Substacks
Justin Trudeau: Could he have escaped the generational truism of Mike + the Mechanics?

Justin Trudeau: Could he have escaped the generational truism of Mike + the Mechanics?

In the words of Mike + the Mechanics from The Living Years, "Every generation blames the one before and all of their frustrations come beating on your door." This line perfectly captures how Canadian youth have inherited the unmet promises of the past, and, like many before him, Justin Trudeau paid the price of that truism—bearing the weight of collective...

Internal project seeks to correct Order of Canada biases

Internal project seeks to correct Order of Canada biases

The Liberal government has launched a project to reduce the overwhelming number of older, English-speaking men who receive Order of...

Cuba asks Canada for debt relief

Cuba asks Canada for debt relief

Wracked by energy, food and medicine shortages, the Cuban government is asking Ottawa for a break on its multimillion-dollar Canadian...

News media bailouts short on transparency

News media bailouts short on transparency

Members of a journalism panel who decide which Canadian newsrooms have the government’s seal of approval have billed taxpayers at...

Poilievre's secrecy challenge

Poilievre's secrecy challenge

Pierre Poilievre faces a litmus test over cabinet secrecy this year, should he become prime minister of Canada, as polls...

Sayonara to a bleak year for freedom of info

Sayonara to a bleak year for freedom of info

Freedom-of-information (FOI) regimes across Canada withered in 2024, as courts and governments tightened the noose around openness and transparency. Here...

The shrinking and inking of access to info

The shrinking and inking of access to info

Treasury Board of Canada released fresh government-wide statistics last week about citizens’ use of the federal Access to Information Act...



Is Pierre Poilievre's tie to Shopify broligarchs a conflict of interest?

Is Pierre Poilievre's tie to Shopify broligarchs a conflict of interest?

Canadians watched in horror as Elon Musk bought influence in the United States, thanks in large part to the country’s...

Fleet of aging RCMP aircraft "highly risky:" report

Fleet of aging RCMP aircraft "highly risky:" report

The RCMP’s geriatric airplanes and helicopters are long past their replacement dates, with almost half of the 30-aircraft fleet deemed...

Lawyer for Sandy Hook families drags Shopify over Alex Jones store

Lawyer for Sandy Hook families drags Shopify over Alex Jones store

A lawyer for Sandy Hook families is dragging Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce giant. That’s because Shopify is powering Alex Jones'...

Is nuclear war closer than we're told?

Is nuclear war closer than we're told?

Some alarming news has come to light this week in the Russia-Ukraine war that has far-reaching implications – potentially leading...

Treasury Board no access-to-info leader

Treasury Board no access-to-info leader

Treasury Board of Canada, a central agency of the federal government, is Ottawa’s cheerleader for access to information. The institution...

Israel’s secret plan to “Iraq-ify” Gaza

Israel’s secret plan to “Iraq-ify” Gaza

Israel’s far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a secret plan for Gaza as his defence forces continue to bomb, displace...

Why pro-Palestinian activists are so frustrated

Why pro-Palestinian activists are so frustrated

If you or someone you know has been active in the pro-Palestinian movement, you may have noticed this trend. There...

An error-prone 'transparency'

An error-prone 'transparency'

The pro-active publication of internal documents by governments has long been touted as a cure-all for a dysfunctional access–to-information regime...

Delay is toxic for freedom of information

Delay is toxic for freedom of information

In public affairs journalism, all information has a best-before date. Citizens want to know what their governments are up to...



Why Israelis and Palestinians both feel war is justified

Why Israelis and Palestinians both feel war is justified

The prospect for peace in the Middle East is farther away than ever, with both Palestinians and Israelis convinced their...

Is cooperation in politics even possible anymore?

Is cooperation in politics even possible anymore?

What does the now-defunct Liberal-NDP cooperation agreement teach us about politics? Can politicians rise above partisanship for the common good...

Poverty on the rise: memo for Trudeau

An internal memo for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledges that poverty is on the rise for many Canadians after years...

The disaster at Canada's disaster bunker

The disaster at Canada's disaster bunker

The federal government in 2004 created a kind of disaster bunker, where dozens of specialists huddle to co-ordinate an emergency...

Is Ukraine’s offensive into Russia part of a peace plan?

Is Ukraine’s offensive into Russia part of a peace plan?

It’s counter-intuitive, but Ukraine’s surprising incursion into Russia this month may mean that Ukraine is seeking a way to end...

Israel and Hamas leaders benefiting from Gaza war

Israel and Hamas leaders benefiting from Gaza war

A potential regional war looming, over two hundred citizens taken hostage and 1200 killed during a preventable massacre, and international...

RCMP loses handgun - twice

RCMP loses handgun - twice

The RCMP has lost one of its handguns - the second time the elusive weapon has disappeared.

Weekly Writ 8/21: Box-checking vs. seat-flipping

Weekly Writ 8/21: Box-checking vs. seat-flipping

Party leaders’ summer tours are like a Rorschach test. Look hard enough and you can see a cunning strategy behind...

RCMP burns 7,000 lbs of uniforms & kit

RCMP burns 7,000 lbs of uniforms & kit

RCMP in Nova Scotia ordered a mass incineration of discarded Mountie clothing and kit in the province after a murderer...

Ottawa creates virtual news agency

Ottawa creates virtual news agency

The federal government established a short-lived news agency last fall, generating dozens of fake-news items before the exercise wound down...

If she beats Trump, how might Kamala Harris handle two raging wars?

If she beats Trump, how might Kamala Harris handle two raging wars?

U.S. President Joe Biden’s fate may have been sealed when, in front of dozens of world leaders at the NATO...

Language czar probes CBC's posting of unilingual documents

Language czar probes CBC's posting of unilingual documents

Canada’s official languages commissioner has launched an investigation into CBC/Radio-Canada’s practice of posting unilingual access-to-information documents on its websites. The...

Why Americans say we spend too much on health care and not enough on warfare

Why Americans say we spend too much on health care and not enough on warfare

While Canadian media outlets joined with U.S. lawmakers in haranguing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over Canada’s military spending, the Wall...

A small step forward for transparency

A small step forward for transparency

In Canada’s doom-laden realm of freedom of information, where bad news is endemic, a ray of sunshine sometimes pierces the...

Can progressives stop a right wing sweep of North America?

Can progressives stop a right wing sweep of North America?

The future looks pretty dire for progressive voters in the United States and Canada. Right-leaning parties seem to be poised...

Hubris and survival in the news industry

Hubris and survival in the news industry

A new oral history of the Village Voice, the weekly rag that goosed American journalism for decades, is a pungent...

Canada's access-to-info gamble

Canada's access-to-info gamble

Canadians are not whiners by nature, but sometimes frustration about bad service makes us snap. We complain when our flights...

Weekly Writ for June 26: Another canary in the Liberal coalmine

Weekly Writ for June 26: Another canary in the Liberal coalmine

Well, that escalated slowly. Yes, it wasn’t until just before 4 AM early Tuesday morning that the Conservatives’ Don Stewart...

Who will arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu?

Who will arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu?

Are international arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu and Hamas’ Sinwar and others one step closer? The criminal case against the...

The State of the Writ, Year 3

The State of the Writ, Year 3

Time flies when you’re having fun — and so it’s remarkable that it is already the moment to mark three...

Shackleton's last ship was a dud for polar exploration

Shackleton's last ship was a dud for polar exploration

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last expedition ship, which was located on the seafloor off Labrador this week, was reviled by his...

Traffic jam on RCMP car lots

Traffic jam on RCMP car lots

A three-year freeze on the sale of used RCMP vehicles has created such huge storage headaches that the Mounties will...

New Brunswick election still a toss-up

New Brunswick election still a toss-up

New Brunswick’s election is little more than four months away, but the outcome is no easier to predict than it...

On NSICOP, we don’t need names. We need action.

On NSICOP, we don’t need names. We need action.

To name or not to name? That’s the question hanging over Ottawa like a bad smell, ever since the National...

While Gaza burns, the U.S. risks nuclear war in Ukraine

While Gaza burns, the U.S. risks nuclear war in Ukraine

With “all eyes on Rafah” following the horrifying deaths of Palestinian civilians in fiery airstrikes by Israel on Gaza, hardly...

Anand's misleading plan to combat misinformation

Anand's misleading plan to combat misinformation

A recent media release from a powerful minister proclaimed the Liberal government’s new “trust and transparency strategy.” Anita Anand announced...

RCMP lax in tracking clothing: internal review

RCMP lax in tracking clothing: internal review

An internal review of the RCMP’s control policies for its uniforms, launched after a gunman used official clothing to impersonate...