Cruelty has become a headline issue. Seizing and sending a migrant worker to a squalid prison where they are removed from any legal or personal support is cruel. Forcibly moving residents in Gaza again and again is cruel. Is cruelty ever acceptable? Is it tolerable if it serves an end goal? Is cruelty a sin…
Back in April, Christian Courier gave three university students a two-part assignment. First, to write an opinion piece sharing their view on the election (published online before we voted). Second, a letter to the new PM, whoever he might be, written after April 28. We hope you’ll appreciate hearing the hopes and fears of these…
Back in April, Christian Courier gave three university students a two-part assignment. First, to write an opinion piece sharing their view on the election (published online before we voted). Second, a letter to the new PM, whoever he might be, written after April 28. We hope you’ll appreciate hearing the hopes and fears of these…
Back in April, Christian Courier gave three university students a two-part assignment. First, to write an opinion piece sharing their view on the election (published online before we voted). Second, a letter to the new PM, whoever he might be, written after April 28. We hope you’ll appreciate hearing the hopes and fears of these…
Sixty years ago, philosopher George Parkin Grant (1918-1988) published his classic Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism. At the time Grant was teaching in the religion department at McMaster University. A convert to Christianity in his youth, Grant would eventually become our country’s best-known public intellectual. Although he came from a prominent…
David Cameron wanted to be Prime Minister of the UK. He ran for the position in two general elections and won both times. He was leader of the Conservative party for over 10 years. But he didn’t really like leading. His party was deeply divided over the question of whether the UK should stay in…
In February, when freelance journalist Sarah Lawrynuik approached a Ukrainian man in army fatigues outside the Odessa Opera House, he was understandably defensive. “You from United States?” he demanded. “I’m from Canada!” she replied, with haste. “Ah, from Canada. Good. Friend! Canada.” Both laughed nervously as he agreed to the interview. The interaction was broadcast…
Writing about threats to democracy is no longer prophetic. The future of democracy is now a topic for coffee conversation and social media warfare. Words that are central to good governance are being hijacked to dismantle the very principles they represent. “Will of the people,” for example, is used to claim legitimacy for whatever a…
Concluding a course on seventeenth-century poetry last semester, my professor said that besides the sheer appreciation of the art, there is another reason to study poetry. “If you don’t know how to read poetry, poetry will read you.” I immediately thought of the Conservative Party’s campaign promises. Without bringing forward a proper policy platform, the…
I’m a bit of a newshound at the best of times (and by “best” I mean “most politically boring”), but now – largely thanks to the black hole of political chaos down south – I’ve been struggling to think about anything else for the past month and a half. I suspect a lot of you…
Donald Trump (oh, I’m already so tired of writing about him) appointed Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense of the United States (a post for which he is dangerously unqualified, I should say). An unintended side-effect of this is that it has brought into the wider public gaze a concept from my own intellectual…
“You are too woke.” That comment, after church, prompted me to probe deeper into the use of “woke” and the way that certain words are being redefined and weaponized in current wars of communication. It takes an unusual kind of translation skill to discern a wise response. Dictionaries define “woke” as being aware and alert…
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