Like “safety” and “racism,” the word “science” has gained a near-magical power providing the right user with nearly unassailable authority. Its invocation often becomes a conversation-ender. Despite infinite repetition and evident failure, “following the science” maintained its awesome psychological power throughout the pandemic. Preston Manning pierces this veil of manufactured conformity by posing some basic questions. If science is to shape public policy, how might society ensure that the full range of relevant science is sincerely considered? And once this occurs, how can decision-makers be given a level of understanding that helps them make responsible decisions? These are questions, Manning reminds us, that our political leaders never bothered to ask.

It required nearly 5,000 years of civilization to reach broad agreement that all human beings are created equal and that each of us is entitled to be treated equally without discrimination. It has taken fewer than 30 years to begin casting this aside once more. It would be bad enough if this retrogressive impulse emanated from society’s margins. In fact, treating people differently based on their race, colour, ethnicity or gender is being propounded at the very top – in our universities. Ted Morton, himself a professor for nearly 40 years, reveals the University of Calgary’s blatantly racist and sexist new hiring policies, recently launched under the guise of “equity” and “inclusion.”

The Freedom Convoy became not just a conveyance to bring protesters to Ottawa but, for whatever reason, a kind of magnet for lies. Falsehoods, misdirection and dissembling proliferated about everything from alleged racism and violence to whether or not downtown Ottawa was actually “occupied” or “blockaded” to the technicalities of who even wanted the Emergencies Act and who actually ordered the freezing of bank accounts. Now, writes Jim Mason, it’s time for the truth – all of it, every material piece. In Mason’s view, the commission of inquiry needs to look back well beyond the Convoy’s arrival and assess decisions and claims by the Trudeau government that, Mason argues, set the conditions for the Convoy itself.

Public suspicion appears to be growing that the Covid-19 vaccines are of dubious effectiveness against the Omicron variant. But what if they were actually worse than useless? That should merit a rethink regarding vaccine mandates and plans for further rounds of booster shots. In fact, many countries are doing just that – dropping pandemic restrictions, cancelling mandates, holding off on vaccinating their children and reconsidering boosters for any but the most highly vulnerable. In this wide-ranging essay, Margret Kopala examines recent international developments, growing scientific concerns over the current vaccines and possible alternative approaches.

Twenty-odd months ago, much of the Canadian public entered a kind of “just make it go away” mindset towards Covid-19, becoming willing to follow just about any rules and restrictions so long as they could glimpse a path back to normality. Today, with even the magic jab having failed to deliver us, the hunt for scapegoats and saboteurs is on. The unvaccinated! Blast their tender sensibilities; we must be stern and uncompromising in our march to universal inoculation. “Covid-Zero” might be chimerical, but “Shot 100” can be achieved – whatever the cost in wrecked lives and stolen liberties. With public support seemingly rising for denying the unvaccinated not only their freedom and their jobs, but their health care and even organ transplants, William McNally coolly assesses the arguments for vaccine mandates and finds them severely wanting.

Its many supporters claim Canada’s vaunted universal healthcare system was simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of Covid-19 patients and the relentlessly recurring waves of the pandemic. But if that is the case, how did the U.S. hospital system (with a few local exceptions) easily accommodate and treat a far higher per capita caseload than Canada? Examining key statistics in each country, Gwyn Morgan concludes that something serious is ailing Canada’s healthcare system that Covid-19 did not cause. It can only be cured, Morgan writes, when those who call the shots on healthcare policy overcome their ideological aversion to innovations and ideas that are already used in every other highly developed country around the world.

Unceasingly masked up, we are now marching through the 16th month of the Covid-19 pandemic. With potential new health crises around the corner, it is time to ask whether the public mask mandate is justified. Although media “fact-checkers” would surely say otherwise, as would most political leaders and public health officials, the effectiveness of masking against Covid-19 is not scientifically proven. In Part I of a special two-part report on the science around population-wide mask use, Masha V. Krylova reminds us how it all began in March 2020 and explains that not all “emerging evidence” is of equal scientific quality – nor uniformly conclusive.

Health care waiting lists are growing, Canada’s population is gradually aging and the public health system routinely proclaims itself stretched beyond capacity and short of funds. Private health care has been declared legal by the nation’s highest court. So why are some provinces going out of their way to impair the few private-sector alternatives that are providing great care at a bearable price and, thereby, also easing pressure on the public system? Joanna Baron chronicles the B.C. NDP government’s strange legal crusade to crush the respected Cambie Surgery Centre – a case just days away from going before what could be its life-or-death appeal hearing.

Whatever we might think of marriage and divorce, few of us would claim they are unimportant. The topic has occupied not only the hearts of billions but the minds of great thinkers through the ages. Why, John Milton wrote a whole book on divorce way back in the 1600s. So why have the great thinkers at Canada’s top statistical agency – who spend their days ferreting out the most trivial of trends – closed their minds to the entire subject? Might the numbers point in some politically incorrect directions? Peter Shawn Taylor dives into the subject with gusto and reports on the modern-day benefits of one of humankind’s oldest institutions.