Kesiah Beere: On May 20, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Pandemic Agreement after three years of development and negotiations. Started in December 2021, the Agreement was proposed to implement strategies to “make the world safer from – and more equitable in response to – future pandemics,” according to the WHO. On the surface, such an international agreement may seem appealing [...]
Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia Malise Ruthven (Verso, $46, $368) BBC editor Malise Ruthven has written an expose of Saudi Arabia, the Unholy Kingdom, the alliance between the House of Saud – the royal family that ruled modern Saudi Arabia since its founding – and extremist imams who he labels a “sectarian Islamic cult.” Their extreme Wahhabism has become [...]
The Baton and the Cross: Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin Lucy Ash (Icon Books, $36, 384 pages) Journalist Lucy Ash has written a broadside attack on the Russian Orthodox Church and its relationship with Moscow, which inevitably focuses on how the Church provides ideological backing for Vladimir Putin’s regime. Ash, who has worked as a foreign correspondent in Russia for three [...]
Interim Staff: On May 15, the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear the case of Toronto Catholic District School Board trustee Mike Delgrande’s challenge to the TCDSB’s censure over his opposition adding gender identity and gender expression to the board’s code of conduct. In November 2019, during debate on amending the code of conduct – in contravention of Church [...]
Interim Staff: The third annual National “Pride” Flag Walk-Out Day (NPFWD) was held May 30 and June 2 in protest of LGBQT indoctrination taking place in classrooms across Canada. The timing of the walk-out, in which families are encouraged to keep their children out of school for the day, coincides with the days many schools raise the LGBQT pride flag to promote [...]
Man-Devil: The Mind and Times of Bernard Mandeville, The Wickedest Man in Europe John Callahan (Princeton, $48, 315 pages): Bernard Mandeville was a self-exiled Dutch writer who found his work on the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Banned Books). The libertarian writer is most famous for The Fable of the Bees, a book which stood trial in 1723 in Middlesex [...]
Kesiah Beere: On May 26, Alberta’s Minister of Education and Childcare, Demetrios Nicolaides, announced in a press conference that Alberta intends to establish “clear policies and guidelines for all school divisions to follow,” regarding the inclusion of sexually-explicit books in school libraries. This message was delivered in response to four “coming-of-age” novels found in Calgary and Edmonton school libraries, according to Jack [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements Lately I’ve been getting served a rush of media asking the question “Is the world getting worse?” in the form of online articles, Twitter/X threads, blog posts and YouTube videos. Most of the blame goes to social media and the spread of “misinformation,” which has made us angrier, less hopeful and increasingly distrustful [...]
Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre Mark Bourrie (Bibliosis, $28.95 paperback, 437 pages): Anyone wanting to know why Pierre Poilievre lost the 2025 federal election need go any further than Mark Bourrie’s Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre, which could be more accurately titled Ripper: The Making and Unmaking of Pierre Poilievre. While Bourrie has a clear and admitted anti-Poilievre bias, and [...]
Hope: The Autobiography Pope Francis (Random House, $42, 302 pages) Hope: The Autobiography was not written by Pope Francis but rather its “co-author” Carlo Musso, an Italian journalist who held numerous conversations with the Holy Father and scoured the documentary records of his pontificate. It was not to be published until after the death of Francis but was released shortly before his [...]
Samara Douma: On May 18, eligible Polish voters headed to polling stations to cast their vote in the Polish presidential election. When votes had been counted, none of the thirteen candidates had the majority needed to win the presidency. The top two candidates, Rafal Trzaskowski, with 31.4 per cent of the vote, and Karol Nawrocki, with 29.5 per cent of the vote, [...]
Interim Staff: On June 16, Linda Gibbons was declared not guilty by Justice Patrice Band regarding obstruction and disobeying a lawful order in relation to an arrest earlier this year. On Feb. 12, Gibbons was arrested after peacefully witnessing outside the Toronto Abortion Clinic at 727 Hillsdale Ave. She was charged with obstruction and disobeying a 30-year-old court injunction tied to the [...]
Paul Tuns: The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition launched a postcard and petition campaign demanding the complete review of Canada’s euthanasia law, a project it launched with the Delta Hospice Society. Gordon Friesen, president of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said announcing the campaign, that the federal government vowed to conduct a thorough review after five years when it legalized euthanasia in 2016. Friesen said, [...]
Paul Tuns: Conservative MP Tamara Jansen (Cloverdale-Langley City) introduced a private member’s bill, Bill C-218, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying). In 2021, Parliament passed Bill C-7 broadening Canada’s euthanasia law, with one of the provisions being expanding Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying regime to patients suffering solely from mental illness. Other so-called safeguards that were lifted [...]
Kesiah Beere: On Saturday, May 31, Quebec’s March for Life was held in Quebec City, organized by Campagne Québec-Vie (Quebec Life Coalition). The day’s events were set to begin with music at 11 am in front of Quebec’s National Assembly. LifeSiteNews journalist Dorothy Cummings McLean reported that Georges Buscemi, president of Quebec Life Coalition, noticed a [...]