Six Waves of Refugees
A refugee is someone who is forced to flee from persecution in their home country, or who has fled violence, war or destruction. To meet the definition in the 1951 Geneva Convention used in [...]
George Melnyk
George Melnyk
Lost in Translation
A slender, middle-aged man with dark, gently greying hair sits at a desk in his basement. He’s wearing a black sweatshirt, faded jeans and white sneakers as he peers into the screen of a laptop. [...]
The Tomes, They Are A-Changing
These are tumultuous times for Alberta book publishers. They’re disappearing. They’ve stopped publishing, moved to other provinces or been merged. One way or another, many no longer exist. Duval [...]
What Are We Fighting For?
In March 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper went to Kandahar, Afghanistan, to speak to Canadian troops. he defended Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, claiming that our military is “defending [...]
Faces of the Lakeside Packers Strike
In the Middle of October 2005, members of the United Food & Commercial workers, Local 401 went on strike at Lakeside Packers in Brooks. The local had been certified in 2004 as the bargaining [...]
Literary Genealogy
How do you grow a poet?” Robert Kroetsch was asking how a new land, like Alberta, nurtures literary creativity, what a colonial society needs to do to grow its own stories. Kroetsch asked the [...]
MOST READ
MOST READ
Why She Runs
It's a half hour before dawn when Rachel Notley emerges from her hotel elevator, and I barely recognize her. She’s wearing her running clothes and a battered pair of Asics Gel running shoes. Despite having arrived in Calgary late the night before, she has a schedule to keep and she’s eager ...
Individualism Run Amok
Betsy DeVos would be thrilled to have a [school] system like yours,” says Diane Ravitch, research professor of education at New York University, about Alberta. Donald Trump’s secretary of education along with evangelicals and religious extremists in the US look to our province as the shining example of what a school ...
UCP Report Card
In 2017 I issued a mid-term report card on the environmental record of Rachel Notley’s government. Their performance on land use planning, parks establishment and climate change was exemplary. On other matters, such as carnivore conservation and land reclamation, they ducked and dodged. Overall, they earned a B+. Such a ...