Brian Dijkema
Brian Dijkema is the Vice President of External Affairs with Cardus, and an editor of Comment. Prior to joining Cardus, Brian worked for almost a decade in labour relations in Canada after completing his master's degree with Cardus Senior Fellow, Jonathan Chaplin. He has also done work on international human rights, with a focus on labour, economic, and social rights in Latin America and China.
Bio last updated May 23rd, 2023.
Articles by Brian Dijkema
Standing Horn to Horn
By Brian Dijkema
March 25, 2013
One of the points of collective bargaining—indeed the key point of collective bargaining—is that it is intended to replace the patchwork of individual employment contracts in a workplace with one contract, negotiated by the union, on behalf of all employees If the collective agreement focuses too much on equality of wages and recognition it runs the risk of alienating those who recognize the importance of proportionality—that not all people work as hard or as well as others
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Less Power, More Flourishing
Brian Dijkema
March 22, 2013
Might a union movement which seeks social, political, and financial power, rather than seeking human flourishing and fulfilment in work, be dead before it even begins? Perhaps what is needed is less talk about how to expand or maintain power, but a re-evaluation of why we work and why it's good for ...
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Green Shoots of Humanity
Brian Dijkema
March 18, 2013
What more can be said when a state wishes to stomp on even the green shoots of humanity in the face of death? It would appear that suppression is not just saved for those wanting democracy; Iran's suppression of the grief that arises from a fate to which we are all bound is a suppression of somethin...
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Religion and Realism in Canadian Foreign Policy
Brian Dijkema
February 12, 2013
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair suggests that CIDA's partnering with religious organizations, specifically Christian ones, contributes to a Canadian foreign policy marked by "more religion, less nutrition ...
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Glorious Adulation
Brian Dijkema
February 7, 2013
It would seem that Anaya chose the satisfaction of truth over the glory of victory Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai's mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross ...
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Quinoa Strikes Help No One
Brian Dijkema
January 25, 2013
Maybe the very poor are disabled and are unable to work, and therefore share in the benefit that comes as a result of overall increased profits from quinoa Wendell Berry, a true prophetic voice, writes that "the global economy does not exist to help communities and localities of the globe ...
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Theology Matters
Brian Dijkema
January 16, 2013
Burney argues that theology gets in the way of resolution of the problems facing aboriginals in Canada: "If one side is approaching it from a practical standpoint, and the other comes at it from a constitutional or what I would call an almost theological standpoint, it's very difficult to come to an...
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Less than Exemplary
Brian Dijkema
January 10, 2013
The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) wants to strike this Friday ...
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A whole lot of decisions to be made
Brian Dijkema
January 7, 2013
But there are simply too many variables, too much complexity, too many things going on for one person to effect significant change ...
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Blinded by the Light
Brian Dijkema
December 21, 2012
The hope of Christmas is this: The Lord himself invades the grave, and like a candle in a dark room, casts light all around.
But I often think—as I do about many passages in Scripture—how difficult it is to understand the hope that comes from a light shining in the darkness The boys took turns running to the farthest corners of the room, and into nooks and crannies, to see if the light penetrated the darkness ...
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An Engagement with Acton on Right to Work
Brian Dijkema
December 14, 2012
If atomism is corrosive in family life and other social spheres might it not also be true for the world of labour relations? Why, for instance, is their analysis on ways to increase the ability of workers to choose better between existing unions, and to organize better unions, so thin? Why such a cu...
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A Fate Worse Than Death
Brian Dijkema
December 6, 2012
In the course of her remarks she noted that this tendency to view suffering in life as a fate worse than death is a leading cultural driver—alongside horribly muddled language—of the movement towards physician assisted suicide and euthanasia ...
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Battlefield: University
Brian Dijkema
November 15, 2012
There's a big fuss this week about a Queen's university professor inserting a "civility clause" into her course syllabus Notes Jonathan Patrick, a professor at the University of Ottawa, "The abuse of such a clause is not a totally outlandish thought ...
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Memento Mori
Brian Dijkema
November 9, 2012
In the face of Sandy, or any other of the countless acts of God that destroy, how do we contemplate the destruction of our work? Here he is, contemplating the death of a significant portion of his work: ...
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Marvel and Wonder in October
Brian Dijkema
November 1, 2012
I marvel that, even in the midst of the long loneliness that many of these street entrepreneurs are immersed in, they exhibit a dignity—no, a reflection of God—that comes from doing work, and doing it well ...
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The Curious Case of Canadian Democracy
Brian Dijkema
October 25, 2012
We are living with the institutional legacy of peoples who knew that the political health of their country was directly related to the choices between different conceptions of the good, and the social institutions which weave together to make that good ...
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Public Wastelands
Brian Dijkema
October 18, 2012
Usually MPs are quite chatty and boisterous after votes as they head off to various receptions, meetings, etc ...
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Where is this Ship Headed, Captain?
Brian Dijkema
October 12, 2012
As you cut through the hype and horror of the daily news cycle surrounding the daily movements of Justin (no formal titles among friends), and read his opening speech, you get a picture of a candidate who—despite landing a punch or two in his day—prefers to downplay the blood, blows, and sweat of po...
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A Bit of Perspective
Brian Dijkema
October 4, 2012
If you are looking for a hero in the fraught talks that resulted in Lonmin workers returning to their shafts this week, there are many to pick from: the worker delegates who convinced their comrades to step down from a demand they had vowed to die for, the company that accepted a deal it may not be ...
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Labour Storms
Brian Dijkema
September 14, 2012
That power is exerted either through the withholding of labour (a strike, initiated by the union), or through the withholding of work (a lockout, initiated by the employer) This is particularly helpful when thinking of strikes by public servants such as teachers ...
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Persuade Me
Brian Dijkema
September 10, 2012
in a context which involves interaction among the proselytizing religions should be distinguished from its operation in a context which involves interaction among non-proselytizing religions, and further if special safeguards may be required to protect the freedom of religion of non-proselytizing re...
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Limits on Scripture
Brian Dijkema
August 30, 2012
It is a speech in which Scripture is the foundation, the wellspring of the great dream that changed American life and helped to overcome its original sin ...
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Secular Does Not Mean What You Think it Means
Brian Dijkema
August 15, 2012
The PQ wants to adopt a secular charter for Quebec which will ensure the neutrality of the state toward all religions, but One can agree—as I do—that the state should not privilege any particular religion, yet still find all kinds of problems with such a "secular charter ...
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The Peach is Charged with the Grandeur of God
Brian Dijkema
August 8, 2012
My gushing about peaches attests to how much I agree with Hopkins that the world is charged with the grandeur of God After all, Psalm 148 tells us that peach trees can praise the Lord with the same volume as "young men and women, old men and children ...