Our government may say that we're engaging the Saudis to foster reform in the kingdom. Apartheid South Africa's allies made similar arguments, calling for "constructive engagement" with the racist regime. Thankfully, Canada rejected that approach and led the world on sanctions, which hastened the end of apartheid.

So there I am in my last column agonizing over whether Canada should ban that obscene and hateful Internet video called Innocence of Muslims, when it occurs to me that it might be a really good idea to come up with an example of freedom of speech in action. Something easily understandable. Something vivid. Something gutsy.

So a left-wing British MP and Republican Representative from Missouri walk into a bar... Rep. Todd Akin and the garrulous George Galloway would certainly do well to have a drink together one of these nights. Regardless of the fact they both exist on opposite ends of the political spectrum, their backwards, dangerous, women-hating views on rape are eerily similar.

If further evidence was necessary to prove that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a man of limited and flexible ethics, well, the guy himself has provided it. Instead of returning to his place of overnight confinement as decreed in his bail agreement, Assange sought refuge in London's Ecuadorian embassy and applied for political asylum.

These are my very own, real leaked documents about the fact that traditional, general-interest journalism is the crucial cornerstone of democracy and that social media threatens to destroy that cornerstone. They're written by students studying journalism. If you have any interest in Canadian journalism in our Canadian democracy you should read them.

The Yes Men, an anti-corporate group best known for impersonating official spokespersons, was one of the groups monitored by Stratfor, a private intel...

Traditional news organizations and watchdogs are in the same basket: the Internet basket. Our role to be proactive in it. Instead of fighting against one another, perhaps that we can join forces and find ways to create a safe environment for sources to speak up.