Change-Of-Pace Day

Since this is Hump Day, I felt a change of pace from the usual posts was in order.

Many will recall that Prince Harry and Meagan moved to the United States to get away from the relentless (so they said) British paparazzi. They also 'stepped back' from their royal duties, which means that they no longer have an assured income source. 

So what are hapless erstwhile royals to do for coin? Well, one of the sources seems to be Harry's motivational 'skills' as evidenced by his employment with Better Up, of which he is 'Chief Impact Officer'. (I merely report these things; I can't explain them.) Apparently, it is an organization that provides a coaching experience aligned to your business strategy. It also provides this 'opportunity' to individuals as well, all for about $500 U.S. per month.

Watching the video that follows reminded me of all the platitudinous garbage I was exposed to over the years on professional development days, not one of which ever made me a better teacher or human being. And yet there always seems to be an audience for the next big thing in personal and professional growth.

All I can say is that Harry picked the right country to reside in. Americans always seem to be on a quest for 'betterment', although judging by the results, they have a long way to go.

Please start the following at the eight-minute mark:

Sound And Fury

As the trucker convoy carries on, the first stanza of Yeats' The Second Coming seems more pertinent than ever:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

The last two lines are particularly relevant as one considers the seeming impotence of the police and listens to trucker Jim as he pontificates into the ether.

H/t Renny Ronson

And who said the arts are irrelevant in today's world?

c

In The Fullness Of Hypocrisy

 

Those who read this blog with any regularity will know that I am a strong advocate of newspaper readership. Despite their flaws, mainstream media have something to offer that simply gleaning news from the internet lacks: reports and perspectives on a wide array of issues. Unlike the echo chamber that the pick-and-choose Web has become, they provide something sorely lacking in many people's perspectives: wide context with which to evaluate the world, and our place in it. Local, national and international reports and views have the potential to take us out of our limited bubble, rather than reinforce it as happens with those who attend the university of the internet.

With that is mind, I am taking the unusual step of reproducing a large portion of a column today, written by Althia Raj, as she addresses some of the fundamental and farcical hypocrisy evident in the Conservative Party of Canada and. to a lesser extent as asserted by Raj (although I don't really agree with her on this point), by Justin Trudeau that has emerged in the truckers' kidnapping of Ottawa:

Shockingly, the demonstrators have received the nearly incomprehensible blessing of Conservative MPs. Writing in the Toronto Sun Friday, Rachael Thomas (Lethbridge) said it an “honour and a joy” to walk among the protesters; she expressed pride that the trucking convoy was sparking mimics in other countries, and called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to dialogue with the protesters — whose organizers have called for the overthrow of his democratically elected government.

Last week, interim leader Candice Bergen (Portage-Lisgar), who has cheered the convoy since the beginning, saying their demands for freedom and respect were not too much to ask, also called on Trudeau to extend an olive branch to the protesters. Carleton MP and declared Conservative leadership contestant Pierre Poilievre also made a point of posing for pictures with the protesters, as have Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk) and several Saskatchewan MPs.

The Tory caucus is not united. But for every Pierre Paul-Hus, a Quebec MP and former lieutenant-colonel, who called for the streets be cleared and the occupation “controlled by radicals and anarchist groups” stopped, or a Shelby Kramp-Neuman (Hastings—Lennox and Addington), who tweeted that the increasing amount of bad-faith actors were not a legitimate protest, there is a Lianne Rood (Lambton-Kent-Middlesex) or Dean Allison (Niagara West) who “strongly disagree,” and see in Ottawa a peaceful assembly. Social media is full of Conservative MPs, such as Greg McLean (Calgary Centre) who decry “unbalanced media coverage,” choosing to focus on the protest’s “winter carnival” feeling rather than its lawlessness.

Who among us believes that if the truck convoy occupiers were anti-pipeline advocates, bringing a joyful message of hope for a greener and cleaner future while urinating on the streets, and blocking these MPs’ constituents from going about their daily lives or sleeping at night, there wouldn’t be a very different message from the Tory caucus?

Back in 2020, during the Indigenous-led railway blockades, Poilievre seemed to be standing on principle when he said, on CBC News Network: “You have the right to swing your fist, but that freedom stops at the tip of another person’s nose. And right now, these blockaders are taking away the freedom of other people to move their goods and themselves where they want to go, and that is wrong.”

Now, we see the double standard.

Most concerning in all this is the noticeable lack of voices decrying the use of foreign money supporting this occupation — a fact the police chief mentioned Wednesday and was later confirmed by attorneys general in Florida, West Virginia and Louisiana.

In 2012, the Conservatives were hell-bent on stopping the foreign funding of charities. Joe Oliver, then natural resources minister, suggested American interests were funding “radicals” who were preventing Canada’s natural resources projects from going ahead.

As more than $10 million was amassed on the GoFundMe platform, and at least $1 million more collected through other avenues, where is the Conservative outrage about outside funding for the convoy? Whether or not you think some of those protesting are just fed-up Canadians — and many are — there is no denying some also share a desire to destabilize the state.

While Ottawa residents deplore the vacuum of policing, there is also a vacuum of leadership.

Trudeau, by referring to the anti-vax as a “small fringe minority” with “unacceptable views,” likely emboldened a movement and encouraged the vaccine-hesitant to join a community that felt aggrieved and misunderstood by the majority. He should be called upon to explain why he sent ministers to dialogue with pipeline protesters but won’t do the same for those on the Hill. Thus far, the prime minister has said strikingly little about the occupation on his office doorstep.

Similarly, Ontario Premier Doug Ford needs to explain just what he’s ready to do to bring order to Ottawa. Saying the city’s police force just needs to ask for help has proven to be insufficient.

All of this is good to know and good to keep in mind, as long as large numbers of people don't get distracted too much by the next viral internet meme or conspiracy theory. 

The Kidnapping Of The Capital

 

Some call it the freedom convoy. Others call it an occupation. I call it a kidnapping.

What has happened and continues to happen in Ottawa is deeply disturbing. Not only is a minority (no matter how loudly their horns blare, that's what the truckers and their collaborators are) seeking to impose its will on the majority, it is doing so in a way that defies law and essentially kidnaps our nation's capital.

Freedom is the last thing this criminal activity is about.

And it is past time to stop pretending such aberrant behaviour is acceptable in a democracy. Yes, the right to protest is one of our cherished freedoms, but it has gone well beyond that. People are suffering through relentless horn blasts, harassments, and threats to individuals and businesses, not to mention the obstacles they represent to emergency-service vehicles. 

And sadly, the hatred they are generating is spreading, glommed on to by the uneducated and the credulous, i.e. those who graduated from the university of the internet.

Consider this sad display targeting and threatening people inside a public health building in Belleville:

H/t Johnny Fondue

It is extraordinarily demoralizing for health-care workers, especially as they anticipate incursions into Toronto today (Saturday).

How did we get here? That’s what Dr. Naheed Dosani has been asking himself.

It wasn’t so long ago that he and other health care workers were cheered from front porches every evening, celebrated as heroes for their work on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, nearly two years in, as a protest against vaccine mandates is scheduled to roll into Toronto, they’re being told by hospital officials it might not be a good idea to wear their scrubs in public for fear they may be targets of abuse.

“How did we get to a place where a health worker has to fear for their safety just while they’re going to work?” asked Dosani, a palliative care physician.

 As the so-called “Freedom Convoy” arrives in Toronto Saturday and, with it, the threat of harassment or assault for health care workers — particularly those working in the cluster of hospitals near Queen’s Park — Dosani and other doctors interviewed by the Star said they are exhausted, frustrated and demoralized by those set to disrupt the city this weekend.

“I know the vast majority of Canadians stand united with health workers, but this small minority is a very vocal minority, and they can be very hateful,” Dosani said. “The hate that is being incited against health workers at this point by this small minority is having an impact on all of our psyches, it’s causing significant distress, and it’s traumatizing us health workers who have already seen so much trauma throughout the pandemic.”

Perhaps the best assessment is offered by an infectious disease specialist with the University Health Network in Toronto, Dr. Abu Sharkawy, who says,

the protest is indicative of a larger societal creep, fed by right-wing populists, that has created a movement of people who feel “emboldened and entitled to abuse, threaten and recklessly exercise whatever prejudice is within their hearts.”

Responding to advice that those working in healthcare should not wear clothing that indicate their profession, Sharkawy, who has been the recipient of death-threats, asks,

“How is it acceptable that we have to hide?” he said. “We’re being told you shouldn’t wear scrubs, you shouldn’t wear anything that can readily identify you as a health care provider? I mean, this is historic in terms of the level of depravity that this movement has reached, that in Canada in 2022 we have to be afraid to be a visible symbol of something that is unconditionally a good thing.”

The country has been turned upside down by a collection of miscreants. It is now time to remedy the situation. 

 

Yet Another Perspective

 

H/t Caryma Sa'd

My friend Steve sent me the following, his thoughts on the trucker protest, a protest he, like countless others, is fed up with. With his permission, I am posting it here:

1. 90% of Canadian truck drivers are vaccinated. Most vaccination mandates are decided provincially or locally. Even if the federal government were to drop the vaccine mandate for truckers, Canadian truckers entering the States are still required to be vaccinated.

2. The convoy was NOT sanctioned or organized by the Canadian Truckers Association. 

3. Two of the three principal organizers have never been truckers and have stated publicly they want to “overthrow” the Canadian government, and that doesn’t mean an election.

4. Most of the truckers I see on television are middle aged white guys. Many of the truckers I see on the road are south Asian.

5. The group has attracted the racist, lunatic fringe, and the antivaxxers from across the country who make up perhaps 5% of the population.

6. The convoy organizers have lost control of the group when their participants desecrate the War Memorial or Terry Fox statue and when front and centre on Wellington St., the truck reads “Fuck Trudeau”. Back in the day, we had 40,000 teachers protesting in TO and Hamilton abs had nothing like that.

8. Heightened security is costing Ottawa $800,000 per day.

9. Over and over, I hear the truckers involved spout the same lines, “My rights”. “My freedom”. Well. Take a look at China. They’ve closed down cities of 13 mil when they have a few dozen cases! No one goes to work. Basic groceries are delivered to your door. Maybe these truckers should experience that type of freedom?

I’m not getting burnt out on vaccines, mandates or mask wearing, I’m getting fed up with the antivaxxers.

A Real Trucker's Perspective

 It would seem that real truckers do their jobs, unlike the poseurs still in Ottawa.

Putting Things Into Perspective

We have heard so many words these past few days, noble utterances coming from ignoble sources. I believe the following sets things into an interesting perspective.