This week I had the pleasure of spending the day with someone whose name I know well but had never actually met: Major General Leonard V. Johnson (ret.). (Second from right above) Len, as he prefers to be called, retired from the Canadian Forces back in 1984. Not long after, as he told me, he told […]
Anyone reading a newspaper today would be forgiven for thinking that the world’s media were conspiring to create the ultimate April Fool’s joke. Another “hostage crisis” with Iran as the bad guy again, reprising 1979. But all the fuss isn’t really about fifteen British sailors. Western hostages have been held and frequently executed in hostile parts […]
Steve Staples notes below that a sign in the War Museum explains that the massive nuclear “overkill” during the Cold War was due “in part to the decades of military and scientific miscalculation about the effects of nuclear explosions” It’s difficult to imagine a statement more erroneous or misleading. The precise effects of nuclear weapons were well understood by […]
This afternoon we held a luncheon for human rights groups in the Ottawa area to come and hear about the Rideau Institute’s newest project, RightOnCanada.ca. The featured speaker was RightOnCanada.ca founder and Rideau Institute senior advisor Kathleen Ruff. Kathleen has a long history in the human rights field, including serving as the head of the […]
I just wanted to thank everyone who attended our little office launch of the new Rideau Institute on International Affairs in February. My special thanks to Senator Douglas Roche who gave a very generous and rousing speech about the work ahead and why a new policy and advocacy instutute is needed in Ottawa. I have to […]
Great for the museum to stick to its history when it gets it right as it did on strategic bombing of Germany, but when should it correct the story when it gets it wrong? In Nov 2005 I stopped by the museum and took the this photo of a display that tried to “explain” the […]