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Gerry Caplan's blog
Gerald Caplan has an MA in Canadian history and a Ph.D. in African history from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He is an author, teacher, media commentator, and social and political activist with a lifelong commitment to African development. He is preoccupied with genocide and genocide prevention, particularly the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, about which he has frequently written. He has been a consultant on African development issues to many United Nations agencies as well as to the African Union. His latest book is called The Betrayal of Africa. He writes a weekly online column for the Globe and Mail.
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog September 14 Gerry Caplan | Picture the counselling session: "See Judge, here's the thing: it's not really okay for a man to assault and rape a woman. You got that now?" |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog September 7 Gerry Caplan | Canadians may not yet have seen through Mr. Trudeau's theatrics. But the shrewd Chinese clearly have. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog August 30 Gerry Caplan | Jane Philpott, a serious conscientious minister, made a small mistake, has repeatedly acknowledged it, and just wants to get back to her files. How about we let her try? |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog August 24 Gerry Caplan | So before summer's over, please shell out a couple of hundred bucks to your favourite NGO. And get angrier about obscene inequality. You won't be sorry. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog August 16 Gerry Caplan | The NDP need a new leader. And Elizabeth May needs a new party. Isn't this a match made in heaven? |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog August 11 Gerry Caplan | We need to know which Canadian officials were aware of the practice of handing detainees to Afghan forces to be tortured, who initiated it and why they failed to stop it. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog August 4 Gerry Caplan | The truth was, and remains, that there is very much a Blue and a Red America and there is no such thing as a single united nation called the United States of America. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog July 28 Gerry Caplan | The enormity of their crimes is irrelevant. Just as Wall Street is too big to fail, so they are too big to arrest. For both, impunity is their ultimate entitlement. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog July 13 Gerry Caplan | While the Liberals waffle on an asbestos ban, people in Canada and around the world are dying from exposure to fibres. How does the government rationalize that? |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog July 7 Gerry Caplan | Asbestos threatens ghastly illness and a painful death to all those who come in contact with it, whether as workers or consumers. The Liberals are stalling on banning it. Why? |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog June 21 Gerry Caplan | Bernie has considerable leverage here and he must use it. In return for ending his candidacy and endorsing Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party must formally adopt some of Mr. Sanders's key policies. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog June 14 Gerry Caplan | The legitimacy of a referendum depends to a substantial extent on the clarity of its language. It must not be too complex or raise issues that most voters will find baffling. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog June 7 Gerry Caplan | South Africa has answered the call and is providing aid to Canada. Three hundred of their firefighters have come to help with the Fort McMurray Beast, landing in Edmonton a week ago. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog May 31 Gerry Caplan | And the more we protest, the stronger he gets. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog May 18 Gerry Caplan | So far, it seems that Justin Trudeau's government will ignore Burundi. But a proactive role by Canada on the plight of Burundi surely makes good sense as it tries to get back on the Security Council. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog May 10 Gerry Caplan | Least of all Canadians. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog May 4 Gerry Caplan | The stats don't lie. So why don't our policies reflect them? |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog April 27 Gerry Caplan | If you have the nerve to accept a Senate seat, your duty is clear: treat the position with the greatest possible respect and put in a fair day's work in the public interest. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog April 19 Gerry Caplan | The Conservative caucus owes Mr. Khadr his youth. Tom Mulcair owes him, finally, some serious attention. The Liberal government has huge debts to him as well. It's time to pay up. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog April 8 Gerry Caplan | People keep asking me how Tom Mulcair is doing and I forthrightly answer with my own question: How do you think he is doing? |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 30 Gerry Caplan | While much of America is terrified by the prospect of president Donald Trump, prominent Jews, of all people, embrace him. Even for this campaign, it was a surreal and distressing moment. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 25 Gerry Caplan | Few candidates have had Clinton's experience, knowledge and competence to be president -- which is also one of the Achilles heels that will bring her down. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 15 Gerry Caplan | Do yourself a favour -- binge on House of Cards instead until it's all over. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 9 Gerry Caplan | Canadian politicians usually embrace the rights established in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But there are limits, and most of them unaccountably seem to have to do with Israel. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog March 1 Gerry Caplan | Mulcair says he's open to new ideas. To save the NDP, now's the time to prove it. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog February 23 Gerry Caplan | If there's been a less-edifying debate than the one in Parliament last week on Canada's role in the fight against Islamic State, I can't remember it. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog February 17 Gerry Caplan | I endorsed Thomas Mulcair for NDP leader, but his lacklustre 2015 election campaign has drained me of all enthusiasm. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog February 10 Gerry Caplan | Yet the excitement he's been generating regularly across the U.S. was never once triggered by the NDP during all those election months last year. New Democrats await their Bernie still. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog February 3 Gerry Caplan | Parliament's back, and while we can say that it's an advance on the late, unlamented Harper years, it's hardly ready for prime-time parliamentary democracy. |
Blog - Gerry Caplan's blog January 26 Gerry Caplan | Economic inequality remains one of the world's great continuing scandals that absolutely nothing is being done to change. What will it take for Canadians to hit the streets? |