Rick Salutin

I find the presence of Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn on the free speech podium puzzling. I'm for free speech up to and including outright hate. But the heroization is irritating.

Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed/ Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined/ Harper cries 'tis time, 'tis time: A return to the Shakespearean origins of the drama in Canada's Senate.

A smart incubation program for immigrants doesn't mean making a deal with them; it means being the kind of society they want to be part of and contribute to.

Public opinion in apparently all western countries, including the U.S., opposes a strike on Syria on "their" grounds; people have made it through the crapstorm.

The Parti Québécois government in Quebec is floating a "Charter of Quebec Values." It makes me nostalgic for the old days of Quebec nationalism.

Mouthing phrases like "free and fair election" does nothing for legitimacy. In fact, if you think about it, we hardly know what we really mean by democracy.

In an age like ours, where crass, self-seeking behaviour by the rich and mighty is more overt than it once was, a sense of vile underlying impulses may grow even stronger.

All key social issues today relate to challenging corporate wealth and power. It's hard to imagine mounting any real challenge without an economic counterforce, which is what unions are.

I keep encountering anthropologists (mostly but not only in print) who help more in understanding how the world works today than other experts do, even in their own fields.

I think Martin Luther King was right when he said the arc of history is long but bends toward freedom. But it will keep bending without getting there, at least not for a long time.