AndrewLawton: A silly old cartoon came across my social media feeds the other day for the bajillionth time. In it, two people stand at opposite sides of a number drawn on the ground. One thinks it’s a ‘6’ while the other thinks it’s a ‘9’. The moral is supposed to be that perspective matters (though some variations take the relativist view that [...]
Rory Leishman: On March 31, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dealt a devastating blow to the predominance of transgender ideologues, by announcing that his Conservative government would not proceed with a promise to ban transgender conversion therapy. What can account for this abrupt about-face on a key policy issue by a government and prime minister that have hitherto sedulously courted the favour [...]
John Carpay: The constitution of Communist China expressly protects human rights and fundamental freedoms, including private property rights; freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, procession and demonstration; and religious freedom. Unlawful detention is expressly prohibited, as is the unlawful search of a citizen’s person or home. However, these rights and freedoms are subject to Article 1 of the Constitution, which declares [...]
Interim Staff: On March 23, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the European Parliament in Brussels, where he was condemned by a half-dozen Members of European Parliament (MEP). Trudeau talked about “rising threats to democracy” including Vladimir Putin’s Russia, inflation, and economic uncertainty. He told the half-empty chamber that “we must recommit ourselves to the work of strengthening our democracies, and demonstrate the [...]
Paul Tuns: On Mach 27, the 50th anniversary of the Rockefeller Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, more than 30 pro-life leaders condemned the report and the mentality behind it, and urged Washington lawmakers to respect human life from the moment of conception. The Commission was created by Congress after being requested by President Richard Nixon in the aftermath of [...]
Oswald Clark: The Biden administration’s proposed 2023 budget, released March 28, did not include the Hyde Amendment which prohibits federal taxpayer dollars from being used through Medicaid or government-employee benefits programs to pay for abortions except to save the life of the woman or in cases of rape or incest. The proposed 2023 budget also included a funding increase for the United [...]
Paul Tuns: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled the federal budget on April 7 and most media coverage focused on the size of the deficit, measures to address the housing affordability crisis, new defense spending and a new dental program, and tax increases for large businesses and the wealthy. But there are a number of anti-life and anti-family initiatives in the budget that [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements I’m sure it’s not just because I have COVID as I write this, but I’ve found it hard to escape the sensation that modern life – society, culture, whatever you want to call it – is a lot less fun that it used to be, even if the circumstances of the last two [...]
Josie Luetke: Interim writer, Josie Luetke, Talk Turkey The Canadian government, in consultation with “experts,” is presently determining “how MAID can be provided safely to those whose only medical condition is a mental illness.” In less than a year, on March17, 2023, they will become eligible for euthanasia, deceptively referred to as “medical assistance in dying,” even though the only [...]
Paul Tuns In February 2021, the British Columbia Ministry of Health defunded the Delta Hospice Society (DHS) and expropriated its ten-bed hospice building because it refused to participate in euthanasia killing. The Delta Health Authority took over its premises at the Irene Thomas Hospice in order to provide medicalized end-of-life killing last year, with NDP Health Minister Adrian Dix insisting it was [...]
Review: Jacob Mchangama (Basic Books, $40, 514 pages) Jacob Mchangama’s massive but readable and spirited defense of Free Speech is a must-read for anyone interested in this important and increasingly contentious topic. Mcchangama notes that free speech’s origins go back further than the U.S. First Amendment or the Enlightenment. Rather, they have roots in antiquity. Pericles, he notes, extolled the virtues of [...]
From the editor’s desk: You probably saw that during Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings, she refused to answer what a woman is. Joe Biden appointed Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court because she was a black woman, the sole qualification Biden outlined for his first Supreme Court appointment when he was running for president. Asked if she agreed with the late Justice [...]
Jed Perl (Knopf, $27, 161 pages): Long-time critic Jed Perl (The New York Review of Books, The New Republic) has slim new volume, Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts that is being described in many reviews as a salvo against relevancy. Perl, say these reviewers, defends art-for -art’s sake. Up to a point that this is true. Roger Scruton says [...]
Paul Tuns Review: Roger Scruton, an English philosopher who died in 2020, wrote more than 50 books on topics such as art, politics, and philosophy. He started a serious intellectual journal (The Salisbury Review), and established underground academic networks in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. He was knighted in 2016, received three awards of distinction in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and [...]
Canadian Conservatives and Ontario voters will have the opportunity to do something heroic in the next few months: defend preborn children. As we report on page two, there could be as many as four pro-life candidates seeking the Conservative Party of Canada leadership. On the same page we report on another positive development, the rise of two new Ontario parties led by [...]