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Errol Mendes
Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
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Author's Posts
How Trump Views NATO’s Core Obligations Should Deeply Concern Canada and Europe
- Analysis
- August 6, 2025
During his interview on Air Force One while traveling to the June 24-25 NATO summit in The Hague, President Trump was asked whether the US would honour Article 5, if Russia attacked a bordering NATO member. In a stunning response …
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The Trump “Truth Decay” Precedent and the Threat to Democracy Worldwide
- Analysis
- December 8, 2020
Despite the substantial victory of President-Elect Joseph Biden in the 2020 election, democracy in the US and indeed in the entire democratic world may well be in dire trouble. Proof of this is the results of a Monmouth Poll on …
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The Liberal Democratic World Order Is Falling Apart
- Analysis
- January 13, 2017
As a new year opens across the globe, the post-Second-World-War order and the global rule of law are losing out to the rule of individual men. From Russia to China to the EU, authoritarian rule is tightening its grip.
In …
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The Munk Leaders’ Debate: Opportunity Missed
- Analysis
- September 30, 2015
The Munk Leaders’ Debate was supposed to be about foreign policy, but at many times it was really about a three-man horse race. That race was about which progressive horse could finish first, or whether the conservative horse would end …
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Tories’ Anti-Terror Bill Undermines the Values It’s Meant to Protect
- Analysis
- February 2, 2015
Published in the Toronto Star, February 2, 2015
When a prime minister announces one of the most draconian anti-terrorism bills in his nation’s history — and does this not in the national legislature, but at an election-type campaign stop …
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This Isn’t the Kind of War Bombs Can Win
- Analysis
- October 10, 2014
Published in iPolitics, October 7, 2014
For starters, let’s stop calling them Islamic State. As President Barack Obama has pointed out, the mass murderers in black cutting a bloody trail through Iraq and Syria are neither truly Islamic nor …
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Harper Goes to the UN for Domestic Consumption in 2015
- Analysis
- September 22, 2014
Published on National Newswatch, September 22, 2014
In the week of September 22, 2014, Stephen Harper will address the UN General Assembly, the global forum that not only he has shunned in his almost nine years of office but …
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Ukraine: Another Example of the Dangerous Clash of Hegemons
- Analysis
- April 15, 2014
A previous version of this essay was published in the Huffington Post on March 18, 2014
When the history of the early decades of the 21st century is written, it may well be called the era of multiple clashing …
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With Syria, the US and Britain Are Trapped in the Past
- Analysis
- September 17, 2013
Published in the Huffington Post Canada, September 16, 2013
William Faulkner’s most brilliant insight was his quip that “The past is never dead, it is not even past.” It is the past that is now befuddling the most strategic …
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Corruption in Africa, Corruption in Canada: Different Scale, Same Problem
- Analysis
- July 2, 2013
Published in the Globe and Mail, July 1, 2013
The trip to East Africa with an attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro was a check off my bucket list. But the professional lessons I learned from that trip were also …
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Intervening in Syria Would be Illegal. It Would Also be Right.
- Analysis
- May 2, 2013
Published in the Globe and Mail, May 1, 2013
If the United States becomes convinced that Bashar al-Assad’s regime has started using chemical weapons against its own citizens, the “red line” set down by President Barack Obama will have …
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Canada’s Diplomatic Tantrum in the Desert
- Analysis
- April 18, 2013
Published in iPolitics, April 9, 2013
A little more than two weeks ago, Canada became the only nation on the planet to walk away from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
The decision to withdraw — making Canada the …
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Canada’s Reputation is Tainted by Bribery and Abuse. Only Boards Can Rescue It.
- Analysis
- March 5, 2013
Published in the Globe and Mail, March 5, 2013
The reputations of Canadian companies operating abroad are under serious attack. The attention of governments and the global private sector is being drawn to recent headlines such as “SNC bribery …
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Defending Canada’s Human Rights and Rule of Law Legacy
- Analysis
- January 21, 2013
2013 will see the UN and many countries around the world celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It should also be the year that we celebrate a Canadian law professor, John Humphrey, who as …
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Free Speech: A New Trigger for Global Crisis
- Analysis
- September 20, 2012
A different version of this essay was published in the Huffington Post, September 19, 2012.
The hate-mongering film produced by an extremist anti-Muslim individual in the U.S. (who is also a convicted criminal) has triggered anti-U.S. violence around the …
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In Defense of Invisible Children
- Analysis
- March 12, 2012
The critics of the Invisible Children video have argued that the viral video, which astoundingly has had more than 36 million hits on YouTube, is overstating the importance of this now much-diminished group of thugs called the Lord’s Resistance Army, …
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A New Cold War on Democracy and Human Rights at the UN Security Council and Beyond?
- Analysis
- February 7, 2012
On February 4th, 2012, the UN Security Council witnessed what could be one of the first salvos in a new cold war focused on democracy and human rights. A double veto by Russia and China defeated the resolution …
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Financial Markets and Legal Corruption
- Analysis
- October 7, 2011
One of the world’s most astute financial experts and investor George Soros is warning that the debt crisis that has plagued Europe and the U.S. since 2008 reminds him of the final years and collapse of the Soviet Union. In …
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