FOR A long time, and certainly fully exposed since 2016, there has been a clash of two totally opposing understandings of the world. These two forces are globalism and populism, and they are more important and more divided than left and right. Each is more dominant on one of the traditional sides of politics than the other, but each also crosses those old left-right lines and in some ways make them obsolete.
I was sceptical about COVID-19 from the start. I was in Wuhan when it started (something I only realised in retrospect) and one year into the ‘pandemic’ not a single colleague or friend there had contracted it. I also knew that people were not dropping dead in the streets.
I was not in denial about the existence of a novel virus (to which I eventually succumbed), but I was unconvinced that it posed the existential threat that was presented in the media. After all, I was in Hong Kong when SARS kicked off in 2003 and made regular visits during that ‘pandemic’. The outcome of SARS never matched the hysterical hype that accompanied it.
As 2025 began, federal records showed that there were 4.9 million visas set to expire in the coming 12 months, with Conservatives pressing the Liberal government on how it would deal with those who didn’t leave willingly.
“The vast majority leave voluntarily, and that’s what’s expected,” was the official committee testimony of then Immigration Minister Marc Miller.
Guess who’s serving you at Tim’s?
An award-winning NHS nurse has been struck off after sharing anti-immigrant posts online saying that ‘foreigners’ who come to Britain will end up ‘being your rulers’.
Roberta Batchelor was stripped of her licence after a disciplinary panel concluded a series of her social media posts ‘sought to cause offence to immigrants…and those of Muslim faith’.
She did nothing wrong.
Exceptional levels of violence swept through Europe on New Year’s Eve, stretching the resources of law enforcement and emergency services in many major cities.
In Brussels, emergency crews were called to large numbers of outdoor fires and vehicle set ablaze, many of them linked to fireworks. Firearms were also spotted in the streets. One video on X shows hooded individuals, apparently Moroccans, carrying AKs while riding a scooter in the Belgian capital.
Somewhere in this scene from Berlin lives a 89 year old Woman who’s lived there all her life, all of a sudden one day, she looks out her her window, and watches her and her neighbours homes, be bombed by hundreds of Muslims launching fireworks at them.
This is Europe now. pic.twitter.com/aY0QmSDBw2
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) January 1, 2026
🚨 New Year’s Eve in Europe:
Amsterdam: A 150 year old church set on FIRE.
Berlin: Cars and homes burn. Police ATTACKED. Called “NORMAL”.
Netherlands: New Year CHAOS, migrant gang violence.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! pic.twitter.com/UZCFoK5I7T
— Global Dissident (@GlobalDiss) January 1, 2026
Canada must act to stop a future referendum, but it’s not the one in Alberta or Quebec. A referendum campaign organized by Sikhs for Justice, a pro-Khalistani group, has been taking place with little notice from most Canadians. Recently, over 53,000 Canadian Sikhs from Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec voted in Ottawa during the latest phase of the Khalistan Referendum, forming lines stretching nearly two kilometres.
(Incognito)
The federal government is not revealing whether it will act on calls to pass a law that would criminalize denying that Indigenous children suffered abuses in Canada’s residential school system.
The issue has bubbled in the background of Canadian politics for several years and gained prominence after several First Nations announced they had located potential unmarked graves at former school sites.
We’re thankful that this New Year’s Eve passed in relative peace. It’s a welcome change from last year, when 2025 started with a terrorist attack in New Orleans.
Texas native Shamsud Din-Jabbar, 42, drove his truck through a crowd celebrating the New Year on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing fourteen and injuring at least 30 more. He was inspired by ISIS, and IEDs were found at the scene, along with an ISIS flag.
My friend Neil Gabriel, a self-employed, successful tradesman and Mohawk warrior from the Kanesatake Reserve in Oka, Quebec, is humorously skeptical of the claims and exemptions abundantly supplied by our Native populations. Many of these indigenous tribes are committed to challenging national jurisdictions and dismantling the historical structure of the country in a torrent of land-claims and legal negotiations.
Neil is having none of it and puts the matter to rest with a joke that is solidly anchored in reality. “If we want to know what kind of winter we can expect, we look at the white man’s woodpile.”
Top Biden State Dept advisor who’s from Somalia raised the Somali flag at the Ohio State House
Do you see what’s happening?
Ohio has been conquered. pic.twitter.com/sKqz3Q67kN
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 2, 2026
The pollsters are trying to tell us something.
For much of the past year, the dominant strain of Canadian political coverage has focused on the struggles of Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, especially as contrasted with the brilliant successes of his opponent, Mark Carney.
How could it not? Mr. Poilievre saw a 25-point lead evaporate in the space of two months. Much of this could be attributed to the rapid-fire sequence of events with which the year began: Donald Trump’s return to office, Justin Trudeau’s resignation, and Mr. Carney’s election as Liberal Leader.
(Coyne Alert)
Ummmm WHAT
NYPD recruit submitted a request to be exempt from saluting the American Flag because he can only praise Allah https://t.co/6lQmfZnto9
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 2, 2026
h/t Patti Jo
’Tis the season for year for the media to look back and write about old news. The lists tell more about the compiler than the stories themselves.
Oslo’s Deichman Bjørvika differs from downtown libraries in America by its near-total absence of homelessness.
Deichman Bjørvika, the main library in Oslo, occupies a prominent site next to the opera house and the Munch Museum. Whereas many American downtown libraries favor classical design, Oslo’s is strikingly postmodern, its asymmetrical layout featuring almost no right angles. Inside, the building blends Brutalist monumentality—massive, exposed concrete slabs—with an airiness created by natural light and a soaring central atrium. The collection of more than 450,000 volumes is excellent by my preferred standard: a wealth of older, rebound books that likely haven’t circulated in years. It’s ideal for browsing. The library organizes most of its books and private study spaces around three multistory columns rising through its center, ensuring functionality while preserving unobstructed views of the Oslo Fjord.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to France next week to meet with Ukraine’s allies as talks aimed at ending Russia’s war intensify.
The Prime Minister’s Office says Carney will be in Paris on Monday and Tuesday to meet with the “coalition of the willing” in an effort to push forward a peace deal for Ukraine.
In a media statement issued Friday, Carney said his focus remains on fortifying Ukraine and deterring future Russian aggression as Ukraine seeks security guarantees from the United States and other nations.
