A long time ago I was interviewing a professor at the University of Michigan (whose name I cannot recall) on various topics of no great interest. I was about to give up when I accidentally asked the right question.

“Have any major human behaviours really changed in the past few centuries?” I asked, and he said “No, but the sociopaths are multiplying.”

I was dealing with a full-time sociopath in my work at that time, so I immediately went back into interview mode. (‘Sociopath’ and ‘psychopath’ both describe essentially the same behaviours, although they may be more extreme in the latter case.) And the professor proceeded to explain it in evolutionary terms.

The typical sociopath is male, above average intelligence, highly manipulative, and utterly without empathy (but he is able to mimic it). He lies often and very persuasively, because he totally believes his own lies as soon as he says them (while retaining the ability to modify them if necessary). He is often charismatic and usually has many children by several women.

With the upcoming Winnipeg municipal election just around the corner, Free Press contributors are reminding us of the risks of low voter turnout and encouraging us to exercise our civic responsibility by casting our votes.

What’s missing for me in these submissions is attention to an underlying cause of these low voting rates — the fact that both the electorate’s trust in politicians and politicians’ trust in the electorate are at a very low ebb. Given the collapse of democratic trust why would we expect otherwise?

The electorate’s mistrust of politicians is easy to understand in light of the all too frequent lapses in moral judgment on the part of politicians of all stripes and at all levels of government. While there are, of course, noteworthy exceptions, we don’t have to look far to be confronted with these lapses.

But what of politicians’ mistrust of the electorate? The fact is there are few opportunities for citizens to work collaboratively with elected officials to explore solutions to the unprecedented problems we are all facing. As a result, the myth of an ignorant and self-interested public goes unchallenged. Yes, we are invited to attend town halls. Yes we are asked to respond to multiple surveys. But is that democracy? Is that true engagement of citizens in political life?

It is shocking to find children living in encampments with their parents. It is deeply disturbing to find young people who have aged out of child welfare living in encampments with their families of origin.

As founder and executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, I have encountered both. These are experiences that stay with me. They leave me asking what happened to these children and families, what help they received and what support might have prevented their homelessness.

They also make the Manitoba government’s rejection of a public inquiry into Child and Family Services difficult to accept.

On Oct. 8, the NDP defeated a motion calling for an inquiry into systemic failures in child welfare. This is a puzzling position for a government committed to advancing Indigenous issues, particularly when Indigenous children and families are so profoundly overrepresented in the system.

Canada needs a strong plan of action to tackle chronic kidney disease.

Canada is facing a looming health crisis that remains largely unaddressed and invisible at the policy and health system level. More than four million Canadians live with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 50,000 currently receive dialysis or are living with a transplant, both life-sustaining but burdensome treatments.

With no cure, CKD profoundly impacts quality of life, contributing to lost income, overall poor health, and uncertainty about the future. The implications of CKD extend far beyond patients and families. CKD is now the 11th leading cause of death in Canada and one of our most expensive chronic diseases. Health-care costs exceed $11.7 billion annually, with most expenses incurred in the later stages of the disease, particularly dialysis and transplantation.

By 2050, the total cost burden of CKD is projected to rise to $17.6 billion and an estimated 6.2 million Canadians will be affected, driven by an aging population and rising rates of diabetes and high blood pressure.

France’s violent student uprising has captured headlines in recent weeks. Yet India’s strongman Prime Minister Narendra Modi is struggling to tame an upstart gen Z challenge of his own — and it shows no signs of slowing down.

Youth-led protests beginning on Oct. 10 paralyzed central New Delhi for several days as demonstrators called for India’s election commissioner to resign over unexplained database changes that deleted 130 million people from voter registries. Many accuse Modi’s Hindu-first ruling party of ramming through the changes for its own benefit. Mass arrests were carried out by the 25,000-plus security forces brought in to lock down the capital.

It’s just the latest headache the Cockroach movement has caused for Modi.

At a court hearing in May, India’s top judge called jobless youth “cockroaches” and “parasites” for criticizing the country on social media. His offhand comments triggered instant fury, as Indian graduates often struggle to find work in their field in an economy dominated by low-skilled sectors. Their unemployment rate is three times higher than the country’s average — 40 per cent for graduates under 25.

Over a period of several weeks, we recently witnessed what the best and worst of the United Nations General Assembly, the annual meeting of all 193 member states, has to offer.

“In a world marked by turbulence, division and uncertainty, the United Nations is more necessary than ever,” emphasized UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Who could disagree?

The worst was a forum for a parade of autocrats and wannabe-autocrats touting their personal accomplishments, airing their grievances and uttering threats, employing spurious arguments for their unsupportable actions and virulent words. To add insult to injury, they called for elimination and defunding of some of the international legal and institutional safeguards built into the UN charter to which they are signatories.

The best has seen leader statecraft at its finest and most erudite, treating listeners to lessons in history, literature and philosophy in attempts to persuade the world that we have and can do a better job of living together in harmony. They argued that while the UN may be under attack from some, what it stands for remains ever relevant and they called for the strengthening of its protective guardrails.

When will politicians stop treating me as a child?

In a moment of idleness, I decided to research the mayoral campaign. After a soporific start, the campaign now shows some signs of life, not so much with animated political exchanges, but with candidates trading barbs and accusations of bribes to quit.

So, I turned to my trusty AI assistant (a phrase perilously close to an oxymoron nowadays) to sort out what was on offer from various candidates. Boy, was that a mistake!

Using Perplexity Enterprise, I learned there are 12 aspirants (candidates): 11 men and one woman. Aside from the incumbent, a few have run for mayor in prior years and several have previous council experience. Most lack significant political or management experience.

Here is how the high command of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) laid down the rules for “remotely” killing suspected Palestinian activists in the densely populated Gaza Strip after the surprise Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israeli forces were told that up to 20 Palestinian civilians could be killed in a strike against a single suspected member of Hamas, even one of the lowest rank and importance. For a more “senior” Hamas member, the permissible number of non-combatants who could be ‘accidentally’ killed in the process went up to 100.

The order went out only hours after the attack, when there were not yet any IDF troops on the ground in Gaza and all strikes had to be remote, but most strikes have remained remote right down to the present because using drones and artillery keeps Israeli casualties very low.

The drone operators or artillery gunners who delivered the high explosives did not choose the targets themselves. An AI system called Lavender did that, using a network of surveillance devices that generated tens of thousands of likely targets, some known by name, some just “acting suspiciously.” Human operators spent about 20 seconds confirming each one.

The editorial page of the Free Press often provides perspectives that are thought-provoking and sometimes contradictory. “Keeping the lights on,” (Oct. 5) by Hal Turner and “Wasteful operations should be held accountable,” (Oct. 6) by Barry Prentice are both thought-provoking. They are not contradictory because they cover two quite different topics. Where they differ is in their delivery and the quality of the underlying facts.

Mr. Turner provides what is, in my view, the most cogent rationale for gas-fuelled generation that I have read. He highlights the essential aspect of power supply to Manitobans. He supports the argument for natural gas generation with succinct, relatable facts and anecdotes relating to what other comparable utilities have done. He states that, “Manitoba Hydro’s experts are neither anti-wind nor pro-fossil fuel.” They are simply seeking the best possible solution for Manitobans — a fact many special-interest groups either ignore or sadly, impugn.

Although some would argue the contrary, I believe that Mr. Turner’s position and longevity in the Manitoba Hydro organization lend gravitas to his column. Mr. Turner understands that “keeping the lights on” is a non-negotiable requirement and a public trust.

Before I turn to Mr. Prentice’s column, I should disclose that before I retired (it’s been a while), I was responsible at different times for Winnipeg’s regional water system and subsequently water supply from source to tap. In that context I was also responsible for the operation of the Greater Winnipeg Water District (GWWD) railway. Like Mr. Turner’s perspective on the supply of electricity to Manitobans, I regard the supply of safe drinking water to Winnipeggers as a public trust.