‘Genocide’ appropriation makes reconciliation harderTuesday June 11th, 2019
I won’t pretend to professional detachment in my reaction to the MMIWG report’s deployment of “genocide” to characterize disproportionate violent crimes suffered by Indigenous women. The word cut to the quick, and Justin Trudeau’s endorsement of its use — slightly delayed while he calculated the political cost of refusing — added salt to the wound.Ye...
Abortion should be about medical ethics, not Liberal politicsTuesday June 4th, 2019
U.S. vice-president Mike Pence made a trade-mission call on Canada in late May, fully inclined to emphasize the ties binding our countries. Justin Trudeau repaid his courtesy with criticism of new, restrictive state abortion laws, which are irrelevant both to U.S.-Canada trade and Pence’s federal status. Trudeau had much to lose if President Trump took this insult personally. Why did h...
In a world of sex dolls and robots, ethics are hard to pin downTuesday May 28th, 2019
The older I get—and I am already pretty old—the more I struggle to find the bright line that existed in my youth between written words that meant what they said and words that were meant to be read as parody or satire.
For example, I just read a tweet by a transwoman who asserted that women can have penises, and anyone who disagreed with that statement “can just suck my dick....
I read The Siege of Tel Aviv, the novel they don’t want you to readTuesday May 28th, 2019
Pretty soon you’ll need some good summer reads. Do you like techno/action thrillers? I recommend The Siege of Tel Aviv (hereafter Siege), by former journalist Hesh Kestin, a darkly humorous and reality-inspired “what-if” Middle East scenario.Plot teaser: Under cover of a bogus pan-Islamic peace initiative, Iran leads five Arab armies in a surprise attack on Israel. The enti...
Kay: The unmentioned hotbeds of anti-SemitismThursday May 23rd, 2019
One of my niche subjects is the epidemiology of dog bite-related injuries and deaths according to canine breed.
Epidemiology, which Wikipedia defines as “the study and analysis of the distribution and determinants of health and disease conditions in defined populations,” is a beautifully incorruptible science because it is entirely data-driven. I have learned from my sojourn down the rabbit hol...
Herman Wouk’s work didn’t just speak to me, it sangTuesday May 21st, 2019
Mathematicians’ creativity, I often hear, peaks before age 30, and that of historians before 40. Artists are luckier, some remaining creative into old age. Even so, American writer Herman Wouk, who died last week at 103, was uniquely blessed, having written his first book in 1947, and his last in 2015.
Paradoxically, his name will likely produce instant recognition only amongst my own ge...
Twitter bans prominent doctor for stating factsSunday May 19th, 2019
Twitter has been in our lives for 13 years. But its practice of suspending and banning upright citizens for no other reason than holding incorrect views only got underway about four years ago. Today, the practice is so frequent and widespread that I daresay anyone reading this can point to someone they know, or follow on Twitter, who has suffered punishment by Jack Dorsey in this way.
Most of ...
Germany takes a startling new pro-Israel lineTuesday May 14th, 2019
On May 11, 1949, the United Nations adopted the motion that admitted Israel as a member state. To mark its anniversary, Germany’s Foreign Office issued a startling statement: “The Federal Government would like to take this 70th anniversary as an opportunity to reiterate the fact that Germany stands at Israel’s side in the UN.”Berlin, the Foreign Office continued, was ...
Germany takes a new pro-Israel lineTuesday May 14th, 2019
On May 11, 1949, the United Nations adopted the motion that admitted Israel as a member state. To mark its anniversary, Germany’s Foreign Office issued a startling statement: “The Federal Government would like to take this 70th anniversary as an opportunity to reiterate the fact that Germany stands at Israel’s side in the UN.”Berlin, the Foreign Office continued, was ...
A new German commercial takes man hating to the next levelWednesday May 8th, 2019
As Mother’s Day approaches, I am reminded yet again of my wisdom, when my children were quite young, in banning its celebration from my personal calendar. I was never comfortable being honoured by generic rituals for a generic role in which my children were harnessed, via cards and gifts, into the equivalent of “compelled speech.” It was always my opinion that if my children l...
Our politicians may not care, but Christians are under siege across the worldTuesday May 7th, 2019
It is estimated that about one third of the globe’s population suffers from religious persecution. By the numbers, Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world.An Italian study calculates that in 2016, a Christian was killed for his or her faith every six minutes. The trend is accelerating. A 2016 Pew Research report found that Christians were targeted in 144 countri...
Universities shine a light on Ontario’s failing schoolsTuesday April 30th, 2019
A new study, ”Academic Skill Deficiencies in four Ontario universities,” offers solid, but troubling evidence that the secondary schools feeding universities are falling well short of expectations on the skills-building front. In fact, this study, conducted at four Ontario universities — York, Western, Waterloo and Toronto, which together enroll 41 per cent of Ontario under...
Kay: Why Jews should support Bill 21Thursday April 25th, 2019
Like it or not, Quebec is a “distinct society.”
Anglophones and immigrants didn’t like it much in 1977 when Bill 101 came into effect (necessitating the use of the notwithstanding clause, since it abrogated English-Canadians’ language rights). Robert Libman, then a leading anglophone-rights advocate, said that Bill 101 “clearly established the fact that we were now second-class citizens.”
Legal...
Kay: How Fauda might help to bring peace to the Middle EastWednesday April 24th, 2019
For riveting entertainment, Israeli dramas rule. Several of them deal with the paradoxical realities of life in a flourishing, prosperous society where Jews, both secular and ultra-Orthodox, co-exist in (occasionally uneasy) peace with Israeli Arabs, but one that is shadowed by a siege mentality, with eyes and ears constantly alert to threats — or reports — of terrorism.
Most Israelis sublimate...
How a television show might help to bring peace to the Middle EastTuesday April 23rd, 2019
For riveting entertainment, Israeli dramas rule. Several of them deal with the paradoxical realities of life in a flourishing, prosperous society where Jews, both secular and ultra-Orthodox, co-exist in (occasionally uneasy) peace with Israeli Arabs, but one that is shadowed by a siege mentality, with eyes and ears constantly alert to threats — or reports — of terrorism.Most Isra...
We need shelters for male survivors of abuseTuesday April 23rd, 2019
Ask any feminist—no, wait, ask any woman—no, wait, ask just about anyone you know, male or female, young or old, dumb as a brick or a Brainiac—whether men or women are the victims of intimate partner violence (IPV: what used to be called “domestic violence”), and I promise you, almost everyone you ask will respond without pause, “women.” It’s just...
Anti-Semitic ‘blood libels’ get poster treatment at Toronto-area schoolTuesday April 16th, 2019
As part of a recent week-long “social justice” program, pro-Palestinian students at Stephen Lewis Secondary School in the Toronto area’s Peel District mounted a banner in a school hallway, reading, “If animal testing is NOT OKAY … Then why is human testing OKAY?” The banner was also displayed on social media.The cryptic message refers to two widely circul...
J.K. Rowling has lost her magic touch by pandering to progressivesFriday April 12th, 2019
In 2007, Harry Potter series creator J. K. Rowling made waves when she revealed that Albus Dumbledore, the much-beloved headmaster of Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and mentor to Harry Potter, was gay. Normally an author builds his or her characters on the page, leaving out nothing of special importance the reader must know to appreciate that character’s worth and motivations. So...
Bill 21 is not the problem critics think it isSaturday April 6th, 2019
Bill 21, “An act respecting the laicity of the
state,” is ramping up
for passage in Quebec. It will impose complete neutrality with regard to
religion-signalling on the province’s public servants in areas such as
elementary and high school education, the courts and law enforcement. Anyone
presently wearing a visible symbol of their faith – notably the (visible)
cross, the kippa and the hijab – ...
‘Genocide’ appropriation makes reconciliation harder
Tuesday June 11th, 2019
The many faces of modern anti-Semitism
Tuesday June 4th, 2019
Kay: The unmentioned hotbeds of anti-Semitism
Thursday May 23rd, 2019
