The Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) today released a Commentary, Revolution on an Empty Stomach, written by John Thompson, the head of the Mackenzie Institute. Every day we are inundated with news of revolution and unrest around the world. From Algeria to Yemen, it’s not necessarily corruption that is causing all the trouble. Throughout history fear of ...
By Janet Ajzenstat “Protection of property is a basic right.” So says the editorial in the National Post (Friday, February 25, 2011). So says John Locke in the Second Treatise of Government. And so say I. But should we entrench the protection in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? No! Entrenching rights curtails legislative ...
MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley argues that Western nations are missing a major opportunity to help shape a more democratic and peaceful Middle East because of an outdated Cold War reflex to side with friendly dictators. Click here to read the column.
By Janet Ajzenstat Prompted by the riveting scenes from Cairo, journalists and bloggers are revisiting the great modern revolutions: the French, the American and the Russian. Even the Glorious Revolution (1688) gets the occasional mention. Of the Canadian Revolution, we hear nothing. Perhaps you are of the opinion that Canada did not have a revolution. ...
What atrocities should be commemorated in the new Canadian Museum of Human Rights? Discussion continues. Rhoda Howard-Hassmann (Wilfrid Laurier) gave her informed opinion in the Idea File of January 19: “if the Canadian Museum of Human Rights intends to have a permanent exhibition dedicated to genocide that occurred outside Canada, it should cover all the ...
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights, at Wilfrid Laurier University, contributes the following to our discussion of The Canadian Museum of Human Rights: In 1985 I taught my first course in comparative genocide studies in the department of sociology at McMaster University. I had heard that a film existed about the ...
The new Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg will document the Nazi Holocaust, the Rwandan massacres, the Cambodian killing fields, the deliberate starvation and execution of millions of Ukrainians during Stalin’s regime and other “mass atrocities” of the twentieth century, among them, one assumes, the Armenian Genocide, the induced famine in the People’s Republic ...
In a recent contribution to Christopher Moore’s Canadian History Blog, Mary Stokes draws our attention to the unpleasant competition between Ukrainians and Jews over the Museum’s allocation of exhibition space. The Nazi Holocaust is to have a “dedicated space.” Other documented “mass atrocities,” like the Rwandan massacres, the Cambodian Killing Fields and the Holodomor – ...
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights opens later this year. According to the mission statement it “will strive to enhance the understanding of human rights, promote respect for others and encourage reflection and dialogue.” Praiseworthy objectives. But what are we seeing so far? In a recent contribution to Christopher Moore’s Canadian History Blog, Mary Stokes ...
In this Veterans Week of celebration, we have been hearing from some of our readers too. We received an email from Gary James Smith who has written a poem of remembrance, Freedom’s Price, that we want to share. Gary has kindly given us permission to do so…and we thank him… FREEDOM’S PRICE War has its ...
