Security and dignity, new pretexts for censorship

Patrick Moreau is a professor of literature in Montreal, editor-in-chief of the journal Argument and essayist. His publications include “Ces mots qui pensent à notre place” (These words that think for us – Liber, 2017) and “La prose d’Alain Grandbois, ou lire et relire Les voyages de Marco Polo” (Nota bene, 2019). Le Devoir, January […]

Unrest at the university

By Normand Baillargeon * Le Devoir, Montréal, January 15th, 2023 I am currently editing lectures given by my dear Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) in 1950. In them he addresses the question of the philosophical and political conception of the individual. He inspires me to reflect on what I consider to be some troubling aspects of current […]

A plea for respectful robustness

By Jean-François Lisée Le Devoir, January 4th, 2023 I have read many political programmes in my life and helped to write some of them. However, I had never come across a sentence like this: “We agree to disagree: our opponents are not our enemies.“ Nor had I come across any variation of the following statement: […]

Requiem for a humanist discussion group

In 1993 the Humanist Association of Canada established an on-line discussion forum that was open to all humanists. That forum endured until late 2021. Read about the circumstances surrounding its cancellation: Requiem for a Discussion Page | Humanist Freedoms

Woke Puritanism at the CRTC

Full speed backward: Woke Puritanism has now penetrated even the CRTC to the point the CRTC thinks it can tell Radio-Canada (and CBC) what to say and what not to say down to a single word. This is a CRTC attitude that the law ruled out thirty years ago. Pierre Trudel, Le Devoir July 5th, […]

The limits of “THE” science of public health

By Yves Gingras Historian and sociologist of science, UQAM Le Devoir, January 17th, 2022 The announcement of Horacio Arruda’s resignation as Quebec’s National Director of Public Health provides an opportunity to revisit the many criticisms of “THE” science to highlight alleged mistakes made at various times over the past two years. While it is to […]

The Woke cancelled her article, now they want to cancel her

Welcome to Canada Shahdin Farsai! Farsai, a practicing lawyer since 2016, wrote a short, innocuous article suggesting recent British Columbia court directives asking for people’s gender pronouns amounted to compelled speech, endangered privacy rights and could prejudice the court in certain cases. The article was accepted for publication in the BC law magazine, The Advocate, […]

The New Puritans

from The Atlantic magazine Social codes are changing, in many ways for the better. But for those whose behavior doesn’t adapt fast enough to the new norms, judgment can be swift—and merciless. By Anne Applebaum Illustrations by Nicolas Ortega “…The Scarlet Letter. As readers of this classic American text know, the story begins after Hester […]

Censored by the American Humanist Association (AHA)

On August 11th, a list of ten questions was posted by Roy Speckardt (Executive Director AHA) on the American Humanist Association blog. « Signs You’re Being Co-Opted by the Far Right » On the 13th of August I posted the following comment: Roy, this list is, unfortunately, proof enough that you have been swept into […]