Reader's Digest Canada May 2022

It’s a special year for us. This fall we’ll mark the 75th anniversary of Reader’s Digest Canada and our French-language sister publication, Sélection. We’ve lasted this long because we have readers who care deeply about this magazine. They look to RD as a close and trusted friend. I have a favour to ask: I’d like to hear your personal stories about the time you first discovered RD—that moment when the magazine became a part of your life. Maybe it was yesterday, or maybe it was 75 years ago! My RD discovery story goes like this. In March 1981, the magazine published an extraordinary profile of Terry Fox, who had recently cut short his cross-Canada fundraising marathon after cancer spread to his lungs. To six-year-old me, Fox was a bigger hero than Superman.…

TINA KNEZEVIC Writer, Toronto “The Problem With BMI” Knezevic is a science journalist who focuses on health and the environment. Her work has appeared in This Magazine, Healthy Debate and on TVO.org. In 2017, she completed a fellowship in global journalism at the University of Toronto and was an editorial fellow at The Walrus. Check out her exploration of body mass index on page 20. CHRISTINA PALASSIO Writer, Toronto “All Talk” Palassio is an editor and communications professional. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Canadian Cycling Magazine and The Philanthropist Journal. She’s the co-editor of several anthologies about Toronto in the uTOpia series from Coach House Books. Read her latest story, about quieting your inner critic, on page 50. JASON SCHNEIDER Illustrator, Toronto “Get That Checked!” Schneider is a self-taught illustrator who…

RETHINKING THE RODEO I care deeply about animals and was disturbed by your article, “40 Incredible Things to Do in Calgary” (rd.ca). It lists the controversial Calgary Stampede, where over a hundred animals have died in the event’s 110-year history. Animal abuse should not be listed as a tourist attraction. I am embarrassed and horrified this goes on in my city. —TRACEY NYHOLT, Calgary SECOND LIFE I admired how Wendy Litner’s story “Mother’s Mink” (January/February 2022) showed how complicated mother-daughter relationships can be. As a fellow animal lover, though, I do encourage Wendy and others to find a good home for their fur coat when the time comes to part with it. Let the gift the animals gave of their fur live on for someone else to enjoy. They deserve more respect than being…

PHYLLIS NOVAK MOVED from Wallaceburg, Ont., to Toronto in 1984 with dreams of becoming an actor. When she wasn’t working in theatre, she began volunteering at Evergreen, a drop-in centre that supports homeless youth, doing street outreach and helping run Evergreen’s acting and art classes for young adults. Soon working with youth became her biggest role. In 1996, Novak and Sue Cohen, a fellow artist, founded Sketch Working Arts, a charity with a mission to improve the lives of homeless and marginalized youth through creativity. Sketch’s programs help participants tap into a power they didn’t know they had. Novak believes the arts provide skills to tackle homelessness, as well as the economic and social oppression that often come with it. “You need creativity to navigate these challenges,” she says. “The arts…

MOROCCO As a child in Tangier in the late 1970s, Salima Kadaoui made it her personal mission to save strays from animal control. At eight years old, she volunteered at an animal charity and saw firsthand how the city’s lack of vaccination, neutering and spaying programs only exacerbated the challenging situation. “I would go home and cry and say this is unacceptable,” she says. “I promised myself that I would change my country and that promise stayed with me.” In 2012, after raising her family in the United Kingdom, she returned to Morocco to care for an ailing parent. She also made good on her childhood vow, founding the Sanctuaire de la faune de Tanger. Located just outside Tangier, it’s currently home to more than 450 dogs, 100 cats, 48 donkeys,…

My uncle wrote one of the shortest wills ever: “Being of sound mind, I spent all the money.” —SUSAN LEVY, Laconia, N.S. “I couldn’t get into it.” (Me, talking about a show I didn’t pay any attention to because I was on my phone the entire time.) —REDDIT.COM Me: I am crushing this workout class. The instructor, seconds after walking by me: General reminder to everyone to try to push yourselves today. —@SAGGIESPLINTERS My husband walked in the room and asked, “How’s my sleeping beauty?” I smiled and opened my eyes just in time to see him pat my sleeping puppy’s head. —@VISIONBORED1 The Perfect Answer My patient was getting a cognitive test, and a fellow nurse asked her to name as many animals as she could in one minute. Her response: “15 million elephants, 15 billion horses and 10 trillion cows.”—KEVIN WOLKOWYCKI,…