Josie Luetke: Interim writer, Josie Luetke, Talk Turkey One of my many pet peeves is critics showing what they’re lambasting others for showing. (Don’t show it!) The CitizenGO petition to “STOP the blasphemous film Benedetta” very helpfully displays the offending lesbian kiss that petition signers apparently don’t want viewers to see. I can’t tell you how many screengrabs I saw [...]
Paul Tuns: I began my review of Ted Byfield’s 1999 collection of columns, The Book of Ted: Epistles from an Unrepentant Redneck: “The American columnist George Will once said that before there was Ronald Reagan there was Barry Goldwater, before there was Goldwater there was National Review, and before there was National Review there was William F. Buckley … The Canadian equivalent [...]
By Jonathon Van Maren: Desire for a day of rest should find allies amongst labour, Christians On April 24, 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Lord’s Day Act in R v Big M Drug Mart Ltd, nullifying centuries of tradition on the ironic basis that the Act contravened freedom of religion for the irreligious. According to Chief Justice Brian [...]
By Mark Wegierski: Thoughtful conservatives in Canada face a dilemma. Already in 1965, in his famous book, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism, Canadian traditionalist philosopher George Parkin Grant had pointed to the “impossibility of conservatism” in Canada. His writings have proved increasingly prophetic. Nevertheless, there are some thoughtful conservatives left in Canada, who could be called “George Grant’s [...]
By John Carpay: A friend of mine, a priest I have known for 32 years, recently told me to stop complaining about vaccine passports and various lockdown measures (masks, anti-social distancing, etc.) because they exist for the common good and are intended to save lives. Referencing the encyclical Diuturnum Illud, my priestly friend says that disobeying the law is a sin, unless that [...]
Rick McGinnis The biggest news since the tentative re-opening of movie theatres is the smashing success of the movie Dune – nearly $400 million worldwide for a film that only tells the story of half the novel it’s based on, and which was delayed for release for a year during lockdown. Critics are predicting the movie could create a franchise to overtake [...]
Mark Wegierski Editor’s Note: This article is based on a draft of a presentation read at the Fantastic Literature Conference (The Basic Categories of Fantastic Literature Revisited) at the University of Lodz, in Poland, October 21-23, 2012. It is argued that fantasy and science fiction are genres where traditionalist impulses can persist, in an increasingly desacralized, disenchanted, and “mundane” world. The four [...]
Paul Tuns The Scott Moe government in Saskatchewan introduced and swiftly passed Bill 48, The Public Health (Safe Access to Hospitals) Amendment Act, 2021, that creates a so-called “safe access zone” of 50 metres around hospital property in which any non-union protests will be prohibited. The Bill passed on Nov. 24 and the law has a sunset clause to expire in two [...]
Paul Tuns Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Canada Labour Code, is an omnibus bill that if passed will amend the Criminal Code to make it a crime to impede others from obtaining or providing health services. It will also amend the Canada Labour Code to provide employees with up to 10 days of medical leave of [...]
DSM: A History of Psychiatry’s Bible Allan V. Horwitz (Johns Hopkins University Press, $43, 215 pages) Allan V. Horwitz is a sociology professor emeritus at Rutgers known for his numerous books on psychiatry. His latest is DSM: A History of Psychiatry’s Bible, a slim but thorough look at the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and how this handbook for psychiatrists [...]
In one of Kafka’s haunting parables, “An Imperial Message,” we read of an august Emperor who dispatches a daring, trusted messenger with a communication from his deathbed which is specifically for you, the most humble subject in his realm. But although this emissary is full of dignity, authority, and power his errand is hopeless. Layers upon layers of walls and palaces, and [...]
Michael Taube Commentary “You better watch out, you better not cry / You better not pout, I’m telling you why / Santa Claus is coming to town.” Have you heard the news? Santa Claus is nearly here! Santa’s sleigh is always led by eight tiny reindeer, you know - and guided by Rudolph’s shiny red nose, of course. The elves are making [...]
Paul Tuns Review The Critical Temper: Interventions from The New Criterion at 40 edited by Roger Kimball (Encounter, $39.99, 561 pages) The idea of the culture wars is much derided by pundits, often considered distractions from real issues. I would argue there is nothing more important than to go to (metaphorical) war over than culture. A field general in the war over [...]
Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality Helen Joyce (One World, $34.95, 311 pages) Helen Joyce’s Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality delivers exactly what the subtitle promises, juxtaposing the trans ideology with biological facts. Joyce begins her examination of gender identity in Weimar Germany where the discredited Institute of Sexual Science, founded by the gay Jewish drag queen Magnus Hirschfeld, offered hormones and surgery [...]
John Carpay This past Remembrance Day, I thought of my grandparents and all the others who fought for freedom against foreign dictatorships: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, fascist Italy, and communist forces in Korea and Vietnam. While successfully defending freedom abroad, Canadians have now surrendered to living under a medical dictatorship on our own soil. Starting in March of 2020, we were prohibited [...]