What a great collaboration!
Reflections, Observations, and Analyses Pertaining to the Canadian Political Scene
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Monday, March 29, 2021
Who Invited This Guy?
For those planning their nuptials, here is a word of advice: make sure Donald Trump isn't there to offer a toast.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Holding Back The Clock: Voter Suppression Writ Large
Despite both the overt and subtle nature of racism in Canada, it is hard to imagine living in a country where Black people are essentially told, "Your vote is undesirable. You are a threat to the status quo that so many white people have fought so hard to maintain."
Such is the situation in 28 American states, where legislatures have introduced bills that would severely circumscribe voters' rights with measures ranging from limits on absentee ballots to requirements for photo ID. Indeed, in the state of Georgia, it will now be a crime to offer food or water to people standing in line to vote.
Please advance the following to the 9:45 minute mark to get a full flavour of these discriminatory measures:
It would seem that Republicans know their time is up, and they are doing everything within their (corrupt) power to hold back the clock.
Friday, March 26, 2021
A Fluid Situation
In what can only be described initially as a fluid situation, assuming he wandered in from a nearby water body, a beaver proceeded to a Toronto subway station, presumably to sample the wonders of Ontario's capital. This tourist invasion 'threat' led to an immediate closing of the station,
Animal control officers arrived at 8 a.m. and did a “safe recovery,” allowing the station entrance to be reopened.
He also wanted to assure the public that the beaver was safe.
Well, that's the official story. Here is the real scoop:
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
A Simple Life Lesson
It is often said that with age comes wisdom. While that may be true in some instances, perhaps it is more accurate to say that with age comes context. Within the frame of years lived is a wide canvas, one that often provokes, at least on my part, more bemusement than enlightenment.
But I have come to one conclusion, not especially insightful or earth-shattering perhaps, but nonetheless practical and useful: People should leave other people alone or, put another way, just don't bother people.
I know in this age of echo-chamber social media that many feel emboldened to share their hateful, racist and extreme views, convinced that they have a wisdom to impart. Feeling especially chuffed, many are happy to act out their ignorant hatred, as evidenced most recently by anti-Asian attacks, both in the United States and Canada.
The attacks are widespread, and often close to home.
... anti-Asian racism has been growing across the country, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) Toronto chapter, which for the first time details the nature of attacks that seem to have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From verbal insults to physical assaults, including being spat upon, 643 complaints were submitted to the council’s online platforms from March 10 to Dec. 31, 2020. Overwhelmingly, these incidents were fuelled by false and racist beliefs about the spread of COVID-19, according to the study’s authors.
“In addition to the ways we know COVID transmits, the spitting and coughing symbolizes a revenge, as if an act of ‘Go back where you came from, where the virus came from,’” said Kennes Lin, a social worker and co-chair of the CCNC Toronto chapter, who was one of the report’s authors.
Avvy Go, director of the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic in Toronto, was walking home when she was accosted and spit at by a group of young people who blocked her route.
Horrified, Go yelled, “Excuse me!” but the group continued on, laughing among themselves.
“I was just taken aback. I was just stunned,” said Go, director of the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. “For some of us, every time we step out, we have to worry if we will be targeted again.”
The trauma of experiencing racist attacks, whether verbal or physical, is substantial. The above-referenced report offers some disturbing insights:
- About 73 per cent of those who reported incidents said they suffered emotional harm or mental distress from what occurred. About eight per cent reported physical injuries.
- Individuals who reported an incident in a Chinese language as opposed to English were 34 per cent more like to suffer emotional distress from the incident and 100 per cent more likely to have experienced a physical assault.
- Close to 50 per cent of incidents occurred in public spaces (park/street/sidewalk), while another 17 per cent took place in grocery stores or restaurants.
There is much, much more to the report, which I suggest you take a look at as time permits.
So what is to be done? Other than raising public awareness about these hateful attacks and mobilizing support for the Asian community, I return to what I said at the beginning of this post. Miscreants need a reality check in order to understand that very few are thirsting for their 'wisdom,' and the best course for such individuals is to keep their hatred to themselves, and just don't bother people.
A tall order, I know.
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Behind Bars No More
As we have become increasingly aware these past several years, institutional investments matter. And as public awareness has grown, so has pressure for the big funds to divest from ethically and environmentally suspect parts of their portfolio, be they holdings in fossil fuels, tobacco, firearms or gambling, to name but a few.
For teachers, the pressure to divest is not new. Well over two decades ago, there was a group of us who tried to convince the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan to take its money out of Maple Leaf Foods. At the time, the food-processing giant was in the midst of crippling wage cuts (about 40%) at its Burlington Ontario plant.
The response we got was disappointing. We were told that the Plan had a "fiduciary responsibility' to its members to make as much profit as possible. Matters of principle could not be taken into consideration.
Fortunately, that amoral strategy is changing in Canada, thanks to grassroot pressure by union members.
A Canadian Crown corporation has sold off its entire stake in the American private prison industry following a public campaign by the union that represents the majority of federal employees.
The Public Sector Pension Investment Fund (PSP) bought more than 600,000 shares of CoreCivic and the Geo Group, two of the largest providers of private prisons, jails and immigration detention centres in the United States, in the last half of 2020.
In late February, days after a Toronto Star story exposed those acquisitions, PSP moved to sell off its shares in the two companies, according to a letter signed by PSP president and CEO Neil Cunningham.
“We believe it’s a victory,” said James Infantino, the pensions and disability insurance officer at the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). “We got out of an investment that our members abhor, so that’s in itself something to note and hopefully, it’s something that we can build on.”
A victory it is. If you know anything about the private prison industry in the United States, you know that its profits come from cutting corners (understaffing, denial or delay of needed medical care for prisoners, inferior food, etc.) If you are interested in the topic, an excellent book is American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into The Business of Punishment, by Shane Bauer. Given that a disproportionate number of people in prison are Black and Latino, it is difficult to see private prisons as anything other than a system of modern slavery.
Indeed, there is a thought-provoking documentary on Netflix called 13th, which looks at the sad history of incarceration that followed the abolition of slavery and continues to this very day.
There is no way of avoiding the fact that inmates in both public and private prisons have become mere fodder for a cold, cruel and very calculating capitalism that should make everyone feel ashamed. An awakening public conscience is one reason to feel at least a modicum of hope that things may be changing.
It is to be hoped that other institutional investors soon will no longer be behind bars.
Thursday, March 18, 2021
Crisis Deferred, Not Ended
I recently wrote about a plan to bulldoze the Duffins Creek wetlands to make way for an Amazon distribution centre. Facilitated by an MZO (Ministerial Zoning Order), a heavy-handed tool designed to shortcut environmental assessment and speed development ("It's all about jobs," says Doug Ford); ("It's all about promoting the profits of your developer friends," say opponents), the plan has now been suspended. Given the public outcry over destroying environmentally-vital land, Amazon has decided to build elsewhere.
One would be foolish to think that the crisis has ended. Only ongoing public awareness and engagement will help ensure the Ford government is much less profligate in its future use of MZO's. To that end, this letter from a Toronto Star reader offers some salient points to ponder:
Bulldozing Duffins Creek Wetland a crime against nature, humanity
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Now He Is Just Being Absurd
With all that is going on in the world, this is where Jason Kenney directs his fervour, railing against a Netflix cartoon called Bigfoot Family.
Friday, March 12, 2021
A Novel Defence
The devil, they say, is in the details, but here in Ontario, the devil apparently is in the Ontario government.
Outside of this province, I'm not certain how well known the tale of bureaucrat Sanjay Madan is, so here is a quick summary:
Madan was the $176,608-a-year IT boss on the computer application for Support for Families, which gave parents $200 per child under age 12, and $250 per child and youth under 21 with special needs for educational expenses.
In Ontario Superior Court filings, the province alleges that “some or all of” Madan, his spouse, Shalini Madan, their two adult sons, Chinmaya and Ujjawal, and associate, Vidhan Singh, funneled millions in such payments to thousands of BMO, TD, RBC, Tangerine, and ICICI bank accounts last spring.
Madan's wife and two sons, no longer employed by the government, are currently engaged in separate lawsuits against the Ontario government, denying any knowledge of Madan's activities, despite the fact that he used his sons' bank accounts to funnel some of the ill-gotten gains.
Moreover, in a novel defence, Madan is blaming the victim for all of this unwarranted fuss. In his own
January testimony in civil court [he said] that he “thought there may be an opportunity to take the funds out … it looked like easy money for me,” so he “relaxed” some security provisions to allow more payments to be made into the same bank accounts.
“The (government) knew, or ought to have known, that unscrupulous individuals, including potentially its own employees, might try to exploit weaknesses in its security measures to take money, and having anticipated such threats, ought to have taken steps to prevent them or reduce any losses arising from them,” his statement says.
“By failing to do so, the (province) has failed to mitigate its loss and is largely the author of its own misfortune,” it continues.
Madan is additionally implicated in a computer contract kickback scheme, where he allegedly received secret commissions in awarding the contracts to bidders. The unrepentant Sanjay's response?
“The (government) not only suffered no loss arising from the alleged “kickback scheme,” but in fact saved money by selecting the highest score bidder in an open bidding contest,”...
One of the definitions of chutzpah is shameless audacity. In addition to the many millions he is alleged to have pilfered, it is obvious that Sanjay Madan has vast reserves of it.
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
UPDATED: Piers Has A Moment
It must be hard to be Piers Morgan. The erstwhile CNN host, now a presenter on Good Morning Britain, loves to level caustic criticism at any number of targets, his latest being Meghan Markle. And no matter how you feel about the Oprah interview the another night, you will have to agree that the following shows Morgan to be both hypocritical and thin-skinned, the latter of course being one of the classic markers for bullies.
Piers Morgan stormed off the set of Good Morning Britain on Tuesday after his co-presenter, Alex Beresford, criticised the way he “continues to trash” the Duchess of Sussex.
His co-host, Susanna Reid, was forced to send the ITV show to an early break after the row boiled over and Morgan walked off live on air. Beresford called his behaviour “pathetic” and “diabolical”.
The GMB weather presenter Beresford later tweeted of the incident: “I wish I had the privilege to sit on the fence. In order for me to do that I would have to strip myself of my identity and that’s not something I can do. It’s not any of our places to pick apart claims of racism in order to make us to feel more comfortable.”
Here is the video of Morgan's shameful behaviour:
Sunday, March 7, 2021
A Humbling Realization
The older I get, the more I realize that I really don't understand people. For someone who for a long time thought otherwise, it is a humbling realization.
The story of Toronto registered nurse Jess Faraone is a case in point. She
arrived at Pearson International Airport this week and refused to wear a mask, undergo a COVID-19 test or cooperate with the mandatory three-day hotel quarantine period despite legislation requiring all international travellers to do so to protect public health.
Jess Faraone returned to Toronto from a trip to Tanzania on Thursday prepared to fight the COVID-19 airport rules, which have been implemented to protect the health and safety of travellers as well as all Canadian residents, and she shared the unpleasant encounter with airport officials that followed on her Instagram stories.
Saturday, March 6, 2021
The Developers' Friend
Wetlands, or marshes, fens, bogs, and swamps, are the link between land and water. Wetlands include trees, grasses, shrubs, moss, and other plants that require at least some water coverage. Wetlands provide an abundance of essential ecosystem services, including:
- Water storage, storm protection, and flood mitigation
- Water purification through retention of nutrients, sediments, and pollutants
- Groundwater recharge
- Essential habitat for many plants and animals, including over 90 percent of the roughly 200 Great Lakes fish species that occur in the Great Lakes
- Shoreline stabilization and erosion control.
Excerpted from Wetlands Destruction
If one were to think of the provincial premier most inimical to the environment, one would naturally think of Alberta's Jason Kenney. His unwholesome addiction to bitumen is an ongoing exercise in flagrant disregard for the future of our planet.
However, hiding under the cover of our current pandemic is another who is proving that a Tory leopard cannot change its spots: Ontario Premier Doug Ford. While earlier earning praise for his apparently compassionate response to this public health crisis, it is clear he is now reverting to form with a vision for sensitive wetlands that is chilling.
Toronto’s conservation authority is pushing back against the Doug Ford government, urging the public to get involved after the province ordered it to issue a permit allowing a developer to level and fill with soil a provincially significant wetland in Pickering.
In a statement issued Friday afternoon, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority said it was being forced to issue the permit “under duress” and “would ordinarily decline permission of such a permit.” It added that its only option was to add conditions to the permit to “lessen negative impacts” —conditions the developer is now challenging.
Friday’s move is the latest in the province’s attacks on the authority of conservation authorities, which included a rewrite of legislation last fall intended to rein them in. The development of the Duffins Creek Wetland — approved through a ministerial zoning order (MZO) — has become the first test of the new conservation authority regulations.
Anyone who has done even a modest amount of research on climate change know that with rising levels of water 'baked into' our collective future, the preservation of wetlands is a key tool in our survival arsenal. Yet Mr. Ford seems far more dedicated not only to the survival, but to the financial elevation, of his friends.
An MZO is a tool that allows Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark to fast-track developments by overriding local zoning rules.
So far this year, the province has approved 33 MZOs. A handful of them are on land that is deemed environmentally sensitive, and according to the current provincial legislation would normally be untouchable.
“TRCA’s Board of Directors must now, under duress, adhere to the Province’s legally mandated directive, which conflicts with TRCA’s mandate to further the conservation, development, and management of natural resources in watersheds within our jurisdiction,” the TRCA said ....
On Thursday evening, the province passed a regulation ordering the TRCA to issue a permit to developer by March 12 to allow them to “to carry out part of a development project” on the 22-hectare Duffins Creek wetland at Squires Beach Road and Bayly Street just south of Highway 401.
That part of the development project, entailing the filling in of the wetlands with soil in preparation for its development, beggars belief, Fortunately, there are those refusing to accept this as a fait accompli.
“If this law passes, the minster can just waltz in with one of his developer friends and wipe away all restrictions on developments,” said Tim Gray, executive director with Environmental Defense, about the proposed changes to the Planning Act.
Gray’s organization is one of three environmental groups that has filed a lawsuit against the province, contending the Pickering MZO was a breach of provincial policy.
“Nothing that is currently protected by planning rules in Ontario — wetlands, river valleys, forests, endangered species habitat — is protected now,” added Gray.
And the Ford government is feeling the pressure:
In confidential documents leaked to the media this week, the government expressed concern that the groups’ lawsuit had grounds and there was a risk the MZO could be found to be illegal.
“In the absence of the proposed amendments to the Planning Act, 1990 — and in particular the proposal for retroactive application — there is a moderately high risk that the MZO would be found to have contravened the Planning Act.”
It is difficult to know how all of this will ultimately play out. With any luck, however, as we gradually emerge from the pandemic, Ford and his cronies will realize that their actions are facing increasing scrutiny. With a provincial election not all that far off, that should give all of them real pause.
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Eulogizing a Fallen Extreme Right-Wing Icon
And if your name is Donald Trump, you also take the opportunity to talk once again about how a corrupt system screwed you out of a second term.
Sunday, February 14, 2021
Friday, February 12, 2021
Poor, Poor Pitiful Me
That seems to be the reaction of our hapless snowbirds, now that February 22 has been announced as the date international travellers arriving by air will have to quarantine for up to three days at designated hotels, costing them about $2000.
It just isn't fair, according to our older citizens, apparently too fragile to endure Canadian winters but hale enough to risk Covid-19 in southern hotspots.
Valorie Crooks, Canada research chair in health service geographies, says:
There are many reasons behind snowbirds’ decisions to travel to warmer climates each year, including during the pandemic ....
“You get a lot of people discussing things like improved arthritis symptoms, even changes to the amount of medication that is required.”
Others have planned their retirement finances around “snowbirding” and the pandemic has not changed that budgetary reality, she said.
It's not as if they weren't warned about travelling during a pandemic:
Toronto-based insurance broker Martin Firestone said he’s advised against travelling during the pandemic, but more than a thousand of his snowbird clients are abroad and they’re all opposed to the hotel quarantine.
He said about a third of his clients headed south in November and hundreds more were spurred on in January by the accessibility of COVID-19 vaccine in Florida for people age 65 and older, though Firestone is careful not to count his clients among “vaccine tourists,” since most own property there.
Exceptions should be made, according to people like Denise Dumont, a Canadian living full time in Fort Lauderdale, asserting
snowbirds “don’t act like regular visitors.”
“I don’t think it is fair to treat them like a simple visitor who will go for an all-inclusive two-week vacation in Mexico,” said Dumont, the editor in chief of Le Soleil de la Floride, an online source for francophone news in Florida.
As much as some might feel for the plight of these hapless oldsters, the only thing I can suggest is that on their return flight, they might want to give a listen to the following to reflect on the often cruel vagaries of life.
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
And Now For Something Completely Different
In these dark times, we all need a good laugh. If you haven't already seen this, I guarantee a lightening of the spirit.
Monday, February 8, 2021
Snowbirds Must Pay The Price For Their Selfishness
Like the majority of Canadians, my wife and I have taken all the precautions we can during this long season of Covid-19. We have not seen our son and daughter-in-law, who live out West, for over a year. Our daughter and her husband we have only seen outside the house, observing physical distancing. We shop for groceries once every two weeks in a large store, double-masking the whole time.
None of these measures are pleasant, but they are wholly necessary if we are ever to come to grips with this pernicious virus.
Others feel differently, gathering willy-nilly as the spirit moves them, be it through gatherings of extended families, parties, or the other myriad circumstances in which close contact inevitably occurs.
As a senior, for me the most egregious violation of the spirit of the precautions come from the snowbirds who have willfully chosen to ignore safety and gone on their annual hegiras to Florida, Arizona, etc., their compelling reasons including how hard the Canadian winter can be, their joints need the respite warm weather offers, etc. ad nauseam. For them I feel no sympathy; indeed, contempt might be a better description of my sentiment.
And their plaints, when something goes wrong, ring hollow in my ears. There is, for example, the recent case of a Nova Scotia couple who sojourned to Florida, where things quickly turned horrible awry:
A Kings County couple are facing hefty medical bills after they both became ill with COVID-19 while in Florida. Debbie Mailman of Aylesford says she and her husband, Wayne, travel annually to Florida for six months of the year because their arthritis, muscular issues, fibromyalgia and other existing conditions would leave them in in pain if they stayed in the cold Canadian winter. “If we stayed home we'd be in agony all the time,” she said. “We just come here for the warm weather.”
Their quest for respite didn't go exactly as planned, They quickly fell ill from Covid, resulting in hospitalization that will cost more than $300,000 for her husband's treatment and an unknown amount for hers.
Clearly, I am not the only one who feels ill-disposed toward selfish indulgences. The following letters from Star readers, reproduced from both the online and print edition, reflect this fact: (I had some formatting problems here, so please forgive the inconsistencies.)
I do not feel one ounce of pity for Canadians who left Canada and have returned, or will be returning, and face a substantial cost to quarantine.
We have been advised for months not to travel. These people are just self-centred and selfish to think only about what they want. The COVID-19 virus and its variants got to this country by travellers, no other way.
Susan Magill, Gravenhurst, Ont.
Snowbirds must face consequences of selfishness
- Toronto Star
Re Peeved Canadian snowbirds devising plans to avoid hotel-quarantine ‘jail’, Feb. 4
Snowbirds and other Canadians who travelled abroad deserve no sympathy.
One traveller mentions being punished for wanting to see the sun. Well, there are many Canadians who would also like to see the sun and close family they haven’t seen for a year and thankfully most of them are respecting the travel advisory and staying home. So no sympathy for those who confuse wants with needs.
Another traveller mentions that New Zealand made an exception to their strict quarantine rules for those who travelled before the new rules came into effect. Well, Canada has had a travel advisory since last spring and those who travelled chose to ignore the rules so, again, no sympathy here.
A snowbird mentions that the quarantine hotels will be a financial hardship. Well, I’m sure that Canadians who are struggling financially will be very understanding of those “poor” Canadians stuck in their second home in the sunny U.S. Snowbirds are rightly facing the consequence of having ignored the travel advisory that has been around since last spring.
Claude Gannon, Markham
Re Peeved Canadian snowbirds devising plans to avoid hotel-quarantine ‘jail’, Feb. 4
As snowbirds with a Florida home, we chose to stay in Canada this winter.
I have no sympathy for those who decided to travel during this worldwide pandemic and now may have to pay for a hotel stay on their return to Canada. I know teenagers with more common sense than some of the seniors interviewed for this article.
Giving up a winter in the sun is not the worst thing that could happen to a person. We have seen a lot of changes in travel restrictions during the pandemic and should be aware, after having seen what happened in the early months with people on cruises who became ill and had difficulty returning home, that nothing is guaranteed. Also, even though seniors are able to get travel insurance, they are in a group that is often hospitalized with age-related illness. Again, with hospitals full of people suffering from COVID-19 in the U.S., getting the needed health care could be a major problem.
I would hope common sense could make a comeback in our senior population.
Edith Ross, Thornhill
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Randy Rainbow Strikes Again
Although her words indict her, a feckless Republican Party won't hold her to account. Her crazed stream-of-consciousness utterances go unchecked. To whom do I refer? Marjorie Taylor Greene, of course, the face of all that is wrong with the GOP. An ardent subscriber to QAnon conspiracy 'theories', a denier of tragic school shootings (not to mention her harassment of their survivors), and a believer in strange Jewish lasers from space, this mad woman seems to have instilled fear in much of her Republican colleagues to the point that their silence gives consent.
One person not cowed by her insane proclamations is the redoubtable Randy Rainbow, as you will see in the following:
Thursday, February 4, 2021
No Mask? No Problem
What is wrong with people? That is really little more than a rhetorical question; nonetheless, let me offer but a small observation.
We all live within our own reality, reality that is framed by our upbringing, our education, our life experiences, our intellectual capabilities, etc. Those factors can make for healthy, dynamic debate. Yet they can also lead to the conclusion that some members of our species exist in a universe completely unrecognizable to the rational.
If you advance to the seven-minute mark in the following video, you will see what I mean.
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Monday, February 1, 2021
An Alternative To Impeachment
The chance of Donald Trump being convicted in his upcoming Senate trial is remote. There are far too many Republicans happy to forgive and forget (read that as fear of losing support of the Trump hordes).
There is, however, a quite valid alternative to Senate conviction, as Jennifer Rubin writes:
A criminal trial, both on the former president’s attempt to strong-arm Georgia election officials to change the state’s vote totals and his incitement before the Jan. 6 violent insurrection (coupled with his refusal to immediately and definitively call a halt to the uprising), would serve multiple purposes. If the Senate will not ban him from holding office, a criminal conviction — should Trump be found guilty — would almost certainly do the trick (or at least, we should hope it would in the era of right-wing conspiracy theories).
A criminal conviction would guarantee that Trump cannot run for future office, but it would serve perhaps an even more important function:
[A] criminal trial could provide a severe deterrent for future presidents who attempt to retain power through violence. It is not enough to mouth the empty platitude that the ex-president’s behavior was “unacceptable” if there are no adverse consequences. Without punishment, his failed coup would remain an open invitation to future presidents to try the same sort of power grab. Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe observes, “Impeachment is about getting rid of officeholders who endanger the republic by abusing their powers, not about punishing them for their crimes. Punishment still must be meted out if the rule of law is to be respected and wrongdoers are to be held accountable.”
Moreover, as long as the hardcore MAGA crowd keeps repeating the Big Lie that the election was stolen, the need for a full factual airing of the white supremacist plot and the ex-president’s own attempt to induce Georgia to commit voter fraud remains. “If Trump is still maintaining the big lie after January 6, knowing his words have the power to incite violence, then it seems to me it’s potentially indicative of both his intent on the 6th and continued intent to engage in sedition,” says former prosecutor Joyce White Vance. “It’s certainly an interesting piece of evidence for prosecutors to have.”
Donald Trump has made a life and career out of evading consequences for his behaviour and actions. A criminal trial and conviction would go a long way toward rectifying that longstanding injustice.