New Brunswick’s failed attempt to remove vaccine exemptions sparked a political, ethical, and constitutional controversy. The benefits of the bill were marginal at best, but the heavy-handed tactics governments attempted to use to implement it were even worse. It was...
Year: 2020
Indigenous Communities need to be Partners in Canada’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan
It’s easy to forget that at the beginning of the year, Canada was right in the middle of another crisis triggered by a series of protests over a natural gas pipeline being built through northern B.C. The issue of Indigenous reconciliation was front and centre in our...
Systemic Racism
The current Prime Minister recently publicly contradicted RCMP Commissioner, Brenda Lucki, for saying there is no systemic racism within the RCMP. Actually, Lucki said she didn’t know what “systemic racism” is. In her words, “I have to admit, I really struggle with...
How Federal Policy Mishandled Mortgages – Part 2
The federal government has made misguided mortgage policies in recent years. The first, in 2015, was to raise the amount that CMHC mortgages required for a down payment. The second, in 2016, was to increase the stress test. The third, in 2017, was that the mortgage...
Featured News
Process, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Accountability and Transparency Inspectorate, ‘PEEATI’
A litany of disastrous decisions have sometimes cost lives and definitely many billions of dollars. Effectively cancelling the Global Public Health Intelligence Network; the failure to implement the pandemic preparedness protocols developed by Ottawa’s public health...
Foreign Influence in Canadian Economy?
Foreign influence or interference has become a mediatic topic. The fear and suspicion of interference in the elections and democratic process have been in news headlines. For the western countries, the suspicion bears on Russia and China. Revisionist powers have a...
Indigenous Governance and Coastal GasLink
Last January, a group of breakaway hereditary chiefs from Wet'suwet'en First Nation in the interior of British Columbia erected a blockade at a remote forestry road in protest of the proposed Coastal Gaslink pipeline to Kitimat, BC. Eventually, the issues were...
Helium Lifts Resource Sector
Necessity is the mother of invention. After 35 years in oil and gas, Marlon McDougall was frustrated with the pressures of regulations, environmentalism, pipeline restrictions, and the need for expensive technologies as more easily accessible reserves were depleted....
The Institutionalization and Suicide Crisis Among Indigenous Youth
Statistics Canada’s report on suicide among First Nations people, Métis and Inuit (2011-2016) released June, 2019, found that Indigenous people in Canada die by suicide at a rate three times higher than that for non-Indigenous Canadians. The preamble starts by noting:...
Want to Help Harry and Meghan? Leave Them Be.
Personal autonomy and the exercise of individual conscience are cornerstones of western civilization. We expect mature individuals to accept that personal autonomy includes embracing the consequences of independent decisions. We have entrenched these values in the...
Lessons of the California Exodus
“I wish they all could be California girls,” sang the Beach Boys. In their heyday, midwest farmers' daughters, east coast girls, and northern girls would have been quite happy to embrace sunny California, as would plenty of guys. Not so anymore. Since 2007, more...
Feminism and Injustice
What do feminists want? Is feminism an inclusive movement striving for gender equality and justice for all, or is it a partisan movement seeking advantage and benefits for females at the expense of males? What exactly is feminism's attitude toward males? Is it...
Becoming Numb to Terrorism?
Just days after Britain officially left the European Union, the people of this country were brought back down to earth and reminded of the immediate terror threat right under our noses -- a multiple stabbing in Streatham, south London. Last year, the number of...
The Real Realities of Canadian Medicare
As the title suggests, an article in The American Prospect What Medicare for All Really Looks Like, claims to describe the realities of Canadian medicare to our southern neighbours. So, it is both ironic – and disappointing – that a careful reading reveals it to be...
Increase Immigration – Increase Prosperity
One of the big policy issues for the federal government this year, as well as in the Conservative leadership race, is immigration. By a margin of 63 percent to 7 percent, according to a recent Leger poll, Conservative voters want their new leader to decrease rather...