And leads to extremism
Censorship is a slippery slope, especially when there are no clear guidelines. The idea of cancel culture, where one is ostracized because of a stance on an issue determined as taboo by current cultural trends, is very dangerous. One is judged in the popular media and the conversation is over. And while people on the…
Long before university, students are indoctrinated to view traditional values as a kind of white supremacy
“We will take America without firing a shot,” said Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of Soviet Russia from 1958 to 1964. The Soviet Union may have vanished, but old Marxist strategies are still being implemented. The 1969 lecture More Deadly Than War: The Communist Revolution in America, by G. Edward Griffin, is just as relevant today.…
The Nazi approach rested on three pillars: popularity, tradition and coercion
The question of what Germans really thought of Adolf Hitler has been kicking around for as long as I can remember. Were Germans hoodwinked, intimidated or broadly supportive? Or was it perhaps some combination of all three? Robert Gellately is a Canadian historian who has written extensively on Nazi Germany. And his latest book, Hitler’s…
Donald Trump wants to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. But how will he do it and will it have any impact?
“The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” – @realDonaldTrump, May 31, 2020 With that tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump has started the process of changing the narrative about radical left-wing individuals, parties and groups in his country – and around the world. How he’s going to actually do it…
Protesters have silenced free speech through a combination of media pressure, inflated security costs claims, boycotts, riots and violence
The Cancel Culture has claimed another victim. Renowned poet George Elliott Clarke has backed out of giving the University of Regina’s Woodrow Lloyd Lecture over accusations from Indigenous activists that he associates with another poet with a criminal background. His talk was to have been titled ‘Truth and Reconciliation;’ versus the ‘Murdered and Missing’: Examining…
It is important that we understand history as it was, and not how some of us wish it would be
The philosopher George Santayana famously wrote in The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This statement makes sense, especially in light of our society’s recent trials of history – and the accuracy of history being placed on trial. The first example involves Scott…
The Trudeau government’s aspirations to mandate equality, diversity and inclusion must be open for discussion, not just blindly accepted
I seem to have a penchant for seeking out protests – not necessarily to participate but to observe, to soak in the screams, the worn-out chants, the always amusing soundbite slogans. This particular demonstration, while not well attended, took place in front of the Supreme Court of Canada. The “anti-capitalist” rally and march in support…
Allocating and denying benefits on the basis of race undermines the integrity and the autonomy of individuals
What would the death of six million people look like in the Canadian population? A loss of that number would be equivalent to the annihilation of every person in Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, London and Halifax. Or the death of every person in British Columbia and Manitoba. For Canadians, such numbers are impossible to imagine.…
Notorious art thief John Mark Tillmann managed to get two levels of government to rename a waterway just to torment Jewish neighbours
Should the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia name something after a neo-Nazi? It’s not a hypothetical question. Fall River, N.S., (pop. 11,526) is a community in Halifax’s regional municipality. By all accounts, it’s a lovely spot and the locals are nice. If you go hiking on a trail in the area, you may spot…
Is it feasible to separate political views and private behaviour from artistic merit? George Bernard Shaw is a perfect case study
To most Canadians, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) may be a quaint figure whose primary distinction is having a popular southern Ontario theatre festival named after him. However, he was a big wheel during the first half of the 20th century. A self-described “downstart,” Shaw was born into an impecunious Protestant Ascendancy family in Dublin, Ireland. Leaving…