As the future of Israeli Jews and Palestinians spirals down into an inevitable and inexorable apartheid struggle, Canadians are being denied their fundamental right in a democracy. That is the right to an honest and frank debate about one of the most important issues faced by the international community -- the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the brutal suppression of Palestinian human rights. 

It's not that Canadians don't care or don't try to inform themselves. It's that both the media and federal governments are loath to even talk about it. With these two institutions maintaining a steadfast silence there can be no genuine debate. And so we betray both Israelis and Palestinians by condemning them to a future of violence.

Canada ended the Second World War as the third-ranking world power.

Though greatly eclipsed by the United States (and the Soviet Union), Canada was positioned ahead of the traditional great powers, France, Germany, the U.K. and China. Weakened by war, none were able to play a substantial role on the world scene.

At the crucial juncture when postwar direction was set and the Bretton Woods institutions, the UN and NATO established, policies championed by the U.S. dominated the world.

Enjoying a brief period of enhanced stature because of its strong (centrally planned) wartime economy, Canada developed a "quiet diplomacy" approach to the world hegemonic power.

The idea was to use close relations with the U.S. to exert influence on the world scene.

Let's be clear on why Trump won. (Won the Electoral College, not the election. A strong enough majority of Americans voted against him.) It wasn't because of racism, fear of immigrants or misogyny. White supremacists and Confederate flag buffs didn't do it -- though they backed him.

He won because he carried four states in the rust belt, where factories once guaranteed people decent lives and which Democrats had always taken for granted. Hillary didn't even campaign there. Without them, Trump loses. In those states, the issue was hatred of free trade, largely in the form of NAFTA. It's now so despised that the term, free, is absent. People refer disgustedly merely to "trade deals."

Justin Trudeau should not expect to see a lot of $99 Liberal Party of Canada toques or $199 scarves being worn in metro Vancouver this winter.

Last week, the Trudeau government approved doubling the Kinder Morgan pipeline from Alberta. The Trans Mountain expansion proposes a 700 per cent increase in ocean tanker traffic through the port of Vancouver and an expanded diluted bitumen (dilbit) storage facility (tank farm) in the city of Burnaby, both in Tsleil-Waututh territory at Burrard Inlet.