Excavations


... nothing is more essential to public interest than the preservation of public liberty.

- David Hume



Saturday, October 17, 2015

Harper joins with populist Ford brothers

But all was not over yet for the poor [prime minister], who must needs drink to the dregs the bitter cup of association with such low company.

With apologies to Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame[1]




[1] Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, tr. A.L. Alger (Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2015), p. 28.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

A Made-in-Canada solution to the Niqab issue

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

It has come to my attention that the niqab issue has wreaked havoc on the fortunes of the NDP in Quebec.  Well done! But by bedeviling Tom Mulcair’s party you also assist that of Gilles Duceppe, the formally moribund Bloc Québécois.  Finding support among separatists cannot be a good thing, given that you once prorogued parliament (I think it was in 2008) on a perceived link with the Bloc.

In order to avoid downright false charges of being in bed with the separatists when it suits you, permit me to suggest a made-in-Canada solution to the perplexing matter of niqabs in citizenship ceremonies.  Instead of wearing the niqab these unfortunate and oppressed women (numbering a few dozen, I imagine) should be required to wear a goalie’s mask.  Voila – instant recognition as an integral part of the “Canadian family” simply by donning a modest piece of face-saving equipment!  You’ll make hockey history (at last), and it will only increase the sales of your long-nurtured book.  But the Muslim women will profit too, for you will be also be providing new and exciting career opportunities for Canada’s niqab-wearing population.  A win-win deal if there ever was one.

Your obediant servant,

Joerge Dyrkton