A 1973 ParticipACTION ad informed Canadians that the average 30-year-old Canadian was as fit as the average 60-year-old Swede. It urged us to get into shape. It didn’t work. We are heavier and in worse shape now. And, unfortunately, this coronavirus targets the obese....
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...
Manitoba’s public education is about to undergo its biggest overhaul in more than 60 years. Bill 64, the Education Modernization Act, will see to that. Not surprisingly, this bill has attracted the ire of several unions, politicians and journalists. The Manitoba...
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...
The last few weeks exposed schizophrenic aspects of Canadian culture and their influence on governments’ behaviour. The most palpable example lies in how we trampled, in fear, over memory and institutions, obsessively protective and morally dismissive of dignity and...
Lack of understanding of the hidden police culture will, once again, only result in superficial changes, all the while the festering cinders remaining to reignite another bonfire. Despite the promises made during the past decade, particularly with the adoption and...
Source: Edmonton Journal, 14 Dec 2013 Re: “Reframing Alberta’s post-secondary debate,” by Brent Epperson, Ideas, Dec. 12. Brent Epperson eloquently argues for a more “progressive” style of post-secondary education in Alberta and rejects those critics who instead...
Is it still possible to hold future electricity rate increases to the rate of inflation? Following nine years of rate increases well above the rate of inflation, Manitoba Hydro's $30-billion plus plan includes increasing electricity rates by four per cent every year...
According to Auditor-General Michael Ferguson’s recently released Fall Report, “significant weaknesses” continue at Transport Canada. These weaknesses have been flagged for some time, dating back a dozen years to when the federal government adopted a new rail safety...
Manitoba Hydro, pressured by the provincial government, continues to spend and make commitments for its $22-billion "preferred development plan." The plan involves the construction of Bipole III, down the extreme west side of the province and through prime...
Stu Niebergall I was working out at the gym the other day, when I overheard a discussion regarding housing affordability in Regina. The two who were working out beside me said something I have not heard before in the 20 plus years that I have lived in Regina and, I...
Executive Summary Housing affordability has deteriorated markedly in the Saskatoon metropolitan area since 2006. While Saskatchewan has had the largest increase in household of any province over the past five years, house prices have escalated at a far greater rate....
For roughly a decade, the NDP provincial government annually reported a balanced summary of accounts (core government operations plus the surplus and deficits of Crown Corporations and other government controlled entities). That streak ended with the global...
You have to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper some credit. While he has not delivered on his promises of military and ice breaker technology in his quest to solidify Canadian sovereignty over Canada’s Arctic, he has been consistent in making sure Canada’s claims are...
The shrill, endless denunciations of the “tar sands” across North America, and indeed around the world, have largely overshadowed any communications efforts by the oil industry to show that the oil sands are benefiting Canadians and being developed in a responsible...