It takes two to reconcile
Canada’s Indigenous policy has officially been one of “reconciliation” between Indigenous Canadians and non-Indigenous Canadians since the Liberals came to power in 2015. Too many Indigenous Canadians remain on the margins and billions have been spent to remove obstacles to success. But it takes two to reconcile. There are also obstacles that Indigenous Canadians could…
Reporting on the George Floyd and Colten Boushie deaths twisted the facts to meet the agendas of mainstream media
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 pleads that he can’t breathe, has been viewed millions of times around the globe. Floyd’s death sparked months of protests, rioting, looting…
Race-based programs are an insult to those who have achieved success on their merit and hard work
‘Pretendians’ are what Indigenous people call non-Indigenous people who claim that they are Indigenous. Government financial incentives reserved exclusively for Indigenous people – supposedly, to achieve equity – have created pretendians, who are increasingly called out by other Indigenous people for not being Indigenous enough. Canadian novelist Joseph Boyden and filmmaker Michelle Latimer (maker of…
Quarantining the healthy, while failing to properly protect the most vulnerable, never made sense
By David Redman and Brian Giesbrecht Frontier Centre for Public Policy Vaccinations are happening and lockdowns will finally end. Politicians, and a supportive media, will tell us that their lockdown policies saved us. But before accepting that claim, should we not take a close look at others who did things differently? The public will be…
Leaders are ‘locked’ into a lockdown model that does more harm than good
In a crushing blow to small business and morale, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister has ordered a return to the very lockdown model that the World Health Organization (WHO) warned leaders to avoid. Premiers are being pressured by a prime minister who threatens to withhold money unless they once again shut down restaurants and small businesses…
Separating one racial group of people from the rest of the nation and expecting a good result was madness then and is madness now
Canadians are watching protests on American streets that stem in part from their history of slavery. That original sin dogs America and tears at its soul. But Canada, too, has an original sin. And that’s our history with Indigenous people. It’s not that Canada treated Indigenous people poorly. (It did treat them poorly but that’s…
It didn’t spend billions to pay people to stay home – as we have done – while compromising our children’s futures for generations
Most countries that adopted the lockdown model are still in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. Typically, there’s an easing of rules when infection rates decrease. But when rules are relaxed and infection rates naturally rise, authorities clamp down again. Masks go off – then on again. Meanwhile, the horrendous cost of paying furloughed workers…
People want to live here because Canada is a welcoming country where all races and creeds live together without persecution
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently publicly contradicted RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki for saying there’s no systemic racism within the RCMP. Actually, Lucki said she didn’t know what “systemic racism” is. In her words, “I have to admit, I really struggle with the term ‘systemic racism.’ I have heard about five or 10 definitions on TV.…
We should all take valuable lessons from the way Sweden has handled the COVID-19 crisis
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that we have to learn to live with COVID-19. Notwithstanding hope of a vaccine, there is no guarantee. The virus awaits as we step out our door. And it could get worse. In Canada, the virus has been suppressed by a lockdown and strict social distancing, leaving residents at…
Our children and their children will be paying for the bad decisions made by our senior medical science and political leaders for decades to come
As this wave of the COVID-19 pandemic winds down, we should ask honest questions about our response to it. Although an accurate assessment of the lockdowns – closing schools and businesses – is months away, we need a plan to respond to a likely second fall wave. The Economist published an essay detailing how closing…
If historical figures with 2020 attitudes could be found, renaming familiar streets and place names wouldn’t be so daunting
Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman is determined to pursue his name game – renaming, removing and rewriting history. Among his targets is Bishop Grandin Boulevard – the mayor doesn’t like the late Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin’s attitudes. If Bowman succeeds, the next logical renaming would be St. Vital – also named after Grandin, who was an important…
There’s no evidence that draconian anti-COVID-19 measures were necessary. In the meantime, our economy is wilting
The lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 will saddle the next generation with a crushing debt and enormous social costs. The rationale of emptying schools and shuttering businesses deemed non-essential is to flatten the curve of the spread of the virus. Social distancing measures and closures in general are meant to prevent hospitals from…
While the project is a win for the province, the country, the environment and B.C.’s First Nations, these hereditary chiefs don’t see it that way
Support continues for the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation blocking authorized construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia. In spite of court injunctions and government pronouncements telling them to desist, they seem prepared for a long and protracted struggle, “having no intention of allowing Wet’suwet’en sovereignty to be violated.” This…
There are good reasons why other countries and previous Canadian governments have consistently refused to fully implement the UN declaration on Indigenous rights
British Columbia has become the first province to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). And except for the opposition of a determined group of Conservative senators, the federal government would have adopted UNDRIP as actionable law before last fall’s federal election. Re-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already announced…
As Trump upsets the world order, many countries may feel they have no choice but to develop nuclear weapons
What will the world look like in 50 years – or even 10? One of the rather unsettling possibilities is that the future will have to accommodate a Germany with nuclear arms. For the short period after the Second World War that the United States was the only nuclear power, the world was stable. But…