Helmut Oberlander died at home in Waterloo, Ontario, on September 23 “surrounded by loved ones,” according to his lawyer, Ronald Poulton. “A loving family man, he will be dearly missed.” As far as I’m concerned, he will not be missed. Not today. Not tomorrow. Or ever. Oberlander, an ethnic German from Ukraine, died peacefully at […]
In the lead up to the Canadian election on September 20, a friend of mine voted at an advance poll for Sidney Coles, the New Democratic Party candidate running in the heavily Jewish riding of Toronto-St Paul’s, which is held by Carolyn Bennett of the ruling Liberal Party. Several days on, he regrets his choice, […]
It was a defining and surreal moment in global affairs. On September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four American commercial airliners and ruthlessly crashed them into the 110-storey World Trade Center in the heart of Manhattan, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The sight of the iconic twin […]
Lamentably enough, hate crimes in the United States have climbed to new heights, propelled by verbal abuse and physical attacks against African and Asian Americans. According to a report released by the FBI a few days ago, they have risen to the highest level in 12 years. The federal agency reported 7,759 such crimes in 2020, […]
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has finally seen the light and come to his senses. A little more than a month ago, Ford categorically opposed an Israeli-style, province-wide vaccine passport plan. “No, we aren’t doing it, simple as that,” he said. “We aren’t going to have a split society,” he added, refusing to differentiate vaccinated from unvaccinated […]
Iran’s newly elected president, Ebrahim Raisi, has shamelessly filled two senior positions in his government with officials who have been plausibly accused of playing a central role in the worst antisemitic attack since the Holocaust. Raisi is a conservative hardliner whose candidacy was vigorously promoted by Iran’s anti-Western supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Nonetheless, Raisi’s […]
We’re back to square one in Afghanistan. Once again, this benighted country is under the thrall of a regime inspired and guided by a radical, austere and repressive form of Islam. Nearly 20 years after U.S. forces deposed the Taliban, it is firmly back in power. What a humiliating, head-spinning reversal of fortune for the […]
We’ve reached a critical point in the global battle to obliterate the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far killed about four million people, battered national economies, and upended lives on a monumental and frightening scale. Hundreds of millions of people have done their duty and submitted to vaccinations. But far too many steadfastly refuse to […]
The Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine and his coach, Amar Benikhlef, should be expelled at once from the International Judo Federation after their insulting behavior on the first day of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Nourine withdrew from the under-73 kilogram event when he learned that his opponent would be Tohar Butbul, an Israeli. In line […]
The Tokyo Olympic Games began with the usual flourishes, but the abrupt dismissal of Kentaro Kobayashi as the creative director of its opening ceremony lends some credence to the theory that it may be jinxed. Kobayashi was sacked on July 22, only one day before the start of the summer Games, after a disturbing video emerged in […]