Toronto Star · The Globe and Mail
Linda Besner
Last published Feb. 2026 · On our record since 2017
Where this writer stands
Public safety1 piece
Prevention and restraintEnforcement and sentencing
“many legal experts and advocacy groups believe Canada should be working to incarcerate not more, but fewer people awaiting trial.” Read the piece
Only opinion columns and editorials are scored. Each piece is read twice by a language model, which records the author's own stance on a policy topic only where the piece argues one, with a quote that must appear in the piece. An author's position on a topic is the average of their pieces, weighted by the model's confidence. News reporting is listed but never scored.
Recent work
- What if the problem with our bail system isn’t that it’s too lax?Opinion · Toronto Star · Feb 19, 2026
- The battle over competing sonic interests in cities is going badlyOpinion · Toronto Star · Aug 9, 2025
- Opinion: Just do it: Why obligation shouldn’t be considered a dirty wordOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Oct 25, 2024
- Opinion: What elevates a park from a patch of grass into a go-to destinationOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Jul 19, 2024
- Opinion: Cover to cover: On the joys of marathon readingsOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Jun 13, 2024
- Opinion: The eclipse is not only a cosmic event – it’s a human one, tooOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Apr 5, 2024
- Opinion: Neutral grounds: Why feeling ‘whatever’ or ‘meh’ is more widespread and more important than previously believedOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Jan 25, 2024
- Opinion: How will we face the world again? Our success in adapting to isolation has a priceOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Mar 12, 2021
- Opinion: Friendship is magic. But is it legally protected? In the postpandemic world, we need a clearer answerOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Jan 22, 2021
- Opinion: Can’t touch this: Will COVID-19 mean the end of our most intimate sense?Opinion · The Globe and Mail · May 21, 2020
- Opinion: How do I know if I will become a COVID-19 statistic?Opinion · The Globe and Mail · Apr 9, 2020
- Opinion: Why protesting makes me uncomfortableOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Oct 12, 2019
- Opinion: Want to effect meaningful change? Remember the 3.5-per-cent ruleOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Oct 3, 2019
- A nose by any other nameOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Dec 27, 2018
- What the abandoned mattresses of Instagram tell us about ourselvesOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Dec 28, 2017
- What the abandoned mattresses of Instagram tell us about ourselvesOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Dec 28, 2017
- What the abandoned mattresses of Instagram tell us about ourselvesOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Dec 28, 2017
- What the abandoned mattresses of Instagram tell us about ourselvesOpinion · The Globe and Mail · Dec 28, 2017