An abomination.

That only begins to describe what occurred at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Friday, when thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews bullied a few hundred women attempting to pray at the holy site, hurling water bottles, chairs and verbal abuse. If police hadn't protected the women, there...

As the death toll continues to climb in Syria's civil war (the UN pegged the total at over 70,000 back in February), and as the ruling regime in Damascus allegedly unleashes chemical weapons on its own people, there is a growing consensus that something must be done to end the...

There's a Joe Fresh outlet in the grocery store next door to where I work. I walk through it often on breaks, perusing, because I have some interest in fashion and because there's nothing much else to do in the neighbourhood. But I have never been seduced by anything on...

If Dzhokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev can accurately be classified as "losers," as their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, theorized during a press conference Friday from Montgomery Village, Maryland, it seems clear which side of the family the brothers inherited that particular gene from.

For amid all the craziness in...

Whomever is in charge of event scheduling for the federal New Democrats ought to be fired today -- how in heavens did the NDP wind up holding its all-important policy convention on the same weekend the Liberals were to crown their new leader? Were Christmas eve and day already booked...

I think it's safe to say most of us have some amount of a problem with sex-selective abortion, and with people who think it's OK to abort a fetus just because it's developing a vagina instead of a penis. But I don't trust that's what Conservative MP Mark Warawa's

In June 1947, as the movement toward establishing a Jewish state in then British-run Palestine was reaching its apex, the Zionist leader and future first prime minister of Israel David Ben Gurion struck a deal with the powerful ultra-Orthodox organization Agudath Israel, a transaction Israelis refer to as the

Whoever came up with the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" was a damn fool. For what can we actually glean from the photo of Toronto mayor Rob Ford and former mayoral candidate Sara Thomson at an event in Toronto last Thursday night? From...

I'm not ashamed to admit to having no idea what the practical implications of the Supreme Court's Whatcott ruling are. And I don't think you do, either, since the written decision was so infuriatingly obtuse -- really, couldn't the court have just come right out and told us...

There are some acts of such utter stupidity for which the only recourse is to publicly shame those involved, in the hopes that doing so will jolt them into smartening up. So, to the teachers and administrators of Sutton District High School in York Region, Toronto, Ont., plus a cohort...

It's no sin to be born into money. But it can be a burden, especially if you're a politician trying to establish a bond with middle class voters, as Liberal leadership frontrunner Justin Trudeau is -- and especially especially if you're counting on young voters, most of whom are facing...

A new book arguing the Torah (what Jews call the Old Testament) was not, as the story goes, dictated by Yaweh to Moses on Mt. Sinai is causing a stir in the Orthodox Jewish community. In Torah from Heaven: The Reconstruction of Faith, England's Rabbi Norman Solomon argues the concept...

The viral cellphone video of the January 29 flood on the campus of McGill University was a perfect demonstration of why Montreal has become a national embarrassment. In the video, a young woman struggles to stay upright as a torrent of water burst from an 88-year-old water main...

After the latest Israel-Hamas skirmish in late-November, I argued Benjamin Netanyahu was the wrong man to lead Israel going forward. Netanyahu wasn't solely to blame for the latest round of fighting, which killed 130 Palestinian civilians and saw Palestinian rockets land alarmingly close to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem...

The sustainability of the National Hockey League has nothing to do with labour peace between owners and players, with salary caps, HRR or contract lengths. While the new collective bargaining agreement hashed out in the early hours of Sunday morning ensures there will be not be another lockout for at...

First thing's first: I don't think Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is going to starve to death. That will not be how this story ends -- the end will be a meeting between Stephen Harper and Spence, just as she has requested.

The Prime Minister is certainly stubborn -- that...

First, Egyptians took to the streets and got rid of the dictator Hosni Mubarak, and we all thought that was a good thing. Then, Egypt decided to hold free, democratic elections, and we thought that was also very good. Then, Egyptians voted for the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi as their...

If anyone can put a positive spin on this week's events in Israel and Gaza, I'd like to hear it. From where I sit there's absolutely no good news -- not for Israel and not for the future state of Palestine. Each side claimed victory after a ceasefire...

Canada-U.S. relations took a bit of a hit last week, and no I'm not referring to Stephen Harper's spiritual brother Mitt Romney's election defeat. I am talking about the breakup of good Canadian boy Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, the American pop princess.

The pair, he 18,...

Forgive my ignorance, but what's all this about U.S. election results forecasting the downfall of the Republican Party? Four years ago, the GOP lost with 45-and-a-half per cent of the popular vote and 173 electoral votes; Tuesday, the GOP lost with north of 48 per cent of the...