By Richard Landau

Let’s take a look at the implications of the Conservative Party’s recent decision to bypass the “consortium approach” to televised election debates during this fall’s federal election campaign. The consortium, which has run the debates, is a joint venture of CBC, Radio Canada, CTV and Global/Shaw. The consortium, in consultation…

By Richard Landau

For those who have come to Canada from just about any place on the planet other than Western Europe or the United States, you are comfortable with the fact that religious expression and faith are acceptable in public forums. Thus, many new Canadians find the recent decision of our Supreme Court…

By Richard Landau

There was a time when the vast plurality of new Canadians voted for the Liberal Party of Canada. With the exception of some of those who had escaped the tyranny of the Warsaw Pact, immigrant communities, once established, voted Liberal. Some of the thinking was: “I came into this country thanks…

By Richard Landau

Legal prostitution. Assisted suicide. Decriminalized pot. Gay marriage. Our society is undergoing a breathtaking transformation, hurried along by the influence of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the court that interprets it, and the massive new town square called “social media.” A lot of Canadians – among them many…

By Richard Landau

So a woman is told she can’t testify in a Quebec court while wearing a hijab. The Prime Minister speaks out against women wanting to take the oath of Canadian citizenship while wearing a niqab, which makes only a person’s eyes visible.  Let’s weigh what facts we know. If the Quebec…

By Richard Landau

I hear it everywhere: “The media lie about us.”  “The media don’t tell our story.”  “We are invisible to the media.”  I attend conferences and hear speakers blame the media for racism, hatred, and demonizing certain identifiable groups. I hear nominally intelligent people repeat the falsehood that the media are owned, dominated…

By Richard Landau

Why is it that some new Canadian communities appear to achieve prominence, stature and wealth in the fabric of the national community – more readily than others? Research indicates that how well immigrant communities grow and emerge is dependent upon a variety of factors, including: higher education levels, a willingness…

By Richard Landau

The Charlie Hebdo massacre and subsequent hostage-taking and murders at the Paris kosher supermarket were supposedly in retaliation for the blasphemous manner in which the satirical publication portrayed Muhammad, the seventh century common era prophet of Islam. Take #1: The true nature of satire When satire first appeared in Western culture,…

By Richard Landau

Last year we witnessed surprising riots and fire in the streets of Stockholm, largely perpetrated by young men whose families originated in the Maghreb region of Africa. This is in Sweden, where official multiculturalism has lived. It looked like something we had seen previously in the suburbs of Paris. Young…

By admin

Lesson Four: The Discipline of Forgetting There is an anecdotal story of an ad agency that was hiring a new creative director. They sent him a sample ad to complete. Likely it was for some analgesic pain reliever. He came back with a headline and copy that was something like:…