A Saturday Evening Reflection

 Spoiler Alert: It doesn't reflect well on Don T.

Another Warning

Canadians have traditionally found it difficult to answer the question, "What defines a Canadian?" The default answer has always been, "Well, we aren't Americans." That answer speaks volumes; however, in light of American threats against our country, coupled with the ongoing breakdown of their societal norms, we have been thinking lately much more about what makes our country special and almost unique.

One of its defining characteristics is that Canada cares about its people. While I know there are many things that might illustrate otherwise, we do take real pride in trying to help those who need help, both individually and through government supports.

I'm never sure how much interest there is amongst readers when I post stories about what is happening in Amerika. However, part of my motivation in addressing such stories is that they remind us of the things we Canadians value and the things we must strive to protect. The following story falls under that rubric.

The Trump administration plans to terminate federal workers focused on preventing and responding to work-related illnesses, including "black lung" disease in coal miners, according to an internal government memo obtained by NBC News, despite in recent days reinstating some who had been let go. 

Those terminations could threaten critical programs used to screen for health issues in workers with toxic exposures, including 9/11 first responders, according to people who work on or benefit from the programs. Some workers who benefit from those programs have expressed fears that conditions such as cancer or lung disease could go undetected as a result.  

Concerns about the future of those programs began earlier this month when the Department of Health and Human Services effectively gutted the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), drastically cutting the headcount of an agency that has been around for 55 years. The move was part of a broader plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce, including a massive restructuring of federal health agencies that called for the termination of roughly 20,000 full-time employees. 

In Appalachia, the consequences of such cuts will be dire. 

Donald Trump was elected on the promise of making life better for Americans. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Americans he had in mind excludes a wide swath of the people. May that mentality never infect us.

When The Emperor Is Angered

The imperium formerly known as the United States of America does not take kindly to contradiction. Its emperor, Don Trump, displays this facet of authoritarian rule in the following interview, in which a dauntless ABC interviewer, Terry Moran, refuses to accept his mandated 'reality'.

The 40-minute interview in the Oval Office veered off course when Moran pressed Trump on the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadorian man living in Maryland who was deported despite a protective court order. 

The exchange deteriorated further when Trump insisted García had MS-13 tattoos on his knuckles, while Moran – after several times gently disagreeing and trying to move to a new topic – eventually pointed out that the image Trump was referring to had obviously been digitally altered.

“Why don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does’ [have a gang tattoo] and, you know, go on to something else,” Trump said.

The US president added: “You do such a disservice … This is why people no longer believe the news, because it’s fake news.”

 

Given the vengeful nature of the imperium, Terry Moran's future is likely in jeopardy, especially during a time when many media outlets are bending their knee to the emperor.  It began with Trump calling ABC one of the worst of the media outlets, and was followed up by an immediate right-wing backlash:

Many on social media criticized Moran for not being respectful enough to Trump.

"The interview in the Oval Office with President Trump by Terry Moran is a disgrace to our country and to our President. ABC and Moran should be ashamed! They want nothing but to argue with the President. He's not conducting an interview, he's trying to embarrass the President," said one critic.

"Watching Trump torch ABC News on their own turf is like watching a lion maul a pack of sick hyenas," replied advocate Jane Adams. "These people humiliated the country for years propping up a dementia patient, and now they’re being publicly gutted by a president who actually knows what he's doing."

"ABC once again proves that it is nothing more than a Marxist propaganda outlet controlled by the Democrats," said a Second Amendment rights account.

"His bias was blatant, disrespectful and rude," read another message.

At least one viewer accused ABC of using trick photo angles to make Moran appear taller than Trump.

None of this is the least surprising for a nation in moral, ideological and political freefall. We can only recognize and state it when we see it, and, as Canadians, take their devolution as a sobering object lesson on all the things to guard against in our own country. 

UPDATE Snopes has a lengthy discussion of this photo-shopped picture of Garcia's tattoo:

Trump's picture had been edited to add the text "MS-13" above the tattoos, but there was no actual evidence demonstrating a link between the tattoos and the El Salvadoran gang. 

Sore Losers

Having stayed up late last night watching the election returns, I really hadn't intended to post anything today, but comments by a Conservative MP altered my intent, so a few short observations follow.

Now I am no fan of Doug Ford; I see him as a largely incompetent man but a very successful politician, and it is that success which is engendering envy and anger at the federal level - to the point he is being blamed for PP's loss last night.

“He couldn’t stay out of our business, always getting his criticisms and all his opinions out, distracting our campaign, trying to make it about him, trying to position himself as some kind of political genius that we needed to be taking cues from,” a furious Tory MP Jamil Jivani (Bowmanville-Oshawa North) told CBC’s David Common in a candid interview.

“I see Doug Ford as a problem for Ontario and for Canada,” said Jivani, who once worked as an aide in the premier’s office at Queen’s Park.

“He’s not doing a great job in running this province, and now he’s trying to exercise his influence over other levels of government and it’s not like this guy is doing anything particularly well,” he said after telling supporters in Durham that Ford “sabotaged” the federal party.

Apparently, part of Ford's perfidy was making nice with Liberals.

“He has taken the provincial Conservative party and turned it into something hollow, unprincipled, something that doesn’t solve problems. He’s gladhanding with (Transport Minister) Chrystia Freeland, having coffees and lattes with Mark Carney.”

Obviously a clone of his take-no-prisoners boss, who rarely has met a bipartisan gesture he doesn't like, grace notes are not part of Jivani's makeup.

His apoplexy was probably worsened by Ford's post election congratulations.

“I want to congratulate Prime Minister Mark Carney on his election victory. I also want to thank Pierre Poilievre, Jagmeet Singh and every candidate who put their name on a ballot for their service to our democracy,” the premier said.

“This election comes at a crucial time for Ontario and for Canada. Workers, families and businesses are navigating the economic uncertainty caused by President Trump’s tariffs and they are counting on all levels of government to work together to protect Canada,” he said.

“As premier of Ontario, I look forward to working with Prime Minister Carney to protect the workers, businesses and communities of Ontario and Canada.”

Unlike those who adhere to PP's philosophy, poisonous partisanship is not part of Ford's makeup.

In an interview published Sunday with Politico, he was asked why Poilievre hadn’t made an effort to call him earlier.

... I think it’s common sense when you’re in an election, you reach across to as many people as you can,” said the premier, pointing out the federal Tory leader also has no relationship with Nova Scotia PC Premier Tim Houston.

“Not at all. Or local mayors. Or anyone. I don’t understand it,” said Ford, adding Poilievre had to be forced to phone him on the eve of the federal election call.

PP's party is down but hardly out. Even though the leader himself lost his seat, that will no doubt be remedied by a Conservative giving up their own win. However, he and his party need to ask themselves whether it was simply an unfortunate confluence of Trump tariffs and annexation threats that explain the results of an election that was theirs to lose. And part of that soul-searching must begin with the man at the top.

 

Addressing The Horrors

The horrors in Gaza - none of us can claim to be unaware of them.  Even harder, despite the efforts of Israel's apologists, is to adhere, with any conviction, to the official line that the carnage and destruction inflicted by the Jewish state is justified in its 'war' on Hamas. As I have said before on this blog, there is only one word to describe the atrocities: genocide.

In an article that will no doubt elicit outrage from those who justify Israel's depredations, Beisan Zubi places the carnage in the context of the Canadian election. 

As a Palestinian Canadian, Gaza feels like the best test I can use to gauge a politician’s actual commitment to human rights. The core principle behind human rights is that they are universal (apply to everyone) and inalienable (cannot be taken away). Over the past 18 months, I have watched Israel violate just about every human right that I learned about in school, while so many Canadian politicians stayed silent. 

 I would argue a politician’s stance on Gaza says volumes about their commitment to a range of domestic issues, and not just Canada’s responsibility to uphold international law.

Zubi draws a compelling test to measure our politicians, asserting if they are for certain things. they have to be for them universally. 

How can I trust a politician will defend women’s rights in Canada if they haven’t said anything about the fact that there are an estimated 48,000 pregnant women in Gaza facing famine? Israel’s ongoing blockade of essential medical supplies means that unmedicated C-sections are no longer the plot of horror movies, miscarriage rates in Gaza are up an estimated 300 per cent...

How can I trust a politician will protect Canada’s health care system if they aren’t outraged that Israel has decimated a health care system serving over two million people, by conducting a reported 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals, destroying the main IVF clinic in Gaza along with an estimated 4,000 embryos, and killing over a thousand Palestinian health care workers...

How can I trust a politician will fight for disability justice in Canada if they haven’t condemned the mass disabling event still underway in Gaza, where the disabled, elderly, and injured are bombed in tents, forced to flee hospitals under attack in wheelchairs or carried by siblings, the cruel killing of a young man with Down syndrome by an Israeli military dog, that 15,000 deaf Gazans can’t hear evacuation warnings before bombs drop around them, or even that Gaza now has the largest per capita population of child amputees in the world, many of whom are also orphaned.

How can I trust a politician will treat infrastructure and adequate housing as a human right when they haven’t said a thing about the UN reporting that 92 per cent of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, or that vital infrastructure like water desalination plants and waste management sites have been forced to shutter, leading to infectious diseases spreading and a looming environmental catastrophe?

Speaking of the environment, how can I believe a politician actually cares about this planet if they don’t speak out about ecocide in Gaza? A Yale School of the Environment report published in February warned us that more than two thirds of Gaza’s farmland has been destroyed, 80 per cent of the tree cover in Gaza is gone, up to 3.5 million cubic feet of raw sewage are leaking into groundwater and the Mediterranean Sea every day...

And of course, how can we believe a politician actually cares about Canada’s territorial integrity amidst threats from Donald Trump to annex our country if they haven’t spoken out about Israel’s ongoing dispossession and theft of Palestinian land in Gaza and the West Bank?

These are all questions that demand real answers. Unfortunately, given that any criticism of Israel is the third rail of politics, I expect none will be forthcoming.

Villainizing The Judiciary

One would have to be living a very blinkered existence to be unaware of what is going on in the United States. It is very quickly devolving into an authoritarian state, one in which the very checks and balances that their constitution was designed to prevent are quickly evaporating. The Trump regime is already essentially ignoring a Supreme Court ruling ordering the return to the U.S. of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison. But that appears only to be the opening act of defiance.

Consider this story from NBC:

You will notice in the above narrative, Trump essentially villainizes two judges, Hannah Dugan of Wisconsin, and Joel Cano of New Mexico, portraying them as obstructing his regime's efforts to make America safer. Aided and abetted by Kash Patel's FBI and ICE, the story is clearly designed to facilitate Trump's attacks on the judiciary, making it easier, as he works on public resistance, to erode and eventually end that particular constitutional check. 

However, if Dugan was indeed trying to facilitate the escape of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, the man appearing before on charges of domestic abuse, consider this:

A DEA agent saw Flores-Ruiz and his attorney in the public hallway of the courthouse and he appeared to be making efforts to evade arrest, the complaint says. After he was encountered by FBI and DEA agents outside the building, Flores-Ruiz "turned around and sprinted down the street" before he was ultimately apprehended, according to the complaint.

Not much of an effort at concealment, eh? 

The public reaction to Dugan's arrest has been strong:

Judge Dugan's arrest angered Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who accused the federal agents of "showboating" and contended Dugan was not a flight risk. 

"They're just trying to have this show of force and in the process of a courthouse where people need to go for court proceedings, they're scaring away people from participating in the court process," the mayor told reporters.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, in a statement on Friday afternoon, criticized President Donald Trump and the White House for what he said were efforts "to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level."

In the case of Joel Cano accused of harboring Venezuelan gang members, there is another side to the story that is not being widely promulgated. 

Cano denied the U.S. government’s characterization of the men as gang members, saying each of them were subjected to “thorough and rigorous” proceedings with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when they entered the country. He said the first time he heard that they may have gang ties was the morning federal agents raided their home took the men into custody.

Cano said he and his wife, Nancy Cano allowed the men to stay in their spare studio apartment in April 2024. He said they told the couple that they requested asylum upon entering the U.S. in 2023, were processed by immigration officials and were then released with court dates for their requests. Cano said the men showed paperwork to back up their stories.

Where the ultimate truth lies is uncertain at this point. However, the larger question in my view is whether or not the two judges are not already being tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. If so, the Trump regime's strategy is winning out.  

 

An Interview With Harvard President

While he claims there is a big problem with anti-Semitism at Harvard (I wonder if any criticism of Israel's genocide in Gaza is construed as anti-Semitism), President Alan Gerber makes a stout defence of universities in this interview with Lester Holt.

The attacks described above are, of course, all of a piece. The war on intelligence, critical thinking and higher education seems almost inevitable as Trump's Amerika seeks to totally control the message.

The message: profound ignorance good; disagreement with authority very, very bad, and comes with severe consequences.