Tag: Featured
The residential schools tragedy
In May, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc leaders announced that the loss of children from B.C.’s Kamloops Indian Residential School had been confirmed by ground-penetrating radar. In the press release, Chief Rosanne Casimir said the presence of the graves was known, but the deaths appear to be undocumented and they “sought out a way to confirm that […]
Wanted: A major reset
Our writer, a former Canadian ambassador to China, says its time to re-examine and restart Canada’s relationship with its second-largest trading partner Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau have alluded to an upcoming revised engagement strategy with China. This is good news as Canada takes stock of the aggressive path […]
Hope and hopelessness in Africa
Hakainde Hichilema’s resounding victory in Zambia’s August presidential poll proves that Africans can abandon identity preferences, resist intimidation by an incumbent regime and oust a sitting autocrat accustomed to rigging elections. Voters in that one southern African country removed president Edgar Lungu, a despot who had increasingly brutalized opponents, curtailed free speech and assembly and […]
Afghanistan’s grim future
“The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgement that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish the kind of war on which they are embarking,” wrote strategist Carl von Clausewitz in his book, On War. For the soldiers and Marines who were assigned to the U.S. security force in Kabul during the […]
When church and state clash
The sword and the word: These terms respectively describe the power of the state to make and enforce laws and the power of religion to shape millions of believers. What separates the West from the rest of the world is the (theoretically) strict separation between state and religion. It’s a spirit that also infuses other […]
10 years on, the Pacific Alliance is still going strong
Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru — sister nations united by history, a common language and the vast Pacific Ocean — signed the “Declaration of Lima” on April 28, 2011, establishing a new integration scheme to achieve the free transit of goods, services, capital and people; promote greater growth, development and competitiveness of their economies; and […]
‘These are always hard times. This is a Churchillian moment we’re looking for here’
Epidemiologist Bruce Aylward is the senior adviser on organizational change to the WHO’s director general. He’s also a Canadian from Newfoundland, and has spent his career in public health, much of it at the WHO, where he’s held various positions, including special representative of the director general for the Ebola response. He also led the […]
Fall summits will shape Canada’s global goals
The fall of the Western-backed Afghan government to the Taliban just as the Canadian election writ was drawn showed, yet again, that the best-laid plans, to riff on Robert Burns, “go oft awry.” The Sept. 20 election was supposed to be a referendum on the Liberal government’s handling of the COVID pandemic and stewardship of […]
A trio of summertime eats
Regardless of all that is happening around us, summer is the time to celebrate the outdoors — barbecuing, al fresco dining and savouring the flavours of the season. If you are in search of some easy inspiration, consider my Extraordinary Roast Beef Bites, where mini popover shells prove to be the perfect base upon which […]
Hope and despair coexist in Niger
Niger is a country of 22 million people in Africa’s Sahel — a region that stretches for thousands of miles south of the Sahara across several countries. One of the poorest countries in the world, it has for decades provided refuge to people forced to flee their homes to escape devastating violence. The Sahel is […]
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