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OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says whether a re-elected Liberal government would pose a threat to national unity depends on how Albertans react, emphasizing that Liberal Leader Mark Carney has existing “damage” to repair.

Smith was speaking Thursday after delivering a speech and participating in a fireside chat at the Canada Strong and Free Network, an annual conference in Ottawa featuring speakers and leaders within the conservative movement.

This year’s event coincides with the federal election, at a time when successive public opinion polls show the Conservatives either tied with or trailing the Liberals.

Speaking to the crowd, Smith joked those in the audience should instead be out door-knocking and expressed support for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre winning the election, which she told reporters afterwards should come as no surprise.

Several days before the election was called, Smith laid out a list of demands she says must be fulfilled by the next prime minister at the risk of facing an “unprecedented national unity crisis” if they are not.

She presented it after having met with Carney shortly after he was sworn in as prime minister.

The list included repealing a suite of measures the Liberals introduced, including the federal law known as Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, which critics say has created a intractable approval process for energy projects; scrapping the cap on oil and gas emissions; as well as eliminating the net-zero electricity grid and electricity vehicle mandates.

While Carney has pledged to speed up approvals for energy projects, he has said he would not repeal Bill C-69, which the federal Conservatives have pointed to as why voters who want to see more pipelines built should not believe him.

“You can’t ride two horses at once,” Smith told reporters on Thursday. “You’ve got to decide.”

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Asked whether she believes a Liberal win would threaten national unity, the premier said it all depends.

“It depends on what the reaction is. If they don’t address those issues, then we’re going to have to see what the reaction of Albertans are,” Smith said.

“But I can tell you that having 10 years of having our economy beaten down by not being able to to have those kinds of investments have soured Albertans on the idea of a Liberal government, so it’s going to be required after the election to repair some of that damage.”

Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning warned in an recent opinion piece that Carney poses a threat to national unity, given the longstanding grievances those in Western Canada have towards the federal Liberals over it energy policies.

He wrote that, “voters, particularly in central and Atlantic Canada, need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession — a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”

Poilievre distanced himself from those comments when asked about them on the campaign trail last week, saying he believes the country needs to be brought together instead.

Concerns about sovereignty have been heightened in recent months as U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he wants Canada to become his country’s “51st state,” comments which all federal leaders have rebuked.

The Liberals have taken aim at Smith during the campaign, which concludes on April 28, with Carney recently joking to a rally crowd that it would be a “bad idea” to send the Alberta premier to fight against Trump’s tariffs.

Critics have blasted Smith for choosing to travel south of border to speak with right-wing figures such as Ben Shapiro about the ongoing trade war, a decision she defended before Thursday’s crowd as being part of an effort in diplomacy to speak with conservative influencers in hopes of getting through to the Trump administration.

“We shouldn’t be cheering on a trade war,” she told reporters afterwards, adding her office is receiving complaints about the retaliatory tariffs Canada has placed on the U.S. after it imposed 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum.

National Post
staylor@postmedia.com

Clarification: This headline of this article has been updated to reflect the fact that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s comments were made while speaking to reporters on Thursday rather than during her speech.

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A city-run program that grew thousands of pounds of fresh produce to serve Edmontonians experiencing food insecurity has been discontinued due to budget cuts.

Like several Liberal leaders on campaign trails before him, Mark Carney successfully completed the Hip Flip with guerrilla journalist and radio host Nardwuar the Human Serviette in a new video posted Wednesday.

For those unfamiliar, every time an election is called, the celebrity journalist born John Ruskin, who made a name for himself in Canada with quirky interviews of subject he’s researched extensively, tries to meet with leaders of the federal parties. And without fail, he’ll ask them to do the Hip Flip with him.

“That looks like so much fun. Yeah, why not,” Carney responded.

It’s not a campaign visit to Vancouver without a Hip Flip.

Thanks for the records and the trip down memory lane, @Nardwuar.pic.twitter.com/Sfl8oeta5p

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) April 10, 2025

As described by Board Game Geek , the object of the 1968 Hasbro game is for two dancers to spin a piece of plastic attached to a plastic tub between them by gyrating their bodies. The duo that spins the longest wins.

In Carney’s case, as it was for others before him, he achieved a single rotation.

Jagmeet Singh, who had already done it with Nardwuar during the 2019 and 2021 campaigns, was also featured in a new Hip Flip video on Wednesday.

Other Liberals bosses who have taken part include Paul Martin, Jean Chretien, Michael Ignatieff and Justin Trudeau. Stephane Dion, when asked during a press conference, refused.

When Nardwuar approached former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s team about a meeting and Hip Flip attempt in 2004, the journalist was carried away by security as he pleaded with the former Conservative Party of Canada leader.

Others to have played along include former B.C. premiers Christy Clark and John Horgan, and former Green Party of Canada leader Annamie Paul.

The hip flip with Carney was a culmination of a 13-minute interview that was classic Nardwuar from start to finish, but also shed some light on Liberal leader.

Here’s what else we learned about the Liberal leader in his interview with Nardwuar.

Gifts galore

Carney’s aides likely left the get-together with their hands full, their boss having been gifted several vinyl records.

The first was a 45 RPM vinyl of King Richard’s Army’s 1982 single and iconic arena rock song “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” which featured Vancouver Canucks goaltender Richard Brodeur as the cover art. The album was released during the team’s quest for the Stanley Cup that year, led by the netminder. (They were swept by the formidable defending New York Islanders.)

“I coveted that Northland goal stick, but I could never afford it,” said Carney, who grew up tending the crease and was a third-string goalie at Harvard.

Next up, following a chat about The Clash, is a copy of the band’s “The Cost of Living” E.P., which features the iconic “I Fought The Law”, followed by a copy of their seminal record, “London Calling.”

“I will say one other thing about The Clash, which I think people remember, that their first drummer was Tory Crimes. Hmm,” he said, looking into the camera.

The play on words was an alias of the band’s first percussionist, Terrence Chimes, whom they chose not to credit on the first album after he dropped out.

Perhaps the most obscure gift is a copy of a 1980 recording of a letter written by a seven-year-old Michigan girl named Shelley Looney, thanking Canada for its part in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

The letter ends with a postscript that says Canada has a “special place” in both her and her country’s heart.

“That’s good to know,” Carney said with a chuckle, “that’s a cold, cold heart. The black heart of America. Thank you, Shelley. We should track her down, maybe she could run for office.”

Some expert Canadian hockey fans might already be familiar with Looney. She grew up to become a Team USA hockey player who scored a game-winning goal against Canada in the gold medal game of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan.

He’s also given a copy of The Window Jumper’s “The Crash of ‘87” on vinyl and asked how tariffs will affect record production in 2025.

“A lot of creativity comes out of adversity, you find over the years. The Window Jumpers being exhibit A.”

He’s also given a Charli XCX’s “Brat” on vinyl, and mistakes it for “early XCX.” Still, he’s a fan, having come across her while serving as the Bank of England governor from 2010 to 2020.

Nardwaur also hands over a 1962 “Diefen Dollar,” a phony currency rolled out as an election prop by opponents of then Progressive Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker’s government’s decision to devalue the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar. The Tories were reduced to a minority government.

“There was a crisis because the Diefenbaker government effectively fired the governor of the Bank of Canada, which is not a good idea if you want independent decisions and inflation under control,” Carney said, referencing James Elliot Coyne, who resigned after conflict with the Tories.

“It’s interesting how history rhymes because now another conservative government is threatening to do similar things,” he added, referring to past vows by Pierre Poilievre to fire current Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem.

The last item is a copy of a record produced by the CBC when it had its own record label, giving Carney an opportunity to express his support for the national broadcaster, which his opponent has vowed to defund.

He’s down with Down With Webster

Keen-eared politicos will notice Carney’s stump speeches often end with Down With Webster’s anthemic “Time To Win,” and he’s even thrown up the Canadian millennial rock band’s “W” hand gesture as it rings out.

Turns out, he and his wife, Diana Fox Carney, were attending a performance by Canadian alternative rock band Sweet Thing at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa and stuck around to see Down With Webster. He’s been a “huge fan” ever since.

Carney quickly points out that the Liberals “employ them” for use of the music.

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Typically an NDP stronghold, the party managed to hold onto the seat in the by-election, but by a narrow margin over the Conservatives.

Calgary-based South Bow said cleanup crews have so far recovered about 20 per cent of the oil that leaked from the Keystone pipeline near Fort Ransom, North Dakota on Tuesday.

Doug Ford met in his office today with the Republican governor of Utah, who says he will be telling all of his fellow governors to visit Canada on similar trade missions.

Street sweeping in Calgary will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday and is expected to run this year from April 14th until about June 20th, depending on the weather.

Canada has a unique chance to become a medical and scientific powerhouse — if it moves quickly to scoop up professionals leaving the United States in the wake of health cuts and layoffs, the head of the Canadian Medical Association says.

A Canadian legal association under fire for cancelling a Syrian Canadian entrepreneur's upcoming speech over his stance on Gaza says it will cancel the event altogether.

The City of Vaughan, Ont., is considering changing the name of its thoroughfare known as America Avenue to Terry Fox Avenue.

The proposal was initiated by Mayor Steven Del Duca in February 2025 and is partly motivated by ongoing tensions between Canada and the United States.

The renaming aims to honour Terry Fox, a celebrated Canadian hero known for his Marathon of Hope and contributions to cancer research. The city views the change as a symbolic gesture of Canadian pride and unity during challenging political and economic relations with the U.S.

Residents of America Avenue have until April 24 to express their views about the name change by participating in an online survey. The results are expected this summer.

While some residents support the change as a tribute to Fox, others have raised concerns about the logistical challenges and costs associated with updating addresses and documents.

Additionally, the city plans to put a request into the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to rename a future bridge connecting America Avenue and Canada Drive as the Terry Fox Bridge.

The debate over renaming the avenue has sparked a variety of arguments both for and against the proposal.

Supporters argue that renaming the street to Terry Fox Avenue would celebrate one of Canada’s most cherished figures. Terry Fox’s courage and contributions to cancer research embody Canadian values such as perseverance and generosity, making him an ideal namesake.

Amid strained Canada-U.S. relations due to trade disputes and tariffs under U.S. President Donald Trump, the renaming is also seen as a patriotic gesture . It underscores Canadian identity and unity during challenging times with the United States.

Opponents highlight the inconvenience and costs associated with updating personal documents and addresses, and notifying service providers. This practical burden has been a significant concern for many residents.

Critics also question whether renaming the street due to Canada-U.S. tensions politicizes an issue unnecessarily . They argue that the name America Avenue does not inherently represent current U.S. leadership or policies. Some argue that America Avenue’s name is rooted in historical references to Christopher Columbus and not directly tied to current U.S. politics. Therefore, they see no strong justification for changing it based on recent trade tensions.

Names can be influential when real estate marketers are involved. A name like Terry Fox Avenue, associated with a celebrated Canadian hero, may enhance the street’s appeal , potentially making homes more attractive to buyers. Homes on streets with names that evoke positive associations or historical significance tend to sell faster and for higher prices compared to generic or neutral names.

The renaming could also foster a sense of community pride and identity, especially among buyers who value Canadian heritage and symbolism. This emotional connection might also positively influence property values.

However, residents may face practical challenges, such as updating legal documents and notifying service providers, which could temporarily deter potential buyers due to perceived inconvenience. The renaming process might create short-term uncertainty among residents and buyers, potentially affecting property transactions until the change is finalized.

The city has not disclosed the total cost of implementing the name change, leaving some residents skeptical about whether this expense is justified, especially when it involves taxpayer money.

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B.C.’s top court has set aside a 21-month jail sentence and replaced it with house arrest for an Indigenous offender who punched another man, fracturing his skull and causing a severe brain injury.

In a split decision, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia ruled that the judge who sentenced Isaac Harrison Davis to jail for aggravated assault failed to give due consideration to the role of Gladue principles in the case because Davis had obtained a high school diploma, stayed out of trouble with the law, secured employment and aspired to success. Gladue principles were set out in a Supreme Court of Canada decision a quarter century back that dictates sentencing judges must consider the unique circumstances of Indigenous offenders, as well as systemic issues like the impact of residential schools, to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons.

“The specific question to be addressed in this case is whether Mr. Davis, as an Indigenous offender, should be sentenced differently from the way a non-Indigenous offender would be sentenced for an aggravated assault of this nature. In my view, the answer to that question must be ‘yes,’” Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon wrote in a recent decision out of Vancouver for the majority.

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Fenlon concluded that “significant weight should be placed on the lessened moral culpability of the offender given his circumstances as an Indigenous person.”

Justice J. Christopher Grauer concurred with her decision.

The court handed Davis, a member of the K’ómoks First Nation, a conditional sentence of two years less a day, to be followed by a year of probation.

“Mr. Davis has been incarcerated since November 2024,” Fenlon wrote in her decision dated April 7. “By operation of law, the time served in custody will be counted as part of the 24-month conditional sentence order. The remainder of the first 18 months of the conditional sentence is to be served under house arrest.”

Davis was on the phone with his mother on Jan. 13, 2023, when she got in a car accident with Andrew Stone.

“The appellant (who was 20 at the time) thought he could hear Mr. Stone yelling at his mother,” said the decision.

“Thinking that she was in danger, he rushed to the scene of the accident. On arrival, he spoke to his mother and then confronted Mr. Stone who was hurrying towards his mother, having just come from a store where he had purchased cigarettes for her. Although Ms. Davis tried to stop her son, he walked briskly towards Mr. Stone and punched him in the middle of his forehead, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.”

Stone didn’t have a chance to defend himself.

“The punch was a very serious assault. Mr. Stone suffered from a skull fracture and a severe brain injury. Once on the ground, Mr. Stone was bleeding from the head, unconscious, and throwing up. Mr. Stone was transferred immediately to a hospital in Victoria where he had emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. Mr. Stone had two bleeds on the brain, he had multiple surgeries, he was in a coma for three weeks, and was paralyzed for two weeks. It was touch and go for a while as to whether Mr. Stone was going to survive or not.”

The assault was “both life-threatening and life-altering” for Stone, said the decision. He “suffered from speech aphasia, memory loss, and cognitive deficiencies, including memory loss. He has had to take speech therapy and now requires the use of a hearing aid.”

While the sentencing judge “was alive to the importance of Gladue factors,” Fenlon said, “he found these factors had a ‘lesser impact,’ in part because of Mr. Davis’s ‘success in life’ as demonstrated by the fact that he had graduated from high school, was employed, had no negative peer associations, no addiction issues, and no criminal history.”

Davis’s role in his family “was described as that of a ‘protector’ to his mother and female cousin,” said the decision. “Reports filed at sentencing confirmed that his father abused his mother and sexually abused his cousin. Mr. Davis’s upbringing was marked by poverty, domestic violence, and substance misuse by both parents. Mr. Davis felt compelled to shield family members from ‘bad experiences’ and ‘take care of everyone.’”

While it isn’t “necessary to establish a direct causal link between systemic and background factors and the offence at issue, Mr. Davis’s circumstances provide the necessary context for understanding his actions on the day of the offence,” Fenlon said. “Mr. Davis perceived Mr. Stone as an aggressor and his mother as in need of protection. That perception, although flawed, caused him to overreact and deliver a single blow to Mr. Stone with devastating consequences.”

While the dissenting judge on the panel accepted “that the sentencing judge erred in principle in failing to give due consideration” to Gladue principles, Justice W. Paul Riley concluded “that the 21-month jail sentence imposed by the judge was nonetheless a fit and proper sentence. The sentence is near the low end of the applicable sentencing range, and takes into account the effect of Gladue principles on the offender’s degree of moral culpability, as well as all of the other mitigating circumstances.”

A quarter century ago, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in the case of Jamie Tanis Gladue, a young Cree woman who had killed her common-law husband.

Gladue was 19 when she stabbed her husband upon discovering his infidelity, while intoxicated after a party. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, receiving parole after six months.

The Supreme Court upheld Gladue’s sentence, but it was a landmark decision. The court stated that sentencing judges must consider the unique circumstances of Indigenous offenders, as well as alternatives to jail time.

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A woman accused of killing her three-month-old child made her first appearance in P.E.I. Supreme Court on Thursday.

Corey Conners was not garnering much attention in the lead-up to the year's first major but the Canadian announced his presence on Thursday with his best-ever start to a Masters that left him firmly in contention.

Prince Edward Island is projecting the largest budget deficit in its history for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, according to the province’s latest budget, tabled in the legislature Thursday by Finance Minister Jill Burridge.

While hunting, chameleon lizards hide in plain sight by changing their colors to blend into their background. That is exactly what Pierre Poilievre has done since the summer of 2023 in his hunt and lust for power. 

Poilievre continues to fool many with his chameleon show and ads pretending to be a legitimate and reasonable politician. In the US the far-right evangelical, Christian nationalists who were instrumental in returning Trump to power, have now achieved their long-term goal and have gained complete power and control over the Republican party and the president. With their abhorrent treatment of women, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and the transgendered, you may as well call them the American Taliban. 

In order to become leader of the Conservatives Poilievre required the votes and support of the far-right evangelicals here in Canada. The question is, what did Poilievre promise them in order to gain their support? 

Many in Canada are not aware of the danger that is creeping into our country.

It is very important to look at who is endorsing and supporting Poilievre. The      Conservatives have partnered with Action 4 Canada, a right-wing  anti-DEI organization. Poilievre has also been endorsed by Alex Jones, the main far right conspiracy theorist in the US. Alex Jones praised Poilievre, as the “real deal and the new superhero of the right.” To date Poilievre has not rejected or repudiated the endorsement by Alex jones.

Pierre Poilievre has shown an affinity to the far-right, rubbing shoulders with, and getting his picture taken with, the far-right Freedom Convoy demonstrators in Ottawa. This begs the question. Who has Poilievre been in contact with and what groups has he been talking to? Is this the reason why Poilievre has been refusing to get his security clearance? because he doesn’t want anyone to know who he has been in contact with? Certainly, questions for the leader’s debate.

Poilievre, like Ontario Premier Doug Ford, is actively courting the labor vote. Labor needs a serious wakeup call on the threat posed by Poilievre!

It is important to note that Poilievre has repeatedly promised on the record that the first thing he is going to do as prime minister is bring in “right to work” legislation. 

It will take Conservative premiers like Ford, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith about five seconds to bring in right to work legislation provincially if Poilievre does that federally. Workers in US states that have brought in “right to work” legislation have had their wages and benefits slashed. This legislation also greatly affects non-union workers too, lowering the wage and benefits bar. 

Poilievre continues to ape Trump with his “Canada first” and “common sense” slogans. As is his promise to reduce “the bloated bureaucracy.”  

Poilievre has nothing but disdain for reporters who criticize him, calling them “The fake news media.” Poilievre’s plan to dismantle the CBC should alarm everyone. For many in the north CBC radio and TV is their only media source. A properly funded public broadcaster is also critical to our nation’s democratic health. 

Poilievre’s “common sense” cure all for the affordability crisis are tax cuts, cutting red tape (deregulation) and privatization. Completely discredited as the “trickle-down economic theory”. Like Trump, Poilievre’s solution to every problem seems to be a tax cut. “Common sense” is wreaking havoc in the US as it did under premier Mike Harris in Ontario in the 1990’s. There is only one way to pay for tax cuts, slash transfer payments to the provinces who in turn slash funding to healthcare and education. Healthcare privatization is clearly a goal for the Conservatives. their plan is to just leave healthcare up to the provinces. 

“Common sense” is a reverse Robin Hood policy, taking from the people and giving to the rich. 

Poilievre’s plan to deal with the climate crisis is just business as usual. Like Trump and Ford, removing regulations, again cutting red tape that gets in the way of profit making. Just making the climate crisis worse.

It is also important to look at Poilievre’s record and who is supporting him financially. Poilievre was Housing Minister in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which allowed 800,000 affordable rental units to be sold off to corporate landlords and developers. Under the Harper Conservatives, the average home price in Canada went up 70 per cent and he refused to do anything about it. Some of Poilievre’s top donors are real estate investors – the same people cranking up rents and fighting rent control across the country.

Democracy is at risk, not just in the US but here too. Democracy is a big issue. Canadians think we are not like Americans. We are much better than them.

 The fact is as human beings we’re are just as vulnerable to lies, misinformation, intolerance and fear as Americans are. As human beings we can also think critically, demanding answers to questions asked of Poilievre here.

Pierre Poilievre’s true colors are very dangerous. 

He must never be elected Prime Minister.

The post Debate questions for Pierre Poilievre appeared first on rabble.ca.

In the 19th century, the spectre haunting Europe was communism, or so Marx argued. In our century, a new spectre is as globalized as the economy, and its name is toxic masculinity. As a filthy, tang-coloured ooze of neo-fascism spreads over the globe, it brings with it a new popularity for online cults of  toxic masculinity, resentful incels, armed militias and leaders who champion a hard bodied, hard hearted version of masculinity, violent and brutal. Looking at you, Trump, Vance, Putin and your minions.

This movement is explicitly racist, anti-feminist, anti-trans and anti-woman, and it poses some important questions. Is almost all masculinity toxic, as some feminist critics might argue? For example, in her pioneering work Sexual Politics, American feminist Kate Millett provides the materials for a  persuasive case for this notion. and Anrea Dworkin provides further support for the case in her books, starting with Woman Hating.

More questions haunt me. What does it mean to be a man in the 21st century? Are all relationships we have as men suffused with competitiveness, misogyny, dread and the threat of violence? And finally, for those of us who live in the worlds of books and ideas, are there any answers to these questions to be found in art and culture?

Let me first say that I don’t  approach these topics with any  pretense of superiority to other men. Like most men who grew up in mid-century America, I was exposed to a lot of bad models and teachings about what it meant to be a real man- teachings from the larger culture and from my own semi-dysfunctional family. A man, I learned from my alcoholic father, drank heavily, disrespected women and took what he wanted, often through manipulation and duplicitous charm. From the culture I learned that a woman who had a lot of sexual partners was a slut, but a man with many sexual adventures was a stud, a player.

While I never really learned to perform mid-century masculinity very persuasively, I did learn the lessons well enough to be heedlessly sexist in my early relationships and subject women in my life to far too much selfish and misogynist behavior. I was not Harvey Weinstein, but I was, too often, a sexist asshole. I have tried over the years to apologize to those women and to make amends, but I have no illusions that gestures erased all the damage. “Walk like a Man” indeed! Feminist women and pro-feminist men helped me face and change these repellant behaviours. I am deeply indebted to them for their criticism and support.

And for another reason, beyond my own flawed behavior, this topic is intensely personal for me. At 26, my sister, Stella Candace Sandborn, was murdered in Sacramento California in 1979, almost certainly by a man performing one of this patriarchal world’s countless acts of femicide. She was most likely targeted simply because she was a woman, and her killer dumped her body, hands bound, underground. It was nearly two years after her disappearance that she was found,-and we were able to take her body home and bury her next to our mother. Can any book  or cultural product speak to such loss and horror, or persuasively link it to a kind of masculinity?

Maybe so. Certainly,  much of the western canon suggests that male bonding and “redemptive” violence are among its core tropes. Even our oldest surviving “novel,” The Epic of Gilgamesh, over 4,000 years old, perhaps history’s first buddy movie avant la lettre, circles agonizingly around these themes. In this version of the road trip narrative, the gods send Enkidu to Uruk to correct Gilgamesh the king’s bad behavior, which includes raping his subjects. In a scene echoed in countless songs, stories, films and novels since, the men bond by fighting each other and go on to travel into the wilderness and kill a monster and clear-cut a sacred forest. Not even the death of his now beloved companion dissuades Gilgamesh from his armed sorties into the world in a search for immortality. In braid, that will be repeated down the millennia, male bonding, mortal dread and violence are bound together like a garrote.

Later,  in Homer’s Iliad, the death of his beloved Patroclus doesn’t persuade Achilles to renounce his glory- seeking adventures at the walls of Troy. In fact, he emerges from the tent where he has been sulking (over a dispute about who owned a captive Trojan woman!) and re-dons the armor that Patroclus wore into battle while he sulked. He seeks vengeance on the Trojan prince who killed his lover. After all, as Dashiell Hammett has his hard-boiled hero Sam Spade muse in The Maltese Falcon, “when your partner is killed, you have to do something.”  Hammett was one of the founding fathers of the hard-boiled American detective fiction genre along with Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain in the early and middle decades of the 20th century. This is a genre that can plausibly be viewed, together with the noir movies it inspired, as an extended meditation on toxic masculinity, misogyny and violence. Portrayals of seductive, evil women abound, and  allegiances are felt  and betrayed primarily among men. Violence and death brood over everything. Surely there are some clues in this dark material to the ambiguities and mysteries of male bonding.

A remarkable new novel from Berlin based author Vijay Khurana is a good place to begin. Reading The Passenger Seat recently took me back to these questions and prompted this essay.

Khurana uses many of the classic tropes of the buddy road trip and crime novel/ true crime genres with a critical 21st century twist – think In Cold Blood meets Grand Theft Auto with the psychological complexity and moral anguish of Dostoevsky. And while shuffling those elements, he manages to create something altogether new, profound and subtle that puts each of the old genre elements into a new and heartbreaking light that illuminates some of the questions I am posing in this essay.

Khurana’s protagonists are a pair of half-formed boys/men growing up in a small North American town. The fiction is based loosely on a real tragedy that led to five deaths across northern BC and Manitoba in 2019.

This includes what appears to have been a suicide pact by two boys after they killed three other drivers on northern roads.)  The boys run away from their small-town home and head north, following vague dreams of high paying work- men’s work. They meet and kill a tourist couple in an act of almost abstract violence reminiscent of Camus’s The Stranger, (which also includes a moment of male bonding as the protagonist testifies in support of a friend who has assaulted his mistress) then go on to commit one more murder before they die in a suicide pact. So far, so noir.

But Khurana is intent on doing something more subtle and nuanced here than the usual noir tropes of crime fiction and true crime. The author uses the difficult but powerful mechanism of free indirect discourse to take us into the squalid inner lives of Teddy and Adam as they hang out, jump from a local bridge into dark water, play video games, drink and brood about their insecure, fragile sense of what manhood means and what their friendship means. The tone is ominous from the first scene onward. For example, “As the friends fall, rocks and shallows rise to meet them, except in the darker place they have aimed for.”

Khurana uses an apocryphal quote attributed to Norman Mailer as one of his book’s epigraphs, and it too contributes to the sense of menace and impending doom that haunts the boys as we get to know them. The quote, “When two men say hello on the street, one of them loses,” signals the central role of competitiveness and unspoken but profound and potentially lethal homophobia that will play out when these two friends take to the road. The boys are acutely aware of each other physically, and at the same time willfully blind to any flashes of desire that might light up that awareness. This tension is never made explicit, but it lurks beneath the surface of the dark waters of their lives and is one of the elements that turns their fraught journey toward death.

The novel is paradoxical in its impact. It vividly renders the boys’ impoverished, numbed and squalid inner lives without any major lapses into gory deaths, polemics or explicit exposition. It reads  like a horror story read in a deadened voice, all the more horrific for its quiet tone. Only one of the acts of violence is shown directly, while the others occur “off stage.”

In another artful move, Khurana provides a coda to his main narrative that shows two older men in the town where the boys grew up sharing moments of male bonding and collusive sexism. Ron, who was having an affair with Teddy’s mother before the boys’ lethal road trip two years before, celebrates his birthday with a friend ironically named Freeman. This ironic naming echoes an earlier name irony, with one of the boys sharing a name with the biblical “first man.” The action, such as it is, is rendered through free indirect narration from within Ron’s consciousness, and over a drunken evening and hungover morning after, Ron thinks guiltily about an earlier incident when he became aware of his friend’s violence against his wife and did nothing about it. This smaller scale, male-bonding- inspired silence is an indirect comment on the silences and anguish the reader has witnessed as Adam and Teddy conduct their doomed road trip.

The coda’s effect is almost musical as it suggests harmonies and rhymes between the two narratives of toxic male bonding and collusion in violence. The structure of the book and its lyrical prose combine to make telling points about toxic male bonding and its relationship to sexist violence, all without any counterproductive lecturing or explicit judgements. The magisterial way that Khurana uses the classic elements of noir crime writing to challenge and subvert those very elements is impressive and strange-  a bit like a violinist picking up a Stradivarius and playing Schoenberg instead of classical.

Two other recent publications in the noir genre provide ways to reflect on the relationship between the genre and sexist violence. Vancouver writer Sam Wiebe’s new Wakeland novel, The Last Exile,  is set in Vancouver and like all of Wiebe’s work delivers a beautifully crafted homage to the classics of the genre. While the  rogue’s gallery of outlaw bikers that ride through the book illuminate the links between toxic masculinity and violence in dramatic terms, and while the protagonist’s loyalty to his partner echoes that of Sam Spade and other noir heroes, Wakeland’s use of genre tropes, while expert and entertaining, lacks the critical depth and psychological darkness of Khurana’s management of the same motifs. If Khurana’s work is Schoenberg on a Stradivarius, Wiebe is that same instrument playing Brahms. Both delight, but one has more emotional heft and intellectual complexity.

George Pelecanos, like Wiebe, is a modern master of the noir form. He has produced a long series of pitch perfect, semi-autobiographical novels set in Washington DC’s ethnic and Black communities outside the Beltway. He’s gone on to  a successful TV screenwriting and producing career for shows like The Wire, Treme and The Deuce. 

In the title story of his most recent publication, the story collection Owning Up, he presents a powerful narrative of male bonding in both its toxic and non-toxic forms. While not without its grim and dispiriting moments, Owning Up represents the noir genre turned against its usual commitment to misogyny and violence. His protagonist here, Nikos, is a kid torn between his loyalties to a pair of older men in the violent shadow of a now little-remembered event, the Hanafi Muslim occupation of a DC building in 1977.

Nikos, like the protagonists of The Passenger Seat, is baffled by his own emerging sexuality and the whole vexing question of what it means to be a man. One of the older men who influences him is a seedy white hipster, Ray, who entangles him in daytime burglary that veers close to violence. Ray encourages Nikos to view Mindy, a girl he is dating, as “trim,” there to be pressured, used and abandoned. The other influence on Nikos as he muddles his way toward manhood is Ed, a black man who despises Ray and urges the kid to break his connection to Ray and treat his girlfriend with respect. Ed is instrumental in protecting Nikos from the worst of Ray’s influence, but not before the young man has followed Ray’s squalid advice about pressuring and objectifying his girlfriend.
All of this is viewed retrospectively, as Nikos, now an aging but successful writer, looks back on that formative moment in the 70s and tries to “own up” to his own sexist exploitation of Mindy and other women. It is an altogether plausible, non-polemic exploration of male bonding in all its ethical complexity. The bond between Ed and Nikos is a working model of one kind of  healthy, non-toxic male bonding and a heartening change from the poisoned ideological “testosterone” so often administered by the noir genres.

In a scene that is the dramatic and ethical core of the story, Ed tells Nikos:

“You need to treat that young lady with respect. I heard you talking to Ray about her one day, how you got with her in the back seat of your car….Yeah, that’s right. Bragging on what you did. Why you telling on her like that?”

It is a challenge that stays with Nikos and informs his later maturity and ethical growth. So, we have at least one powerful literary representation of healthy male bonding between an older man and the young man he mentors. How about healthy  peer male bonding?

Although Pelecanos does not explicitly reference the feminist critique of toxic masculinity in his powerful, subtle and moving short story, it remains an evocative subtext, informing his protagonist’s reflections. Another artist who has recently fused noir tropes with an expansive critique of patriarchal masculinity (aka toxic masculinity) is the American spoken word poet and performer Steve Connell, whose We Are the Lions  was commissioned by the YWCA for an anti-violence program called AMEND,  designed to promote healthy male bonding against, not for violence against women.

In We Are the Lions, the performer is seen alone in an empty loft space, wearing a tough guy jacket and seriously cropped tough guy hair. His opening lines establish his continuity with the bog-standard toxic masculinity we all grew up with. He begins:

“I don’t have a problem with pornography.

I mean, I don’t get upset when I see sexually exploitative commercials.

In fact, those are usually my favorite ones.

I mean I don’t know what her ass has to do with my hamburger, but I’m going to drive through the very next day.

I don’t have a problem with violent movies or images or the word bitch.

I don’t have a problem with jokes about women.

In fact, I freely admit there are times where I sit back with my fellas and kick back, talk about some bitch and how I wish I could hit that, talk openly in public places, unconcerned if your kids laugh.

I mean, it’s just words, just jokes, just dudes talking shit that you never expect is going to get back.”

But then the performance takes a surprising turn, as he says:

However, I do have a problem with violence and cruelty and rape and abuse and even if we know it’s just me, it’s just you, it’s just a few harmless jokes between me and my dudes, that still perpetuates a culture where it’s easy to confuse the link between the jokes and the bruise.

Between her getting choked and what’s just jokes between dudes.

And if there’s a connection between the things I don’t have a problem with and the things that I do then perhaps I need to rethink my views on the way we view women and how many views sexually exploited images get on YouTube.”

He goes on to tell a story about a village attacked in the night again and again by lions, lions who kill only women and children. The men of the village stay up to “protect” the innocent, but the next morning there are more victims. Slowly, the men come to realize that they are the lions, the monsters they fear are alive within them, alive to emerge in the dark and ravage.

“And we are the lions time and again.

And if we aren’t the lions, we’re on their side too often standing proudly in defense of the pride.

Perhaps afraid that if we stand with women against the lion we will, ourselves, be devoured.

And so ironically to prove we aren’t cowards we become cowards.

To prove we aren’t weak we become weak.

To prove we are still lions we become sheep, unwilling to do the one thing that must be done, speak.

And our silence chokes as heavy as hands.

It stings and every black eye, where men stand violence, lives or dies.

And that is why they call this just a women’s issue?”

Like Khurana, Connell uses the tropes of toxic masculinity and them turns them inside out, with Connell notably issuing a challenge to his fellow men to stand with women against misogyny and all its insults, assaults and erasure, to actually value  a lived human decency among men that is not built on the backs of women. This is an invitation to a bearable human future in which men and women can live together without subjection and assault. It may seem to some a utopian invitation, given how woven into our culture toxic masculinity is: it is no accident that a group of lions is called a pride. As men, we can, writers like Pelecanos and Khurana and Connell suggest, step away from our complicity and silence and into a more fully human solidarity that is far better than pride of place. We  can stop being lions and start living as human beings.

It seems, as Ghandi commented about “western civilization, “worth a try.”

The post Walk like a man: Toxic masculinity in crime fiction, fact and spoken word appeared first on rabble.ca.

The prestigious restaurant guide says it will release its recommendations from the province on May 15.

Ontario is reporting 155 new measles cases over the last week, pushing the province's case count to 816 since an outbreak began in the fall. Public Health Ontario says there have now been 61 hospitalizations.

The Montreal-based clothing retailer filed for creditor protection late last year.

Lizz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, said Mark Carney did “a terrible job” as the Bank of England governor and blamed him for “a lot of the problems” that led to her quick departure from 10 Downing Street in 2022, even though he’d resigned two years earlier.

She also said Canadians “need to wake up” to the threats that he and Liberal policies present.

Speaking on U.S. podcaster Glenn Beck’s show on March 22 , the former Conservative Party leader was reflecting on her resignation from office after 49 days amid an economic crisis sparked by a mini-budget with big tax cuts and promises of increased borrowing that her government rolled out to address the rising cost of living.

Carney, who’d led the central bank from 2013 to 2020, came up as Truss was calling out the “network node” of people who “forced” her to undo the measures, which had caused the U.K. pound to drop to its lowest-ever rate against the U.S. dollar. Asked about the World Economic Forum, she said it’s a “breeding ground” for those types — “people who believe in … wokeism, environmental extremism, big government, high taxation” — and labelled Carney a “regular.”

“Mark Carney was the governor of the Bank of England who printed money to a huge extent, creating inflation,” she said, referencing the policymaker’s decision to reactivate a money printing programme in response to Brexit-related risks it had publicly warned about.

“He was the one who created the pensions crisis in the first place by not regulating the pensions industry properly,” she suggested.

Days after the disastrous mini-budget, a massive sell-off of government bonds threatened long-driven investment (LDIs) funds and forced the Bank of England to save the U.K. pension fund from collapse with a massive purchase program.

She went on to suggest that Carney is among the cohort who “move in and out of the financial sector” and don’t believe in actually representing the interests of the electorate.

“They fundamentally believe that government should be run by experts who know best, which is them and their friends. They do not believe that democracy is a bottom-up thing.”

Later in the show, Beck turned the conversation back to Canada by asking Truss what happens to Canada under Carney.

She admitted to being “puzzled” by his rise to power within the Liberal party without being elected, something she feels is “illegitimate.”

“He did a terrible job in Britain of the governorship of the Bank of England. He created a lot of the problems that blew up on my watch, and that I got blamed for were actually created by him.”

In her view, “woke policies, high taxes, high spending,” and an unwillingness to use natural resources have caused European economic growth to fall behind the U.S., and Justin Trudeau caused similar issues in Canada.

“Mark Carney has been the advocate of these policies, so I don’t know what is going on in Canada, but in the same way as I think people in Britain need to wake up to what the real threat to our country is, I think they need to wake up in Canada.”

With election day approaching on April 28, Carney was campaigning in Toronto on Thursday.

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