Concepts with Shawn Whatley

Is it time to abandon Canada's Human Rights Tribunals and Commissions?

Colin May was appointed as Chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission only to be dismissed shortly after appointment. Political activists dug up an academic book review as proof that May as Islamophobic and, thus, unfit to continue in his role.

Cancellation hold less interest for media these days, but it has not gone away. It continues to erode and corrupt essential institutions. Do we have the resolve to stop it?

Check out Colin's book: From Cancel Culture to Incarceration Culture: Prosecutorial Democracy and the Future of Cancellation

Let me know what you think!

Thanks again,

Shawn

Chapters and AI summary:

Host Shawn Whatley interviews lawyer and University of Calgary adjunct lecturer Colin May about May’s book, "From Cancel Culture to Incarceration Culture: Prosecutorial Democracy and the Future of Cancellation," beginning with May’s cancellation after his 2022 appointment as chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission. May recounts how a 2009 academic book review was used in a politically driven campaign that led to his termination on September 15, 2022, severe career and financial losses, and major psychological and health impacts. They discuss the psychology and phases of cancellation, why apologies worsen outcomes, and the role of institutions in enabling or stopping cancellations. The conversation broadens to critique administrative tribunals, human rights bodies, and professional regulators, arguing for major reforms or abolition in favor of courts, and ends with concerns about Canada’s centralized, managerial governance and shrinking political discourse.

00:00 Cancellation Hits Home

01:29 Meet Colin May

02:51 How the Cancellation Began

06:13 Aftermath and Fallout

09:09 Denial and Justification

12:11 From Political Correctness

15:59 Psychology of Cancellation

19:36 Apologies and False Confessions

27:28 Institutions Decide Outcomes

31:17 Beyond Cancel Culture

33:49 Regulators as Enforcers

39:11 Regulators Tough Image

42:16 Fixing Professional Oversight

45:38 Natural Rights Debate

47:26 Human Rights As Narrative

53:26 Reforming Tribunal Process

57:06 Abolish Tribunals Option

01:00:25 How Tribunals Are Structured

01:05:17 Neufeld Case Warning

01:07:05 What Keeps Him Up

01:16:47 Host Closing Call

Conservatives need to put more emphasis on aesthetics. Sage MacGillivray has spent her career in art, first as a metal fabricator, now as a studio director.

In many ways, craft is the embodiment of conservatism. Craft overlaps physical reality with experience, skill, the limits of reality, meaning, insight, intuition, transcendence, and much more. It demands humility in its quest for awe.

I'd love to hear what you think of this!

Thanks again, 

Shawn

The Human Hunger for Art that Creates Meaning and Connection

Chapters and AI summary:

Host Shawn interviews Sage MacGillivray, director of Robinson Studios in Vancouver and a longtime maker and metal fabricator, about her Without Diminishment essay arguing conservatives should use modern technology but not gamble on AI to shape culture. Drawing on Iain McGilchrist, she contrasts narrow, abstracting attention with holistic, contextual understanding and links left-hemisphere dominance to distorted models of reality. She describes how working with “real, raw materials” builds accountability and resists utopian abstractions, critiques expert-driven public art processes disconnected from the public, and discusses awe, ambiguity, and ritual in art. Using Harold Innis’ time- vs space-biased media, she defends localized, sensory, ephemeral art and warns digital media and AI break the “creative chain of custody,” risking alienation and weakened human capacities.

00:00 Reality Check Ideologies

01:15 Meet Sage MacGillivray

02:54 Craft Background And Art World

04:21 Why She Wrote The Essay

05:59 McGilchrist Brain Hemispheres

11:38 Left Brain Culture Drift

12:53 Art Beyond Conservative Themes

16:57 Awe Transcendence And Practice

23:44 Materials Fight Back Accountability

25:46 Abstraction Proxies And Public Art

31:03 Innis Media And Digital Ephemera

32:53 Space Bias and Distraction

34:27 Ephemeral Art and Time

36:33 Vivianite and Indigenous Meaning

39:50 Numbering Leaves Project

43:37 Milky Way Versus Projection

47:55 Tradition and Craft Lessons

54:52 Visualization and AI Limits

01:03:40 Technocracy and Safetyism Worries

01:06:59 Host Reflection on Aesthetics

Healthcare is the headline that keeps on giving in Canada. As Canadians, we have redefined ourselves as the people who get free care. We live with two medicares: one that we imagine will be there for us when we get sick, and another medicare that actually exists.

Josh Dehaas has a deep understanding of the legal issues around healthcare legislation. His report of the legal challenges helps give us a sense of the greater challenge of medicare overall.

Josh is part of a team that has planned an exciting conference in a few weeks. There's more about it in the summary below.

Let me know what you think of this!

Thanks again

Shawn

Healthcare Choice in Canada, ebook.

Chapters and AI summary:

Host Shawn Whatley interviews Josh Dehaas, interim litigation director at the Canadian Constitution Foundation, about major Canadian healthcare litigation and a cross-ideological “Prescriptions for Health Reform” conference (Nov 5–6, Toronto, Albany Club) co-hosted with SecondStreet.org and the Montreal Economic Institute, featuring keynotes Matt Gurney and André Picard and panels including Tony Clement, Christy Clark, and Stephen McNeil. They discuss the 2005 Chaoulli decision striking Quebec’s ban on private insurance under the Quebec Charter, its narrow implementation by Jean Charest, and the later Cambie Surgeries case led by Dr. Brian Day and patients in BC, which advanced Section 7 arguments but ultimately lost and triggered a $1.7M cost award. They also cover barriers to litigation, Alberta’s dual-practice reforms, and Vienna Patella’s judicial review over denied out-of-country funding for scoliosis surgery. Whatley closes with a timeline of federal involvement in medicare (1948, 1957, 1966, 1977, 1984) and declining federal cost-sharing.

00:00 Federal Overreach Problem

01:25 Health Reform Conference

04:29 Why Cross-Ideology Talks

06:39 Patients First Mindset

07:55 Cambie Case Preview

11:20 Chaoulli Case Explained

15:06 Why Quebec Only

19:37 Hogg and Spending Power

24:13 Cambie Case Breakdown

27:43 Nurses and Capacity Myths

30:58 Doctor Workload Reality

32:54 International Comparisons

33:33 Case For Private Options

35:10 Polling And Public Priorities

36:52 Cambie Case Legal Imbalance

39:37 Patients Behind The Lawsuit

40:54 Vienna Scoliosis Story

44:42 Litigation Hurdles And Tort Limits

49:31 Alberta Dual Practice Reforms

54:46 Why Choice Changes Care

56:43 Conference And Closing Thoughts

57:43 Canada Medicare Timeline Explained

01:11:39 Final Wrap Up

It's easy to be smug about the Alberta Referendum scheduled for Oct 19th. The questions aren't simple. The Alberta Independence campaign can't match the resources and expertise of the 'remain' voices. And the referendum itself isn't even a referendum on whether or not to leave.

Professor Bruce Pardy has followed this issue closely. He's even written a short book about it: Articles of Freedom. 

In many ways, this is a referendum on the Constitution of Canada. Does Canada make sense? Can it continue without addressing the concerns of Alberta and Quebec?

No matter the outcome, this is a pivotal moment. We can expect more of these until longstanding constitutional issues get sorted.

Thanks for checking this out!

Shawn

Chapters and AI summary:

Host Shawn Whatley interviews Queen’s law professor Bruce Pardy about Alberta’s October 19 referendum, emphasizing that Question 10 is not a vote for independence but a signal about whether Albertans want to pursue one later. Pardy criticizes the confusing wording and argues the other nine questions—especially constitutional ones—are largely a mirage because meaningful constitutional change is effectively impossible, while independence may be the “easiest” route. He contends Alberta is treated as a resource colony by “Laurentian” Canada, that cultural and ideological differences are irreconcilable, and that establishment opposition could backfire as with Brexit. The discussion spans whether Canada is a nation, limits of federalism, equalization, Indigenous treaties under a new state, and Pardy’s proposed minimalist constitutional model with strict limits on state power and time-limited public service to prevent a professional ruling class.

00:00 Establishment Versus Alberta

02:38 Referendum Stakes Explained

05:49 Question Ten Confusion

07:01 Brexit Warning System

09:42 Who Decides Sovereignty

13:47 Is Canada A Nation

16:40 Federalism And Culture Clash

20:21 Equalization And Power Voting

25:28 Resource Colony Leverage

29:07 Alberta Identity Versus Welfare State

34:57 Establishment Lines Up Again

36:03 Constitutional Change Mirage

38:07 Ballot Mirage Warning

40:15 Equalization Referendum Lessons

42:10 Independence And Treaties

47:14 Rule Of Law Debate

49:39 Paradox Of The State

54:05 Minimalist Constitution Blueprint

01:01:24 Who Holds Power

01:05:30 What Keeps Him Up

01:07:03 Canada Needs Shock

01:09:32 Closing And Book Plug

Liberty is a fragile and precious thing. Thoughtful libertarians know that it requires more than simply No Rules!

Matt Bufton is a winsome libertarian. Listening to him helps you understand why libertarian thought has such a big influence on the non-Left. He's the Executive Director and co-founder of the Institute for Liberal Studies.

Libertarians keep us accountable. They force the rest of us to defend why any proposed limitation on liberty cannot be avoided.

Let me know what you think of this.

Thanks again for checking it out!

Shawn

Chapters and AI summary

Host Shawn Whatley speaks with Matt Bufton, executive director and co-founder of the Institute for Liberal Studies, about how social crises (homelessness, fentanyl use, safety in places like Ottawa’s market) can fuel demands for authoritarian solutions and reduced liberty. Bufton argues many drug-related harms stem from prohibition and that enforcement should target crimes with victims rather than drug use, favoring voluntary help over coerced rehab. They discuss community safety versus militarized policing, how government policies concentrate homelessness via shelter location and zoning that restricts rooming houses, and concerns about the Charter’s shift from negative rights to expansive positive-right claims, alongside risks of normalizing the notwithstanding clause. Bufton critiques post-liberal power politics, supports liberal neutrality, opposes Quebec/Alberta separatism, and says his main worry is declining civil society and work-from-home-driven social isolation, calling for rebuilding common bonds outside government.

00:00 Government Creates Crises

00:40 Civil Society Decline

01:21 Podcast Intro Setup

03:15 Drug Prohibition Harms

07:17 Freedom Not Binary

10:00 Public Authoritarian Reflex

12:05 Crime Focus Not Drugs

15:33 Ottawa Market Safety

18:46 Shelters Zoning Bottleneck

23:42 Charter Rights Debate

25:01 Positive Rights Overreach

26:02 Notwithstanding Clause Risks

26:52 Institutions Under Strain

27:34 CCF Examples Teaser

28:07 Charter Weaponization

29:33 Kids and Conflict

32:20 Government as Parent

33:47 Post Liberalism Debate

42:32 Neutrality and Values

50:10 Separatism Alberta Quebec

56:24 Civil Society Decline

57:45 Rebuilding Common Bonds

The Conservatives seem lost after Mark Carney stole economic liberalism from the CPC. Trump's tariffs keep voters distracted, while separatism grows in Alberta and Quebec. All of this promises an exciting fall session with the Alberta referendum and elections in Quebec and B.C.

Cole Hogan spends his life watching these events. We try to find the concepts and assumptions behind the excitement.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks again,

Shawn

Chapters and AI summary:

Host Shawn Whatley speaks with political strategist Cole Hogan about Canadian politics heading into the fall. They discuss Mark Carney’s investment summit and political capital, Harper and Kenney’s support for Carney, and why Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre should refocus EU and trade debates through cost-of-living impacts while rebuilding on issues where they’re most trusted, such as immigration, crime, drugs, and housing. The conversation explores shifts in Canadian identity from the Trudeau era, Canada’s cultural and political relationship with the U.S., and regional insecurity and patriotism debates, including criticism of elite definitions of patriotism. They examine Alberta separatism and the October referendum as rooted in long-standing western grievances over resources, representation, immigration, and constitutional jurisdiction, and note key dates for Parliament, Quebec’s election, and Alberta’s vote.

00:00 Oil and Gas Reality Check

01:51 Welcome and Guest Intro

02:29 Doug Ford and Olivia Chow

04:54 Mark Carney Outlook

06:49 Conservatives After Election

10:36 Make It Cost of Living

13:15 Canada Identity and Europe

19:08 Canada Mirrors America

25:11 National Insecurity and Trump

32:45 Patriotism Purity Tests

37:12 Alberta Referendum Stakes

44:07 Regional Solitudes Explained

52:15 Immigration Pendulum Warning

56:07 Fall Political Calendar Wrap

Just when you thought Red Tories had gone extinct, Mark Graham and colleagues start an online journal called the Red Tory Standard.

Very few people run around with Tory banners, but then again, Torys aren't the running-around types. But if they were, I suspect we still wouldn't see very many of them.

Mark Graham worked to prove me wrong. For someone who grew up in Northern Ontario, as I did, I found it interesting to hear his passion for the monarchy and polite criticism of what he called American rugged individualism. 

I have no natural fondness for the monarchy. I grew up (in the bush) skeptical of the monarchy's lack of ruggedness. But having grown up, in so far as it can be said that I have done so, I've come to value it.

Conservatism is changing in Canada. Everything is up for grabs, as Ginny Roth said last year. Will we see a revival of Red Toryism, or any kind of Toryism, or are Mr. Graham and company singing it's requiem?

We shall see.

Thanks for checking this out. Let me know what you think!

Shawn

Chapters and AI summary:

Host Shawn Whatley interviews Mark Graham, co-founder of The Red Tory Standard, about Red Toryism and conservatism in Canada. Graham rejects the idea that Red Tories are “liberal but fiscally conservative,” describing them instead as culturally conservative, economically oriented to the common good, anti-radical, anti-continentalist, and wary of market worship, rugged individualism, and deeper integration with the United States. He argues for cultural and economic protectionism to preserve Canadian identity, emphasizes citizens over taxpayers, and supports institutions such as the monarchy as a nonpartisan head of state central to Canada’s purpose. The discussion contrasts liberal and conservative political anthropology, focusing on human nature, rights, legitimacy, inherited wisdom, and the role of government, and ends with Graham calling for diversified trade, stronger military capacity, and reclaiming the establishment from within.

00:00 Reclaiming Institutions

00:35 Citizen Over Taxpayer

00:52 Canada Not America

01:14 Meet The Red Tory

01:53 Red Tory Misconceptions

03:53 Anti Continentalism

04:47 Markets Serve Culture

05:46 Protectionism And Identity

06:57 Against Rugged Individualism

08:50 Liberalism Versus Conservatism

11:46 Rights And Human Nature

14:12 Hooker On Consent

15:35 Legitimacy And Inherited Wisdom

19:44 Ethos Character And Culture

22:12 What Is Conservatism

24:21 Anti Ideology Debate

29:14 Policy And Presuppositions

32:17 Human Nature Assumptions

34:04 Distrusting Policy Power

35:37 Common Good Citizenship

37:46 Nationalism Not Ethnic

42:31 CANZUK Internationalism

44:37 Brexit And Empire Ties

47:42 Why Keep The Monarchy

51:35 Free Trade Sovereignty Fears

56:44 Reclaim Institutions Inside

01:00:55 Closing Thanks And Links

The Honorable Jason Kenney has spent his life observing, critiquing, and serving in Canadian politics. He offers wisdom you won't find anywhere else.

Kenney reflected on how he has changed. He said, "GDP growth...is not a metric of human happiness or fulfillment or necessarily a health society."

Let me know what you think!

AI Chapters:

Host Shawn Whatley interviews former Alberta Premier and longtime federal minister Jason Kenney about what makes Canada and Alberta distinctive, arguing Canada remains highly desirable globally despite recent stagnation, affordability issues, national unity strains, and a “wrecked” immigration system under Trudeau. Kenney describes prairie resilience and communitarianism shaped by harsh geography, recounts a COVID-era near-default and a bank CEO’s praise for Alberta’s unique entrepreneurial risk-taking culture, and critiques right-of-centre politics that reduce human flourishing to GDP growth. He rejects Alberta separatism as grievance-driven compared with Quebec’s cultural nationalism, defends Canada’s pluralistic British-French institutional inheritance, warns that high immigration and modern media can slow integration, and urges relearning Canadian history and resisting a demoralizing “Gramscian” cultural project. On Trump and tariffs, he stresses national solidarity, doubts durable deals, supports firmness and retaliation, and suggests tabling a modest energy export tax as leverage.

00:00 Alberta Risk Culture

01:38 Show Intro and Guest

04:09 How Canada Is Doing

08:04 Prairie Optimism Roots

09:58 COVID Oil Crash Story

13:13 Land Shapes Community

15:54 Chesterton and Settlers

20:11 Beyond GDP Politics

25:16 Canada as a Nation

35:06 Culture After Empire

41:44 Trump Tariffs Strategy

48:36 Wrap Up and Thanks

Robert Nisbet is not a communitarian in the modern sense. He combines an older view with a resolute concern about state power. 

Nisbet offers the best and most readable resources for thinking about community from a non-Left perspective. 

Prof. Luke Sheahan wrote the forward to a re-release of Nisbet's Social Philosophers. The book is more like a review of intellectual history through the social lens of community. 

Check out Dr. Sheahan's website to learn more about his work, articles, and published material.

Thanks again for checking this out!

Shawn

AI summary and chapters:

Host Shawn Whatley interviews political scientist Luke Sheahan about Robert Nisbet’s thought and Sheahan’s foreword to the re-release of Nisbet’s The Social Philosophers: Community and Conflict in Western Thought. Sheahan describes Nisbet as a major 20th-century conservative whose The Quest for Community argued that modern state power erodes the authority of families, churches, and voluntary associations, producing alienation and instability. They discuss Nisbet’s “idea-systems” of community and his typology of military, political, religious, withdrawal, revolutionary, and plural communities, with the plural community linked to the American constitutional order and multiple overlapping authorities. The conversation addresses legitimacy versus raw power, authority’s dependence on local institutions, the role of political theology, and how weakening intermediate communities contributes to loneliness, deaths of despair, and ideological movements.

00:00 State Power and Alienation

00:33 Meet Luke Sheahan

01:29 Who Was Robert Nisbet

03:17 Quest for Community Thesis

04:07 National We-ness Critique

06:02 Social Philosophers and Ideas

08:05 Reprinting the Lost Book

10:09 Three Core Communities

11:32 Military to Political Shift

13:33 Religious Community Rise

15:12 Withdrawal Communities

16:55 Revolutionary Community

19:59 Plural Community Vision

22:13 Pluralism and Authority

24:43 Protestant vs Catholic Order

29:15 Community Beyond Protestantism

29:51 Legitimacy From Local Ties

31:58 Alienation And Mass Society

36:41 Authority Versus Power

41:19 Prejudgments And Liberal Crisis

45:22 Do Ideas Shape History

54:37 Social Health Versus State Power

58:19 Rebuilding Associations Closing

Post-liberalism hasn't been tried and found wanting. It's been found confusing and left untouched in Canada. 

Post-liberalism has been around since the 1980s in theology and at least since the 1990s in politics. It only became popular in the 2010s.

Conservatives need to go deep into post-liberal thought. We need to know what bits align with intellectual conservatism and what elements of post-liberalism may never fit. We need to understand the elements of policy that might flow from different branches of post-liberalism. We can't simply dismiss it as nothing but collectivism. 

Dr. James Wood is a professor of religion and theology at Redeemer University (Ontario Canada) with a deep interest and understanding of post-liberalism. 

The article we discuss isn't posted online yet. I will endeavour to add a link when it's available.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks again

Shawn

Chapters and AI summary:

Host Shawn Whatley interviews Professor James Wood about his review of Stefan Borg’s book The Return of the Common Good and the wider post-liberal conversation. Wood recounts how his Christian conversion, dissatisfaction with market logic in finance, and early moral concerns (including abortion) led him to critiques of liberal atomistic individualism and liberal “neutrality.” He traces post-liberal roots to 1980s–90s communitarianism (e.g., Sandel, MacIntyre, Taylor), post-liberal theology influenced by Barth (Frei, Lindbeck), and figures like Milbank and Hauerwas, and distinguishes British from contemporary American post-liberal currents (national populists, common-good conservatives, integralists). The discussion argues liberalism tends toward autonomy maximization, depends on pre-liberal virtues it can’t sustain (the Böckenförde dilemma), and treats liberalism as a political theology and “prodigal child” of Christendom, with Wood emphasizing an ecclesiocentric, church-centered post-liberalism.

00:00 Liberalism And Autonomy

01:01 Episode Setup And Stakes

01:52 Guest Introduction

03:12 Wood’s Postliberal Journey

07:10 Communitarians And Radical Orthodoxy

11:58 Postliberal Theology Roots

16:16 Milbank And Hauerwas Bridge

20:50 Barth And Political Theology

25:15 British Vs American Postliberalism

30:36 Common Good Debates

34:26 Liberalism and Common Good

35:33 State Power and Virtue

36:42 Shared Logos and Dilemma

39:55 Desire and Modernity

44:24 Liberal Separations Critique

48:24 Neutral State Myth

55:12 Heresy and Freedom

01:00:38 Post Liberal Revolutions

01:02:52 Church and Politics Finale