Lessons from a Teachers-College Battle Over Free Speech and ‘Decolonization’ University of Western Ontario instructors spent months denouncing an outspoken education student who’d asked awkward questions about Indigenous reconciliation—until a UWO tribunal concluded they’d violated her rights. Jonathan Kay 29 Nov 2024 · 24 min read
I’m Tired of the Victimhood Narrative Lidia Thorpe is not treated more harshly because she’s an Indigenous woman. In fact, if it weren’t for these two immutable characteristics, she wouldn’t be where she is today. Zoe Booth 8 Nov 2024 · 3 min read
A Fashionable Madness: The Obsession with ‘Settler Colonialism’ The works of literary critic Adam Kirsch and of novelist and memoirist Joan Didion provide a salutary rebuttal of settler colonialist theory. Robert Huddleston 17 Oct 2024 · 14 min read
When Will The New York Times Correct Its Flawed Reporting on ‘Unmarked Graves’? The same reporter who helped spark Canada’s 2021 social panic has published a new article walking back his original errors—but those mistakes remain uncorrected on the Times’ website. Jonathan Kay 20 Sep 2024 · 8 min read
Canada’s Faltering ‘Unmarked Graves’ Narrative Goes to Court When lawyers asked the Law Society of British Columbia to correct the false claim that ‘the bodies of 215 children’ were discovered in Kamloops, the legal regulator accused them of bigotry. Jonathan Kay 20 Sep 2024 · 11 min read
Return of the Jesuits In the 22nd instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu used their nascent Quebec colony as a means to promote French global power and spread Christianity. Greg Koabel 5 Sep 2024 · 20 min read
Dutchmen on the Hudson In the 21st instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how the arrival of Dutch fur traders sparked an upheaval in regional Indigenous geopolitics. Greg Koabel 20 Jul 2024 · 19 min read
The Birth of Quebec In the twentieth instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how Samuel de Champlain and Récollet missionaries established a fledgling French colony in what we now call Quebec City. Greg Koabel 4 Jul 2024 · 17 min read
Canada’s Elusive Unmarked Graves: a Third-Anniversary Update Many of the public figures who stoked the country’s morbid 2021 social panic are now doing their best to change the subject. Jonathan Kay 29 May 2024 · 11 min read
The Lonely Death of an Ojibway Boy Charlie Wenjack has come to symbolise the deadly horrors of Canada’s Residential Schools. Unfortunately, many details of his tragic story have been misrepresented in the process. Robert MacBain 23 Apr 2024 · 19 min read
A Different Way of Fighting In the eighteenth instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes the confusion that resulted when French and Indigenous fighters jointly assaulted an Iroquois village in 1615. Greg Koabel 14 Mar 2024 · 29 min read
Looking Back at the ‘Unmarked Graves’ Social Panic of 2021 A new book tries to explain how millions of Canadians became convinced that the bodies of 215 ‘missing’ Indigenous children had been discovered in British Columbia. Tom Flanagan / Chris Champion 1 Mar 2024 · 13 min read
Make Way for the Jesuits In the seventeenth instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how The Society of Jesus became a powerful player in the colonization of North America. Greg Koabel 30 Jan 2024 · 25 min read
Australia Day: A Contentious Celebration The founding of Australia is still worthy of commemoration. Adrian Nguyen 24 Jan 2024 · 10 min read
The Laurentian Coalition Takes Root In the 16th instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ historian Greg Koabel describes how Samuel de Champlain overcame a decade of frustration by finally establishing a successful French fur-trading monopoly. Greg Koabel 12 Jan 2024 · 25 min read