Featured Blog Articles Serial articles and the featured writing from my personal blog
	The Globe and Mail We Will Prevail: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Truth, and Reconciliation 01 January 2022 The world feels like a lesser place to me since Archbishop Tutu’s death. I know he would wave away such sentiments, and tell me that the world will be what we collectively choose to make of it. Nevertheless, it is as if a light that shone so brightly, and lit the way for so many, has now gone out.
	The Hill Times It Could Never Happen Here 25 January 2021 “It could never happen here,” is a comforting self-deception we tell ourselves, to feel superior to societies convulsed by corruption, bigotry, and violence, and to justify averting our eyes from our own societies’ evils.
	The Globe and Mail Will WADA live up to the ideals of sport and ban Russia from the Olympics? 05 December 2019 WADA will have to decide whether it is prepared to live up to the ideals of sport, or whether it will break faith with them. It will make its decision under the menacing glare of some of the most powerful figures in the world. But it will also do so under the impassive gaze of history.
	Oxford Quad Magazine Brexit and Oxford Bonds 25 September 2019 Brexit is a sharp reminder that the questions many of us anguished over in our student tutorials remain as intractable as ever outside academia: the clash of reason and passion in electoral politics; the nature of national identity in a globalised world; the debate over whom we recognise as friends and whom we regard as strangers.
	The Toronto Star Build a Wall? Canada's Response to Trump's Politics 09 August 2019 Everywhere — not just in the United States — the “settled consensus” on pluralism, inclusion, and meritocracy has proven to be a far less settled than editorialists had believed.
	The Montreal Gazette WADA and the IOC Will be One Another's Salvation or Undoing 20 October 2016 My impression is that the International Olympic Committee can not forgive the World Anti-Doping Agency for embarrassing the Olympic leadership during their moment in the sun. But not everyone who stands up to you is your enemy, just as not everyone who flatters you is your friend.
	The Huffington Post An Open Letter from the World's MPs to David Cameron 12 May 2016 I wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron, on behalf GOPAC's global alliance of parliamentarians, to urge him to thwart the ability of the corrupt to hide their illicit wealth and the evidence of their crimes behind a veil of corporate anonymity in Britain's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
	The National Post NATO and the Judgement of Paris 26 November 2015 The lessons of Afghanistan were purchased at a bitter cost: the war claimed more lives, more years, and more money than any other campaign in NATO's history.  Unless the alliance takes those lessons to heart, a war in Syria and Iraq to extinguish Daesh will be worse. My article draws on my address to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
	The Huffington Post Addressing the United Nations 04 October 2015 I addressed the United Nations General Assembly Chamber, in my capacity as CEO of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption. My passion for my mission in no way diminished how intimidating the experience was.
	The National Post The Queen of Scots? 17 September 2014 Not so long ago, the Queen spoke with “her Prime Minister” on the very subject of taking a hand in his referendum campaign. The contents of the surreptitiously recorded telephone call stand in stark contrast to the palace’s recent pronouncements.
	The Huffington Post A Message from Vienna to Canadians 06 June 2014 Like all Canadians I was deeply saddened to read about the deaths of three RCMP officers and the wounding of two more in a shooting in Moncton.
	The Toronto Star Gold Medal Hypocrisy at the Sochi Winter Olympics 23 February 2014 Nothing in Sochi did more to honour and advance the Olympic Charter, than the worldwide fight for equality unleashed by Russia's homophobic laws.
	The Huffington Post The True Cost of Political Corruption 29 November 2013 Every year, corruption kills 140 000 children across the world, by depriving them of food, water, and medical care. My GOPAC parliamentary colleagues and I are at the United Nations, in an effort to bring the worst offenders before the bar of international law.
	The Globe and Mail Margaret Thatcher's Verdict on the Liberal Party of Canada 11 April 2013 My conversation with Margaret Thatcher about the Liberal Party of Canada began with a chill in the air, and ended with our host mopping his brow. The news of her death, coming days before the Party leadership election, brought her verdict back to me.
	The Globe and Mail Political Corruption is a Crime Against Hope 10 November 2012 Political corruption robs citizens of our own resources, our fundamental rights, and our very identities as members of a free and equal society. It makes the weak prey to the strong, and delivers control of society into the hands of the unjust. It debilitates the nation, undermines the rule of law, and rots public confidence in democracy. It is a crime against hope itself.
	The Globe and Mail High Words and Low Deeds 08 August 2012 On the injustice of Tiffany Foster's disqualification from the London 2012 Olympic Games. We can speak up for the ideals good sportsmanship, or we can stifle the voice of conscience when those ideals are trampled. We can stand with our athletes, or we can collude with those who treat their dreams as expendable commodities.
	The Khaleej Times Keeping Faith with Secularism 20 January 2011 If history has but one lesson, it is that when religion and politics mix, both are degraded. In this vein, recent efforts by governments to restrict religious expression are grave errors in judgment. The article argues that Canadians have a responsibility to stand up for our country’s character, and to stand against government efforts to dismantle our separation of faith and state.
	The Globe and Mail Unashamed to Own the Podium 19 March 2010 Reflecting on my own experiences representing Canada in international sport, I argue that good sportsmanship and the virtues of sport are inextricably bound-up with the determined pursuit of sporting excellence, despite the scattered carping over the Own the Podium programme during the Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
	The National Post You Have the Watches but We Have the Time 25 January 2010 The article argues that Canada's public debate about the war in Afghanistan is engaged in an ignominious retreat from the truth, which jeopardises our ability to effect an honourable withdrawal from the country.
	The National Post The People's Viceregal Representative 06 September 2007 Beginning with an account of the chivalric pomp of the viceregal investiture ceremony, the article argues that the office of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario has paradoxically blossomed in importance and popular relevancy as it has withered in formal power.
	The National Post Notwithstanding Should Stand 12 January 2006 Written in response to Paul Martin's late-campaign surprise proposal to abolish federal call on the notwithstanding clause, the article passionately defends the clause as the ultimate guarantor of democracy in Canada.
	The National Post Turning the Tide 15 June 2004 The article was published nationally at a critical juncture in the 2004 general election, as the Conservative Party took a decisive lead in opinion polls on the eve of the leaders' debate. The article exhorted Paul Martin not to surrender to calls for the Liberal Party to pander to Canadians' fears by initiating a negative campaign, and to instead offer the nation substance and hope.
	The Halifax Chronicle-Herald Our Brothers' Keeper 17 April 2002 Flowing out of the work of Concordis, a Canadian foundation for collaborative peacemaking, the article proposes a role for Canada to make a sustainable peace in the region possible by brokering a tripartite dialogue between the Arab League, the Israeli government, and the Palestinian Authority.
	Français pour l'avenir conference Children of the Revolution 05 April 2001 A French-language address to the Français pour l'avenir conference in Toronto, the article reviews the genesis of French Immersion in Canada, and discusses its contribution to the national enterprise in the aftermath of the Quiet Revolution.
	The Oxford Journal of Parliamentary Government The Sound and Fury February 1998 On the state of parliamentary debate in Canada. The article argues that the federal opposition parties have proven unequal to the task of meaningfully shaping the national political discourse.
	The Toronto West Journal Art and the Megacity 01 December 1997 On the changing role of municipal government in the Arts, in the context of the amalgamation of the six cities into the new City of Toronto. The article argues that the trend towards subsidising budgetary shortfalls through cuts to the Arts is a false economy, which could lead to the bankruptcy of the new City.
	The Toronto West Journal Mother Teresa of Parkdale 01 November 1997 On the work of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity, and how the mission has reached from Calcutta to the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale. The article is based on a conversation with Mother Teresa shortly before her retirement as head of the mission.
	The Toronto Star Chocolate, Hallowe'en, and other Miracles 30 October 1997 An analysis and personal reflections on the United Nations Children's fund annual Hallowe'en campaign. The campaign has become a much cherished Canadian tradition, and a vital part of UNICEF's international development work.
	The Times of London HES Bargain Price Excellence 21 January 1994 The article examines and defends public financing of the "College Fee", which allows the collegiate universities in the United Kingdom to maintain high standards of teaching without excluding poorer students by the charging of tuition fees.