Category Archives: Cities

(June 21, 1996) Hilary, whom I see once or twice a year on her visits to her middle-class parents in Toronto, is very much like them, except that she is poor. Continue reading →

(June 21, 1996) The pregnant woman is wide-eyed with bewilderment. Her husband stands behind her, his hands gripping the back of her chair, his face blank with amazement. Across a desk, their doctor faces them and announces: “The good news is, you are having a healthy baby girl. The bad news i, she’s a congenital liar.” Continue reading →

(June 21, 1996) Of all the manifestations of urban poverty, panhandling is the most visible and the most disturbing. It assaults us during that most ordinary activity — walking down the street. Panhandlers are there when we walk to the cinema, when we go to work, when we stroll in the park. Continue reading →

(March 21, 1996) When Arthur Kornberg applied to medical schools across the continent in 1937, he was dismayed to find most doors closed to him. Although he was poor, it wasn’t lack of money that held him back, nor was it lack of ability. Continue reading →