Welcome From Larry Maher
- Jun 25
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 2
You're receiving this inaugural edition of Exigent Quarterly because you're part of a growing community that believes understanding matters. Thank you for sharing our concern for Canada's future.
Every day we're flooded with information, yet genuine understanding often feels harder to find. Headlines move quickly. Social media rewards certainty over curiosity. Complex issues are compressed into slogans, leaving little room for context or thoughtful discussion. We created Exigent Quarterly to slow the conversation down.
This publication extends Exigent's educational mission beyond our delegations, bringing together original essays and informed, experienced perspectives that help Canadians better understand the forces shaping our democracy, our institutions, and our place in the world.
As proud Canadians, launching our inaugural issue on Canada Day is more than a symbolic gesture. It’s a declaration of our deep commitment to this country. We feel a profound responsibility to defend Canada’s democracy and safeguard our rights and freedoms.
Exigent Fellow Warren Kinsella reflects on the values that have long defined Canada and why they remain worth defending. Fellow Caryma Sa'd offers a deeply personal account of accepting an invitation to see difficult realities firsthand—and why trying to understand is never the same as taking sides.
These essays are not intended to end conversations. We hope they begin them.
If something you read challenges your thinking, gives you language for a difficult conversation, or helps someone better understand these issues, please share it with them. Thank you for reading. More importantly, thank you for caring enough to stay engaged.
The strongest democracies are built by informed citizens.
Thank you for being one.
Larry Maher
CEO, Exigent Foundation
To celebrate Canada Day, we asked political commentator Warren Kinsella what it really means to be Canadian. Instead of giving us a standard checklist, he flips the script to deliver a genuinely thought-provoking take.
By Warren Kinsella
Author + Political Journalist
What is it to be a Canadian?
Perhaps the best way to answer that is to describe what isn’t Canadian. What is unwelcome here.
Canada is not a place to come to with hate in one’s heart. It’s not a place to bring hateful creeds from afar - creeds that cause division and discord.
Canada is not a place where lawlessness is favoured or desired. It is not a place where the rule of law should be ignored without consequence.
Canada is not a place where one can wear a mask, and terrorize the innocent, and demonize people because of their faith or convictions.
Canada is not a place where hate and enmity is wanted. Canada is not a place for those who do not appreciate the immense value of peace, order and good government.
Canada is not a place for those who oppose democracy - or for those who do not understand the principles upon which this country is based.
Canada is not a place where violence is ever a substitute for dialogue and discussion and debate. It is not a place where a balled fist ever replaces an extended hand of help.
Canada is not a place where one culture, one view, one faith, operate to the exclusion of all others. It is not a place for those who do not celebrate democracy or diversity.
Canada is not a place of anger - it is a place of harmony and decency and mutual respect.
Canada is not - not now, not ever - a home for ancient hatreds. Never has been, never will be.
Those of us who love Canada - or at least love what Canada should be and can be - know that values isn’t just a word. Values are hopes and dreams and are the ineffable stuff of life. We share values with other places, with other peoples - Israel, for example.
Israel is a diverse, pluralistic democracy, where civility and civilization are celebrated. That, too, is the Canadian ideal.
“Exigent” is a word that means something that is pressing. Something that is critical. Something that is important. All of those things that Canada is and isn’t - all of those things that Israel is - are exigent.
They are worth fighting for. Always.
One of Exigent's guiding principles is that understanding begins with firsthand experience. Lawyer and journalist Caryma Sa'd shares how joining an Exigent mission challenged her assumptions and reinforced the importance of seeing before judging.
By Caryma Sa'd
Lawyer + Journalist
Trying to Understand Is Not Taking a Side
I am best known for on-the-ground coverage and analysis of Canada’s protest circuit and hate industry. I record demonstrations relating to both domestic and foreign causes, including countless high-conflict confrontations between opposing groups.
However, the real story is about our fraying social fabric and whether we can achieve peace, order, and good government in an increasingly polarized yet globalized world. And so, when I got an email from Exigent CEO Larry Maher inviting me on a trip to Israel, I paused. Was it relevant to my work? I document the Canadian response to political issues, not the underlying issues themselves. I do not offer commentary on conflict in the Middle East, so what did I need to see in Israel? Would accepting such an invitation compromise my independence and integrity? Larry assured me there were no publishing or editorial requirements, and that it was not a political solidarity mission. “It’s about extremism in the Middle East and its influence in the West,” he said.
After canvassing those I trust, the answer became obvious: "Go see what they have to show." As a result, I sat in rooms I otherwise would never have entered and spoke with people from vastly different backgrounds and experiences whom I otherwise never would have met.
One standout moment was a retired veteran who lived on a kibbutz that was attacked on October 7. We sat around his patio table as he recalled hiding in a safe room from Hamas gunmen. He heard his neighbours being shot. Gesturing to the fridge and chairs around us, he said that his porch had served as a meeting point for the violent intruders throughout the massacre. Many months later, he and his wife were among the first to return home. He nonchalantly explained, “They hate us for what we’ve done… we hate them for what they’ve done, and nobody thinks, ‘Hey, maybe it’s time to start to talk, instead of fight.’ But we continue fighting.” His words made me think of Canada, where we seem to be drifting away from dialogue and toward violence, just as governments increasingly pursue censorship and surveillance measures.
Predictably, there was some criticism when I returned from Israel, with detractors insisting the Exigent-sponsored trip rendered me a propagandist. Ho hum.
Trying to understand does not equate to taking a side. If anything, the trip reinforced my belief that it is more important than ever to hear each other out.
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