A Tale of Two Cities

Yesterday, while my wife was in the store, I, the ever-dutiful chauffeur, waited patiently in the car, first listening to my favorite station, Jazz FM, and then tuning into the CBC news. A story about the impending closure of bookseller Nicholas Hoare's Ottawa store caught my attention.

According to the story, the National Capital Commission, the Crown Corporation that administers federally-owned land and buildings in Ottawa, told Hoare that it was raising his rent 72%, from $84,000 to nearly $145,000 annually, the reason being that it had received complaints from private landowners that its rents were too low. I'll return to this in a moment.

The news from Toronto, under the inept leadership of its bumptious mayor, is even more grim. The city's library workers are out on strike, last-minute talks having failed to secure an agreement to afford some job security for the 50% of library workers who have only part-time hours.

So what does this tale of two cities have in common? In my febrile mind, they both bespeak the often pernicious influence of the right-wing mentality that pervades these times. For example, the NCC is allowing its decisions on rentals to be influenced by the demands of private landowners, while in Toronto, two things occur to me: first, the library situation would likely not have escalated into a strike were the city not led by people with palpable contempt for the social contract, the one that stipulates the primacy of the collective good over individual wants. Indeed, my 'gut' tells me that Toronto civic 'leaders' have little appreciation of the importance libraries have for so many people; secondly, I have a strong suspicion, judging by the rightward drift we are all aware of in the world today, that if public libraries did not exist and were just being proposed now, the concept would be dismissed as too expensive and unfair competition to bookstores.

Without question, our world would be far poorer. Costs cannot always be measured in simple dollars and cents.

Thomas Mulcair's Stance On Israel

Thomas Mulcair, who has just been endorsed by The Star as the best candidate to lead the NDP to power, is an MP I became familiar with during the lead-up to the last federal election. A frequent guest on Evan Solomon's Power and Politics, the member from Outremount impressed me with his fierce intelligence and cool demeanour (contrary to all this talk about his 'legendary temper'). There is, however, one thing about him that I find both disappointing and troubling, and that is his stance on Israel.

As reported in Canadian Dimension, Mulcair made the following statement in 2008:

“I am an ardent supporter of Israel in all situations and in all circumstances.” [“…je suis un ardent supporter de toutes les instances et de toutes les circonstances d’Israël.”]*

~Thomas Mulcair, quoted in Canadian Jewish News, May 1st, 2008

I am troubled by anyone who takes an unflinching, doctrinaire position on any subject (although I readily admit that probably describes me when it comes to my view of the Harper regime), and most especially when it comes to nation states. For example, the popular misuse of Stephen Decaur's line, My Country, right or wrong, favoured by American 'super-patriots' and jingoists, implies that unquestioning support must be given to one's country, no matter the circumstances. While unquestioning acceptance may be something the corporate state cheerfully encourages, it is unhealthy in the extreme, demanding as it does an abdication of critical-thinking skills in favor of blind obedience.

This, to me, is what Mulcair is saying in the aforementioned quotation, and while he is by no means unique in that perspective (look at Stephen Harper and his crew, for example), it is a position I can never endorse, not because I am anti-Semitic (I am not), but because I believe that it is extraordinarily dangerous to remove the actions of any country from critical scrutiny.

That kind of hubristic notion, history shows us, can have dire consequences indeed.

Who Watches Sun News Network?

Still in the mood to gloat, I am happy to report that the answer seems to be almost no one, although it is hard to pin down numbers with precision, owing to the fact that the Bureau of Broadcast Measurements only measures the top 30 shows in Canada, a criterion which the aforesaid network's offerings do not meet.

It seems that Canadians aren't as easily manipulated as Ezra Levant and the lads thought.

Another Victory for the Star: The Harper Government Blinks

The Globe and Mail arrogantly proclaims itself to be 'Canada's national newspaper' and 'Canada's paper of record.' It is a self-proclaimed designation that I have longed disagreed with, so much so that I eventually cancelled my long-standing subscription to it some time ago, substituting the Toronto Star, Canada's largest-circulation newspaper. And I have never regretted that decision.

Unlike the Globe, which is happy to make facile and incomprehensible endorsements of Stephen Harper whenever an election is pending, The Star has a solid record of success in a diversity of situations ranging from prompting the Ontario government to investigate the scandal-plagued Ornge medical helicopter service to being responsible for the initiation of a restaurant inspection system in Toronto that has become a model for cities across Canada.

The Star's latest achievement is getting the government to change its mind on the case of Sayed Shah Sharifi, the brave Afghan interpreter whose life was at risk from the Taliban due to the help he extended to our troops in Afghanistan. His application for a visa under a special program to grant visas to Afghans “who face exceptional risk or who have suffered serious injury as a result of their work for the Canadian government in Kandahar province” was rejected, and after 18 months, he is finally getting justice, thanks to The Star and the dogged efforts of reporter Paul Watson exposing this injustice at the hands of the Harper regime generally, and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in particular.

The public outcry has been loud and sustained. As a result, the Harper government, as they say, blinked, and while I am usually not one to gloat, victories of any kind with this regime are so infrequent that I do believe I shall indulge myself a bit. You can read the full report of this victory here.

Perhaps there is also a lesson here for all of us about what can happen when we shed our cloaks of indifference and disengagement and fight for causes truly worth our passion.

The Funeral of Shelagh Gordon

For anyone who believes that it is the size of your wallet, the house you live in, or the title of your job that gives your life worth and meaning, I strongly suggest a viewing of this video from The Star.

As well, you can read the story of Shelagh Gordon, written by Catherine Porter, here.

Patrick Brazeau - Now Why Does that Name Ring A Bell?

I don't know whether the 37-year-old is the youngest to be rewarded by the Harper regime with a Senate seat, but a Google search led me to this 2009 posting about his, ahem, 'creative' fiscal practices.

F-35 Lies From The Department of National Defence

Much to my surprise, the National Post has been doing a good job lately in covering Conservative misdeeds. While the Canadian taxpayer has been subjected to so many falsehoods and a great deal of subterfuge about the true cost of the F-35 jets over the past year-and-a half, The Post's John Ivison offers information about next month's report on the jets from Michael Ferguson, the new Auditor-General, that promises to shake up some people.

We can only hope that the report finally 'shoots down in flames' the Harper lie that the jets will only cost $75 million each.