Inequality

  • Humanitarian Crisis Adds to Burdens of Afghan Religious Minorities

    Humanitarian Crisis Adds to Burdens of Afghan Religious Minorities

    Susan Korah

    February 4, 2022

    Media attention may have shifted away from Afghanistan, but suffering families and religious minorities remain in the country. On-the-ground relief efforts are in dire need of support, writes Susan Korah.

    For Fawzia Shah, (not her real name), a middle-aged Hazara (Shia Muslim) woman from Central Afghanistan, the words “democracy”, “freedom,” and “women’s rights” mean nothing. 

    Those were the stirring slogans with which political leaders in Canada, the...

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  • Climate Change Making Eden a Wasteland

    Climate Change Making Eden a Wasteland

    Susan Korah

    November 17, 2021

    Yesterday, Peter Stockland queried the usefulness of the COP26 conference. Today, Susan Korah reports on the urgency of saving the Garden from climate calamity.

    “We have inherited a garden, we must not leave a desert to our children.”

    — Statement signed on October 4, 2021 by Pope Francis and 40 faith leaders

    Two countries that were consistently in th...

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  • Pearls of Wisdom on (Disabled) Daily Life

    Pearls of Wisdom on (Disabled) Daily Life

    Taylor Hyatt

    August 3, 2021

    Reviewer Taylor Hyatt finds Larry McCloskey’s latest book the kind of irritating that opens readers to touchstone stories able to articulate the almost inexpressible.

    The latest work by Ottawa author Larry McCloskey, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, reminds me of a thread with many strands. In roughly 200 pages, the author begins to explore questions of spirituality, the heart, disability, postsecondary educati...

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  • A Rude Awokening for Justin Trudeau?

    A Rude Awokening for Justin Trudeau?

    Peter Stockland

    May 21, 2021

    Peter Stockland reports on the political implications of a speech the former justice minister gave this week castigating the Prime Minister’s “hypocrisy” on Indigenous issues.

    In the year before the pandemic, Jody Wilson-Raybould served as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s worst headache.

    In a speech she gave on Wednesday, the former justice minister and attorney-general showed why she could become the PM’s worst nightmare....

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  • Progress Against MAiD

    Progress Against MAiD

    Peter Stockland

    November 19, 2020

    Catherine Frazee, a long-time disability Rights activist and Ontario’s former Chief Commissioner of Human Rights, talked to MPs about pending MAiD expansion recently. It wasn’t enough to make her give up hope, Peter Stockland reports.

    A powerful impetus behind the Liberal government’s push to jam expanded medical aid in dying through Parliament has been the force of proponents arguing it is progressive legislation.

    Yet Catherine Frazee, who testified last week before the Commons c...

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  • Is Politics Putting POGG on Ice?

    Is Politics Putting POGG on Ice?

    Don Hutchinson

    November 6, 2020

    Canada’s Constitution gives paramountcy to peace, order and good government (POGG), but Don Hutchinson argues bills on conversion therapy and medically assisted death prioritize progressive expediency.

    As the Second Session of the 43rd Parliament started last month, the Trudeau Government promoted two bills as high priority in the legislative queue. Both make use of the Criminal Code to tread the constitutional line between federal and provincial jurisdic...

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  • Justin Trudeau's Words to the Wise

    Justin Trudeau's Words to the Wise

    Peter Stockland

    November 4, 2020

    The Prime Minister got it right the first time on the limits of free speech. His mistake was backing down in the face of vociferous criticism, Peter Stockland writes.

    As a Westerner who’s lived in Quebec for 20 years, one of my great challenges is using the proper noun Trudeau and the adjective “correct” in the same sentence.

    It was so with the father. So it is also with the son. Yet right is right. It must be sai...

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  • Hitting the (Ouch!) Bumpy (Owww!) Post-Pandemic (Ooof!) Road

    Hitting the (Ouch!) Bumpy (Owww!) Post-Pandemic (Ooof!) Road

    Robert Joustra

    October 20, 2020

    CNN celebrity thinker Fareed Zakaria maps 10 potholes from here to post-pandemia. Reviewer Robert Joustra, as if channeling the Tao of Eeyore, isn’t sure the ride’s worth the ruts.

    “There is no new normal,” “these unprecedented times,” “now we all have to work together” – whatever your favorite pandemic BINGO drinking phrase is, you’ve heard it enough since March that you probably had to either give up the game or check into rehab. ...

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  • Debunking the Myth of Meritocracy

    Debunking the Myth of Meritocracy

    Robert Joustra

    September 26, 2020

    Agree or disagree with Michael Sandel’s new book, reviewer Robert Joustra writes, it makes an eloquent case that Western society is in desperate need for grace.

    Among my faults that my wife has brought to my attention over the years are that I really – really – love it when “people get theirs.” What can I say? I have a passion for justice. But truth be told it is a petty justice. And I am hardly alone. Most of our ...

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  • China's Imperial Brutality

    China's Imperial Brutality

    David Kilgour

    January 16, 2019

    The death sentence handed to a Canadian convicted of drug smuggling reminded the world that China is the world’s top state executioner. But as former MP and veteran human rights observer David Kilgour tells Convivium readers, Beijing’s vicious persecution of its own minority populations rivals Maoist-era inhumanity.

    About 20 million Muslim and Turkic-speaking Uyghurs, who make up the largest community in China’s far-west province of Xinjiang, are facing brutal repression by police and others acting on behalf of the Beijing government.

    After Mao Zedong occupied X...

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  • Celebrating Women Together

    Celebrating Women Together

    Peter Stockland

    March 8, 2017

    Cardus Family Program Director Andrea Mrozek shares about the vision for Cardus' Inaugural International Women's Day event. 

    Cardus will welcome International Women’s Day tonight by hosting its inaugural celebration at its Ottawa office three doors down from Parliament Hill.

    Andrea Mrozek, program director for Cardus family, will host a sold out reception and panel discuss...

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  • The Cost of Driving

    The Cost of Driving

    Naomi Biesheuvel

    July 24, 2015

    I’ve been steadfast for nearly 20 years in my views that driving is overrated and overpriced, so those who know me well are pretty surprised that I’m taking steps to get behind the wheel. But those who don’t are mostly astonished when I say that I’ve never driven a car. There is a kind of incredulous judgement sent my way, as if not getting a licence makes me a sorry excuse for an adult human being.

    I did something today that I didn’t think I’d ever do: I got a learner’s permit.

    I’ve been steadfast for nearly 20 years in my views that driving is overrated and overpriced, so those who know me well are pretty surprised that I’m taking steps to get...

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  • Stolen Sisters

    Stolen Sisters

    Naomi Biesheuvel

    June 9, 2015

    I’ve been climbing up 500 stairs that lead from downtown Hamilton to the top of the Niagara escarpment for the last year. This, the longest climb along the mountain brow, has become familiar routine. But one day in May, as I reached the bottom of the stairs...

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