2023-04-10 00:28
A live-audio conversation with Canada's federal leaders against antisemitism and islamophobia, Irwin Cotler and Amira Elghawaby Read More
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Akaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism - Blog
maharaj.org/blog
My blog discusses the public good and the public interest around the world, drawing on my work in diplomacy and international affairs and my sport activities as a Canadian national equestrian athlete.
2022-01-01 17:00
Whoever coined the adage "Never meet your heroes" could not have met Archbishop Desmond Tutu Read More
2019-09-12 12:30
Donald Trump's main export to Canada has been a sense of national smugness, that his outrages and absurdities could never find purchase here. But it would be an act of monumental self-dece… Read More
2019-08-20 12:25
It would be an act of monumental self-deception for Canadians to believe that our country is an island set above the rage bubbling across the world Read More
2019-08-09 15:35
The arc of history may bend towards justice, but there is nothing inevitable about progress. Societies can and do regress as well as progress. They can be dragged backwards by their lowe… Read More
2019-05-30 15:35
My address to the House of Commons Committee on Justice and Human Rights, on how government can or should combat the spread of hatred on social media platforms. Democracy's most sacrosanct… Read More
2019-03-15 16:30
The hard reality is that Canadian horses and horsepeople suffer when our voice goes unheard in the corridors of power. The Guelph Equine Public Policy Group will ensure that Canada's govern… Read More
2019-03-08 19:11
The courts have ruled that the Ontario SPCA's police powers are unconstitutional. What is the future for animal welfare enforcement in Canada's largest province? Who can or will protect crea… Read More
2018-12-23 17:00
All of us can wield a power that those who would divide us will never know: an ability to make common cause out of our common humanity and our common dignity, and a determination to join han… Read More
2018-12-22 16:10
Serving as CEO of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption was one of the great honours of my life, and I am immensely proud of all we achieved together over the past s… Read More
2018-12-20 14:40
While the arc of history may bend towards justice, there is nothing inevitable about progress. Societies can and do regress, as well as progress; they can be pulled backwards by their lowe… Read More
2018-08-02 14:00
I first met Lara Prychodko in kindergarten, as her parents dropped her off at our school. I said our final goodbye at her graveside last week, as her parents laid her to rest. I wrote this… Read More
2017-12-31 23:07
I was more astonished than I could express to learn that the Governor had commissioned me as a Kentucky Colonel, for contributions to global affairs and international equestrianism Read More
2016-12-07 13:33
It seemed as if all the Balkan peoples, in trying to claw out their separate identities, would drag one another into the abyss. Yet, hope finds a way. We will hold our formal signing cerem… Read More
2016-10-24 12:30
In my article in the Gazette, I caution the International Olympic Committee against undermining the World Anti-Doping Agency. Not everyone who stands up to you is your enemy, just as not eve… Read More
2016-10-23 15:00
Too many of the World Anti-Doping Agency's ostensible sport partners appear to feel that the agency has betrayed them, by unmasking the ugly truths that lie behind the Olympic's impeccable… Read More
2016-10-14 16:04
I joined the WADA Think Tank in Lausanne, as the agency grapples with state-sponsored doping. We are all careering towards a confrontation between the high ideals of sport and the low ruth… Read More
2016-06-01 12:00
Is corruption endemic in the political and economic classes? I joined TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, to discuss the extent and potential remedies to corruption in Canada's publi… Read More
2016-05-23 20:45
The Panama Papers starkly revealed that Britain's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have become the venues of choice for the anonymous corporations that facilitate tax evasion, org… Read More
2016-05-18 14:15
The Panama Papers starkly revealed that Britain's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have become the venues of choice for the anonymous corporations that facilitate tax evasion, o… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
Nothing in Sochi did more to honour and advance the Olympic ideals than the worldwide fight for equality unleashed by Russia's infamous homophobic law. My post-Olympic analysis in the Toro… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
Reuters reports on our efforts at the United Nations: There are some forms of corruption so grave, whose effects on human life, human rights, and human welfare are so catastrophic, that they… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
Every year, political corruption kills 140 000 children across the world, by depriving them of food, water, and medical care. My GOPAC parliamentary colleagues and I are at the United Nation… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
I am enormously grateful to the Board of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption for their confidence in naming me their Executive Director, and I will work tirelessly… Read More
2015-06-07 15:00
Addressing the United Nations was one of the more intimidating experiences of my life. I spoke on behalf of GOPAC's global alliance of parliamentarians, on our work to bring kleptocrats to j… Read More
2012-07-02 15:00
There is no worse cancer in a free society than the thuggish impulse to equate dissent as disloyalty... The greatest patriot is the person with the courage to be the lone voice in the crowd… Read More
2012-07-02 15:00
There is no worse cancer in a free society than the thuggish impulse to equate dissent as disloyalty... The greatest patriot is the person with the courage to be the lone voice in the crowd… Read More
2012-06-14 20:15
Our capacity to do violence to one another is the worst tragedy of the human condition, but it makes our still greater capacity to forgive one another all the more powerful Read More
2012-06-14 20:15
Our capacity to do violence to one another is the worst tragedy of the human condition, but it makes our still greater capacity to forgive one another all the more powerful Read More
2012-04-07 16:00
Gandhi and Bose were brothers in the hunger for justice, and both had followers who were willing to die for freedom rather than live as slaves. But one group was so blinded by passion for it… Read More
2012-04-07 16:00
Gandhi and Bose were brothers in the hunger for justice, and both had followers who were willing to die for freedom rather than live as slaves. But one group was so blinded by passion for it… Read More
2012-03-03 20:45
Throughout our history, Canada has grown through the toil of generations of Canadians who were inspired by the belief that our country is free of the rigid class systems of the Old World, th… Read More
2012-03-03 20:45
Throughout our history, Canada has grown through the toil of generations of Canadians who were inspired by the belief that our country is free of the rigid class systems of the Old World, th… Read More
2012-01-28 23:00
In any democracy worthy of the name, it is not merely the right, but the responsibility of every citizen to resist unjust laws... but there is a contrast between making a scene, and making a… Read More
2012-01-28 23:00
In any democracy worthy of the name, it is not merely the right, but the responsibility of every citizen to resist unjust laws... but there is a contrast between making a scene, and making a… Read More
2011-12-19 00:15
We will be able to hold our heads high before the judgement of history if we can reply that in our season, we held on to hope, we put aside our doubts, we came together believing in our bett… Read More
2011-12-19 00:15
We will be able to hold our heads high before the judgement of history if we can reply that in our season, we held on to hope, we put aside our doubts, we came together believing in our bett… Read More
2011-11-25 19:45
Over the past quarter century, political parties have too often lurched away from being mass movements of individual Canadians sharing a common vision of the public good, and towards being b… Read More
2011-11-25 19:45
Over the past quarter century, political parties have too often lurched away from being mass movements of individual Canadians sharing a common vision of the public good, and towards being b… Read More
2011-11-12 00:10
The 20th century began as the age of the dictator. It ended with liberalism having come of age as the ascendant political philosophy across the world. Yet liberal parties everywhere are in c… Read More
2011-11-12 00:10
The 20th century began as the age of the dictator. It ended with liberalism having come of age as the ascendant political philosophy across the world. Yet liberal parties everywhere are in c… Read More
2011-06-24 05:36
Speaking on TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I make the case that separation of church and state is as much in the interests of the church as it is in the interests of the state. Ho… Read More
2011-06-24 05:36
Speaking on TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I make the case that separation of church and state is as much in the interests of the church as it is in the interests of the state. Ho… Read More
2011-03-31 16:31
In my broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that despite our sometimes chequered history in the region, Western states have an obligation to enforce the Libya… Read More
2011-03-31 16:31
In my broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that despite our sometimes chequered history in the region, Western states have an obligation to enforce the Libya… Read More
2010-11-21 15:01
Videocast of my televised essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, on Canada's role in Afghanistan: Our ability to successfully conclude the mission and effect an honourable depar… Read More
2010-11-21 15:01
Videocast of my televised essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, on Canada's role in Afghanistan: Our ability to successfully conclude the mission and effect an honourable depar… Read More
2010-10-25 13:01
In this, my second broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that the efforts by the federal government to place emotion above reason and shut down Insite are unw… Read More
2010-10-25 13:01
In this, my second broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that the efforts by the federal government to place emotion above reason and shut down Insite are unw… Read More
2010-10-02 12:01
In this, my maiden broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that freedom of expression is too fundamental a right to be casually abridged, and that the Canadian… Read More
2010-10-02 12:01
In this, my maiden broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that freedom of expression is too fundamental a right to be casually abridged, and that the Canadian… Read More
2010-03-18 06:15
CBC Radio One's Fresh Air interviews me on whether Team Canada will be able to repeat our improbable dominance of tent pegging, the cavalry sport of horse, sword, sabre and lance, as I saddl… Read More
2010-03-18 06:15
CBC Radio One's Fresh Air interviews me on whether Team Canada will be able to repeat our improbable dominance of tent pegging, the cavalry sport of horse, sword, sabre and lance, as I saddl… Read More
2007-04-05 14:10
On the final day of competition at the world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in Oman, my horse Shomool remained in a surly mood. The rider to our left is keeping a considered distanc… Read More
2007-02-13 21:05
An interview with CBC Ontario Today's Rita Celli, on UNICEF Team Canada, the international equestrian skill-at-arms championships,and galloping hell for leather for honour and country Read More
2007-02-13 21:05
An interview with CBC Ontario Today's Rita Celli, on UNICEF Team Canada, the international equestrian skill-at-arms championships,and galloping hell for leather for honour and country Read More
2007-02-09 15:15
Andy Barrie tries, largely in vain, to restrain his mirth as we discuss the upcoming world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in Oman, at which I will represent the country as a member o… Read More
2007-02-09 15:15
Andy Barrie tries, largely in vain, to restrain his mirth as we discuss the upcoming world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in Oman, at which I will represent the country as a member o… Read More
2007-02-08 13:55
Of my many eccentricities, none is as improbable as my involvement in tent pegging. Often referred to as equestrian skill-at-arms, the sport has a mounted cavalier riding at a full gallop ac… Read More
2006-11-28 06:30
In the wake of the Quebecois Nation issue, TV Ontario's The Agenda asks if politics and principles are Canada's true twin solitudes. With Steve Paikin as moderator, Val Meredith for the Con… Read More
2006-11-28 06:30
In the wake of the Quebecois Nation issue, TV Ontario's The Agenda asks if politics and principles are Canada's true twin solitudes. With Steve Paikin as moderator, Val Meredith for the Con… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
The lessons of Afghanistan were purchased at a bitter cost: the war claimed more lives, more years, and more money than any other campaign in NATO's history. Unless the alliance take… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Political corruption kills more people than war and famine combined. I addressed the United Nations on how the international community can and must act to bring kleptocrats to justice Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Addressing the United Nations was one of the more intimidating experiences of my life. I spoke on behalf of GOPAC's global alliance of parliamentarians, on our work to bring kleptocrats to j… Read More
2006-01-05 13:30
A feature-length CBC Radio One national debate between Judy Rebick of the NDP, Adam Daifallah of the Conservative Party, and myself on visionary politics in Canada Read More
2006-01-05 13:30
A feature-length CBC Radio One national debate between Judy Rebick of the NDP, Adam Daifallah of the Conservative Party, and myself on visionary politics in Canada Read More
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