Opinion
Approximately 100,000 people join Charlie Kirk’s wife Erika, President Trump, VP JD Vance, RFK Jr., for Charlie’s memorial service
Sunday in Glendale, Arizona, 95,000 people filled State Farm Stadium to honor Charlie Kirk, conservative mega-star and founder of Turning Point USA, who was assassinated on September 10.
The first speaker was Kirk’s pastor, Rob McCoy, who shared a story from just two weeks earlier when he and Charlie traveled to Korea to support persecuted Christians and encourage the youth.
Next came Mike McCoy, Rob McCoy’s son, who began working for Charlie Kirk when he was just 18. It was at Turning Point that he met his wife, standing proudly beside him, and the two married a year later.
Now serving as TPUSA’s Chief of Staff, McCoy delivered a direct and emotional message to Kirk’s assassin that shook the stadium.
“Charlie’s assassin thought that he could steal in silence his voice by putting a bullet in his neck. In the words of Søren Kierkegaard, the tyrant dies and his rule is over. The martyr dies, and his rule has just begun.”
McCoy wasn’t done. He closed with words so powerful they brought the crowd to its feet in a standing ovation.
Dr. Ben Carson then took the stage with an unforgettable four-minute tribute.
“Get on board of the REVIVAL that is coming.”
His words carried the weight of wisdom, but it was the ending Bible verse that really left a lasting impact.
“In closing, I want to read a passage from John 12:24, remembering that Charlie was shot at 12:24 pm. ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is Christ speaking. Except a corn of wheat fall onto the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’ And I want to thank Charlie for his sacrifice, because much fruit is going to be realized.”
About midway through, TPUSA released footage from moments before the assassination at Utah Valley University. Charlie was smiling and joyful, right up to his last breath.
The livestream hit more than 600,000 live, concurrent viewers on YouTube, a number I’ve never seen before on the platform. The memorial stream was also streamed on several other platforms, drawing huge numbers.
The demand was so overwhelming that the YouTube stream regularly buffered for users, including me on my gigabit internet.
When Tucker Carlson took the stage, his words landed with a weight that could be felt across the stadium. He shared a transformational lesson Charlie had taught him about hate.
The look on Tucker’s face said everything. Not a single word was wasted.
Then came RFK Jr., who became filled with emotion as he recalled an unforgettable conversation with Charlie about death.
The long pause at the 22-second mark in the clip below said it all. You could feel how heavily Kirk’s passing was weighing on him.
JD Vance followed, and his testimony of renewed faith brought the stadium roaring.
“I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public. As much as I loved the Lord and as much as it was an important part of my life. I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life.”
Vance then delivered some of the most powerful words ever spoken about Charlie Kirk.
When Erika Kirk stepped forward, she was welcomed with sparklers—the same kind Charlie once orchestrated for RFK Jr. and President Trump during their unity tour.
In her 27-minute speech, Erika spoke from the depths of her soul as she recalled the day her husband died. But a moving moment followed as she revealed she was comforted by a great mercy from God in Charlie’s final moments.
Closing out the service was President Trump, who announced he will soon award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.
What truly resonated with the crowd, though, was his retelling of one of Charlie’s final requests about the city where he grew up.
Charlie Kirk’s life was cut short at 31 years old, but his impact was immeasurable. From the pastor who stood beside him, to the young people he inspired, to the world leaders who honored him on this stage, the message was clear: Charlie changed lives.
The lessons he leaves us with are simple but profoundly vital — live with courage, speak the truth, put faith and family first, and never compromise your soul for an easy path.
In the days since his passing, the response has been overwhelming. Turning Point USA reported more than 54,000 new student inquiries to join or start chapters within just six days of Charlie’s assassination, a figure that surged past 62,000 by the following week.
At the same time, churches across the country are sharing stories of renewed attendance, with pastors noting that people moved by Charlie’s life and testimony are returning to faith in greater numbers.
His influence hasn’t ended; it’s only growing.
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Roy Hobbs: I coulda’ been better. I coulda’ broke every record in the book. And then when I walked down the street people would’ve looked, and they would’ve said, there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game.” Robert Redford in The Natural
The death last week of Robert Redford, the star of The Natural, at 89 coincided with the frantic finish of this year’s MLB pennant races. And there fans of some celebrated baseball teams who are wondering what happened to the WonderBoy the past month.
Somehow the Toronto Blue Jays have survived to make the postseason after staggering through September. The Jays hung on to beat the Kansas City Royals and avoid a sweep at Royals Stadium. The game featured Vladimir Guierrero’s first extra base hit since Sept. 7. Normally that would have been compensated by other Jays.
But they are playing without, arguably, their best player Bo Bichette. Their pitching staff is in tatters with Chris Bassitt gone to the injured list, José Berrios banned to the bullpen, Max Scherzer strafed for seven runs on Friday, Jeff Hoffman blowing leads like he blows his nose. All Star catcher Alejandro Kirk, OFs Addison Barger and Daulton Varsho went cold at the same time.
So Vladdy AWOL could have been fatal. But the Jays pieced together an offence centred on George Springer and spare parts to keep the wheels on. Starter Shane Bieber, the former Cy Young winner, has been a life saver. Now they must face Boston and Tampa to hold onto the top spot in the AL and win a first-round bye. Where they’ll battle the Detroit Tigers for the pennant.
Just kidding. As bad as the Blue Jays struggles have been, the Tigers have authored what may be there worst collapse in the history of MLB. Once leaders by 15.5 in the AL Central, powered by five All Stars and stocked with young studs, the Tigers now find themselves a single game up on red-hot Cleveland in the Central and precariously perched on the edge of missing the postseason.
They have company among the famous folds in the past. On August 11, 1951, the Brooklyn Dodgers held a 13-game lead in the National League. By the end of the season, the Dodgers had relinquished the entire lead, and were locked in a tie atop the standings with the New York Giants, with a three-game playoff to determine the pennant winner. They were tied a game apiece. Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe took a 4-1 Dodgers lead into the ninth inning. He gave way to reliever Ralph Branca. Up came Bobby Thompson. Down went the Dodgers.
Older fans will remember the 1964 Pholding Phillies of Gene Mach blowing a 6.5 game lead with just 12 to play. It was their chance to win their first World Series ever. the team began printing World Series tickets. Then Mauch began starting his two best starters on two days rest. Sorry. Dust in the wind. The Bob Gibson Cardinals went on to win the WS.
Then there were the 1969 Chicago Cubs under Leo Durocher. The Cubs led by as many as 7 games till the fated black cat ran in front of their dugout in a Sept. 9 game against the Mets. For most that signalled the end for Chicago. The Amazin’ Mets passed the exhausted Cubs and went on to win the huge upset in the WS, beating powerful Baltimore. Durocher played his starters into the dirt while stealing out of a game to see his stepson.
The 1978 Red Sox led the Yankees by as much as 11 games midseason then melted in the summer sun. Having won six in a row to force a playoff with the Yanks, the Carmine Hose had a chance at redemption. Two words describe what happened. Bucky Dent.
The 1987 Blue Jays prefigured their current cousins. With just seven games to go in the regular season, the Blue Jays had amassed 96 wins and a healthy 3.5 game lead over the Detroit Tigers. When the 1987 season came to a close, Toronto still had 96 wins, but no playoff games. Detroit swept them and the image of hapless Jays manager Jimy Williams standing with his hands tucked in his pants became the image of a lost season.
The 1995 California Angels built up an 11-game lead in early August over mediocre AL West competition. With two weeks to play they still had a six-game advantage. That’s when they embarked on a nine-game losing streak—their second such snap within a month. In a one-game playoff Randy Johnson threw 150 pitches for Seattle and that was all she wrote.
The 2007 Mets not only looked to have the NL East sewn up with a seven-game lead over the Phillies, they held the upper hand on home-field advantage for the NL playoffs. In the final week New York came home for seven final games, with a make-up against St. Louis thrown in. They lost all but one, and the season came down to the last day with the Mets and Phillies tied for first. HOF Starter Tom Glavine retired just one Florida batter while allowing seven others to reach; all seven scored. Not only did the Mets lose out on the division by a single game, but the wild card as well by the same margin.
The 2009 Tigers know how their current club feels. Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, up three games over the Minnesota Twins with four games to go, they seemed a lock to make the postseason and win the American League Central division. Four games later, the Tigers were faced with the Twins in a one-game playoff to get to the postseason. Jim Leyland’s Tigers choked that one away as well, losing in extra innings, 6-5.
But nothing compares to the story the 2025 Tigers are authoring. Manager A.J. Hinch has seen all his well-constructed plans disintegrate. He has one great pitcher, Tarek Skull, and a whole lot of five-inning pitchers and hittable bullpen arms. His young core of hitters are gagging (12 LOB Sunday), and the Cleveland Guardinos are on an insane wining streak.
Even though they control their destiny it all feels doomed. And the dream of a Jays/ Tigers AL Final will never be.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
National
Canada Recognizes Palestine, Allows Taiwan to Be Sidelined: A Tale of Two Standards in Ottawa’s Foreign Policy
Carney’s recognition of Palestine contrasts with silence on Taiwan’s inclusion at ICAO, exposing a foreign policy shaped by diaspora politics and Beijing’s leverage.
Taipei’s top diplomats in Ottawa — backed by two Parliamentarians — warned that Taiwan’s exclusion from the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization undermines global safety standards and rewards Beijing’s political bullying, despite the island’s role as a major aviation hub.
The appeal, ironically, came a day after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Ottawa’s recognition, ahead of a UN assembly, of an ill-defined Palestinian state — a designation made without defined borders, a recognized government, or resolution of Hamas’s ongoing hostage crisis. Conservative MP Michelle Lantsman equated the move to succumbing to pressure from Islamic groups in Canada and rewarding Hamas terrorism. By contrast, in Ottawa today, lawmakers Michael Cooper and Judy Sgro raised Taiwan’s case for inclusion in ICAO, the United Nations’ aviation safety body, from a government with arguably far stronger credentials for statehood than Palestine.
Last week in the House of Commons, ahead of the ICAO Assembly underway in Montreal this week, Cooper accused the UN agency of “bending to Beijing’s bullying,” warning that shutting out the world’s eleventh-largest aviation market “creates a dangerous gap that undermines global aviation safety.” Sgro, a Liberal MP and co-chair of the Canada–Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, added that Taiwan manages the busy and strategically vital Taipei Flight Information Region, and its absence “contradicts the spirit of the Chicago Convention” that created ICAO.
In a press gallery speech today, Taiwan’s ambassador to Canada, Harry Tseng, warned that Beijing’s escalating military drills and unilateral aviation maneuvers are turning skies over the Taiwan Strait into a global security hazard. He recalled August 2022, when China launched 11 ballistic missiles around Taiwan, four of them flying directly over the island, and declared seven temporary danger zones that disrupted more than a dozen international routes. In just four days, international flights through the Taipei Flight Information Region plunged by 90 percent, Tseng said, forcing hundreds of planes to reroute at enormous cost. “We must not allow political maneuvers to take precedence over aviation safety,” he told reporters.
Tseng pointed to an ongoing pattern of unilateral Chinese actions, from activating new flight paths without consultation to staging large-scale military drills that, he said, “deliberately disregard” Taiwan’s recognized aviation authority.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper called the United Nations exclusion of Taiwan from ICAO “nothing short of reckless,” making “a mockery of ICAO’s mission.”
Cooper said that as the host country for the ICAO assembly, Canada carries an added responsibility to support Taiwan, and he criticized Prime Minister Mark Carney’s silence, arguing Carney is “placating Beijing’s dictatorship.”
“It’s disappointing that we have seen silence on the part of the government, and I think over the past number of years, we have seen a policy of the Government of Canada that has too often bended to Beijing,” Cooper said.
The exclusion at ICAO mirrors Taiwan’s experience at the World Health Organization, where its government argued that being locked out during the early days of COVID-19 led to significant harms. WHO officials relied on faulty reports from Beijing and delayed confirmation of the outbreak’s origins in Wuhan, leaving Taipei cut off from critical information despite its own early warnings. In both cases, Taiwan’s absence reflects structural limits imposed by the United Nations after 1971, when the General Assembly transferred China’s seat to the People’s Republic of China. As a UN specialized agency headquartered in Montreal, ICAO fell in line with UN membership rules, giving Beijing enduring leverage to bar Taiwan.
There have been moments of exception. In 2013, ICAO Council President Roberto Kobeh González extended a personal invitation to Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration to attend the 38th Assembly as “Chinese Taipei,” a modest opening welcomed by the United States and European Union. But that door closed in 2016, after the election of President Tsai Ing-wen. Without Beijing’s approval, Taiwan was denied entry to the 39th Assembly, a reversal widely understood as punishment for Taipei’s refusal to endorse the so-called 1992 Consensus on “One China.”
The tensions grew in 2020, when ICAO officials blocked North American analysts and congressional staffers on Twitter who mentioned Taiwan’s exclusion. The episode, dubbed “Twittergate,” drew condemnation from the U.S. State Department and became a symbol of Beijing’s influence over UN agencies.
The pattern continues today. In Washington last week, Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz called on ICAO to recognize Taiwan at the Assembly, warning that failure to do so “emboldens China and harms” global standards.
The stakes in Ottawa are immediate: ICAO delegates are meeting just down the highway in Montreal, with China seated as a full member while Taiwan remains excluded.
After making his remarks, Ambassador Tseng told The Bureau that his office will travel to Montreal, where it plans to meet with representatives from about 20 nations outside ICAO’s official proceedings to press Taipei’s case for inclusion.
G7 statements in recent years have consistently endorsed Taiwan’s “meaningful participation” in international institutions, from WHO to ICAO. Yet Ottawa’s decision to hastily recognize Palestine while offering only tepid support for Taiwan’s international status exposes a troubling inconsistency in Canadian foreign policy — driven, plausibly, by foreign pressure and the calculus of diaspora vote banks.
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