Loneliness is a human catastrophe – and it’s getting worseTuesday August 6th, 2019
Heat waves kill. But selectively. If you’re relatively young, healthy and have access to a lake or air conditioning, heat is at worst an irritant. Immobile urban seniors living alone without air conditioning are at risk.In August of 2003, a dreadful heat wave washed across Europe. Some 35,000 people died; most of them fit the above profile. A disproportion of the deaths — 14,000 ...
Kay: Are Arabs worse off in Israel? The numbers say noThursday July 25th, 2019
In 2008, a delegation from the Mossawa Center, an NGO that promotes equality for Arab-Israelis, came to Brussels to raise EU awareness about the socioeconomic gaps between Israel’s Muslim and Jewish citizens. Their evidence was meant to serve as proof of Israel’s discriminatory treatment of Arabs.
The delegates rather awkwardly discovered, however, that Belgium’s Muslims were in worse shape th...
Pot’s legal. But we may come to regret thatTuesday July 23rd, 2019
Some years ago, in conversation with his wife, a forensic psychiatrist specializing in mentally ill criminals, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson observed that the perpetrator of a recent violent crime had been high at the time, and had smoked pot regularly all his life. Her response — “Yeah, they all do” — jolted him. The result was his book, Tell Your Childre...
My brother-in-law made people feel safe. What greater gift?Tuesday July 16th, 2019
A curiosity of our culture is that the word “in-law” tends to trigger associations with people you’d rather not have in your life. Mothers-in-law come in for particular abuse, but the word “brother-in-law” also features in innumerable cartoons and jokes, with the common theme of brothers-in-law as the epitome of bumbling incompetence.
This always seemed a bit odd to me. My cherished brother-...
Let’s have some truth about the situation in GazaTuesday July 9th, 2019
In late June, the Globe and Mail published a front-page feature article by former Mideast bureau chief Mark MacKinnon concerning the depressed situation of Palestinians and Gazans under Israeli rule. It was extremely one-sided. Israel was portrayed as the source of all woes. The article was accompanied by seven photos illuminating Palestinians’ poor health conditions, lack of city infr...
Antifa needs to be called out for what it is — a movement of violent totalitarian thugsTuesday July 2nd, 2019
The “entartistes” of the 1990s were a group of Quebec-based mischief-makers who threw cream pies in the faces of political and corporate elites. Amongst their victims: Jacques Parizeau, Stéphane Dion, Jean Chrétien, and BMO head Matthew Barrett. Their motto was “You work for us. You can’t be too big for your britches or you’ll get a pie in the face...
When gender identity education and theory goes wrongTuesday June 25th, 2019
In his recent commentary in these pages on the risks associated with the teaching of gender theories to elementary schoolchildren, Jordan Peterson referenced a column I wrote in another publication. The column concerned a human rights complaint, filed by Pamela and Jason Buffone on behalf of their daughter, “N,” against the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board for discrimination...
How a television show might help to bring peace to the Middle EastThursday June 20th, 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 Israe...
Kay: Transparently exploiting Jewish history and ritualsThursday June 20th, 2019
A recent CJN cover story mourned the passing of Jewish TV’s “Golden Age” (“The end of the Golden Age of Jewish TV,” May 30). I’ve watched three of the series singled out for special praise: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Girls and Transparent.
Mrs. Maisel’s tone is Jewishly sunny. It’s faithful to the buoyantly optimistic worldview of 1950s Jews who were in the process of “making it” in America, wh...
Why Quebec’s immigration and secularism bills get it rightTuesday June 18th, 2019
Quebec’s Bill 21 is finally law. Premier François Legault’s government invoked premature closure to end fierce debate over the weekend, and it passed 73-35, the Parti Québécois in support, the Liberals and Québec Solidaire opposed. The law enjoys overwhelming support amongst ethnic québécois, but almost none amongst minority groups, who read...
Ontario family files human rights complaint after six-year-old girl upset by gender theory in schoolMonday June 17th, 2019
The following story has its source in an application filed before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario by Jason and Pamela Buffone, on behalf of their daughter “N,” against the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board for discrimination on the basis of gender and gender identity in contravention of the Human Rights Code.
In January of 2018, in a Grade One class at Devonshire Community...
‘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...
After going woke and losing $8 billion, Gillette embraces masculinity again
Thursday August 22nd, 2019
Loneliness is a human catastrophe – and it’s getting worse
Tuesday August 6th, 2019
Kay: Are Arabs worse off in Israel? The numbers say no
Thursday July 25th, 2019
