Canada can promote transparency to form and strengthen norms as opportunities expand in outer space
The opportunities presented to humanity through the opening up of the new frontier—space—have been boundless. It has permeated many aspects of terrestrial life, from commerce and health, to telecommunications, and importantly, security and defence. The modern nation state has thus become dependent upon space-based technology which has led to the tethering of space assets to […]
Taylor not the right man to critique CAF role in vaccine rollout: letter writer
Twice in the past couple of weeks, Scott Taylor has written negative opinion pieces about the appointment of CAF generals who are tasked with carrying out COVID-19 vaccine distribution, in the case of Major-General Dany Fortin at the federal level and in the case of retired General Rick Hillier in Ontario. I find it astonishing […]
Too much is at stake when talking about nuclear oversight: AECL head
Re: “Canada re-enters nuclear weapons business with small modular reactors,” (The Hill Times, Dec. 3, 2020, online). The notion that Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are a Trojan horse orchestrated by foreign interests to dupe Canada unwillingly into a weapons program is untrue. I wish to make it very clear: Canada is not in the nuclear […]
COVID-19 document disclosure promise not kept
Millions of pages of federal pandemic records the Trudeau government was ordered to hand over by the end of November or by the latest, Dec. 7, 2020, have not been produced. Instead, after the House of Commons adjourned Dec. 11, records obtained from the clerk of the House Health Committee, Jean-François Pagé, indicate that fewer […]
Antitrust concern about big business underestimates customers’ power, and benefits
The size of a business is generally a reflection of its success at satisfying a lot of customers in a very productive way. Size, however, does not make businesses less vulnerable. Industry leaders such as the GAFA companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) were only recently the disruptors of the markets they entered. Soon enough, […]
There are lessons to be learned from this annus horribilis
OTTAWA—It is not an understatement to say 2020 has been a year like no other for almost all of us. Since March, we have all been in the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many just want it to be 2021, but we still should not wish time away, particularly as this annus horribilis ends, as […]
Conservatives rushing for the back of the truth line
CALGARY—As we round out the end of this traumatic year and look forward to a depressing Christmas and New Year’s, we are reminded that the appearance of a COVID-19 vaccine has brought with it one of the most insidious villains of our time: disinformation. Jane Lytvynenko of Buzzfeed News, whose reporting on misinformation, disinformation, and […]
Anti-vaxxers are the biggest threat in fighting COVID-19
MONTREAL—In July of 1997, I was in Geneva, Switzerland, working for the UN’s Children’s Vaccine Initiative (CVI), led by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. It later morphed into the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), funded by Bill and Melinda Gates to the tune of more than $1-billion. I was asked to craft […]
Time to create space for Black public servants to shine, says reader
As a former federal public servant who was part of the establishment of the first federal Visible Minority Committee at the headquarters of the Department of Canadian Heritage, I am very conscious of the Black civil servants who particularly feel systematically excluded from advancement and subjected to discrimination within the government. I’ve been retired for […]
Let 2021 be a year for action on everything set aside in 2020
It’s been a year that was unprecedented in the use of the word “unprecedented.” When 2020 began, it seemed as though tragedy after calamity befell Canada and Canadians, starting with the downing of Ukraine Flight 752 over Iran in early January. By the time the COVID-19 pandemic was declared and the virus swept across the […]
