The United Nations (UN) was born out of an idea for creating a society of nations, a global community, a brotherhood of nations built on a set of higher ideals. These ideals would give rise to a global village with accountability to each other, including social...
Edward Bernays (1891-1995) changed the world in ways that are still felt today. The nephew of Sigmund Freud was dubbed the Father of Spin and the Father of Public Relations for pioneering breakthroughs in his craft. A close examination of his accomplishments could...
We are a uniquely privileged society. We place the highest premium on our justice system, press, judiciary, and protections of human rights. And yet even we continue to see troubling trends with regard to unwanted sexualized behaviour and sexual assault across the...
The Alberta premier’s plan to treat the coronavirus as endemic was the way out of the COVID crisis. That he is once again adopting restrictions for the province, for the fourth time, does not negate the endemic approach. But his declaration, paraphrasing President...
Earlier this year, a group called Equity Matters asked the province to establish an education equity secretariat. They want this office to oversee equity officers working in Manitoba schools. Equity Matters wants to ensure that all Manitoba students are reflected in...
Frances Widdowson probably isn't someone most Canadians recognize. I'm here to tell you why they should. In terms of Canada's intellectual culture, Frances Widdowson matters because she is a classic and prolific academic. In a time when demagoguery easily flourishes,...
A recent Globe and Mail story about a firm developing garbage-to-biodiesel technology shows how continuing progress makes the global warming extremists’ most hysterically apocalyptic predictions, and their extreme absolutist ‘solutions’, not only grossly wrong but...
Country singer Kenny Chesney’s lyric “Everybody want to go heaven, but nobody want to go now” is perhaps an apt metaphor for the current debate over Bill 64, the Education Modernization Act. Everybody knows that Manitoba students underperform academically, but when...
The pandemic has taken the countries, the governments and the people by surprise. Most of them were not prepared to face this crisis. After all, initially, most Western countries refused to panic and wanted to manage the situation like other illnesses like the flu....
One of the eternal questions of public policy is: should governments get into bed with private businesses? Whether it is called a Public-Private Partnership, buying a controlling interest for taxpayers, investing in the technologies of tomorrow or just, avoiding a...
Liberty of expression is the oxygen of democratic arrangements. As journalists exercise their craft independently and unencumbered, they are canaries in the political coal mine. By this gauge, if left untreated, Nicaragua’s polity will be eroding towards...
How can we achieve Indigenous economic reconciliation when the legal system perpetuates endless legal grievances and challenges? Case in point is a recent court ruling in British Columbia that could have serious negative effects on developments in provinces that...
The Manitoba government recently released its back-to-school plan. As with all COVID-related things, people are bitterly divided on the merits of this plan. Before jumping into this debate, I propose we accept two premises. First, everyone wants students to be safe,...
Do people bend over backward to hide things if they have nothing to hide? If the answer is no, Canadians have every reason to wonder why the government has gone to such great lengths to hide why two Chinese scientists were fired from a Winnipeg lab. For months,...
The price of copper has long been a bellwether for economic conditions. The price is strongly correlated to economic activity, industrial production and economic growth in general. It is also highly correlated with the Canadian dollar and economy. The red metal’s...