The best way to reduce the possibility of more alt-right-inspired violence is to confront its narratives head on
By John Grant Western University and Fiona MacDonald University of the Fraser Valley One year since the violent alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., and months since the Toronto van attack, Canadians can legitimately worry about increased political violence. The images of angry white men marching openly in Nazi regalia loom large alongside the revelation that…
Why would a responsible government not immediately issue a total ban on something that’s so explicitly dangerous?
Night hunting is an incredibly dangerous practice involving high-powered rifles capable of killing over a distance measured in kilometres. People have been killed as a result of this reckless activity and livestock slaughtered. It’s also responsible for an alarming decline in moose in Manitoba. It should not be allowed under any circumstances. The Manitoba government…
While there’s great diversity in Canada – regional, urban-rural, French-English and ethnic – it’s encompassed within the framework of Canadian culture
The view that ‘‘There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada,’’ put forward by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is incorrect. Notwithstanding Canada’s official multiculturalism policy, Canadian culture is firmly based in western civilization. The main Canadian political structures are derived from western civilization: Language is a foundational substructure of culture, and Canada’s two official…
Non-believers overwhelmingly believe every religious community in Canada, especially Muslims and evangelical Christians, hurt the country
Throughout autumn, the soup of our multicultural society has almost boiled over with questions about secularism and religion – of what is and isn’t allowed in contemporary public and common Canadian life. Efforts to relegate religious expression and thought to the margins have been ramped up. Those efforts, however, are out of step with broader…
The best boards reflect Canada’s diversity of gender, age, ethnicity, language, regionality, background and enthusiasm for the cause
Many of us volunteer to sit on boards of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and some of us also sit on for-profit boards that govern businesses. In both cases, we know the experience (and consequences) of good and bad board encounters. Consequently I increasingly ask myself, after board meetings, how did it really go? Was the time…
For the CBC and others, a joke about cultural appropriation is more important than, you know, things like real racism
All novelists are liars. Thieves, too. So said the late Mordecai Richler. My friend and I were in the dark at the back at the Bovine Sex Club on Queen West, waiting to see the Minneapolis punk band Off With Their Heads. My friend had just told me the story of how, years ago, he…
The only route to a better appreciation of the cultures in Canada is through exposure, questioning, expressing opinions – even if those opinions are wrong
If there’s ever going to be a watershed moment in protecting free speech in Canada, the recent controversy surrounding cultural appropriation could fit the role. The story began in a rather innocuous manner. Hal Niedzviecki, editor of Write magazine (the quarterly publication of the Writers’ Union of Canada), wrote in a column, “I don’t believe…
Under the heavy hand of the left, multiculturalism, which was supposed to bind us, is driving us apart
PORTLAND, Ore. Dec. 14, 2016/ Troy Media/ – Multiculturalism is no longer a celebration of the best that each culture offers the human community. Rather, it has become the separateness that defines and categorizes cultures, to the detriment of us all. Technically, multiculturalism means the coexistence, celebration and recognition of the equal worth of diverse cultures; the…
To live in Canada successfully, the beliefs immigrants bring with them must be secondary to the values enshrined in the Canadian Constitution
LOURDES, France Sept. 22, 2016/ Troy Media/ – The skies are clear and blue, the hordes of tourists have returned to their travails and the breezes carry just a touch of autumn's chill. But the cultural troubles of summer smoulder just below the placid surface. Gazing out at the long stone walls and the equally stony faces…
By John Grant Western University and Fiona MacDonald University of the Fraser Valley One year since the violent alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., and months since the Toronto van attack, Canadians can legitimately worry about increased political violence. The images of angry white men marching openly in Nazi regalia loom large alongside the revelation that…
