Fixing American Democracy – An Outsider’s View

 Most Canadians have conflicting emotions about the political situation in our powerful neighbour to our immediate south. Smugness and alarm engage in an ongoing tug-of-war in our brains and our guts as we watch the politics of the United States of America become increasingly fractious, dysfunctional, and, to a not

Coronavirus: Two nations, two systems, one pattern

 To no-one’s very great surprise the United States of America handled the first few stages of the Covid-19 pandemic badly. After a period of dithering, denial, and poor attention to expertise, the various levels of government began to act, but unevenly, with poor messaging, fulminating partisanship, and the disadvantage of

Minky Worden Discusses the Unfinished Revolution: The Global Fight for Women’s Rights

 More needs to be done to reduce global gender discrimination and to bring women closer to equality with men. So said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, a leading NGO, as she recently addressed a large crowd at the Ottawa Writers Festival. Worden spoke at length