In August of 2023 at the University of Regina, UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity filed a court application seeking to strike down Saskatchewan’s “Use of Preferred First Name and Pronouns by Students” policy. This policy protects children from being pressured or manipulated (absent parental knowledge and consent) into embarking on a dangerous and futile quest to become the opposite [...]
John Carpay: Judging by Canadians’ overwhelming compliance with lockdowns, vaccine passports, and travel restrictions since March of 2020, it unfortunately seems that most Canadians meet authoritarianism with unquestioning obedience. University of Manitoba psychology professor Robert Altemeyer argues that those with an authoritarian personality are submissive even to authority figures who are dishonest, corrupt, and inept. They persist in their belief that their [...]
John Carpay: When statisticians speak of “excess” deaths, they speak of a higher-than-expected death rate. The number of “expected” deaths (for a country or province, for one year or some other time period) is based on the population’s age, race, employment, education, income, marriage rates, birth rates, and mortality statistics for previous periods. For example, statisticians might expect 300,000 people to die in [...]
John Carpay: I recently had the privilege of meeting Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Vera Sharav and listening to her speak at an event in Hamilton, Ont. in June. Vera Sharav has been a thorn in the side of big pharma since her son died suddenly and unexpectedly from side effects caused by an antidepressant medication that he was taking in [...]
John Carpay: I recently had the privilege of meeting Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Vera Sharav and listening to her speak at an event in Hamilton, Ont. in June. Vera Sharav has been a thorn in the side of big pharma since her son died suddenly and unexpectedly from side effects caused by an antidepressant medication that he was taking in [...]
John Carpay: In Canada in 2023, it takes remarkable courage to state the obvious. At a public meeting of the Waterloo Region District School Board in January of 2022, a teacher raised concerns about school library books promoting transgender ideology to children. In a shocking display of blatant censorship, Waterloo school board chair Scott Piatkowski expelled Carolyn Burjoski from this public meeting, after [...]
John Carpay: The more that people possess virtues like humility, wisdom, courage, and self-control, the less that people need regulations and laws to govern their conduct. In a society where most citizens possess a high degree of virtue, people have the capacity to cooperate with each other to achieve social, economic, financial, and community goals. Virtuous people don’t need thousands of laws [...]
John Carpay: Censorship spreads like a cancer, starting small but then expanding everywhere. Once upon a time, only 15 years ago, pro-life student clubs were the only groups facing censorship on campus. Pro-life students were barred from renting rooms or other spaces on campus that were freely available to everyone else. Pro-life students were expressly prohibited from setting up recruitment tables at [...]
John Carpay: Since early 2020, the majority of religious leaders around the world have supported lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccination passports, and other coercive measures that violated the freedom, prosperity, and well-being of millions of citizens. As just one prominent example, in August of 2021 Pope Francis and other bishops praised the new Covid vaccine as “safe and effective.” Vatican City pressured all [...]
JOHN CARPAY: Since early 2020, the majority of religious leaders around the world have supported lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccination passports, and other coercive measures that violated the freedom, prosperity, and well-being of millions of citizens. As just one prominent example, in August of 2021 Pope Francis and other bishops praised the new Covid vaccine as “safe and effective.” Vatican City pressured all [...]
John Carpay: My recent 23 hours in a Calgary jail on Dec. 30-31 remind me of the fact that our circumstances can feel either incredibly difficult or quite easy depending on what we compare them to. On the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 30, I was working at my office when I received a phone call from Calgary Police Services detective Mark Weir [...]
John Carpay: After six weeks of witnesses testifying under oath in October and November, the Public Order Emergency Commission process has provided Canadians with important evidence on the government’s decision to use the Emergency Act. The biggest and most glaring revelation was the absence of violence in Ottawa during the three weeks in January and February of 2022, when thousands of Canadian [...]
John Carpay: Interim writer, John Carpay, Law Matters Canadians remain divided about the Freedom Convoy truckers’ protest in Ottawa in January and February of 2022. Some Canadians saw the truckers as heroes resisting unjust laws, while government-funded media portrayed thousands of peaceful protesters as a harmful nuisance at best, and as dangerous racists and violent criminals at worst. I know [...]
John Carpay: Since lockdowns were first imposed in March of 2020, Canada’s federal and provincial governments have paid little attention to the harmful effects of their policies. Instead, politicians and government-funded media repeat endlessly that “lockdowns save lives.” We know how propaganda works: when people hear a claim often enough, they come to accept it as true. Public health agencies and most [...]
John Carpay: In Nanjing, a man crosses the street while the pedestrian light is still red. Within seconds, a billboard-sized screen nearby displays his name, his face and an admonition to obey the traffic lights. The Communist Chinese government surveillance cameras have captured the moment, secured an image of the man’s face, compared it to a central database of faces compiled over [...]