• Brantford, Briefly

    Brantford, Briefly

    A Scarborough writer traces echoes of home in a town that’s still trying. By: Marie Pascual I didn’t expect Brantford to remind me of Scarborough. Not in flavor or energy, but in the stubborn ways people still try. It hit me somewhere between the church with automatic doors, the protest signs zip-tied to someone’s porch…

  • Why Pokémon Might Save Us From Loneliness in 2026

    Why Pokémon Might Save Us From Loneliness in 2026

    It’s silly. It’s bright. It might be exactly what we need to fight a global loneliness crisis. By: Marie Pascual A short personal pipeline I was born in 1996, the year Space Jam dropped, the Spice Girls blew up, and Pokémon began its march to global takeover. In early-2000s Scarborough, they called me “Mareep,” like…

  • How a skate and hip hop festival turned Mississauga into one big backyard for a July night

    How a skate and hip hop festival turned Mississauga into one big backyard for a July night

    By: Marie Pascual On Saturday night, my partner and I parked at Square One in Mississauga. We were chasing noise and kettle corn, curious to see if Canada’s largest free action sports festival could really turn a mall hub into something electric. Jackalope promised three days of skateboarding, BMX, breakdancing, and more. By the end…

  • Chapter One: S.S Duck All Aboard

    By: Marie Pascual 08/02/2024 It’s been about a month since our pop up space opened up at W.W. After 7 long years of construction prolonged by the COVID-19 pandemic, The Water Well boasts an up scale cultural hub for locals and curious tourists alike to gather. The building is situated in a small quieter part…

  • The beginning + notes from a staff meeting

    By: Marie Pascual I always felt like an outsider in every restaurant I worked at.After graduating from culinary school in 2017, I chased jobs at well-known Filipino spots in the city—hoping to reconnect with my roots and sharpen my technical chops. But I brought bad habits from school into the workplace. I’d show up late…

  • The Window at 9:14

    By: Marie Pascual The platform was empty except for the man in the hat. He did not speak. He only pointed. The carriage rattled on steel, smelled of old smoke and something sweet, like rice left too long on the stove. I sat where the ticket told me,Seat 9A, window on the left. He handed…