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A Plan to Unmake MAiD

Peter Stockland

February 18, 2021

A former veteran Mountie and local coroner has a sure-fire way to protect health care workers from being made to administer MAiD. So why won’t anyone answer Sean Murphy’s call? Peter Stockland reports.

Given that most people don’t go into health care to commit even non-culpable homicide against the vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled, or the mentally ill – as the Senate amendments would allow – a consequence could be far fewer hands willing to inject death into their fellow citizens’ veins What ...

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Pandemic Pancake Tuesday

Don Hutchinson

February 16, 2021

On this day before Lent, Don Hutchinson counsels Convivium readers to prepare for the 40 days before Easter as a mix of self-denial and doing unto others as we would have them do for us.

There are two different stories told about William Booth, co-founder of The Salvation Army along with his wife Catherine, sending a telegram containing the single word, Others The second story suggests that in 1911 Booth sent a Christmas telegram to Salvation Army leaders around the world ...

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How Sanctions Cheat Children

Susan Korah

February 12, 2021

Leading voices are urging Canada to rethink Middle East sanctions that make daily life a struggle just to get daily bread, Susan Korah reports.

If Canada’s goal is to enhance international peace and stability rather than the country’s status on the world stage as a benevolent, refugee-welcoming country, it is time for the government to lift sanctions that are exacerbating the misery of vulnerable people in countries already devastated by wa...

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Cancel That Cancellation

Peter Stockland

February 11, 2021

Desecration of the U.S. Capitol and undermining of North American institutions are both being rebuked by those willing to stand up for reason and sanity, Peter Stockland writes.

Late last month, in the later stages of a long and respected career, Douglas Farrow was subjected to an open letter from students in the Religious Studies department In late January, Kay published a superb piece of journalism on the cancel culture malice and cowardice at the heart of former CTV real...

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The HandMAiD’s Toll

André Schutten and Anna Nienhuis

February 9, 2021

As the Senate studies Bill C-7’s dramatic expansion of medical assistance in dying, Anna Nienhuis and André Schutten warn of a MAiD copycat effect on those tempted to suicide.

As the Senate continues its review of Bill C-7’s dramatic expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAiD), possibly proposing amendments before sending it back to the House of Commons, Senators should consider the evidence for copycat and coupling effects when it comes to suicide, and how that will ...

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We Must Obey Lockdown Laws

David Hionides

February 5, 2021

Writing from a Christian perspective, theologian David Hionides argues followers of Jesus must endure COVID lockdowns by serving Christ as good citizens in the spirit of the early Church.

This was the basic Christian claim within an era in which the Gospel spread like wildfire; a time when the church changed the world: Christianity makes a positive difference to the public welfare Will Christians be known for their loving Christlike actions during this truly dark time of Covid-19, or...

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Call Him Mr. Trudeau

Don Hutchinson

February 2, 2021

We can agree or disagree over policies, but the Prime Minister and other party leaders deserve the respect conveyed by the honorific preceding their names, Don Hutchinson writes.

Trudeau made a campaign announcement on environmental policy at a lakefront from behind a podium that had Green Party green signage instead of Liberal Party red was the day I started writing furiously about this apparent hypocrisy Over the last year, Prime Minister Trudeau has led a government deali...

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Our COVID Reality Check

Tara Vreugdenhil

January 29, 2021

Western “realities” of freedom, prosperity and individualism have been shattered by the pandemic, clearing the way for a profound spiritual opening of hearts, Tara Vreugdenhil writes.

Regardless of the trials this broken world puts on us and the atrocities man will commit against each other, we believe God will reign and all repentant people can lift their eyes to Jesus in pleas for help and salvation ...

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Silent Witness of a Holocaust Suitcase

Susan Korah

January 26, 2021

Susan Korah reports on a Canadian family that helped solve the mystery of a teenage girl’s life and death at Auschwitz.

A children’s book called Hana’s Suitcase by Canadian writer Karen Levine published in 2002 deftly weaves together the threads of the multi-stranded story— the finding of the suitcase, Ishioka’s search for information that took her across the world, and the Holocaust experiences of Hana and George Br...

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COVID in the Courts

Peter Stockland

January 25, 2021

Peter Stockland speaks with lawyer John Carpay, of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, about looming legal battles on pandemic-driven infringements of Charter rights.

Establishing the right is why Carpay and the JCCF are going to court to argue governments should heed their own data when they decide to “do something” about COVID Carpay is prepared to do the talking in court as he and the JCCF press ahead with legal challenges in five provinces to the shutdowns, l...

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Coping With Covid’s Confusion

Travis D. Smith

January 23, 2021

In these days of pandemic disorientation and fatigue, uncertainty over the right thing is all right but failure to be good neighbours will be more toxic than the disease itself, Travis Smith writes.

People who want to decline the vaccine don’t want those whom they think might be mistaken about it gaining advantages over them Social media in particular brings out the worst in people; it’s available to exacerbate whatever divisions arise In an environment such as that, where politics properly so-...

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How COVID Leaves Trust In the Dust

Travis D. Smith

January 22, 2021

A severe social side effect of the pandemic is the disconnection between those in authority we must trust and our personal experiences that contradict what we’re told, Travis Smith writes.

In higher education, where I work, we’re all now getting used to teaching via Zoom, but I don’t expect anyone to provide non-experts with the untold hours of online remedial to advanced and specialized instruction in the relevant sciences that would be required for people to obtain an understanding ...

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Trusting COVID’s Novel Vaccines

Travis D. Smith

January 21, 2021

In the third of Convivium’s essays on the politics of the pandemic, Travis Smith argues reassurances about vaccine safety will convince only some of the people some of the time.

That said, my hunch is that as disappointed as people would be if the vaccines aren’t as effective as advertised, they’ll be more forgiving of that outcome than if they prove less safe Even assuming that it is completely true that the vaccines for COVID are entirely safe and effective, as far as any...

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The Political Spell COVID Casts

Travis D. Smith

January 20, 2021

The Ontario government’s methods to combat COVID-19 risks re-educating citizens in the Machiavellian art of compliance, political theorist Travis Smith writes.

At the outset of modernity, political philosopher Thomas Hobbes told us exactly what kind of government we should expect—he would say “need”—if you’re willing to do anything to preserve yourselves: a totalizing, absolute government against which the public has no recourse Knowing the Machiavellian p...

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An Error Plagued Affront to Liberty

Douglas Farrow

January 19, 2021

In Convivium’s series exploring the line between freedom and COVID-19 responses, Douglas Farrow argues Quebec’s curfew and lockdown cut off our noses to spite our masked faces.

In this it has been aided and abetted by public health officers and others responsible for matters medical (including hospital administrators and union leaders) who, having failed to set their own houses in order, are willing to see the government confine the citizenry to their houses, orderly or ot...

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