Mark Milke

President of the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

@LKrauss1 @MLInstitute @AristotleFdn It’s bizarre to me that you would reverse responsibility to me to defend your 2011 comments re Epstein. Yes, we will indeed agree to disagree.

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

"Conspiracy theories" is exactly the right way to understand the fantastical claims about residential schools. "It is simply impossible to avoid breaking the proposed law by 'downplaying' or 'minimizing' the harms of residential schools if you merely insist that it’s borderline insanity to equate Canada’s residential schools legacy with the Holocaust." From @TerryGlavin https://t.co/Ir26YgOSS0

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

The $50,000 Hunter Prize for Public Policy is now open for applications. Kudos to @TheHubCanada and the Centre for Civic Engagement for arranging this. https://t.co/PASVG4k3V1

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

@LKrauss1 @MLInstitute @AristotleFdn Apparently you do want a debate. It was three years after his 2008 plea deal. It's not up to me to spend my time parsing and clarifying your 2011 remarks. It was quite clear who Epstein was by then.

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

Another problem with @MarkJCarney 's synagogue speech. "It was a hell of a thing to say to a synagogue audience, surely, that all Canadians are to 'leave behind your wars and animosities,' without naming the relatively few absolute cretins who are trying to ruin it for everyone — none of whom were in attendance." Kudos to @cselley https://t.co/14Q4aY5fUV

[Free Speech Union of Canada @FSU_Canada]

“Another reason not to criminalize speech is because it makes it even more difficult to correct bad ideas and lingering injustices. An open society requires open discourse. It’s the only way errors can only be corrected. That disappears if one becomes subject to fines and imprisonment for thinking out loud, including when one is ultimately proved to be in error.”

@MarkMilke https://t.co/cqRDqQ54mU

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

"Here is the truth that must be named: Israel has become the International Jew. Antisemitism has mutated, cloaking itself in the moral language of our time: colonialism, apartheid, human rights. It has found a new host: the Jewish state." https://t.co/tkZqBxhWrv

[Alan Fryer 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 @alanfryermedia]

I was wondering how long until Carney mentioned Islamophobia and transphobia. About 25 minutes in.

[Tim B @TModelB]

@MarkMilke @JustinTrudeau @MarkJCarney I'm sure Greece, Rome and Jerusalem have played little to no part in the creation of our political values, law, institutions, and self conception. Just like Mao, Old Ideas, Old Customs, Old Culture, and Old Habits are to be disregarded as we approach Net (Year) Zero.

[Geoff Russ 🍁 @GeoffRuss3]

@MarkMilke The comment you mention is in reference to specific political subcultures, not the entire province.

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

This is an excellent piece and a thorough elaboration on the development of the West, though @GeoffRuss3 does come close to labelling Alberta as "American" without saying it our loud (see his Barry Goldwater and Lake Louise comment). If that was his intent, not so. Liberty-minded Albertans who use such language and ideas are reflective of pre-Pierre Trudeau, early Canadian assumptions including those of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. It was the American progressive movement which in the 1920s and again in the 1960s and up here via Trudeau which managed to portray Laurier's ideas as "American." But until the 1960s, Canada was the more classically liberal nation in the JS Mill British sense and it was the Americans who engaged in upending that which Canadian progressives imitated.

[Geoff Russ 🍁 @GeoffRuss3]

Some, though not all, Alberta separatists think they can redefine the Canadian West based on policy grievances. They don't get to erase the founding history of the land.

Before modern oil booms or late-wave demographic shifts, Canada's pioneers, soldiers, and police officers bled to win and tame this massive frontier.

From Manitoba’s Red River to the shores of the Pacific, Western Canada's original builders established our laws and culture, not modern ideologues.

Western Canadians deserve more freedom from Ottawa, but we must never let political gatekeepers trade our history for a political manifesto.

https://t.co/tMqMEqMl7e

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

Here are some examples of indigenous people who would be criminalized if Parliament outlaws nuance and actual history about residential schools. Parliament's attempt to control speech is not just an attack on free inquiry and free expression, it's an attack on history as is happened (and there is no other type). Trying to outlaw any mention of any good experience at a residential school is just as ridiculous as if some government tried to outlaw any mention of horrific abuse at residential schools. Politicians, whose analyses are too often paper-thin, should stay away from our brains and mouths. They are not for them to manipulate. https://t.co/EhcNM9nHrV

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

This is as silly and incorrect as @JustinTrudeau 's post-nationalism nonsense. If @MarkJCarney thinks specific ideas--which come from creeds and faiths (and philosophy)--are not at the heart of a nation's and civilization's creation, he either has never read deeply or is being consciously disingenuous. In this mistaken view, the ideas of Moses, Osiris, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, or animism, and a thousand others, have *not* led to vastly different civilizations, and all can be reconciled into a neat liberal democratic package. Unbelievable.

[Clash Report @clashreport]

Canadian PM Mark Carney:

Canada was not founded on a single creed, race, language, or faith.

[Aaron Pete @Aaronpete_]

I'm prepared to go to jail over this.

My grandmother Rita Pete went to St. Mary's Indian Residential School. She experienced terrible abuse. As a consequence, she struggled with alcohol use most of her life.

My mother was born with FASD as a consequence of her using alcohol to cope with her trauma.

I am Chief of my community Chawathil First Nation. I am working to address the longstanding impacts of these past policies through renovating homes, building new homes, creating childcare, and growing businesses through economic development.

I have interviewed people who went to Indian Residential Schools. I have interviewed people who believe Indian Residential Schools were awful, horrible schools, meant to remove the Indian from the child.

I've also interviewed people who believe they were well intended, generous investments by Canadian taxpayers meant to assimilate a society and had shortcomings.

Like with many things, the history is dark, complicated, and with any policy that existed for a long time, across a whole country - there were different experiences.

No one story tells us everything. No report shares the full experience of the individuals who went. No commentator today can disprove someone's lived experience with statistics.

The path forward is not to criminalize speech, questions, or debate.

The path forward is empathy for past attendees.
The path forward is truth based on facts.
The path forward is real conversations.
The path forward is to lean into complexity.

If the government criminalizes this, then I will be a criminal for having these conversations.

If I am a criminal by the laws definition, then I am committed to going to jail over this.

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

It's Tuesday, the second day of the work week, which must mean a second justice somewhere gave a light tap to someone convicted of a heinous crime. I fully expect three more by the end of the work week. The core problem here is that justices live in nice neighbourhoods. They don't have to deal with the fallout of poor sentencing. Kudos to @sarkonakj for her work on this issue. https://t.co/bhgnfvCeBe

[Brad Dunkley @BradDunkley]

Nobody told the banks.

[Dominik Tarczyński MEP @D_Tarczynski]

Here’s how Polish fans celebrate their club’s victory.

Before leaving the square, they cleaned up after themselves. No one was beaten up or raped.

Be Like Poland.

[Mark Milke @MarkMilke]

Be it resolved: The West should stay in Canada. If you haven't yet watched our @AristotleFdn debate between @jkenney and @ikwilson , you can watch it here: https://t.co/8ReDQoBUCv