It would be foolish to ignore the growing public unease that has followed increased levels of immigration
Not long ago, Quebec was among the most intensely Catholic jurisdictions in the world. The church played a huge role in the province’s politics and social life; attendance at mass was extremely high; and large families (heeding the church’s mandate against birth control) contributed sons to the priesthood and daughters to the nunnery. The Quiet…
You don’t discourage bad behaviour by making it easier and more pleasant to engage in. Except Canadians have when it comes to gambling and drug use
Not long ago, governments prohibited behaviour that was bad for its citizenry, like gambling and smoking pot. But now, government seems to encourage it, to the detriment of society. In gambling, those insufficiently aware of statistical probabilities are induced to lose money to those with a deeper knowledge of the odds – a sort of…
The garbage at the centre of an international dispute was to arrive in Vancouver on the weekend
Canadians have fought a lot of tough characters over the years. Sudanese warriors of the Mahdi, Boer guerrillas, armies of the German, Austrian and Japanese empires, Nazi SS, Red Chinese, North Koreans, Serbs, Croats and Taliban all came to rue the day they messed with the boys under the Maple Leaf banner. Heck, our navy…
Since we’re in an economic and moral conflict with China, why not do the entirely virtuous thing and withdraw our recognition of Beijing?
In 1970, Pierre Trudeau’s Canadian government cut diplomatic ties with one government claiming to rule China and recognized another. It’s time to reverse that decision. Out went a longtime ally, the quasi-democratic Republic of China, based on the island of Taiwan, and in came the nasty tyranny known as the People’s Republic of China under…
From such a hollow declaration playing to a general anxiety about the future will come ill-considered actions with real consequences
“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be…
Insisting on righteous victory at any cost is the greasy slope to violence
On the afternoon of May 22, 1856, Preston Brooks, a plantation owner and pro-slavery congressman from South Carolina, strode into the nearly deserted U.S. Senate chamber. There he accosted Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who had been making a series of fiery abolitionist speeches. Brooks announced that Sumner had used insulting language toward his relative and…
Real communism has failed repeatedly to provide better living conditions. Why do countries like Venezuela persist?
Nineteen years ago, ex-general Hugo Chavez came into power in Venezuela, vowing that a “Bolivarian revolution” based on communist principles would improve the lives of his people. Today, millions of Venezuelans are fleeing their homes looking for food, medicine or employment in neighbouring countries. Inflation is out of control. In a country with perhaps the…
If you have an opinion, speak it out loud. Form a circle to discuss or promote it. Tell the politicians who represent you
You have opinions. I know you do. You have opinions about immigration, gun crime, people who let their cats run loose, and the prospect of a return of Major League Baseball to Montreal. You have deep thoughts about the Indigenous, levels of taxation, transsexuality and the state of the roads in your town. And I…
Modern society doesn’t forgive. There’s no sense that a person’s life is always a mixture of light and darkness
In 1961, British War Minister John Profumo, a married man, had a brief, tawdry affair with teenage party girl Christine Keeler. Among Keeler’s other lovers was Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet military attaché and intelligence agent. When this potential threat to national security was raised in the House of Commons, Profumo did a foolish thing: he…
Those teaching the humanities have abandoned attempts at outlining the grand narratives, the threads that link important events and people in art and history
Nobody does unintentional humour quite like an academic. Nobody can produce accidental laughter like a tenured professor explaining her deep thoughts to the masses. We have an excellent example of this sort of comedic gem in a recent article entitled “Jordan Peterson and the debilitating cult of genius” by Jennifer Garrison of St Mary’s University…
