Justin Trudeau’s political brand is so tarnished, it’s unlikely anything can bring back the shine. All that stands between Trudeau and a resumption of his previous career as a snowboar...
Western Standard
Western Standard
Quebec’s Bill 21, which proscribes visible religious symbols in many public-sector jobs — popular with Quebec francophones, unpopular with Quebec and Canadian anglophones — was passe...
Commentary
Throughout history, to avoid material harm, or to gain social acceptance from an oppressor group, many people have suppressed a stigmatizing identity and “passed.” Jews have pas...
Oct. 7 brought an end to consultations on Quebec’s Bill 96, which amends the 1977 Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) and — unilaterally, never before attempted by a province — the Consti...
Commentary
Now that the federal election is over, we Montrealers are turning our attention to the city’s mayoralty elections, scheduled for Nov 7. The two viable candidates are incumbent Val...
A keen American observer of the human condition once described his rhetorical vocation as, “Standing off on the sidelines, viewing the various public escapades — political, cultural, socia...
In 1981, Toni Morrison wrote, “If there were better criticism, there would be better books.” Better can mean negative — sometimes even harsh — criticism. There was a time when that was receiv...
Commentary
Last month, Quebec Premier François Legault took to Facebook to criticize “radical activists” who he said are taking political correctness to extremes. He was in part reacting ...
At about this time last year, I was fretting to a friend about the paucity of medical masks available, and the difficulty of getting hold of cloth ones. My friend thought I was over-reacting. The gove...
COVID-19 has changed the habits of those in the work force, but parents of very young children have been especially hard hit. Prior to the pandemic, many parents were using childcare services for reas...
Today’s theme is gratitude, without which equanimity in tough times is impossible. A personal story.In Grade 2, our teacher gave us a simple vision test. We covered our left and right eyes in tu...
If you are an opinion journalist worth readers’ or listeners’ time, whether your views are left, right or centre, you will have lots of people disagreeing with you. Your more uninhibited r...
In Ontario and Quebec, day camps have permission to open, but not sleepaway camps. This will come as a blow to many kids who have for months have had to forgo seeing their friends and participating...
Quebec premier François Legault now “strongly recommends” that Montrealers wear a mask out in public, and he underlined the message by himself wearing a medical mask when he announc...
Omar Barghouti, founder and leading guru of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, whose goal is to weaken Israel economically to the point of collapse, now finds himself in an embarras...
The headline struck me with force: “Another Covid-19 casualty: After 60 years, the Canadian Jewish News will cease operations.” As the article explains, the combined impact of dwindl...
As a grandparent who hasn’t had physical contact with my five granddaughters since mid-March, I’m naturally eager to see the end of the lockdown. But if I can only receive that benefit ...
In last week’s column, I illustrated, via the experiences of two families, the dramatic difference in responses to school closures in Quebec between the public and independent schools. The privat...
A clever tweet: “We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm.” So true. Pandemic privilege comes in many forms. One that preoccupies me is the disparity in parental bu...
MONTREAL — On April 1, Premier François Legault told Quebecers they should avoid all “non-essential” travel around the province. That meant Montrealers should not be going ...