Tag: Featured
Preventing a slaughter of refugees
Camp Ashraf was created in an Iraqi desert by several thousand Iranians, who in 1980 fled from the terror unleashed on them across Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini. Supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), founded in the 1960s by leftist university students, they had actively opposed the regimes of the shah and the […]
The case for Scottish independence
Scotland will hold a referendum in 2014 on independence as mandated by the Scottish National Party in its 2011 election platform. This is an edited transcript of the arguments for independence as articulated by the SNP. Size matters Some have suggested Scotland’s too small to be independent. Not so. The size or population of a […]
Andrew Scheer: master of the House
Andrew Scheer is Canada’s youngest-ever speaker of the House. For a kid who grew up in Ottawa and skipped classes at Immaculata High School (formerly on Bronson Avenue) to watch Question Period on Parliament Hill, it almost seems like destiny. But for the member for Regina Qu’Appelle (his wife is from Saskatchewan), life is […]
Hitting the slopes for Aboriginal health
The Ottawa Diplomatic Association’s annual ski day is a win-win. Diplomats have a chance to enjoy a pleasant afternoon on the slopes with fellow diplomats and their families, and the event raises funds for a good cause in Ottawa. As it did last year, the ODA will once again donate the proceeds from Ski Day […]
Britain: the Olympics in a time of austerity
On July 6, 2005, at Raffles City in Singapore, the International Olympic Committee announced that London had won the bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The competition had been strong, including bids from Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris. There was jubilation in London and across the United Kingdom. One of the world’s most dynamic, […]
An elegant Egyptian renovation
The Egyptian embassy residence is a treat for the eye. But it’s tucked away up a lane off Acacia Avenue so it’s a treat that casual passers-by might well miss. Attractive wrought-iron gates lead up the long driveway to the front entrance of a house built in 1913 by Allan Keefer, the architect for Stornoway […]
Australian odyssey: reefs and rainforests
Cairns: Days 1-6 As a natural spectacle, North Queensland is comparable to the Rockies in Canada or Death Valley in the U.S. It offers, in other words, a unique experience. On my 14-day tour, I made sure to visit Cairns and Port Douglas before heading south to Sydney. Cairns (pronounced ‘cannes’) has the towel and […]
John Baird: warm manner, blunt talk
The Conservative government champions religious freedom as a “bedrock” freedom: “Societies that protect religious freedom are more likely to protect all other fundamental freedoms,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says. “They are typically more stable and more prosperous societies.” In the small ante-room to John Baird’s parliamentary office, you have to consciously avoid knocking over the official […]
The high price of global retrenchment
Our globalized world is unraveling. This is not the end of globalization, but it is something we have seen before. It is called retrenchment. It is a phenomenon characterized by declining levels of interdependence in global trade and investment, beggar-thy-neighbour policies as states (especially new entrants in the global economy) look out for their own interests and don’t play by […]
My Zulu love letter says: ‘Embrace the exuberance of South Africa’
My South Africa is the white man in his ML500 stopping to tow to a nearby petrol station the broken-down car of a young black mother and child stuck in traffic. It is the successful accountant who works for a global conglomerate and returns to Langa, the township he grew up in, to run Saturday […]
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