Features
Roman Polanski’s take on the Dreyfus Affair is perfect for 2025. That’s the problem
By Talya ZaxAugust 8, 2025
(Ed. note: An Officer and a Spy is not yet available for streaming in Canada. It is available for streaming on Prime Video in the U.S.)
This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.
In the opening scene of Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy, a retelling of the infamous Dreyfus Affair — in which Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish officer, was falsely accused of treason at the turn of the 20th century — Dreyfus, played by Louis Garrel, is paraded past a silent crowd of his peers to suffer a punishment known as degradation.
That is historically accurate. In 1895, after his conviction, Dreyfus underwent the public humiliation of having the adornments of his rank ripped off his person, and his sword broken, all while he vainly protested his innocence.
But for anyone familiar with Polanski’s own history — or the history of this film, which was released in Europe in 2019, but is only now getting its U.S. theatrical premiere — the double meaning is clear.
Because Polanski, who in 1977 pleaded guilty to “unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor,” is one of the legions of Hollywood men to face public disgrace over sexual misbehavior. (He fled to Europe after learning that a judge planned to issue him a harsher sentence than was agreed in his plea deal.) When An Officer and a Spy first came out, Polanski said that his attraction to the Dreyfus story was in part attached to his own case: “I can see the same determination to deny the facts and condemn me for things I have not done,” he said.
What a difference six years makes. In 2019, only two years after the #MeToo movement rocketed to public prominence, Polanski’s film couldn’t secure distribution in the United States. In 2023, the next movie he made, a poorly reviewed comedy called The Palace, suffered the same fate.
But in 2025, the backlash against #MeToo has reached an apogee, and allegations of rampant antisemitism have come to define much of American political life. Now, An Officer and a Spy‘s long-delayed American premiere — a two-week run at Manhattan’s Film Forum, beginning on Friday — suggests that Polanski’s barely-veiled “J’accuse” against his detractors may be newly relevant.
A scapegoat in search of a savior
Dreyfus is not the hero of An Officer and a Spy. Instead, he’s a foil for the rest of the action: a convenient martyr, whom Garrel bestows with a kind of drippy intensity. No one, including the film’s real subject — Georges Picquart, the antisemitic army official who trained Dreyfus and reluctantly comes to campaign against his conviction — has much attention to spare for him.
Even Polanski seems bored by Dreyfus’ suffering; when his camera visits the desert island to which Dreyfus is banished, it’s more fascinated by the desolate landscape than the lonely Jew wasting away within it. And as Picquart, played by Jean Dujardin, pieces together the conspiracy that framed his formal pupil, he doesn’t appear to feel any real compulsion to reconsider his general distaste for the man himself.
Instead, he’s driven by his commitment to the ideals that have informed his career in the French army, chief among them orderliness and an adherence to proper procedure. To the extent that Picquart is radicalized by his adventures as a political outcast — a natural consequence of his insistence on airing the truth — it’s by becoming skeptical of the official structures in which he once put faith, not skeptical of his own inclination toward bigotry.
In other words, this is the story of a crusader so committed to justice that he sees his personal feelings as unimportant. If Polanski thinks of himself as Dreyfus — polarizing and perhaps unlikable, but the victim of a moral panic nonetheless — he is, in an Officer and a Spy, putting out a call for some powerful party to serve as his Picquart. Which brave soul, the film wonders, will take a similar stand against the social furor that made Polanski a cultural outcast — albeit one who won multiple César Awards, the French equivalent to the Oscars, for this film — not because they like him, but because they can see that what he’s suffered is wrong?
That framing is a bold choice. The men who have attempted post-#MeToo comebacks have generally done so from a stance of bashful victimhood. When Kevin Spacey, whom more than 30 men have accused of sexual assault or inappropriate behavior, received an award at a gala hosted during this year’s Cannes Film Festival, he portrayed himself as a wrongly outcast golden boy now receiving his just rewards. “I feel surrounded by so much affection and love,” he said.
Polanski is doing something different. He’s not suggesting that he’s too nice and gentle to be responsible for all the things of which he’s been accused. Instead, he’s arguing that no matter how much his viewers might hate his guts, they should turn a gimlet eye upon the processes that led to his banishment from Hollywood, the U.S., and even many institutions of European cinema. (A French woman accused Polanski of rape shortly before An Officer and a Spy‘s French release; amid an outcry over French accolades for the film, Polanski didn’t attend that year’s César Awards, and when he was announced as Best Director, several attendees walked out in protest.)
The allegory of antisemitism
After Dreyfus is carted away to exile, in An Officer and a Spy, Picquart, who watched his degradation, is summoned by a superior who asks how the crowd reacted. The feeling, Picquart says, was that of a body that had rid itself of a pestilence.
Polanski is examining how the establishment reacts to what it perceives as the will of the public — how its self-protective mechanisms lead it to be in a constant race to anticipate the people’s prejudices, and fulfill them.
In his vision, the parties complicit in framing Dreyfus appear to be driven not by personal antisemitism so much as the sense that, because Jews have come to be widely held in suspicion by France’s citizenry, acting against Jews is a sure way to maintain their own hold on power. The generals who eventually perjure themselves in an attempt to prevent Picquart’s success know that if they admit that Dreyfus was innocent, the public won’t see them as noble and brave. They’ll see them, instead, as having joined with nefarious forces for personal gain.
Polanski, in making An Officer and a Spy, accurately anticipated a cultural turn that would see all kinds of people beginning to perceive themselves as “the Jews” in situations of societal discord: victims of a witch hunt, based on an ambient cultural sense that someone should be held accountable for all the things that are wrong in all our lives, while authorities tacitly encourage the scapegoating.
It happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, as some who were resistant to public health measures began comparing themselves to Jews in Nazi Germany. It’s happening now, as some Republicans have tried to turn Jews into avatars for conservatives, with the argument being that both groups have been persecuted by promoters of “wokeness.”
There is a natural parallel, as well, in the story of #MeToo. In the movement’s heyday, the locus of power in the sexual realm seemed to have shifted. The time in which successful men could basically do as they pleased was over. A new power structure had been adopted; adherents of the old one began to see themselves as victims of a shadowy new elite.
What happens when people begin to see a real historical conspiracy as an analogy for every development they dislike? Do they find a harmless outlet for their grievances, or do they simply risk becoming more suspicious, and more conspiratorial? In a U.S. where the president owns a social media outlet called Truth, any number of people going to see An Officer and a Spy might see something of their own plight in that of Dreyfus. And any number of them might idolize Picquart as a vigilante uncovering deep governmental rot.
They may or may not be right. After all, there’s much injustice in the world, today as at the turn of the century. But I fear that while An Officer and a Spy might be trying to investigate the kind of conspiratorial mindset that gave rise to the Dreyfus Affair, what it’s really doing is reinforcing it.
Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at zax@forward.com or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
This story was originally published on the Forward.
Features
Cheap Weed In Canada: A Smart Shopper’s Guide
Since legalisation, cannabis has settled into Canadian life as an ordinary, regulated purchase. And like groceries or gas, the price can vary a surprising amount from one shop to the next once you start comparing.
For a lot of buyers, that has turned the focus to value. Affordable options like cheap weed prove a lower price and a tested, quality product can go together. This guide explains how to shop smart in Canada without cutting corners.
Why Has Affordable Cannabis Become So Popular?
Because the novelty has worn off, and buyers now shop like they do for anything else. In the early days, people paid whatever the new legal stores asked. That has changed.
A few things drove that shift:
- A maturing market, with more retailers competing on price.
- Online sellers, whose lower overhead keeps costs down.
- Savvier buyers, who now compare rather than grab the first option.
- A wider range of formats and budget-friendly bulk sizes.
The result is a real focus on getting value for money. Crowdsourced figures put the early average near $6.85 a gram, and cannabis price data from Statistics Canada shows how legal and illegal prices have differed since 2018.
That gap is exactly why shopping around pays off. A careful buyer can pay noticeably less than a careless one for a comparable product. The sticker price is only where the comparison starts.
How Do Canadians Shop for Cheaper Weed?
With the same care they bring to any regular expense. A handful of habits make the biggest difference. These are the ones worth adopting:
- Compare the per-gram price. It is the only fair way to weigh two options.
- Buy larger formats. Bigger quantities almost always lower the unit cost.
- Skip premium markups. Plain flower beats pricey pre-rolls for value.
- Watch for sales. Online retailers run them often, especially on holidays.
- Match potency to the plan. A stronger product means you use less each time.
None of these involve settling for a worse product. They simply put your money to better use, the same way you would stretch your money on any other purchase. The cheapest sticker is rarely the best value, and the priciest is seldom worth it.
The same logic applies whether you shop in person or online in Canada. Read the label, weigh the cost per gram, and let the numbers guide you rather than the branding.
Is There a Catch With Low-Priced Cannabis?
Not in the legal market, which is the part newcomers miss. In Canada, every legal product is tested and labelled to the same standard, whatever it costs.
That means a budget option from a licensed seller has cleared the same checks as a premium one. It is screened for contaminants, and its potency is verified. Price reflects branding, packaging, and store margins far more than basic safety.
The genuine differences are in the finer points. Premium flower might offer a better aroma or a richer flavour, and some formats simply cost more to make. For everyday use, though, a well-priced choice usually performs just fine.
The real catch is buying outside the legal system. Health Canada’s overview of the Cannabis Act is a sensible read on what legal really means. Buying legal protects you, not buying expensive.
What Makes a Cheap Purchase a Smart One?
A couple of quick checks, mostly. A real bargain holds up to a second look, while a false one does not. The table below shows what to weigh.
| Check | Why It Matters |
| Is the seller licensed? | Only legal retailers guarantee tested product |
| What is the per-gram cost? | The headline price can hide a weak deal |
| Is potency on the label? | Higher strength can stretch your money |
| Are there bulk or sale deals? | These usually beat single-unit pricing |
| What does delivery cost? | Shipping can erase an online saving |
Any shaky answer there is a reason to pause. A licensed seller with clear pricing and labelling is the safe choice, while a suspiciously cheap unlicensed source is not. The legal age applies regardless, at 18 or 19 depending on the province.
Treat cannabis like any other considered purchase. Compare, check the details, and let value rather than habit lead the decision. That is how modest savings add up across a whole year.
Before You Buy
- Cannabis prices vary widely by retailer, format, and store overhead.
- Comparing the per-gram cost is the fairest way to judge value.
- All legal Canadian cannabis is tested, so cheaper is not unsafe.
- Bulk buys, sales, and plain formats keep spending down.
- Always buy from a licensed source, and factor in delivery fees.
Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki on Pexels
Alt text: A shopper comparing prices online at home
Smart Savings, No Compromise
Buying affordable cannabis in Canada is not about chasing the lowest number you can find. It is about understanding what shapes the price and shopping with a little intention. Stick to licensed, tested products, compare the real cost per gram, and lean on bulk deals and online pricing. Do that, and an affordable choice stays a smart one, purchase after purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cheap Weed Safe to Buy In Canada?
Yes, provided it comes from a licensed retailer. All legal cannabis in Canada is tested for contaminants and labelled for potency, regardless of price. A lower cost usually reflects branding and overhead rather than weaker safety, so a budget option from a legal seller is still a safe one.
How Do I Find the Best Cannabis Deals?
Compare the per-gram price, buy larger formats, and watch for sales from online retailers. Checking potency against price helps too, since a stronger product can mean you use less. The key is shopping deliberately instead of defaulting to the same brand or store each time.
Why Is Cannabis Cheaper Online?
Online sellers usually carry lower overhead than physical stores, and they run sales and bulk deals more often. That lets them price competitively while still selling tested, legal product. Just remember to factor in shipping, which can offset the saving on a small order.
Does Paying More Mean Better Cannabis?
Not necessarily. Price reflects branding, format, and store margins as much as quality, and all legal product meets the same testing standards. Premium options may offer a better aroma or appearance, but a well-priced choice often works just as well day to day.
Features
Author and lifelong nurse Tilda Shalof’s new book a guide not only for young nurses but one that will appeal to a wider readership
By MYRON LOVE Tilda Shalof’s most recent book – “The Handover – a Nurse’s Last Shift” was, in the words of its author, “written for the general public, to understand nursing. Nursing is everyone’s concern, not just nurses. The general public has a stake in the matter,” she observes.
I can guarantee that there are plenty of stories and anecdotes that the author shares from her own experiences that will also be of interest to a wider readership. I certainly enjoyed the book.
The title – “The Handover,” she explains, is the regular exchange between nurses going off their shift and the nurses beginning the next shift, during which the outgoing nurses pass on all relevant information about the patients under their care to the incoming nurses. A recurring thread throughout the book – of close to 400 pages – is the retiring Shalof’s interaction with three student nurses whom she had recently befriended through one of her many speaking engagements. In particular, Shalof gives co-writing credit to one Lisa Mochrie – a nurse who the author acted as mentor to during Mochrie’s last period as a student and continuing through her early nursing career.
There is a tendency for many people to take for granted people I would describe as working in a service capacity such as nursing. One of the reasons that Shalof points out in her book for our ongoing nursing shortages is that young men and women are more likely to be encouraged to pursue a medical career (to be a doctor) than a nurse. This, she points out, despite the fact that hospitals can function without doctors – but not without nurses.
Some other factors, she notes, are the ever increasing demands of documentation – which detract from patient care – and regulations, which have taken much of the satisfaction out of the profession.
In an interview with this writer, she observes that Jewish nurses are few and far between because nursing is not a profession that most Jewish families encourage. (I can only name a handful of Jewish nurses that I have known or have come across.)
She spoke about how she became a nurse early in life to her aged and ailing parents – being the only daughter – (she has three older brothers) and the last of her siblings to leave home. In “The Handover”, she also makes frequent reference to fictional nurse Cherry Ames – the heroine of numerous books written between 1943 and 1968 – as inspiration for Shalof’s choice of career.
For the first 30 years as a nurse, Shalof worked in an intensive care ward at Toronto General Hospital. She subsequently worked for a short time at an HIV clinic and, later a hospital day clinic and a neurosurgery unit. She also spent several summers as a camp nurse at a Jewish camp while her kids were campers there.
“The Handover” is Shalof’s seventh book. Her first book, published in 2004, was “A Nurse’s Story,” chronicling her experiences over 30 years as an ICU nurse. Among her other books are:“Camp Nurse,” recounting anecdotes from her time working summers at her children’ summer camps, and “Opening My Heart” – an account of the profession from the point of view of a patient after she had open heart surgery.
Coincidently, she notes, she began her first book around the time of the SARS outbreak in Toronto in 2003. Shalof says she started writing her latest book at the height of the Covid lockdowns, which she references from time to time in the book. .
The approach Shalof has taken in writing “The Handover” – following a foreword and introduction – is literally an A to Z overview of everything there is to know about nursing – with each chapter focusing on one specific letter of the alphabet. Each chapter relates her thoughts and tells anecdotes from her own nursing experiences over 40 years in the profession, as well as her interactions with Lisa Mochrie and the other two student nurses as they transition from students to professionals.
In her conclusion, she observes that “nursing can be a path to making a difference – having an impact. It can be a front row seat at the theatre of life. Or it can be a job, a way to make a living and help support your family. “
Most importantly, she added, “make sure you try to have some fun. Do everything in your power to enjoy being a nurse”.
Although the now 67-yeear-old author is retired from the practice of nursing, she remains in demand as a speaker and advisor. She continues to get calls from throughout North America seeking her advice.“The Handover” is available from the University of Toronto Press.
Features
Michael Mitchell: His Labour of Love in Law
By GERRY POSNER The Mitchell name in Winnipeg has been around a long time and much of the the name recognition stems from the long connection of the family to a business known as Mitchell Fabrics, a mainstay on Main Street for many years. Established by Mendel Mitchell generations ago and not closed until 2017, many family members, including in-laws, worked there as managers, students and retirees. And yet, the family vocation was not limited to just the business, t it stretched out into the world of law, and more specifically the field of labour Law. One particular Mitchell reached the peak of all aspects of Labour Law. Three Mitchells: Leon, son Grant (a senior management side labour lawyer in Winnipeg), and daughter April Katz (an academic at the University of Victoria Law School), had stellar careers in that field. Yet another Mitchell, Michael, also achieved great acclaim as a labour lawyer. Michael, a product of the south end of Winnipeg, is the son of the late Harry and Gertrude (Sirluck) Mitchell, so he has some impressive genes going for him. But he has added to the story immeasurably.
Perhaps it all began for Michael Mitchell when he graduated from what was the first and only Grade 7 Hebrew school class at Herzlia Academy. He later was Regional Vice-President of AZA in his teenage years. After two years at Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate and two more at Grant Park High School, Mitchell went off to the University of Manitoba for his first year and then on to the University of Toronto, where he obtained a BA in Political Science. Then came law school, also at the University of Toronto, from where he graduated with an LLB in 1975. Along the way, he married the former Lynne Berman ( also from Winnipeg).That union produced three Mitchell daughters, two of whom are physicians – in psychiatry and neurology respectively, while the third is a pioneering pre-school educator. Michael and Lynne also have six grandchildren.
For a large part of his career as a lawyer, Michael Mitchell practiced law in Toronto as a senior partner in the firm of Sack Goldblatt Mitchell – from 1980 through 2014, having joined the firm in 1975 as a student. The firm was committed to the union side practice of Labour and Employment Law. Not so surprisingly, he had to appear at all levels of courts, also administrative tribunals.To his credit, his work and impressive track record was recognized by his peers as he was named a leading labour lawyer in Canadian Lexpert Directory and was frequently recommended in Best Lawyers in Canada. Between 1982- 2006, Mitchell was also the managing partner of the firm, which suggests to me an ability to manage people, not an insignificant skill. During his tenure as the managing partner, the law firm grew from just under ten lawyers to over fifty, with offices in both Toronto and Ottawa. His responsibilities were firm leadership, strategic decision making and financial management.
But, what a career Mitchell has had. For starters, aside from his time as a practicing lawyer in the field of labour law, he has, since his leaving the practice, just changed hats. From 2015 to 2018, he was part time Vice-Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board and, from 2018 as of this moment, he has become full time Vice-Chair at the same Ontario Labour Relations Board. Needless to say that, over the course of his administrative work since 2015, Mitchell has been at the centre of some significant decisions and, if you are interested, I can direct you to the selected substantive decisions in which Mitchell has been involved.
Moreover, Mitchell has worked and continues to work in the area of mediation and arbitration of both labour and indeed civil law. This is a large area, to put it mildly. For starters, there is the entire field of grievance arbitration. To be involved in cases of this kind, your name has to be put up by one of the parties and often agreed to by the other party. That means you have credibility with both of the protagonists. Mitchell clearly has that kind of reputation and draws support from both sides of the aisles – as it is referred to in some circles. He has been an arbitrator/ referee in many cases, including the famous 1986-1990 Class Action settlement related to individuals who had contracted Hepatitis C. Further, he has conducted numerous civil mediations related to employment, contracts and human rights matters. Mitchell also mediates and arbitrates collective bargaining disputes.
One of Mitchell’s’ main achievements was that he was invited between 2015-2017 to be a Special Advisor (with capital letters, no less) to the Ontario Minister of Labour with regard to the Changing Workplace Review. This was a landmark review of the Ontario Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act where he, together with Justice John Murray, recommended many legislative changes to protect workers from the negative impacts of precarious employment. The best part of his work was that many of th recommendations were actually adopted. Other recommendations remain for future governments across the country to consider.
If you really want to delve into the Michael Mitchell career, you should know that, over the span of his career there are many publications that he has authored. The main one is his textbook on the Ontario Labour Relations Board, which he co-authored with his early mentor, Jeffrey Sack, and which remains the leading authority on the Ontario Board.
Mitchell comes by his passion for labour law honestly. His uncle, Leon Mitchell, was an iconic force on the union side in his practice of law in Winnipeg and was the inspiration for Michael to enter law to become a labour lawyer in the first place. In fact, it was Leon who introduced Michael to a man in Toronto who recommended Michael to connect with an up and coming labour lawyer in Toronto named Jeffrey Sack K.C. That connection resulted in the Sack Goldblatt Mitchell law firm. As well, Michael was well known to Sid Green during the early years of Sid’s law career, also his early days as a Cabinet Minister in the Schreyer NDP government. Sid was a person who exerted a significant influence on Michael.
With all that on his plate, Mitchell found time to be the president of the Darchei Noam Synagogue in Toronto between 2004-2008. He has also been the president of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation of North America. During his term, he led the merger negotiations which ultimately resulted in the current structure of that movement ,which is now referred to as Reconstructing Judaism. Its singular aspect is that it consists of a single organization combining congregations plus a Rabbinical School. That was enough to get Mitchell an invitation to attend one of President Obama’s Chanukah parties at the White House during the Obama term. As well, to this day, Mtchell sits as a Director of the New Israel Fund of Canada.
Mitchell has his feet still planted in Winnipeg. His two sisters live there, as well as Lynne’s sister. In fact, he just visited Winnipeg for his sister Ruth Ann’s and Paula’s 85th and 80th birthdays respectively. And to keep up to date, Michael and Lynne Mitchell have long had a subscription to the Jewish Post.
In short, at just under 80, Michael Mitchell is moving like he is eighteen. The longevity of his career may soon rival the longevity of the family business, Mitchell Fabrics.
