Toula Drimonis
Quebec columnist | Montreal
About Toula Drimonis
Toula Drimonis is a Montreal-based writer, editor, and award-winning columnist. A former News Director with TC Media, her freelance work, which focuses mainly on Quebec politics and women's issues, has appeared in the National Post, the New York Times, Women in the World, Ricochet Media, Ms. Magazine, Buzzfeed Canada, and Mic, among others. She is a women's issues and political panel contributor for City Life, a local Montreal current affairs TV show and was on the advisory board for Use the Right Words, a national media guide on how to report on sexual violence.
Papal apology over residential schools should have been a no-brainer
Almost two-thirds of Canada’s 130 residential schools were run by the Catholic Church and many atrocities (physical, sexual, and psychological abuse perpetuated at the hands of nuns and priests and other religious staff members) were committed in the name of “beating the Indian” out of Indigenous children and aggressively converting them to Christianity.
The CAQ’s ‘values test’ is unclear and unenforceable vote pandering
A mere seven months remain before the next Quebec provincial election and with the Coalition Avenir du Québec (CAQ) enjoying a comfortable lead in the latest polls it was almost inevitable that the party would start facing intense scrutiny from its political adversaries.
When a fundraiser shows us rape culture exists in Canada
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for anyone trying to insist that rape culture and normalized violence against women don’t exist in Canada.
Doug Ford is too close to Donald Trump for comfort
Ford’s return to the political limelight not only represents a growing backlash to women’s advancement, but also signals a worrisome trend of encroaching conservative populism across Canada that is most certainly not limited to that province alone.
I’m happy to have this conversation (again), but why are women the only ones having it?
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I really welcome the day when half the population will consider the grievances of the other half as something they should seriously be interested in; not just something they get to react to or debate when they feel like it.
So much for reconciliation: Canadian maple syrup still has more protection than Indigenous art
“There can be no true reconciliation without economic reconciliation,” says Nadine St-Louis, executive director of Sacred Fire Productions. She and other Indigenous artists believe it's time to get fake Aboriginal crafts off the shelves in Canada.
Quebec nurses break silence after buckling under the strain of horrible conditions
Quebec nurses are hoping that breaking their silence about unsustainable conditions and the erosion of patient care, coupled with the province entering a pre-electoral season, will finally make the government listen to them.
Are seniors being left out of Montreal's bid to make the city more 'age friendly'?
First off, what able-bodied youngish bunch of bureaucrats at City Hall decided that holding a consultation process involving senior citizens in the middle of winter was a smart idea? There is nothing an older person fears more than a severe fall, which, at their age can lead to serious complications and quickly turn into a life-or-death situation.
Safe zones outside abortion clinics are not a violation of free speech
No one is violating anyone’s right to protest. People who oppose abortion on moral grounds are still perfectly free to say so. They are simply no longer free to do it while wearing sandwich boards plastered with gruesome pictures of what they claim are aborted fetuses while yelling in a woman’s face while she’s about to undergo a very private, personal, and perfectly legal procedure.
As politicians fall in Canada, I tip my hat to #MeToo
Day after day, allegation after allegation, conviction after conviction, writer Toula Drimonis says she's inspired by those brave enough to come forward with their personal and painful #MeToo stories.