NDP, Liberals and Conservatives all helped themselves to the wage subsidy meant for struggling businesses
Politicians are good at preaching, but they’re not so good at practicing what they preach. Case in point: the federal wage subsidy. Federal politicians have been moralizing about the evils of business executives taking bonuses while collecting the pandemic wage subsidy, but their silence on their own party taking the subsidy is deafening. At the…
The pandemic is making scapegoats of those that only yesterday we called fellow citizens and neighbours
American writer Lance Morrow recently identified our current moment as the golden age of stupidity. No evidence exists that the author of America: A Rediscovery and Second Drafts of History was peeping across the border watching the 2021 Canadian federal election when he made the claim. That’s probably a good thing. Morrow's language might have…
The conflation of state and individual has long been popular among those who crave power over others
Last spring, Trent University Professor Christopher Dummitt took us all to task for our insufficient dedication to the collective – which, he worries, leaves those who “call for national sacrifice” on behalf of “the collective will” in a bind, bereft of the obedience they deserve. Dummitt’s alleged “collective action problem” betrays a fundamentally illiberal misunderstanding…
The Trudeau government wants you to believe it’s targeting hate speech when, in reality, it’s targeting free speech
Free speech ensures that Canadians have the right to tell governments when they’re wrong. While this may be unpleasant for governments, it is absolutely vital in a democratic society. Rather than strengthening Canadians’ rights, the Trudeau government wants to filter free speech through the lens of a bureaucratic superstructure. There can be no doubt that…
Unfortunately the Trudeau Liberals believe otherwise
Canada did not build protection of certain rights and freedoms into its Constitution because, as some might think, they are saucy symbols of pop virtues. They are there because serious people understood that without the Charter of Rights and Freedoms the nation would fail to be a modern liberal democracy. The fundamental freedoms – those…
The draconian lockdown policies of the Nova Scotia government have long since crossed into authoritarianism
It’s a well-known saying and a generally accepted truth that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. There’s much less consensus, however, about what absolute power looks like. How do we know the difference between legitimate power and when a person or institution has too much and must be resisted? The draconian lockdown policies…
Is it ethical to frighten people for the 'greater good'?
Long before David Attenborough brought his soothing voice to the explication of animal behaviour for the BBC Life series, the North American television public had been introduced to the majesty and oddities of the natural world through Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. I remember lying on my stomach in my grandparent’s living room watching programs…
Albertans have tried to work within the system but it is stacked against them
For many Albertans, it is 1775. A year later, as every American knows, the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. At the time the Colonies were still part of the British Empire; it is, therefore, a British as much as an American document, which is why its logic has such a wide appeal today…
Nova Scotia’s authoritarian response to the pandemic
Born and raised in Halifax, I currently live in Munich, Germany. I have been monitoring the Nova Scotian response to the pandemic from abroad by reading the news and keeping in touch with family and friends. I write this article to lend some perspective on the pandemic through the lens of a Bluenoser living much…
Increasing tendency towards censorship is losing them some users
Facebook, Google and Twitter have enjoyed market dominance for more than a decade. And their increasing tendency towards censorship has lost them some users. Although censorship isn’t welcome, it has given social media a chance to reinvent itself out of near-monopolistic dominance. Ironically, the first loser in the info wars was Alex Jones. Accounts for…
Politicians are good at preaching, but they’re not so good at practicing what they preach. Case in point: the federal wage subsidy. Federal politicians have been moralizing about the evils of business executives taking bonuses while collecting the pandemic wage subsidy, but their silence on their own party taking the subsidy is deafening. At the…
