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Those Newfoundlanders who voted for Confederation in the 1948 referendums did so for pragmatic, unsentimental reasons. The country, especially that part of it beyond the Avalon Peninsula, was indigent, isolated, poverty-stricken, dependent on the whims of a fickle fishing industry. Most of these people had never been... -
On its Global Affairs website, the Government of Canada describes the conflict in Syria as “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.” It quotes UN figures: 13.5 million people inside Syria in urgent need of help; more than a quarter-million dead, hundreds of thousands... -
Sometimes political leaders do the right thing for the wrong reasons. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s 1963 non-decision on arming U.S. Bomarc air defence missiles stationed on Canadian soil with nuclear warheads was a case study in how not to govern. It flew in the face... -
Both sides to this debate seek the same outcome: heightened awareness of, and greater public participation in, Canada’s annual Remembrance Day observances. The question hinges on the most effective means of achieving this goal. By enshrining Remembrance Day as a statutory holiday, on a par... -
Canada’s mission to Kandahar was a success because the Canadian Army, and civilians operating alongside the Army, achieved their mission goals. When Canada’s armed forces moved to Kandahar province in 2005, they were to undertake three related missions. First, to launch a Provincial Reconstruction Team... -
Canada is shopping for a new fleet of technologically advanced drones, also known as remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Chief of the Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance has called for these drones to have an armed capability. He is right. For...
Face to Face
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FACE TO FACE: Should robots replace soldiers in war?
Historian Matthew White estimates that 123 million people died in wars in the 20th century, and just 37 million of them were military. The rest were collateral civilian deaths (27 million), genocide and other mass murder (41 million) and consequential famines (18 million). Surely if there must be war at all in the 21st...
