Rather than breaking barriers to knowledge, these days universities seem more adept at breaking the norms of academic conduct. An apparently endless stream of cases involving data manipulation, plagiarism, retractions and other errors and deceptions by researchers ranging from obscure graduate students to world-famous scientific names is plaguing academia in Canada and around the world. But is this avalanche of academic malpractice – what one scientist bemoaned as “corrupt, incompetent, or scientifically meaningless research” – a sign of weakening standards? Or are we now just paying more attention? Examining several troubling examples and interviewing experts from the frontlines, Lynne Cohen probes the dark underbelly of academic fraud.

More people are becoming painfully familiar with the expression “the process is the punishment” – a legal or regulatory matter of such cost, complexity, length and personal stress that, regardless of its formal outcome, the targeted person emerges damaged, sometimes irreparably. It is all-but impossible not to attach this label to the nearly three-year-long prosecution of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, which has included a marathon 13-month-long trial, now awaiting its verdict. In Part II of this series, Lynne Cohen takes readers inside the Ottawa Courthouse – talking to the defendants, their lawyers and other experts – illuminating the Crown’s relentless pursuit of the Freedom Convoy organizers. (Part I can be read here. )

In his judicial review of the Liberals’ response to the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that “there was no national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable.” With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s draconian actions thus exposed as unnecessary and excessive – in other words, illegal and unconstitutional – what now awaits Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, who each face up to 10 years in jail for playing key roles in the protest? In the first of a two-part series, Lynne Cohen charts the lengthy and vindictive prosecution of the pair, from their first appearance in downtown Ottawa to their initial arrest and pre-trial treatment.

What good is a man? Not much these days. With traditional male traits such as strength, competitiveness, independence and stoicism widely condemned as evidence of “toxic masculinity”, no one seems willing to celebrate manliness these days. Lynne Cohen is an exception to the rule. In Part II of a special series on the essential aspects of masculinity, Cohen offers a sensitive female perspective on what makes men timelessly irresistible. From gruff leather-clad bikers to balding, tie-wearing office workers and from university frat bros to selfless Ukrainian miners, Cohen finds something to adore about them all. Gather round, fellas, this love letter is to you. (Part I can be read here.)

In 2019 the American Psychological Association declared traditional masculinity – defined as “anti-femininity, achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk, and violence…[and] self-reliance” – to be a “harmful” malady in need of diagnosis and correction. Since then, so-called toxic masculinity has cast a pall over all men by redefining male virtues as a danger to themselves and society. Lynne Cohen pushes back against this perspective, revealing the many ways in which acting like a man is not only normal but essential to societal success. In search of a way for men to be men again, Cohen promotes “tonic” masculinity as the necessary corrective to our era of anti-male hysteria. (Part II can be read here, and Part III, by Peter Shawn Taylor, can be read here.)

It took almost no time after the Hamas attacks of October 7 for the world’s compassion towards the Jewish victims to dissipate. First came the sniping at Israel’s government, then “pro-Palestinian” rallies protesting the Gaza offensive and soon an unmasked anti-Semitism that included praise of the Hamas atrocities. Some of the worst hostility took place during the recent Jewish holy period of Passover, with the eruption of illegal encampments at university campuses across North America. Many Jews are experiencing the shock, pain and fear brought by naked anti-Semitism for the first time in their lives. Lynne Cohen explores the history of this appalling mindset and seeks to explain how, in a modern, pluralistic world with the Holocaust just slipping out of living memory, we are seeing a return of the world’s oldest hatred.

With America in decline at home and its influence waning abroad, the question of which nation might be the next global superpower has gained urgency. While the world arguably needs a dominant power to protect global order and prevent regional conflicts from spiralling, this can’t just be any country with sufficient arms and ambition. America’s replacement should be a moral superpower, one that safeguards freedom and enables prosperity for every nation, as the U.S. has done for the last 80 years. In the first installment of this two-part series, Lynne Cohen proposed that India could fulfill that role. She put forth 10 characteristics that together make a moral superpower, and dug into the first five, examining India’s economic and demographic strengths. In this second part, Cohen focusses on politics and power, assessing India’s performance on the final five criteria, starting with perhaps the most important – military might.

It’s more than just dispiriting to behold the Canadian military’s disintegration and the current government’s deliberate neglect of our national defence. It raises the question of who might protect Canada in the future, given we can’t protect ourselves. For decades, the answer was simple: the United States. But with America in turmoil and decline, we can’t take that for granted anymore. Who could step up to become the next global hegemon? Lynne Cohen puts forth a provocative and bold answer: it might just be India. Cohen offers 10 criteria by which to measure the potential for a rising power to be not just expansionist, acquisitive or exploitative, but to become a moral superpower, one dedicated to safeguarding freedom and building prosperity for all. In Part One of this special two-part series, Cohen examines and rates how India has progressed in the first five criteria.

The Hamas attack on Israel was horrific and depraved, but at the same time foreseeable and explicable. The goal of Hamas and its allies in terror is not an independent state for Palestinians but the eradication of Israel and of Jews themselves. While many are now demanding that Israel hold back and negotiate for peace, some argue it is the “peace process” itself that facilitated the conflict. Lynne Cohen charts what she considers the only road to a durable peace – one that begins with uncompromising action by Israel and ends with an international effort borrowed from the post-Second World War era.

They have inspired artists and poets since the invention of paints and writing. They’ve adorned funerals, graveyards and other mourning sites for millennia – since the literal dawn of humanity. They say “I love you” like few other things. Why, then, have so many funerals and other rituals for the deceased become flower-free zones, with mourners instead pressured to send money to specified charities? Lynne Cohen explores the vexing “In Lieu of Flowers” phenomenon, provides her unique take on what makes it pernicious, and offers a ringing paean to the appropriateness, usefulness and morality of always sending flowers.