The league has chosen to do things the right way, with tremendous integrity and a great product
Being a sports fan is interesting. There are certain teams and athletes to whom we willingly give the utmost devotion, and others we despise. Some sports we find thrilling, others are baffling, and some we just cannot connect with. I’ve always loved basketball, as a player, as a coach, and as a fan. There is…
Doing a little isn’t good enough, especially when we ignore abuses
Prince George, B.C., officials recently decided to change the name of O’Grady Road, named after a former Catholic bishop of Prince George, to Dakelh Ti, meaning First Nation Road in the language of the Lheidli T’enneh. I knew Bishop Fergus O’Grady fairly well and I don’t think anything would have made him happier. The decisions…
If people want to pay for an abortion, and live with the consequences, that’s their choice
On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe versus Wade in a 5-4 decision. The controversial 1973 case that made abortion legal in all 50 states was no more. Pro-life supporters celebrated this announcement and declared it a landmark ruling. Pro-choice activists have protested this decision in many U.S. cities. Tensions remain high and…
Don’t let utopian perfectionists stop you from celebrating a tremendous accomplishment: Canada
To understand why it’s popular among the chattering classes to trash Canada at this time of year, it helps to understand the power of utopian thinking. In past centuries, utopian movements sprang from religious impulses and secular imitations of the same nature. Religious examples include communes which, in extreme forms, separated themselves from what they…
There is power in your voice, say the creators of Canada Confesses
After the murder of George Floyd and the American Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Nancy Tangon and Priscilla Ojomu were dismayed by some of the Canadian reaction. The two University of Alberta psychology students kept hearing the same refrain: “Thank God we’re not the U.S., with their toxic racism. We don’t have those problems…
LIV Tour is a PR tool for a reprehensible government seeking to wash away its human rights abuse
The things people will do for money … The way Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell and other professional golfers tap dance while trying to come up with reasons to justify their move to the new LIV Tour is embarrassing. The LIV Tour has nothing to do with growing the game of golf,…
Queen Elizabeth represents continuity with the past, including the best developments in Canadian history
With the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation upon us, this is a useful opportunity to ponder the monarchy in Canada. Some will assert that the concept of royalty was long ago outmoded. Others oppose what Queen Elizabeth II represents – colonialism and the British Empire. It can also be argued that with an ever…
Gordon Hirabayashi took a principled stand against the internment of Japanese Americans
When Japanese Americans were evacuated from the West Coast and sent to internment camps during the Second World War, Gordon Hirabayashi refused to comply. Acting on the courage of moral conviction, the Quaker pacifist instead turned himself in to the FBI, prepared to challenge the unjust executive order and take the case as far as…
Cancel culture plays right into the wheelhouse of those who are angry, fearful and manipulative
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘cancel culture’ as “the practice or tendency of engaging in mass cancelling as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure.” This is nothing new; we see numerous examples of what we now call cancel culture in history. Society cancelled people it disapproved of during witch hunts. The aristocracy was…
Leaders in NATO countries are guilty of crimes against humanity, yet only Africans are tried
In recent months, words like genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes have been used extensively in the media. These are important legal terms, and they shouldn’t be used loosely. Using them as political weapons risks making them meaningless. The word ‘genocide’ was coined in 1944 by Polish-Jewish law professor Raphael Lemkin after he studied…