Full Comment

Over the holidays, we’re looking back at some of the best episodes of 2023, a year that saw massive controversy over the state of Canada’s schools. At Katharine Birbalsingh’s inner-city free school in London, students are not to speak in the hallways. Discipline is strict. The kids, heavily drawn from minority groups, memorize knowledge and learn duty. It’s what used to be considered a typical education. But as Birbalsingh tells Brian Lilley this week, she’s now considered a “radical.” The results? The students at Michaela Community School are excelling and parents are delighted. Birbalsingh explains what she thinks educators in Canada are getting so wrong. (Recorded September 28, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rex Murphy interviews Pierre Poilievre about the Tories' rise in polls, Trudeau's climate policies, identity politics in Canadian schools, and Trudeau's position on Israel.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started the year in fine form. Twelve months later his party is melting down in the polls and Pierre Poilievre is heading what looks like an election-winning juggernaut. But the Conservative leader shouldn’t get too comfortable, as the Full Comment year-end politics panel discusses. Host Brian Lilley is joined this week by Conservative guru Kory Teneycke and former Liberal adviser Warren Kinsella to talk about the federal Liberals’ rebound possibilities in 2024, as well as the big political comeback stories of 2023: from Danielle Smith’s election victory in Alberta to Doug Ford’s fall and rise over the greenbelt in Ontario. (Recorded December 8, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discussion on the broken RCMP and its inability to investigate serious crimes like money laundering, narcotics, and terrorism. The speaker, a former RCMP officer, highlights the neglect and dysfunction of the police force, leaving Canada unprepared against transnational criminals. The chapter explores issues with headquarters management, political interference, the politicization of policing, and lack of expertise in federal policing. It suggests restructuring the RCMP and establishing a new organization for a comprehensive overhaul of Canada's federal policing system.

The financial trouble the Trudeau Liberals have put Canada in looks disturbingly unlike previous debt and deficit hangovers, as William Robson tells Brian Lilley this week. The losses Ottawa has pushed onto the Bank of Canada are choking off desperately needed income, explains Robson, president and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute. Wages are losing ground. Business investment indicators are the worst since the 1940s. Unfunded pensions are soaring. Federal spending keeps rising. And the government continues adding enormous immigration inflows to a strained economy. Canada, Robson says, is “going down a very strange path” — and Ottawa seems not to care. (Recorded November 24, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lot of the criticisms against Canada’s public broadcaster are fair, acknowledges Richard Stursberg, who was the CBC's executive vice president from 2004 to 2010: The programming doesn’t always reflect the country outside of downtown Toronto; the CBC competes with private broadcasters for advertising, even though it’s government-funded. The problem, which Stursberg says was the case then and remains the case now, is that no one knows what the CBC is supposed to be. And that goes as much for Mother Corp.’s decision-makers as it does for government policy-makers. As Stursberg discusses with host Brian Lilley this week, there remains a distinct lack of vision for the CBC, save Conservative Leader Pierre Polievre’s plan to defund it. (Recorded November 9, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Caroline Glick exposes the media bias against Israel in the Israel-Hamas war, discussing inflated casualty numbers, vilification of Israeli soldiers, and the manufacturing of hatred against Israel by media and academia. The podcast also delves into biased media coverage, anti-Semitism on campuses, the alliance between progressive groups and jihadist organizations, the lack of support for Israel within the Democratic Party, and the manipulation of information and propaganda in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Almost exactly eight years after rebuilding the Liberals and winning government, Justin Trudeau looks like he could be done as party leader. His once powerful personal brand seems irreparably ruined, especially after his recent surrender on his signature carbon-tax policy. As National Post columnist Chris Selley and host Brian Lilley discuss this week, a Liberal party that became Trudeau’s cult of personality is being dragged back down into potential electoral disaster with him, with no clear saviour waiting in the wings to come to the rescue. (Recorded November 2, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Shapiro discusses the rise of support for Hamas in the Western world and the sense of danger American Jews feel, leading them to buy guns. They explore the degradation of society, the impact of hate in certain communities, and the weakening response of Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau. They also discuss the violence and oppression of Palestinians, the rise of antisemitism, and the narratives surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Historical ignorance is the generous explanation for the House of Commons applauding a veteran of the Nazis’ Waffen SS Galicia division during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But the embarrassment and outrage that followed shed little light on exactly how Ukrainians like Yaroslav Hunka found themselves first wearing the infamous Nazi SS uniform, then immigrating to live peaceful postwar lives in Canada. Myroslav Shkandrij, author of a new book, In the Maelstrom: The Waffen-SS 'Galicia' Division and Its Legacy, joins Brian this week to discuss the unsettled history of the controversial unit, and why the story doesn’t lend itself to easy narratives. (Recorded October 12, 2023) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices