Busted Flush: Why Your Next Mayor Should Be an Engineer

It’s a rare and beautiful thing to see Canada’s courts strike a blow for individual freedom, but that’s what happened in an Ottawa courthouse last month. In a ringing and powerfully-reasoned decision, the Federal Court of Appeal found the Justin Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests violated the law and the Constitution. Civil rights lawyer Christine Van Geyn, who was in the thick of the nearly four years of litigation the event triggered, explains why the court agreed that Trudeau’s actions constituted a draconian abuse of power – and why its ruling could prove a historic victory for Canadian civil liberties.

B.C.’s decision to abandon letter grades in favour of four vague “proficiency” categories is the latest example of the move to do away with objective standards throughout Canada’s public education system. Traditional grading methods are too hard on the tender egos of young students, the logic goes. And the possibility of failure is outdated, if not downright racist. Christina Park reveals how this new system is failing parents, who have a right to know how their child is doing, and harming students, who may be denied the help they need. She also uncovers some “gritty optimism” about the possible return of coherent educational standards.

Germany was postwar Europe’s most successful nation – until it was seized by an arrogant leftist ideology that led it down a ruinous path. Its government abandoned safe, zero-emission nuclear power for inefficient wind and solar plus natural gas from Vladmir Putin. It threw open its borders to millions of asylum-seekers with barely a thought to the enormous costs or the difficulties of social integration. Today, at the 11th hour, Germany is at last struggling to turn around its decade of economic decline and social disintegration. In this cautionary tale, Gwyn Morgan sees a profound warning for Canada.

“The whole meaning of life,” famed comedian George Carlin once observed, “is trying to find a place for all your stuff. That’s what your house is, it’s a place for your stuff with a cover on it.” If so, then Canadians should be very concerned about their stuff. Unlike nearly every other modern nation, Canada lacks constitutional affirmation of the right to own property and as protection against its unjust seizure. With a recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling putting the very notion of home ownership at risk, Peter Shawn Taylor seeks out legal opinions on Canada’s surprisingly lax attitude towards property rights, how it differs from other countries and what that means for everyone’s possessions. If Canadians really want to protect their homes, belongings and personal finances, Taylor concludes, now’s the time to get loud.

Canadians frequently criticize U.S. President Donald Trump’s projection of American power. But in the fight against anti-Semitism, Canada could learn a thing or two from our neighbour to the south. In Part One of this series, Lynne Cohen revealed how Canada’s political and civic leaders have chosen to ignore or even abet the hate crimes and abuse Jews have suffered since October 7, 2023. In this second installment, she shows how the U.S. – from the President on down to local officials and law enforcement – has fought back. Where Canada has been cowering and cowardly, the U.S. has resolved to fight anti-Semitism, protect its Jewish citizens and defend Israel’s right to live freely as a Jewish state.

A new year has dawned and, as the light strengthens across the Northern Hemisphere, David Solway reminds us that how we choose to experience our world is at least as important as understanding how it came to be. In the first instalment of this two-part series, the writer illuminated the irreducible paradox at the heart of all theories concerning the universe’s creation, then scrutinized the seemingly unbridgeable gap between quantum physics and the physical world we live in. In Part II he considers an even tougher and, so far, unsolved scientific challenge: gravity. Some of the finest minds in science think it actually is insoluble without some kind of creative intelligence to oversee it. In other words, a miracle. To Solway, the true miracle is the fact of a marvellous world and our freedom to experience and wonder at it.

We’ve long been told that science and religion occupy two incompatible poles – one of reason and fact, the other of faith, superstition and even irrationality. But what if it isn’t so? In this two-part series, David Solway proposes a new Grand Unified Theory of cosmology aimed at bringing science and religion back together. In the opening instalment, Solway illuminates the irreducible paradoxes at the heart of all theories concerning the universe’s creation, then scrutinizes the seemingly unbridgeable gap between quantum physics and the physical world we live in – a gap that nevertheless is bridged into an integrated and orderly reality. What, then, might this say about the apparently irreconcilable differences between 21st century science and theology? Perhaps, Solway ventures, they’re more like two peas in a pod – and should consider forging a new entente to support humanity’s eternal search for Truth.

Canada has seen a troubling rise in anti-Semitism in the last two years. Hatred of Jews is now expressed openly, shamelessly, without restraint – and without consequence for those engaged in it. In part one of a two-part series, Lynne Cohen explains why Canada’s political and civic leaders seem unwilling to call out anti-Semitism or take any meaningful action to stop it. Whether driven by bias, cowardice or cold political calculation, the country’s political class is not just failing Canada’s Jewish population. It is choosing to do so. If the brutal massacre of innocent Jews by Muslim terrorists at Bondi Beach in Australia teaches anything, it’s that allowing anti-Semitism to spread has murderous consequences. Canada should take heed.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy may be chaotic and punitive, but he’s right about one thing: Canada’s agricultural supply management system has to go. Not because it’s unfair to America, though it is, but because it punishes Canadians. The price-fixing scheme limits consumer choice, requires a huge bureaucracy and prevents farmers from producing more in the face of shortages, forcing them instead to dump excess production. Worst of all, writes Gwyn Morgan, it drives up prices for milk, cheese, chicken, eggs and other essential foods — all for the benefit of a few thousand farmers, largely in Quebec. For Canada’s trade negotiators, argues Morgan, ending this mad racket should be job one.

What do children owe their parents? Love, honour and respect seem like a good start. But what of parents who were once political figures? Does the younger generation owe a duty of care to the beliefs of their forebears? In a fascinating study on the nexus of familial responsibility and present-day policy choices, Peter Best examines two recent cases of inter-generational conflict over Indigenous relations in Canada. One concerns Prime Minister Mark Carney and his father Robert. The other is a recent book on the work of noted aboriginal thinker William Wuttunee edited by his academic daughter. In each case, Best finds, the current generation has let down its ancestors – and left all of Canada worse off.

In her autobiography, famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie wrote that, “The saddest thing in life and the hardest to live through, is the knowledge that there is someone you love very much whom you cannot save from suffering.” Christie was speaking as a parent watching her daughter learn that her husband had been killed at Normandy. Even sadder may be the plight of a parent with a severely ill or disabled child for whom there is no cure. But is it so sad as to warrant euthanasia? Anna Farrow takes an unflinching look at efforts to expand Canada’s MAID program to include babies. If Canada eventually legalizes the “compassionate” killing of infants, Farrow points out, it will be following in the heartless footsteps of the country that pioneered the concept – Nazi Germany.

Unfounded claims about buried bodies. Lies about missing children. Attacks on those who challenge the dominant narrative on Canada’s former Indian Residential Schools. This is just some of the ground Dead Wrong: How Canada Got the Residential School Story so Wrong covers in its look into the latest falsehoods and distortions spinning around the controversial issue. Dead Wrong – which officially launches today – is a follow-up to the best-seller Grave Error. In this exclusive preview, co-editor and noted historian Tom Flanagan recounts the many ways politicians, activists, the media and some Indigenous leaders have tried to suppress the truth, and warns of the latest and most dangerous tactic: the attempt to criminalize “Residential School Denialism” and use the power of the state to silence those who try to set the record straight.

Artificial intelligence is the most hyped, most feared and most misunderstood technology of our times. But just how worried should we be? Technology analyst Gleb Lisikh demonstrated in Part One of this series why large language models can’t be trusted to provide answers that are factual and true. In this instalment he shows why AI will have huge impacts all the same on how society functions. The technology can, in fact, make everything from finance to education and health care more efficient. And even though it merely mimics human thought and interaction, people will still rush to use it. Because, as even Lisikh admits, it’s so dang useful. Thankfully, a few simple rules can help you get the most out of it – and avoid being tricked.

In its earlier days, artificial intelligence was often mocked for giving users false or even absurd answers. But AI was feared as well, not least for its potential to do more harm than good. As it has advanced, AI has become seemingly more reliable. But can it ever produce unbiased truth? Technology analyst Gleb Lisikh opens up the black box of the large language models underlying today’s proliferating AI apps to reveal the misunderstanding – or hoax – at the core of that question. LLMs cannot think, Lisikh explains in Part I of this two-part series – nor can they seek the truth – because they just aren’t designed to.

Climate-obsessed politicians – Justin Trudeau in the vanguard – nearly destroyed the Canadian economy chasing emissions targets that are both unrealistic and pointless. Ottawa and the four biggest provinces have squandered $158 billion to create just 68,000 “clean” jobs. Meanwhile, fossil fuels are supplying a bigger share of Canada’s energy needs than ever. And now, leading U.S. officials and even eco-zealots like Bill Gates are re-evaluating their net-zero ideology. But that hasn’t gotten through to Prime Minister Mark Carney who, warns Gwyn Morgan, intends to inflict further punishment on an ailing country in pursuit of a delusional cause.