Armed and violent Israeli settlers are attacking the homes and fields of Palestinians with the support of the Netanyahu government.
Israeli settler violence
Brian Mulroney, envelopes stuffed with cash
Brian Mulroney, who died in February, 2024, is being widely feted as a great prime minister. But after he left office, he also took envelopes stuffed with cash from a lobbyist and had no credible explanation for it.
Digital gorillas threaten Canadian news
The giant digital gorillas Google and Meta are threatening to block Canadian news links from their sites because the federal government has passed Bill C-18, which would make them pay those who create the news for using their material. While that debate rages, I have practical advice about how to access Canadian news without relying on the tech giants at all.
Finland and Estonia under NATO eyes
Finland and Estonia are beautiful Baltic countries to visit. But they share land borders with Russia and are anxious about the invasion of Ukraine. Both countries have cast their lot with NATO.
Poems of the Camino
Suzanne Doerge, a poet and activist who lives in Ottawa, walked the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain 2016. She developed painful problems with her feet, but used her rest time, interspersed with walking, to ponder on the meaning of pilgrimage and life. The result is her book, Footfalls: Poems of the Camino.
Mennonites and national socialism
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) was working in Germany before and after the Second World War. The organization arranged emigration for thousands of Mennonites who had escaped to Germany from Ukraine. Many of those Mennonites had welcomed the Nazis as liberators from Soviet communism, and some were collaborators. In Germany, some MCC advocates were also sympathetic to the Nazis as well. MCC is now coming to terms with a difficult and troubling past.
Best Books 2022
At year's end, I wrote about some of the best books that I read in 2022.
CIA stonewalls on biological weapons program  Â
American writer Nicholson Baker spent ten frustrating years trying to get information from the US military about its biological weapons program.
Bellingcat in Ukraine
Bellingcat specializes in fact-checking and open-source intelligence to cut through the fog of misinformation that surrounds wars and conflict.
Emergencies Act, right thing to do
Canada's Liberal government was right to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the winter 2022 occupation in downtown Ottawa.
Pulpit and Politics 