What’s the worst possible thing that can happen to a homeowner? It’s probably not a flooded basement, an infestation of rodents or things falling apart due to shoddy workmanship. It’s that the very concept of their ownership rights could be pulled out from under them. Such was the shocking outcome of a B.C. Supreme Court ruling over the summer which handed aboriginal title to a swath of B.C.’s Lower Mainland that has been privately owned and occupied by others in good faith for more than 150 years. On Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Peter Best takes a close look at the judge’s actions in the case of Cowichan Tribes v. Canada and reveals the many ways in which the court abandoned the precepts of impartiality and fact-based legal reasoning in order to come to the aid of the native claimants.

Time was a former political leader’s expected role was to enjoy retirement in obscurity, reappearing at the occasional state funeral or apolitical charity event smiling inscrutably and saying nothing. While former U.S. President Bill Clinton broke this mould and fellow Democrat Barack Obama won’t stop delivering lectures, conservatives generally stick to tradition. Former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, however, just can’t help himself – literally. Collin May probes the curious, maddening and somewhat sad case of a once-respected leader who, having dug his own political grave, now seems to think the way out is to keep shovelling.

The brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk was shocking not only for its violence but for the chilling aftermath – the celebrations on the left, the gloating and the calls for more political violence. In searching for an explanation, Patrick Keeney argues that our culture has lost what Western thinkers long recognized as the “tragic vision” of human life – the idea that suffering is inevitable and even central to the human condition. Without that understanding of innate limits, politics no longer is about compromise or making the best of things but becomes pursuit of a utopia where the righteous are justified in demonizing and destroying their opponents. What is now desperately needed, Keeney argues, is a cultural renewal that accepts the tragedy of life and cultivates courage, charity and, above all, humility.

Lawyers are supposed to defend their clients, the Constitution and the rule of law. But they’re increasingly under pressure from their own regulators to make a political ideology paramount: wokism. It’s a problem across the country, and it’s not limited to the legal profession: teachers, psychologists, nurses and more must now submit to political re-education and push woke principles in their work, while their political speech as private citizens is increasingly policed. This phenomenon is most dangerous in the law: if lawyers change Canada’s “legal culture” to centre woke victimology, they will effectively undermine the law and the Constitution. In this powerful essay, Glenn Blackett uncovers the woke takeover of the Law Society of Alberta and tells the story of the heroic lawyer fighting back: a “recovered Communist” horrified to see the ideological tyranny he experienced as a young man now being applied in Canada.

Alberta separatism is often dismissed – even within the province itself – as the domain of a few deluded rural hardliners. But the sentiment and the movement have only grown since the federal election brought another Liberal government to power. And Bruce Pardy, one of the country’s senior legal scholars (and not even an Albertan), thinks it is time for Alberta to prepare – seriously, definitively, foundationally – for independence. Here Pardy presents 13 provisions that create an elegantly simple architecture for the constitution of an independent – and radically free – Alberta.

When a student protest against rising tuition fees disrupted his classes at the University of Calgary, Jonathan Barazzutti had questions. He didn’t have to look far for the answer. While it has become popular to blame government for the financial crisis on Canadian campuses, Barazzutti uncovered that the real reason lies much closer to home. Metastasizing school bureaucracies are not only pushing tuition fees higher but also shifting the focus of universities away from the pursuit of academic excellence towards woke-minded empire-building. If students want to see their school costs come down, Barazzutti concludes, they ought to be targeting the administrative Leviathan on campus.

Canada spends more on health care than just about any other country in the world, and with abysmal results. Yet when it comes to fixing the problem, most politicians and policy-makers are immune to common sense. As business leader Gwyn Morgan writes, allowing private options alongside government-funded health care has been proven to help patients in both systems – around the world and here in Canada, too. Yet the courts continued to uphold restrictions on private care while the Mark Carney government simply promises to throw still more money at the problem – showing itself to be as deluded and dogmatic as those who went before.

Most Canadians would likely never have heard of conservative American Christian singer Sean Feucht had city councils and government officials not spent their summers shutting him down. But this latest exercise in censorship would hardly be possible, explains constitutional lawyer Josh Dehaas, had Canada’s courts not spent the last few decades arbitrarily expanding the definition of harmful expression. In this perceptive and accessible essay, Dehaas walks through the legal decisions that have eroded the simple, clear conception of free speech that once guided the English-speaking democracies and exposes the flawed thinking that has made Canada what it is today: a country where a performer can be banned before he has said – or sung – a word.

The criminal charges arising from the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa in February 2022 were by and large for the relatively innocuous infraction of mischief and, as the last of these cases finally conclude, most eyes are on the impending sentencing of protest leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich. But the sheer intensity of the prosecution of Convoy members whose activities were not as well-reported looks less like the fair administration of justice than revenge upon people who dared protest the arbitrary and oppressive measures of the Covid years. In her recently published book, Thank You, Truckers! Canada’s Heroes & Those Who Helped Them, Donna Laframboise tells their story. In the combined essay and book excerpt below, Laframboise counts the severe costs of challenging an overreaching government – while reminding us that millions of ordinary Canadians supported the Freedom Convoy and all it represented.

Although the slide of Canada’s universities into wokism is well-known, few who don’t spend their days on-campus probably grasp just how far it has gone. Administrators chase academic respectability through “performative inclusivity” – at the expense of educational standards and even students’ health. One Toronto resident watched her beloved institution devolve deep into ideological rebranding with an expensive “campus greening”, a contrived “Indigenous landscape” and donor-bait memorials that cheaply evoke a Holocaust memorial while eerily conflating living adults with dead grandchildren. In this intense first-person telling, P.M. Szpunar recounts her horrifying discovery of the U of T’s strange new proclivities and seeks to unravel how they came about.

Sweden may have inflicted Greta Thunberg and her environmental hectoring on the world, but Canada is now making its own contribution to children’s activism. Ontario climate zealots have launched a court battle – with seven children and youth named as applicants – alleging the province’s modest rollback of its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets violates their Charter rights. Exploiting children is bad enough, but in this devastating critique, retired litigation lawyer Andrew Roman explains how the activists use legal and logical fallacies to make their case. And he exposes the fundamental flaw in the entire matter – that Courts should not even be ruling on the inherently political matter of climate policy.

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.

To so many central Canadians, Alberta’s sense of alienation is inexplicable, even contemptible. But for John Weissenberger, a transplant from Montreal who built his career, family and life in Alberta, what’s truly confounding is the West’s enduring faith in Canada. In this sweeping essay – by turns passionate, lyrical and coolly analytical – Weissenberger explains the roots and reasons for Alberta’s frustration, charts the many ways central Canada has plundered and sneered at this most productive province, and makes the case that its grievances be treated seriously. Not just out of fairness, but because Alberta’s spirit and dynamism embody the best of Canada.

“La révolution est dans la rue,” as the excitable French like to say. The same holds true in placid Canada. After receiving four photo radar tickets for going just slightly over the speed limit in Ottawa, John Robson declares the current proliferation of automated speed cameras to be a revolution in how Canada’s streets are policed, and an outrageous violation of the principles of fundamental justice. Robson is not alone in his outrage. While Ontario cities eagerly embrace these cash-hungry Robocops – one municipality expects to issue at least one ticket per year to every local driver – the masses are pushing back. In Alberta, for example, the “photo radar cash cow” is already on its way to the slaughterhouse. Robson’s denunciation of speed camera tyranny offers a manifesto for drivers everywhere.

When it comes to Indigenous Reconciliation, Canada’s path seems like a one-way street. Years of apologies and billions in spending have not created a spirit of co-operation and partnership but have instead led to more grievance and more obstruction of efforts to build a more prosperous Canada. There could be a better way forward. Combining his five decades of experience on Indigenous affairs with his conviction that decisions made 200-300 years ago are still alive today, lifelong academic and author Tom Flanagan suggests ditching grand visions and constitutional amendments in favour of incremental – and achievable – gains. In particular, giving more Indigenous communities an ownership stake in major resource development projects to bring both sides together, build wealth and raise living standards in a process of grassroots reconciliation.

Prime Minister Mark Carney recently declared that, “Canada is the most European of non-European countries.” With Chile, Argentina and Australia (among many others) likely to object to such a characterization, Peter Shawn Taylor’s counterclaim that Canada is the “most U.S. of all non-U.S. countries” seems a much safer bet, given the centuries of shared history, geography, culture and trade. In this latest installment of C2C Journal’s Restoring Canada Special Series, Taylor examines the deep economic relationship between the two countries and argues that nothing can ever destroy its significance. Further, any attempt at such a thing – as currently seems popular with the “Elbows Up!” crowd – will ultimately prove disastrous. Canada’s economic future depends on trading with the Americans. Full stop.

It won’t come as news to say that Canada’s federal institutions aren’t working very well. But what to do about it? Jim Mason steps outside the box and thinks big to propose a federal government that works for Canadians once again. In this sweeping contribution to C2C’s Restoring Canada series, Mason goes back to the source – the British North America Act of 1867 – for a rock-bottom analysis of how it all began and what worked at the time. He then examines today’s situation in Ottawa and applies a systems analyst’s rigour to restore the things that originally worked while discarding 158 years of accumulated dysfunction to fashion a redesign focused on the key objectives for a modern-day constitutional state. Mason’s result is a refurbished Confederation with clearly demarcated legislative, executive and judicial branches offset by effective checks and balances, a strengthened Parliament, a new way of electing MPs, term limits for key officials, a Supreme Court justice from every province, and a notably constrained Prime Minister and Prime Minister’s Office.

For anyone who still bought into Mark Carney’s self-declared image as the great global banker who would responsibly manage Canada’s finances, his recent promise to juice defence spending to 5 percent of GDP – $155 billion per year in today’s dollars – must surely be the final straw. The Liberal Prime Minister had already announced massive spending hikes and a huge deficit, with interest on the federal debt to hit $70 billion by 2029. All this will spell doom for a country already struggling with declining productivity, zero growth and a falling standard of living, concludes Gwyn Morgan. The veteran business leader charts Canada’s path to budgetary disaster and places the blame squarely where it belongs – on Canada’s profligate Prime Minister.

The global decline in fertility rates has grown so severe that some demographers now talk about “peak humanity” – a looming maximum from which the world’s population will begin to rapidly decline. And though the doomsayers who preach about the dangers of overpopulation may think that’s a good thing, it is in fact an existential threat. Canada has not escaped the decline: birth rates have fallen steadily since 1959, during which time we built a massive welfare state without the manpower to sustain it – and immigration has proved no solution to either problem. In this deeply-researched analysis, Michael Bonner looks at the root causes of our looming demographic disaster and explains the first steps that are essential to fixing it.

Prime Minster Mark Carney came into office promising to move fast to rebuild a Canadian economy suffering from 10-years of mismanagement. He vowed a more clear-eyed, businesslike approach. But since his election victory, his public statements have often been hedged and shrouded in ambiguity. In this incisive analysis, economist and veteran policy advisor Robert Lyman and C2C Editor-in-Chief George Koch look at the choices Carney faces on the big economic issues of the day and lay out the sensible decision in each case. Carney says he has the determination to turn the ship of state around. But does he have the courage to soften and even ditch the ideology that increasingly gripped the Liberal Party during the Justin Trudeau era?

Busy as a bee. Sting like a bee. Queen Bee. Honey bees have long held an unparalleled reputation for industriousness, dedication and hierarchical efficiency. More recently, however, the insects have become better known as an environmental calamity-in-the-making. Over the past two decades, dire warnings have repeatedly declared Canada’s honey bees to be on the verge of extinction – with grave implications for the world’s food supply, given their key role in pollinating crops. In this deeply-researched article, Peter Shawn Taylor looks beyond the headlines and finds that while honey bees face many challenges every year, their population is in fact soaring. As Taylor reports, this happy news is a testament to Canada’s large-scale commercial beekeepers, who have plenty of motivation to ensure their hives are always buzzing with activity.

The sight of King Charles III receiving salutes and inspecting troops in Ottawa before delivering last month’s Speech from the Throne was more than just a bit of nostalgia. It was a potent reminder of Canada’s history and distinct political culture. In this provocative essay, Jamie Weir argues that Canada, facing a frostier neighbour to the south, should lead a revitalization of links among Commonwealth nations. Canada alongside Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom could form a major economic, diplomatic and military bloc: the “CANZUK” nations. United by a long, shared history of freedom and the rule of law under constitutional monarchy, CANZUK could become a beacon of liberty and prosperity in a darkening multipolar world.

A Prairie lawyer standing up for the common man. A stubborn loner undone by battles with his own party. Progressive Conservative John Diefenbaker was both – and one of the most consequential prime ministers in Canadian history. A new biography of “The Chief” examines Diefenbaker’s many accomplishments – his Canadian Bill of Rights, his fair treatment of Indigenous people, his defence of Canadian sovereignty, his wide-ranging national economic development – and corrects the record on this frequently-misunderstood political giant. While it is best to avoid judging history’s great figures by contemporary standards, writes John Weissenberger in this incisive review of Freedom Fighter, Diefenbaker is one whose record stands up by any standard – and whose determination and ability to get things done would be welcome today.

For decades, Canada’s elites saw immigration as a kind of secular virtue, and any criticism of it as racist or xenophobic. But as Patrick Keeney writes in this provocative essay, that belief misunderstands what a nation truly is. The liberal globalist vision that drives blind faith in immigration sees people as bearers of rights and consumers of things, detached from place, history or culture. The conservative-communitarian tradition, Keeney explains, counters that love and obligation flow outward, and that a nation is a moral community bound by shared history, culture and mutual obligations. To love one’s own is not a moral failing, Keeney argues, but a legitimate reflection of human affairs, one that Canada must rediscover if it is to regain its cohesion and build a future.

The famous gender-neutral washroom in the 1990s TV show Ally McBeal was a plot device meant for comedic purpose. These days it’s no laughing matter. Across Canada, separate men’s and women’s rooms are being replaced with unisex facilities in the name of “inclusivity”. And that leaves no place for the wall-mounted urinal. With this unloved male-only waste management device facing possible extinction, Peter Shawn Taylor takes a closer look. His wide-ranging research lifts the lid on the urinal’s remarkable efficiency and many other advantages. Whether they can use it or not, everybody should be standing up for the urinal.

“Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss,” The Who’s Pete Townshend wrote back in 1971. Words that today might well apply to Mark Carney. Canada’s new Liberal Prime Minister says he wants to make Canada a “conventional and clean energy superpower”, and suddenly seems to support new oil and natural gas pipelines. But Gwyn Morgan, who devoted years as a CEO to defending Canada’s oil and natural gas industry, doesn’t buy it. Carney, he notes, spent years abroad on an ever-more-strident net-zero quest, and recently said he’s keeping his predecessor’s oil and gas emissions cap in place. In this incisive critique, Morgan takes the measure of the new PM and finds that the prospects of restoring the Canadian economy have dimmed further.

Segregation is a dirty word these days. But not every effort at separating individuals is a bad thing. And some attempts at enforced inclusion can yield provably disastrous results. A case in point is the treatment of gifted students in Canada’s rigid, DEI-focused public school system. Combining personal experience with rigorous academic research and recent education policy changes, Jonathan Barazzutti charts the damage being done to exceptional students – and to their average-ability classmates – by keeping them in classrooms where they clearly don’t belong. Barazzutti argues it is time for schools to let gifted students soar.

Canada’s recent federal election did not deliver what conservatives wanted. But after the obligatory post-mortems and doomsaying, what is most needed now is a look to the future. Conservatives can still work for a better Canada, one stronger and more prosperous, and over the next few weeks C2C Journal will present clear-eyed assessments by top authors of the issues that will drive Canada in the years ahead – the economy, citizenship, the federal structure, Alberta’s place within North America, and other important areas. In our series opener, Brock Eldon provides a young expatriate’s perspective on how Canada has changed, the opportunities Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives missed in speaking to our discontents, and what sort of leadership the country needs to move ahead.

Solving Canada’s continuing housing crisis requires an “all of the above” approach. And one item on the list that can no longer be ignored is what’s known as the New Town. With other countries eagerly embracing the idea of building brand new cities set apart from existing urban centres, John Roe argues it’s time for Canada to get on board as well; we’ve certainly got the room. While the track record for creating cities out of nothing includes its share of failures, Roe’s detailed research and reporting highlights important lessons that offer the chance to get it right this time. Properly executed, New Towns could help the legions of frustrated young Canadian families find a little bit of housing heaven they can afford to call their own.

Great Britain, once the cradle of free expression, now has the Western world’s most draconian anti-free-speech laws. Any British citizen can be investigated for a “Non-crime Hate Incident” instigated by any aggrieved “victim” who objects to anything they say or post on social media. Complainants needn’t provide evidence of harm or intent, and even if an accused person is not convicted, the incident remains on their record. John Weissenberger explains the rise of the UK’s dangerous legal regime and lays bare its troubling consequences. Massive resources are dedicated to policing speech and even thoughts – while real crime throughout the British Isles spirals out of control. Worse, those who protest the state’s indifference to increasing lawlessness find themselves in the justice system’s crosshairs. And Canada, Weissenberger warns, could soon travel down this same road.