Looking back on issue #1 of Capital Xtra + Ottawa bars fighting new booze infraction rules

I have two pieces in the current issue of Capital Xtra, which just happens to be the magazine's 200th issue.

The first of the two pieces is a retrospective of Capital Xtra's first issue, back in September of 1993. I really enjoyed writing this piece because I not only got to look at how the paper came about, but I also took the opportunity to ask everyone involved of what Ottawa as like fifteen years ago. I haven't been here five years yet, and I do have a bit of interest in the city's queer history - especially because I think that many gays and lesbians have little understanding or appreciation of their own history. So this piece was a bit of my way of bringing some of that perspective forward. Fifteen years ago may not seem like a long time, but for our community, it has seen some tremendous leaps and bounds in terms of rights and acceptance.

The second piece is a follow-up to the one I did last issue about the bar closures in the city, this time taking a closer look at some of the broader alcohol licensing issues in Ontario. This has been an issue raised in some of the mainstream press (the Citizen had a column on it in early January, when there was that spate of closures, and one of the national columnists at the National Post has made this a bit of an issue as well). I decided to take a bit of a deeper look at some of the issues, and while I didn't get a hold of quite as many community bar owners or managers as I had initially hoped to, the interviews I did get put this piece in good stead.