies that run the gamut from respected international organizations to tiny operations accused of charging exorbitant fees for the privilege of a short-term, minimum-wage job in Canada.

Monday’s horrific crash in southwestern Ontario, in which 10 migrant workers were killed when the van transporting them smashed into a truck and careened into a building by the side of the road, exposes a growing sector of Canada’s labour market that, despite its size, tends to go unnoticed.

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Towns vie to be the burial sites for Canada’s nuclear waste

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Graphic by Tonia Cowan/The Globe and Mail

Saturday, January 14, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

As roadside attractions go, “Home of Canada’s Nuclear Waste Burial Ground” isn’t one you’d normally put on a souvenir keychain.

But strange as the title sounds, nine Canadian communities are in the running to claim it – along with the opportunity to host the country’s spent uranium in underground bunkers for the rest of time.

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Treating the tiny victims of Canada’s fastest-growing addiction

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Laura holds Carter at their home in Hamilton, ON. He was born with the shakes, the sweats, stiff limbs and sneezing fits, hospitalized and on morphine for three weeks. He's now home, and healthy.
Photo by Glenn Lowson for the Globe and Mail

Saturday, January 7, 2012 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

HAMILTON — Hours after his birth, stiff-limbed and trembling, Carter was whisked away to a bassinet in a neonatal intensive care unit and fed morphine through a dropper.

He broke out in sweats, a fine sheen clinging to his neck and scalp, when, weeks later, nurses started to wean him off. His mother, Laura, who asked to be identified by her first name only, knew exactly what he was going through: She’d experienced withdrawal before.

“That was the worst part. Knowing what it feels like, and knowing a little baby … it’s the worst feeling in the world, you know? You don’t want your child to go through that.”

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Manitoba probes immigrant investor program

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Monday, December 26, 2011 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Manitoba’s auditor-general is reviewing an initiative designed to bring immigrant investors to the province in light of scandals plaguing similar programs in the Maritimes.

There has been no suggestion of wrongdoing in Manitoba; but scathing audits, fraud allegations, lawsuits and RCMP investigations in the Atlantic provinces have raised concerns thousands of kilometres away.

“It was an area we thought there was a high risk that there could be problems,” said Manitoba Auditor-General Carol Bellringer in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “We wanted to find out how that whole investment part worked, and if there was any potential for [immigrants] to be taken advantage of.”

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The Higgs boson: Closing in on the Sasquatch of particle physics

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

In a centuries-old Swedish castle near the Arctic Circle, in the fading light of a summer midnight, two of the most brilliant particle physicists in the world made a bet over chocolate.

Does the Higgs boson exist?

It’s no idle query: The underpinnings of particle physics, and our assumptions of how all matter interacts, rely on the particle’s not-quite-proven existence. The 47-year search for that proof now costs a billion dollars a year. And esoteric as their goal seems, scientists argue it’s well worth the effort.

On Tuesday, says Robert Garisto, the physicist and editor judging the castle bet, the public finds out “who’s got to save up money to buy chocolate.”

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Pay attention: At Ontario nuclear plant, this gadget’s measuring your brainwaves

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Ron Drody, First Line Manager Operator Training with Ontario Power Generation, demonstrate how the the BodyWave machine works at the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant in Pickering, Ontario Canada.
(Photo by Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail)

Saturday, November 19, 2011 – Globe and Mail
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PICKERING, ONT. — Ontario nuclear plants are the first in their industry worldwide to test-drive a futuristic gizmo that measures employees’ concentration by reading brain waves.

The premise is deceptively simple: Use the electric current released by neurons firing in the brain to test, in real time, a person’s concentration level. And the device is strikingly svelte – this is no Medusa-like helmet of coloured cords strapped to your skull.

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Ontario election 2011: For Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, it’s all about connecting

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Photo by Anna Mehler Paperny/The Globe and Mail

Saturday, September 24, 2011 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Friday night in North Bay, Ont. The blonde behind the bar is talking up patrons on tax policy.

They aren’t sure who she is or why she’s here; 15 minutes ago, they’d never heard her name. But they are riveted and, for that matter, so is she: Her politely agitated handlers need to pry her away to scrum outside the pub.

“Can you get her to come back?” schoolteacher and pub-goer Val Spivey asks. “We want to ask about her education policy.”

This is what Andrea Horwath does.

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Politics not in the cards for Andrea Horwath’s son. But his mom? “She’d be stoked” to be premier

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Photo by Anna Mehler Paperny/Globe and Mail

Friday, September 23, 2011 – Globe and Mail

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

Hamilton — Julian Leonetti has a habit of acing his civics exams. But you could argue he has an unfair advantage.

Mr. Leonetti, 18, was raised immersed in a political milieu – tagging along to meetings and putting up signs for his mom, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

He remembers going from day care to Ms. Horwath’s office in Hamilton city hall, where she was a councillor.

“I would hang with her secretaries and meet all the politicians. … It was actually a really, really, really good environment to grow up in,” he says.

Mind you, he wasn’t so sure about that at the time.

“When I was there, I was bored as hell. But when I look back on it, every other kid was sitting at home, watching Arthur on TV. Those kids weren’t learning what I was learning.”

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