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Dear Jason Kenney…

Post published:March 29, 2019

Dear Jason Kenney, Two years ago today, kd lang asked you rather bluntly on Twitter: “You’re gay, aren’t you?” She wasn’t the only person who wanted to know. I suspect that millions of other Canadians—including plenty of the celebrated singer/songwriter’s fellow Albertans—were curious, too. One reason for the question was that, on March 28, 2017, you told the Calgary Herald’s editorial board that you thought schools should inform parents when their child joins a gay-straight…

A close call in Bali

Post published:March 19, 2019

Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth. —Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights UBUD, INDONESIA—Near-death experience is not something most travellers would consider an essential part of any successful vacation. But after my own close shave during a late winter getaway to this renowned Southeast Asian Arcadia, a renewed sense of…

Xenophobic nationalism: Myanmar’s curse

Post published:September 19, 2017

With the corpses piling up in Rakhine State and the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing into Bangladesh eclipsing the 400,000 mark, international good will toward Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be hemorrhaging by the minute. The whole world, it seems, is piling on Myanmar’s former beacon of democracy, blaming her for a crisis the UN describes as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. And with good reason. Once celebrated for her steadfast courage, dignity, and…

Omar Khadr: Window on the Canadian Soul

Post published:July 10, 2017

You can tell a lot about Canadians from how we talk about Omar Khadr. Right now, there’s a lot being said about Khadr that isn’t exactly flattering to those who are saying it. It has been been two years since the former child soldier, accused terrorist and youngest Guantanamo Bay detainee was released from a medium security prison in Edmonton, ending 13 years of incarceration that had divided Canadians on partisan lines. With his public debut, there…

Cultural Appropriation: The Elephant in the Room is Us

Post published:June 4, 2017

[NOTE: As I write, I am supposed to be in Vancouver at the Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC)’s annual general meeting. Having flown to previous ones in Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Toronto, I had every expectation of finally attending an AGM in my home province. Instead, thanks to a careless mistake involving my passport, a trip to Berlin that was supposed to end on May 31 was extended until June 5—the day after the AGM’s…