The Door Is Slamming Shut

I have been retired from teaching high-school English for almost 20 years. When I look back, I realize how fortunate I was to have been able to spend the bulk of my career free from too much interference from administrators and public sentiment. For me, teaching literature was the gateway to helping create analytic skills, reading appreciation and, perhaps most importantly, critical thinking skills. Honest inquiry was sacred in my classroom, and nothing was ever really off-topic, given the range of human experience that literature encompasses: human dignity, cruelty, exploitation, savage monopolistic business practices (read The Grapes of Wrath for a full display of those qualities) among them. 

Alas, that is no longer the case. I doubt that I could thrive or even survive in today's atmosphere, an atmosphere that sees increasing restrictions on what can be discussed in the classroom. 

A temporary ban on students sharing their family’s culture in class. A parent-organized Pride event moved outside school hours. Teachers afraid to answer students’ questions around the Israel-Hamas war.

Over the past academic year, Toronto parents and teachers say activities and discussions that would typically be normal to have in the classroom have suddenly become a source of fear and confusion — and they pin the blame on an edict dropped by the Ontario government last September.

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, then-education minister Jill Dunlop issued a memo to Ontario school boards to keep “political biases” out of the classroom to ensure these spaces remain “safe, inclusive and welcoming for all students and staff.”

Given the risk-averse nature of today's school administrators, that memo is having a chilling effect, even though the directive is vague as to what constitutes political biases.

Can civic lessons on who is prime minister continue as normal? What about sex-ed lessons on different genders and sexualities? Class discussions around race?

“Nothing is neutral,” said Carl James, a professor and the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora at York University. “The curriculum cannot be seen as outside of providing and producing a way of seeing things.”

The Star spoke to a number of Toronto teachers and parent, many of whom do not wish to be identified for fear of reprisal.

When a public speaking competition was coming up at the elementary school of Zoë Wool’s child this past year, the west-end parent said students were invited to write a short speech on an important issue.

But when Wool’s child wanted to talk about Palestine, she said they were told it was “not a good idea.”

Wool said the incident came around the same time the school’s principal allegedly put a blanket ban on students sharing their culture in class — but that the ban was later lifted after the principal met with parents.

Neither Wool nor her child is Palestinian (they are Jewish), but she worries about the impact the ministry’s memo will have on those who are.

“Palestinian families are being given the message by the Ministry of Education that there is something wrong or dangerous or problematic about their very identity and history and that acknowledging their existence puts other kids at risk,” Wool said.

The Palestinian issue has presented a problem for many. 

Palestinian teachers who spoke to the Star said they, too, felt constrained by the province’s edict, even when students ask them questions about their heritage. 

“I’m too scared,” said a Palestinian TDSB elementary teacher, who explained how she doesn’t answer her young students’ questions on what the Palestinian flag and watermelon pins attached to her fanny pack represent.

Amongst the other casualties of the memo are Pride events, now being forced to take place outside of school hours. Indigenous issues may also be sidelined.

Unfortunately, some of the public (and they are usually a loud minority) conflate discussion and information with indoctrination, preferring that children learn in a sterile and contextless environment.

However, we have already seen where that has taken Americans, further down the road of prejudice, intolerance and ignorance. If we allow the door of critical inquiry to slam shut here in Canada, will we not follow the same trajectory?

 

Trump Gets Fact-Checked

I'm not sure about the prospects of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell keeping his head attached to the rest of his body after this brutal fact check of Trump.

President Donald Trump’s attempt to shame Federal Reserve Board of Governors chair Jerome Powell over the cost of a long-running renovation to the central bank’s Washington headquarters went horribly wrong on Thursday when Powell had a ready response for the president’s accusations during a tour of the construction site.

 Trump said the cost of the years-long project was now “about $3.1 billion” rather than the $2.7 billion previously stated by Powell.

“So we're taking a look, and it looks like it's about 3.1 billion went up a little bit or a lot. So the 2.7 is now 3.1 it just came out,” he said reading from a piece of paper, as Powell looked on and shook his head in the negative before interjecting.

The chairman replied: “I haven’t heard that from anybody” and asked if the paper Trump was reading from came from the central bank.

At that point, Trump handed him the paper and continued talking while Powell pulled out his reading glasses to look.

He then told the president that the higher number he was claiming included a separate project that wasn’t part of the renovation at issue.

“You just added in a third building,” he said.

He told Trump that he was mistakenly counting long-completed renovations to a building named for William Martin Jr., who served as Fed chair from 1951–1970, as part of the renovation of the Fed’s main headquarters.

 

Lese majeste, eh? The Don never forgets a slight.

Stay tuned for the decapitation.

Look Over There! - Nothing To See Here

With all the troubles in the world, and all of the evil things that Trump and his henchmen have done, it almost beggars belief that the only thing the MAGATS obsess about is the release of the Epstein files. While there is nothing to suggest that Trump himself is implicated in the notorious pedophilia of the late Epstein, I suspect the thing Don worries most about is the probability possibility that he was fully aware of what the 'financier' was up to with underage girls, perhaps even expressing admiration for his depraved appetites.

Be that as it may, Trump is doing everything in his power to divert scrutiny. The first diversion is the release, two years ahead of schedule, of all the files on Martin Luther King, most of them compiled by the FBI under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, a racist who saw the rise of Black people as a threat to American social stability. (If you want a very comprehensive portrait of the longtime head of the FBI, I highly recommend the meticulously researched G -Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage.)

"Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "It's a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unravelling of his credibility among the MAGA base."

The King Center, founded by King's widow and now led by Bernice King, reacted separately from what Bernice said jointly with her brother. The King Center statement framed the release as a distraction — but from more than short-term political controversy.

"It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society," the King Center said, linking those challenges to MLK's efforts. "This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace."

King, despite his heroic battles on behalf of Black people, was no saint. He was quite the womanizer.  I suspect it is that titillating aspect of the files, essentially the Hoover-orchestrated illegal invasion of King's privacy through bugging devices and wiretaps, that Don hopes will deflect from the Epstein controversy.

Then there is the lame attempt to get the release of grand jury testimony that led to Epstein's indictment. Even if it is released (highly unusual given the secret nature of grand jury testimony), it likely would have no reference to Trump. 

As well, there is the sideshow of Trump's attorney-general, Pam Bondi, sending her deputy, Todd Blanche, (Trump's former personal attorney) to interview Ghislane Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year sentence for her part in procuring young girls for Epstein's vile pleasures.

"President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," Blanche said in the statement posted by Bondi on X.

Does anyone with half a brain (admittedly, that excludes the MAGATS) believe that Maxwell, who is trying to appeal her sentence and perhaps hopes for a presidential pardon, will say anything bad about her potential saviour?

Finally, there is the preposterous and profoundly hypocritical behaviour of Mike Johnson, the Republican Speak of the House. You may recall that only recently he was calling for the full-disclosure of all files relating to Epstein. That sudden whiff of spine quickly transmogrified into his usual craven subservience to Trump.  

 House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday ground the House of Representatives to a screeching halt in order to block Democrats from bringing up amendments calling for the release of files related to sex trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The speaker’s decision to virtually shut down procedure in the House of Representatives — a week before Congress’ summer break — comes as President Donald Trump continues to receive criticism from all sides for his handling of the promised release of all government files related to Epstein. 

The move to halt the action of the House Rules committee came after Democrats repeatedly tried to introduce amendments to force the disclosure of files related to Epstein, who was found hanged in his New York prison cell in 2019.

I was going to end the post here, but I've decided to leave you with something even more outlandish (except, again, to the MAGATS): an A.I. generated fake video of Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. 

Can things get any worse in Amerika? That is, of course, merely a rhetorical question.

 

A Note About Progressive Bloggers

Just a brief note: I was in recent contact with Scott Tribe, who operates the Progressive Bloggers aggregator. It appears that, owing to financial considerations, the website is down for the count. The only thing I can suggest is to do what I have done: bookmark your favourite bloggers and check regularly for new posts.

I'd like to thank Scott for all the years he has put into the site. I know that it has made a real impact on my blog in driving traffic to Politics and its Discontents, and I shall miss it a great deal.

A Timely Warning

I think all of us are aware of the multitude of scams being practised at any given time, be it the granny scam ("Hi Gramma, I was in an accident and am in jail. Please send money for my bail"), computer phishing scams, romance scams, etc. Most of the time, we assume they target the elderly or the lonely, and we are certain we would never fall for such deceptions.

However, as the following item makes clear, the scams have reached a new level of sophistication that even young people are falling victim to them. I present this only as a public service, the message being we can never let our guard down these days. The particular bank involved here, Scotia Bank, will accept no responsibility here, even though there should have been red flag protocols in place before this man lost $25,000.

Prelude To Capitulation: Mr. Carney Blinks Again

 

It was not so long ago, during the election campaign, that I remember Mr. Carney's soaring rhetoric, his stout orders calling for  "Elbows Up, Canada!" and all that it implied in our 'battle' with the United States. We were told a new reality was upon us, and our former 'trusted partner' could no longer be depended upon. Lo, a total reordering of the trade world was drawing nigh, and we had to seek and support our real friends in the larger world, as well as respond to America's bullying with punishing counter-tariffs.

Well, that was enough for the Liberals to secure a strong minority, and truth to tell, I voted with some enthusiasm for Carney, arms akimbo, his opponents offering nothing credible. That said, I know that many, both online and offline, do not agree with my recent criticisms of the prime minister over how he dealt with the DST. The feeling seems to be to wait and see, and not to rush to judgement. Surely there is a strategy at work here.

Well, now comes another sign that my Carney carping was not out of line.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he sees little evidence that it’s possible to strike a deal with President Donald Trump that removes all U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.

This is the first time the Prime Minister has acknowledged that a pact to end the Canada-U.S. trade war would likely leave some of Mr. Trump’s protectionist tariffs in place.

“There is not much evidence at this moment of agreements, arrangements, or negotiations with the Americans for any country, any jurisdiction, to have a tariff-free deal,” Mr. Carney said.

Probably a realistic assessment, but what is the purpose of publically surrendering a vital negotiating position before those negotiations are complete?

The only reason I can think of is to prepare the public to start forgetting that bellicose campaign rhetoric. 

William Pellerin, a partner with McMillan LLP’s international trade group, said Mr. Carney may be lowering expectations for what Canadians and Canadian businesses can anticipate from a trade deal with Mr. Trump.

He said he and his clients must now prepare for the possibility that U.S. tariffs are here to stay for the long term and that any Canadian business which made a short-term decision to “eat the tariffs rather than passing them on” to U.S. buyers may have to rethink that.

Mr. Carney’s comments “could also be a trial balloon that he’s floating to Canadians and to the markets to see how people react,” Mr. Pellerin said.

My reaction is the same as it was when I voted for Carney. I expect Canada to put up a real fight, a fight he cultivated during the campaign. A fight that would include strong counter-tariffs. Our pride was at new levels, and it was predicated on a defiance of the American trade madness.

And I am not alone in disdain for Carney's pending capitulation. People remember his caving earlier on the Digital Service Tax:

... to those pushing for a more hawkish approach to Trump’s trade war, it was an unacceptable concession after Canada already repealed its digital services tax and ramped up its defence and border security spending in response to Trump’s concerns.

“We should call this what it is. It’s extortion by the United States,” said Unifor president Lana Payne, who said normalizing the idea of tariffs could result in Trump pushing things even further, and urged Canada to push back with every tool at its disposal.

“The challenge we have is that we’re dealing with someone who continues to change the goalposts,” Payne said. “Giving things away up front has not worked for us.

And while it pains me to say this, I find I have to agree with little P.P.'s acerbic assessment.

“The Prime Minister is now conceding that American tariffs on Canada will be part of an eventual deal,” Mr. Poilievre said in a post on X.

“Another unilateral concession from a man who said he would never back down to the U.S. President.”

Mr. Carney seems to have perfected the art of making good speeches. Sadly, backing up those speeches with real action is proving to be something else entirely.

 

Here's A Political Voice People Can Respect

Now that Naheed Nenshi has been sworn in as an Alberta MLA, it looks like he is bringing an intelligence to the job that many will respect and some will fear.