Maurice Richard sets Quebec ablaze

charlesforan.com Rare is the athlete whose cultural impact transcends the sport he or she plays. Charles Foran, the author of a new book on Maurice Richard for the Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series, says his subject fits this select category. In the same sense that Jackie Robinson didn’t set out to[Read More…]

More dimensions than the five dollar bill

warmuseum.ca Andre Pratte, the author of a new mini-biography of Wilfrid Laurier for Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series, complains that the  man on the five-dollar bill has been mothballed by myth. “Laurier’s fame today is confined to old books on the shelves of public libraries,” he writes. It is the dual[Read More…]

U.S.-Canada relations conference draws prominent politicians

Alice Walker Alice Walker Last week, the Omni Hotel on Sherbrooke hosted the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada’s annual conference, this year titled, “Canada and the United States: Conversations and Relations.” The conference brought together high-ranking decision-makers from the U.S. and Canada to engage in conversation with the[Read More…]

Renowned scholar talks on Yiddish and political power

Matt Essert Dovid Katz, a world-renowned scholar of Yiddish and self-described “charismatic lunatic,” delivered a lecture in the Ferrier Building on March 14 called “Yiddish and Power.” In a room filled with mostly Jewish studies professors and elderly civilians, Katz explored how the development of the Yiddish language has been[Read More…]

Averting meltdown

The first item listed in a recent story on the Atlantic Wire website, “The Worst Reactions to the Japanese Earthquake,” was an awkward construction from P.J. Crowley, a U.S. State Department spokesman, on his Twitter page: “We have been watching a hopeful tsunami sweep across the Middle East. Now we[Read More…]

Mere penarchy

It is a dark world out there. A state of war, each against each. You are all alone. It is mere penarchy. Despite all our progress as a species, despite our eminent legal institutions and our many esteemed documents banning torture, protecting free speech, prohibiting the wearing of a fake[Read More…]

In Goethe-inspired opera, a fatal attraction

Opera of Montreal Shortly after the curtain rises on Opera of Montreal’s production of Werther, a young boy wheels a bicycle across the stage, laughing and carousing with his friends. The bicycle remains onstage through the first act, occasionally pedaled by the boy but mostly left in a corner, untouched[Read More…]

Rewards of Being a Tribune Columnist

Last winter, my friends and I were at a bar off St. Laurent when one announced his desire to get some fresh air. Upon return, he said he’d been standing on the corner and struck up a conversation with two McGill students. They asked who he was with inside the[Read More…]

What’s the “right opinion” on Wikileaks?

Third in queue at a Barclays bank in central London during winter break, I read through squinted eyes the BBC’s announcement that Julian Assange, the controversial founder of Wikileaks who was wanted by Interpol for alleged sex crimes in Sweden, had been arrested at a London police station after turning[Read More…]

Walking the streets of Mordecai Richler

Holly Stewart Holly Stewart Few hipsters, biking furiously down St. Urbain Street in Mile End, notice number 5257, an unassuming second-floor apartment in a small, pinkish-beige brick building on the east side of the street. It’s uglier and noticeably younger than other buildings on the block, with no sign to[Read More…]

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