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.

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.

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:

H/t Michael de Adder

Oh, Canada. We stand on guard for thee, eh?

 

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.

 

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.

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:

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READERS' LETTERS

Bulldozing Duffins Creek Wetland a crime against nature, humanity

Thu., March 18, 2021timer1 min. read

Pickering mayor calls for ‘pause’ in wetlands development fast-tracked by Doug Ford government after Amazon loses interest, March 12

To bulldoze the Duffins Creek Wetland and try to create another wetland is the epitome of insanity. Every existing wetland is home to a plethora of living beings: frogs; crayfish; turtles; fish; dragonfly, mayfly and giant water bug nymphs; snakes; birds; water striders; cat tails; water lilies; water hyacinths, and many other plants and animals.

Each wetland has developed and evolved over dozens, if not hundreds, of years, and may be fed and drained by creeks and streams. Bulldozing Duffins Creek would mean death to all of its inhabitants. Trying to create another wetland elsewhere would be like trying to play Mother Nature.

Wetlands help protect us from water pollution by cleaning the water we drink, helping prevent flooding, and protecting us from drought and climate change, by reducing greenhouse gasses.

If this preposterous project goes ahead, it will be another blight on Doug Ford’s legacy and a crime against nature and humanity, as the citizens and living creatures of Ontario will be deprived of yet another wetland.

Please save the Duffins Creek Wetland.

Mara Glebovs, Etobicoke

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.