Dooney's Cafe : A News Service

Cuckoo Coup

By Stan Persky | 2021 November 2

Stan Persky reflects on the ex-prez’s Jan. 6 coup attempt, and the dangers that the “next coup” pose to democracy in a post-truth era.

In mid-January of this year, 2021, Gerard Farry died in Vancouver at the age of 92. He wasn’t the sort of man who’d naturally be familiar to the readers of this website; he had been the director of urban planning for Greater Vancouver during the 1970s and 1980s, which was the heyday of urban master…

Some Musings on Quitting Cigarettes and Facebook

By Michael Boughn | 2021 August 21

Michael Boughn on quitting cigarettes, and quitting Facebook. Compare and contrast.

Lindsay Shepherd and the Post-Scholarship University

By John Harris | 2021 April 13

In his article “Speaking Out” (The Walrus, June 2019), Toronto-based 30-something freelance contrarian John Semley tells the story of the Wilfred Laurier University (WLU) teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd, who made international headlines when she was censured by a University examining committee for allegedly creating an unsafe learning environment for transgender students. The committee…

Book Publishing, Bookselling, George Bowering, and the new censorship

By Brian Fawcett | 2021 January 13

I read George Bowering’s latest book, Writing and Reading (New Star, Vancouver, 2019), in a single sitting, which was unique in my experience of reading him. Bowering can be demanding and occasionally hermetic, and therefore requires intense concentration. But Writing and Reading was like having a conversation with George at a…

Far from the Madding Crowd

By Stan Persky | 2020 December 11

Douglas Murray’s “The Madness of Crowds,” a critique of the “social justice movement,” is a conservative writer’s response to gays, feminists, race, and trans people. Stan Persky reviews it, keeping an eye on the tripwires in an ideological minefield.