Talking to ... Tom Flanagan

Given that we’re said to live in an Information Society, the idea
that an entire Nation could succumb to a form of mass hysteria
similar to medieval delusions of sacrilege and infanticide would
normally be unthinkable. The Canadian scandal involving the
Kamloops child deaths, which kept all of Canada on edge for quite
some time, exemplifies such an incident—a moral panic that led
the Canadian Prime Minister, in a display of national shame, to
lower the country’s flags to half-mast. And because the public
held the Catholic Church responsible for the alleged murders,
Pope Francis was also asked to apologize—a request he humbly
fulfilled during a six-day penitential pilgrimage to Canada. The
fact that the affair eventually faded away did not, of course,
lead to a full reckoning—and this is precisely why we should turn
our attention to this question of how such a moral panic could
have emerged in the Information age. It was Tom Flanagan who
caught our attention because, as a political scientist, he has
published two books on the subject (along with others);
additionally, he is not only a recognized expert on Canadian
colonial history but also has a deep familiarity with how
politics operate, thanks to his long tenure as an advisor to
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.


Tom Flanagan taught political science at the University of
Calgary until his retirement. His academic interests centered on
Canadian Indigenous peoples, especially the Métis, who, led by
the millenarian Louis Riel, initiated a rebellion against the
Canadian government in 1885. Alongside his academic pursuits,
Flanagan also served as a political consultant and columnist for
major Canadian newspapers.


Tom Flanagan has recently puplished


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