Memorial University President Vianne Timmons is only the latest “Pretendian” to be exposed as a non-indigenous person claiming to be indigenous. There is a growing list of such people, including Mary Turpel-Lafond, Carrie Bourassa and Joseph Boyden. What all of these...
Commentary
There’s Nothing Fair About Canadian Health Care
For the past 14 years, Vancouver surgeon Dr. Brian Day has led the charge for health-care reform, pushing for the right of patients to pay for private care if their health and well-being are threatened as a result of waiting in a stagnant and overburdened public...
Russia’s Nervous Neighbours
We don’t know how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will end, but whatever the outcome, the world will be changed forever. Already, the post WWII consensus—often called the Pax Americana—that has kept the world relatively peaceful is rapidly breaking down. China, Russia,...
The Redman Plan
When the pandemic hit, and almost all of the western nations simultaneously adopted a western version of the lockdown strategy devised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to respond to the original Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, very few voices questioning voices...
Featured News
It’s Okay to Have Unpopular Opinions
Rafael Zaki is a medical student who has filed a court application alleging that he was expelled from the University of Manitoba School of Medicine for expressing controversial opinions. Zaki is a Coptic Christian, an ancient Egyptian people who have increasingly...
When the Media Doesn’t tell the Truth – the Floyd and Boushie Cases
Derek Chauvin is the Minneapolis police officer who achieved international notoriety for his role in the death of George Floyd. A video showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes, as Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe, was viewed millions of times...
Using COVID-19 to Advance Radical, Partisan and Racist Policies
In his first days in office, President Joe Biden rescinded a Trump-era order that restricted the federal government’s use of diversity training to examine issues around race and gender bias and systemic racism. In doing so, he will be advancing radical and divisive...
The Lobster Wars
A dispute and court case from northern Ontario may help us understand ongoing tensions over the lobster fisheries on the East Coast. The war over Indigenous fishing rights has played out before in Canadian history. As we reflect on recent violence in Nova Scotia over...
A Preposterous New Book – The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy
Author Stephanie Kelton’s main point in The Deficit Myth is that federal deficits are not only harmless but highly desirable as devices to accelerate economic activity and resolve economic inequality. Government finance is not like other finance. Governments are...
Ottawa Must Speak for All Sectors in All Regions
If only Ottawa would put its full force and support behind the energy sector as it does other critical sectors in the economy. In early October, the prime minister announced that he would not back down from the latest American round of attacks on our softwood lumber...
What to Do with a Pirate State
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 slave...
The Public Debt of Canada Needs to Be Controlled
Around the world, the economic crisis caused by the restrictions taken to fight COVID-19 has consequently led to an increase in the public debt of the United States. Canada doesn't escape this phenomenon. Based on the IMF's data, Canada's gross debt of the general...
Social Media, Censorship and Stopping Lies: How can we Balance Rights and Responsibilities?
Freedom of speech is not just an ideal to admire, it is a fundamental cornerstone that is required for democracy to survive. However, it appears that the majority of the population in Canada and the United States does not understand what free speech actually means and...
Holding Back the Pandemic Tide and Other Government Delusions
Good news has many fathers, the saying goes, while bad news is an orphan. So it was when the Covid-19 case numbers and casualty counts began to recede late last spring. Even faster than dandelions sprouting, variations on “We have flattened the curve” became among the...
A Short History of Censorship
Censorship is typically considered to be the removal or blocking of information, speech, or expression. It includes self-censorship, which is when individuals or organizations limit what they say for fear of repercussions. Historically, repressive governments have...