Full Comment

We’re the safest we’ve ever been from COVID: The vast majority of us are vaccinated and the highest-risk people have boosters. The virus has mutated into its mildest version ever. Yet, in Canada, governments are once again closing schools, locking down businesses and deploying the same fearful, knee-jerk responses they’ve always used. Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, a frontline infectious diseases specialist at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ont., joins Anthony this week to explain why it’s time to declare an end to these needless lockdowns — and to start moving towards a post-pandemic mindset, where COVID stops being the primary focus of everything we do. (Recorded January 6, 2022.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

McGill University scientist Patanjali Kambhampati is on the cutting edge of laser research, but government funders refuse to support him — simply because he doesn’t believe in “diversity, equity and inclusion.” As a minority who has experienced racism himself, Kambhampati joins Anthony to discuss why he believes science is a true meritocracy, and why critical scientific advancements rely on people demonstrating their abilities, not their race, religion or gender identity. Kambhampati also explains why so many scientists who agree with him are afraid to speak out — and what’s at stake if science doesn’t take a stand against social-justice engineering. (Recorded December 9, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada’s reaction to the new COVID-19 variant suggests we haven’t yet learned from our past mistakes, Dr. Neil Rau tells Anthony in this episode of Full Comment. The flight bans to stop Omicron will prove pointless, explains Rau, an infectious-diseases expert and medical microbiologist in Toronto. Meanwhile, officials’ outdated attitudes about case counts, PCR tests, vaccinations and restrictions threaten a “tsunami of quarantine.” Eventually, Canadians will have to get a more realistic perspective on a virus that will simply keep mutating, Rau says — and it’ll be better for us all if we get there sooner, rather than later. (Recorded December 9, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Desperate to get out of the pandemic, Canadians have rushed to give up their privacy. We offer our sensitive digital health information to go out in public. Contact tracing, COVID-19 apps and QR codes trace our movements. Meanwhile, we’re building an information network that can give governments vast surveillance powers that remain long after the pandemic, says privacy expert Ann Cavoukian. The former Ontario privacy commissioner, and author of Privacy by Design, joins Anthony this week to explain why she’s alarmed by this zero-sum arrangement that trades privacy for health security. And she explains how we can keep public health without creating a permanent digital surveillance state — but only if we demand it. (Recorded November 25, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s something funny about the attempts by woke warriors to cancel “problematic” comedians like Louis C.K. and Dave Chapelle — because it never works. Legendary comedy-club impresario Mark Breslin joins Anthony this week to tell stories about the comic wars he’s been through since he opened his first Yuk Yuk’s in 1976. And he explains why the scolds who try to take the laughs out stand-up shows always end up bombing, and why today’s woke, wet blankets are just as likely to end up laughed off the stage. (Recorded November 25, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

North American elites wish we were all a bit more European. From work-life balance to climate progressivism, Europeans seem to embody the paragon of sophistication that liberals dream of. In real life, however, Europe is a mess. Outside its fashionable capitals lie sprawling impoverished suburbs. Unemployment haunts millions of unassimilated immigrants. Europe’s business innovation is lagging, its workers are less productive, and its energy costs are punitive. David Harsanyi, author of a new book, Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent, joins Anthony to explain why we should stop trying to emulate Europe, and instead celebrate the freedom, work ethic and assimilationist ideas that have worked so well on this side of the Atlantic. (Recorded November 10, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal for the Washington Post in 1972. Since then, Woodward has written books about presidents Nixon, Clinton, Obama, Trump, and both president Bushes. His latest book, Peril, is about the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, and the tumultuous transition from Trump to President Joe Biden. Woodward is the speaker this year at the Audi Innovation Series in Canada (that talk will be released Nov. 17 by Audi via Twitter and Facebook). But first, Woodward sat down with Anthony to discuss the serious troubles facing the Biden presidency, Trump’s plans to run again in 2024, the Steele Dossier fiasco, and what it means for the state of American journalism today. (Recorded Nov. 10, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada might never fully solve the pandemic problem until we understand why some people are so resistant to getting the vaccine. That means actually sitting down and talking to people who aren’t typical anti-vaxxers but are suddenly opting to lose their jobs rather than roll up their sleeves for a COVID shot. Anita Davis is one of those people. After 30 years as a nurse, she was just terminated from a health-care system already starved for staff because she isn’t comfortable getting the COVID vaccines right now. She joins Anthony to explain why she felt so strongly about her decision and what we can learn from someone who would sacrifice a decades-long career over vaccine choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The concept of the “citizen” is found rarely throughout human history, and those lucky enough to have it must guard it jealously. It is one of the most cherished ideals of our liberal, democratic societies. But the forces of globalization and progressivism, and the elites who benefit from them, are working to erode it. Victor Davis Hanson is a prominent American intellectual, a scholar of ancient Greece and military history, and a prolific commentator on contemporary U.S. politics. He joins Anthony to discuss his new book, The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America. (Recorded October 21, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beijing’s threats to invade Taiwan are getting serious. Military tensions are ramping up. And a war — perhaps even a Third World War — is not out of the question. It could even be inevitable. Scott Simon, co-chair of Taiwan studies at the University of Ottawa, joins Anthony to explain why he thinks Xi Jinping’s China today looks a lot like Hitler’s Germany in 1938, bullying the world to appease its territorial demands before it moves towards even more aggressive expansion. And, he says, unless Canada and the West start demonstrating more strength, we will be falling right into China’s trap. (Recorded October 21, 2021.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices