Category: Focus

Ottawa may have a reputation as a staid, conservative government town, but it’s also home to a thriving fetish and bondage community.

Imagine a woman in her mid-twenties. She has worked up the nerve to attend a workshop on oral sex. She arrives, shakes off her coat and looks furtively around the room, trying not to make eye contact. Suddenly, her eye catches someone over in the far corner. She is horrified to realize that it’s her mother.

They call them parachute kids — children of immigrant families who are left in Canada, while their parents live overseas.

Walk down any major street in Centretown and chances are you’ll find a shawarma shop. But is there a shawarma war?