That free speech has been fundamental to Judaism for over 3,000 years is especially admirable considering the innumerable anti-Semitic attacks that uncontrolled public discourse has emboldened over the centuries. The courage it takes to defend that principle in present-day Canada is beginning to fray, however, as prominent Jewish organizations like B’nai Brith Canada are backing Ottawa’s recurring expansion of “anti-hate” laws – most recently with the Combatting Hate Act and Online Harms Act. But such legislative cudgels never work, writes Lynne Cohen in this originally reported essay – and often end up being used to batter their original proponents. Seeking safety behind the power of the state, Cohen argues, is exactly the wrong approach. Free speech can be messy, unpleasant – and very hard to extend to one’s enemies – but the alternative is far worse.

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.

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.

Originally meant – and heavily marketed – as a low-cost, accessible means to protect the fundamental rights of individuals, Canada’s human rights commissions and tribunals have become a dangerous farce. Ruling on everything from workplace disputes to getting bumped from an airport lineup, they’ve degenerated into a means for the easily-offended to seek vengeance. That is when they’re not undermining the essential Charter-protected rights of all Canadians at the behest of aggrieved members of designated identity groups. Surveying recent decisions from across the country and interviewing experts on the front lines, Lynne Cohen considers what has gone wrong with Canada’s human rights industry, and how to fix it.

That everyone accused of violating the law deserves a strong defence is a truism of Canada’s legal system. But putting that ideal into practice requires lawyers not merely of competence but of courage and dedication. Lawrence Greenspon has spent 45 years protecting the rights of those at risk of being crushed by the state’s legal machinery. That includes his current client Tamara Lich, whom the Crown just days ago demanded be sentenced to two years in jail for her promotion of peaceful protest and free expression during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest on Parliament Hill. Greenspon recently sat down with Lynne Cohen to share his thoughts on the verdict in Lich’s trial, his lengthy career inside and out of the courtroom, and navigating the complicated morality of criminal defence law.

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.)