No support for Khalistan
BY JEFFREY SIMPSON
Ujjal Dosanjh, a former NDP premier of British Columbia and since 2004 a Liberal MP, said something sensible and brave last week.
Mr. Dosanjh was physically assaulted in 1985 after he denounced religious violence in the Sikh community. Recently, he and another Sikh-Canadian politician were told to stay away from an annual Sikh festival [...]
Fundamentalism in India
Ramachandra Guha
The religious bigots work within the democratic process, seeking to divert and distort it. The word ‘Hindutva’ was coined by the revolutionary-turned-reactionary Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The most effective work in pursuing the political philosophy that bears this name was undertaken by his younger colleague Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar. Golwalkar was head of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak [...]
Muslim women and the veil
Clifford Orwin
Bad news comes in bunches. First there was Quebec’s Bill 94, which would refuse government services, public employment, educational opportunities and even most medical care to Muslim women wearing the niqab. Then there was the Angus Reid poll showing that 80 per cent of all Canadians agree with this measure. Evidently Abe Lincoln was [...]
Why refugee reform makes sense
Jeffrey Simpson
What the federal government outlined yesterday is worth a try to bring some greater efficiency and common sense to Canada’s broken refugee-determination system.
Changes will cost Ottawa money – $540.7-million over the next five years at a time of coming overall spending restraint. Changes will send so-called refugee advocates into spasms of indignation – a [...]