In most English-speaking countries, students are guaranteed a place at their local public high school. Students also have a right to apply for admission to a school of their choice, such as a private school…
Will the Scots be satisfied with the package of new powers that has been put before them? The Smith Commission, which was tasked with coming up with a new settlement following the September referendum…
South Australians turned out in numbers to hear the 2008 apology to the Stolen Generations, but a bill before the state parliament fails to live up to the promise of that day.
Wikimedia Commons/edna-photos
A bill before South Australian parliament would make it the second Australian state to compensate Stolen Generation survivors and their children. Tangible recognition of their suffering is overdue, but…
Canada’s First Nation women are going missing but is the government listening?
Chris Wattie/Reuters
In August 2014, Tina Fontaine’s body was pulled from the Red River in Winnipeg Manitoba, stuffed in a garbage bag by her killer. Her disappearance had been reported to the police by child protection workers…
To read much of the media coverage of the shootings at the Canadian parliament in Ottawa, you might think that Canada has just lost its innocence – that sleepy Ottawa has finally been dragged into the…
The people are angry, but the politicians aren’t worried.
Dave Weaver/Reuters
In Nebraska, the intensity of the Keystone XL debate is second only to that over the chance that the Nebraska Cornhuskers will win the Big Ten football championship. Raging for several years now, controversy…
Could carbon capture and storage be the way to clean up coal power stations, such as this one in Australia’s Latrobe Valley?
Monash University/Flickr
To have any chance of avoiding dangerous climate change we’ll have to reduce the carbon emissions from our energy sectors — currently the largest human source of greenhouse gas emissions globally. And…
Australia’s approach to trade policy is more thoughtful and calculating than it is given credit for by sections of the media, academia and the public who object to current negotiations.
AAP/Newzulu/Jeff Tan
Ten years on from the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, Australia is entering another round of negotiations towards the new and controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is the first article in the…
An Australian Super Hornet refuels from a KC30 tanker while flying over Iraq.
@VCDF_Australia/Twitter
There are two reasons why we should ignore the growing calls in the United States, Canada and Australia for Western “boots on ground” – meaning ground troops – to fight and destroy the Islamic State (IS…
Australian women of different faiths gathered at Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque last month in a show of community solidarity.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
From anarchists in the 1920s and radical leftists in the 1960s, to fringe, extreme-right Christian bombers or gunmen in the United States in recent decades, or radical Islamists such as Islamic State today…
The merger between Burger King and Canadian coffee-and-doughnuts chain Tim Hortons has sparked a great deal of reaction and much of it has been nationalistic in flavour. There was speculation that Burger…
The Great White North is about as similar to Australia as any other country … so why don’t we follow their lead?
Winston Wong/Flickr
You might have seen communications minister Malcolm Turnbull raising the issue about Australian press not discussing policy problems and solutions from overseas, in a speech delivered at the Lowy Institute…
American wolves show us how important large predators are for conservation.
Doug McLaughlin
We know that introduced predators such as foxes and cats are one of the greatest threats to Australia’s wildlife, but what is the best way to control them? Many Australian ecologists argue dingoes are…
Tony Abbott and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper are waving the flag of climate sabotage.
AAP Image/Australian Government
On tour in North America, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has forged an alliance with the Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper on climate change. Both champion climate policies that don’t put a price on carbon…
This month marks the re-opening of the controversial trophy hunt for at-risk grizzly bears in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Scrutiny of this hunt was ramped up last year with new evidence that…
Your friendly neighbourhood liquor store down Toronto way.
Joseph Morris
I have watched with fascination as successive UK and European governments have pledged to make cheap alcohol a thing of the past by introducing minimum unit pricing or MUP. David Cameron announced his…
Milk prices are more expensive in Canada than Australia, which makes WCB an attractive takeover target for Quebec-headquartered Saputo.
dugspr/Flickr
Canadian dairy giant Saputo Inc has lifted its stake in Warrnambool Cheese & Butter, as it creeps up the register following its A$504 million bid for Australia’s oldest dairy producer. Saputo is pitted…
Toronto politics has never been the stuff of international headlines. A prosperous and cosmopolitan metropolis that has attracted a million new residents every decade since the end of the World War Two…
Hudson Bay Lowlands are staying greener for longer as temperatures rise.
K. Rühland
Lakes of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, in northeast Canada, are showing evidence of abrupt change in one of the last Arctic regions of the world to have experienced global warming, according to Canadian research…
BFFs no more: Queen Elizabeth and former Gambian High Commissioner Tamsir Jallow in 2006.
Steve Parsons/PA
Sue Onslow, School of Advanced Study, University of London
All is not well with the Commonwealth of Nations. Gambia’s announcement last week that it has withdrawn from the association was followed hard by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying he would…
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance; Scientific Director, Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, Simon Fraser University