Category Archives: Histories, Commentaries, Commemorations

Greta Thunberg and the school strike for climate movement[1] PATRICK WOLFE April 16, the same day as Alberta’s recent provincial election, Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl, addressed the European Union’s parliament. “You need to listen to us, we who … Continue reading →

Emergency of climate change is upon us[1] By PATRICK SHANE WOLFE Bruce MacDonald, president and CEO of Imagine Canada, is undoubtedly correct when he says, “a dramatic rise in funding for disaster relief and community tragedies” is threatening “the short … Continue reading →

B.C.’s Proportional Representation Referendum: An opportunity to address polarization and stalemate[1] By PATRICK S. WOLFE In October 2018, a commentary by Gwyn Morgan, former CEO of Encana, bore the headline: “Courts and inept leaders are failing us.”[2] But I’d suggest … Continue reading →

Etty Hillesum Safeguards God: The Story of Her Spiritual Transformation during the Holocaust By PATRICK SHANE WOLFE Murdered at Auschwitz on November 30, 1943, Etty Hillesum is one of the shining personalities of the 20th Century. Seventy years after her … Continue reading →

The Crash of the Hercules at the North Pole: Arthur Black, Robert Mason Lee, and My Favourite Hour of Radio, Ever. By PATRICK S. WOLFE A devotee of CBC Radio since the early 1970s, I have favourite moments fashioned by … Continue reading →

Henry Adams and T.S. Eliot Together at Armageddon[1] By PATRICK S. WOLFE When Henry Adams died in March of 1918 at the age of eighty, T.S. Eliot, who was not yet thirty, was just beginning to emerge from obscurity. While … Continue reading →

John T. Shields: An appreciation of the author of The Priest Who Left His Religion By PATRICK S. WOLFE John Terance Shields was born in New York City on December 20, 1938. He died in Victoria, British Columbia, on March … Continue reading →

Making sense of the Orkambi debate in British Columbia[1] By PATRICK S. WOLFE We are served by innumerable organizations that overlap and interlock, but which don’t always co-operate—sometimes far from it. The ongoing and bleakly fascinating Orkambi debate, which has … Continue reading →

Robert Kennedy’s Warning 50 Years After His Death[1] By PATRICK S. WOLFE June 5, 1968 was my brother Michael’s fifteenth birthday. When I emerged from my bedroom that Wednesday morning, he told me Senator Robert F. Kennedy had been shot … Continue reading →

What to do with controversial statues? The City of Victoria and Sir John A. Macdonald[1] By PATRICK WOLFE Symbols matter. Just look at the response to Victoria City Council’s decision to remove the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from … Continue reading →