On this episode of Open Mike, Michael Thiessen tries to sift through the sensationalized rhetoric and common lies pertaining to the history of Canadian Residential schools by talking to former Manitoban Judge, Brian Dale Giesbrecht, author and commentator, and a...
Canada Day is recognized in our calendars, but some organizers have been spooked by last summer’s hysteria about 215 Indigenous children murdered and secretly buried at Kamloops. Following that news, churches were set on fire, statues were toppled, and a panicked...
The following article discusses Sweden’s successful policy of keeping schools open throughout the pandemic. Simply put, they resisted the huge pressure excerpted upon them from the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as virtually all of the leaders of the Western...
Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba, Nina Green is an independent researcher, and Tom Flanagan is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary. May 27, 2022 marked the one year anniversary of a...
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,...
Most Canadians think that our healthcare system is a national treasure. One much superior to the system to the south where poor people often don’t get the treatments they need, and the costs can be catastrophic. Instead of focusing on how Canada’s health care system...
International conflicts are dominating the news; China is vying for power in the Pacific Ocean, and in most other parts of the world; Russia is causing trouble wherever it can, and the Middle East remains tense as it has always been. Meanwhile, another international...
A recent Ontario court decision, striking down the mandatory conviction for impaired driving of a woman simply because she was Indigenous, highlights the urgent need to re-examine the wrong-headed Gladue sentencing principles, which apply exclusively to Indigenous...
Maclean’s magazine once declared Winnipeg as “Canada’s most racist city.” Now it is Thunder Bay’s turn, a city in turmoil after a report slammed its overstretched police force (if not the entire city) for alleged “systemic racism” towards its Indigenous population....
As the final leg of the world-famous Bruce Trail – the country’s longest and oldest hiking trail – Ontario’s rugged Bruce Peninsula places a physical exclamation mark upon some of Canada’s most spectacular and well-loved scenery. Separating Lake Huron from Georgian...
In an astonishing ruling the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ordered the federal government to distribute at least $2 billion to Indigenous family members who had children apprehended from reserve homes between 2006 and the present day. If the government follows...
There is what the CBC Radio host refers to as “yet another spate of suicides” occurring in yet another northern Indigenous community. In this case, it is in Attawapiskat, the First Nation that briefly became famous when its then Chief Theresa Spence staged a...
Jack Major - the very well respected retired Supreme Court Justice - has now endorsed Peter Best’s book, “There Is No Difference”. Justice Major served on the Supreme Court from 1992 until 2005, when he retired shortly before the mandatory retirement age of 75. He was...
I have been asked to describe Canada’s Indigenous child welfare problem. I am told that there are similarities between it and New Zealand’s Maori child welfare issues. I confess that I am largely ignorant of the New Zealand situation, but I have some experience with...