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Weinstein worst example of common problem in film industry Wednesday September 5th, 2018
I lunched last weekend with friends, both in the film business, one a successful documentarian, the other a producer. Naturally, the tsunami of sexual assault charges unleashed by the Harvey Weinstein affair came up for review. I asked if they had ever experienced Weinsteinian moments. Indeed they had. Coincidentally, both involved bathrobes that “slid open” to reveal erect penises... -
Pit bull lobby put on its heels by Quebec’s dangerous dog bill, CBC documentary Wednesday September 5th, 2018
In April, the Quebec government introduced Bill 128, which will authorize the province to prohibit any person from owning, breeding or acquiring “potentially dangerous” dogs, which includes pit bulls and Rottweilers, the two highest-risk dogs. Impetus for the bill — and a similar one passed in Montreal — arose largely from distress over the June 2016 fatal mau... -
We are ignoring a key part of ‘dying with dignity’ Wednesday September 5th, 2018
Ing Wong-Ward is disabled, dependent on a wheelchair and afflicted with colon cancer, accompanied, for the past year, by a stubbornly persistent abdominal abscess. This seems a depressing scenario, but Wong-Ward presents as anything but depressed in her promotional article for palliative care in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, “Living — and dying — with dignity.”Wong... -
Canada’s own little Stalins are making politically incorrect authors disappear Wednesday September 5th, 2018
Stalin and his monstrous inner circle aren’t obvious fodder for humour, but the film The Death of Stalin is indeed hilarious, without sidestepping the horrors of that regime.Playing the role of Stalin’s vain and irresolute deputy Malenkov is actor Jeffrey Tambor, best known for his role as transwoman Maura in Amazon’s popular series, Transparent.Tambor was Hollywood’s... -
The Yazidis are in danger of extinction and Ottawa’s stopped helping Wednesday September 5th, 2018
I’ll call her “Nada,” not her real name.Nada is a Yazidi woman from Sinjar, Iraq, now age 31. On Aug. 3, 2014, ISIL came for her people. The Kurdish Peshmerga, tasked with protecting them, fled, leaving them helpless. Nada and her two children — a boy, eight months and a girl, two — were separated from her husband and father-in-law, whom she never saw again.The ... -
Gender studies don’t help us understand how dogs behave Wednesday September 5th, 2018
For the “dog days” of summer, a column about dogs and their social life.Last year, a certain Helen Wilson, claiming to hold a “doctorate in feminist studies” submitted a paper titled “Human reactions to rape culture and queer performativity at urban dog parks in Portland, Oregon” to the Journal of Feminist Geography.Turned out there was no evidence fo... -
If ideologues are teaching our judges, the public has a need to know Wednesday September 5th, 2018
Legal academics are openly reinterpreting their mission. Historically teachers of legal principles and law codes, they now see themselves as social-justice warriors called upon to right historical wrongs for members of designated victim groups. In 2013, Ottawa professor Elizabeth Sheehy published Defending Battered Women on Trial, a book in which Sheehy promotes women’s right to kill ext... -
Exploding the myth of cure-all female corporate boards Wednesday September 5th, 2018
The Liberals are looking at an amendment to diversity-themed Bill C-25 that would force businesses to open their diversity policies to shareholders or explain why they don’t (“comply or explain”). At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “Companies should have a formal policy on gender diversity and make the recruitment of women candidate... -
Trump, Trudeau and the front lines of the fight against bull Wednesday September 5th, 2018
American commentator Joseph Epstein once described himself, vocationally speaking, as “standing off on the sidelines, viewing the various public escapades — political, cultural, social — and calling out with some regularity, “Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!” Epstein had his work cut out for him in 2017. Didn’t all opinion journalists? Donald Trump alone provid... -
WLU’s contemptible conduct proof of intellectual assault underway on campuses Wednesday September 5th, 2018
The story of Wilfrid Laurier University grad student and teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd — who was recently subjected to a creepy, but instructive, grilling by campus superiors over material she’d used for her entry-level Communication tutorials — went viral on social media last week. A somewhat naive lament was posted by the host of TVO’s The Agenda, Steve Pai... -
If writing off 2019 gets us a real conservative party, so be it Tuesday August 28th, 2018
Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub: Trudeau and Scheer fight for the oars, while a smiling Bernier rocks the boat.Did Bernier walk away from the CPC or was he pushed? Whatever, a poll immediately following Maxime Bernier’s exit showed striking positive reaction to his declaration of a projected new party, with 13 per cent support nation-wide (15 per cent in Quebec, second to Libs).Seeing... -
A new report sounds the alarm on Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria Wednesday August 22nd, 2018
Imagine yourself the parent of an adolescent boy or (more likely) girl without a single previous sign of body dysphoria, who “out of the blue” decides she is transgender. She demands a name change, breast binders and cross-sex hormones.You’re shocked and skeptical, as your child has struggled with one or more problems — autism, depression, social isolation or unproces... -
It’s time to bring some order, and safety, back to our classrooms Tuesday July 24th, 2018
The term “tough love” was not yet in usage when I was in high school, but it was the prevailing attitude in terms of discipline. Chronic disruptors were expelled. Teachers had real authority — and admittedly at times too much. “Getting the strap” is long gone in Ontario schools, as it should be. But so, for students it would have constrained in my day, is fear o... -
For the first time, Israel is the world’s most Jewish country — this is a game-changer Tuesday July 17th, 2018
The announcement was not unexpected. On the contrary, for those who follow the subject, it was long anticipated. But the words themselves, spoken by Israel’s Immigration Minister, Sofa Landver, still carried emotional force: “Israeli Jews now constitute the largest Jewish community in the world.”Until now, the U.S., with its many millions of Jews, has been the most Jewish c... -
One woman’s journey from social-justice warrior to free-speech champion Tuesday July 10th, 2018
When my son’s family took up residency in Toronto’s Riverdale neighbourhood, previously unknown to me, I discovered a continually gentrifying urban paradise, rich in cultural diversity. In particular, families with homes bordering beautiful Withrow Park seemed to me to have hit the real estate jackpot.But in 1972, when my new friend Sarina Singh’s father bought a house on W... -
Suggestions for the new Ontario sex-ed curriculum Tuesday July 3rd, 2018
Doug Ford’s victory was in some measure due to his promise — I believe a heartfelt one — to repeal the sex ed curriculum in Ontario schools. I assume there’s a replacement program in the works. A sex-ed vacuum is not politically tenable, or even what most conservative parents want. What principles will undergird a Doug Ford inspired curriculum? I’d suggest four gu... -
UBC had a #MeToo bloodletting. It was a disaster for everyone Tuesday June 26th, 2018
The Lottery, Shirley Jackson’s macabre 1948 tale illuminating the human tendency to conform with evil, ranks high amongst American short stories. The ending is unforgettably shocking: as the ritual climax to a harvest festival, a lottery “winner” is stoned to death by the victim’s fellow townspeople.Jackson’s cautionary tale sprang to mind with the cultural ston... -
The male crisis that’s ruining our boys and no one cares about Wednesday June 13th, 2018
Father’s Day approaches and with it the opportunity to consider the importance of fathers to their children.It is difficult to overstate both the positive effects of growing up with a father and the negative effects of father absence, especially for boys. These myriad benefits and perils are on record, undisputed and easily accessible. But in this gynocentric era, what is good or bad fo... -
A celebrated figure today could well be the condemned sinner of tomorrow Tuesday June 5th, 2018
It was a happy day for the Winnipeg Pakistani community at the recent official opening of a park named for Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan in 1948. The ceremonies were presided over by Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Canada, Tariq Azim Khan, in company with MPs Terry Duguid and Iqra Khalid, who congratulated everyone present on this milestone.Thirty years ago, such an even... -
A new documentary gives ammunition to the sugar-is-deadly warriors Wednesday May 30th, 2018
For decades, the low-fat diet has been to health and weight as Marxism to political governance: a catastrophic failure. People are fatter and sicker than ever. Why? Because lowering fat intake results in compensatory carb intake. Especially sugar. And sugar makes you fat and unhealthy. But, like Marxists, lipophobes will never admit their first premises are wrong, even when confronted by inc...