All institutions of higher learning should make a robust free exchange of ideas a key part of their learning environment
Last month, the Association of Administrative and Professional Staff (AAPS) of the University of British Columbia (UBC) wrote a letter to university president Santa Ono on behalf of its 5,000 members. The letter claimed UBC was serving as a platform for “bigoted, anti-transgender hate speech” by bisexual transgender anti-SOGI 123 activist Jenn Smith. The association…
After years of being the best team in the world, they continue to fight for equal status and respect at home
Sexism sucks. And nobody knows that better than the U.S. women’s national soccer team. The current team members, and their predecessors, have been fighting gender discrimination on the part of the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for decades. The U.S. national team has been the best women’s…
The relatively low value Canadians assign to religious freedom and the tepid opposition to secularism laws are worrisome
Have we lost all sense of proportion when it comes to our fundamental rights in Canada? Two recent cases suggest we have. Both cases involve the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which allows legislatures to temporarily bypass certain constitutionally-protected rights. Two premiers have sought to invoke the much-discussed clause recently. Yet…
We don't need to disparage masculinity in order to celebrate the qualities and contributions of women, or to encourage social equality of the genders
One of brightest students in my university department was seriously intellectual and widely read, always taking an active and constructive part in seminars. The student was approached by two others who complained that the student took up too much space and time, and should step back. No professor ever advised such a thing to this…
This is good political and economic news not only for the province, but the entire country
Albertans will head to the ballot boxes today. Who will they choose to lead the next provincial government? Recent public opinion polls show Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party leading Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP by a comfortable margin. Pollara Strategic Insights has the UCP ahead by 45 to 38 per cent (April 10), Nanos Research suggests…
Instead of eliminating racism and sexism, we've established a new set of rules that ignore merit and competition
On Dec. 1, 1955, a tired seamstress was making her way home on a bus after a long day in Montgomery, Ala. The driver angrily informed the woman that the law required her to sit in the back. But the woman wasn’t just tired from work, she was tired of a law and a system…
Ontario lawyers are being asked to agree to principles that may run counter to their beliefs
The Law Society of Ontario wants to compel all lawyers who wish to practise in the province to agree to the society’s version of a progressive agenda. It would be a dangerous precedent. The society may also make it mandatory for lawyers to attend sessions on such subjects as “unconscious bias” and apparently any other…
No other global civilization has been as deliberate and inclusive about progress as modern western civilization
Progressive liberals of a certain frame of mind suggest that white people are guilty. They’re the systemic oppressors of indigenous cultures, minorities and people of colour. Modern western society also stands accused of abusing the environment and of being unrelentingly sexist, racist and elitist. Or is western civilization the crucible of progress, the liberator of…
Discrepancies are more often the result of different choices men and women make, on and off the job
For decades, politicians, pundits and activists have clamoured about a gender pay gap and have cited statistics purporting to show that the economy is unfair to women. Women, after all, get paid only around 70 to 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. However, for just as long, studies have shown that this discrepancy…
The damage done to public trust in journalism by not following basic rules of journalism is, at this stage, incalculable
Last week’s sickening media meltdown means it is back-to-basics time for journalism on this continent. The need for reportorial rehab began when major news outlets repeated a BuzzFeed report – based on unnamed sources – that the Robert Mueller investigation had been told by Michael Cohen that U.S. President Donald Trump directed him to lie…
Last month, the Association of Administrative and Professional Staff (AAPS) of the University of British Columbia (UBC) wrote a letter to university president Santa Ono on behalf of its 5,000 members. The letter claimed UBC was serving as a platform for “bigoted, anti-transgender hate speech” by bisexual transgender anti-SOGI 123 activist Jenn Smith. The association…
