Beryl Wajsman

Hard Times: What the aughts were about

“See, I never heard that word ‘depression’ before. They would all just say ‘hard times’ to me. They still are.” ~Roger, a 14 year old boy from Chicago quoted in Studs Terkel’s “Hard Times” Hard times. Our time. Couldn’t be a more appropriate sobriquet. And it’s not just about money being hard today. Because after the money gets a bit easy, the times are still going to be hard.

Of scans, profiles and freedoms

“There is the superior right of freedom from fear. The reality is that we are in a war. A war which the west did not start or choose.”

Give citizens the benefit of the doubt

The Quebec government’s response to the Duguay challenge on its speeding laws is wholly unacceptable. When Charles Duguay, a consulting engineer in the Eastern Townships, received a speeding ticket under the new rates he found them unconscionable. So do many of us. The ticket he got was $718 and 10 points. Under the old system it would have been $250 and 5 points. He decided to do something about it.

A season of conscience

Many people deride the generosity of spirit and selflessness of action that pervades our civic life during this time of year. They call it hypocritical. A passing fancy. They should not do that.

Freedom is indivisible

Whenever freedom’s indivisibility is violated, we are obligated to register our protest. Particularly when that violation occurs in our own backyards. And precisely when what we are defending is the sovereignty of individual choice. For the freedom to choose is the heart of a free society. It is the object lesson in the difference between liberty and tyranny.

Perfidy: the un and the goldstone libel

"Every day at the U.N., on every side, we are assailed because we are a democracy. In the U.N. today there are in the range of several dozen democracies left; totalitarian regimes and assorted ancient and modern despotisms make up all the rest.

Iran - Anvil of Crisis

Every now and then the world kicks us all in our lethargic posteriors and we have to wake up. We are in such a time now. The revelations last week that Iran may be some sixty days away from having the enriched uranium capacity to have nuclear weapons capability, led Presidents Obama and Sarkozy and Prime Minister Brown to raise the alarm at the Pittsburgh G-20. Fen Hampson, director of Ottawa’s Norman Patterson School of International Affairs and a man not given to hyperbole, stated on Sunday that the current confrontation can be paralleled with the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sadly, the world had plenty of warning, and did nothing.

30 Canadian lawyers challenge biased UN Goldstone report

Thirty Canadian lawyers are challenging the refusal of a U.N. investigator to step down from an inquiry on the recent Gaza conflict, arguing that London School of Economics professor Christine #’s participation on the panel — after she declared Israel guilty prior to seeing any evidence — “necessarily compromises the integrity of this inquiry and its report.”

The Big Green Lies

In the movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas’ character Gordon Gekko makes the point to his young protégé Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, that the road to acceptance with many rich people lies in contributing money to zoos. There are many among the wealthy, Gekko said, who love animals far more than people.

No honour in murder

We need to take a step back and think about the use of the term “honour killings”. It has been much in the news of late as the horror of the deaths of the Shafia sisters sinks in.

Kip

I’ve often said that the word vacation doesn’t exist in my life. I feel privileged to be able to do advocacy and journalism . You get used to not having normal routines. Perhaps I never wanted them in the first place. So you live your life out there – on the edge - available, attackable, accessible. And you get used to pretty much all sorts of tragic stories and appeals. But every now and then there is one that not only ignites a fury that propels you to act, but also floods you with sadness that moves you to reflect.

Tehran matters

The pictures flood us. They flood us with pride, poignancy and pathos. A people struggling to be free. The images come from around the world. From citizens of Tehran confronting the terror of theocratic tyrants, to students marching in the streets of Paris to Montrealers — some using walkers — standing up and being counted. The palpable reality of mankind’s transcendent yearning for redemptive change.

The arrogance of authority

We have written passionately and often about the demonization of Montreal’s citizens by city authorities. The usual subjects concern nanny-state rule and regulation that seek to change our personal behaviour and taxes it through fines if we misbehave. The rules pummel us into infantilism and self-abnegation to the point where some of us actually think we are guilty of something even when we are not.

Tour de WHAT?

Amidst the cattle corral cacophony that pervaded much of Montreal the past several weekends, serious questions arise about the salubriousness of bicycles and the sagesse of elected officials who champion their use — and abuse.

Where will it stop?

We have railed against the control state mentality of government for quite some time now. We have warned that the slippery slope of politically correct social engineering policies and politics is steep and swift in its descent into nothingness. Our use of the term nanny-state has become so ubiquitous that many said we were out of touch with the “new” Quebec.

Montreal’s demonization of Bela Kosoian

When we crawled out of the mists of the jungles of history to create communities – villages, the origin of cities - it was not out of what today’s politically correct zeitgeist would consider a noble purpose. It was done out of selfishness. As it happens, one of mankind’s more creative instincts if husbanded properly.

They don’t even pretend anymore

Though we can’t be surprised anymore, we still need to condemn. The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, commonly called Durban II, opened Monday in Geneva. Durban I, eight years ago, at least had the veneer of “respectability” however quickly disabused by the contents. This year’s incarnation didn’t even pretend. How could it? Two gangster regimes — Iran and Libya — co-chaired and co-organized it. The result was as anticipated. But the date was filled with pathos.

Canada in Afghanistan

It was a mistake from the beginning to allow the recognition of state faith into Afghanistan’s constitution. It was an even greater error to allow the organization of faith-based political parties. Now the west’s encounter with Afghanistan will be put to an important test. And Canada has a profound role to play.

Broken promises: The Ala Morales affair

We can assume that the intentions of legislators and regulators have some socially redeeming intent. Our problems as citizens occur when laws and regulations are passed and the details of implementation are left to bureaucrats.

The Israel ‘Apartheid’ lies

”Israel is not South Africa” ~Prof.Edward Said, author of “Orientalism” "The false equation of Zionism with racism is simply an Arab ploy to take the focus off of the real enemies of humanity. Zionism is a healthy form of nationalism." - Edward H. Brown, Jr., former chief United Nations representative for the Congress of Racial Equality