Doc Projectwith Acey Rowe
Latest
Personal Essay
Library shame: How my late fees tortured my conscience
There is an unspoken promise made when entering the library: I’ll lend you my books. And you’ll return them — on time and basically in the same shape as they were given to you. Catherine Cole has a hard time keeping that promise.
Personal Essay
My mother worked for Britain's spy agency in the 1960s. Can I get her to reveal her secrets?
Author Camilla Gibb has always known her mother worked for MI5 during the 1960s. But she's never known much more than that.
Personal Essay
My grandma sang her way to Canada at a time when Chinese people were barred entry
Gar Yin Hune travelled with her Cantonese opera troupe when the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place, and never left.
Personal Essay
How my Christmas village upstaged my life
"No matter what I publish, I fear nothing will loom as large as that village essay. I created something so much bigger than myself, something more powerful and less mortal. It all has an unfortunate Frankenstein feel."
The Doc Project
This 86-year-old Yukoner bakes with a sourdough starter that's older than she is
Ione Christensen has been eating and making sourdough her whole life. But Ione's sourdough predates her. The sticky, gooey starter arrived in the Yukon in true Yukon style: with her great-grandfather, during the Gold Rush.
'I'm free': How Canada's Rainbow Railroad helped a Barbados couple fleeing persecution find peace
Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto-based organization that relocates LGBTQ refugees from nations where they're at risk, decided to expedite the process for getting one couple out of Barbados after their home was set on fire in January.
Personal Essay
How to find the holiday spirit while someone is tailgating you
Can we learn to love our fellow drivers, rather than Grinch up our hearts and Scrooge up our fists as some halfwit flies past us in the right-hand lane? CBC's Tom Howell gives it a try.
Personal Essay
My brother and I were total opposites, except for one thing: We almost starved ourselves to death
When Bob Kerr’s anorexia was on the verge of killing him, his parents called the police. And the thing is, they’ve been down this road before with John, Bob’s younger brother.
How international students are helping an Ontario ski town with its tourism job crunch
After a "critical" shortage of tourism labour in Collingwood, Ont., Georgian College recruited students almost exclusively from northern India to help fill vacant roles at two resorts. The students, meanwhile, have invested everything in the dream of a new life in Canada.
She couldn't help her daughter escape the sex trade. Now, she's fighting for change
Jennifer Holleman lost her daughter, Maddison Fraser, to a car accident in 2015. But she lost her to the sex trade years earlier. As she puts the pieces together, Jennifer believes Maddison was a victim of trafficking.
As a brown guy, I knew hiking the U.S. border would be risky. But it also made me face my trauma
Amiththan Sebarajah is a through hiker who's clocked over 10,000 km of long-distance hiking. As a person of colour, he's always been an anomaly on the trail. But his most recent hike brought his trauma as a child in Sri Lanka to the surface.
Uprooted by war, this refugee is rebuilding his life in Canada through music
After Syria's civil war uprooted his life, Radwan Altaleb fled for Canada, leaving behind his most prized possession: his collection of ouds, a stringed instrument, which he characterizes as 'the grandfather' of the lute, mandolin and guitar.
'What was in that dust?' P.E.I. woman searches for answers about mishandling of asbestos in daughter's school
Toby MacDonald is demanding answers about why parents and students at Three Oaks Senior High School in P.E.I., were not informed that asbestos had been mishandled during the school's renovations — amid fears that her own daughter's health may have been put at risk.
She was being raised as a white child in Texas while her Haitian father was fighting racism in Montreal
Rhonda Fils-Aimé was adopted by a white family as a baby, and her biological father, Philippe, had no idea. But now, 50 years later, they're making up for lost time.
Personal Essay
My kid stole a Kinder Egg. I tried to make it a teachable moment. It didn't go well
When her son pockets a Kinder Egg from the checkout line of the grocery store, Jennifer Warren attempts to turn it into an invaluable moral lesson. But the store manager has other plans.
This computer scientist created her own secret code for motherhood
Ilona Posner kept very detailed journals of her three children’s lives. Now she’s sharing them with her eldest daughter, Ada.
The long goodbye: One woman's journey to honour her childhood friend years after brutal murder
Betty Bird spent 33 years wondering how her best friend was killed and where she was buried. Now after years of searching, she's embarked on a journey to say goodbye.
Is a secret gold mine hidden in the B.C. mountains? This treasure hunter says so
Adam Palmer has spent 10 years chasing the tantalizing legend of Slumach's gold — even though it comes with a curse.
Her family lived in Vancouver's Stanley Park until they were forced out in 1931
Rennie Smith is fighting to have her Squamish-Portuguese ancestors recognized as part of park's history.
As Nova Scotia's suicide rate climbs, parents fight to change systems that shut them out
As the number of suicides in Nova Scotia increases sharply, some families argue they should be notified when their child is in crisis, even at the expense of patient privacy. Does a Toronto program offer a possible solution?
Can you picture things in your head? Well, this guy can't
Tom Ebeyer has aphantasia, the inability to visualize images in the mind. And for the first two decades of his life, he had no idea his brain was different in any way.
Point of View
Think finding housing is hard? Try adding a wheelchair
Sean Towgood has cerebral palsy and has been on a supportive housing waitlist for four years. He's desperate to start his adult life, but has no idea when, or if, he'll get his own place.
'Strong, capable Hutterite runner' takes on the trail — and tradition
"If I am a healthier Elaine, then I am a healthier Hutterite," says Elaine Hofer, even though she struggles with taking time away from her traditional Anabaptist community.
Living with the same disease that took her baby sister, this woman's fighting back
Sickle cell disease was a powerful bond between Beverly and Andrea Ndukwu, until it ripped them apart.
This 80-year-old is smoking weed for the first time — with a little help from his grandson
Thomas Goldhar and his Zaidy Moe have always had a special bond. So Thomas is giving him the gift of newly legalized weed for his 80th birthday.
