Demons Among Us

H/t MacKay

History teaches us that the capacity to demonize 'the other' seems almost limitless. Whether it be the Jew, the Black, the Roma, the Indigenous, or any other group, there will always be those who find people unfit to be members of society. Hence the role of propaganda, allegations of the darkest of atrocities and depravities, the subtext being obvious.  After all, if they are not really human, what's to be upset about if we have to wipe them out?

For whatever reason, transgender issues seem to currently feed the bloodlust of the depraved. As a previous post pointed out, Montana recently ejected a transgender legislator for indecorous behaviour, her outrage over an edict under consideration to ban any transgender care to minors her 'crime'.

Not to be outdone, Missouri has upped the ante.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey put forward emergency rules placing barriers to gender-affirming care for minors and adults. The rules are set to go into effect later this week, although opponents filed a petition Monday evening seeking an order to temporarily block implementation.

Bailey says the rules are meant to keep both parents of transgender youth and transgender adults more informed before receiving gender-affirming care, describing them as an "innovative approach" for people to "have all the information necessary to make good decisions."

As always, the devil is in the details (not 'the other'), so feel free to read the whole story in the above link. However, both the reality and the toll of such diseased politics are made abundantly clear in the following video:

Life can be very difficult in and of itself. Is purposely increasing the hardships people bear really something anyone should be proud of?

By Any Other Name

Perhaps it is because I experienced a small amount of peer-bullying as a student. Perhaps it is because I experienced a large amount of both physical and psychological abuse from my teachers, as did many of my fellow students. It was, after all, the Catholic school system, where mistreatment was frequently substituted for the message of love found in the Gospels. Whatever the reason, I ultimately emerged as an adult with much empathy for people being treated badly.

Today's post is about the recent disgraceful behaviour of adults claiming to be parents at a meeting of the York Catholic District School Board on the issue of range the Pride Flag. Here is a brief video  capturing some of the disruption that occurred:

This kind of ugly behaviour has no place in our society, and I am hardly alone in that sentiment. Today, I am taking what is for me the unprecedented step of reproducing in toto a Toronto Star editorial whose points I think most would find a hard time disagreeing with. That will be followed by two pieces expressing letter-writers' views on rabid homophobia. 

Make of all of it what you will:

A shameful scene unfolded recently outside a meeting of the York Catholic District School Board when adults purporting to protect Ontario’s children proved instead to be a direct threat to their well-being.

How else to describe a group of adults, many of them presumably parents of school-aged children, who turned up at the meeting to loudly oppose the possibility that the board will fly the rainbow flag in support of LGBTQ students in June?

How else to describe adults who appeared to hurl insults at those in favour of flying the flag? In a video clip shared widely by various news outlets, shouts of “shame” and “devil incarnate” were hurled at an advocate on the pro side of the flag debate. The scene became so tense police were called and security reportedly escorted some of the spectators away.

Some of these spectators may argue that their objection wasn’t specifically to the Pride flag itself but to what they believe it stands for: in their minds, the corrupting of children who are allegedly too young to learn in school about the diversity of gender and sexuality.

To this odious notion we say: no one is too young to learn that gay, transgender and non binary people exist, just as no one is too young to learn that cisgender, heterosexual people exist. Queer people are not by their mere existence sexually explicit.

 To meet a queer person, to learn what transgender means, to be read a picture book by a drag performer is in no way being exposed to the intimate details of a person’s sex life. This belief is not only nonsensical; it is derivative of hateful, age-old myths about queer people as a perverse influence on children.

It is also derivative of a certain brand of anti-LGBTQ politics we commonly associate with the United States. But if last week’s events at the Catholic school board in York Region teach us anything, let it be that Canada is not immune to public displays of hateful rhetoric. These displays may be less common here but even in small doses they are potent. And it is up to all of us — Catholic school board officials and community members alike not to be complacent in the face of them.

It seems a reminder is in order about why Pride celebrations are necessary in schools. Flying the Pride flag isn’t a hollow act of virtue signalling; it is an official declaration of support for marginalized kids who desperately need it.

 

Dispute at Catholic board meeting over Pride flag, April 27

The group of taxpayers of the York Region Catholic School Board, whose homophobic words and gestures reduced a group of LGBTQ students at the board meeting to tears, have surely provided a very good argument for defunding Catholic schools in the province.

Surely the promotion of such vicious and harmful hatred under the protection of acceptable religious teaching in Catholic schools should have no place in a publicly-funded school system in Ontario.

Joanna Manning, Toronto

When I read this article it reminded me of many of the vitriolic rants in American media that I have seen, directed at advocates of peaceful, progressive change.

What kind of adults would bully and belittle young students, especially those who have most likely experienced serious harangues for parts of their lives?

Because this was a Catholic school board I’m assuming these people consider themselves “Christian.” Outrage and horrible behaviour over the raising of a flag to show acceptance and respect for young people does clearly not reflect Christian beliefs.

These people should remember that Catholic education is paid for by all taxpayers and governments that condemn. this behaviour.

John Morton, Toronto

Hatred, intolerance and bigotry, by any other name, are still hatred, intolerance and bigoty. 

Getting Things Done

                              

Those who prize quick decisions and action will no doubt applaud the likes of the Doug Ford government. As pointed out in my previous post, the premier and his coterie are not very often burdened by critical thinking. And that, as I tried to point out, has consequences.

Star letter-writers also share their misgivings over this kind of 'governance' in the following.

Someone should remove Premier Doug Ford’s supply of napkins and pens before he comes up with another plan to “save” taxpayers’ money, such as inviting 18 year olds to skip secondary education and join the police force right after graduation; knocking down the Ontario Science Centre and build housing on the ravine. So what if they get flooded every spring. Think of the view!

Let Therme Group build a spa on Ontario Place that 99 per cent of Ontarians won’t be able to afford, but won’t cost the taxpayers a dime, except for $200 million to clear the land and $450 million for underground parking. And those are only preliminary estimates.

Cut funding to hospitals so they can’t keep up with the need for cataract surgeries, but pay private clinics more per procedure than OHIP covers.

And those are only the most recent unplanned plans.

I can’t wait to read about his next great idea in tomorrow’s Star.

Carol Libman, Toronto 

Let us examine the Ford legacy 20 years down the road.

The Ontario Science Centre will be no more and Toronto will have lost a significant piece of architecture that could have been adjusted to continue its role in promoting science. In its place there will be a mass of grotty highrises with few if any subsidized units, much to the delight of developers.

On Ontario Place the wonderful spa which took twice as long to build and cost well-over budget failed as a business venture and was converted to a casino after structural additions. Both the spa and the casino were found to have guarantees from the province to cover revenue shortfalls.

Part of Ontario Place was converted to parking for the casino because water seepage made underground parking a non-starter.

RIP Ontario Place.

Peter Anastasiades, Markham

 The Toronto Star correctly points out that most of the Ontario Science Centre land is composed of hazardous and floodplain lands. Good luck to the Doug Ford government and a developer in trying to secure a Toronto and Region Conservation Authority permit for new housing development over these lands!

During Hurricane Hazel in 1954, many houses in the Don Valley were swept away by flooding and hence the conservation authority followed up by preparing floodplain mapping of the Don Valley to ensure that future housing would not be exposed to such destruction. There is also the concept of “setback” zones from floodplains.

Ministers within Ford’s government need to learn how to interpret floodplain mapping before suggesting new housing over hazardous and floodplain lands.

Jim McEwen, retired civil engineer, Bowmanville

In the annals of the oxymoron, known as Ontario Government intelligence, this could rank near the top.

The plan is to build the New Ontario Line subway running from Ontario Place to The Ontario Science Centre. But now, may also include moving the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place and building housing in its present location.

The Ontario Science Centre is a gem, nestled in a beautiful valley. By all means renovate it as needed to keep it relevant, but leave it where it is. Why not simply build high density housing above and around the new 2,700 space parking lot at Ontario Place, leaving the new residents closer to downtown.

Ian Alter, North York

Envelopes are best reserved for their original purpose, not as a medium for calculating public policy.  Expect no course corrections in the near- future from this obdurate regime, however.

 

The Burden Of Thought

 

Over the years of writing this blog, I have made fairly frequent mention of  the importance of critical thinking. At the same time, I have usually been quick to add that it is an ideal toward which I constantly strive, one that I frequently fall short of.

There are, of course, many impediments to critical thinking: our values, experiences, ideology and biases, to name but four, can very much get in the way of sober reflection and analysis. No one, to my knowledge, has ever achieved the Platonic ideal of critical thinking. Let's face it: we are all human, and failures along the road are inevitable.

What I cannot abide, however, is a blatant disregard for critical thinking, either through willful indifference or incapacity. When the state is run thus, we are really dealing with a rudderless ship.

Which brings me to the real topic of today's post, Ontario's Doug Ford government. It is one that seems, either by intent or genetic shortcoming, to be headed by a man who displays a singular disregard for, or contempt of, critical thinking. Take, for example, his recent decision to 'repeal' a post-secondary 'requirement' for people wanting to become police officers. In fact, it has never been a requirement (a high-school diploma is all that is technically needed), but the trend for a long time has been to hire people with post-secondary education. 

In response, Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles had this to say:

“It’s very concerning,”... university and college educations teach a wider view of the world.

“They (police) have a very difficult job, and they require a lot of skills including critical thinking to do their jobs properly.”

The website Indeed notes the following regarding needed police skills:

Critical thinking is an officer's ability to analyze a situation from multiple perspectives and make important decisions within a short time frame. Police officers must have strong critical thinking skills, as their decisions can greatly impact the health and well-being of themselves, their colleagues and members of the public. Critical thinking also allows an officer to examine outside influences that may affect their decisions and actions to remove the possibility of bias and assess a person's conduct fairly.

While it certainly can be argued that having post-secondary education will not ensure critical thinking skills, it at least maximizes the possibility of having/developing them. 

And the decision of  Doug Ford to try to lower the standards is emblematic of the larger problem within his government: it engages in very little real thought when developing policy. A narrow, telescopic lens is applied to most issues. This is most apparent in the building of new houses and new highways that will exacerbate urban sprawl.

""We need more houses."

"Great. Let's open up the Greenbelt."

"People want a faster commute."

"Great. Let's build Highway 413."

Despite the dire implications of paving over farms and wetlands during this time of climate catastrophe, the hammer that is Doug Ford's brain sees nails everywhere. As a consequence, all Ontarians will have to live with heedless decisions that enrich his developer friends and also significantly undermine ways of mitigating that catastrophe.

But let's not lay the blame entirely at Ford's feet. Every member of the voting public who chooses to ignore or have only a passing acquaintance with the problems that envelop all of us are complicit. 

The cynic in me believes this means that come the next provincial election, Ford will return with a majority. And we will have only ourselves and our collective lazy thinking to blame. 

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Snowflakery Spreads

It is common for the hard right to accuse progressives of being snowflakes, meaning, I guess, that they are inordinately sensitive and easily offended. The shoe, however, now appears to be on the other foot, as was recently demonstrated with the expulsion of two black state representatives from the Tennessee House for breaching 'decorum.' Now, snowflakery has again reared its icy crystals, this time in another Republican state, Montana. 

Zooey Zephyr, a trans-lawmaker, was suspended from the legislature for another 'breach.' She suggested (brace yourselves) they would have blood on their hands if her colleagues banned gender-affirming medical care for children.

She will, however, be able to vote remotely. Perhaps I have been too quick to judge?

Still Lessons To Be Learned

The older I get, the more I realize how little I know. And to me, that is a good thing, because there is something both grounding and humbling in realizing the extent of one's ignorance. And it is also an invitation to continue learning, right up to the end.

While I have always been an avid reader of fiction (what else would you expect from a retired English teacher?), over the last few years, I have found myself increasingly drawn to non-fiction. Two recent books in particular steered me in some new directions, one a well-considered biography of Abraham Lincoln, which incidentally taught me a great deal about present-day fractured America, and one on Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War which actually saw a regression of rights for Black people..

All of which is a roundabout way of telling you I just learned about a little-known and shameful chapter in Canadian history, one involving aid and succor to the Confederate South during the height of the Civil War. In an excerpt from his new book, North Star - Canada And The Civil War Plots Against Lincoln, Julian Sher discusses the nefarious link between Canadians and the Confederacy, in this one example a prominent Torontonian whose sensibilities and values would offend most contemporary Canadians.

It was as close as you could get to a Southern plantation home, considering it stood in the middle of a wooded estate in the 1860s on the western outskirts of Toronto.

It was called Heydon Villa, and its owner, a wealthy and powerful aristocrat named George Taylor Denison III, sought to emulate more than the architecture of the slave South — he was an avowed ally and supporter of the Confederacy.

“I was a strong friend of the Southern refugees who were exiled in our country, and I treated them with the hospitality due to unfortunate strangers driven from their homes,” Denison wrote.

The “refugees” Denison harboured and helped were hardly the poor victims of the bloody American Civil War that raged from 1861 to 1865. On the contrary, they were the cream of the slaveholding aristocracy that had started the war — the top Confederate leaders, generals and spies.

While our country was viewed by runaway slaves as a haven, it may surprise many, as it did me, that Canada harboured great sympathy for the cause of the Confederacy, the maintenance of slavery. While officially neutral, 

many among Canada’s elites in politics, business and the church played a darker role, supporting the slave South and in fomenting numerous plots against Abraham Lincoln.

Most newspapers here were more sympathetic to the Confederates over the “mad despot” Lincoln. Catholic church leaders praised the Southern rebellion and helped hide fugitive Confederates. Bankers allowed Southern conspirators to finance their plots and launder their money.

One man, the very wealthy Dennison, 

was in the perfect position the help the Confederates when, in 1864 — three years into a war that was beginning to look bleak for them — they made a desperate effort to surprise Lincoln with unexpected attacks, from north of the border. Confederate president Jefferson Davis set aside about $1 million (about $16 million in today’s currency) to set up a Secret Service operation in Canada, headed by a Southern politician named Jacob Thompson.

That operation was aided and abetted by Dennison, who devised a system of communication to evade detection by the Union. He even went so far as to front an attempt at raising marine aid for the South:

Jacob Thompson wanted to refit a streamer called the Georgian, turn it into a sort of warship and attack Northern cities. Denison fronted $16,500 for the scheme.

Authorities, though, grew suspicious about activity around the Georgian and had it seized in the Collingwood harbour.

In April 1865, an informant inside the Canadian Confederate ranks revealed more details of the plot. When police officers raided the house of one of Denison’s accomplices in Toronto, they found bullet moulds, cartridges and — rather startlingly — 26 torpedoes in a cellar he had filled with water.

To draw this post to a close, I'll add that Dennison hosted Jeffereson Davis, the CSA President, after the war. In a CBC interview I heard yesterday afternoon with the author Julian Sher, it appears that Davis, when he arrived, was greeted by thousands of hardy enthusiasts. The same was true of his visit to Montreal. 

I know it is not fair to judge earlier times by our own standards, but such behaviour by Canadian devotees of Southern repression, exploitation and cruelty strikes me as absolutely shameful and indefensible. 

At the same time, however, it does offer a painful and pungent lesson that should puncture our innate smugness.

 

 

 

The Beam In Our Eye

When you think about it, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with national myths. They seek to convey something special about one's country. For example, there is the American myth about being a country where anyone can become anything by dint of hard work. In Canada, there is the myth that we are a peace-loving, accepting nation that stands in sharp contrast to our southern neighbours. The problems begin when we take those myths too literally and too seriously, allowing us to don blinders to our national faults.

Like many Canadians, I have frequently taken much comfort in feelings of superiority to the United States in so many areas, not the least of which is racism. However, our sad history of mistreatment of Indigenous people, as well as at least a passing acquaintance with the news, should quickly disabuse us of the notion that we are free of such taint, leaving us only with the cold comfort of knowing we are not as bad as the United States.

But our domestic racism cannot be ignored, lest it be allowed to fester. A recent report, for example, tells of widespread Islamophobia uncovered by a Senate committee investigating the problem.

Last month, figures released by Statistics Canada indicated police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims increased by 71 per cent from 2020 to 2021. The rate of the crimes was eight incidents per 100,000 members of the Muslim population, based on census figures.

Among the committee’s findings is an observation that attacks against Muslims often appear to happen out on the streets and appear to be more violent than those targeting other religious groups, [committee chair Senator Salma] Ataullahjan said.

The committee's final reported, expected in July, will likely disturb many.

 Analysts and experts interviewed by the Senate committee said the rise of far-right hate groups and anti-Muslim groups are among the factors driving attacks against Muslims, Ataullahjan said.

The committee looked at the cases of Black Muslim women in Edmonton who were violently assaulted in recent years.

“Some of them sat in front of us and everyone was getting teary-eyed because it’s not easy to tell your story especially where you’ve been hurt,” she said.

The 2017 shooting at a Quebec mosque when a gunman opened fire, killing six worshippers and injuring several others, is another example of violent Islamophobia, she said.

The Senate committee’s report will also address recent violence against Muslims, including an alleged assault outside a Markham, Ont., mosque where witnesses told police a man tore up a Qur’an, yelled racial slurs, and tried to ram a car into congregants.

 The committee will also detail day-to-day aggression against Muslim Canadians, including accounts from hijab-wearing girls in schools who don’t feel comfortable reporting instances of Islamophobia to police, Ataullahjan said.

Raising public awareness of this shameful behaviour is only part of the solution. of course. 

The National Council of Muslim Canadians also hopes the report will help Canadians familiarize themselves with the Muslim community.

“We want to address hate,” [spokesman Steven Zhou] said. “But also it’s about building bridges. For people to learn about Islam, for people to learn about what this religion is actually about, how the community works."

I don't know what it is to live a life framed by fear, suspicion and averted gazes. It would seem that far too many people, however, do.  

 

 

 

 

Ode To Democracy

 A busy day ahead, so I shall let Theo Moudakis speak for me:

God's Second Gift To Humanity

 But, as Jesus said, "A prophet hath no honour is his own country."

Sharing Incompetencies

 

I was talking to my good friend Dave, from Winnipeg, the other night. Dave and I have been friends for 40 years. The affinities that bind us include books, movies and, of course, politics. Like me, Dave has a jaundiced, cynical view of those who represent us, seeing them as largely self-serving, selfish to the point of ignoring the real needs of the people.

Dave's tale of the Conservative provincial government currently in power is one of incompetence, conflict of interest and, quite possibly, corruption. It is the same array of scourges we face in Ontario under Doug Ford who, although he promotes a folksy persona, has his heart firmly held in the greedy grasp of business, most particularly the business of his developer friends. Witness the systematic unraveling of the Greenbelt and the circus-like transformation Doug envisions for Ontario Place - a 'world-class' spa.

My conversation with Dave was spent in part in mutual commiseration, but being an Ontarian, I couldn't help but feel that our provincial malfeasance, in all of its corrupt splendour, trumps that of our neighbour to the west.

And I am hardly alone in appreciating the magnitude of  the situation here at home, as a variety of letters-to-the editor attest to.

An urban sprawl crisis

• Toronto Star
• 15 Apr 2023

BARRY GRAY THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR FILE PHOTO

A rally drew several hundred to Hamilton City Hall to protest the province’s Greenbelt plan and Bill 23 in 2022. Building more sprawl with large monstrous million-dollar homes is not the answer, writes Marion Bartlett.

Get off your couch, we need a housing revolution, March 27

Yes, we need housing. But at what cost? The Doug Ford government addressed the housing crisis with the “More Homes Built Faster Act,” Bill 23. It aims to develop 50,000 houses on the ecological backbone of Ontario, the Greenbelt.

The bill undermines our rights, communities, and markets and defiles our wildlife legacy. It violates Indigenous Rights, puts federally endangered species in further jeopardy, and puts our drinking water and security at risk. All for a few favoured developers who have espoused this plan to make money at everyone else’s expense.

This is not a solution. It is Ford’s folly. There needs to be another solution. I appeal to Ontarians to view the housing shortage broadly, considering human and environmental effects. Urban sprawl is not just an economic issue but, indeed, an ecological crisis.

Jasmeet Dhaliwal, Hamilton

Ford’s idea of ‘partnership’ is an abusive relationship

• Toronto Star
• 15 Apr 2023

Ontario to help cities with shortfall, April 4

I actually laughed when I read Ontario housing minister Steve Clark’s recent comments on the provincial government’s “partnership” with municipalities.

The Doug Ford government is making catastrophic and long-lasting planning decisions that affect cities without consulting them. It’s making revenue stream decisions that affect cities, planning highways that run through cities, paving over significant environmental lands and wildlife habitat, and taking away municipalities’ powers to plan their own cities and towns all without consulting them.

This is no partnership, this is an abusive relationship.

But, we are not to worry, says Clark. If Bill 23 is creating financial problems for our cities, by starving them of development charges that used to be paid by developers, the provincial government will “not hang them out to dry.”

I guess that means that if the province deems our cities sufficiently desperate for the funds required to serve the needs of residents, the province will bail them out. With what? Our tax dollars of course!

Why should the developers, who are making millions thanks to Ford, have to pay for the infrastructure to support their new developments when the taxpayers can do it ?

Make no mistake folks, we are the ones being “hung out to dry.”

Marilyn Ginsburg, Markham

Ford and photo ops

It’s galling to see Doug Ford on another self congratulating photo op this time with medical students. I wonder if he talked about how the health care system in Ontario is imploding as we breathe and he has the money and means to slow/stop this to an extent but refuses to. It would spoil his personal agenda and he might have to consider he was wrong on many decisions and as we have seen before, that does not bode well with him. Once graduated, why would any health care professional want to stay here when you see what you have to deal with in reality realizing you could have it better just about anywhere.

Robert Panchyson, Burlington

There is one major difference between Manitoba and Ontario, however, that is sobering. The former must face the electorate in the fall, while we in Ontario must continue to groan under the yoke of incompetence, greed and corruption until 2026. 

Some days, that seems like a very, very long way off.

Ideological Soulmates

 

 

Well, it appears Pierre Poilievre, that would-be master disinformation-trafficker, has found his true soulmate in another man-child, Elon Musk. They have had a meeting of the minds when it comes to the CBC - dearest Elon has agreed to PP's request that the publicly-funded networked be labelled "government-funded media," a tag that used to apply only to propaganda outlets like RT (Russia Today).

"Government-funded media is defined as outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet's funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content," according to Twitter.

National Public Radio in the U.S. announced earlier this month that it is leaving the platform after Twitter labelled its account as "state-affiliated media," saying that doing so undermines their credibility by "falsely implying that we are not editorially independent."

U.S. public broadcaster PBS followed suit, also leaving Twitter after it received the "government-funded" stamp.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre recently called on Twitter CEO Elon Musk to add a "government-funded" label to accounts that promote "news-related" content from CBC.

Such a designation will undoubtedly provide sweet succor to the simple  amongst PP's clan of followers (but aren't they all a bit simple?) and will undoubtedly raise his 'street cred' with them. And just in case some of them missed the significance of this label, PP tweeted out that the CBC has been "officially exposed" as "Trudeau propaganda, not news."

The CBC was quick to admonish the thinking behind this assault of the media:

The CBC is a Crown corporation, wholly owned by the state but operated at arm's length from government.

In a statement Sunday night, CBC corporate spokesperson Leon Mar emphasized the government does not influence CBC's editorial content.

The CBC is a Crown corporation, wholly owned by the state but operated at arm's length from government.

Such machinations, of course, only help to illustrate PP's discord-sowing ways that make him manifestly unfit to sit in the prime minister's office; they also, however, demonstrate something else a credulous electorate should bear in mind: his hypocrisy:

Eerily Prescient

In 1986, Frank Zappa appeared on Crossfire, a show that billed itself as a forum for debate between opposing views. In the following clip, (you can see the entire episode here), Zappa makes an observation that, although hotly contested by the other guests, proves to be eerily prescient, given the bizarre ideology currently enveloping the United States:

Angry Talking Heads

 

When I was a teacher, it used to bother me to no end that it only took one or two ignorant, badly-behaved kids to spoil the atmosphere and discourse in a class. For those who think it should have been a simple matter to silence those voices, well, let's just say they don't understand the reality and the dynamics of teaching.

I feel the same frustration today when I see angry men-children like Elon Musk and his Canadian counterpart, Pierre Poilievre, spreading their mischief to gain either attention or political advantage. Take, for example, Musk's impish decision to label publicly-funded media as government-funded, the implication being that they are merely organs of government propaganda. In the United States, this has led both NPR and PBS to close their Twitter accounts.

Not to be outdone, our own domestic mischief-maker, Pierre Poilievre, wants the same designation for the CBC. This is perhaps not surprising, coming from the man who is trying to exact as much political mileage as possible out of his promise to defund the CBC.

Like the problem students I dealt with, they clearly have too much power to influence the agenda. Unlike the classroom, however, all of us have a role to play in mitigating such madness, as pointed out in the following letter from a Star readers:

Trying too hard to make CBC the enemy, April 13

Bruce Arthur is right to pay attention to Elon Musk and Pierre Poilievre championing the word freedoms in order to destroy it when it comes to the public funding of national media like the CBC. Clearly these two are not reformers but transformers and destroyers of our democracy. As antistatist freedom fighters they appeal to everyone’s sense of liberty while bringing about its end in the media.

Like the typical 1980s neo-con U.S. President Ronald Reagan who identified government as the enemy of the people, Musk and Poilievre regard publicly funded media to express the national will of its people as illegitimate. They demand that the marketplace is the only way to provide free and balanced reporting.

The fact that such free enterprise thinking resulted in Fox News, becoming the lying propaganda media for Republicans only is ignored.

The fact that Musk bought Twitter promising to free it up so that everyone would be heard but turned it into the embodiment of censorship is overlooked. (Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s opposition is censored in Indian and Substack notes’ links are censored in the U.S.)

The fact that magical thinking that freedom bestows legitimacy on anything done in its name has proven to do major harm to democracy is ignored.

History has shown that public funding for national media like the CBC is the only democratic economic system that allows individuals to vote for how their money is to be used in the media. They can vote out the government and replace it with a different policy about its funding.

Musk can’t be voted out. Poilievre with such anti-democratic views should not be voted in.

Tony D’Andrea, Toronto

Perhaps a tall order from Mr. D'Andrea, but one that none of us who believe in a healthy democracy can afford to shirk.