In principle, international sporting competitions should be open to all nations with absolutely no exceptions. Countries that refuse to abide by this golden rule should be forbidden to host such events and banned from competing in them, period. Which brings us to the speed chess championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which took place from December […]
As about one million Muslim refugees from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan poured into Germany in 2015 and 2016, commentators congratulated the German government for its spirit of empathy and generosity. Not every German agreed with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy, but a vocal minority of Germans who welcomed the migrants left the distinct impression […]
The sordid Harvey Weinstein affair has spawned a new movement in Canada that seems to augur well for women in the workplace. #After MeToo was officially unveiled at a symposium in Toronto on December 5 and 6 sponsored by The Globe and Mail daily newspaper. It took place two months after the notorious Hollywood movie mogul […]
Harvey Weinstein, the serial sexual predator, is now assured of a prominent place in the rogue’s gallery of the Hollywood film industry. Having been accused of harassment, assault and rape by a succession of aspiring and established actresses, the rapacious movie producer has been banished from his own company and the citadels of power in […]
Muslims are the fastest growing religious minority in Canada. The arrival of 40,000 Syrian refugees in the past year certainly accentuated this trend. From 600 Muslims in Canada in 1931 to 579,000 in 2001 and to more than one million in 2011, the size of the Muslim community has grown exponentially. Statistics Canada expects the Muslim […]
Last week, in Warsaw, 60,000 Poles and foreigners participated in an Independence Day march to mark 99 years of Polish nationhood. It should have been an auspicious occasion. Poland, partitioned by Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 18th century, regained its sovereignty in 1918 and has been independent ever since. Unfortunately, some […]
Prince Charles, the heir to the British royal throne, has expressed an opinion about an important facet of the Arab-Israeli conflict that could have been taken straight from the mouth of a pro-Arab British official during the Mandate period in Palestine. In a letter to his friend Laurens van Der Post, he dashed off a […]
Deutsche Bahn, the operator of Germany’s state railway, recently announced its intention to name a new high-speed train after Anne Frank, the Dutch Jewish diarist who perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the final days of the Holocaust. The news has caused an outcry because Anne Frank and her older sister, Margot, were deported […]
To paraphrase William Shakespeare, something is rotten at McGill University in Montreal. McGill, one of the world’s finest institutions of higher learning, is being dragged through the mud by a cabal of toxic students who can’t tolerate free speech and diversity of opinion, the very qualities a university should uphold and encourage. Last week, three students […]
Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood mogul, has taken an indefinite leave of absence from his film company following a front-page expose in The New York Times claiming he had conducted himself horrendously in encounters with actresses and employees over several decades. Weinstein, one of the most powerful figures in the industry, repeatedly invited women to his hotel room for […]