Prentice is right—Albertans are to blame
If Albertans want to know why their government is having budget problems, Premier Jim Prentice advises them to “look in the mirror.” His comment went, as they say, viral. Opposition…
Bill Longstaff
Soul mates and the politics of fear
Fabricating a threat to the nation in order to instill fear in the population may be demagoguery, but it is also a highly effective way for leaders to rally the…
Presumption of innocence be damned—Putin killed Boris Nemtsov
In this country, the “golden thread” of criminal law, embodied in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is the presumption of innocence. To quote the Charter, “Any person charged with…
Alberta woes—It ain’t the economy, stupid
Here in Alberta, energy superpower, we are going through the bust part of one of our infamous boom and bust cycles. The premier is weighing the government’s options. Cutting MLA…
Parsing Bill C-51— the academics’ letter
The first criticism of Bill C-51, the Anti-terrorism Act 2015, is the fact it is entirely unnecessary. Our criminal law is already capable of dealing with terrorist activities. More to…
Harper outmaneuvers Trudeau on Bill C-51
If any political party ought to oppose Bill C-51, it’s the Liberal Party. After all, it’s liberal values that the Bill threatens to erode. And yet, Liberal Party leader Justin…
Harper fails Conservative citizenship criteria
Over the signature of Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander, the Conservative Party of Canada recently emailed a petition to its supporters, rallying them against face covering during citizenship…
Where is the outrage about the RCMP’s witch-hunt?
At one time I instinctively assumed that government agencies were apolitical, servants of the people, not the servants of any particular philosophy or party. That, it increasingly seems, was the…
ISIS and the grand imam—not so different
That ISIS is a scourge of major proportions is agreed on across the globe. Driven by some religious mania, they persecute other religions, behead infidels, burn enemies alive—all with sickening…
Of course Netanyahu "rules in Washington"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to address the U.S. Congress next month has created quite a stir. President Obama, apparently not informed of the visit beforehand, is fuming. At…
Did he really say that?
How does he get this stuff out of his mouth? Pope Francis, I mean. In a recent audience in St. Peter’s Square, he declared that couples who choose not to…
French hold most favourable views of Jews and Muslims
How the French view their minority populations after the violent events earlier this month will probably take a while to sort out. But a poll conducted last year suggested they…
Why are Americans so frightened?
If you were asked what the American people’s top policy priority was, what would you answer? The economy perhaps? Immigration? Global warming? You would be wrong. According to the Pew…
A sales tax for Alberta?
Alberta Premier Jim Prentice recently committed heresy. Faced with plummeting oil prices and the possibility of a $500-million deficit, the premier actually encouraged discussion about adopting a sales tax. “I…
So what did Raif Badawi say?
The world is now aware of Saudi Arabia’s satanic punishment of blogger Raif Badawi—ten years in prison and a 1,000 lashes for saying things unacceptable to the country’s powerful religious…
The pope’s diminished freedom of speech
Did the pope just display an iota of sympathy for the zealots who massacred Charlie Hebdo staff? In response to a question about the attack, he replied, “One cannot provoke,…
AI—will they keep us as pets?
It isn’t as if we don’t have enough BIG things to worry about—global warming, resource depletion, nuclear war, for starters—now renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and brilliant entrepreneur and inventor Elon…
The House of Saud—they may be terrorists, but they’re our terrorists
During the Cold War, the West made allies out of some brutal dictatorial regimes. A challenge on this often met with the cynical answer, “they may be bastards, but they’re…
Harper’s histrionics
Terrorist attacks are theatre. And what theatre they have been presenting lately. The 9/11 spectacle of planes flying into tall buildings was the most spectacular event ever seen on television.…
Americans OK with torture
The Pew Research Centre recently released the results of a survey of Americans about the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA interrogation practices, a report which revealed the agency has…