Editor's Comment: Across the decades, public schools in the United States have been teaching young children negative, distorted ideas and images about Muslim people whom the same children have never had an opportunity to meet. The images of Muslim/Arab people burned into my mind and memory by public school books... » read this article

In a speech Thursday to the Davos World Economic Forum, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged that his Conservative government will pursue a “transformative” big business agenda—austerity and tax cuts, radical regressive changes to public health care and pensions, and deregulation. In short, a social policy counter-revolution. With a significant... » read this article

Editor’s Commentary: According to the 2012 report issued this week:   Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their... » read this article

Early last year, deep in the forests of northern British Columbia, workers for Apache Corp. performed what the company proclaimed was the biggest hydraulic fracturing operation ever. The project used 259 million gallons of water and 50,000 tons of sand to frack 16 gas wells side by side. It was... » read this article

In a review last week of the year's best and worst, Rex Murphy offered up his choice for the most overrated politician of the year: Stephen Harper. Speaking on the "At Issue" panel on CBC-TV's The National, Murphy mused that the Prime Minister is not nearly as menacing a character... » read this article

Canada is under fire for exiting the Kyoto Protocol just one day after UN climate talks ended with an agreement to extend the treaty. Putting financial interests ahead of environmental commitments is an affront to global climate protection efforts, German papers write on Wednesday.   While it may not have... » read this article

Recent election cycles in Canada have demonstrated that whole swathes of the population—indeed, often an outright majority—reject the efficacy and even the legitimacy of the Canadian political process and show it by refusing to participate in federal, provincial and municipal elections. In recently concluded municipal contests across the province of... » read this article

Editor's Commentary: So let's be honest here. I'm a Canadian, and I'm getting pretty sick of listening to my government tell me what a splendid job it does with our economy. The fact is, whatever we've done right was done almost two decades ago, long before the present government even... » read this article

We are cat people. But we’ve been talking for a year about adopting a dog. We knew there were many dogs in shelters begging for homes, others languishing in filthy cages in puppy mills, or waiting to be rescued from certain death at our local pound. The only constant was... » read this article

(Reuters) - Canada will try to sell more of its energy products to Asia after Washington delayed a decision on whether to approve the Keystone XL Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline project, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. "This does underscore the necessity of Canada making sure that we are able to access... » read this article

September 26, 2011 - More than 200 people risked arrest on Parliament Hill in the largest climate-related civil disobedience action in Canadian history. The rally and the civil disobedience remained peaceful through the day-long event on the Hill. The main message of the action was to urge Prime Minister Harper... » read this article

Pro-Israel politicians regularly claim their position is a defense of the Jewish community. It’s rare when they say their goal is to mobilize those who believe a Jewish “return” to the Middle East will hasten end times or that Israel is a prized ally as a heavily militarized “white” outpost... » read this article

For troubled youth or couples seeking counseling, the Northwood Family Office might sound like the place to go. Except for one thing — you can't get in the front door without $10 million. That's rock-bottom what you'll need. The Northwood Family Office caters to families with assets ranging from $10... » read this article

"Critics say the existing Keystone pipeline, completed last year, has already spilled 21,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River, so extending it would cause other spills that would contaminate more groundwater. Also, they say that greenhouse gas emission from the development and use of tar sands are higher than... » read this article

In Canada, when you say ‘Jack’, everyone knows who you mean. John Gilbert Layton was just Jack. To everyone. He even told the Queen of England, ‘Hello, Your Majesty. I’m Jack’.   He died yesterday of an undisclosed cancer at the age of 61. After a lifetime that began in... » read this article

The most telling moment of the recent standoff over talks to raise the American government’s debt ceiling came on July 22, when President Barack Obama called a press conference to announce that House Speaker John Boehner had backed out of the negotiations. “I’ve been left at the altar twice now,”... » read this article

There was always skepticism about claims that, as the rich became richer, income would "trickle down" to others. What wasn't perhaps foreseen was that the trickling would actually be in the other direction, and that it would be more of a torrent than a trickle. But the evidence is now... » read this article

We surely seem to be living in conservative times — with the New Democratic Party trying to distance itself from all things socialist and the public apparently unable to sate its appetite for all things royal. Certainly it's easy to get the impression from the media that Canadians, content with... » read this article

Why I quit my job: July 8, 2011 Until Thursday, I was CTV’s Quebec City Bureau Chief, based at the National Assembly, mostly covering politics. It’s a fascinating beat - the most interesting provincial legislature in Canada, and the stories coming out of there lately have been huge. The near-implosion... » read this article

Editor's Note: The article on Matthew Chance has been republished many places on the internet and routed to this fine article by my co-editor, Paul Richard Harris. The article on CNN's Matthew Chance is located here (scroll down when you arrive). But please continue to read PHR's essay, Canada and the... » read this article