Despite the wreckage wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic – social disintegration, ruined lives, physical and economic tolls – the governments and public officials who “managed” the emergency have been decidedly uninterested in assessing their performance. Except in Alberta, where a government-appointed panel just released its Final Report. Though predictably attacked by politicians, media and “experts” who can abide no dissent, the report makes many sensible recommendations, Barry Cooper finds. The report calls for emergency management experts – not doctors or health care bureaucrats – to be in charge when such disasters strike, with politicians who are accountable to the people making the key decisions. Most important, the report demands much stronger protection for the individual freedoms that panic-stricken governments and overbearing professional organizations so readily quashed.
Culture Wars
How “Woke-ism” Threatens Academic Freedom
In November 2022, Paul Viminitz, a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Lethbridge, invited me to give a talk on the threat “woke-ism” poses for academic freedom. After pressure mounted to cancel the talk, the president of the University of...
CBC – A Beacon of Truth?
CBC CEO Catherine Tait says CBC is a “beacon of truth in a sea of fake news”. But not everyone agrees with her. For example, a growing number of Conservative MPs are calling out CBC over what they see as biased coverage of the Israel/Gaza conflict. They complain, for...
New Zealand’s Rejection of Woke
‘Oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them’ has long been conventional Westminster wisdom. What is remarkable about Labour’s election defeat is how significantly they lost. It was an historic turnaround from 50 percent support at the 2020 election to just...
Featured News
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy!
COVID-19 Emergency Powers Nearly Limitless
The war against the invisible enemy of COVID-19 has unfortunately made normal rights and freedoms invisible as well. Another example manifested on September 13 when Saskatchewan’s premier renewed emergency orders for his province. The list of powers he claimed were so...
What has Happened to the Canadian Left?
Since the 1900s, the coming together of workers in a powerful way in order to demand greater rights has been seen as a positive thing by ‘the Left.’ This includes the right to work, as reflected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms “to pursue the gaining of...
Environmental Fakery Makes the ‘E’ in ESG Standards Total Nonsense
The adoption of Environmental, Social and Governance, ‘ESG’, standards by institutional investors is meant to cajole, if not compel, investible companies to adhere to rigid rules and criteria established by investors or outside entities, such as consultants to satisfy...
MEDIA RELEASE – New Frontier Centre Book Calls on Universities to be Dangerous
A Collection of Sharp and Insightful Challenges to Higher Education in Canada WINNIPEG, August 4, 2022 – The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just published In Praise of Dangerous Universities and Other Essays, by philosophy professor Mark Mercer. Universities...
Against the Scarborough Charter
Over 50 colleges and universities in Canada have now signed the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion. This is unfortunate, as the Charter is a profoundly anti-academic document. That so many institutions signed it does not bode well for higher...
Salzman: Canada Gone Wrong
Canadians tend to please themselves by feeling superior to the Americans: Americans are violent; we are peaceful. Americans demand anarchical freedom; Canadians want “peace, order, and good government.” Americans go to extremes, e.g., by electing the awful President...
A Lamentable Tale of Two Colonies
During the whole of recorded history, the empire has been the most constant and common form of political organization. A basic, self-evident feature of all empire-building has been the successful occupation of the lands of the local, Indigenous inhabitants by outside...
Will A Real War End the Culture Wars?
Sometimes, the significance of a cataclysmic event is not immediately apparent. The bombing of Pearl Harbour was an event that shocked the world. Many realized - even as it was happening - that it would bring America into a war it didn’t want to be in. But few...
Citizens’ Hearing on Canada’s Covid Response – Videos & Written Summaries
Canadians are asking questions: Were the measures taken by governments in Canada appropriate to the threat? Were they based on sufficient clinical and statistical evidence? Were they suitably focused? How effective were they? Were there conflicts of interest at play?...
Elite influence is No Myth
Do you believe “Big events (wars, recessions, elections) are controlled by small groups secretly working against rest of us”? Abacus surveyed 1500 Canadians on that question, and 44 percent agreed. However, the pollster characterized those who “believe dangerous...