Big Topics & Big Ideas
Mark DeWolf
Invitation To a Virtual Book Launch
NEW BOOK From Truth Comes Reconciliation: An Assessment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report (2nd Edition)Edited by Rodney A. Clifton and Mark DeWolf Published and distributed by Sutherland House Press, 2024. Order your copies now available from...
Educating Leyland Cecco
“Leyland Cecco is a freelance journalist based in Toronto, Canada. His work has primarily been in the Middle East, South Asia and Canada, with a focus on water security.” - The Guardian website September 6 2021 Dear Mr. Cecco, Your article in today’s edition of The...
From Truth Comes Reconciliation: An Assessment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report
Dedicated to the thousands of people –both Indigenous and non-Indigenous — who were good and honourable servants to the children in Canada’s Indian residential school and hostels.
Featured News
Canadian Property Rights Index 2023
A Snapshot of Property Rights Protection in Canada After 10 years
Alberta Politics and Empty Promises of Health-care Solutions
The writ has been dropped and Albertans are off to the polls on May 29. That leaves just four weeks for political leaders and voters to sort out what is arguably the most divisive, yet significant, issue for this election - health care. On Day 2, NDP leader Rachel...
Can We Talk About Racism?
Doug Cuthand, a columnist who writes on Indigenous issues for the Saskatoon Star-Pheonix, once wrote a piece that apparently bothered many non-Indigenous readers, excoriate as it did the treatment of First Nations people by “white” society. Among other things, he...
Indian Residential Schools
Canadians are constantly being told that the Indian residential school system is at the root of the many dysfunctions in Indigenous society today. Alcoholism, violence, poverty and poor educational attainment are all blamed on these schools, the last of which closed...
Myth versus Evidence: Your Choice
There is nothing simple about the story of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools. For one thing, what we think of as the Indian residential schools underwent considerable change during their 126-year history, with fluctuations in size, focus, and influence. Beginning as...
Where is the Wisdom? Where are the Smiles?
In a line at the supermarket checkout, I glanced back at the woman who was placing her purchases on the belt behind my grocery items, and I couldn’t help but wonder what life had done to her to put such an expression of tired crabbiness on her face. That unpleasant...
Inspiring But Not Educating
In November of 2016, I attended a national gathering in Toronto organized by Indspire, a truly worthwhile national body that promotes and assists with the improvement of education quality and success among Indigenous youth. I was presenting a workshop on the value of...
Complexity, Nuance, Truth: The 3:10 to Yuma and Indian Residential Schools
On a Saturday afternoon that presented me with a few idle hours, I sat down on the living room sofa to watch director James Mangold’s 2007 film, 3:10 to Yuma, starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, and — oh my goodness! — Peter Fonda in a supporting role. I’d popped...
There are Boarding Schools and there are Boarding Schools
Stuffed between the sections of the Globe and Mail last week was a fairly thick, glossy publication entitled Our Kids: Canada’s Private School Guide, an annual digest that I’ve browsed through occasionally, primarily out of an educator’s interest in the schools that...