Refugees

Anti-war inscription ("No War") in the center of Moscow, February 2022. (Photo by Dolche far niente, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Resisting Militarism: Mission Impossible?

March 30, 2022 at 12:46 pm

I want to escape from my own threshold. Where to? The street is dark And conscience shows up ahead of me, white, Like salt scattered for pavements. Osip Mandelshtam (1891-1938)   On 23 January 2015, 49-year-old Ruslan Kotsaba – journalist and blogger, president of the Ukrainian Pacifist Society and anRead More

Akre Camp for Syrian refugees from Rojava in Akre (Aqre) town, Dohuk Governorate, Kurdistan Region of Iraq Levi Clancy, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Helping Refugees

March 16, 2022 at 11:51 am

On March 3, Canada announced new emergency measures to support Ukrainian refugees. We have opened a special pathway for Ukrainians which waives all fees and normal visa requirements, we have established a special family reunification and sponsorship pathway for extended family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents, we areRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

May 29, 2020 at 10:41 am

The Thick of It [I must begin with a warning to the Spectator’s War and Peace columnist Sean Howard: do not read the following story while drinking a beverage of any description or there will be a spit-take in your future.] Earlier this week, I received an invitation from theRead...

Seashore refugee camp, Chios, Greece, 2016. (Photo by Mstyslav Chernov / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Canada’s COVID-19 Experience in Perspective

May 20, 2020 at 12:02 pm

The lady was not happy. There was no mistaking that as she angrily asked the policeman why he was blocking the road she wanted to enter. Cars were lined up wanting to do the same but the policeman was adamant even as she told him in no uncertain terms howRead More

Sculptor Timothy Schmalz with his work 'Angels Unawares' Photo: Facebook

Angels Unawares

October 2, 2019 at 1:06 pm

Timothy Schmalz, a renowned Canadian sculptor, has a reputation for producing pieces of art that are influenced by the Bible, including “Homeless Jesus,” a sculpture of a man sleeping on a park bench, wrapped in a blanket and identifiable as Jesus by the wounds on his bare feet. The workRead More

Old News is Still News in 2019

Old News is Still News in 2019

January 23, 2019 at 1:04 pm

Welcome to 2019! As I write, I’ve already used up 19 days of a brand new year, and by the time anyone reads this, there will be 342 days left in which to accomplish anything, whether of real value or not. Glancing back at the topics that grabbed my interestRead More

Ben-Gurion in an undated photo. (Source: Handout from Windsor, NS commemorative ceremony)

Garry Leech: Nova Scotia Honors Architect of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

October 3, 2018 at 12:19 pm

On September 23, the town of Windsor in Nova Scotia commemorated the 100th anniversary of the training of the Jewish Legion, a battalion of the British army that fought to liberate Palestine from the Ottoman Empire during World War I. In 1918, a young Jewish man named David Ben-Gurion wasRead More

Syria: War, Law and Empire

Syria: War, Law and Empire

May 9, 2018 at 11:34 am

Part I: Sham Success and Ersatz Humanitarianism   On April 14 the US, UK and France launched missile and air strikes on three suspected chemical weapons (CW) facilities in Syria. The action was taken in response to an alleged chlorine and sarin nerve gas attack by government forces on AprilRead More

Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh. (Photo by John Owens, VOA, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Rohingya Horror

March 21, 2018 at 11:21 am

The Rohingya, whom most of us had probably never heard of before their plight began to be shared via TV and newspapers around the world, are “the world’s most persecuted minority,” according to  Al Jazeera. They are an ethnic group, largely Muslim, that has lived for centuries in the majorityRead More