Jan 9 2019 — Michael Coren — Now Toronto — Last week, something known as the Islamic Party of Ontario enjoyed some brief notoriety, thanks to various conservative commentators at the Toronto Sun eager to pounce on anything that appears to paint Islam and Muslims in a poor light.
Jan 3 2019 — Michael Coren — iPolitics — Just like any other year in the Middle East, 2019 will be characterized by its lack of predictability, which makes estimating what will happen inherently difficult. Looking back on the history of the region: the best minds in Israel failed to prepare for the 1973 Arab-Israeli War; not one intelligence service thought the shah of […]
Dec 13 2018 — Michael Coren — Toronto Star — Last week, a two-decade old recording of Jason Kenney, Alberta’s United Conservative Party leader and one of the most prominent figures in Canadian conservatism, came to light. It contained some deeply disturbing comments. The tape reveals Kenney boasting of his helping to organize a petition demanding a referendum to repeal an ordinance that gave hospital […]
Dec 5 2018 — Michael Coren — iPolitics — Sometimes mailing lists can be worryingly out-of-date and inaccurate. This weekend, I received an emailed letter from Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College, addressed to “Pastor Michael.” (No, I haven’t suddenly been elevated to clerical status.) “I want to extend a personal invitation to you and your pastoral staff to come to the platform […]
Nov 28 2018 — Michael Coren — Now Toronto — There are many issues for which his government can be criticized, but that’s irrelevant to the new breed of conservatives, who at heart are really outraged by Trudeau’s genuine social liberalism – and the fact that he is a Trudeau. A demonstration in Calgary last Thursday to protest changes to Canada’s Environmental Assessment Act and […]
Nov 15 2018 — Michael Coren — Toronto Star — I was shocked when it was revealed that Christian conservative lawyer John Carpay had compared the rainbow flag to the Nazi swastika. Not because Carpay had drawn the grotesque juxtaposition, but because it had taken so long for such a sentiment to be made public. Last Saturday, Calgary-based Carpay, a leading voice with the Justice […]
Oct 26 2018 — Michael Coren — Toronto Star — To quote the late, great Oscar Wilde, himself the victim of callousness, there are people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I wonder if Ontario Premier Doug Ford has read any Oscar Wilde? No, on second thoughts I don’t. Earlier this week, most of the MPPs in the Tory caucus […]
Oct 19 2018 — Michael Coren — CBC — Pope Francis has the most extraordinary ability to say the wrong things, often at the most sensitive times. Last Friday, he accepted the resignation of the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl — a controversial figure accused of doing too little to prevent, and perhaps even deliberately covering, up hideous sexual abuse cases. Beyond simply […]
Aug 7 2018 — Michael Coren — Toronto Star — I will never forget the time I first heard my father in genuine distress. He and my mum were speaking in what they thought were hushed tones, whispers of privacy, but in our small home I could hear through the walls some of what was being said. I was too young too understand the full […]
Jul 21 2018 — Michael Coren — Now Toronto — The arguments around Ontario’s sex-education curriculum have been made countless times, and it’s increasingly clear that most of its loudest critics haven’t actually read the document. Opponents of the 2015 curriculum, which has now been taught to countless students with few complaints, rushed to Doug Ford’s side when he declared during the provincial election that […]
Jun 15 2018 — Michael Coren — Globe and Mail — On Friday the Supreme Court of Canada delivered a ruling that many conservative Christians are condemning as an attack on religious freedom and LGBTQ groups are applauding as a robust defence of civil rights and social equality. In a 7-2 decision, the justices concluded that the law societies of Ontario and British Columbia have the […]
May 31 2018 — Michael Coren — iPolitics — Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are in a bit of a muddle these days. Along with their extremely close friends at the Toronto Sun, and various conservative talk radio hosts, they were convinced that a daily drip of revelations about apparent extremism within the New Democrats would cause the NDP to hemorrhage support. But it seems, in […]
May 14 2018 — Michael Coren — iPolitics — I’ve known Charles McVety, the President of Canada Christian College, conservative Christian leader, and obsessive campaigner against almost all things progressive, for a long time. The last time I actually saw him was on a CBC panel, when he roared against Ontario’s then new sex-ed program, and I defended it. Because of that, on live […]
May 7 2018 — Michael Coren — iPolitics — I hate to say, “I told you so,” but I’m afraid I really did tell you so. I’ve twice written columns here about the extremist views held by former Ontario PC Party leadership candidate Tanya Granic Allen, and now this opponent of same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and Ontario’s sex ed curriculum has finally been jettisoned […]
May 2 2018 — Michael Coren — Maclean's — The concept of apology is at the heart of Christianity. It’s right there in the Bible: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins,” says St. John. In other words, Christians may get things wrong—and may even commit terrible crimes—but acknowledgement of those errors, and genuine contrition, […]