The Sunday Magazine for July 6, 2025
This week on The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay:
Tensions continue for Canada's trade relationships
Donald Trump's 90-day pause on global tariffs is set to expire on Wednesday, raising questions about what renewed trade tensions could mean for Canada and beyond. Chattopadhyay speaks with The Canadian Press Washington correspondent Kelly Malone and The Globe and Mail Europe correspondent Paul Waldie about how politics in the United States and Europe are shaping the conversation.
Old fashioned signatures are disappearing. What are we signing away?
For the latest edition of Word Processing – our ongoing look at language – The Sunday Magazine's Pete Mitton takes stock of an important, but endangered species of writing: the old fashioned signature. Twenty-five years since e-signatures became legally valid, and with screens replacing every last bit of paper in our lives, pen-and-ink signatures have been fading away. Some fear we've signed away a uniquely human way of making our marks in the world… while a new generation of calligraphers has created a new market, selling custom-designed signatures online.
Stephen Fry says Odysseus is a hero for our times
As a child, Stephen Fry says he was obsessed with the gods and heroes of ancient Greek myth the way other boys were obsessed with comic books or football players. Today, the actor, author and director's enthusiasm for those stories is undiminished. Fry joins Chattopadhyay to talk about his epic project of reimagining and retelling these timeless tales for a modern audience – including his fourth and final book in the series, Odyssey – and why he believes its hero, Odysseus, remains a hero for our times.
From beavers to poutine – what Canada's symbols say about us
2025 marks 50 years since Parliament declared the beaver an official symbol of Canada, taking its place among other national markers – both formal and not – like the maple leaf, hockey and poutine. But what do our symbols say about us? And how well do they represent a country as large and diverse as Canada? The Sunday Magazine's Brianna Gosse explores those questions with folks on the streets of Toronto and Canadian historians Michael Dawson and Colin Coates.