Free Republic

More than 500 federal workers on the ground to fast track refugee process. The federal government is ramping up efforts in a race against time to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada in just two weeks. During a briefing on the resettlement plan in Ottawa Wednesday, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister John McCallum said officials have managed a "massive" increase in capacity for processing of Syrians in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, including interviews and security and health screening. Suppliers for refugee welcome kits kept secret on security grounds. Syrian refugees pose challenges for Canadian schools. Health screening, for example, has...

One of the most interesting aspects of the study of history is that very often men born in the most humble of circumstances nevertheless rise up to affect the course of human history dramatically. They may be men of action or men of thought, yet in either case their activities can father tremendous changes across the years. Antonio Gramsci was both a man of action and thought and, whatever the outcome of the events of the next several decades, he will almost certainly be reckoned by future historians to have been a remarkable figure. Born in obscurity on the island...

The illustrious Christian writer C.S. Lewis could be unequivocally grumpy about certain contemporary Christmas customs, if we judge from his essays on the subject. For example, in his 1970 essay collection, God in the Dock, Lewis has two such articles, of which the better known is entitled "Xmas and Christmas," undoubtedly a masterpiece in the art of social commentary. Written in imitation of the style of ancient historians, and wittily subtitled "A Lost Chapter From Herodotus," Lewis takes note of the "strange" habits of the people of the remote island of "Niatirb" (Britain spelled backwards), which require every citizen utterly...