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:

UPDATE: Apparently as a result of the furor provoked by his questioning of Markle's veracity, Piers Morgan has resigned from Good Morning Britain.

 

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. 

Why a so-called health-care worker would behave in such a flagrantly dangerous, contemptuous manner is hard for me to understand. Is it simply a manifestation of the rampant narcissism that the age of social media has made possible, even encouraged?

I really don't know, but I can only hope that she will face sanctions by her professional association for behaving in such a willful, wanton way that will doubtlessly encourage others to follow her reckless example.

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:

1. Water storage, storm protection, and flood mitigation
2. Water purification through retention of nutrients, sediments, and pollutants
3. Groundwater recharge
4. 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
5. 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.

 

Multitasking Taken To An Entirely New Level

 Supreme skill, or supreme ego? You decide:

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.

Love, From Ralph Wiggum

 I'm sure Jason's message will be well-received.

But I like the source material better:

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.