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Canada Media Fund •

Verticals on the rise  | Canada Media Fund

Also known as microdramas and ultrashorts, vertical shows, which are shot to be viewed on smartphones, are growing at a remarkable pace in Canada.
In September 2023, Italian-Canadian filmmaker Dom Cutrupi saw his first vertical show.  
“A producer I was working with shared with me a piece of content — an episode,” Cutrupi recalls. “I looked at it, and I was like, ‘There's no way I'm going to do this.’”  
Cutrupi had just finished shooting his second feature film and thought the concept of vertic...
The Globe and Mail •

The design duo behind Creators of Objects spin resin into bold housewares

It was 2013, when design duo Joanne Byrne and Jonathan de Swaaf were working on a wall treatment for a restaurant, that they first experimented with resin. The pair, whose Toronto studio is known as Creators of Objects, constructed clear cherry blossom flowers to give the installation a 3-D effect.

A few years later, in 2016, Byrne and de Swaaf started exploring what else was possible with the material. “We were inspired by the sculpture artist Rachel Whiteread,” Byrne says. “She’s an incredibl...
Toronto Life •

How an unlikely series of events made the “Born ready” baby Vladdy T-shirt to go viral - Toronto Life

If you’re a Jays fan, chances are you’ve seen that adorable T-shirt featuring a drawing of three-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at his father’s Expos game. The shirt, which shows the tyke replacing an Expos helmet with a Jays hat, has Guerrero Jr.‘s now-iconic line, “Born ready,” scrawled under the illustration.A Toronto artist, director and actor is behind the design, and he has a chance airport run-in with someone one degree of separation from Jays royalty to thank for it.Artist Kit Weyman dre...
Toronto Life •

Real Weddings: Inside a Virgin Radio host's joyful ceremony with chosen family - Toronto Life

Morgan Wynn, a 33-year-old operations coordinator for a software start-up, first met Shannon Burns, a 32-year-old Virgin Radio host and content creator, through the Tumblr queer community in 2012. Their friendship began on the internet, since Morgan lived in the US and Shannon in Edmonton, but they met IRL in 2013 at a Pride event in New York. Regular friend-group vacations kept them in touch, and they made their relationship official in 2020. Morgan relocated to Toronto in the summer of 2022, a...
Canadian Grocer •

How Edward Lalonde turned a kitchen-counter experiment into a fast-growing protein brand

Lalonde focused on direct-to-consumer e-commerce to start. It was a one-man show for the first three years as he worked to get his business off the ground. “It was just me packing all the orders, doing customer service and the purchasing,” says Lalonde. “I was working 80 to 100 hours a week. It was rough, for sure.” He was packing orders in his Montreal apartment and took over his parents’ garage, bringing orders individually to Canada Post to ship them. The long days paid off. In 2022, Lalonde...
Toronto Life •

Real Weddings: Inside a Chinese and Korean celebration at the Old Mill - Toronto Life

Susie Kim, a 31-year-old software engineer, first met Peter Li, a 31-year-old design studio owner, when Susie transferred to Peter’s high school in 2011. They soon became high school sweethearts, and their relationship progressed when they both attended the same graphic design program at OCAD University. A decade later, in 2022, Susie and Peter got engaged during a walk in Evergreen Brick Works, and they were married in September of 2024 at the Old Mill. Their celebration included swan ice sculp...
The Globe and Mail •

Tech for good: Entrepreneurs in tech merge innovation with social impact

It’s no secret that the tech industry in Canada has resulted in some incredible discoveries and innovations. But Canadian women entrepreneurs are finding ways to create a social impact with their technology businesses. Here are a few of their stories.

It was in a first-year design course in 2018 that Lianna Genovese, a biomedical and mechanical engineering major at McMaster University in Hamilton, met Elissa, a woman living with cerebral palsy. “She mentioned to our class that she loved paintin...
Toronto Life •

Inside an ultra-kitsch Vegas elopement - Toronto Life

Zarmina Shafton (née Khan), a 30-year-old registered psychotherapist, met Aaron Shafton, a 29-year-old fintech executive, on Hinge in 2018. By July of 2020, the couple had moved in together, and in May of 2023, they got engaged while on vacation in Italy. Eager to keep their nuptials intimate and low-key, Khan and Shafton eloped in Las Vegas on the sixth anniversary of their first meeting, with Lady Elvis officiating and two photographers as their only witnesses. Here’s how it all came together....
The Globe and Mail •

Is $1-million enough to buy this couple a spacious townhouse north of Toronto?

In 2017, Joni Cheung bought a one-bedroom-plus-den preconstruction condo in Richmond Hill, Ont., for $348,000. By the time it was completed, in December, 2021, she was in a relationship with Ryan Berard, now a 33-year-old technical sales lead, and the couple moved into the 565-square-foot condo together.

“It was on the squishier side,” Ms. Cheung says of their condo. Mr. Berard works from home while Ms. Cheung is on a hybrid work schedule, so they set up two workspaces, one of which had to be m...
The Globe and Mail •

Quebec mall redevelopment to take landscape-first approach

A new, repurposed mall in Gatineau, Que., is leading the charge of retail centre reinvention amid the rise of e-commerce and the changing ways Canadians are shopping.

The $1.3-billion project, named Espace Canevas, is redeveloping a 16-acre site with 192,000 square feet of retail space, 180,000 square feet of office and community space, and 2.4-million square feet of residential space, equivalent to about 2,600 units. Espace Canevas also includes 120,000 square feet of parks and public space, a...
Cottage Life •

Buy the Way: Parents and children pool their resources together to co-own a cottage

Sarah Cameron’s fondest childhood memories happened at her family’s cottage on Cordova Lake, near Havelock, Ont. “My parents bought it before I was born,” she says. “We would go up there and I would play in the woods.” Her cottage upbringing led Sarah to a love of camping and the outdoors—a trait she shares with her partner, Frankie Tarascio. So, after her parents sold the cottage in 2014, Sarah and Frankie began thinking about buying their own. “I really missed having a place that we could go,”...
Canadian Grocer •

Meet Kim Wiseman, the Montreal entrepreneur behind Kanel premium spices

Kim Wiseman’s connection to spices started early. “My parents spent years in India, so I grew up in a house with tons of spices,” she explains. Her love of spices carried into adulthood, when she began experimenting with her own blends while cooking.After going on maternity leave from her role as head of customer engagement at DavidsTea in 2015—and welcoming a second child in 2017—she found herself in need of simpler, more efficient ways to prepare meals. She went looking for mealtime shortcuts,...
Chatelaine •

Do You *Really* Need A Whole-Body Scan? - Chatelaine

In Canada, eligibility for medical screenings is based on factors like age, sex and family history. But privately owned, for-profit clinics across the country offer whole-body MRI scans that can purportedly catch and treat abnormalities earlier. The price tag? Anywhere from $3,000 to $3,500.Are these scans worth the steep cost? Two Canadian doctors weigh in.“The most common reason people do this is because they think it will find early-stage cancers,” says Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw, an associate...
The Globe and Mail •

After delays hit his preconstruction Toronto condo, this solo buyer shifts gears to find a larger unit to host parents

In September, 2017, Sidharth Iyer moved from his native India to Canada. He owned a one-bedroom-plus-den condo in Mumbai, which he rented out after leaving the country, but wanted to become a property owner in his new hometown of Toronto. By May, 2019, he had purchased a one-bedroom, one-bath condo in the city’s Weston neighbourhood for $299,999.

Mr. Iyer, a 37-year-old director at an event technology startup, would host his parents for four to five months of the year whenever they visited from...
Toronto Life •

Four condo rooftops built for resort-level relaxation - Toronto Life

Where: Canary Landing
Developer: Dream Unlimited, Tricon Residential and Kilmer Group
Landscape architect: CCxA
Year opened: 2023
Amenities: Pool, community garden, kids’ play area, green roof, barbecue and lounge, covering 17,768 square feetCCxA, the architects behind Sugar Beach, Berczy Park and Love Park, among other downtown public spaces, brought a similar ethos to the design of the outdoor areas of Maple House at Canary Landing. “We approach amenities like parks,” says landscape architect...
Canada Media Fund •

Mittens & Pants makes live-action TV magic with real animals   | Canada Media Fund

Phil McCordic faced a steep learning curve in adapting to the unpredictable nature of filming live animals. But his show is now airing in 57 countries, spurring viral social media posts, and has inspired a Roblox game. 
In 2006 director, producer and kids’ TV host Phil McCordic was working on a show called Tumbletown Tales, which featured real hamsters and rodents, when he came up with the idea for his preschool TV show Mittens & Pants. “Ever since then I had always been thinking to myself, ‘It'...
Canadian Grocer •

These three women are on a mission to create clean, tasty snacks

In 2015, Tara Tomulka was burned out from her career in corporate communications. She quit her job and decided to study holistic nutrition, which sparked her interest in raw foods. That led her to develop the first raw vegan food course and vegetarian culinary arts courses at Toronto’s George Brown College, along with hosting culinary workshops, blogging and sharing recipes under the name Rawcology. But, she wanted to have a greater impact and thought of developing a line of consumer packaged fo...
Macleans.ca •

Faces of the Trade War

Donald Trump’s trade war is an existential threat for Canada’s small and medium-sized businesses. Every year, they export more than $200 billion worth of goods to the United States and import nearly $150 billion worth—including equipment, food, construction materials and other products they need to stay afloat. Now, as businesses contend with tariff-induced inflation, suppliers are disappearing, prices are skyrocketing and profit margins are shrinking or vanishing altogether. That puts small-bus...
Cottage Life •

Buy the Way: This family from Toronto lucked out and bought the cottage they were renting on Stoney Lake

In 2018, Stephanie and Mike Haas rented a friend’s cottage in Marmora, Ont., for a week with their young son Benjamin, who was five years old at the time; Mike’s sister; and his sister’s kids.“The kids being able to run around and hang out was fun,” says Stephanie.
After returning home to Toronto, Mike and Stephanie thought it’d be nice to buy a vacation property of their own someday. They planned to spend the next few years renting to experience different regions, lakes, and cottage layouts to...
Toronto Life •

This flight attendant makes $95,000 per year. How does he spend it? - Toronto Life

Charles Parreira is a 43-year-old flight attendant. He’s paid hourly and brings in roughly $95,000 a year. In 2010, he bought a one-plus-one-bedroom, one-bathroom starter condo at Lansdowne and Dupont for $189,000, which he later sold for $530,000. Breaking into the market that early helped him pay for his current condo—a two-bedroom, two- bathroom unit at Galleria on the Park in Wallace Emerson, which he purchased in November of 2019 for $705,000. He considers it his forever home and hopes to r...
The Globe and Mail •

This engaged expat couple seeks a starter home in Toronto under $950,000 – with room to grow

Chris Latham moved from Brisbane, Australia to Toronto in 2019 for a work opportunity at an international construction consulting company. He figured he’d spend a few years in the city.

Then, in 2022, he met Lucia England. She had just relocated to Toronto from the U.K. for a job at the same employer.

“I was introduced to the work expat group, and that’s how me and Chris met,” Ms. England says. “We’ve been together ever since.”

In January, 2023, the couple moved into an 1,100-square-foot rent...
The Globe and Mail •

Against the odds: Lessons in resilience from Canadian women business leaders

In 2022, Kristy Miller, chief executive officer of The Scented Market, a handmade candle and bodycare company based in Guelph, Ont., went on a surprise vacation with her husband for her 40th birthday to Nashville. On the last day of their trip, as Ms. Miller was packing up her bags to head home, she bent over and heard a pop. “All of a sudden, I had no feeling in my legs,” she recalls. “I could not stand up on my own. I was completely paralyzed from the waist down.”

Ms. Miller, with the help of...
The Globe and Mail •

How AI is infiltrating the hiring process for recruiters and job seekers

When Aamna Coskun first started her career as a recruiter more than a decade go, she recalls that the “post and pray” strategy was prevalent. “Networking wasn’t even that much of a thing,” she says.

Then, around 2017, applicant tracking systems (ATS) – software that helps hiring managers and recruiters post jobs, screen candidate resumes, schedule interviews and communicate with them – came into the fold.

When it came to reviewing resumes, ATSes used to require filters and Boolean search strin...
Toronto Life •

How a family transformed their dated Woodbridge townhouse into a moody delight - Toronto Life

A four-storey, 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhouse in Woodbridge.In 2021, a father and his two children were downsizing from an estate home in Uxbridge to this townhouse in Woodbridge. The kids, who both played competitive hockey, needed to be closer to their home arena and private school. But, during the purchase, the family found their new home dark and dated and knew that a proper renovation would be in order. So they hired Kristi Bullock, an interior designer at Emeral...
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