This Week's Round-Up: Februuary 2, 2026

• Poilievre needs to put Canada first

• Trump’s corruption is a feature not a bug
• How Trump and Musk make you believe their lies 
• Is Danielle Smith a Separatist?
• Parents, read these stories

Is Canada Ready for an American Civil War?

As armed federal agents are unleashed on Minneapolis, Ottawa faces an impossible question

BY PATRICK LENNOX

America is tracking toward a version of mass civil unrest, which won’t look like the Civil War of 1861 (which killed 600,000 Americans) but will nevertheless bring widespread instability to that country. They are already there. The people have begun to wake up to the reality that the Trump administration has no interest in leaving them alone. If they want their freedom back, they are going to have to fight for it.

When you think about it, tyranny is right outside Canada’s door also. The state of Minnesota shares an 880-kilometre border with Manitoba and Ontario.

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Thoughts for Food

I disagree with Timothy Caulfield’s assertion in “Sure, Ultra-Processed Foods Are Bad. But How Does That Help Anyone?” that healthy eating is a “complex” issue. It’s quite simple. We know what’s good for us, not to mention the planet: local fruits and vegetables. Yet we subsidize the monocropping of crops like canola and the fossil fuel–based inputs needed to transport them. Remove these subsidies, subsidize local organic agriculture, and massively increase social supports for low-income people, especially children with their growing bodies. The giant multinational corporations and the politicians they support want you to think healthy eating is complicated, because they benefit when the discussion gets bogged down by definitions and technicalities and the blame game of consumer choice instead of poverty. None of that matters; just support low-income folks for a more healthful economy.

Lawren Richards

Salmon Arm, BC

A MESSAGE FROM THE WALRUS LAB IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MOUNT PLEASANT GROUP

How We Speak about the Dead

The way we honour people after they die is changing, from traditional newspaper tributes to personal videos and self-written obituaries. In this episode of Sorry for Your Loss, the conversation looks at why the words we choose still matter.

The episode features Reverend Dr. Brent Hawkes on the art of writing and delivering eulogies, followed by a conversation with long-time Globe and Mail obituary writer and author Sandra Martin about what makes a meaningful obituary and why these tributes matter for the living as much as the dead.

In this episode of What Happened Next, host Nathan Whitlock is joined by author and musician Antonio Michael Downing. His most recent book is the novel Black Cherokee, published in 2025 by Simon & Schuster Canada. Antonio talks to Nathan about bringing his own perspective as an author to his work as the host of CBC Radio’s book program The Next Chapter, about why he hand-writes the drafts of his books, and about unexpectedly discovering a kindred creative spirit in Anne of Green Gables.

— Jennifer Hollett

Executive Director, The Walrus