Full Comment

The traditional ways of dealing with our dead are running into problems. Cities are running out of space for cemeteries. Cremation and burial are being shunned for their environmental damage. And there’s a huge wave of boomers running out of time. Ian Sutton, author of The Big Exit, joins host Brian Lilley to discuss the trouble of dealing with so many humans dying off, and the creative alternatives being explored — including feeding us to mushrooms, blowing us into space, crushing us up, and putting us to sleep with the fishes. (Recorded April 20, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Natalie MacLean broke out of the Ottawa tech scene to become a globally celebrated wine writer, travelling the world, paid to drink, she thought she had everything she could want. Then, like a glass toppling off a table, her life was shattered: her marriage collapsed, she was pilloried in an journalistic ethics scandal, and she realized wine had gone from career to crutch. MacLean, bestselling author of the new book Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Depression, and Drinking Too Much, joins Brian Lilley to discuss the perils of the wine world for women and why she’s speaking out against the dangers of today’s “wine mommy” mania. (Recorded April 26, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada isn’t the only place where left-wing activists are blackening the names of colonial-era figures like John A. Macdonald and Henry Dundas for not living up to modern, ultra-progressive ideals. When British ethicist Nigel Biggar found himself defending 19th-century mining magnate Cecil Rhodes against exaggerated claims of racism from Oxford University students, he recognized the need to bring more balance — and historical literacy — to arguments over British colonialism. Biggar joins host Brian Lilley to discuss his new bestselling book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, and why, despite its many flaws, British imperialism is getting an unfair rap (Recorded April 25, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 1,019 days Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were China’s hostages, cruelly imprisoned by the communist regime as leverage for the release of Meng Wanzhou, held under house arrest in Canada on a U.S. warrant. Then, suddenly, one day, they were free, thanks to a White House-brokered deal. Mike Blanchfield and Fen Osler Hampson, authors of the new book The Two Michaels, join host Brian Lilley to discuss what went on behind the headlines. They explain why Beijing targeted the Canadians, why the ordeal dragged on as long as it did, and what led to the bargain that finally broke the nearly three-year impasse. (Recorded April 20, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billy Gorta saw the rise of violent attacks in New York City back in the ’70s and ’80s, when politicians took a soft-on-crime approach. If that sounds familiar, that may be because Canadians are facing a shocking crime wave — and many point the finger at looser bail and police-defunding policies. As an NYPD captain, Gorta was in the room when leaders finally got serious about cracking down on crime. Gorta, who went on to become a journalist, joins host Brian Lilley this week to talk about what we can learn from New York’s experience, and what it will take to get serious about making Canada’s streets safer again. (Recorded April 12, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new buzzword among urban planners is the “15-minute city,” but it’s the same old idea they’ve been pushing for decades — their dream of getting us all living in small, densified urban condos, and out of our cars. Urban Policy Analyst Wendell Cox joins host Brian Lilley to explain what the “15-minute city” really is and why it’s doomed. He discusses how planners ignore how we really want to live, how cars and suburbs improve our lives, and how the ways the pandemic changed our work and our world should rightly put an end to these schemes once and for all. (Recorded March 29, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wars, terrorism, boycotts, a nuclear Iran: Since the 1948 founding of the modern State of Israel, the Jewish state has faced seemingly endless threats to its security — and, at times, its very existence. As it approaches its 75th birthday, the biggest threat comes from within, says Vivian Bercovici. Canada’s former ambassador to Israel joins host Brian Lilley from Tel Aviv to explain what’s really behind the massive, unprecedent protests against the government’s so-called judicial reforms. And why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t back down — threatening what Bercovici believes could be a 75th birthday that is more civil war than celebration. (Recorded March 29, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Chanel Pfahl started teaching at an Ontario public school she didn’t expect the curriculum to include lessons about how everything is racist, including math. When she told her Facebook followers about her disagreement with what she considered the indoctrination of students into critical race theory, she found herself under investigation by the Ontario College of Teachers. Pfahl joins Full Comment host Brian Lilley to discuss why she’s worried about what she sees being taught to Canadian kids, the refusal to allow parents and teachers to question it, and how she’s working to change it. (Recorded March 21, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canadian lawyer Dan Bilak didn’t expect his legal career to end up with him training to fight Russian soldiers invading Ukraine, but here he is. Bilak joins host Brian Lilley this week to explain the unlikely story of how he went from practising corporate law to practising clearing booby-trapped houses. And he discusses why he thinks the stakes of this war are so high for the western world, why he believes so strongly in the cause, and why he believes his fellow Canadians should, too. (Recorded March 10, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Project Sidewinder, a joint CSIS and RCMP report, found evidence of Canadian politicians under Chinese influence, Beijing’s agents funnelling money to Canadian political parties, and communist spies infiltrating Canadian assets and institutions. That was back in 1997. With fresh allegations of China’s electoral interference in Canada, Michel Juneau-Katsuya, the former CSIS intelligence officer behind Project Sidewinder, joins host Brian Lilley to discuss how China has managed to penetrate Canadian politics at every level — and in every party. Juneau-Katsuya also explains why the Sidewinder allegations were ignored, and how Canada can finally get serious about China’s interference. (Recorded March 10, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices