tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78841283799997663482024-03-17T23:04:02.062-04:00Politics and its DiscontentsReflections, Observations, and Analyses Pertaining to the Canadian Political SceneLornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comBlogger4846125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-54268541115573309322024-03-15T11:13:00.002-04:002024-03-15T11:56:44.495-04:00Is He In Hiding?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEii0kQ4yszMI7yUk1nCWoES4_3OWeb3bDYoIU4WE-oetvSVDGVuXbwCQUuelcCog4YU-c9SW6gcH7NJpBLjyWdFd1heFBPO9AlUopglApF6h-1HWs6VxDymj-vaJ3hSI4d0AMhQwymcIP8uduW9S4wj2BlbMa0gbqOaWf6JjCvkMz5i_8HAGT8WFzr25gM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEii0kQ4yszMI7yUk1nCWoES4_3OWeb3bDYoIU4WE-oetvSVDGVuXbwCQUuelcCog4YU-c9SW6gcH7NJpBLjyWdFd1heFBPO9AlUopglApF6h-1HWs6VxDymj-vaJ3hSI4d0AMhQwymcIP8uduW9S4wj2BlbMa0gbqOaWf6JjCvkMz5i_8HAGT8WFzr25gM=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Given that he is never seen publicly anymore, I am beginning to wonder if Galen Weston Jr, the president of Loblaw Companies Ltd., is in witness protection. If not, given the extortionate prices he has presided over in recent years, it might not be a bad idea. </p><p>Not content with the record profits his company is accruing, he is helming a couple of more initiatives to squeeze even more money from his operations, while simultaneously inviting even more odium from both taxpayers and the consuming public.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/shoppers-drug-mart-medication-review-targets-1.7142626">CBC reports</a> one of theses avenues is via the Loblaw-owned Shoppers Drug Mart chain. Corporate pressure is being exerted to up profit-levels through medication reviews.</p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">Medication reviews are meetings between a pharmacist and a patient to go over their prescriptions and ensure they're taking the right combination of medicines. Anyone who takes at least three medications for a chronic condition, is living in a licensed long-term care home, or is receiving treatment for diabetes is eligible for a medication review in Ontario under the province's MedsCheck program.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">"The pressure was extremely intense," said Curtis, a pharmacist and former associate store owner whose franchise agreement was terminated in the last six months. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">"They were essentially monitoring performance records weekly and if you were not hitting your weekly billing numbers, you were requested to come up with business plans and somehow come through with those billing dollars at the end of the day."</p></blockquote><p>Emails to pharmacists belie the denials issued by the company about this practice.</p><blockquote><p><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">In a December 2023 email to associate owners in Ontario — where Shoppers has most of its stores — a vice president reiterated the company's ongoing plan to "accelerate the care we are providing" through medication reviews before the end of the year. The plan included adopting higher weekly targets (known internally as "run rates") to prepare owners to meet new targets set out for 2024. </span></p></blockquote><blockquote><p> <span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">"Over the next 48 hours, I will be reaching out to you directly to speak with you and understand your commitment to meeting this run rate and providing these services to your patient population, and what your plan is to meet the run rate by the end of this week," the email said.</span></p></blockquote><p><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><blockquote><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">Associate owners get a cut of the professional services billed by their pharmacies. Records show the company offered an incentive of 10 per cent on top of that cut for a period at the end of 2023 if owners exceeded their target plan.</span> </blockquote><p>Is this a victimless 'crime'? Hardly, because here in Ontario, payment for the reviews would be through OHIP, meaning all taxpayers are on the hook for this abuse.</p><blockquote><p><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">This February, Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies across Ontario brought in a collective $1,869,300 in revenue for professional services in a single week, according to internal records. Medication reviews accounted for more than 75 per cent of that revenue — $1,423,900. </span></p></blockquote><p>This is not the only measure Loblaw is taking, however, as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKXCXieeIvY">f</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKXCXieeIvY">ollowing video</a> explains. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKXCXieeIvY" width="320" youtube-src-id="DKXCXieeIvY"></iframe></div><p></p><p>As my wife said, what if you only browse and don't buy anything? How do you get out of the store?</p><p>One can only suggest that Mr. Weston look to his own house before applying the label of "criminal suspect" to his customers. </p><p> </p><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-31525203762458781922024-03-13T09:39:00.006-04:002024-03-13T12:16:54.683-04:00Stupidity: The Antidote<p>Owing to a rather sensitive gag reflex, I only watched about two minutes of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/sen-katie-britt-attempts-clean-misleading-state-union-response-rcna142650?utm_medium=flipdigest.ad.20240310&utm_source=email&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=campaign">Senator Katie Britt's 'response'</a> to Joe Biden's State of The Union address in which I gather, she blamed the president for all the ills besetting America. (<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-trudeau-parliament-returns-1.6728295">Sound familiar?)</a> The conceit: that it actually <i>was</i> a response, not a carefully scripted effort made <i>before </i>Biden's speech. It has, however, provoked a great deal of ridicule, including <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/scarlett-johansson-parodies-sen-katie-britts-gop-response-bidens-sotu-rcna142656">a sendup</a> from Scarlett Johansan on Saturday Night Live.</p><p>However, the best most measured rebuke to Ms. Britt came from <a href="https://twitter.com/naretevduorp/status/1766515024300798427">this lady:</a></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='349' height='269' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzj3wS9MVt-33n4uvaXU3XKNZgcP5L0LEofKvciIwO0gC0hvPXsob3tEW_x5qA2RH-fhsDZrAVhqz0YwLluqA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><p>It is refreshing to see some facts and logic for a change, although, as suggested in my last two posts, it is unlikely to forge much lightning in certain quarters.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-53834147101144760192024-03-12T10:43:00.003-04:002024-03-12T11:40:08.423-04:00Stupidity: The Followup<p>And continuing with the theme of <a href="https://politicsanditsdiscontents.blogspot.com/2024/03/stupidity-epidemic.html">stupidity,</a> here is an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cthNNNrDaBk">AI-generated video</a> that speaks much truth.</p><p><b>WARNING: </b>Do not watch if you are offended by crude language.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="328" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cthNNNrDaBk" width="408" youtube-src-id="cthNNNrDaBk"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>If you want more stupid, how about this?</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwubpnAStYOYxMonrYRNBor6K_fSPNqMm8gwVUc6V5eS3gVKC257JGCpgqxTwkpcPfy-1lMvKrsXhj8Aho62Eeo0gEGghfLi9eHMMPhVK_15N5kgsHR9zfj8zm8i7SDxe0sns4WBMa-JuiGLcAdIQ-sxDUY6wNdKvRvcdzWC9WwK3jA2LB68nWCSar6sE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1293" data-original-width="1170" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwubpnAStYOYxMonrYRNBor6K_fSPNqMm8gwVUc6V5eS3gVKC257JGCpgqxTwkpcPfy-1lMvKrsXhj8Aho62Eeo0gEGghfLi9eHMMPhVK_15N5kgsHR9zfj8zm8i7SDxe0sns4WBMa-JuiGLcAdIQ-sxDUY6wNdKvRvcdzWC9WwK3jA2LB68nWCSar6sE=w362-h400" width="362" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div>In closing, here's a joke a friend of mine sent me, perhaps reflecting a unified theory of stupidity and ignorance?<div><br /></div><div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h3 class="x_ydp85a59f4ejoke-title" style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; margin-top: 0px;">A QAnon conspiracy theorist, a racist, and an anti-Semite walk into a bar.</h3><div class="x_ydp85a59f4ejoke-body" data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bartender says, "What'll you have, Congresswoman Greene?"</div></div><div class="x_ydp85a59f4ejoke-body" data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-size: 16px;" /></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-66361253516998495402024-03-11T08:50:00.004-04:002024-03-11T09:44:53.715-04:00Stupidity: The Epidemic <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsf4AEpJwPGFh9iCbh6GIwtcWx-cw7EIzuzXvAeabYBUSo6siMAghSHFLhxL2hgl9SVsUaPa2YIEFtwwIT_eOMxoKzGEDPgVd_4ajXyIDzYCxPWNla0KY8Wtr9uDtoCBi2B9Pz8Uyo5BCSNS_fAzbtSiUVFIgK6cXj2pUA6dF2zcA-42JfNQXWsi4E_c/s1390/no-stupid-people-beyond-this-point-vintage-rusty-metal-sign-on-a-white-background-vector-illustration-2DHTWMP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="1300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsf4AEpJwPGFh9iCbh6GIwtcWx-cw7EIzuzXvAeabYBUSo6siMAghSHFLhxL2hgl9SVsUaPa2YIEFtwwIT_eOMxoKzGEDPgVd_4ajXyIDzYCxPWNla0KY8Wtr9uDtoCBi2B9Pz8Uyo5BCSNS_fAzbtSiUVFIgK6cXj2pUA6dF2zcA-42JfNQXWsi4E_c/s320/no-stupid-people-beyond-this-point-vintage-rusty-metal-sign-on-a-white-background-vector-illustration-2DHTWMP.jpg" width="299" /></a></div>For those who are congenitally stupid, I have much sympathy. For those who are stupid yet think they are the smartest person in the room, I have only disdain. And it is the latter that this post seeks to address.<p></p><p>Although I have written on this topic before, stupidity's myriad manifestations continue to hold me in a perhaps unhealthy grip. But I know that I am not the only one who is both fascinated and repelled by this subject. Last week, on one of my regular walks with a few of my retired colleagues, all of whom actually read and are aware of the world around them, the topic of stupidity as it relates to Trump's followers arose. As is always the case when we gather, we had a spirited discussion as to possibly explanations of the cult for whom the Chief Grifter can do no wrong.</p><p>Later that day, one of them sent me <a href="https://archive.ph/CbJ2M">an article </a>by a neuroscientist named Bobby Azarian who offers this interesting definition of stupidity:</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px;">Although the term "stupidity" may seem derogatory or insulting, it is actually a scientific concept that refers to a specific type of cognitive failure. It is important to realize that stupidity is not simply </span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px;">a lack of intelligence or knowledge</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px;">, but rather a failure to use one's cognitive abilities effectively. This means that you can be “smart” while having a low IQ, or no expertise in anything. It is often said that “you can’t fix stupid,” but that is not exactly true. By becoming aware of the limitations of our natural intelligence or our ignorance, we can adjust our reasoning, behavior, and decision-making to account for our intellectual shortcomings.</span></p></blockquote><p>Indeed, to add to the above, I would say that having some humility about our own limitations is part and parcel of being critical thinkers. Thus, for example, I accept the scientific consensus on Covid vaccines, a topic that so many with no expertise claim to oppose because they read something contrary on the internet or in a chat group. It is a classic case of the <a href="https://archive.ph/dvvG3">Dunning-Kruger effect</a>, whereby people think they are smarter than they are and know things that others don't. As Azarian says, <i>they are ignorant of their own ignorance.</i></p><p>The problem is especially worrisome because such people tend to be attracted to confident, strong-man leaders.</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px;">For example, Donald </span><a href="https://archive.ph/o/CbJ2M/https://www.rawstory.com/trump-news/" style="background-color: white; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px 0px inset; color: black; cursor: pointer; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px; opacity: 1; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: solid;" target="_blank">Trump</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px;"> — despite not having any real understanding of what causes cancer — suggested that </span><a href="https://archive.ph/o/CbJ2M/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/03/cancer-causing-wind-turbines-president-donald-trump-claim-blown-away/3352175002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; box-shadow: rgb(221, 175, 175) 0px -4px 0px 0px inset; color: black; cursor: pointer; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px; opacity: 1; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: solid;" target="_blank">the noise from wind turbines is causing cancer</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px;"> (a claim that is not supported by any empirical studies). It is well documented that on topics ranging from pandemics to climate change, Trump routinely dismissed the opinions of the professionals who have dedicated their lives to understanding those phenomena, because he thought that he knew better. It’s bad enough that politicians like Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene don’t recognize their own ignorance and fail to exercise the appropriate amount of caution when making claims that can affect public health and safety — but what is really disturbing is that they are being celebrated for their over-confidence (i.e., stupidity).</span></p></blockquote><p>I hope you will find an opportunity to read the entire article, but I shall close with one more excerpt from it:</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 19px;">This new theory of stupidity I have proposed here — that stupidity is not a lack of intelligence or knowledge, but a lack of awareness of the limits of one’s intelligence or knowledge — is more important right now than ever before, and I’ll tell you why. The same study by Anson mentioned above showed that when cues were given to make the participants “engage in partisan thought,” the Dunning-Kruger effect became more pronounced. In other words, if someone is reminded of the Republican-Democrat divide, they become even more overconfident in their uninformed positions. This finding suggests that in today’s unprecedently divided political climate, we are all more likely to have an inflated sense of confidence in our unsupported beliefs. What’s more, those who actually have the greatest ignorance will assume they have the least!</span></p></blockquote><p>And in this American election year, that is very, very worrisome. </p><blockquote><p> </p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-78383379837521876772024-03-08T08:13:00.009-05:002024-03-08T12:42:28.803-05:00Dare I 'Blaspheme'?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjD15Ivkv_ea495VcRISgwP25AFhQrSKLFBYCuBlq9k3Wz48rtZg3XKGIbuYZlDu8CeftDqqIz6k5dSRZL5FrPrwSiCqD9pElzgXVrH6tNQa3AR17t5SYs3h04ihHGNX7aYBDwEmpAQMO0QrRjUl6YHTmmUjWrK1yeIUgccfmyyToQZeUD6rfgWjjGS2A4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="776" data-original-width="526" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjD15Ivkv_ea495VcRISgwP25AFhQrSKLFBYCuBlq9k3Wz48rtZg3XKGIbuYZlDu8CeftDqqIz6k5dSRZL5FrPrwSiCqD9pElzgXVrH6tNQa3AR17t5SYs3h04ihHGNX7aYBDwEmpAQMO0QrRjUl6YHTmmUjWrK1yeIUgccfmyyToQZeUD6rfgWjjGS2A4=w435-h640" width="435" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I dare.</p><p>Given the hagiography that has unfolded since the passing of Brian Mulroney, I now take a step into waters that his enthusiasts might deem sacrilegious, even blasphemous. Despite his achievements (which largely look good in contrast to those of today's 'leaders'), the late prime minister, in my view, was a shallow man who lacked insight into his own soul.</p><p>You may recall that one of his proudest achievements was that <a href="https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/pco-bcp/commissions/oliphant/2010-07-20/french/documents/exhibits/mulroney/mulroneybinder2c.pdf">he sang for the Colonel </a> (Colonel McCormick) when he was nine years old. So impressed was he by this American's investment in Baie Comeau that he developed a fawning, life-long love of all things American, culminating in his onstage singing of <i>When Irish Eyes Are Smiling</i> with Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the eighties. It was a performance he reprised in 2017 for Donald Trump, another man he greatly admired, at Mar-a-Largo.</p><p>The Globe's <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-donald-trump-has-fooled-many-people-even-brian-mulroney/">Lawrence Martin,</a> whether intentionally or not, reveals the true shallowness of the man. Regarding his bond with Trump, he writes</p><blockquote><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Pratt, Georgia, Palatino, "Book Antiqua", "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 1.4;">Their relationship, Mr. Mulroney told me in an interview last year, went back decades to when they saw each other a lot in New York. It continued in Palm Beach, Fla., where he had a residence close to Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, which Mr. Mulroney and his family visited frequently.</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Pratt, Georgia, Palatino, "Book Antiqua", "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 1.4;">He and Mr. Trump were such friends that shortly after Mr. Trump’s inauguration in 2017, he sang <span face="Pratt-Italic, Georgia, Palatino, "Book Antiqua", "Times New Roman", serif" style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 1.5;">When Irish Eyes Are Smiling</span> for Mr. Trump at a Mar-a-Lago reception. He’d <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-brian-mulroney-death-former-prime-minister/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid var(--color-grey-700); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">sung it with Ronald Reagan</a> at the Shamrock Summit in Quebec City in 1985.</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Pratt, Georgia, Palatino, "Book Antiqua", "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 1.4;">In fact, Mr. Mulroney believed Mr. Trump could be a highly successful president, just like the Gipper. </p></blockquote><p>Mulroney revealed to Martin that he thought Trump would be a good president, swept up in the majesty of office, and didn't see his right-wing populism coming. Those of us with both a pulse and critical thinking skills, I suspect, were not overtaken with the surprise Mulroney undoubtedly felt but never acknowledged when Trump turned out to be manifestly unfit for office.</p><p>During the interview, the late PM revealed he didn't blame the forces unleashed by Trump as responsible for America's current ills:</p><blockquote><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Pratt, Georgia, Palatino, "Book Antiqua", "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 1.4;">You have to look ... at “the capture of the Democratic Party by the extreme left-wing – The Squad and the unions. Joe Biden has been held hostage by the left wing of the party. And I know Joe well and I like him. But that’s what happened.”</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Pratt, Georgia, Palatino, "Book Antiqua", "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 1.4;">He concurred that the U.S. democracy was in dire condition and the country brutally divided. “I understand all that, but that doesn’t change the reality that this is the greatest nation on Earth...</p></blockquote><p>I submit that those dogmatic assertions would be met with less than universal assent.</p><p>For me, however, the greatest indication of Mulroney's lack of personal insight and reflective capacity is what he reveals about his ideas on free trade.</p><blockquote><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Pratt, Georgia, Palatino, "Book Antiqua", "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 1.4;">In our interview, Mr. Mulroney wanted to clear up a misconception: the idea that he was a johnny-come-lately to the idea of free trade. “Look, I had been president of the Iron Ore Company for nine years. And hell, the whole concept of the Iron Ore Company was trade. I was all over the world from Romania to China to Taiwan to Brazil, non-stop.”</p><p class="c-article-body__text text-pr-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Pratt, Georgia, Palatino, "Book Antiqua", "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 1.4;">While it’s true, he said, that in the 1983 Tory leadership campaign he stridently opposed free trade, it was because Canadians weren’t prepared to hear of it then and he couldn’t have won on it. “You have to remember the antipathy toward Reagan was horrific in Canada, disgraceful.”</p></blockquote><p>What kind of man openly and shamelessly, even proudly, admits he lied both to his own party and the Canadian public?</p><p>The legacy of Brian Mulroney will, without doubt, be persistently promulgated and promoted in the days leading up to his state funeral. However, we do a grave disservice to critical thinkers everywhere not to challenge the elevation to secular sainthood many of his boosters clearly wish for him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-1896223589065741442024-03-04T11:37:00.009-05:002024-03-04T11:43:36.898-05:00Take My Money. Please!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjalgDnRduA0HAftUhQO3_T2Ng3HljqrJeGQDbVPa4OrQqnq-yoQP2hwCWMgBojpAatScM8YeSfrNQBOKHCaIWK9jlgtPx6h68s6MmdJN0Uul3QXYmEFwQHzpTyeXf_NZej4xQ8_I0Iu8LbbJHhTWUOQIEPKnD5yGAl_nwxnXkcgST1zFeyZr9LL7ZH5lo/s1200/pn_mar2021_weath-tax_OG.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjalgDnRduA0HAftUhQO3_T2Ng3HljqrJeGQDbVPa4OrQqnq-yoQP2hwCWMgBojpAatScM8YeSfrNQBOKHCaIWK9jlgtPx6h68s6MmdJN0Uul3QXYmEFwQHzpTyeXf_NZej4xQ8_I0Iu8LbbJHhTWUOQIEPKnD5yGAl_nwxnXkcgST1zFeyZr9LL7ZH5lo/w591-h336/pn_mar2021_weath-tax_OG.png" width="591" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><p></p><p>With even Britain's Labour Party avowing no new taxes on the wealthy, it is refreshing when one reads about people of means asking to be taxed more. In the United States, it is the billionaire Warren Buffett who clamours for fair taxation. His <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffett_Rule">Buffett Rule</a> came to prominence when he</p><blockquote><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">publicly stated in early 2011 that he believed it was wrong that rich people, like himself, could pay less in federal taxes, as a portion of income, than the middle class, and voiced support for increased income taxes on the wealthy.</span></p></blockquote><p>Regrettably, there is little such appetite in Canada, where that kind of talk is met with dire warnings of doom, the myth being that we are overtaxed. No one wants to impose penury on the wealthy, since they already do so much for us, eh? However, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/take-it-from-me-a-millionaire-canada-must-lead-on-wealth-taxes/article_e082e44a-d723-11ee-9a20-475ab579ee38.html">one individual</a> is piercing the 'party line'. Claire Trottier writes:</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;">Despite being part of the 1 per cent myself, ... </span><span face="var(--font-daily-text)" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333;">we’re not addressing the underpinning factors that are accelerating the concentration of wealth and power into an ever shrinking percentage of individuals.</span></p><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The solution is right in front of us: we need to tax me and people like me more and that means taxing wealth. </p></div></blockquote><p>She points out that the gap between the very rich and the rest of us is widening.</p><blockquote><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;">Canada’s roughly 50 billionaires have seen a </span><a href="https://url.ca.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/pQU2C91Z09izDpyEhOWO_I?domain=thestar.com" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">51 per cent increase in their wealth</a><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;"> since the beginning of COVID and have more assets than the bottom 40 per cent of Canadian households combined. And it’s getting worse, as hugely disproportionate sums of </span><a href="https://url.ca.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/pQU2C91Z09izDpyEhOWO_I?domain=thestar.com" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">wealth created in the last 10 years</a><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;"> have gone to the top 1 per cent while the bottom 50 per cent have gotten practically nothing.</span></blockquote><p>Given the crises in housing, food prices, general affordability and the climate, Trottier wants to see some changes. </p><blockquote><p> <span face="var(--font-daily-text)" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333;">I am one of over 250 millionaires who signed an </span><a href="https://url.ca.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/304WCk8vq2ikPpVzCNp3Iu?domain=proudtopaymore.org/" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">open letter presented at the World Economic Forum</a><span face="var(--font-daily-text)" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333;"> at Davos saying that we would be proud to pay more tax in the form of a wealth tax. </span></p><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://url.ca.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/l63mCq7BzQh1VoAji2rsgP?domain=abacusdata.ca" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">Polls show</a> that a majority of Canadians support the idea of a wealth tax. </p></div></blockquote><blockquote><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;">All of society would benefit from a wealth tax. I’m not interested in being a rich person in a poor country. I want to live in a society where everyone can live a dignified life today and where we can mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change in the future.</span></blockquote><p>Unfortunately, as I tried to point out in <a href="https://politicsanditsdiscontents.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-lack-of-appetite-canadian-government.html">my previous post</a>, the biggest impediment to fair taxation seems to be our government and the titans it chooses to fawn over and listen to. Until that changes, expect the gap between the rich and the poor, and its attendant policy failures, to continue apace.</p><p> </p><blockquote><p> </p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-30595256037277216412024-02-29T11:30:00.002-05:002024-02-29T19:12:12.237-05:00UPDATE: A Lack Of Appetite: The Canadian Government, The CRA, And Tax Avoidance<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNC39MheZ_KYviVStV0mWHGi1vQOWVqZ49jtsoOkAOZI89HCGLOMuOk20rE8wBB_juL_scIfjgGZpMFFA0rSv0I5Wn1KC1ylbet4rSZIZAddiyGsB6JfAvJdQrbnJ_MA1kJh0ceYFec-ur9jVPCCHVT4RHnYhOkgUQ3XMGSnelDjO0we2WF379lx5KgOA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="315" data-original-width="600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNC39MheZ_KYviVStV0mWHGi1vQOWVqZ49jtsoOkAOZI89HCGLOMuOk20rE8wBB_juL_scIfjgGZpMFFA0rSv0I5Wn1KC1ylbet4rSZIZAddiyGsB6JfAvJdQrbnJ_MA1kJh0ceYFec-ur9jVPCCHVT4RHnYhOkgUQ3XMGSnelDjO0we2WF379lx5KgOA=w442-h265" width="442" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">While I have <a href="https://politicsanditsdiscontents.blogspot.com/search?q=tax+avoidance">written extensively</a> in the past about tax evasion and avoidance in light of the revelations of both the Panama and Paradise Papers, I felt it was time to do an update. To summarize what I wrote previously, there has been a striking reluctance on the part of our government, compared to other jurisdictions, to go after the entitled who have sheltered so much income in offshore accounts.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Consider, for example, France. as reported in <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2023/11/24/tax-evasion-leaks-have-brought-450-million-to-france-s-coffers_6285364_8.html">La Monde</a>.</div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span face=""The Antiqua B", Georgia, Droid-serif, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #383f4e; font-size: 18px;">Seven years [after the Panama Papers release] and hundreds of audits later, France has already recovered €195.5 million in tax revenue for the state budget... </span></div><span face=""The Antiqua B", Georgia, Droid-serif, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #383f4e; font-size: 18px;">Rendered invisible in offshore arrangements, this money corresponds to 219 taxpayer files, both individuals and companies, caught in the net of the Panama Papers. It's the sum of all financial audits completed by December 31, 2022, as well as regularizations made.</span></blockquote><p>This sum</p><blockquote><span face=""The Antiqua B", Georgia, Droid-serif, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #383f4e; font-size: 18px;">place[s] France in the club of five countries to have recovered more than €100 million in taxes and penalties thanks to the Panama Papers, along with the UK, Germany, Spain and Australia.</span></blockquote><p>Moreover, the cumulative amount recovered is greater:</p><blockquote><p><span face=""The Antiqua B", Georgia, Droid-serif, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #383f4e; font-size: 18px;">All told, from the Offshore Leaks (2013) to the Pandora Papers (2021), the sum recovered today stands at over €450 million. However, this figure will remain incomplete until all checks have been completed.</span></p></blockquote><p>By contrast, it would appear that the pursuit of tax scofflaws by Canada has been far less vigorous. While is is difficult to find any current reports, two Senate of Canada reports do not paint a rosy picture. <a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/sencaplus/opinion/canada-revenue-agency-unable-to-tackle-overseas-tax-evasion-senator-downe/">The first</a>, from 2019 and written by Senator Percy Downe, has this to say:</p><blockquote><p style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is up to its old tricks: misleading Canadians and not upholding its responsibilities to collect taxes owed to our country by those hiding their money overseas. When tax cheats are not caught, charged and convicted, and money owed isn’t collected, we have less money to invest in our priorities while the rest of us pay higher taxes to make up the shortfall.</p><p style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Why the federal government allows this state of affairs to continue year after year remains a mystery. The government talks tough, “overseas tax evasion is a high priority”, “we will catch you if you cheat” and other reassuring words. Their results, however, speak for themselves: they have none.</p><p style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Recently, on the third anniversary of the release of the Panama Papers, we learned that other countries have recovered more than $1.2 billion dollars in fines and back taxes. Australia has recouped $92,880,415, Spain is counting $164,104,468 in their coffers, the United Kingdom has recovered $252,762,000, and even tiny Iceland was able to recover $25,525,959. Some 894 Canadians (individuals, corporations and trusts) were revealed to have accounts in the Panama Papers, but Canada’s Revenue Agency hasn’t recovered a dollar.</p></blockquote><p>A<a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/sencaplus/opinion/its-time-canada-crack-down-on-overseas-tax-evaders-senator-downe/"> second piece</a> by Downe, written two years later, reported no progress. </p><blockquote><p style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">In the immortal words of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, "there are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in taxes that go undeclared, unreported and that escape Canadian tax authorities, probably on an annual basis...”</p><p style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has failed when it comes to collecting any of this money hidden overseas. Notwithstanding the CRA’s highly effective domestic tax collection, they have been an utter disaster on overseas tax evasion. Canadians are allowed to have accounts overseas but it is illegal not to declare the proceeds of those accounts.</p></blockquote><p>This inaction costs all of us, considering how the foregone tax revenue would provide a healthy injection into a myriad of much-needed programs in Canada. </p><blockquote><p style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">In Canada, there is no risk to hiding your money overseas because your chances of being charged or convicted range from slim to none. The "hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in taxes that go undeclared ... probably on an annual basis” identified by the PBO will not, by itself, solve our financial problems — but it will go a long way to restore prosperity for Canadians.</p><p style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">The failure to collect taxes owed undermines confidence that everyone is being treated equally. If we are all in this together, then we all pay taxes. Otherwise, there is special treatment for some Canadians with the resources to hide their money, while the rest of us must pay more to make up that shortfall.</p><p style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">There is much work to do. Since nothing else has worked, it’s time for solid action rather than empty words from the Government of Canada.</p></blockquote><p>One is naive to believe that the CRA is truly independent of government influence. One may recall, for example, that Stephen Harper siced it on NGOs that were critical of his government, and despite the promising rhetoric at the beginning of Justin Trudeau's tenure, it is clear that certain entities (think corporate and individual titans) are essentially off-limits. </p><p>I have said it several times here, that Mr. Trudeau has never met a powerful entity he doesn't admire. Perhaps he picked it up through his upbringing or his reported forays to Davos to meet with the world's elite. </p><p>One thing is undeniable, however. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1092747843877">His bromance </a>is costing the rest of us plenty, both in terms of a loss of faith in the fairness of our tax system, and the underfunding of programs that could benefit all of us, if only we had access to Canadian elites' tax on their concealed wealth.</p><p><b>UPDATE:</b> The G20 wants to impose <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/feb/29/taxation-worlds-billionaires-super-rich-g20-brazil">a minimum global tax</a> on billionaires. Keir Starmer, Britain's Labour leader, promises no new taxes on the wealthy if elected. I suspect Justin Trudeau shares Starmer's aversion to holding the ultra wealthy to account.</p><p> </p><blockquote><p> </p></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-5354852579228041632024-02-24T10:25:00.005-05:002024-02-24T10:30:03.561-05:00The Language Of Genocide<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgl_mh_HM--6kDC6EHuyMeLm6ranO2fZzFlNvv14qqhAXrzsU_Pjc-CDYaitj1IbTSLGjqSGKdYFNwoMd7MeH4lr9MGb_L5tu3jxbm9D4O2U-IbwSI5VV4c4p29AoZTt6HGR023zXp2wu41a6gsFksLI7W7Dcw3seyjauOnTDfgi33_eZJq6_2-LzFzFok" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="233" data-original-width="350" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgl_mh_HM--6kDC6EHuyMeLm6ranO2fZzFlNvv14qqhAXrzsU_Pjc-CDYaitj1IbTSLGjqSGKdYFNwoMd7MeH4lr9MGb_L5tu3jxbm9D4O2U-IbwSI5VV4c4p29AoZTt6HGR023zXp2wu41a6gsFksLI7W7Dcw3seyjauOnTDfgi33_eZJq6_2-LzFzFok=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><h1 class="quoteText" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ”<br /></h1><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">― </span><span class="authorOrTitle" face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">George Orwell</span><div><span class="authorOrTitle" face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="authorOrTitle" face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">It is very easy, in the majority of cases, to become quickly inured to the world's suffering. Whether it be earthquakes and crime in Haiti, famine in Africa, or the war Russia is waging against Ukraine, we reach the point of compassion fatigue, facilitated no doubt by the lack of any apparent resolution to the dire circumstances so many experience in today's fractured world. </span></div><div><span class="authorOrTitle" face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="authorOrTitle" face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">One hopes against hope that the genocide taking place in Gaza may prove an exception, however, despite the efforts of so many to make the Israeli response to the October 7 attack by Hamas look both reasonable and necessary. And one of the latest to make such an effort is our own (were it not so) Stephen Harper.</span></div><div><span class="authorOrTitle" face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="authorOrTitle" face="Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;">Shree Paradkar <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/a-stephen-harper-tweet-was-the-latest-reminder-of-the-depth-of-western-bias-on/article_220cd5c4-d0f3-11ee-a1f6-b3988d24bf59.html">writes:</a></span></div><blockquote><div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">On Wednesday, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper was in Jerusalem, shaking hands with the butcher of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. <a href="https://twitter.com/stephenharper/status/1760166485287182663" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">According to his tweet</a>, Harper witnessed "an Israel scarred by the unprovoked horrors of Oct. 7, but also united in its determination to end the threat of Hamas once and for all."</p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">"Unprovoked." "Ending the threat of Hamas." Phrases being repeatedly used to justify the unjustifiable.</p></div></div></blockquote><p>It is no doubt a human tendency to try to interpret the world along absolutist terms; things are either good or bad, thereby circumventing the hard work that critical thinking requires. For his fellow travellers, Stephen Harper is providing such a service.</p><p>But historical context is needed.</p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Hamas commander named the attack "Al Aqsa Floods" saying it was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-secretive-hamas-commander-masterminded-attack-israel-2023-10-10/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">meant to avenge</a> Israel's brutal attacks on <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/4/israeli-settlers-storm-al-aqsa-mosque-complex-on-fifth-day-of-sukkot#:~:text=According%20to%20Jewish%20law%2C%20entering,sacred%20nature%20of%20the%20site." style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">Al Aqsa mosque</a> in East Jerusalem — long a flashpoint site — during Ramadan in 2021.</p><div class="subscriber-hide" id="magniteoutstream" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0px;"></div></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Whatever one makes of that statement, it's a reminder that one can't look at what's happening without context. Insisting on erasing the context of current events — as seen with the repetition of the word "unprovoked" — is very much in Israel's interest. It allows Israel to position itself as the innocent party and to reduce the unspeakable violence it has unleashed to a "they-asked-for-it" rhetoric.</p></div></blockquote><p>But there is much more involved here, years of abuse and repression that the world refuses to acknowledge.</p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">There is so much mutual pain in the region that to ignore the underlying conditions of violence is to create conditions that lead to violence.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Some of these conditions include decades of repressive and vicious Israeli military occupation in Palestinian territories, with Israel routinely displacing, imprisoning and killing Palestinians. Israel's illegal blockade segregated Gazans from the world for years by banning them from travelling outside. The majority of Gazans are refugees who face <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/05/does-israels-treatment-palestinians-rise-level-apartheid" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">sweeping restrictions</a> on the entry and exit of goods. Israel even controlled the flow of electricity and water; more than 90 per cent of the water in Gaza was unfit for consumption before Oct. 7. A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/gaza-israel-water-crisis/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">Washington Post report</a> found there had been no natural surface water in Gaza since the early 2000s.</p></div></blockquote><div>For even greater context, there is an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RVoPZPKxLY">array of videos</a> available on YouTube attesting to the mistreatment of Arabs in the entire region.</div><div><br /></div><div>Paradkar also talks about how the Palestinian cause has been conflated with Hamas and Islamic extremism, making it easier to dehumanize them, meaning</div><blockquote><div><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;">no matter how Israel treats Palestinians, whether it attacks Gaza's hospitals, kills and maims children, doctors, academics and journalists, or whether the International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel must take action to prevent genocidal violence by its armed forces, in Israel's view and in the eyes of its Western allies, it remains the wronged party.</span></div></blockquote><p>It is this mentality that Harper has shamefully tapped into, making it easier to minimize and justify Israel's ongoing atrocities. </p><p>Decades ago, George Orwell warned us about the destructive effects of political language. Sadly, it seems we have learned little to nothing in the intervening years.</p><div><br /></div><blockquote><div><br /></div></blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-75767188573832577652024-02-21T10:08:00.006-05:002024-02-22T08:57:15.890-05:00Two Strong Black Women And A Racist Meet At The Bar<p>Two strong Black women, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbHlAxJtv_A">Fanni Willis</a> in Georgia and Latitia James in New York, have proven relentless in their pursuit of justice. As proven last week, despite efforts to disqualify her from prosecuting Trump, Willis is defiant, indeed, contemptuous, of the efforts to stop her. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RbHlAxJtv_A" width="320" youtube-src-id="RbHlAxJtv_A"></iframe></div><br /><p>You can watch her full testimony <a href="http://here.">here.</a></p><p>Similarly, James has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SVPoqNKn1c">every intention </a>of seizing Trump's assets if he doesn't pay the monumental fine imposed in his financial fraud case.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6SVPoqNKn1c" width="320" youtube-src-id="6SVPoqNKn1c"></iframe></div><p>Oh, how it must enrage that well-known racist and misogynist, Trump, and his MAGA cult, to see these indefatigable Black women give him no quarter.</p><p>I love it.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-88733200754678550052024-02-17T10:54:00.000-05:002024-02-17T10:54:04.294-05:00Not To Put Too Fine A Point On It<p> ..... but</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjr6MLnSO59yj33nkxNaLK-Cd-tKEVererRQpMCgKkW7zbjsmt7DRaJNGaYBZy0ybAfv6N0qEK71FuRJh2-nXZN-ycB4n65YdUrNdBcRCv1vellwAuKOaYbc9XpgBCHDrnu-zCjon1dQmcSrTfB7SbZu5aXsrfXN73XHrleEMSCqx8QRjtuMBf3sEzJfhs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1774" data-original-width="1877" height="605" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjr6MLnSO59yj33nkxNaLK-Cd-tKEVererRQpMCgKkW7zbjsmt7DRaJNGaYBZy0ybAfv6N0qEK71FuRJh2-nXZN-ycB4n65YdUrNdBcRCv1vellwAuKOaYbc9XpgBCHDrnu-zCjon1dQmcSrTfB7SbZu5aXsrfXN73XHrleEMSCqx8QRjtuMBf3sEzJfhs=w568-h605" width="568" /></a></div>H/t <a href="https://twitter.com/TheoMoudakis/status/1758507208663244898/photo/1">Theo Moudakis</a><br /><br /><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-55935639412375721052024-02-15T09:07:00.006-05:002024-02-15T12:44:02.151-05:00UPDATED: Egregious Incompetence Or Egregious Indifference?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpDulqx8bTrBF7ioqY5SJKdcRpcwmWVXCRJteTz1iGvjA1M1Xn4q60VeEl0EeBG5p3Kv5MKlMBWuG_-y176FFNab6afHUD4A1sloo1ethWSjhFaOszfqlimWf3qpNMcaRnnlxfVVvK7vjJAGhdEc2OWFI1FrXEwXHwQqqhI_up_YiKX7tBsmzPF8-_COU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="439" data-original-width="780" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpDulqx8bTrBF7ioqY5SJKdcRpcwmWVXCRJteTz1iGvjA1M1Xn4q60VeEl0EeBG5p3Kv5MKlMBWuG_-y176FFNab6afHUD4A1sloo1ethWSjhFaOszfqlimWf3qpNMcaRnnlxfVVvK7vjJAGhdEc2OWFI1FrXEwXHwQqqhI_up_YiKX7tBsmzPF8-_COU=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I realize that progressives are largely loathe to criticize the Trudeau government. Given the simplistic, either-or, black-and-white thinking of much of the electorate, such criticism is fraught with peril. For that significant segment of shallow voters, the reasoning seems to be that if the current government is found wanting, the only alternative is to support <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opinion/article-liberals-face-political-oblivion-with-trudeau-at-the-helm/">PP and his Conservatives</a>. Why the NDP is almost never considered as an alternative is a bit beyond me.</p><p>Nonetheless, we do no one any service if we ignore or minimize the egregious shortcomings of our current government. Two recent reports highlight what is either federal incompetence or massive indifference. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/auditor-general-report-arrivecan-1.7111043">The first</a> pertains to the almost unbelievable cost of $60 million (from an original estimated cost of <i>$80,000</i>) to develop the botched ArriveCan app, which earned a scathing rebuke from Canada's Auditor-General, Karen Hogan.</p><blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">Overall, Hogan found that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Public Services and Procurement Canada "repeatedly failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development and implementation of the ArriveCan application."</p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">"This is probably the first example that I've seen such a glaring disregard for some of the most basic and fundamental policies and rules," Hogan told the House public accounts committee on Monday.</p></blockquote><p>The Star's Rosie Di Manno had this to say:</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;">It was supposed to cost $80,000. Maybe your tech savant kid could have done it for 80 bucks.</span></p></blockquote><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Serial incompetence which caused the Canada Border Services Agency to release 177 versions of the digital software between April 2020 and October 2022 — driving travellers nuts — and at one point falsely informed 10,200 users that they needed to pandemic quarantine for two weeks. While outsourcing companies — from which the contracted firms raked in hefty commissions of 15- to 30-per-cent — actually did no work on the project at all, CBSA officials were wined and dined at various restaurants and breweries (one off-site virtual meeting was dubbed “ArriveCan Whisky Tasting’’), and five of eight federal health bureaucrats racked up $342,929 in bonuses over those two years.</p></div></blockquote><p>It is almost as if the government had a giant Kick Me sign attached to its metaphorical rear end.</p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Everything about rolling out the ArriveCan app was reckless and negligent at every stage, crucially in sole-source contracts with GC Strategies, in reality a two-person outfit that hired subcontractors to do the actual IT work, 76 per cent of which did not work at all, according to Hogan’s findings.</p></div><p><span face="var(--font-daily-text)" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333;">“The Canada Border Services Agency’s documentation, financial records and controls were so poor that we were unable to determine the precise cost of the ArriveCan application,’’ wrote Hogan. At a news conference afterwards, she continued to flog just about everyone involved. “Overall, this audit shows a glaring disregard for basic management and contracting practices throughout ArriveCan’s development and implementation.’’ Adding: “This is probably some of the worst financial record keeping that I’ve seen.’’</span> </p></blockquote><p>And this taxpayer contempt is not the worst of the government's crimes. No, that distinction has to go to the feds' inability to rouse themselves from their torpor to fill <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal-judge-says-ottawa-must-fix-critical-issue-of-judicial-vacancies/article_2c84f93b-d5ab-54dc-8460-d7d565029587.html">a growing list of judicial vacancies</a>, vacancies that are having some real-world consequences. In a case filed by a human rights lawyer, Federal Judge Henry Brown issued a rebuke to the Trudeau government:</p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Brown says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Justice Minister Arif Virani failed to do what Wagner asked and are failing Canadians who rely on the justice system.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">There were 85 vacancies when Wagner wrote his letter in May, 79 when the case was filed in June and 75 on Feb. 1.</p></div></blockquote><p>Things have reached a crisis level. Given the Supreme Court ruling that trials must be conducted within 30 months of charges, a number of prominent cases have recently been tossed for violating that stipulation, including ones for <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/human-trafficking-case-collapses-in-latest-casualty-of-failure-to-appoint-enough-toronto-judges/article_35d49b1e-c68f-11ee-9c06-3bd4464d7be0.html">human trafficking</a> and <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/toronto-sex-assault-case-tossed-over-ottawa-s-failure-to-appoint-superior-court-judges/article_7f1c5c56-99c8-11ee-a712-175c3083ca5d.html">sexual assault.</a> Such transparent injustices can only cause the further erosion of faith in the justice system and, by extension, democracy itself.</p><p>This post has attempted to describe what happens when a government grows jaded, tired, and contemptuous of the people it was elected to serve. This happens all the time, but what surprises me is the speed with which the federal Liberals resurrected their arrogance after being in the penalty box for so long.</p><p>Clearly, they have done so at their electoral peril.</p><p><b>UPDATE: </b>Theo Moudakis offers this <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/theo-moudakis-arrivecan-fiasco/article_ee8acd06-cb6f-11ee-9392-33831e7ce614.html">succinct assessment</a>:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaAysw5f3kDNIO46CrbVeBdspHcoyckr-AEO1csqm853qwoAUBgYbgzgGg1cX-j2lMmuRsMi5dgmcQ6HMkF4_9Ue0Z694vzOXYJT5runLguBeiIB7OoDvNjCFOUwkgCXNHddOYdE8PREu-lI25lJb__PjheC-hAbfdVvZ0zfCZNy-iBtPOFabPBL-eR_E/s1472/65cd1773a59ec.image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1408" data-original-width="1472" height="613" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaAysw5f3kDNIO46CrbVeBdspHcoyckr-AEO1csqm853qwoAUBgYbgzgGg1cX-j2lMmuRsMi5dgmcQ6HMkF4_9Ue0Z694vzOXYJT5runLguBeiIB7OoDvNjCFOUwkgCXNHddOYdE8PREu-lI25lJb__PjheC-hAbfdVvZ0zfCZNy-iBtPOFabPBL-eR_E/w605-h613/65cd1773a59ec.image.jpg" width="605" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></div><p> </p></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-39426407138979368822024-02-13T13:06:00.001-05:002024-02-13T16:03:34.499-05:00Political Pandering Of The Worst Kind<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEij-BCGNfNFMkk9GvX9BJV4DRT4nNVEgb3tBP0i2l59KGZ9g4UeMw0QoHuIQyKHj6Isws1di7QBZUkisUGiktPKE43tvBL9zpXvj5lsIXuBQVmbjIzsfcQiUwQeRPBKSwtKJrBPrTy_9ni5XqUVn2jga63aMGOGQywTWEctlQDON0ii3GBpC9HdYOHWuvk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="650" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEij-BCGNfNFMkk9GvX9BJV4DRT4nNVEgb3tBP0i2l59KGZ9g4UeMw0QoHuIQyKHj6Isws1di7QBZUkisUGiktPKE43tvBL9zpXvj5lsIXuBQVmbjIzsfcQiUwQeRPBKSwtKJrBPrTy_9ni5XqUVn2jga63aMGOGQywTWEctlQDON0ii3GBpC9HdYOHWuvk" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>In the ongoing debasement of democracy, Ontario's Doug Ford is certainly playing his part. With his populist deck fully stacked, his latest effort to pander to the lowest common denominator has been dealt: <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10291197/ontario-eliminating-licence-plate-registration/">no more driver's licence plate renewals!</a> </p><p>This is wrong on a number of levels, but worst of all in the way that it plays to the notion that government exists <i>only</i> to make life easier for the <i>individual</i>, not society as a whole. And the problem this measure seeks to address? The fact of over one million lapsed plates; since Ford scrapped licence renewal fees, many have forgotten that they still have to renew them online.</p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20; font-family: roboto, Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.25008px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px;">“I’m here to announce today, actually, that we’re getting rid of that totally — registering your vehicle,” Ford said.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20; font-family: roboto, Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.25008px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px;">“We did the first step: getting rid of the sticker. Now, we’re getting rid of the re-registration. They’ll be automatically re-registered. So people won’t have to worry about that at all.”</p></blockquote><p>Now, if one has a Machiavellian cast of mind, one will see the political advantages for Ford. Not only does it enhance his "street cred" with Joe average, it also puts the opposition parties on notice - oppose this measure and you will be seen as elitist and out of touch. My guess is that both Marit Stiles and Bonnie Crombie will have little to say about it for that reason. However, if they are smart they can object to it with conviction and practicality.</p><p>Putting aside the ongoing infantilization of the electorate, all they have to do is talk about the danger of increasing the numbers of drivers with no insurance, Up to this point, to renew one's plate, one had to provide proof of insurance coverage. That requirement is now gone, and hence, the roads will pose even more danger than they already do.</p><p>But this government is all about short-term advantages, not long-term consequences. Sadly, I expect it will boost the Ford government's popularity considerably.</p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-72536132540894702842024-02-13T09:44:00.003-05:002024-02-13T09:44:56.340-05:00Continuing with A Theme....<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1703" data-original-width="1763" height="619" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgs2_t70aBp0bmjeXyyUYnoD0e-ugRmcIXVJsvF0BDddCGkbmasF45Qz4Wz3_196MOSaiCTG8s85Bz5rfVW8BWUQe_KPAzmFSOXV4qc1dS5uQjTqed37cUG9-jKzeT0f8jL15rXMPDsZF0RvsYYpZIEizBLjDtOSqBCgOq4IdLTh83jgt1ihESn4OEk4nQ=w612-h619" width="612" /></span></div><a href="https://twitter.com/TheoMoudakis/status/1757390183782113757/photo/1">H/t </a><a href="https://twitter.com/TheoMoudakis/status/1757390183782113757/photo/1">Theo Moudakis</a><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-69657265186211622202024-02-12T09:54:00.004-05:002024-02-12T09:55:33.362-05:00The Art Of Misdirection<p> Well-played, Danielle.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQlkkHkIRPJNut2kudCz6gfUIY3OCW3h9VKjGCV4xU3roden7gRtt0rIjVqfIs1GMf8Jta14AsOivq-TLISVRPwj-RzsY1qMqWcyTSBfSEXsWz3xw3s_QryXW1PsYMwIPTSQ9AUKc0N3yrXh7YVmP4T0Mz-ixLbdEpgMM_rJ9VIMKY4x2bv9xNmSYCXbM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1402" data-original-width="1478" height="606" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQlkkHkIRPJNut2kudCz6gfUIY3OCW3h9VKjGCV4xU3roden7gRtt0rIjVqfIs1GMf8Jta14AsOivq-TLISVRPwj-RzsY1qMqWcyTSBfSEXsWz3xw3s_QryXW1PsYMwIPTSQ9AUKc0N3yrXh7YVmP4T0Mz-ixLbdEpgMM_rJ9VIMKY4x2bv9xNmSYCXbM=w585-h606" width="585" /></a></div>H/t <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/graeme-mackay-danielle-smith/article_bb875184-c78e-11ee-8851-1f3a435945cd.html">Graeme Mackay</a><br /><p></p><p>Given that only <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/in-danielle-smiths-world-ideology-trumps-sound-medical-policy/article_a4c1b544-c78d-11ee-adb4-e3c385937341.html">0.0037 of Albertans </a>over 15 identify as transgender or non-binary, that is quite the feat!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-39554216596523864082024-02-10T08:24:00.002-05:002024-02-10T09:35:10.705-05:00History: An Update<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFxbSktKZ3pF7wdSXpTJhNFeYgff1jurcAmehpoSeNU-qHJ9Qcf6rgXeiL7wc_UBKL9O2ACGafveULy5rnXHbRlkItZI5MpMz-jYVSwjB1RaTQqAVB5BA7yIsLoX2gwt7mCVyuE_W9ygjnVL8KbKDt_XfZFmMEgRb_7FaC8oR_bFcyJG7Y4JKEEF-T0ys/s600/33308A-reality-cannot-be-ignored-except-at-price-longer-ignorance-is-aldous-huxley.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFxbSktKZ3pF7wdSXpTJhNFeYgff1jurcAmehpoSeNU-qHJ9Qcf6rgXeiL7wc_UBKL9O2ACGafveULy5rnXHbRlkItZI5MpMz-jYVSwjB1RaTQqAVB5BA7yIsLoX2gwt7mCVyuE_W9ygjnVL8KbKDt_XfZFmMEgRb_7FaC8oR_bFcyJG7Y4JKEEF-T0ys/w400-h266/33308A-reality-cannot-be-ignored-except-at-price-longer-ignorance-is-aldous-huxley.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>As one who taught high school for 30 years, I have always believed in the power of education. It is the best and perhaps the only way to narrow the disparities that exist in society. In my experience, the truly educated are rarely the ranters who seem to dominate media today.</p><p>In my <a href="https://politicsanditsdiscontents.blogspot.com/2024/02/history-and-pride.html">previous post</a>, I talked about how many reactionary states are bound and determined to limit education about Black history. Not only would such instruction empower Black people; it would also help to reduce the prejudice that is still very common against people perceived as "the other." To know about a rich history would limit the kind of reductionism that often defines Black people today.</p><p>At this point in my life, I am profoundly world-weary. But even this cynical, hardened heart was gladdened by <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/black-history-learning-ontario-1.7108829">news</a> that the Ontario Ford government is going to make Black history a mandatory part of the curricula in Grades 7, 8, and 10, starting in 2025.</p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">Stephen Lecce said Black history is Canadian history and adding it as a mandatory part of the curriculum will ensure the next generation will better appreciate the sacrifices and commitments Black Canadians have made.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">"We are committed to ensuring every child, especially Black and racialized children, see themselves reflected within our schools. It is long overdue," Lecce said during a Thursday morning news conference at Lincoln Alexander Public School in Ajax. </p></blockquote><p>While I rarely have anything good to say about the Ford government, this is one initiative I heartily applaud. </p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">MPP Patrice Barnes, the parliamentary assistant to the education minister, spearheaded the curriculum change and said she wants it to deepen students' understanding of the country's diverse and vibrant heritage.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">"Celebrating the remarkable achievements of the Black community within Canadian history is vital in providing a modern curriculum that reflects the truth of our democracy, one that combats hate and fosters inclusivity," Barnes said.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 0px;">"This isn't just about Black experiences, it's not just about Black students. It's about the responsibility we have to provide all students with a comprehensive understanding of our country's rich and varied history."</p></blockquote><p>This kind of curriculum was, of course, entirely absent when I was a student. Consequently, I grew up with little thought about the Black experience, usually equating and identifying Blacks with the sordid history of slavery. And it is clear that such education is sorely needed in Canada. <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/why-doug-fords-actions-this-week-should-be-greeted-with-a-sigh-of-relief/article_babfc3da-c6a8-11ee-bfb2-77f79aaa1de6.html">Edward Keenan</a> writes that we cannot be smug about being so different from the Americans, whose MAGA mentality drips with racism:</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;">If anyone were under the impression the border keeps such thought currents from infecting Canadian politics, </span><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/pickering-mayor-slams-councillor-s-black-history-rant-as-racist-and-unethical/article_607218e6-c442-11ee-8942-f3c8bad54f24.html#:~:text=A%20controversial%20Pickering%20councillor's%20column,was%20suspended%20twice%20last%20year." style="background-color: #f8f8f8; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">Pickering city councillor Lisa Robinson was recently happy to demonstrate otherwise, writing a column in a local newspaper arguing against observing Black history month</a><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;"> (and indeed, the teaching of Black history) and outlining how it is racist to call her "white priviledge" (sic) and explaining how having her pay suspended for 90 days recently by her colleagues made her a "modern day slave," demonstrating that slavery is "not a Black and white issue." She then reminded people of the era "during the world wars" in the early 1900s when, she claims, soldiers sacrificed "without thought or division based on colour" (which might have been news to the soldiers serving in the segregated Black </span><a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/no-2-construction-battalion" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">No. 2 Construction Battalion</a><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif;"> in the First World War, as well as to the 20,000 Canadian-born citizens of Japanese descent interned in camps during World War II).</span></p></blockquote><p>That we have our own version of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Taylor_Greene">Marjorie Taylor Greene</a> in elected office should be a comfort to no one, and, of course, Lisa Robinson is hardly alone in her prejudices. One hopes that with the education revisions just announced, we will see far less of her kind in the future.</p><blockquote><blockquote><p><br /></p></blockquote></blockquote><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-64067597496505300622024-02-08T10:40:00.008-05:002024-02-08T10:46:11.365-05:00History And Pride<p>For the past couple of years I have been reading about the antebellum South, the Civil War, and the so-called Reconstruction era that followed. My reading has uncovered a number of things that I was either unaware of or knew only in a vague, general sense. </p><p>History is a great teacher, but for many states, especially Florida, it is fraught with danger - the danger that Black students will learn, in depth, not only about the slavery that shackled them for over two centuries in North America, but also about the tremendous contributions they made to the economy, culture and society of the United States. </p><p>My own theory is that much of the educational censorship people like Ron De Santis engage in is predicated on the fear of Black Pride. Learn about your history, learn that you are much more than the menial roles society has assigned you, and you become angry, empowered, and a threat to the status quo. Racist white America has much to fear.</p><p>Given that this is Black History Month, the following gives us a brief window into something I, and I am sure many others, were unaware of.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZdBOyhBGHUA" width="320" youtube-src-id="ZdBOyhBGHUA"></iframe></div><p>Not all shackles are physical. Knowledge is power, as is pride, and hence for the racist gatekeepers, threats to be kept under wraps when it comes to Black America. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-56688592163333439852024-02-06T10:46:00.004-05:002024-02-06T12:14:20.650-05:00Stupidity Is The Real Threat<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2pzx2q988kbDHYHgP_LNJruHjNFeDUWEYOUU5FZGcfCmQ6cvnDDCaCHjNTso4omynl03jJAR9NtSWkL0-WQUhB8CBKCJSvH1rmRLbEj8wddJ17LiUkWFSVDwBYdsgiOhOxJaemQd05jYCRnoW_AL2FtnRDcqyWgl4ruk5erXEhnmUqjc96zbODTRDJ9I" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2pzx2q988kbDHYHgP_LNJruHjNFeDUWEYOUU5FZGcfCmQ6cvnDDCaCHjNTso4omynl03jJAR9NtSWkL0-WQUhB8CBKCJSvH1rmRLbEj8wddJ17LiUkWFSVDwBYdsgiOhOxJaemQd05jYCRnoW_AL2FtnRDcqyWgl4ruk5erXEhnmUqjc96zbODTRDJ9I" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>There is an article in today's Star about <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/canadas-democracy-is-seriously-endangered-by-artificial-intelligence-threats-expert-warns/article_988d3eaa-c455-11ee-963c-372d927059ea.html#:~:text=Misleading%20applications%20of%20AI%20are,be%20held%20around%20the%20globe.">the threat</a> to Canadian democracy posed by artificial intelligence. However, I can't help but wonder if the real threat is human stupidity.</p><p>Raisa Patel writes:</p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Whether it’s manipulated video, voices or text, Canada is at risk of seriously endangering its democratic institutions if it doesn’t get a grip on regulating artificial intelligence, one of the world’s foremost AI leaders warned Monday.</p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The use of such tactics — which are becoming increasingly common at a time when high-stakes elections are set to be held around the globe — “can fool a social media user and make them change their mind on political questions,” said Yoshua Bengio, scientific director of the <a href="https://mila.quebec/en/mila/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">Mila-Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute</a>. </p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">“There's real concern about the use of AI in kind of politically oriented ways that go against the principles of our democracy.”</p></div></blockquote><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Bengio, who is also the co-chair of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s AI advisory council, was speaking to the House of Commons industry committee as it studies a bill seeking to reign in and regulate the rapidly developing technology.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></p></div></blockquote><p>Given that fake videos and voices have now reached the point where they are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, it is sad that there is no inoculation available against human credulity. </p><p>On the other hand, however, is it really too much to expect people to inspect their sources? Surely it is one of the 21st century's greatest ironies that we live in a time when the world's information and knowledge is available literally at our fingertips, yet many people choose to use the internet simply to verify their own ignorance and prejudices. Instead of checking a reputable media source or even <a href="https://www.snopes.com/">Snopes</a> to see whether something is true, there are those that will rely only on their Telegram channels, Q-Anon, Facebook groups and other discredited sources, happy to label and dismiss mainstream media as <i>lamestream</i> media. </p><p>That is capitulation, not critical thinking, and it appears to be endemic. I found myself thinking more about this last night as I watched the news about the latest Trump outrage. Apparently, even though a private citizen, he is giving direction to Congress to block a <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4447957-border-security-deal-senate-heres-whats-in/">southern border deal</a> because he wants to make it an election issue. While not a perfect bill, it becomes painfully obvious that a problem near and dear to so many Americans, and a clear Achilles Heel for Joe Biden, takes a back seat to the political machinations of Trump and the gutless Republicans who pay him complete obeisance.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vj8VackHuFA" width="320" youtube-src-id="Vj8VackHuFA"></iframe></div><br /><p>In a normal world where people thought deeply about such things, all of this would be so obvious. Yet the MAGA crowd and others will undoubtedly let weak and corrupt politicians do their thinking for them. </p><p>In Canada, things are not much different. Increasing numbers prefer PP's aphorisms ("Axe the tax", "Jail, not bail") to real policy discussion. Sadly, no legislation regulating artificial intelligence here can do a thing about a dearth of natural intelligence. As I have said many times before, we truly are a deeply flawed species.</p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-34738660838635832242024-02-02T11:24:00.003-05:002024-02-02T11:33:02.403-05:00For A Few Dollars More<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVskUZxfCpJxu11en8bcU9q8cmk4w8d78ho3Zsaz44F7ZiAN-Hpkz3gtCPDZPxFP6VX9EGw6xnRQCy5jwXCa6wZVtIt2q_wpSq4FRsXi1aDZnghjm6C9SkhjSHH-0p8WrHsOzKwYPwGbnR8c_Gbk77VXqJO_4JunVNMAjbQJG49sGFTgP-NJuS2Jpw0Nk/s1000/image.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVskUZxfCpJxu11en8bcU9q8cmk4w8d78ho3Zsaz44F7ZiAN-Hpkz3gtCPDZPxFP6VX9EGw6xnRQCy5jwXCa6wZVtIt2q_wpSq4FRsXi1aDZnghjm6C9SkhjSHH-0p8WrHsOzKwYPwGbnR8c_Gbk77VXqJO_4JunVNMAjbQJG49sGFTgP-NJuS2Jpw0Nk/s320/image.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>That's all it will take (actually, $12 million more) according to Police Chief <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/toronto-police-chief-invest-in-front-line-officers-to-keep-toronto-safe/article_05c771d2-bfc6-11ee-b72f-d3ef40c44487.html">Myron Demkiw</a> to keep chaos and blood from running in the streets of Toronto. Reeling from the effort of city council to trim $12 million from what some might say is an already bloated ask of $25 million for a total budget of $1.1 billion, the good chief is warning of slower response times and all manner of disaster if his demands are not fully met. </p><p>Clearly, the chief is engaging in fear tactics to get his way, despite the fact that increasing police budgets <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/care-not-cops-budget-1.7098484#:~:text=The%20coalition%20says%20giving%20more,municipalities%2C%20including%20Hamilton%20and%20Toronto.">does not correlate </a>with safer streets:</p><blockquote><p><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;">A </span><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/police-budget-crime-rates-canada-1.7086532" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); color: #0550c8; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;"><span style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216);">recent University of Toronto-led study</span></a><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 16px;"> found no consistent relation between police funding and crime rates across 20 Canadian municipalities, including Hamilton and Toronto. Lead author Mélanie Seabrook said the key takeaway for legislators is to give community needs and priorities more consideration when setting budgets.</span></p></blockquote><p>Brighter minds than I offer <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/police-chiefs-budget-ask-is-misleading-star-readers-say/article_d01c70ee-c11b-11ee-bc01-9b67b56d3ea1.html">some strong suggestions </a>about what the chief and his ilk can do with his demands:</p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/city-budget-spinning-from-police-could-be-a-big-problem/article_19613e38-c059-11ee-839a-63b8f327aa6c.html" style="background-color: #d8d8d8; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">City budget spinning from police could be a big problem: Keenan</a>, <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Jan. 31</strong></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Here we go again with all the ballyhoo about the police budget. What I would like to know is how much of the budget is slated to be paid to suspended officers who are sitting on their butts at home while collecting a full pay cheque? It is long overdue for the mayor to ask the powers to be to provide a complete breakdown of the monies paid out to suspended cops over the years and to ask how many inevitably had to leave the service yet walked away with thousands of unearned money from taxpayers. The police act is long overdue for an overhaul especially in these trying times when citizens cannot afford the basics of life.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">I have said it before: if an officer is on paid leave, put their earnings into an interest generating trust account. He or she gets the money if they return to service, and if not, those funds are redirected to the police force. It is a simple solution to a long-standing problem.</p><div class="tncms-region hidden-print tsArticleRegion subscriber-only" id="tncms-region-article_instory_middle" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin-bottom: 20px; position: relative; right: 65px; width: 755px;"></div></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Larry Snow, Oakville, Ont.</em></p></div></blockquote><blockquote><p><span face="var(--font-daily-text)" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333;">There was an interesting contrast of articles from columnist Edward Keenan and Police Chief Myron Demkiw regarding the police budget. What struck me was how the chief says how terrible things are in the service and somehow a loss of $12.6 million is a major threat to our safety. If the biggest city in the country is at risk of chaos due to the lack of $12.6 million it is time for the politicians to demand that a third-party independent forensic team review police service spending from top to bottom to see the truth of the matter. </span></p><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Len Bulmer, Aurora, Ont.</em></p></div></blockquote><blockquote><p> <span face="var(--font-daily-text)" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333;">Rather than attempting to intimidate the residents of Toronto by writing of facts without nuance, our police chief Myron Demkiw should be looking for the means to make his force more efficient and effective. I suggest Premier Doug Ford, who can always be counted on to have an interest in city spending, be brought in to rout out the waste in the police budget.</span></p><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Peter Pinch, Toronto</em></p></div></blockquote><p><span face="var(--font-daily-text)" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span face="var(--font-daily-text)" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333;">Myron Demkiw, chief of the Toronto Police Service, is misleading us. He points out there are 1.4 million emergency calls to 911 a year, but does not say the majority of 911 calls do not involve violence and can be dealt with by community and social workers. He says that more officers equal less crime, but years of research has shown that the crime rate does not correlate to police spending in any consistent way.</span></p><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Toronto is one of the safest cities in North America. The key to crime prevention is through reducing inequality. To reduce response times, we need better management of the 911 service, diversion of nonpolice calls and smarter deployment. But no, our police leadership doesn’t want to follow evidence. If they truly cared about our safety and well-being, they would support investment in stronger community and social supports. That is how we’ll get to a safer and thriving Toronto.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Anna Willats, Toronto</em></p></div></blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"></em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lest you think this is solely a Toronto problem, my observation over the years is that city councils traditionally rubber-stamp increases requested by police services board. You can be certain that if this practice changes, you will hear even more fear-mongering from forces across the country. </span></p><div style="font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></em></div></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-11321599903241890212024-01-30T13:19:00.003-05:002024-01-30T13:19:53.872-05:00Good News For Staples<p>Not sure it is the best for Ontario taxpayers, though.</p><p>If you have been following the news here in Ontario, you will know that the government, in its deep wisdom, is relocating some privately-owned Service Ontario sites to Staples. Now, not only will you be able to renew your OHIP card, but you can also pick up that new printer, computer or tablet you didn't know you needed!</p><p>The following clips shows reporters, one from City News (Richard Southern) and the other from CHCH (Laverne McGee), asking Business Service Delivery Minister Todd McCarthy some hard questions about the selection criteria for this sole-source contract and the costs to the taxpayer of this new 'synergy'.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hJcYy_EM8OA" width="320" youtube-src-id="hJcYy_EM8OA"></iframe></div><p>If you click on <a href="https://www.chch.com/serviceontario-centres-to-open-in-six-staples-canada-stores-this-week/">this link</a>, you will see Laverne McGee do a slow, sly walk to the back of the store to show where the service is located. Hard to resist all of the merchandise blandishments on the way, I imagine.</p><p>I do like it when reporters serve as more than stooges for government announcements.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-61034224519385013142024-01-28T10:03:00.004-05:002024-01-29T10:24:09.330-05:00UPDATED: The Endless Cycle<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJH1ySuRycFBUa0wXpBGhWaIcupItxQG_qI1lqcOBgW0DMBfQuhf02pdCi_VFl_enCZVmgR0GBj2TGp822SKh95sybqs7K3BU53Z-P7kfEFa1epvGa5e-17bsu7onheI-Ipl1yGK_vdCboqZj6gRz04KhuswlprTQFSoxq-Ym6lKrHPcYProE79_KOaM8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="400" data-original-width="640" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJH1ySuRycFBUa0wXpBGhWaIcupItxQG_qI1lqcOBgW0DMBfQuhf02pdCi_VFl_enCZVmgR0GBj2TGp822SKh95sybqs7K3BU53Z-P7kfEFa1epvGa5e-17bsu7onheI-Ipl1yGK_vdCboqZj6gRz04KhuswlprTQFSoxq-Ym6lKrHPcYProE79_KOaM8=w400-h250" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><p></p><p>Recently, I finished reading a book called <i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/677813/the-failed-promise-by-robert-s-levine/9781324004752">The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson</a></i>, by Robert Levine. The American Civil War and its aftermath are topics I find of great interest, not just because of their long-lasting impact on American society, but also because those echoes of history continue to reverberate today.</p><p>As vice-president, Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Although he showed initial promise in the struggle for Black rights, (indeed, he fancied himself as "the Moses of the Black people") he turned out to be a raging racist who hid his myriad prejudices behind rhetoric that suggested he was concerned about moving too quickly on things like Black citizenship and Black male enfranchisement lest it lead to racial strife and danger for the Black people, </p><p>Johnson revealed his nature in many ways, including how he pandered to Southern fears that enfranchisement of Black males would dilute the voice of white people, making them a 'minority'.</p><p>A pity we don't know history better, because if we did, we would know that Johnson's rhetoric was merely an early version of the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/16/1099034094/what-is-the-great-replacement-theory">Great Replacement Theory</a>, the idea that immigrants are changing the complexion of Western nations, supplanting 'old stock citizens' and thereby disempowering them in pursuit of a political agenda. You may or may not be surprised that it also has some traction in Canada.</p><p>If you read David Climenhaga's<a href="https://albertapolitics.ca/2024/01/danielle-smith-busy-with-tucker-carlson-and-lesser-far-right-bloviators-has-no-time-to-comment-on-edmonton-city-hall-shooting/"> post</a>, you will know that Alberta premier Danielle Smith recently dined and chatted onstage with Tucker Carlson, the erstwhile Fox 'commentator' who was let go because he criticized his bosses. He found open-arms in Ms. Smith, however, pictured below with a couple of other attendees you might recognize:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEUfRZ1wFKGPpKZewc4zXHMkzuxQv5KnJ7M81lpL0SktD_awxN2kb6HqeeQFZ19i8b8JK1g_8CiBOV9-piBKsz3fSVdabntfNvZYBEExCLzaeoNdB0DRK4RfGIPRTvcgQ-2LyKAxMSRW40hJuGEjDn9u1k-vOY7mNCIAl_h-OBwRL00t0mtqfkJzW6zP4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEUfRZ1wFKGPpKZewc4zXHMkzuxQv5KnJ7M81lpL0SktD_awxN2kb6HqeeQFZ19i8b8JK1g_8CiBOV9-piBKsz3fSVdabntfNvZYBEExCLzaeoNdB0DRK4RfGIPRTvcgQ-2LyKAxMSRW40hJuGEjDn9u1k-vOY7mNCIAl_h-OBwRL00t0mtqfkJzW6zP4=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><br />It was at this gathering that Carlson, knowing he had a receptive audience, vented his spleen, as discussed by <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/the-whiff-of-tucker-carlsons-odious-views-are-increasingly-surfacing-when-it-comes-to-immigration/article_484349b2-bc67-11ee-8bc6-ff374abe72d6.html">Shree Paradkhar</a>:<p></p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif; font-size: 20px;">"They're taking away your voting power by changing the population of your country, but nobody's talking about that," he said. "Canada has the highest immigration rate in the world per capita. ... If you change the population of the country, you change the country. And you dilute the voting power of the people who are vested in that country who have lived there long term. Who understand the history and culture of the country. All of a sudden, their vote means much less."</span></p></blockquote><p>There are certainly rational discussions one can have about immigration levels, as Paradkhar points out. However, there will be be those Canadians who see the world only in black and white, absolutist terms. They of untutored minds, limited education and a paucity of critical thinking skills will lend a credulous ear to the likes of Carlson's racist nonsense, and without doubt will feel he is speaking their 'truth'. </p><p>And others are listening as well.</p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Immigration is emerging as a top issue in the 2024 U.S. elections. Donald Trump, who in 2016 so charmingly called Mexican immigrants rapists and said "they're bringing crime," has now upped his toxicity to say immigrants "<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">are poisoning the blood of our country</a>."</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">In Germany, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland expanded its base in recent regional elections, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/01/the-far-right-is-winning-europes-immigration-debate/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">riding on the fear</a> sparked in German voters by t<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-10-12/migration-rises-up-list-of-germans-fears-survey" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">he sudden burst</a> of asylum-seekers.</p></div></blockquote><p> But as Paradkhar points out, theymiss the poimt that immigration is necessary.</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif; font-size: 20px;">If Carlson had only spoken to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, he would have </span><a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-premier-doug-ford-refuses-to-apologize-for-comments-about-immigration-1.5629109" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif; font-size: 20px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">learnt in 2021</a><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: "STIX Two Text", serif; font-size: 20px;"> that there was a labour shortage and that "We’re in such desperate need of people from around the world."</span></p></blockquote><p>But rationality is rarely appreciated, and thus the endless cycle of history prevails. </p><p><b>UPDATE: </b><a href="https://twitter.com/deAdderCanada/status/1751946399921394136/photo/1">Michael de Adder</a> captures Tucker rather nicely, don't you think?</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHuRxVg1oLtjTPrjBVEXwim4yW6EnL4obbCrr0v8eifkUG-DUbXmsmEFCFG8BZIKZ5DNgEP1-ULJEzR9XPdPwC-4-sBItWNTA30vy2D0jLelk2GEoJ5yk1SxvZxjvE4_0OKmZPM5Q5vj4aS97RkuZGr7anrF6UWTc6QqyawZYUYtCCq8bQreGgy-RGy48" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="4085" data-original-width="4096" height="574" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHuRxVg1oLtjTPrjBVEXwim4yW6EnL4obbCrr0v8eifkUG-DUbXmsmEFCFG8BZIKZ5DNgEP1-ULJEzR9XPdPwC-4-sBItWNTA30vy2D0jLelk2GEoJ5yk1SxvZxjvE4_0OKmZPM5Q5vj4aS97RkuZGr7anrF6UWTc6QqyawZYUYtCCq8bQreGgy-RGy48=w588-h574" width="588" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-17761620815025336952024-01-25T09:46:00.000-05:002024-01-25T09:46:02.685-05:00There Are Solutions<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTwHftn-euvHs7nVUWTgCLKC82UUft3DDzEeGKpPJkMrRmtF7moWlNVqJKYlXzwiRMGy5n59PSlOVzIoLYfzFByV2H1Sm6e3dfxTiacMQvMB1UMSy5uU3_aXM52PJPS4ccv8ubx97dztXvbv-8maQuS8T7ez3htGfAumKW_lY9l3TDvnrJ98lvQ7dQMfo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="159" data-original-width="318" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTwHftn-euvHs7nVUWTgCLKC82UUft3DDzEeGKpPJkMrRmtF7moWlNVqJKYlXzwiRMGy5n59PSlOVzIoLYfzFByV2H1Sm6e3dfxTiacMQvMB1UMSy5uU3_aXM52PJPS4ccv8ubx97dztXvbv-8maQuS8T7ez3htGfAumKW_lY9l3TDvnrJ98lvQ7dQMfo=w400-h200" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>In my <a href="https://politicsanditsdiscontents.blogspot.com/2024/01/a-monday-thought-experiment.html">previous post</a>, I mused about how much better society could be if we had fair and progressive taxation, taxation that forced those who make a lot to pay a little more. It almost seems as if such talk today is heretical, given the anti-tax mania that is cultivated by the far-right.</p><p>But you get what you pay or don't pay for, and today that means multitudes of homeless who cannot afford the usurious rents being demanded, families lacking support or waiting for years on a list while their children grow up without the aid they need, overburdened healthcare systems that one strives to avoid except in extreme circumstances, etc., etc. - a dystopian nightmare that seems to only be getting worse.</p><p>In <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/many-law-abiding-canadians-suffered-loss-of-liberties-during-convoy/article_88888cee-bacd-11ee-8cd3-2bb7070567e3.html">today's Star</a>, a reader offers a sound suggestion that would help ameliorate our current crises:</p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">If huge wage 'earners' paid their fair share, it could make a difference </h2></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p class="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/swelling-ceo-salaries-highlight-income-inequality/article_dd338776-b6e0-11ee-b576-47b2f344a486.html" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">Swelling CEO salaries highlight income inequality</a>,<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Jan. 22</strong></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Sadly, your editorial, truthful as it is, is not breaking news. For more than a decade, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has been telling its readers that the growing salary gap between the top one per cent and the rest of us is becoming more and more massive.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">It is hard to believe, even for a cynical observer of world news, that in 2024, so many CEOs have earned more than $60,000 by Jan. 2, 2024 — more than the average worker earns in a year.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">We’ve known this almost obscene fact for all these years, so we can’t plead ignorance. How fortunate that we have the CCPA to prod the consciences of our politicians and business leaders. These people with power do have some means to create a slightly less unbalanced society, smoothing that gaping wage gap even a little — by taxing the rich a bit more — most would not even notice the difference if they paid another $10,000 more in taxes each year. And if all of these huge wage “earners” actually paid their fair share, it could make a difference for the rest of us. Even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html?_r=1" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">billionaire Warren Buffett is famous for saying that his office staff pay more taxes, proportionally, than he does</a>.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">In this "Theatre of the Absurd" scenario, who will take the first step and raise the minimum wage to $25 or $30 per hour? This radical move might assure that the everyday worker, many with no sick days or health benefits, can at least avoid food banks and clothe their families for the winter weather.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Della Golland, Toronto</em></p></div></blockquote><p>Clearly, there are at least partial solutions to the problems people confront on a daily basis. Unfortunately, those we elect to represent us are listening to only a small part of their constituency as they strive to perpetuate political careers that serve, not the common good, but only their own selfish interests. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-42332603231643262932024-01-22T10:08:00.001-05:002024-01-22T13:16:30.564-05:00A Monday Thought Experiment<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiu6ZeVJNqPIEK3nSoMFKNEcUyVruBQKYiMDnOsHIQn_frecty9xqVQCVhHTnO_-mBgeip3fzu2GMVv0tfgvgGZbVwJhuMP_gZZqxLRI6-N5Do4FtE1EVDfODvaY0eJ7ZyXYbdJhad7tUPNdJDBaNJf59aDltA84bO0ydhBI9a44ouopmzaxA8leMd7pzM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiu6ZeVJNqPIEK3nSoMFKNEcUyVruBQKYiMDnOsHIQn_frecty9xqVQCVhHTnO_-mBgeip3fzu2GMVv0tfgvgGZbVwJhuMP_gZZqxLRI6-N5Do4FtE1EVDfODvaY0eJ7ZyXYbdJhad7tUPNdJDBaNJf59aDltA84bO0ydhBI9a44ouopmzaxA8leMd7pzM=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><p></p><p>As a matter of course, I allow myself one hour of television news per evening, 30 minutes local and 30 minutes of either American or Canadian national news. It is a practice I highly recommend, not simply as a means of keeping up with events in this tortured world, but also as a window into the lives of others.</p><p>One conclusion I have drawn from this habit is that we can never know the lives of others, especially the burdens they must bear on a daily basis. In this, I am not talking solely about the very public problem of the homeless, but they certainly count. I am also talking about windows into the often fraught lives of people caring for special-needs children, elderly parents, waiting in the ER, or any number of other exigencies that comprise life. The common denominator is insufficient funding for the support they need.</p><p>In my more wistful moments I imagine a regime of fair and <i>progressive </i>taxation, where those who are more than comfortable pay a little more for programs directed toward the public good. At the very least, some of the aforementioned problems would be ameliorated. Yet we live in times where we have little control over how our money is spent, as, truth be told, we are not the ones calling the shots, political theatre notwithstanding.</p><p>This post was prompted by two letters in <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/canadas-influence-in-the-middle-east-advertising-and-health-care/article_916af3c4-b703-11ee-8053-5718caf03b3b.html">today's Star</a>, which I reproduce below:</p><blockquote><div class="hidden-xs" data-subscription-required-remove="" id="share-left-container" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; height: 3401.78px; left: -115px; position: absolute;"><div class="share-left-sticky-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--accent-color); position: sticky; top: 100px;"><ul class="social-share-links hidden-print list-unstyled stacked icon" data-lpos="asset|share-toolbar" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">Federal dental care program will exclude 4.4 million uninsured Canadians: report</a>, <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Jan. 17</strong></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Canada’s proposal for expanding health care coverage to dental and medical drugs is flawed. The law would have handsomely fed politicians arbitrarily sitting in judgment over who beneath them can afford dental care unassisted and who cannot. Further the plan cuts out any Canadian currently paying private insurance premiums, under the facile presumption that anyone — let’s say, a retiree struggling to support a live-in parent with dementia, and put food on the table under roof that is beginning to leak, heated by a furnace nearing the end of it’s projected life — who has private health insurance can comfortably afford it.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">We live under the rule of governments that take their policy orders from corporate economists and boardrooms. We are told that fulsome public health care would be too costly, in the same breath that we are told the inflated prices corporations charge us for essentials must only be combatted by using interest rates to make those essentials too expensive, and that modest homes must be taxed yearly on speculated values.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Canada can afford universal dental, vision, medical care but taxing all wealth equitably. Level the field.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Darcy McLenaghen, Toronto</em></p></div></div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px;">Health care crisis</h2></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/no-end-to-the-er-crisis-without-investments-and-addressing-workers-concerns/article_58df0cde-b4ba-11ee-b2cf-7f0144ac0b94.html" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); box-sizing: border-box; color: #0550c8; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.25s linear 0s;" target="_blank">No end to the ER crisis without investments and addressing workers’ concerns</a>, <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Jan. 17</strong></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The conclusion of the authors of this article is that we just need to invest $1.25 billion annually to solve the health-care crisis. Where will the money come from? I would gladly pay a reinstated licence plate renewal fee of $120 per year, as would most people I suspect, if the billion dollars saved by cancelling it would be put toward our health care system. If that will reduce wait times, improve worker incomes and boost staffing levels across the province, I don't see a downside. Politicians are the only thing standing in the way.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px 0px 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ken Beckim, Oshawa, Ont.</em></p></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-50723664355486643212024-01-18T09:47:00.010-05:002024-01-18T09:52:18.768-05:00The Noble And The Depraved<p>Most nights, after watching a half-hour of American news, my presence at the dinner table is suffused with cynicism and disgust. Tales of violence, savagery and complete disregard for other people depicted nightly will do that to a person. However, occasionally amidst all of the mayhem, a light emerges and I am reminded that despite the myriad failures of our species, there are strong, good, even noble people in our midst. </p><p>Such is evident in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri1npJzjEQE">f</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri1npJzjEQE">ollowing interview </a>of two of the three Palestinian-American students who were shot <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_shooting_of_Palestinian_students_in_Burlington,_Vermont">last November</a> in Burlington Vermont, presumably for being Palestinian. The depraved gunman has pleaded not guilty.</p><p>One of the victims, 20-year-old Hisham Awartani, was paralyzed in the assault. It is he who speaks so eloquently about the experience. Although well-aware that racism was the basis for the attack, he expresses gratitude for the medical treatment he has received and a heartfelt concern for those Palestinians in the homeland who have no access to such care. </p><p>As you will see, he is mature and self-possessed well beyond his years.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ri1npJzjEQE" width="320" youtube-src-id="ri1npJzjEQE"></iframe></div><p>I very much doubt I could act with such grace under his circumstances.</p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-21395586583511481562024-01-15T10:09:00.000-05:002024-01-15T10:09:14.664-05:00Boeing: A Followup<p>If you read my <a href="https://politicsanditsdiscontents.blogspot.com/2024/01/downfall-case-against-boeing.html">previous post</a>, you will know that the recent failure of a door plug in an Alaska Air flight was presaged by the air crashes of two 737 Max-8 flights, one in 2018 and one five months later, in 2019. Not only was the company culpable for shoddy, profit-driven practices, but so was the FAA, which had delegated safety inspections to Boeing <i>employees,</i> a clear conflict of interest if there ever was one.</p><p>The following deals with the aftermath of the recent near-disaster on Alaskan Air, which should not have been a surprise to those in the know. Belatedly, it would seem the FAA is ready to start enforcing real standards for this corporate behemoth.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ejj_RbUGfpo" width="320" youtube-src-id="ejj_RbUGfpo"></iframe></div><br /><p>Will these changes be enough to avert future catastrophes? A nervous public awaits the answer. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-48627880613102568322024-01-13T09:37:00.012-05:002024-01-15T10:03:35.688-05:00Downfall: The Case Against Boeing<p> I will be the first to admit that my viewing tastes are unusual for a man my age. I enjoy the off-kilter, the unusual, even the bizarre in movie/streaming fare. And although I never watch television during the day, that still amounts to both wasted, and some well-rewarded, hours. </p><p>Sometimes, my tastes are more down to earth, so to speak, and such was my experience the other night when I watched a riveting documentary recommended by my brother-in-law entitled Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. Although made in 2022 and focussing on the crashes of the 747-Max 8, it sheds incredible light on the current <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/boeing-737-max-9-explainer-1.7077552">safety issues</a> plaguing Boeing, and in that regard is must-viewing.</p><p>Here is a trailer for the film, and I am happy to report the entire documentary can be found for free at <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8gtwhq">Daily Motion.</a> It is also available on Netflix.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vt-IJkUbAxY" width="320" youtube-src-id="vt-IJkUbAxY"></iframe></div><br /><p>How does a company go from one admired worldwide for its sterling safety record to one where two catastrophic crashes occurred within five months of each other? The answer is surprisingly simply: corporate greed. But the real story is how Boeing succumbed to such venality.</p><p>It began in 1997, when Boeing and McDonnell Douglas <a href="https://airwaysmag.com/boeing-mcdonnell-douglas-merger/#:~:text=DALLAS%20%E2%80%93%20Today%20in%20Aviation%2C%20Boeing,been%20competitors%20for%20many%20years.">merged.</a> Unfortunately, in that merger, the culture of the latter ultimately supplanted that of the former, whose decisions had been determined largely by engineers, their guiding principles innovation and safety. A comprehensive detailing of the results of this merger can be seen in this <a href="https://archive.ph/vy5p7">Atlantic article.</a></p><p>The film outlines how, in order to wrest sales supremacy from its new rival Airbus, Boeing embarked on an enhancement of its 737s, in operation since the late sixties. Speed, rather than safety, was of the essence. Because the new Max-8 required an alteration in the angle of the engine, the chances of a stall after takeoff, as the craft was ascending, increased. To counteract that possibility, they developed the MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneuvering_Characteristics_Augmentation_System">a flight stabilizing feature</a>. </p><p>Because things were being done on the cheap by this time, there were two major problems with the system: there was only one sensor (which could be easily disabled by a bird strike, for example) in the nose of the plane to measure its angle of attack as it ascended, and NO ONE was trained in its use. The big selling point for the Max-8, one that allowed it to regain sales supremacy, was the assurance that no flight simulator training was needed for MCAS. Such training is very costly to airlines, given the time needed to allow pilots to become proficient. This turned out to be a fatal false economy, and like a malevolent ghost in the machine, MCAS sent hundreds of people to their deaths.</p><p>The two crashes that ensued within five months of each other, killing a total of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_MAX_groundings#:~:text=The%20Boeing%20737%20MAX%20passenger,302%20on%20March%2010%2C%202019.">346 people</a>, were entirely avoidable. Why was nothing done after the first crash to remedy the situation? False assurances and bureaucratic inertia are part of the answer.</p><p>For the rest, you will have to watch the film. I may, in my next post, write about the ongoing fallout of the merger that now has the FAA threatening on-site oversight because of the latest symptom of laxity, the door-plug blowout much in the news these days.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a class='comment-link' expr:href='"http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url'>Recommend this Post</a></div>Lornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.com4