Being on the right side of history is a popular desire these days, and many opportunities are afforded by Black History Month. It offers progressives and companies the chance to stand with the Black community in expressing pride in their multitude of achievements that many people are unaware of. If you doubt those achievements, a quick online search will enlighten you.
Unfortunately, many companies citing solidarity with Black people and an abhorrence of racism do so as a kind of corporate virtue-signaling, while their true character is to be found elsewhere.
Such is the case in Ron DeSantis's Florida, where the governor's corporate contributors reveal a startling hypocrisy. And that hypocrisy envelops many national brands, all quite recognizable.
Amazon, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Comcast, DoorDash, General Motors and Walmart have all made public statements in celebration of Black History Month. Google posted online on 1 February: “Learn how Google is recognizing and celebrating Black voices, joy and success this Black History Month.”
But the Center for Political Accountability found that each of these companies donated significant sums of money to political groups that prominently supported DeSantis.
Another egregious offender, at least before relations with DeSantis went south, is Disney.
... early in the election cycle ... Disney contributed $50,000 to his re-election campaign and $125,000 to the Republican party of Florida, which supported his campaign and inauguration.
The list goes on, and you need only read the Guardian article to get more names.
What makes this so shameful? As I have written previously, DeSantis is on a campaign to control what Florida's children read and learn about Black history.
Earlier this month, the second-term governor announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion as well as critical race theory, or CRT, which examines the ways in which racism was embedded into American law and other modern institutions, maintaining the dominance of white people.
The DeSantis administration also blocked a new advanced placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violates state law and is historically inaccurate. In the new framework, topics including Black Lives Matter, reparations and queer theory are not part of the exam.
And last year, DeSantis signed the “Stop Woke Act” that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses. The law bars instruction that defines people as necessarily oppressed or privileged based on their race.
A US state shelved m book – yet all I was doing was trying to help people live their lives
Fox Fisher
Read more
The governor has imposed sweeping restrictions on books in public schools, forcing some teachers to remove books from their libraries or use paper to cover up their shelves. They face felony charges if unsanctioned books are present in their classrooms.
ThThe pattern of repression is clear, and it is spreading.
At least 25 states have considered legislation or other steps to limit how race can be taught, according to an analysis by Education Week. Eight states have banned or limited the teaching of critical race theory or similar concepts through laws or administrative actions.
All of which reminds us of the true nature of the corporate imperative: to make money, to pursue its fiduciary obligations to shareholders, and to lie with ease when it benefits them.
At least we still have journalists willing and able to provide a transparency that many would be more than happy to obscure.
In my post about homelessness the other day, I wrote, In Toronto, a motion that would have kept warming centres open from November to April was defeated, despite shelter space being at a premium.
Homelessness is not going away, and many citizens are acutely aware of that fact and the immorality of Toronto's decision.
A shameful shelter vote, Feb. 10
I am sad and appalled by Council’s heartless and immoral vote against 24/7 warming centres this winter. There can be no justification for voting against providing warmth for people seeking shelter from the cold.
People need warm, safe places to be instead of stairwells, bridges, parks, ttc buses and subways, libraries, etc. The approximately $400,000 per month warming centres would cost, is a drop in the bucket compared to other city expenses that are not vital to prevent suffering and save lives.
The basic purpose of government is to provide essential services for the safety and security of its citizens. As Edward Keenan opines, when there’s money for police and the World Cup, how can 100 people a day be turned away from shelter?
I am angry that the Mayor and Council have failed their core responsibility.
Dawn Michael, Toronto
The heartless decision of the mayor and some councillors not to see keeping warming centres as their first priority shames all Torontonians.
Brydon Gombay, Toronto
One need only walk a few city blocks or ride the TTC to be confronted with the human suffering and despair of individuals who are unhoused.
It is heartbreaking to witness people bedded down on our sidewalks and to know that our elected representatives believe that the citizens of this city are OK with this callous disregard for human life.
The complex issues that lead to homelessness are certainly not resolved by warming shelters, but leaving people exposed to the cruel elements of our Toronto winters is just wrong.
Barbara McMorrow, Toronto
The refusal of Toronto city council to ensure there are warming places 27/7 in the winter is a new low, done while the police budget is goosed upwards.
But maybe we can lower the bar to something the slim majority of council might support: opening up the city hall parking garage as a shelter.
I’m sure it isn’t all that well used, especially on the lower levels, and at least it’s warmer than outside. It’s already owned by the city, and there’s a lot of security around already. Yes, if it were completely repurposed, it might present a problem for some of the drivers at city hall, but Line 1 subway is minutes away. and there’s the Bay Street bus and the Queen streetcar.
Hamish Wilson, Toronto
There are clearly no simple answers to the growing dimensions of homelessness, but at least the above, and I am certain many thousands more, are unwilling to accept a patently untenable status quo.
It is incumbent upon all of us to speak for those who have no voice.
I have been thinking a lot about the homeless for quite awhile now. It is a problem difficult to ignore given the proliferation of people 'living rough,' attested to by the increasingly common tent encampments that are frequently rather gleefully taken down with alacrity by city officials. Are there alternatives? In Toronto, a motion that would have kept warming centres open from November to April was defeated, despite shelter space being at a premium.
Unquestionably, it is to our collective shame that people are living without a semblance of dignity, dignity they could achieve if we made it a real political issue.
The poor have no political voice, largely because they don't vote and have no power. Leverage only occurs further up the social scale. But it it would seem far past time that people realize, if not for altruistic reasons, then at least for selfish ones, that the problem of homelessness is everyone's problem.
Consider the recent, seemingly unprovoked, attacks on people in the street, on the streetcar and in the subway, often in broad daylight. Obviously, those perpetrating the attacks are largely mentally ill, a condition frequently exacerbated, if not caused, by homelessness.
You can do it for yourself, or you can do it for the collective good. And yes, that would require a reallocation of government resources and/or tax increases for the the well-to-do, something that has become the third rail in politics.
The homeless have a face. Thanks to ESN Parkdale for the following:
Richard was evicted from Lakeshore and Jameson yesterday. His tent and belongings were trashed in front of him, by a large mechanical claw and a group of
While I have posted now a few times on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's campaign to keep people in abysmal ignorance. there always seems to be something more to say on the topic. My friend Gary alerted me to a new article in The Guardian about the fervent Floridian's campaign to lay waste to young minds, keep them in profound ignorance about American history, and feed red meat to his acolytes.
Last year he signed the Don’t Say Gay bill, a nasty little law that bans classroom discussion of sexuality or gender identity issues – effectively forcing children and teachers alike to stay silent about their families and lives, under the threat of lawsuits.
Since then, the Florida governor has repeated the playbook in increasingly ambitious fashion. Last April, DeSantis signed the exhaustingly titled “Stop Woke Act,” which restricts lessons on racial inequality in public schools. The bill prohibits the teaching of material that could cause a student to “feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress,” due to US racial history ...
Indeed, DeSantis seems intent on obstructing anything that might foster greater awareness and critical thinking.
In mid-January, DeSantis’ Department of Education issued new guidance to educators, saying that all books that have not been approved by a state compliance censor – euphemistically termed a “school media specialist” – should be concealed or removed from classrooms. Because the law deems some books “pornographic” or “obscene,” it also creates the possibility that teachers who provide books that feature LGBT content to students could be given third-degree felony charges.
Last month, DeSantis announced that he would ban the AP African American studies course, saying that the course, which had initially included readings on Black feminism, the Black queer experience, and the Black Lives Matter movement, violated his Stop Woke Act, and was “pushing an agenda on our kids.”
Sadly, the College Board cowardly acquiesced in this effort to quell inquiry, and now DeSantis has set his sights even higher.
Last week, the governor announced a sweeping agenda to overhaul the state’s public universities, aiming to make their curricula more conservative by eliminating tenure protections for progressive faculty and requiring courses on “Western Civilization.” He’s started with the New College of Florida, a small liberal arts honors college with an artsy reputation. There, DeSantis installed a new board made up of Christian college administrators, Republican think-tank denizens, and the right-wing online influencer Christopher Rufo. The board promptly fired the college president, and has set about reshaping the mission and instruction of the college in DeSantis’ image.
De Santis's motives in all of this crass obstructionism is transparent.
Schools are spaces where lots of voters – and crucially, lots of the white, conservative voters that DeSantis needs to mobilize – feel they have a stake. It’s easy to get people riled up and panicked about kids, easy to pray on people’s protectiveness towards their children as a way to exploit their anxieties about the future, about a changing culture, about lost innocence. And frankly, it’s easy to get people to be mad at teachers...
And if that weren't bad enough, there is a more sinister interpretation to what he is doing.
... there is a more foundational reason why DeSantis and the far right are attacking education: it is the means by which our young people are made into citizens. Schools and universities are laboratories of aspiration, places where young people cultivate their own capacities, expose themselves to the experiences and worldviews of others, and learn what will be required of them to live responsible, tolerant lives in a pluralist society.
It is in school where they learn that social hierarchies do not necessarily correspond to personal merit; it is in school where they discover the mistakes of the past, and where they gain the tools not to repeat them. No wonder the DeSantis right, with it’s fear of critique and devotion to regressive modes of domination, seems to hostile to letting kids learn: education is how kids grow up to be the kinds of adults they can’t control.
Education has traditionally been viewed as a tool of liberation from ignorance, of social progress and increased opportunity for all. DeSantis has badly perverted it, lustily cheered on by those who would like to believe that the status quo of the 1950's (or perhaps even further back) worked just fine for everyone who mattered.
The above attests to the destructive, corrosive effects of not confronting one's wrongdoing. The wrongdoing does not go away, but continues to fester beneath the surface, often with severe consequences.
It seems the perfect metaphor to apply to America's reluctance, and in many cases, refusal, to confront its racism.
As I recently wrote, Florida, under its governor, Ron DeSantis, seems particularly loathe to address that past, judging by the restrictions on what books and what curriculum can be taught. The main criterion for acceptability seems to be material that will keep young people in ignorance about what many of their fellow Americans have dealt with in the past and continue to confront today.
As a result of all of this, the College Board, the organization responsible for AP courses, has changed content and made optional some parts of its African American Studies. It denies that it was influenced by DeSantis's recent proclamations.
The NYT begs to differ. When the revised course was revealed at a glitzy Washington party, it was clear the board had succumbed to political pressure.
The College Board purged the names of many Black writers and scholars associated with critical race theory, the queer experience and Black feminism. It ushered out some politically fraught topics, like Black Lives Matter, from the formal curriculum.
And it added something new: “Black conservatism” is now offered as an idea for a research project.
NYT Editorial Board member, Mara Gay, elaborated on the College Board's timidity:
They downgraded the study of Black Lives Matter, of reparations, of queer life and of incarceration. They removed prominent writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates and bell hooks, who have helped so many people understand the relationship between race, class and feminism.
It is no coincidence that the Black writers under assault, like Mr. Coates and Ms. hooks, have been militant in refusing to allow America to forget. “The time to remember is now,” Ms. hooks wrote. “The time to speak a counter hegemonic race talk that is filled with the passion of remembrance and resistance is now. All our words are needed.”
Awareness of Black history is a threat to the groups promoting racism, because
[i]t humanizes the enslaved and their descendants. It lays bare the terrible cost of white supremacy, not only to Black Americans, but to the nation. It opens the door for exactly the reckoning that makes interracial coalitions possible, giving life to democracy and pluralism and stripping would-be tyrants of their power.
The problem is that looking directly at this history is a prospect that terrifies many white Americans.
Canada, hardly a country awaiting canonization, at least has had the rectitude to move toward truth and reconciliation as it attempts to confront and atone for its racism toward the Indigenous.
Not so in the United States, which brings to mind an old proverb, reputedly of Russian origin, that says, Better a bitter truth than a sweet lie.
Clearly, it is a notion with which many, many Americans vehemently disagree.
So says Politics Girl about American law enforcement, an assertion underscored by the recent murder of Tyre Nichols, one of an untold number of victims of out-of-control police.
American slavery may be a thing of the past, but state oppression of Black people continues, with no end in sight.
I'm sure I am not alone in choosing not to watch the extensive video detailing the murder of Tyre Nichols. Granted, I have seen snippets on the news, but the thought of an extended viewing of a man being beaten to death holds no appeal for me.
Yet his execution on the streets of Memphis has raised a number of questions, the race of his killers not the least of them. How could five black officers have used such a level of violence against a black man? And there is no simple answer, despite those who insist there is nothing wrong with the system, just 'bad apples' who have infiltrated it as a means of exercising their abhorrent tendencies.
Others have suggested that, being black, the officers' heinous behaviour sprang from a need to show that, despite their race, they were a "part of the team," that team being the blue brotherhood - you know, the team that regularly abuses its authority, especially when dealing with people of colour, and covers up their actions accordingly.
Relatedly, others have suggested the murder just underscores a violent systemic police culture crying out for radical reform. And it is this cause that is the thorniest to deal with. Many would prefer to react to the immediate problem instead of responding with long-term solutions.
In her column today, Shree Paradkar reflects on how little progress has been made since the graphic murder at the hands of police of George Floyd, largely due kto an institutional reluctance to address root causes of the violence.
Bernice King, the lawyer and activist daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., said, “It should not require another video of a Black human being dehumanized for anyone to understand that police brutality is an urgent, devastating issue.”
The other talking point, as if to lay doubt on the fact of anti-Blackness in policing is this: “But five of the officers who brutalized Nichols are Black!”
Surely, after all the conversations about systemic racism with the “racial reckoning” of 2020, this question is but a reflection of denialism? Why else the stubborn insistence that racism is solely about what lies in the hearts of individuals?
Historically, she says, many police forces were created to monitor slaves trying to escape and move Indigenous people off their land. That legacy must be considered in contemporary police abuses.
If the race of the officers involved is relevant, it is not to give an out to white cops. It is to show how systemic racism does not require the person enforcing it to be white.
“The slogan to come out of the previous uprising wasn’t ‘Defund white police;’ it was ‘Defund the police,’ observed writer and podcaster Victor Bradley on Twitter. “Because the people focused on this issue know it isn’t justice to diversify an institution designed to enforce social injustice.”
He also pointed to the long-existing media narrative of “white cop on Black man,” leading the public to believe that personal bias of white cops was the problem. “The system is extremely anti-Black and violent even when it’s functioning normally,” he said.
Since the murder of Floyd, there has only been some tinkering around the edges of policing.
Anti-racism committees were instituted. Workplace workshops were briefly the rage. Lots of trauma porn — hey Black people can you horrify us with your tales of terror? Can I get you a coffee? There were some new hires and promotions: white women and non-Black people of colour benefited, continuing a history of gaining from activism for Black people. And sure, some Black people benefited, too, with institutions of power holding them up as symbols of progress, the most valued being those most willing to go along.
But nothing systemic has really changed, and Canadians have little reason to feel superior in this regard.
Far from having their wings clipped, police power has become more entrenched than before. No city in Canada cut its budget. On the contrary, they all increased it annually (at lower rates than before, if you’re looking for reasons to hope). Given how tight city finances are, to increase the police budget is to literally deprive another more needed service in the city.
The police are convenient symbols of power when we need them. For example, given the recent spate of violence on the TTC, frequently perpetrated by mentally ill street people, it is easy for Mayor John Tory and the TTC to say they will ramp up police presence on the subways and streetcars, while the problems underlying that violence continue to fester beneath the surface.
Reacting is much easier than truly responding. Real change takes time. And that will never happen until there is a real appetite for it amongst the powers that be.
Recently I have seen some quite good videos posted by young people on TikTok (a platform I am not on) that were reposted on Twitter. It heartens me to see that political awareness and engagement is not yet extinct.
I'm not sure who the following young lady is, but both her tone and her commentary about the recent anti-Trudeau shenanigans in Hamilton where the Liberal Party held a three-day retreat is priceless. I am sure it will inflame the right-wing rabble:
If we can place any credibility in the utterances of federal politicians, the fight to save Ontario's Greenbelt from the depredations of Doug Ford's developer cronies is far from over.
According to The Narwhal, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeaut has serious concerns, given the climate change crisis we are all confronting.
... he said Ontario’s push to develop Greenbelt land “flies in the face of everything we’re trying to do in terms of being better prepared for the impacts of climate change,” and Ottawa “will be looking at the potential use of federal tools to stop some of these projects.”
“I think we’re being told that in order to provide housing to Canadians, we need to destroy nature. I profoundly reject that premise. I think this is a way of thinking from 50 or 60 years ago.”
It appears there are two ways whereby the federal government could impede Doug Ford's greed-driven legislation. One could stop the desecration of
the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve east of Toronto, which is directly adjacent to Rouge Urban National Park. In December, Parks Canada warned Ontario that development on the agricultural preserve would violate an agreement between the two levels of government and likely cause “irreversible harm” to the park’s wildlife and ecosystems.
Though it will likely be some time until developers firm up plans for construction on former Greenbelt land, one possible tool Guilbeault mentioned is species at risk legislation, which he can use to issue emergency orders to stop developments that would harm federally-protected species. Guilbeault did just that in Nov. 2021 when he halted work on a residential development in Longueuil, a Montreal suburb, due to threats to the habitat of the western chorus frog.
The other
is the federal Impact Assessment Act, which the Justin Trudeau Liberals have already used to intervene on Highway 413, a controversial highway project planned to cut through the Greenbelt. The act doesn’t allow Guilbeault to unilaterally step in and halt a development — instead, citizens would need to make a request about a specific project, the Impact Assessment Agency would do an initial review and Guilbeault would decide if the federal government should give it another layer of oversight.
“I’m really saddened and shocked by what the Ontario government is doing to [the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority] and the people who invested years and years and years of efforts, time and money to advance conservation,” he said. “They can continue to be an incredible partner and we will continue to work to work with them.”
Will the growing scrutiny of the Ford government's machinations have positive results? Time will only tell, but the fact that both Ontario's auditor general and ethics commissioner are conducting probes, and the OPP has started a preliminary investigation into the obvious criminality at work here suggests that public scrutiny, outrage and protest will not be going away anytime soon.
Something for the Ford cabal to ponder.
UPDATE: Apparently, Doug Ford is really disappointed that the feds are intruding on his 'jurisdiction'.
One could convincingly argue that the American mind has been closed for quite some time. Nonetheless, recent legislation in Florida ensures a tighter seal as it seeks to further limit the capacity for critical thinking.
School teachers in Florida’s Manatee county are removing books from their classrooms or physically covering them up after a new bill went into effect that prohibited material unless deemed appropriate by a librarian, or “certified media specialist”.
If a teacher is found in violation of these guidelines, they could face felony charges.
The new guidelines for the Florida law, known as HB 1467, outline the books be free of pornographic material, suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material, and appropriate for the grade level and age group.
The driving force behind this goosestep march toward ignorance is Florida's governor and presidential aspirant, Ron DeSantis,
whose administration says it is actively working to “protect parental rights”, which includes a prohibition on childhood education on gender, sexual orientation and critical race theory.
As part of his appeal to the party’s rightwing base DeSantis has sought to portray himself as a culture war warrior, cracking down on LGBTQ rights and taking conservative stances on the fight against Covid-19 and a host of other issues such as immigration.
This self-professed enemy of 'woke culture' has both enraged and instilled fear in educators.
The Manatee Education Association union president, Pat Barber, told local TV station Fox 13: “We have people who have spent their entire careers building their classroom libraries based on their professional and educational experience and understanding of the age of the children they teach.”
Barber added: “Now, their professional judgment and training are being substituted for the opinion of anyone who wishes to review and challenge the books. We’re focused on things that cause teachers to want to walk away from education because they can’t focus on their mission of educating children.”
Some teachers are even covering up their library books with paper.
Don Falls, a history teacher at Manatee high school,toldthe Herald-Tribune newspaper: “If you have a lot of books like I do, probably several hundred, it is not practical to run all of them through [the vetting process] so we have to cover them up.”
Far too many people prefer to live their lives in ignorance and denial of the world beyond their front lawn. Until now, teachers have been a bulwark against such darkness, but once again the political barbarians have breached the gates.
There would seem to be few remaining defences.
UPDATE: Thanks to TB for providing this link that shows not everyone is willing to lie down in the face of DeSantis's repression.
This is not a political post; if you have viewed The Banshees of Inisherin, you will recall the following scene with the actor, Barry Keoghan:
He spent 7yrs in foster care, in 13 different foster homes.
He got his first acting job answering an ad he saw in a shop window.
He was given nothing, was meant to achieve nothing.
Today - aged 30 - BARRY KEOGHAN was nominated for an Oscar.
The 'braintrust' in the Doug Ford government has decided that the way out of our healthcare crisis is to offer more opportunities for privatized operations.
As the Ford government strategized ways to cut down on the COVID-19 surgical backlog, provincial health officials set aside a small pot of public funding for private hospitals and independent heath facilities, according to documents obtained by Global News.
A Ministry of Health presentation on the province’s surgical and diagnostic recovery reveals that the Ford government planned to increase the role of two private hospitals as part [of a] journey back to pre-pandemic levels.
The document said the two private hospitals — Don Mills Surgical Unit and Clearpoint Surgical Toronto — had been given $8 million over the past two years “to achieve over 3,300 additional surgeries.”
Another $5 million in public funds has been earmarked for 2,100 procedures at the private hospitals in the 2022-23 year, the slide said.
According to the Premier, there is really nothing to see here:
“I don’t even like the word private because it’s really not — I can assure you; no Ontarian will ever have to pay with a credit card, they will pay with their OHIP card,” the premier said, noting that independent health facilities would be called upon to take “the burden” off hospitals.
All of which ignores the fact that the pool of personnel for these private entities is the same as for public hospitals and clinics. Increase the former and you deplete the latter.
Not so, says Mr. Ford. But there is that pesky problem of his credibility. In light of the premier's betrayal of his 'solemn' promise not to open up the Greenbelt to development, what are we to make of this?
There will be “safeguards” to prevent an exodus of doctors and nurses from hospitals when Premier Doug Ford unveils a plan for them to do more surgeries at independent clinics in “their spare time,” a senior government official says.
And then there is this, er, testimony, culled from all of the people who allegedly whisper in Ford's ear but never share in the public arena:
“I’ll never forget I talked to a surgeon … and he said, ‘Doug, you know, my problem is I don’t have operating-room time.’ And he said his boss told him, ‘Just go golfing,’ instead of … finding another avenue, another operating room,’” the premier told reporters.
“And he says ‘I want to help people. I also want to earn more income.’”
Privatization is the Ford government's ideology of choice. There is little, so the myth goes, that can't be solved with the right entrepreneurial spirit and pursuit of profit. Perhaps, however, the following, a sad story from the United States where privatized medicine is worshipped, can serve as a cautionary tale for those capable of sober reflection:
As one who will very soon be on a plane, I watched with great interest but low expectations yesterday's committee hearing into the fiasco of air travel over the Christmas holidays. My expectations were met.
While many of the airline chiefs chose to appear via Zoom (not exactly a ringing endorsement of their airlines' ability to deliver them to Ottawa), the overall message from all of them was yes, they did not meet the expectations of their customers and so sorry, but, you know, the weather and 'operational issues' got in the way.
Not to be outdone by this anemic response, Canada's Transport Minister, Omar Alghabra, told the committee
he was being briefed multiple times a day by his staff as they spoke with Canada’s major airlines, whose executives also appeared to face questions from MPs over their handling of the disruptions.
Those executives and officials ... told the committee earlier Thursday they did not hear from Alghabra directly during the holiday season.
Clearly a man of action, Alghabra averred that he was involved all the way:
“The airlines and airports were not confused about my instructions or my feelings about what was happening, about my expectations.
“I want to tell you that our government is not hiding.”
Whatever those instructions, feelings and expectations were, they apparently forked no lightning in the offices of the airline executives. Likely they are aware of the fact that even though the government can levy fines of up to $25,000 (a mere pittance),
in the past five years just one carrier — WestJet, for 55 instances in late January 2022 — has been fined for not providing adequate compensation to passengers. The total penalty was $11,000.
WestJet was also fined $20,000 last year for multiple instances of failing to provide passengers a reason for delayed or cancelled flights in late December 2021 and early January 2022. Other airlines, including Air Canada and Flair, have been fined for the same violation in recent years.
That'll teach em', eh?
It seems unlikely that any further penalties will be assessed, as the transport minister urges people to file compensation claims under the Passenger Bill of Rights (you know, the one with enough loopholes, as one committee member said, to fly a 747 through). One of the problems with that 'solution', clearly an indication of the deference government is showing to the airlines, is the current backlog of 33,000 complaints, which will take at least 18 months to clear up.
“Why does this government treat the airlines with kid gloves?” NDP MP Taylor Bachrach asked Alghabra.
“We are not treating airlines with kid gloves,” the minister responded. “In fact we are looking at further strengthening the rules to ensure passengers are protected.”
Words, words words, as Hamlet famously said. But hey, perhaps the airlines have learned their lesson from this imbroglio. As the president of Sunwing, Len Corrado said,
“With all this said, the bottom line is we know we could have done better. When even one customer is let down by their experience with our airline. I consider that a failure,” he said.
“We’d like to reassure committee members and Canadians that we are committed to providing the quality of service experience they’ve come to expect from us over the last 20 years.”
I have the feeling that this will not be the last time Corrado and his ilk apologize for letting us down. But given this government and this minister's timidity, I guess we will have to be satisfied with that crumb from the corporate table.
It is no secret that post-election, Doug Ford has behaved like a thug high on amphetamines. Suddenly gone (or brutally betrayed) are the promises of new amity with unions, pending solutions to our health-care crises, and professed reverence for the sanctity of the Greenbelt.
Might makes right seems to be the philosophy undergirding Doug and The Thugs.
In its Sunday editorial, The Toronto Star examines an administration devoid of integrity, suggesting the new year is the right time to correct the ship of state, a forlorn hope, in my view.
Having won the trust of Ontario voters on June 2, it seems the government set about on a deliberate campaign to abuse it.
Where to begin? Well, the Ford’s government attempts to bulldoze education workers is as good a place as any. It well captures the philosophy of the re-elected government.
Recall that the Ford government introduced back-to-work legislation to preempt job action by the workers, among the lowest paid employees in the school system. It then invoked the notwithstanding clause to bar any legal challenge.
That was provocative in the extreme, an irresponsible use of the notwithstanding clause to sweep away employment rights. The government did back down and withdraw the legislation. But it had shown its stripes.
Then came the housing debacle.
The plan to open up 7,400 acres of natural Greenbelt lands to build up to 50,000 homes has sparked widespread condemnation. The public anger came through loud and clear in the more than 29,000 comments filed during the consultation period. A summary underscores the strong support for continued protection of the Greenbelt and “broad opposition” to any changes.
But post-election, the voice of the people means nothing to this regime.
Such a chorus of objections would have given a more responsible government pause. But not this one, which bulled ahead with no change to its plan.
That opposition doesn’t take into account the other troublesome elements of the housing strategy, like undermining conservation authorities and eliminating development charges for some types of housing. Cities rely on these charges, paid by developers, to build infrastructure. While the province has promised that municipalities won’t suffer financially, that promise remains a work in progress.
All of which has served to distract us from another pressing issue.
It’s telling that the province’s zeal to build more housing has overshadowed what most Ontarians would rightly say is the real crisis in the province — health care. Children’s hospitalsin particular have seen unprecedented crowding and postponed surgeries.
Finally, there is the gifting of taxpayer money to build, of all things, a luxury spa at Ontario Place.
The proposal to give over waterfront land for a privately run spa — using public lands and public money — is a disgrace and should be stopped. As we have written, this waterfront space should remain entirely accessible for the public.
The editorial ends with a plea for the Ford Follies to end, to be replaced by responsible, mature leadership and governance. A tall order, one that I very much doubt this government is capable of, at least with its current lineup of arrogant incompetents.
And the next election is too far away to prevent the massive damage already well in progress.
As much as I might like to, I find it hard to completely ignore the dysfunction that defines American society in general and, currently, in particular, the House of Representatives. The naked venality of a man like Kevin McCarthy, so desperate for the Speaker's chair that he will contort himself in ways that most gymnasts would find impossible, is a sad spectacle to behold.
Fortunately to shed some very clear light on the mess is Politics Girl (originally from Canada), whose striking eyes and incisive mind pierce and explain the miasma currently enveloping the House.
