The last decade in Canada has been one of seismic social changes. We’ve changed how we talk about gender, global politics, drugs and what it means to be a Canadian.
Here’s how the discourse has evolved around several topics that define this country and the people who live here:
Gender Identity
In 2011 a Toronto couple sparked a frenzy when they decided not to reveal the sex of their baby, Storm.
“The level of vitriol was outstanding,” said May Friedman, a professor specializing in gender identity at Ryerson University, noting people lashed out in person and online at the couple.
Over the last five years, that concept slowly started becoming more acceptable.
“I still wouldn’t say it’s a common move, but in downtown urban centres it’s not completely outlandish like it was perceived as being in 2011, which was really not a long time ago.”
Friedman said there was a clear tipping point in the middle of the decade where trans and gender fluid people were visible enough in media and where being trans, and lessening the importance of gender norms to your children, stopped being considered a radical idea.
Today, people put their pronouns in their email signatures, and many bathrooms make a point of welcoming anyone who identifies as a man or woman to use them. Some places drop gendered washrooms altogether.
In this file photo, a woman walks to a bathroom at the Prairie Valley School Division office in Regina, Sask., on Dec. 6, 2016. All the bathrooms of the rural school division’s 39 schools now have gender neutral signage, what they call ‘all gender bathrooms.’ (Michael Bell/The Canadian Press)
But Friedman said there’s still progress to be made, especially when it comes to transgender people of colour, who may not always be as visible or represented in the media as white LGBTQ people.
Opioids
The addiction epidemic started with the over-prescribing of opioids near the start of the decade and worsened with a supply of synthetic street drugs like carfentanil and fentanyl, which only need tiny amounts to trigger a deadly overdose.
“The opioid crisis is without a doubt the single biggest public health crisis of our generation,” said Benjamin Perrin, the author of Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada’s Opioid Crisis, a book set to be released next year about the epidemic.
Recent figures from the Public Health Agency of Canada show nearly 14,000 people have been killed by opioids since 2016, and Perrin said approximately one person dies from an overdose every two hours.
In an interview with The Canadian Press earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to do more to combat the crisis, including creating more supervised consumption sites and giving doctors more authority to prescribe alternatives to street drugs.
However, he said that decriminalizing all drugs isn’t the “panacea” to the crisis.
Drake
When “Thank Me Later” came out in 2010, few could have known that the Canadian artist — described at the time on review site Pitchfork as “emo-y” — could have become one of the world’s most dominant artists. He was the most-streamed artist of the decade on Spotify, and his music helped put Toronto on the map as a city with a hip-hop identity.
Drake attends the LA Premiere Of HBO’s “Euphoria” at The Cinerama Dome on June 04, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
“Perhaps above all, however, is his ability to appeal to a wide variety of fans who might identify with various aspects of his multi-faceted persona,” said Ken McLeod, an associate professor of musicology at University of Toronto.
“Over the past decade where streaming services have broadened musical tastes, and where ethnic and musical diversity are increasingly valorized, he metaphorically sits in the middle of a cultural and stylistic Venn diagram.”
Real estate
Home prices have more than doubled since the start of the decade, outpacing income by a large margin and putting home ownership out of reach for many young people in two of Canada’s biggest cities, says John Pasalis, president of real estate site Realosophy.
Back in 2010, Pasalis estimates housing prices in Toronto were about five times more than average yearly income, whereas now they’re roughly eight times more. He said the situation is similar in Vancouver.
“Today’s generation of first-time buyers is battling with sky-high rents and a market that is a lot harder to get into than ten years ago,” said Pasalis. “It’s harder to save and it’s harder to get into the market.”
Market control measures from governments have had mixed impact. Pasalis said in Toronto, a mortgage stress test led more people to buy condos and vastly inflated their pricing. In Vancouver, a foreign buyer’s tax has softened the market, but prices there are still sky-high.
The Toronto Raptors
Madness appeared to spread across Canada over the Raptors’ 2019 playoff run. When the Raptors started their finals series against the Golden State Warriors, thousands of people across the country crowded into dozens of outdoor screenings.
But it took much of the decade to build such fanfare — after all, in 2011 the Raptors finished with the second-worst season record in the Eastern Conference.
General Manager Masai Ujiri made gutsy moves towards building the team, firing head coach Dwane Casey and sending DeMar DeRozan to San Antonio in a trade that landed the team Kawhi Leonard.
The Raptors’ feverish playoff following indicates that basketball is beginning to rival hockey as the nation’s most popular sport, said Laurel Walzak, a sport media assistant professor at Ryerson University.
Kawhi Leonard takes a selfie holding his playoffs MVP trophy as he celebrates during the Raptors’ 2019 championship parade in Toronto in June. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)
But the lasting memory will be of the Raptors’ playoff run, and more than a million fans celebrating their championship in Toronto in June.
“I don’t think this can ever be repeated in any sport moving forward. This was a true uniting of global fans and a true uniting of Canada,” said Walzak.
China
The last decade has cemented the possibility of China becoming the world’s dominant economy, and the implications of that haven’t been lost on Canada.
The two Canadian prime ministers this decade have had vastly different approaches to relations with the East Asian country, said Lynette Ong, a University of Toronto professor specializing in Chinese politics.
“The Harper government did not have China as a priority either as a trade partner or in foreign policy. Trudeau’s government, in his first term, swung the pendulum in the other direction with strong engagement with China,” said Ong.
This Dec. 5, 2017, photo shows flags of Canada and China prior to a meeting of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. China’s embassy in Ottawa is taking a swing at the Trudeau Liberals over fresh comments on the source of the diplomatic difficulties between the two countries. (Fred Dufour/The Canadian Press/AP)
Canada has recently been caught in the middle of a controversy with China after carrying out the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of telecom company Huawei, at the request of the U.S.
China then detained two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in what was widely seen as retaliation for the arrest of Meng.
Despite current tensions, Ong sees potential benefits in the rise of China.
“There is a great deal of complementarity between the two countries, and hence significant scope of gains from trade,” she said. “If we are able to effectively manage the risks, Canada stands to gain a lot from trading with China.”
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
