Local Elections and the Spirit of Liberty
We pay less attention than we should to local elections. Democracy, however, thrives at the local level. As citizens, we often focus on the big stories unfolding in national and international politics. And there’s certainly plenty happening in those realms worthy of our attention. But we pay less attention than we should to local elections. […]
School board elections are important, but they garner little attention from voters
School board elections are opportunities for Canadians to hold their trustees accountable and to demand better results. This fall, five Canadian provinces (plus the city of Yellowknife) will hold municipal elections. In three of those provinces—B.C., Manitoba, and Ontario—school board elections will coincide with elections for mayors and councillors. Typically, municipal election turnout is lower […]
Canada risks losing sight of western values
Identity politics, Marxist-driven oppression theories and antisemitism are at odds with Enlightenment principles and Canadian values The following is excerpted from a speech delivered by economist Jack Mintz upon accepting the Gordon Gibson Memorial Citizenship Award from the Aristotle Foundation at an event in Calgary on Wednesday. I am deeply honoured by the Aristotle Foundation’s […]
Immigrant and native-born Canadians align on many issues
The gap between views on representation, taxation and separation was less than 10 percentage points Immigration has become a contentious issue across the Western world. The consternation in Canada results directly from flawed policy started by Justin Trudeau and his colleagues and which has only been lightly modified by his successor, Prime Minister Mark Carney. […]
When ‘colonial trauma’ becomes a get-out-of-jail-free card
The controversial sentencing of Darris Wilson and the failure of the justice system. On a rural road near Brantford, Ontario, Darris Wilson slammed his Dodge Ram pickup truck into a small Mitsubishi subcompact car, killing 12-year-old Sierra Beverly and severely injuring her mother, Naomi. Wilson was originally charged with impaired operation causing death and bodily […]
Premier Eby’s risky B.C. election strategy
NDP will find it difficult to run a campaign focused primarily on the threat from Washington, D.C. Eventually, the government will have to confront the issues it controls at home B.C. Premier David Eby called a provincial election last week, less than two years after narrowly winning the last election, saying another election is necessary […]
Moral lines in an age of outrage: Relearning the virtue of restraint
Exposure to good‑faith disagreement builds resilience and reduces the temptation to demonize those who think differently. At the University of Calgary this week, Prof. Tom Flanagan was assaulted by a masked individual as he participated in a panel discussion on residential schools. The same day, at the University of Victoria, Prof. Frances Widdowson was arrested […]
Promise vs. reality: Has BC’s UNDRIP experiment delivered?
After nearly seven years, it is time to compare the promise of UNDRIP to its track record. Back in 2019, the government in British Columbia passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), hailing it as a historic and transformational move to improve relations with indigenous communities by harmonizing provincial law with […]
High-speed rail should not come at the expense of property rights
Expropriation should be the true last resort, but Ottawa has made it all-too-easy for Alto to take private land A government that can take your land before buying it is not merely building a railway. It’s testing the limits of property rights. In 2025, the federal government announced plans for a new high-speed rail line, […]
The virtues of Canada’s forbears can guide the present, but must be fostered
If Canada is serious about becoming more productive and innovative, it must once again put excellence at the centre of its educational and research institutions In an address entitled “Forward Guidance: A Stronger Canada,” posted on YouTube the other week, Prime Minister Mark Carney appealed to Canadian patriotism and civic virtue as he outlined the […]
Don’t denigrate academics for telling the truth about DEI
Researchers aren’t ‘racist’ for reaching conclusions you don’t like Alex Usher is an experienced observer of post-secondary education in Canada and so his letter to the Macdonald-Laurier Institute on its recent study of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hires attracts our attention. In that letter, Usher denounces the research and conclusions of three researchers on […]
Does the government prioritize hiring competent workers?
A new study found that 40 per cent of federal job postings examined prioritized applicants based on identity characteristics Two candidates pass each other in a corridor: one is heading into a job interview; the other has just finished. Neither will be evaluated merely by ability, education and experience. Who gets the job will also […]
The civilizational fault line revealed by 9/11
It’s been 25 years since 19 terrorists hijacked four airplanes and smashed into two skyscrapers in New York City as well as the Pentagon, and caused the fourth plane to plunge into a Pennsylvania field after brave passengers fought back against the hijackers, who likely intended to hit the White House. I remember well September […]
Aboriginal land disputes continue in B.C.—and federal and provincial governments are crippling their own cases
Last August, the British Columbia Supreme Court determined Aboriginal title exists for the Cowichan Tribe in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver. The Court held that Aboriginal title in Canadian law is “senior and prior” to a fee simple property interest, the most common form of private property right in Canada. That was the now-infamous Cowichan decision. This obviously raises […]
CBC’s refusal to distinguish between terrorism and war shows it can’t think critically
The problem with refusing to reason through the awfulness of civilian deaths is that it can lead to a spurious moral equivalence When the CBC recently backed away from an internal policy that instructed its journalists not to label 9/11 as a terrorist attack, it was a sensible reversal. But it occurred only after the broadcaster first […]
Human rights museum can still admit Nakba exhibit distorts history
When the Canadian War Museum faced similar controversy, it engaged experts and corrected its mistakes The Canadian Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg has been under much scrutiny since the opening of its “Nakba” exhibit on June 27. (The “Nakba” is the controversial term used by Israel detractors to assert that the exodus of 700,000 Arabs from […]
An Edmonton knife attack lays bare a bleak truth: Multiculturalism is a myth if it excludes Canadian Jews
Excluding Jews in Edmonton A recent knife attack on the Israel Pavilion’s kitchen tent at Edmonton’s Heritage Festival ended with a man in police custody and with Jews in Canada once again asking if the “peaceable kingdom,” as Canada was once known, is safe for them any longer. Video footage captured an assailant tearing canvas with a […]
Cambridge missteps in handling of scandal over alleged plagiarism
Prestigious university eroded trust by not immediately investigating allegations against Prof. Jason Arday There is clear and convincing evidence of declining trust in western universities, and restoring it requires that their leaders ask a fundamental question: what does trust require of us? In administration, teaching and research, recruitment and retention, protecting our campuses and all […]
Canada needs a pro-growth strategy, not an anti-American reflex
Instead of hitting America back with painful tariffs, Ottawa must unshackle the private sector before the brain drain devastates us. Canadians are confronting another round of Donald Trump’s tariff tactics as the US President threatened to impose tariffs of up to 50% on $28 billion in Canadian exports to America. Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested responding in […]
Birth tourism exploits Canada’s generous birthright citizenship laws
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding birthright citizenship—that is, that anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen—offers a sobering glimpse into the legal complexities that await Canada if policymakers combat the growing problem of birth tourism. Specifically, the court struck down an executive order from the U.S. president that tried to eliminate […]
BC Court’s refusal to retry Cowichan decision may hasten its journey to Supreme Court
The British Columbia Supreme Court recently ruled that the Cowichan v. Canada case—which in 2025 for the first time ever recognized aboriginal title over privately owned land—will not go to retrial, rejecting an application by Montrose Properties whose property title in Richmond (a suburb of Vancouver) was impacted by last year’s court finding. The B.C. […]
Don’t blame judges. Politicians created the Indigenous rights crisis
The solution lies where the problem began — in Parliament Canada’s UNDRIP crisis isn’t just about activist judges — it’s about lawmakers who either failed to understand what they were enacting or weren’t honest with Canadians about the consequences. The real problem began in legislatures, not courtrooms. When the British Columbia Legislature passed the Declaration […]
False suicide narratives harm gender-confused youth and their families
Finnish study suggests no evidence of increased suicidality in gender-conflicted youth once one corrects for psychiatric co-morbidities Of all the distressing aspects — and there are many — to the ongoing debate around “gender affirming care,” surely the most deplorable has been the weaponization of suicidality. “Would you rather have a live son or a […]
Canada’s activist academy and the rise of anti-Zionism
Occasionally, one’s lived experience is more than a simple personal story and is, instead, a paradigmatic example of a pervasive and hugely consequential societal malaise. My recent decision to resign from senior fellowship in one of Canada’s finest and most venerable institutions following its establishment of a committee to supervise, curate, and “approve” my conference, […]
First Nations community members deserve financial transparency from their leaders
New data confirm what policy observers predicted—removing enforcement teeth from First Nations financial transparency requirements has caused compliance rates to plummet. This isn’t just a bureaucratic concern. It’s a story about broken promises to members in indigenous communities who want accountable governance. The 2013 First Nations Financial Transparency Act represented a straightforward proposition. The Harper […]
Ranking Canada’s most ideological companies
Twenty of the top 25 TSX-listed Canadian firms explicitly advocate for DEI in their job postings, but there are signs that sanity is starting to return When love dies, the ties that bind simply melt away. That’s the fate of the modern-day affair between western institutions and the virtue-imbued succubus of diversity, equity and inclusion […]
Premier Eby is fuelling Alberta separatism
B.C. premier lectures Alberta while DRIPA law and property-rights rulings undermine pipelines and Canadian unity Last month, B.C. Premier David Eby criticized host Danielle Smith for encouraging Alberta separatists at a western premiers meeting. While the agenda included lowering provincial trade barriers and other forms of cooperation, Eby said, “These topics seem at best confusing, if […]
Here’s how the notwithstanding clause can save Canadian democracy
“We didn’t want public policy to be dictated or determined by non-elected people,” Peter Lougheed, 1982. When Justice Shaina Leonard ruled last month that an Alberta independence petition couldn’t advance without indigenous consultation, Premier Danielle Smith mused about deploying the notwithstanding clause. “A single judge cannot override what 700,000 people have said they want,” she […]
Is the golden age over for Jews in Canada?
Why Mark Carney’s speech was woefully short Is the golden age for Jews over? Last month, historian Simon Sebag Montefiore was being interviewed by Israel’s prominent journalist, Haviv Rettig Gur, about the state of British Jewry. Two U.K. Jews were murdered and three injured at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on the Day of Atonement last year. Hate […]
Riding sizes in House of Commons should reflect current population realities
Ontario, B.C., and Alberta are massively disadvantaged. Rebalancing would increase electoral fairness on the House floor Canada in 2026 is obviously not the Canada of 1867. At Confederation, Canada’s population was nearing 3.5 million. As of 2026, it’s almost 42 million. In 1867, there was no Alberta, no Manitoba, no Saskatchewan, and 80 per cent of Canadians lived in […]
“Poetic” truth vs actual truth
On Kamloops, why did politicians, universities, and media treat suspicion as a settled fact? Five years ago, the Tk̓emlúps First Nation in Kamloops, British Columbia, said it discovered 215 unmarked graves of children at the site of a former residential school. The finding was based on ground-penetrating radar (GPR) detection. Sarah Beaulieu, the University of […]
The simple truth behind the ‘Nakba’
Throughout history, wars — declared or not — have dispossessed people Israel and Jews worldwide celebrate the independence of the state of Israel on the secular date of May 14, 1948, when the leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, David Ben-Gurion, read the Declaration of Independence of the state of Israel upon the expiry […]
Keep politics out of graduation ceremonies
Our schools ought to produce democracy defenders rather than social justice warriors Ontario Education Minister, Paul Calandra, probably wasn’t thinking about Aristotle’s observation, in The Metaphysics, that the thirst for knowledge is a universal human desire, when he recently made waves by sending a letter to school boards calling for graduation ceremonies to be “strictly student-centred, apolitical, […]
The clear and present danger to universities is not from without, but within
There is declining confidence in our universities as institutions committed to the search for truth Two University of Regina education professors have edited a new volume: Knowledge Under Siege: Charting a Future for Universities (University of Regina Press, 2026) in which fascism, settler colonialism and other right-wing influences are identified as threats to higher education. […]
Aboriginal title cases should take into account the taxpayer money paid to First Nations
The $1.3 billion paid to the Cowichan Tribes over the last quarter century should be considered compensation for any lost lands In August 2025, after one of the longest trials in Canadian history, Justice Barbara Young of the British Columbia Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling declaring that the Cowichan Tribes hold “Aboriginal title” to 800 acres […]
Finnish study undermines claim “gender-affirming” care
The claim that it’s possible to transition from male to female (and vice versa) is an extraordinary statement. So, it’s reasonable to demand extraordinary evidence, before supporting the practice of “gender-affirming care,” which involves treatment with puberty blockers, cross-gender hormones (estrogen or testosterone), and in some cases surgery to remove breasts or modify genitalia. And […]
From activism to academic failure — The case for school choice
Plunging PISA and EQAO math results raise urgent questions about priorities and strengthen the argument for school choice. At its March 16 annual general meeting, the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) approved a motion to support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel. It is a radical movement. “The selective targeting of Israel” for boycotts, divestments, […]
Systemic racism isn’t the reason for Indigenous income gaps
Data shows education, location, and full-time work largely explain the differences — not “systemic anti-Indigenous racism” Given how prevalent diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has become in recent years — notably in the federal government — it’s important to state some facts. For example, according to the federal government’s anti-racism strategy, “Systemic anti-Indigenous racism accounts for the fact […]
A quiet agreement with big consequences for Vancouver property rights
The Musqueam ‘rights recognition agreement’ treats the Musqueam Indian Band as if it were a nation state, like Canada. If you live anywhere in Metro Vancouver, you may wish to ask what government you will pay taxes to in the future: It might well be the 1,300-member Musqueam Indian Band. In February, just before the […]
Vimy Ridge reminds us of what we’re capable of
Before Vimy Ridge, Canada sent men to Britain’s wars. After April 9, 1917, Canada fought its own. April 9, 1917: The morning was cloudy with intermittent rain and snow showers as some 80,000 Canadian soldiers waited in their chalk tunnels at the foot of Vimy Ridge. Located a few kilometres north of the German-occupied French […]
Two steps back: DEI has made society more racist
If there’s a buzzword that’s captured corporate Canada, government and academia over the past decade, it’s “diversity.” When patched together with “equity” and “inclusion,” or DEI for short, it’s assumed to be excellent policy that’s anchored in fairness and equality. For its proponents, it is seen as an extension of civil rights movements that began […]
University of Austin exposes everything wrong with Canadian universities
While Canadian universities drown in cancel culture, identity quotas and self-censorship, the University of Austin delivers excellence Few Canadians have heard about the University of Austin but that may change as the university’s experiment in the post-secondary environment continues. This writer visited the university in the Texas capital in March and spoke with the president, […]
The ‘Gladue principle’ has caused immense harm to Indigenous women
By giving lenient sentences to Indigenous offenders, their victims are continually denied justice A recent Investigative Journalism Bureau article, which appeared in the National Post, reiterated what we have long known: in Canada, Indigenous women are killed at a much higher rate — tragically, six-times higher — than non-Indigenous women. The article quoted experts who […]
Stop appeasing Quebec and start addressing the West’s concerns
This is how to save the country from breaking apart If the Parti Québécois returns to power in Quebec later this year, as polls show it might, expect Quebec’s demands on the rest of Canada to ramp up. And then expect western separatist sentiment to rise in tandem — or, at a minimum, for western […]
Political agendas have no place in university research applications
Researchers at York University encouraged to conform to ideology to receive grants A few weeks ago, York University’s vice-president of research and innovation heralded a workshop for its researchers that explored “how decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion (DEDI) can be meaningfully integrated into research applications.” Though focused on science research, it was said to be […]
School boards and book publishers should learn from ‘Freedom to Read Week’
The freedom to read is one of our most precious freedoms. Late February, across Canada, many librarians and teachers celebrate “Freedom to Read Week,” which, according to the event’s organizers, “encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom.” And that’s a good thing, because that freedom is constantly under attack in […]
The edifice of ‘gender affirming care’ continues to crumble
In the first case of its kind to go before a jury, a 22-year-old woman named Fox Varian was awarded US$2 million in damages on Jan. 30 in a malpractice suit she brought against her plastic surgeon, Dr. Simon Chin, and her psychologist, Dr. Kenneth Einhorn. Chin removed Varian’s breasts at the age of 16, […]
Iran’s regime is a threat to Canada. Many of its officials are already here
Canadians should not downplay the regime’s potent threat to our country We don’t yet know how the repressive and murderous Islamic Republic of Iran will fall, or when. After the recent uprising and the regime’s bloody response, the most likely outcome may well be some form of military junta arising from the conventional armed forces. A […]
Is DEI helping Canada or holding it back?
This is Bridging the Divide, a column bringing together Canadians from different backgrounds and experiences to tackle pressing issues facing our country. We hope these unconventional pairings will spark inspiration for how to make Canada a better place for everyone Once widely embraced, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, intended to ensure fair access to […]
Federal spending on Indigenous Canadians is about to soar due to 300,000 potential new registrants
Health benefits alone could cost another billion dollars 2025 ended with the country overlooking the most wide-reaching potential change to come to Indigenous law in 40 years. The question of who can be registered as a legal “Indian,” to use the proper constitutional language, has been contentious as far back as this octogenarian can remember. […]
