Galvanized by the image of a lifeless toddler washed ashore on a Turkish beach, a group organized themselves and sponsored a refugee family of seven. Their story is all about successful community building. Continue reading
Category Archives: Finding Home
FINDING HOME
We are a city of immigrants, we know, but what does this mean for each of us? We explore some of the myriad aspects of being at home. Continue reading
I KNOW HOME
I know home: it’s St. Clair West but belonging here today is the germination of seeds planted decades ago. For those, like me, who have lost their place in the world, finding it again becomes a journey, a quest to feel rooted… Continue reading
A PLACE TO STAND, A PLACE TO LEAVE? How in the world did I end up in Australia?
I was just a little girl living in Toronto when Expo ’67 presented Ontario with the best theme song ever. We belted out the lyrics in classrooms throughout the province that whole year… Continue reading
DAAD-MOHAMMAD AND THE FISHES
In the morning just as the sun rises he gets up for his daily pilgrimage, the loose cloth from his turban and white dash-dashi trailing in the desert wind. He walks alone… Continue reading
AN IMMIGRANT ALL OVER AGAIN?
How long does it take to become Canadian? Not simply to obtain citizenship, but for an immigrant to be at home here in Canada. The main conclusion of a just-released report is that even after living in Canada for decades, if you lose your job you are worse off than when you arrived… Continue reading
WHAT DO THEY CALL YOU AT HOME?
The trip was meant to be more business than pleasure. I had agreed to accompany my mother to Cyprus – where I was born and emigrated from in the ‘60s – to help her deal with some family property… Continue reading
WHEN HOME LEAVES YOU
No matter how far away you are from home, whether you’re homesick or you left home because you were sick of it, you know home will always be there, waiting for you. But what if friends, family, and neighbours, even the ones you didn’t get along with, picked up and left? Continue reading
RAZING HOME
When you move out of a place it can be emotionally devastating. Especially because, for most of us, it is so rarely our choice. As a child you fear you may never again find those special spots, the comforts that made it a home… Continue reading
LEAVING CITY LIFE FOR A HOME IN THE COUNTY
In 2003 my husband and I left Toronto and a house that we and our children loved and had called home for 23 years. We were moving 200 kilometres away to make a new home in the country… Continue reading
A NEIGHBOURHOOD BECOMES HOME
I had expected that having a child would affect my view of the city and my relationship to it. What I hadn’t expected was how exactly this change would manifest itself. I had hoped… Continue reading
HOMECOMING
With each snip of the pruning shears, a branch of the grapevine falls from the pergola to the ground, followed moments later by droplets of sap. The gnarled stems easily betray a half-century of life. Twisted and bent they cling to the tarnished metal rods and steel pipes like a veil of memories… Continue reading
HOMES
Photo essay by Schuster Gindin. Home in Toronto. Continue reading
AT HOME IN TORONTO AND LONDON
How does living in London compare to living in Toronto? Colin Leys has inhabited both cities over a number of years and has some thought-provoking and amusing insights into Old World versus New World living. Continue reading
LIVING TORONTO 