Periodical Ramblings (18) (And Much More)

    This is one in a series about serials and I have likely written a similar sentence in one of the other seventeen posts related to magazines. The periodicals covered range from Arizona Highways to the Village Voice, and include lesser known literary publications like The Sewanee Review and Prairie Schooner. The last one was about The Farmers' Almanac, which ceased publication and The Old Farmer's Almanac which is still going strong.

WIRED
    If you are vaguely aware of Wired and are thinking that, a magazine covering technology started over 30 years ago, back in the last century, is one you are not much interested in, you might want to have another look. Like The Old Farmer's Almanac, it is doing well and lately it has been doing much better.
    One reason it is doing much better is that it now covers much more than technology and it appears that Wired has gone off-topic largely because of a new energetic editor. She  is a Canadian, who travelled from Calgary to a bigger stage and has nimbly moved through some rather tough publications as a writer and executive. Along the way, she probably had to fetch a few coffees for the guys, but she was well prepared. She credits her stint at Tim Hortons when she was in high school: "It taught 16-year-old me that I like chaos, I like a fast pace, and I like to do something demanding." She has tattoos.
   

   I will not write much about Wired. Go to Wired.com and have a look for yourself. I just did, which is unfortunate since I really can't subscribe to another magazine, even though you will know that I just cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post. The illustration next to this, is one iteration of the cover of Wired, which was also pasted on various billboards in some major cities in the U.S..

Katie Drummond: A Real Golden Gael
   The newish editor at Wired is Katie Drummond, who continued her education after Tim Hortons and went to Queen's. (As someone who went to and worked at a rival institution, I will say only that Queen's is ranked higher than Tims. Those associated with Queen's are known as the "Golden Gaels".) I know much of this because I still have a subscription to the New York Times. In it, there was recently a good article about Ms. Drummond and Wired and I will supply for free, some of the information it contains, since you are likely to trust more, the information for which I have paid. 

   As the title implies, Ms. Drummond can be direct. When asked if Wired "has strayed too far from its techno-optimism roots with its hard-hitting coverage of the Trump administration and skeptical eye on billionaire tech bros?," her reply: “If you still don’t understand why Wired covers politics,” she said in an interview, “you are either willfully ignorant or a complete idiot.”
   Ms. Drummond was hired as editorial director in August 2023 and "she immediately focused on getting scoops and speeding up the pace of publishing. On her second day, she decided she needed a politics team. She rehired a former executive editor, Brian Barrett, to run day-to-day operations and built up a social video team to increase the number of vertical videos shared on social media. She shook up the staff and made hires; revamped newsletters, launching five new ones for paying subscribers; and started podcasts that placed a greater spotlight on Wired’s journalists and their work...."
   “She’s gone after stories the publication has normally avoided and avoided ones the publication has normally gone for. Wired is never boring to read.”

    "But Ms. Drummond’s approach appears to be working. Condé Nast does not disclose profits or losses for its publications, but Ms. Drummond said Wired had added more than 200,000 new paying subscribers in the past year, and subscription revenue increased 24 percent last year in the United States. Wired currently has more than 500,000 paid subscribers. It has a newsroom of around 80 people with plans to hire up to a dozen more this year, and was recently named a finalist for general excellence in the National Magazine Awards."

   At a time when many periodicals are struggling, it is good to see that Wired is doing well. Ms. Drummond is also apparently doing well and can be spotted running in Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband and daughter. If she needs advice, she should run over to Greenwich Village and chat with another Canadian expat who had great success at Condé Nast - Graydon Carter. 

Sources:
  The New York Times article is by Katie Robertson and appears in the March 17, 2026 issue. 
   That Ms. Drummond valued her time at Tim Hortons is reported by Jeff Pappone, in Queen's Alumni Review, Feb. 2, 2025.
   "After Exiting Vice, Katie Drummond Joins Wired as Top Editor,"Todd Spangler, Variety, Aug. 10, 2023.

   "Drummond’s background in online media spans hard news, technology and lifestyle coverage. At Vice, as SVP of global news and entertainment, she led the expansion of Vice News across Latin America, Europe and Asia, and oversaw all Vice digital brands including Noisey, Munchies, Rec Room, Motherboard and Waypoint. She also led efforts to create opportunities for the editorial brands across Vice TV and Vice Studios.

   Prior to Vice, Drummond was deputy editor at Medium, where she oversaw editorial content across politics, wellness, science and technology, and ran the audience development team for Medium’s subscription program. Drummond began her career as a reporter, writing for outlets including the New Republic, New York Magazine, Popular Science, Marie Claire and Wired, where she covered military research and medicine for Wired’s Danger Room blog. She then served in a managing editor role at the Verge and as a deputy editor for Bloomberg News, before taking on executive editor appointments at The Outline and Gizmodo Media Group, where she was editor in chief of Gizmodo."

   "Katie Drummond: ‘Democracy in the US is Under Threat. And That Threat is Facilitated by Technology and the Makers of that Technology’," Ana Vidal Egea, El Pais, July 5, 2025.

    "Since 2023, this Canadian philosophy graduate has directed the most influential publication in the field of tech. She was a pioneer in understanding what is now obvious: the inseparable connection between technology and power. Since Donald Trump won the elections, ‘Wired’ has also been covering US political news, and subscriptions have skyrocketed." 

The Bonus:
  For an enjoyable read about the career of the other Canadian at Condé Nast who went to Carleton see: When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, by Graydon Carter. 

 

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 2)

For International Women's Day

Early Feminism in London, Ontario - 1890
    An example is found in The Woman's Tribune, which is suitably situated in Beatrice, Nebraska. See the issue for Nov.8,1890. Under the heading "New Women's Papers", it notes "that new periodicals of, for and by women are springing up on every hand." 

   Ms. Wetherald is accomplished enough to have her own Wikipedia entry, from which the photograph was taken. A cursory search quickly found this: "Wives and Daughters," Isabel Campbell, The Mirror, Vol.1, No.1. 
   "Wives and Daughters" was published in London, Ontario as a monthly supplement to the London Advertiser between 1890 and 1892. Subscribers were expected to pay twenty-five cents per annum to receive it in the first year and fifty cents annually afterwards. Why and exactly when the publication folded is not known. The last known issue is Volume III, No. 1 in October of 1892 and there is no mention of the publication’s demise in it or in the London Advertiser at this time."
  The complete article is available online or in the Special Collections in the D.B. Weldon Library. It is published by the History Department at Western. 

The American Forts Series

This will be the last post about a "Book Series" that is based on the bibliography compiled by Carol Fitzgerald and found in, Series Americana: Post Depression-Era Regional Literature, 1938-1980. I plan to say more about her work at a later date. The subject is forts, and like the other posts about books published in a series, it should be of use to book collectors since reviews are provided along with the bibliographic information.

Those focused on Canadian history will find three of the nine books to be of particular interest: Louisbourg: Key to A Continent, Three Flags at the Straits: The Forts of Mackinac, and Thundergate: The Forts of Niagara. (None of those books are listed in the bibliography, Canadian Forts.) Those interested in "Postcolonialism" will likely find these fort books easy to attack, since the books were written in less enlightened times and for the general reader. Let us hope that the books have not been removed from libraries for being too 'hurtful'. Perhaps they will be of some use to the growing number of "Preppers." I was pleased to see that almost all of these books are available in the Western Libraries, although they are in storage, at least for now. If you are a real fan of forts, this book is also available in Weldon Library: Forts of the United States: An Historical Dictionary, 16th Through 19th Centuries, by Bud Hannings.

There are likely many of you who are attracted more to books with interesting characters than to books about old, inanimate objects. In that case, see Sutter's Fort. The author, Oscar Lewis, was an anthropologist, who wrote books about poverty, one of which, La Vida..., won a National Book Award. John Sutter, for whom the fort was named, was a Swiss immigrant who attempted to establish a New Helvetia, remnants of which can be found in Sacramento.

"Stewart Holbrook, a widely respected regional writer, conceived and planned the "American Forts Series" in the early 1960s. Although he died before the first volume was published, he had planned eight of the nine books. In his words, it would be “a series of historical works centered around forts in the United States and Canada that were of significant importance to American history.” Prentice-Hall published the nine books between 1965 and 1973. Like many other Series Americana, the American Forts Series presents a wide swath of American history, spanning as it does nearly four centuries and focusing on many separate regions." (The above is from the introduction provided in Series Americana.)

Guns at the Forks, O'Meara, Walter.
“The American Forts Series”, edited by Stewart H. Holbrook, is introduced by a volume of particular interest to Pennsylvanians. More important, Mr. O'Meara's Guns at the Forks is lively, intelligent, and informative in content, well illustrated, and attractively printed.

   "The Forks" of the title are the forks of the Ohio River, at the present Pittsburgh, and the guns are those of the five forts that have stood there, identified by Mr. O'Meara as Fort Prince George, Fort Duquesne, Mercer's Fort, Fort Pitt, and Fort Fayette. Other writers have dealt with all these posts, but this is the first volume devoted explicitly to their successive

histories. The scope of the study is sufficiently broad to include colorful and explanatory background material that places the succession of forts in historical perspective.”Source: Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3 (July, 1966), pp. 377-378.

Fort Laramie and the Sioux Indians, Nadeau Remi. 

   “This volume in "The American Forts Series," however, has much more to say about Indians, primarily the Sioux and to a lesser extent the Cheyenne and Arapaho, than about Fort Laramie. The theme is the eternal conflict between the red man, on the one hand, and the army, traders, and pioneers, on the other. Using a chronological approach to his narrative, the author pens accounts of the Grattan incident, the Sand Creek massacre, the fight for the Platte River Bridge, the Fetterman massacre, the Battle of the Rosebud, the ghost dance craze, the Battle of Wounded Knee, and many other dramatic incidents.” Review by: W. Turrentine Jackson, Source: The American Historical Review, Vol. 73, No. 1 (Oct., 1967), pp. 228-229.

Sentinel of the Plains: Fort Leavenworth and the American West, Walton, George.
  [This one was panned.] Since the "American Forts Series" contains earlier works written by reputable historians, it is difficult to account for the acceptance and publication of this book.”Review by: Otis E Young, Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Jun., 1974), pp. 211-212

Louisbourg: Key to A Continent, Downey, Fairfax.

This one is available in the Internet Archive. For an interesting discussion and maps of this fort see: "Streets Paved with Gold: Fortress of Louisbourg on Early Maps," J.Victor Owen, Mercator's World, Vol.8. No.2. March/April 2003. It begins with this quotation by Washington Irving: "The walls of an impregnable fortress, like the virtue of women, have their weak points of attack." "Considered the greatest fortress on the North American continent in 1744, the newly completed Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island was thought to be impregnable, a monument to French engineering and territorial dominance in eastern Canada. It took a group of bold New Englanders to prove this wrong."

Three Flags at the Straits: The Forts of Mackinac, Havighurst, Walter.

  ‘Planned by the late Stewart H. Holbrook, "The American Forts Series" appears to have been designed to give the layman a readable, accurate, one-volume history of each of the major strongholds that occupied strategic points on our frontiers.

Oscar Lewis' Sutter's Fort, published earlier in the series, is full of interest for

the reader. The narrative is lively, and it is based on the most important sources

and secondary materials. The present volume generally follows such a pattern.   The author has covered a number of midwestern themes in his previous volumes of fiction and history and is qualified to undertake a history of the rise and fall of Mackinac missions and forts. His book carries the story of events at the straits from the seventeenth century to modern times during successive decades of French, British, and American occupation. Close examination of chapters on the French period reveals the shadow of Francis Parkman's great history looming in the background, as, for example, in Havighurst's narration of Pontiac's Conspiracy. In later chapters there are generous quotations from the writings of such varied individuals as Robert Rogers, Jonathan Carver, and Henry Schoolcraft, whose careers touched the complex history of the straits. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at Sault Sainte Marie in the 1830's, loved the wild beauty of the area and was fascinated by his native wards. In 1845 the youthful Parkman marked the rotted stumps of Mackinac Island's old palisade. Today on Mackinac Island buildings of the fort are part of a historical museum portraying the romantic story of the past. Here, then, is an interesting, skillfully written book for the general reader. The bibliography covers the high lights of literature on the subject.

Review by: Wilbur R. Jacobs, The American Historical Review, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Apr. 1967), pp. 1074-1075. For Canadian reviews see: Calgary Herald, Jan.13, 1967 & The Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 4, 1967.

 

Thundergate: The Forts of Niagara, Howard, Robert.
"Thundergate, at the waterfall of the Niagara River, has been the site of twelve forts, a large number of battles, and incessant drama extending over several centuries. Robert West Howard tells the story of the Indians, French, Dutch, English, and Americans who lived and fought here and skillfully gives life to the dramatis personae of the drama. He covers a period from the sixteenth century up to the Fenian raids against Canada in the post-CivilWar period. The author of over twenty books, Mr. Howard presents his story in eminently readable and well organized prose. He lists his sources in a chapter by chapter bibliography at the end of the book and ends the volume with a very helpful chapter, "The Memory Place," which is directed to modern readers who would visit the Niagara region. Wendell Tripp, New York History, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Jan. 1969), pp. 105-110.

Sutter’s Fort: Gateway to the Gold Fields, Lewis, Oscar. (See the introduction above.)

Forts of the Upper Missouri, Athearn, Robert.
This is available in the Internet Archive

 

Vincennes: Portal to the West, Derleth, August

  “With this volume August Derleth adds to his extensive bibliography and also adds another title to the American Forts series. Not intended for the specialist, these volumes are by competent writers who have made good use of source materials. Derleth's book meets these requirements and compares favorably with others in the series.”

Review by: Alan S. Brown, The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 35, No. 2 (May, 1969), pp. 255.

Miss Universe (Revisited)

 Miss Palestine - And Perhaps A Mess

  Ms. Nadeem Ayoub was the subject of a post in MM back in August, mainly because of her connection with Western University. 
  I just happened to notice that there was a "spike" in interest in that post, which surprised me because not many things in MM get "spiked." Here is the link to my post: " Miss Universe"

Here, perhaps, is why there is interest in it. The source is the New York Post and I will say no more:

"Miss Palestine’s Connection to Convicted Terrorist Leader Revealed Ahead of Miss Universe Pageant, By Caitlin Doornbos, New York Post, 

Published Nov. 20, 2025, 5:33 p.m. ET

Nadeen Ayoub — who claims to be a 27-year-old US and Canadian citizen living in Dubai — is competing this week to represent Palestine, a territory the US and Israel don’t even recognize as a sovereign state.

Strutting through preliminary rounds ahead of the pending pageant, Ayoub has kept most of her personal life under wraps — until now. Years-old screenshots and social media posts obtained by The Post show she took pains to hide that she was once married to Sharaf Barghouti — son of the infamous Fatah leader serving five life sentences in Israel for orchestrating terror attacks that killed five people in 2001 and 2002.

The convicted murderer’s name resurfaced last month when Hamas demanded his release in hostage-exchange negotiations with Israel — a request the Jewish state flatly refused, citing his participation in the first intifada, leadership in the second, convictions in five terror-related murders and founding of the West Bank’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

[there is more]

Margaret Munn versus Western University

   Given that my last post was about a professor suing a university in the United States, I will now offer one about a student suing a university in Canada.  
   The student is Margaret Munn and the university is Western (often still referred to as UWO - the University of Western Ontario - in the sources provided below.)
   The major purpose of this post is to provide sources for information related to Munn's experience at Western and the lawsuit which has resulted. The litigation is ongoing. When the case is resolved, and if the result is reported, these background references may be of interest.
     I was unable to find any London reporting about "the Munn Affair", which is not unusual given the state of the local press, and the Western-related publications may be reluctant to approach the subject for other reasons, not-the-least of which is that the case is currently being litigated.
    The sources offered below are the ones that were found after a fair amount of searching. If they appear to be skewed in favour of Munn, that is in fact the case, but they were the only ones found; there were no critical ones to be excluded. Admittedly, less searching was done on social media sites where I did see a few negative comments about Munn and about the quality of the sources I note below. Here is one example from Reddit: "If you believe Jonathan Kay's reporting verbatim you need better critical thinking skills. He is highly ideological and sees himself as an anti-"woke" crusader." 
   I am choosing to say nothing about "the Munn Affair", or the quality of the sources. You can do some searching on your own, or read or listen to the sources provided and decide for yourself.

To Get Started:
       The lawsuit is outlined in this "Statement of Claim" filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Jan. 10, 2025. At the time this is being written, the 22 page document is available to the public and can be accessed by clicking on this link: MARGARET MUNN and THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO. (a summary can be generated.)

Ledrew and Laywer Lisa Bildy (a UWO grad.)

  For a short interview with Munn's lawyer which offers basic background information see: "The Case of Margaret Munn VS University of Western Ontario," Stephen Ledrew, Hosts Lawyer, Lisa Bildy, The News Forum, n.d. The introduction is found by clicking on the link above and lasts 4:50. The rest of the 20 minute interview is found under, "Political Correctness and Censorship at Canadian Institutions," The News Forum. 
  More about Munn, her "offences" at Western and the actions by some in the Faculty of Education and the reaction by the Western Senate, is found in this summary provided by the Free Speech Union of Canada: "Margaret Munn v. University of Western Ontario," May 12, 2025.

  For Additional Background:
   The first article about Munn's experiences at Western is this very long one: "Lessons From a Teacher-College Battle Over Free Speech and 'Decolonization': University of Western Ontario Instructors Spent Months Denouncing an Outspoken Education Student Who'd Asked Awkward Questions About Indigenous Reconciliation - Until a UWO Tribunal Concluded They'd Violated Her Rights," Jonathan Kay, Quillette, Nov. 29, 2024. The entire article is available by clicking on the link above.
   For those who would rather listen than read, the author has more recently offered this account which is 25 minutes long. A link and an indication of the contents are provided here:
"Why This Student Was Punished for Asking the Wrong Questions at University of Western Ontario?" Jonathan Kay, Quillette, May 20, 2025.
   "In a speech at the University of Western Ontario, Quillette editor Jonathan Kay shared insights from his investigation into UWO’s teachers college, focusing on a controversy involving Margaret Munn, who questioned the curriculum's decolonization focus. Munn's inquiries led to a backlash, with UWO's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee pushing for her expulsion. However, UWO's Senate Review Board Academic ultimately vindicated her, emphasizing the need for free speech and academic freedom. Kay highlights systemic pressures and incentives in academia that prioritize ideological conformity over open dialogue, urging reforms to support intellectual diversity."

00:15 The speaker’s legal career struggled due to moral dissonance with clients
01:39 Journalism reveals institutional pressures over personal morality
02:19 Margaret Munn faces challenges as a non-traditional student at UWO
04:40 UWO's decolonising pedagogy course is criticised as overly ideological
08:07 Munn questions decolonisation narratives, disrupting academic orthodoxy
10:24 UWO’s EDI committee seeks to expel Munn for ideological dissent
12:42 Curriculum changes and staffing reflect institutional haste and pressure
18:31 Administrators prioritise ideological trends over academic integrity
22:12 University reform requires changing incentive structures
23:09 Lena Dagnino defends academic freedom and Munn’s rights
23:37 Judgment critiques constraints on Munn’s academic expression
24:21 Panel defends intellectual freedom and academic values
24:49 Call for scholars to uphold academic principles
25:03 Based on a speech promoting liberty and rule of law

   A response to the reporting by Kay about the "Munn Affair" is found here:

"Schooled in DEI: UWO Sued for Ideological Teacher Training," by Jamie Sarkonak, National Post, May 24, 2025. Here are the first three paragraphs:

   "The point of the University of Western Ontario's education program should be to teach its students how to teach - but instead, it seems to be teaching students what to think by sabotaging the success of students who don't agree with decolonization.

   That's at least the impression you get from a lawsuit served upon the university by alumna Margaret Munn. She alleges she was subjected to unfair treatment and ideological pressure during her studies, including harassment-like behaviour from her faculty dean, and is now seeking more than $1 million in damages with the help of the Free Speech Union of Canada and her lawyer, Lisa Bildy. Her allegations are detailed in a statement of claim that has been made public, and have yet to be proven in court. Potentially years of proceedings lie ahead.

  The University of Western Ontario was only recently served and must file a statement of defence; its spokesperson, Stephen Ledgley, told the National Post on Friday that he was unable to comment on ongoing litigation."
   Essentially the same article by Sarkonak is also found under this title: "Education Student Punished For Questioning Decolonization Sues UWO," Postmedia Breaking News, May 26, 2025.

Serving The Ridiculously Rich

 

Olivia Ferney - Western, BMOS'22 Grad
  I wrote recently about Nadeen Ayoub, Miss Palestine, who may become Miss Universe, because she is in the news and Western University is mentioned (see, Miss Universe.) Another Western woman is in the "breaking news" and here are some of the stories in case you missed them. 
   The rather fetching Ms. Ferney is now in Miami working for Top Tier Travel, where she cares for the needs of very wealthy people who are used to having them met. Some of the requests are extremely extravagant and outlandish, but apparently requestors don't mind that they are exposed on, travelwithlivii, Olivia Ferney's Instagram account. Click on that link to learn more, or have a look at the articles below, where some of the more egregious examples of the demands of the rich and famous are provided.
    I will begin with the interview in The Times (the one in London, the other London) from which the illustration above is taken. It is from an article done by Paula Froelich on July 18 and it does not appear to be behind The TIme's rather high paywall, so read it at the link just provided. Other, rather lower-tiered British papers also offered stories including examples of the type of demands Ms. Ferney deals with daily. See, for example:
"Meet the Luxury Travel ‘fixer’ Whose Calls with Demanding Mega-rich Clients Have Made Her a Social Media Star," The Independent, Aug. 10, 2025.
  "Olivia Ferney has fast become one of the world's most sought-after luxury travel organizers, with Instagram videos of her staying cool in the face of absurd requests from ultra-high-net-worth clients earning her nearly 300,000 followers. She revealed her clients’ wildest demands to US Travel Editor Ted Thornhill." 

   On this side of the Atlantic, The New York Times has this story and I had to look up the sports car mentioned, since it has never been mentioned by anyone in my rather pedestrian group of friends: "They’re Rich, They Travel and They Love to Complain: A Birkin Bag Overnighted to Capri. A Pink Brabus Sports car for a Gen Z Birthday Party. Olivia Ferney, a Travel Agent to the Ultrawealthy, Has Heard it all," Guy Trebay, Aug. 21, 2025. Here are some examples from behind the NYT wall:

   “We work with many billionaires and hundred-millionaires,” Ms. Ferney said, referring to her employer, Top Tier Travel. “The main word I use is ‘particular.’ Rich people like very particular things.”
   Just how particular? There was the client who authorized $100,000 charged to his credit card for his daughter’s vacation, provided she agree not to contact him. Another client demanded a last-minute doctor’s consult before boarding a private jet, fearful that her new breast implants might rupture.
   And then there was the woman who insisted on being extracted from a charter boat when rough seas prevented her from reaching a Greek party island. She complained that the waves were not even that high, adding that the captain was no longer speaking to her....
   Raised in Dundas, Ontario, population 20,000, Ms. Ferney grew up in a middle-class family that was as incredulous as her online fans were about the stories she posted.
   After attending the University of Western Ontario, she lit out for Miami, where she met Troy Arnold, the founder of Top Tier Travel. She joined the company as a fixer for those who pay $2,500 to $8,500 a month for above-and-beyond services.
   And what are those services? A custom pink Brabus 800 for a 22-year-old’s birthday party. Spring water shipped to a Caribbean island for a client annoyed that shampooing with the local tap water gave her an itchy scalp. A $75,000 Shadow Birkin from Hermes overnighted to Capri, Italy."

   We shouldn't feel too badly for Ms. Ferney since she has to travel to the top tier places and, as the article indicates, "Her therapeutic neutrality in the face of outlandish behavior may be rooted in the fact that she takes many of her calls poolside."
   If you would like to listen to more information about Ms. Ferney, she can be heard on the CBC where she was interviewed on "Afternoon Drive", with Matt Allen on Aug. 26 - "Dundas Woman Who Serves Ultra-wealthy Shares Stories of Clients in Viral Videos." 

   If you would like to take a vacation of this type and talk to Ms. Ferney, here is the website of Top Tier Travel.

Banning Burqas?

 

And Other Assorted Head Gear and Garments 
  In some places people are compelled to wear certain things, while in others they are sometimes forced to remove them. The question in more "liberal", secular  countries is whether the banning of, say the burqa can be reasonably justified. Such issues are usually avoided because they are controversial and perhaps, more so, because they are complex - and they are. It is easy to say that a hijab doesn't hurt anyone, but to admit that a kirpan could. Masks may not be menacing when worn by Zorro or the Lone Ranger, but they can be threatening when worn by a man entering a bank or an ICE man in the U.S. Keffiyehs don't cover faces, but they are now prohibited in some instances. The debate over such issues is real in both France and Quebec. The debate everywhere is generally more about politics and religion than the philosophical problems.
   The question - "Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?" has been examined by Brandon Robshaw and he provides a fine example of how philosophy can be applied in such instances. I will simply introduce you to his work and provide some suggestions about how it can be found. 
   He has written a book and you can find it at Bloomsbury Publishing or on Amazon, where there is this description of: Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?Reconciling Liberalism, Multiculturalism and European Politics:

   Debates about whether the Wahhabist practice of face-veiling for women should be banned in modern liberal states tend to generate more heat than light. This book brings clarity to what can be a confusing subject by disentangling the different strands of the problem and breaking through the accusations of misogyny and Islamophobia. 
   Explaining and expounding the ideas of giants of the liberal tradition including Locke, Mill, and Rawls as well as contemporary thinkers like Nussbaum, Kymlicka and Oshana, the book considers a variety of conceptions of liberalism and how they affect the response to the question. Directly addressing issues facing many of today's societies, it unpicks whether paternalism on grounds of welfare can be justified within liberalism, the value of personal autonomy and the problem of whether a socially influenced choice counts as a genuine preference. 
   Covering the role of multiculturalism, gender issues and feminism, this comprehensive philosophical study of a major political question gets to the heart of whether a ban could be justified in principle, and also questions whether any such ban could prove efficacious in achieving its end.

[as an editorial aside, close readers around London may recognize the name "Kymlicka", which in this case refers to a son of Kym, who was well-known on the Western campus.]

The TOC is helpful:

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Reflections on the French ban
3. The liberal position on habitual public face-covering per se
4. What kind of liberalism?
5. Paternalism considered
6. Personal autonomy and the burqa
7. Adaptive preferences and the burqa
8. The burqa and multicultural theory
9. Gender and the burqa
10. The effect of the burqa on others: Offence
11. The effect of the burqa on others: Harm
12. Conclusion
Bibliography

Unfortunately, the price is $272.57

Another Approach
  If you are not that interested in this subject, go to this article by Robshaw which reveals why he became interested in the subject and his rudimentary thoughts about it. The entire article is available for free at: Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas (Issue 135 - "Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?".)
   Mr. Robshaw was so interested in the issue he decided to use it as a proposal for a PhD dissertation and that ultimately became the book and a review of it is found here: "Should a Liberal State Ban the Burqa?: Book Review," Andreas Matthias, Daily Philosophy: Making Sense of the World (nd)
"A very clear, instructive and carefully argued book that shows off applied philosophy at its best."

The Bonus: 
  If you don't have $272, I will hint that the entire dissertation (296pp) is available for free. Here is the abstract:

  "This thesis concerns the problem of whether a liberal state should – for liberal reasons – ban the wearing of the burqa in public. The core of the problem is that liberalism appears to pull in two opposed directions on this question. On the one hand, liberals strongly support religious tolerance and the burqa is seen by many, including most of those who wear it, as a religious commitment; and even if it is not a religious commitment it may still be a personal choice, and liberals strongly support enabling personal choice. On the other hand, liberals are committed to supporting equal rights and freedoms for both sexes, and the gender asymmetry of the burqa (women wear it, men don’t) combined with the fact that habitually covering one’s face in public is liable to cause disadvantages in personal, social and professional life, look like good reasons for opposing it; moreover liberals value personal autonomy, which may be compromised if the burqa is worn in response to cultural pressure. The issue thus exposes a tension within liberalism. A central element of my approach is the disentangling of a number of connected but separate strands of the problem. Thus I consider: different conceptions of liberalism and how they affect the response to the question; whether paternalism on grounds of welfare can be justified withinliberalism and if so whether it would justify intervention in the specific case of the burqa; the value of personal autonomy within liberalism and whether a concern to safeguard or promote it couldjustify a burqa ban; the problem of adaptive preference and whether a socially influenced choice counts as a genuine preference; the role of multiculturalism in liberalism and to what extent it could justify exemptions; gender issues and feminism; the problem of coerced wearing of the burqa; and the problem of how likely it would be that a ban, even if justified in principle, would prove efficacious in achieving its end. 
[the additional bonus]
  The conclusion to the thesis is that banning the burqa in a liberal state is unlikely to be justified. It could not be justified in terms of the welfare or autonomy of the individual who voluntarily wears it. It could only be justified on the grounds of harm to others. It might, for example, theoretically be justified if coerced wearing of the burqa were widespread. This would be regrettable, however, as it would override the free choice of those who wore it voluntarily. Empirical evidence that such coercion was occurring would be necessary; and such a ban could only be justified if there were no other, equally efficacious and better targeted means of preventing coercion. My aim is to bring some clarity to this often heated and confused debate, and to supply clear principles on which to base any decision."

                                     [How unique and refreshing.]

Miss Universe

   Miss Palestine 

   I generally make fun of the use of the phrase "breaking news", but will attempt to provide you with some now, under a title many will think devised only to attract readers. Although the news will soon be full of stories about the Miss Universe Contest, which will be held in Thailand in November, the breaking news is that one of the contestants apparently has a connection to both London, Ontario and Western University. Her name is Nadeen Ayoub. 
  I do not follow beauty pageants and this is the first mention of them in MM. I do, however, often present posts related to Western, since I live close to it and both studied and worked there. That is how I ran across Ms. Ayoub, not because I was looking at beauty pageant pictures. 
  This news has just broken and this is likely a "scoop" for London readers who no longer have a local newspaper. I am choosing not to investigate it further, but will leave it to reporters with more time, resources and talent. It is also the case, that I don't want to bother to access some of the newer social media sources, like Ms. Ayoub's Linkedin or Instagram accounts where surely some quality information will be found. It is also the case that the word "Palestine" is mentioned in the references I will now provide and I choose to avoid that controversial topic. I did take a quick look at some local sources and found no mention of Ms. Ayoub.

  Here are some of the "breaking news" stories:

"Canadian Living in Dubai Says She Will Represent Palestine at Miss Universe Pageant: Nadeen Ayoub, 27, Shared News on Social Media Earlier This Month While Wearing Miss Universe Palestine Sash, Denette Wilford, Toronto Sun, Aug. 26, 2025.
  "It is unclear how she was appointed to be the representative of a country that most nations don’t recognize, though no competition appears to have been held, according to the New York Post. Ayoub, however, is listed as founder and manager of the Miss Palestine Organization, the group behind her title, the outlet reported. The organization only registered its website in May and features black and white photos of Ayoub holding a crown."
   It is in The Post story cited above that I learned of the Western/London connection.
"The Mysterious Case of How a Canadian in Dubai Became ‘Miss Palestine’ — and Will Compete in the Miss Universe Pageant," Isabel Vincent, Aug. 26, 2025.
   "Remarkably, for a beauty queen, there is little official biographical information about Ayoub on her social media or the Miss Palestine Organisation website. The model and wellness coach reportedly grew up in Canada and studied English literature and psychology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. She also went to high school in the same area, according to her LinkedIn page....
She taught at the Friends School in Ramallah and has worked with United in Humanity, a Washington-state nonprofit that organized humanitarian missions in Gaza, according to public records....Ayoub also runs the Dubai-based Olive Green Academy, a company that offers workshops on how to become an influencer."

  The picture above appears in The Express Tribune on August 15, under this title:
"Nadeen Ayoub to Represent Palestine at Miss Universe for the First Time: Nadeen Ayoub Will Mark the Country’s Debut at the Global Competition Since it Began in 1952."
Ms. Ayoub in Person: "Nadeen Ayoub represents Palestine for the first time at Miss Universe."

Post Script:
   There was some real "breaking news" at Western earlier in the week when the London Police responded to a call about a man with a gun around Weldon Library. It turned out to be a hoax and "swatting cases" were reported at other universities: " "Swatting Hoaxes on College Campuses Spark Panice and an FBI Probe," The Washington Post, August 27, 2025. 
  My posts about Western are typically less sensational, like this one about trees:
Pawpaw Redux. 

The Bonus: (For younger readers)
Over 40 years ago, Karen Baldwin of London, Ontario was crowned Miss Universe.

SYLLABI

 Course Catalogues (Part 2)

   Last year I wrote a piece about how the examination of descriptions of courses offered at universities, could be a useful way to determine what is being taught at them. I figured that the ones now offered might be quite different from the ones that once were, but I thought that finding and sifting through them would be rather difficult. That post can be read by clicking on the link above. 
   That post about "Course Catalogues" has attracted some attention. That is a surprise, but after reading it again, it is highly likely that the attraction was the mention of "Bird Courses," which are eagerly sought after, and not mentioned as such in "Course Catalogues".
   For those of you who now may have stumbled upon this post because of my mention of "Bird Courses," I will just say that there is nothing more offered about "Bird Courses."
  This post is about "Syllabi", as advertised, and to let you know that there is a way to "see" millions of them. Others had the idea that such documents would be a useful way to find out what was being offered, which is not the same thing as finding out what is actually being taught. Still, to find out what students are expected to read, what they have to write (or not) and whether they have to go to class and participate, would be one way to assess the university experience. And to find out, for example, if the place is a 'safe' or 'dangerous' one, intellectually speaking - to use criteria mentioned often these days. 
   If you are the rare reader who is interested in "Course Catalogues", not "Bird Courses," here is what you need to know to access a large number of them from over 6,000 universities. I will mention here that the actual syllabi are not offered, just the data they contain.

The Open Syllabus Project (OSP)
   Here is a description: 
The Open Syllabus Project (OSP) provides the first “big data” look at the primary activity of higher education: teaching.  It collects and analyzes millions of university syllabi to generate novel academic and public applications of the expertise embedded in these teaching choices.  This data has a wide range of uses in scholarly metrics, educational research, and the sociology of knowledge.  It supports the work of teachers, publishers, and librarians, and opens up new ways of connecting academic expertise to wider publics at a time when those connections are being attacked.  
   Here is the link to the "Open Syllabus". (There is also a Facebook page.)

   Before heading to the OSP, a look at the Wikipedia entry is useful. See, "Open Syllabus Project." Among the "Notable Findings" area you will see some examples of what people are looking for among the data. These days that includes not just information about the books and articles being used, but the colour or gender of the authors of them.

   For an article written when the OSP came out see: "What a Million Syllabuses Can Teach Us," By Joe Karaganis and David McClure, New York Times, Jan.22, 2016:
   "COLLEGE course syllabuses are curious documents. They represent the best efforts by faculty and instructors to distill human knowledge on a given subject into 14-week chunks. They structure the main activity of colleges and universities. And then, for the most part, they disappear. Some schools archive them, some don’t. Some syllabus archives are public, some aren’t. Some faculty members treat their syllabuses as trade secrets, others are happy to post them online. Despite the bureaucratization of higher education over the past few decades, syllabuses have escaped systematic treatment.
   Until now. Over the past two years, we and our partners at the Open Syllabus Project (based at the American Assembly at Columbia) have collected more than a million syllabuses from university websites. We have also begun to extract some of their key components — their metadata — starting with their dates, their schools, their fields of study and the texts that they assign…..
   Such data has many uses. For academics, for example, it offers a window onto something they generally know very little about: how widely their work is read."

   For an example of how the data are used, see this working paper and the brief summary offered:
   “Closed Classrooms? An Analysis of College Syllabi on Contentious Issues," John A. Shields, et al. Working Paper. July 10, 2025.
   “This essay shines a needed light on college classrooms by drawing on a unique database of college syllabi collected by the “Open Syllabus Project” (OSP). The OSP has amassed more than 27 million syllabi from around the world primarily by scraping them from university websites. They date as far back as 2008, though a majority are from the last ten years. Most of the data comes from universities in the United States, U.K., Canada, and Australia. And while the OSP doesn’t provide all of the raw data to scholars, it provides limited access via a searchable website and useful analytic tools to assess the data.”
   We used the OSP to explore how three contentious issues are being taught: racial bias in the American criminal justice system, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the ethics of abortion."
A copy of the 66pp pdf is available here.

Cancon:
   The syllabi of some Canadian universities are included. For the analytics relating to some of the syllabi at Western University, see here.
The Bonus:
   Princeton University Press has produced a book about this subject. Interestingly enough, it doesn't appear to be available at Western or many other Ontario university libraries. 
  Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything, William Germano & Kit Nicholls.
   "Generations of teachers have built their classes around the course syllabus, a semester-long contract that spells out what each class meeting will focus on (readings, problem sets, case studies, experiments), and what the student has to turn in by a given date. But what does that way of thinking about the syllabus leave out—about our teaching and, more importantly, about our students’ learning?"