Controversial views at a university? Heaven forfend! I know it’s repetitive to level criticism at universities for deviating from the traditional role in which controversy, debate and challenging discussion were the norm and not the exception they are today requiring “formal investigations”. But, if the mortar board fits, wear it. Acadia University is launching an investigation into the classroom conduct of professor Rick Mehta because of complaints about his controversial views on decolonization, gender identity and other mind benders such as “truth and reconciliation”. From the notice to professor Mehta about the impending investigation comes this statement: “The university has … Continue reading Acadia University’s Faculty of “Support”

A Postmedia News editorial opinion in the Toronto Sun is more than a little ironic, if not hypocritical. The editorial urges Canada’s Liberal government not to overstep on its threats to increase regulation of social media over the undefined concept of “fake news”. Rightly, it argues that the government should not be the arbiter of truth. However Postmedia News is one of the Canadian media organizations currently lobbying for additional financial and other regulatory privileges of benefit to it and other established media. What government subsidizes and/or regulates it must control. The special treatment of print media in Canada is … Continue reading Be Careful What You Wish For

Republican John Kasich is suggesting that the United States may be witnessing the end of the two-party system. I hope not but he may be right. The key issue in politics is the relationship between the individual and the state. Fundamentally the individual is primary. The state or government is an institution created by man. Some disagree, at least by inference. Their mistaken ideas and actions suggest so. Examples include the great tyrants of the twentieth century: Hitler, Lenin, Mao, Mussolini, Pol Pot and Stalin. The marvel of the US two-party system is that it allows the contrasting views to … Continue reading Promoting Statism

Not all lawyers are clueless. Charles Lugosi of Victoria, B.C. has an opinion published in The Globe and Mail which invests a calming breath of reason in the ongoing emotional outrage that has characterized the response to the verdict in the trial of Gerald Stanley. Mr. Lugosi relates a case in which he defended an “Indigenous” man who was tried for second-degree murder involving the death of a white man. The jury was apparently white. The accused was acquitted. There were no protests or riots nor charges of racism. Rightly, Mr. Lugosi condemns the special interest and political interference that … Continue reading A Rare Voice of Reason

The National Post has rendered a service to Canadians by publishing the full instructions to the jury in the trial of Gerald Stanley for the murder of Colten Boushie. Although lengthy it is well worth your reading to gain an appreciation of what the jury members spent some fifteen hours deliberating over before finding Mr. Stanley not guilty. What a refreshing alternative to the emotionally charged rhetoric from myriad sources over the past few days. Continue reading Judge and Jury

An opinion by a Toronto-based criminal attorney may reveal much of what is wrong with Canada’s criminal justice system. Guess what? It’s not the article’s brilliance but the revelation that it displays a lack of understanding or even ignorance of the virtue of justice and principles of logic. David Butt, a contributor to The Globe and Mail is probably as typical a practitioner of logic as one may find in Canada through its establishment media and politics. Mr. Butt’s reportage of the verdict in the Colten Boushie case begins with: (Gerald Stanley) testified that his gun went off accidentally, and the jury … Continue reading Justice “Denied?”

In a lengthy opinion piece for The Globe and Mail, Garfield Emerson, a lawyer, informs us that corporations are merely artificial legal creations designed to limit liability and facilitate the conduct of business. That is rubbish. Corporations are innovative business organizations that facilitate the amalgamation of capital for investment purposes. They are thus an essential component of an advanced capitalist society. They make savings and capital more efficient by pooling resources for the benefit of participants. But that’s not enough for the likes of Emerson. The “likes” by the way, include such modern proponents of socialism as Thomas Piketty and … Continue reading Lawyers Without A Clue

Sometimes having an intellectual defending the right of individuals to exercise freedom of choice is a “mixed bag”. For the second time Canadians will be able to watch Super Bowl advertisements in real time as they watch today’s game. As reported there has been controversy in political and corporate circles over the decision of the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) to allow the airings. Individuals must choose in every action they take or choose not to. It is a part of their nature. What a man is as a rational being determines what he ought to do. This is … Continue reading Super Choice

The subjugation of women and killing of homosexuals in theocratic dictatorships may not be worthy of rational treatment by the foreign policy of Canada’s government, but neutering the national anthem gets high priority. As tempests in teapots go this is surely a stormy one indeed. I suppose one must pick his battles carefully in the “social metaphysics” of politics but what about the virtue of rationality? How pressing can the need be to change “in all our sons command” to “in all of us command”? And, have our political leaders opened themselves to further challenges by the preference shown to … Continue reading Storming Teapots