For centuries, Arab states across North Africa made fortunes from piracy. Raiding the coasts of Spain and Italy, scouring the Mediterranean, and ravaging into the Atlantic as far as Iceland, Barbary corsairs captured over a million Christian prisoners for their …
We’ll Always Have Christmas
Let’s face it, 2020 sucked. It was one of those years that people will remember their whole lives, the kind to judge all others by. The sort of year that, in the future, when your house burns down, your son …
Living the Post-COVID Life
Pandemics have a way of changing the world. The Plague of Justinian which hit the Mediterranean area in the 500s not only killed millions but it crucially weakened the Byzantine Empire and helped ruin its plans to reconquer western Europe …
Obsession With Identity
On my desk is a commemorative plate honouring the 1966 Grey Cup champions, the Saskatchewan Roughriders. On it are the pictures of football legend Ronnie Lancaster and his teammates. A quick scan of these portraits reveals something odd: just three …
Why Do We Remember?
Ever since 1931, Canadians have paused on November 11 to mark Remembrance Day, a commemoration of those who have died serving in our country’s wars. (From 1919 to 1930 the observance was called Armistice Day and held on the Sunday …
Support for a Non-confidence Vote?
For the past 90 years, Canadian politics has been influenced by the presence of a genuinely left-wing political party. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) emerged in 1933 demanding nationalization of essential industries, universal public pensions, health care, family allowances, unemployment …
Who is Worth it?
The academic world was all a-twitter a few weeks back with the enormously humorous idea of a “Scholars’ Strike”. The idea was that on September 9th and 10th, university professors would put down their intellectual tools and by doing nothing …
A Short History of Political Corruption
As public attention in Ottawa focuses on accusations of skullduggery and jiggery-pokery in the awarding of government contracts to certain charities, it may be useful to remember that corruption is as old as civilization. Those in authority, from the loftiest …
Defund the Police? No, Defund Sociologists!
The demand currently on the lips of youthful mobs and their academic enablers is “Defund the Police”, a catchy phrase that encapsulates both the innocence and ignorance of the young and the sinister intent of those who will use any …