The Story – A Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria During the afternoon of April 4, news broke in North America of an apparent chemical agent attack in Idlib, Syria. Within hours, news agencies and social media streamed horrific videos of adults and children gasping for air and being rushed to hospitals for treatment, where they were…
The Story After the U.S. elections last November, many Canadians half-jokingly prepared for an influx of disaffected liberal Americans fleeing the new Trump regime. And while the Canadian immigration website crashed on the night of the election, it seems that few American political refugees have indeed crossed the border. Rather, Canada now faces a much more…
Canada – Not as Civil as You Might Think The past seven days were supposed to be a good week for Canada. Last Monday, Justin Trudeau went to Washington and delivered exactly what almost every Canadian was hoping for: an acknowledgment from President Trump that the U.S.-Canadian trade relationship was valuable and only needs to be…
UPDATE (Feb. 7): If you are a reader in Canada, one way to show solidarity with the Muslim community, in light of the travel ban and Quebec mosque shooting, is to affirm the values of human rights and dignity by adding your and your organization’s name to the National Council of Canadian Muslims’ “Charter for Inclusive…
Editor´s Note: On October 3, 2016, the Colombian people shocked the international community by narrowly rejecting a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). After more than 50 years of violence, most observers in Colombia and around the world expected that there would be widespread support for such an agreement, in order…
Happy New Year to PineTreeRepublic readers! As we enter 2017 and approach our second anniversary, it seems like a good moment to continue an emerging annual tradition: the top 10 list of our favourite news articles from the past year. If nothing else, the twists and turns of 2016 demonstrated the importance of high-quality journalism in order to…
Editor´s Note: On October 3, 2016, the Colombian people shocked the international community by narrowly rejecting a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). After more than 50 years of violence, most observers in Colombia and around the world expected that there would be widespread support for such an agreement, in order…
Travels in a Polarized Country In the lead-up to the U.S. election, I had the opportunity to travel through several states along the East Coast, visiting friends and university campuses. Even before the final, surprising twist on election night, the polarization amongst Americans was palpable. In Boston – perhaps America’s most educated city – I tuned into the…
Coffee and Politics As I was sitting across the table from my university friend, nearly 10 years later, I couldn’t help noticing the salt and pepper that started sprinkling his hair. We had been roommates for two years while going to school in Los Angeles. Shortly after graduation, he left for graduate studies on the…
The Story If there’s one common theme that underlines politics across the industrialized world in 2016, it is surely the rise of populist movements into the mainstream. Consider the following developments in Europe and North America over just the last month: In Spain, the far-left political coalition Podemos-Izquierda Unida has firmly supplanted the Socialist Party in voting…
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