Someone named Laila El Mugammar thinks about racism every time she stands up for the Canadian national anthem. This is because the composer of the song’s tune, the nineteenth-century Québeçois musician Calixa Lavallée, once founded a blackface minstrel group which...
Throughout history, when one religion succeeds in achieving political dominance over another, one of the first things that happens is that places of worship change hands. When the Romans put down the second of two great Jewish rebellions against their rule, Emperor...
Words are important tools in human interaction and, used in certain ways, they become weapons. Politics these days is the art of twisting language to do harm to your enemies. Let us examine how certain words and phrases have lost their original meanings and have...
If you want to think poorly about your fellow man, you have only to read the comments section under any online article. In such a forum are seldom found restrained and the judicious observers; rather, this is where that part of the population which walks on its...
“Ahead, Thar Be Dragons.” The world of 2023 is a scary place. One major war is raging, with others probably on the way. The Pax Americana that has given us freedom of the seas and allowed global trade to flourish might be breaking down. International piracy,...
Today, Canada’s natural gas sector is seeing its decade of darkness due to federal policy. And it’s not because the opportunity wasn’t there. It was because our government allowed its ideology, and that of its anti-oil and gas friends (also known as protestors) to...
We will begin today’s article with a quiz. So, pencils out please, and answer the following question: what famous personality was described by an unadmiring biographer as “a thieving, fanatical Albanian dwarf”? I’ll give you the answer in a paragraph or two as we...
In Casablanca, the greatest movie ever made, Dooley Wilson sings: “You must remember this/ A kiss is just a kiss/ A sigh is just a sigh”. But, Sarah Hall of North Shields, England, would disagree. For her, a kiss, such as that bestowed by the handsome prince on...
Once they were big. Really big. Kings of Hollywood, producers of movies that were nominated for over 300 Oscars. But when their founder was outed as the captain of the American free-style groping team, the Weinstein Company’s name became toxic: board members resigned,...
Dr. Gerry Bowler, senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, joined the Danielle Smith show to talk about the "Halloween costume conundrum."
“Blatherskite.” “Trained seal.” “Dim-witted saboteur”. “A piece of sh*t”. These are all terms which have been deemed to be “unparliamentary language” in Canada; use of them, and 102 other specified pieces of verbal abuse, may result in penalties levied by the Speaker...
Hallowe’en is fast approaching, and it is time for parents to ask themselves an important question: “How offensive do I want my child’s costume to be?” As tots prepare to take to the streets to beg for obesity-producing and tooth-decaying treats, they should also be...
Hugh Hefner has finally died and I have competing Latin maxims battling in my head. On the one hand, De mortuis nil nisi bonum – “of the dead say nothing but good” – is a wise and charitable saying. On the other hand, so is De mortuis nil nisi verum– “of the dead...
A recent Gallup poll in the United States revealed that while 62% of Democratic party voters trusted the media, only 14% of Republicans believed that the media could be relied on to get the facts straight. Is there really bias in the news and public affairs media? Is...
Honourable Ian Wishart Minister of Education and Training Room 168 Legislative Building Winnipeg. MB R3C 0V8 Dear Mr. Wishart, As someone who has taught History at the University of Manitoba for 25 years, I am deeply interested in learning more about your government’s...