Apr 11 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — The Liberal caucus would have had a collective aneurysm just few months ago if a senior political opponent had talked about “asylum-shopping” when referring to refugees who cross illegally into Canada. The implication, they’d cry, is that those risking their lives to seek refuge in Canada are simply economic migrants — not families desperate to […]
Apr 1 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — Let’s assume for a moment, since many have already, that Jody Wilson-Raybould’s actions as they relate to the SNC-Lavalin saga have indeed been driven by a toxic combination of malevolence and self-importance. Take the position that she — either spurned by the Prime Minister’s Office or motivated by her own pursuit of power and notoriety […]
Mar 22 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — October 2018 was less than two years after a madman named Alexandre Bissonnette opened fire in a Quebec mosque, killing six people. And October 2018 was the same month a gunman walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue and opened fire, killing 11. By that time, reported hate crimes in Canada had reached an all-time high, with […]
Mar 15 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — Doug Ford’s government is a government of grifters. It claims to be a truck-stop government: “For The People,” and other nonsense. That’s while holding $1,600-per-plate fundraisers — known as “cash-for-access” fundraisers back when the Liberals were doing it — after gutting the law that the previous administration put in place to stop wealthy stakeholders from […]
Mar 5 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — If your stomach can handle it, spend a few minutes listening to the interview Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland gave to CBC’s Ottawa Morning last week, the day after Jody Wilson-Raybould testified before the House of Commons justice committee. Wilson-Raybould, you’ll recall, spent the previous afternoon meticulously filleting the prime minister’s credibility on the SNC-Lavalin […]
Feb 22 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — The Liberal government, according to the Liberal government, absolutely wants to get to the bottom of the SNC-Lavalin affair. The problem is the Liberal government is standing in the way. What’s a government to do? The question at the centre of this saga is whether former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould was pressured by anyone in […]
Feb 13 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — The destructive power of the SNC-Lavalin scandal — of which we appear to still be in the early stages — lies in its sheer comprehensiveness. It is not simply an indictment of the Liberals’ professed commitment to transparency. Or of the illusion of a shift away from Harper-era “self-serving” partisanship. Or of the Trudeau government’s […]
Feb 1 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — It is possible, theoretically, that the cryptic, confusing, rather odiously smelling Raj Grewal affair is, still, somehow, a kosher one. That the now-independent MP for Brampton East managed to both fuel and pay off millions of dollars in gambling debts only through loans from friends and family. That he has repaid what he owed and […]
Jan 22 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — The viral video of the standoff between Covington Catholic High School students and Indigenous Americans ought to be one hell of a wake-up call. It should rattle every journalist. Many of the people who are supposed to be fact-finders — skeptical investigators — accepted the narrative that a group of teen boys in MAGA hats […]
Jan 10 2019 — Robyn Urback — CBC — Most of us have the good fortune of getting away with our idiot mistakes. Every one of us has driven too fast, or taken our eyes off the road for a split second, or operated a car on autopilot and arrived home having forgotten how we got there. Even you, skeptical reader, self-professed perfect driver, […]
Dec 11 2018 — Robyn Urback — CBC — Looking back now, Doug Ford’s campaign promise to conduct an independent audit of Ontario’s finances — essentially duplicating the work of the already independent provincial auditor general — was a harbinger of how this government would go about finding its “efficiencies.” The new PC government would hire former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell to lead its […]
Nov 30 2018 — Robyn Urback — CBC — It was Joseph Stalin who rather astutely observed that “one death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic.” That is as true today as it was during the heyday of the Soviet Union. Indeed, I suppose if anyone could credibly speak to our collective inertia toward mass execution, it would be one of the […]
Nov 20 2018 — Robyn Urback — CBC — The toxic culture at St. Michael’s College School was a secret in the same way that the Harvey Weinstein abuse allegations were a secret or the reports of sexual assault within the Canadian Armed Forces were a secret: If you were close enough, you already knew. I went to a high school in midtown Toronto […]
Nov 9 2018 — Robyn Urback — This business is easier on the conscience when the players, however bruised and battered, get to leave the ring with some dignity. Politics is a blood sport, yes, but it tends to leave one’s personal character intact, even if his or her political reputation is damaged.
Nov 2 2018 — Robyn Urback — CBC — This is a note to the youth of the nation. A warning, of sorts, of the evils that lurk a few months yonder. When the winter turns to spring — when the snow melts and the trees bud and the birds renew their songs — a menacing refrain will once again fill the air. It […]