briefs
Topic · across the network

Canada

A federation held together by the deliberate absence of a founding myth.

18
briefs
3
subjects
11:18
average
204 min
in total
Abstraction 407Absurdism 137Acoustics 220Acting 65Adaptation 372Addiction 95Adolescence 202Advertising 77Age of exploration 14Ageing 113Agriculture 100Algorithms 114Ambition 46Anarchism 38Ancient Egypt 17Ancient Greece 38Ancient Rome 30Animals 172Anthropology 23Apartheid 12Architecture 165Archives 32Argentina 10Art Deco 26Artificial intelligence 78Astronomy 81Attention 42Australia 32Automation 73Avant-garde 164Aviation 79Banking 72Banned works 40Bauhaus 12Beer 5Behavioural economics 22Berlin 16Big tech 6Biodiversity 136Biography 86Birds 41Black holes 20Blockchain 12Boxing 14Branding 77Brazil 43Bread 29Britain 131Brutalism 4Bubbles 3Buddhism 28Byzantium 10California 17Canada 18Capitalism 94Cars 468Celebrity 59Censorship 110Cheese 24Chefs 9Chemistry 104Chess 2Childhood 87China 109Chocolate 8Christianity 49Cinematography 343Cities 90Class 485Climate change 107Club culture 100Cocktails 2Coffee 11Cognitive bias 14Collecting 16Colonialism 284Colour 42Comedy 89Community 52Complexity 21Computing 309Consciousness 16Conservatism 14Conspiracy theories 8Cooking 178Corruption 38Cosmology 31Cover versions 64Craft 116Crate digging 42Creativity 8Crime 234Cryptocurrency 8Cryptography 24Cuba 10Cybersecurity 30Dada 12Debt 38Decision-making 28Decolonisation 46Deep time 80Democracy 45Denim 16Deserts 45Detroit 17Dinosaurs 12Directing 168Disasters 59Disease 109DJ culture 89Dreams 32Drones 5Drum machines 96Dystopia 69East Africa 28Ecology 337Economics 36Editing 72Education 92Egypt 12Electric vehicles 59Emotion 22Empire 92Endurance 49Energy 120Engineering 541Entropy 8Epidemics 13Equality 9Espionage 31Ethics 44Evolution 174Existentialism 106Expertise 2Exploration 49Extinction 23Failure 37Family 240Fandom 22Fascism 45Fashion 215Fast fashion 12Fear 34Feminism 122Fermentation 126Film music 81Fishing 12Folklore 71Food history 588Football 16Forests 31Forgery 7France 163Fraud 15Free will 13Freedom 16French literature 15Friendship 24Furniture 36Gambling 14Gender 63Generations 28Genetics 87Geology 96Germany 66Globalisation 74Gothic 32Greece 5Grief 126Habits 6Happiness 2Hardware 709Haute couture 22Headphones 8Hi-fi 12Hinduism 12Hoaxes 1Human history 23Human nature 41Identity 138Illustration 8Impressionism 6Improvisation 249India 89Indonesia 15Industrial design 342Inequality 13Inflation 4Information 34Infrastructure 280Insects 29Intelligence 8Interiors 31Internet culture 88Invention 329Iran 41Islam 40Islands 17Israel 9Italy 52Jamaica 10Japan 114Jewellery 5Journalism 34Judaism 13Justice 42Korea 41Language 70Law 90Leadership 20Learning 6Liberalism 1Libraries 6Literary criticism 26London 12Loneliness 61Los Angeles 62Lost works 9Love 67Luxury 55Machine learning 15Management 10Maps 5Marketing 21Markets 51Mars 6Marxism 26Masculinity 46Materials 138Mathematics 79Meaning 6Medicine 124Memory 82Mental health 70Mesopotamia 4Mexico 38Migration 95Minimalism 68Mining 30Misinformation 9Modernism 63Money 24Monopoly 32Mortality 61Motivation 2Mountains 16Museums 27Mysticism 11Mythology 60Nationalism 40Neuroscience 23New York 36Nigeria 7Nihilism 10Noise 31Nostalgia 33Nuclear 29Nutrition 17Oceans 48Oil 42Open source 45Painting 18Palaeontology 29Parenting 14Paris 18Partition 6Patents 71Patronage 14Perception 44Personal style 27Personality 2Persuasion 8Peru 10Philosophy 77Photography 37Physics 206Plants 26Platforms 89Podcasting 1Poetry 25Poland 17Policing 34Pop Art 16Populism 2Portraiture 6Portugal 18Postmodernism 23Power 91Prehistory 24Preservation 28Printmaking 21Privacy 11Probability 6Productivity 1Programming 54Prohibition 1Propaganda 35Protest 75Pseudoscience 17Psychology 80Publishing 22Punishment 16Quantum mechanics 44Race 145Radio 30Railways 35Rave 17Realism 47Record labels 19Recording 810Relativity 23Religion 154Resilience 15Restaurants 30Restoration 2Retail 94Revolution 58Risk 18Ritual 96Robotics 26Romance 96Russia 58Salt 9Sampling 246Satire 84Scandinavia 28Scientific method 186Screenwriting 26Sculpture 7Secularism 2Self-deception 14Semiconductors 73Sexuality 102Ships 18Silence 24Silicon Valley 17Slavery 35Sleep 2Smartphones 27Sneakers 15Social media 58Socialism 9Software 68Songwriting 180Sound design 332Sound systems 20South Africa 19South East Asia 30Space exploration 84Spain 18Special effects 41Spices 62Spirits 12Sport 82Startups 21Statistics 10Status 9Stoicism 4Storytelling 68Strategy 70Street food 99Streetwear 16Studio craft 508Subcultures 59Sugar 12Supply chains 115Surrealism 53Surveillance 21Sustainability 30Synthesis 232Tailoring 37Taxation 14Tea 24Textiles 97Thailand 11The American Revolution 19The American South 88The Arab world 41The Arctic 19The Balkans 17The Belle Epoque 13The body 29The brain 26The Caribbean 28The civil rights movement 62The Cold War 160The eighties 268The Enlightenment 29The financial crisis 19The First World War 39The food industry 157The French Revolution 9The Gilded Age 9The Great Depression 18The Holocaust 20The Industrial Revolution 93The internet 61The interwar years 135The Middle Ages 35The Moon 4The music business 169The Netherlands 10The nineties 26The Olympics 10The pandemic 13The Reformation 1The Renaissance 16The Russian Revolution 19The Second World War 102The seventies 58The sixties 28The space race 5The United States 19The universe 7The Victorian era 37Therapy 20Tokyo 11Trade 48Tragedy 22Translation 5Trauma 85Travel 5True crime 2Turkey 18Typography 54Uniforms 23Unions 8Urban planning 66Utilitarianism 1Utopia 5Vaccines 10Vegetarianism 15Venture capital 6Video games 291Vietnam 12Vintage 65Vinyl 6Virtual reality 11War 169Watches 4Water 11Weather 29West Africa 29Wilderness 10Wine 3Work 22Workwear 19Worldbuilding 121

film.briefs Film

All 5 in film →
13:00

49th Parallel

Michael Powell · 1941

49th Parallel (1941), directed by Michael Powell and written by Emeric Pressburger, follows six German sailors stranded in Canada after their U-boat is destroyed. As they attempt to cross into neutral America, each encounter — with Inuit hunters, Hutterite farmers, a bohemian writer, and a disillusioned soldier — exposes the limits of Nazi ideology. Shot across Canada and at Denham Studios, with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams and editing by David Lean, it is a morally precise, formally restrained war drama that argues through confrontation, not combat.

13:00

Come on Children

Allan King · 1973

Allan King’s 1973 documentary observes Toronto teenagers living unsupervised on a rural Ontario farm for ten weeks. Filmed in early 1971 with no script, no narration beyond a brief opening statement, and no adult presence, it tracks their self-organisation, conflicts and quiet routines. Its power lies in sustained observation, not interpretation — a demanding, unsentimental portrait of adolescence as lived practice rather than developmental phase.

13:00

Mon oncle Antoine

Claude Jutra · 1971

Set on Christmas Eve 1949 in rural Quebec, Mon oncle Antoine follows fifteen-year-old Benoît as he works at his aunt and uncle’s general store and funeral parlour. Through a single day of errands, encounters and quiet betrayals, the film traces the quiet collapse of a conservative, clerical society on the cusp of the Quiet Revolution. Directed by Claude Jutra with Michel Brault’s naturalistic cinematography, it avoids exposition and symbolism alike, trusting observation and restraint to convey moral and historical weight.

13:00

Paddle to the Sea

Bill Mason · 1966

Bill Mason’s 1966 NFB short follows a hand-carved wooden canoe from Lake Nipigon to the Atlantic, using real locations, minimal narration and patient observation. Based on Holling C. Holling’s book but expanded with a quiet critique of water pollution, it is a documentary-fiction hybrid that treats geography as ethics and time as texture.

13:00

I Killed My Mother

Xavier Dolan · 2009

Xavier Dolan’s 2009 debut is a French-language Canadian drama about Hubert, a 16-year-old Québécois whose fierce, fractured relationship with his mother Chantale drives a tightly wound narrative of flight, confrontation, and unspoken loyalty. Written when Dolan was sixteen and shot when he was nineteen, the film uses stylised dialogue, intimate framing, and rhythmic editing to render adolescent interiority as both claustrophobic and theatrical. Anne Dorval gives a grounded, unsentimental performance as Chantale, anchoring the film’s emotional volatility. Though occasionally mannered, its power lies in its refusal to resolve — treating family not as problem or refuge, but as the first and most persistent language.

business.briefs Business

All 12 in business →
9:58

Family tree of Thomson family

Thomson family

The Thomson family is a dynastic holding structure anchored by a UK hereditary peerage and centred on The Woodbridge Company. Its wealth is not generated by visible operations but preserved by title, trust law, and concentrated private ownership. Sherry Brydson’s 23.47% stake is the sole quantified anchor of its financial claim. No public revenue, valuation, or operational detail is disclosed — only lineage and control.

11:24

Aeroplan

Aeroplan isn’t a loyalty program—it’s a licensed data-and-redemption conduit owned, sold, and reacquired for CA$450 million.
10:55

Air Canada

A flag carrier built by the state, reshaped by deregulation, saved by bankruptcy—and still defined by its hubs, not its strategy.
9:47

Bombardier Inc.

A snowmobile maker became a rail and jet giant — not by pivoting, but by doubling down on heavy manufacturing.
11:38

Cenovus Energy

Cenovus isn’t built — it’s assembled, asset by acquired asset, to look like an integrated energy company.
11:12

George Weston Limited

George Weston · 1882

George Weston Limited is a Canadian holding company founded in 1882, structured around two core assets: Loblaw Companies Limited and Choice Properties REIT.

10:44

Husky Energy

Hong Kong interest · 1938

Husky Energy was a long-lived, vertically integrated petroleum company whose geographic reach and operational scope did not prevent its absorption into Cenovus Energy in 2021.

technology.briefs Technology

All 1 in technology →
9:39

Telesat

Canada didn’t wait for the global satellite market—it built its own gatekeeper.