Let’s take a look at the implications of the Conservative Party’s recent decision to bypass the “consortium approach” to televised election debates during this fall’s federal election campaign. The consortium, which has run the debates,…
View More Yes, Let’s Open Up the Federal Debates … To Everyone
For those who have come to Canada from just about any place on the planet other than Western Europe or the United States, you are comfortable with the fact that religious expression and faith are…
View More Secular State Doesn’t Mean Erasing Religion from Public Life
There was a time when the vast plurality of new Canadians voted for the Liberal Party of Canada. With the exception of some of those who had escaped the tyranny of the Warsaw Pact, immigrant…
View More The Conservative “Balancing Act”
Legal prostitution. Assisted suicide. Decriminalized pot. Gay marriage. Our society is undergoing a breathtaking transformation, hurried along by the influence of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the court that interprets it, and the…
View More Enhancing our Multicultural Heritage
So a woman is told she can’t testify in a Quebec court while wearing a hijab. The Prime Minister speaks out against women wanting to take the oath of Canadian citizenship while wearing a niqab,…
View More Head Coverings and Courts: No Simple Solution
I hear it everywhere: “The media lie about us.” “The media don’t tell our story.” “We are invisible to the media.” I attend conferences and hear speakers blame the media for racism, hatred, and demonizing…
View More Stop Blaming the Media!
Why is it that some new Canadian communities appear to achieve prominence, stature and wealth in the fabric of the national community – more readily than others? Research indicates that how well immigrant communities grow…
View More Why Some New Canadian Communities are More Prominent in Politics
The Charlie Hebdo massacre and subsequent hostage-taking and murders at the Paris kosher supermarket were supposedly in retaliation for the blasphemous manner in which the satirical publication portrayed Muhammad, the seventh century common era prophet…
View More Nine Takes on Charlie Hebdo: Questions on Free Speech in a Democratic Society
Last year we witnessed surprising riots and fire in the streets of Stockholm, largely perpetrated by young men whose families originated in the Maghreb region of Africa. This is in Sweden, where official multiculturalism has…
View More Angry Second-generation Immigrants
Recently, I was listening to a very funny routine that comedienne Wanda Sykes recorded for HBO about her decision to come out. At its core, her presentation is about what I call “self-disclosure.” She talks…
View More Choosing the Moment of Self-Disclosure