Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Czech President Václav Havel in 1999/Reuters The following is an abridged version of the chapter contributed by former Canadian ambassador to Russia, to the European Union, to Italy and high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Policy Contributing Writer Jeremy Kinsman, to Democracy and Foreign Policy in an Era of Uncertainty, the latest Canada Among Nations international relations anthology, published by Palgrave Macmillan (2023). By Jeremy Kinsman May 29, 2024 At a time of disruptive change and multiple challenges, almost all established democracies remain str ..read more

The author with volunteers, including fellow booksellers, in downtown Jozi/Griffin Shea By Griffin Shea May 29, 2024 It’s impossible not to notice the Rissik Street Post Office. The four-storey Victorian building fills half a block, with a clock tower that looks over Johannesburg’s historic core. Behind it, high school kids play basketball on a court surrounded by brightly coloured murals. Facing it; the Gauteng provincial legislature and — across the expanse of Beyers Naudé Square, named for an Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist — the landmark Johannesburg City Library. I moved to Johannesburg ..read more

The following is an abridged version of the chapter contributed by Sen. Peter M Boehm, Policy contributor and chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, to Democracy and Foreign Policy in an Era of Uncertainty, the latest Canada Among Nations international relations anthology, published by Palgrave Macmillan (2023). By Peter M. Boehm May 28, 2024 There is a narrative on social media, among the far right and the far left, fuelled by various conspiracy theories, that democracy – particularly in those countries rated high on democratic indicators by Freedom House ..read more

Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present Penguin Random House/March 2024 Reviewed by Colin Robertson May 24, 2024 Fareed Zakaria’s Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash From 1600 to the Present argues that the biggest change in the last 400 years is the rise of liberal democracy. But, as his lively account makes clear, it’s been a bumpy road of “ceaseless action and reaction, progress and backlash”. How we manage the latest backlash will determine the continuing success of our liberal experiment. Age of Revolutions is a book of two parts. The first half is a hist ..read more

 Alzheimer’s Society of Canada By Stéfanie Tremblay May 22, 2024 Dementia is a debilitating condition that currently affects more than 750,000 adults from all Canadian provinces, their caregivers, and society as a whole due to its impact on the health care system and the economy. With an aging population, the number of Canadians living with dementia is expected to rise dramatically — more than double, to 1.7 million people by 2050 according to the latest Landmark Study from the Alzheimer Society of Canada. While there is currently no cure for dementia, there are risk reduction strategies ..read more

Justin Trudeau on the Ropes By Paul Wells Sutherland House/May 2024 Reviewed by J.D.M. Stewart May 17, 2024 As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s time in office drifts toward the nine-year mark, the printed word is starting to lay down tracks on what happened between 2015 and 2024 and what some of it means. Instagram and Twitter (or “X”, as nearly no-one now calls it) are ephemeral takes. But books still have a degree of gravitas, even if this latest work from Paul Wells, Justin Trudeau on the Ropes, tallies a svelte 100 pages. This informative and lively text serves as a useful and entertaining ..read more

Shutterstock By John Delacourt May 15, 2024 “There may be,” the writer intoned in a soft Cumbrian accent, “only one or two details of the scene in a paragraph: the clock on the wall, the bowl of freshly cut flowers. But trust me, she has every detail of the scene in her head, like a painting or a still from a film, before she puts a word down. Alice knows.” It was the early aughts, during a summer course at the Humber School for Writers. The instructor was John Metcalf, who had worked closely with, and edited the luminous stories of, Alice Munro over the years, apart from writing some impressi ..read more

By Dan Woynillowicz May 13, 2024 Hardly a week goes by these days without a headline documenting a big new investment in the energy transition. Recently, it was Ontario’s turn, with Honda Motor Co. announcing a historic $15 billion commitment to build a comprehensive electric vehicle supply chain from start to finish. It was another welcome proof point that Canada can compete and win as the global shift to a clean economy continues to ramp up, and evidence that our success doesn’t hinge on government subsidies alone. In fact, our relative predictability and, well, boringness, offer skittish in ..read more

Untitled/Shirley Van Dusen   By Lisa Van Dusen May 12, 2024 This piece was first published as an Ottawa Citizen column on Mother’s Day, 2000. Shirley Van Dusen is now 98, and still painting. NEW YORK CITY – I walked the 45 blocks home from work on Fifth Avenue Thursday afternoon because it was one of those staggeringly glorious New York spring days that film directors either wait weeks to catch, or curse, the way they curse rainbows, because nobody will ever buy that it happened that way. I stopped at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and hung out among the Monets and the van Goghs because ..read more

By Asha Sivarajah May 8, 2024 Data is the new gold; not just for Big Tech, but for law enforcement agencies as well. While it is widely known that Canadian law enforcement agencies have been contracting third party data collection and AI tools to assist in their investigative efforts, little is known about how these tools are vetted. Earlier this year, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner released the results of its investigation into the RCMP’s Project Wide Awake (PWA), with findings focusing closely on the RCMP’s use of Babel X from U.S. ‘threat-intelligence’ company Babel Street. Babel X ..read more