#The Great Airbnb Crackdown – Macleans.ca

#The Great Airbnb Crackdown – Macleans.ca

The historic building at 135 rue du Port included 14 apartments, nine of which were rented as Airbnbs. It burned down last March. (Photo by Simon-Marc Charron via Radio-Canada) As soon as Nathan Sears checked into his Airbnb in March of 2023, he knew something felt wrong. The door to his unit was so flimsy he…

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#The Incel Terrorist – Macleans.ca

#The Incel Terrorist – Macleans.ca

(Photo illustrations by Anna Minzhulina) The morning of February 24, 2020, began like any other at Crown Spa. The first clients of the day began coming and going for sessions, and J.C., the manager, was upstairs in the apartment where she lived. J.C., whose full name is under a publication ban, had managed the spa…

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#Quebec’s New French Revolution – Macleans.ca

#Quebec’s New French Revolution – Macleans.ca

(Photo courtesy of iStock) When François Legault is in downtown Montreal, he doesn’t like what he hears. Quebec’s premier works from an office on Sherbrooke Street, right in the heart of the city, only a few blocks from the mountain that gives Montreal its name and directly across the street from the Roddick Gates, the…

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#A Killer Among Them – Macleans.ca

#A Killer Among Them – Macleans.ca

The Manwin Hotel, which sits next to several shelters and drop in centres in the Point Douglas area, is one of the most notorious and violent locations in WInnipeg They began to disappear in the winter. In February of 2022, a woman named Rebecca Contois was seen for the last time in downtown Winnipeg. Weeks…

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#The Rise of the One-and-Done Family

#The Rise of the One-and-Done Family

(Photograph by Markian Lozowchuk) I became a parent in the summer of 2021, at the age of 42, partway between Delta and Omicron. While the world was fretting over Pfizer versus Moderna, my partner, John, and I were going back and forth on baby names. One night in late June, I fell asleep watching yet…

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#The DNA Detective – Macleans.ca

#The DNA Detective – Macleans.ca

Dean Lerat often spends 30 hours a week working on his genealogy project at home in Regina, Saskatchewan. Black-and-white snapshots of his ancestors, like his great-grandfather Quewitch (pictured above left), cover the walls of his garage. (Photography by Amber Bracken) On St. Patrick’s day in 2016, Dean Lerat and his wife, Julie, went for dinner…

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#The False Prophet of Edmonton

#The False Prophet of Edmonton

John de Ruiter. (Photograph via JohndeRuiter.com) The Oasis Centre is a luxuriant aberration on the industrial edge of northwest Edmonton. Neighboured by window-less warehouses and car dealerships, the $7-million complex comprises a palatial banquet hall built of cream-coloured brick, a 200-car parking lot and a thicketed garden with a stone patio and lily-padded pond. When…

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#Revenge of the Renter – Macleans.ca

#Revenge of the Renter – Macleans.ca

The York South-Weston Tenant Union holding a rally on Weston Road in Toronto, after they decided to withhold rent from their landlord. Hundreds of tenants showed up to the late July rally. (Photograph by Jared Ong) Sharlene Henry moved into 33 King Street, a 27-storey apartment building in Toronto’s Weston neighborhood, 20 years ago. She…

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#The rise and fall of a Chinese-Canadian pop star

#The rise and fall of a Chinese-Canadian pop star

In November of 2018, the Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu was at the peak of his fame: young, confident, unstoppable. That month, he released his album Antares, and the record was a phenomenon, with seven songs landing on the American iTunes top 10. Standing six-foot-one, with Cupid’s-bow lips and a V-shaped face, he was known…

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