The agony of an attack without explanation, and the pain of chaosTuesday April 24th, 2018
The method is only too familiar. The motive of the man who rammed a van into dozens of pedestrians in Toronto on Monday is so far unclear, although it is for the moment tentatively linked to sexual grievances.In 1993, when North Americans were still cocooned in their bubble of geopolitical security, a 1,200-pound bomb in a Ryder van parked underground at New York’s World Trade Center e...
Liba Augenfeld – the survivor who brought her love of Yiddish with herWednesday April 18th, 2018
In the upwardly mobile Jewish enclave of Toronto where I was raised, Yiddish was the language of my parents’ generation. It was reserved for Borscht-belt humour and hiding certain subjects from children. It was both prosaic and nostalgic: Hebrew was the future; nobody I knew mourned the passing of Yiddish.
But it hadn’t passed everywhere. At Montreal’s Jewish Public Library (JPL), where I was d...
A gift for Israel’s birthday: a legal summary of its clear legitimacyTuesday April 17th, 2018
Israel’s 70th birthday will be celebrated Thursday. Note the passive voice. I would have preferred “the world will join in celebration of Israel’s 70th birthday,” but immediately saw its impossibility.The reality is more people will be cursing than congratulating Israel on this occasion. Cursing, rhetorically speaking, comes easy. Israel haters rely on emotive, trigge...
Only a Country like Canada Could Produce a Guy (so filled with Envy) like Jesse BrownMonday April 9th, 2018
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The trope “Tall Poppy Syndrome” refers to the impulse in some countries, Canada amongst them, to cut down to size any cultural peer who achieves uncommonly high status and international success. It is a particularly pronounced phenomenon amongst left-leaning tribes in academia and the punditocracy.
Canadian psychologist and academic Jordan B. Peterson presently reigns as t...
This spring, the fight to protect free speech in Canada continuesTuesday April 3rd, 2018
Never has freedom of speech been so vulnerable in Canada, but I will be privileged to take personal inspiration and hope for change on this front at three events on my spring calendar.On April 26 in Montreal, as chair of the committee that is mounting the event, I will be introducing Jordan Peterson, keynote speaker for the Montreal Press Club’s inaugural freedom award ceremony, honour...
When a Man Saves a Woman: Manliness asserts itself in a French SupermarketMonday April 2nd, 2018
In a video conversation with Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, Harvard academic Harvey Mansfield recounts the story of a media appeal for comment regarding a deceased colleague.
The female reporter asked Mansfield to sum up his colleague in a single word that best described him. Mansfield replied, “Manliness.” There was a pause. Then she asked, “Can you think of another wo...
Euthanasia’s Slippery Slope Goes to CourtMonday March 19th, 2018
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Canada, a natural home for French JewsFriday March 16th, 2018
In January, an incident took place – or, rather, didn’t take place – in Toronto, which came to be known as #hijabhoax on social media: a young Muslim girl had alleged that an Asian man attacked her hijab with scissors, while she was en route to school. Within a day, the allegation was exposed as a fabrication.
In fact, apart from the Quebec City mosque massacre that was carried out by one deran...
Getting to the heart of what M-103 was always all aboutWednesday March 14th, 2018
On Feb. 1, the National Heritage Committee submitted the report called for by the passage of M-103 last winter.M-103 surprised its backers when it turned out not to be the slam dunk they thought it would be, given that its founding predecessor document, Petition e-411, which called for a “whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religion, including Is...
P is for Progressivism: also for Posters, Privilege, Parents and PushbackMonday March 12th, 2018
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There’s no safe space on campus to debate bathroom politicsTuesday March 6th, 2018
Heather Brown, a third year Business student at Trent University, is no transphobe. She takes a live-and-let-live approach in gender matters.But Trent has instituted a policy of gender-neutral washrooms, and Brown balks at sharing intimate space with members of the biologically opposite sex. She discovered that expression of her discomfort is more than unwelcome on her campus; it has literal...
What Elephants Can teach us About Gun Violence and “Toxic Masculinity”Monday March 5th, 2018
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Collapse of basic fact-checking helps feed the fake-news narrativeWednesday February 21st, 2018
Fake news is a big problem. Increasingly, serious citizens look to mainstream media for responsible reportage. When media betrays the public’s trust, it’s scary. And the media does fall short, sadly, both in matters large, which arouse public ire, and in matters that are only apparently small, and don’t. Not by publishing purposefully fake news, but by publishing “new...
Delaware students can now choose their own race. This should end wellTuesday February 13th, 2018
The state of Delaware is poised to adopt what is known as “Regulation 225.” Approved both by the Delaware State Education Association and Gov. John Carney, Regulation 225 would safeguard children’s “protected characteristics,” such as gender, age, race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Section 7.4(1) of 225’s Prohibition of Discrimination Code state...
Progressive Jews should respect the opinions of othersTuesday February 13th, 2018
The Feb. 8 issue of The CJN featured an irate letter to the editor signed by 26 readers, including several rabbis (including my own), who were incensed by my last column, which argued that basic Torah principles on hot-button gender issues – unfettered abortion, gay marriage and gender fluidity – have been sacrificed by progressive Jews on the altar of political correctness. By “principle...
Don’t Call Toronto’s Van Massacre “Misogynistic” and Here’s Why
Wednesday April 25th, 2018
The agony of an attack without explanation, and the pain of chaos
Tuesday April 24th, 2018
Liba Augenfeld – the survivor who brought her love of Yiddish with her
Wednesday April 18th, 2018
