The Tenor Of The Times

Great thing, Amerikan values, eh?

UPDATED: For Those Who Think We Have No Power

When I watched this video, I couldn't help but think about the woman I wrote about yesterday. According to her, we are such a small market that anything we do to retaliate in this current conflict with the U.S. has no impact.

She couldn't be more wrong:

The video also amply demonstrates how many regular people are negatively affected by Trump's tariff madness. I guess he would regard them only as collateral damage in a battle for a greater good. I'll leave readers to figure out what that greater good could be.

UPDATE: Charlie Angus has emerged as a very, very strong voice for Canada as it battles the madness seizing the U.S. If you have time, please consider watching this video in which he warns us against travelling to that benighted country:

A Brief Observation

I was in my local LCBO yesterday buying a couple of craft beers when, waiting in line, I overheard an interesting conversation. A woman, perhaps in her thirties, was talking to an older gentleman who was buying a bottle of Havana Club rum. While I overheard only part of the conversation, prompted, I guess, by the absence of American alcohol, it went something like this:

"We are such a small market that anything we do has no effect on the Americans. So, I say, enjoy what you want."

I couldn't resist offering a fact-check, and I told her that the American distilleries were indeed suffering, and that we do have a substantial impact since the LCBO is the one of the largest purchasers of booze in the world. Her reply was a perfunctory, disinterested, "Oh, is that right?" I assume she then  returned to her insular world, where things are as she ordains them to be.

I was neither surprised nor upset by her perspective, but the incident was yet another reminder of the cocoons in which too many people envelop themselves, aided and abetted by highly 'curated' sources of information that serve only to reinforce one's beliefs and prejudices. Social media and right-wing news sources are often the main culprits.

I have a relative whose son has a worldview totally dictated by such sources, much to the consternation of his parents. Married with two children, he seems to be in love with the U.S. and would gladly see Canada absorbed by that diseased nation. A staunch PP supporter, he saw Trudeau as a traitor to our nation. Additionally, he sees the world as a dangerous place, having chosen to homeschool his children lest they be indoctrinated by the 'woke agenda' of public education.

And speaking of PP, another person who likes to traffick in disinformation, I offer a comment from lungta on yesterday's post, which dealt with Conservative campaign tactics: 

Think 'lil pp is playing out of the drumpf playbook. Smith (TC Dani) went silent to win in Alberta too. Kamala had a textbook oldschool campaign , remember? And there is the "moron mining" on those vlog sites where you have no responsibility to know the truth, no responsibility to tell the truth, only a drive to mobilize the morons to get out and vote , probably for the first time. That's the audience 'lil pp is appealing to.The big blue tent has the fundamentalists and proud boys already. Just trigger those other guys .

A sadness of democracy, as we know it, is there is no requirement to have any understanding of anything let alone political policy to play.

My optimism is tempered by those previous results.

Now, more than ever, knowing about the world is crucial to our national survival. While it often seems like a thankless task, we have no choice but to continue our efforts to inform and be informed, take action and expect results. We cannot aspire to anything less in these troubled times.

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Press?

The answer is Pierre Poilievre, better known as PP on this blog.

Althea Raj reports new restrictions on reporters seeking to cover the lad in the upcoming campaign.

On Tuesday, Conservative national campaign director Jenni Byrne informed journalists that, in a break with tradition, the party will not allow journalists to accompany its leader on his bus or plane during the next election campaign.

This move will prevent journalists from peppering PP with pesky questions, but not entirely, according to Byrne, as she averred

steps are being taken to ensure media will be able to “share any public events, participate in events on the ground, and ask questions remotely and in-person.”

This comes with a rather significant qualifier, as

the campaign will provide an “equitable balance” at all news conferences between local and national media — in effect limiting the number of questions political reporters get to ask.

Why are the Conservatives bucking tradition and kicking the media off the plane? It’s no secret the Conservatives have never liked having reporters accompany them. Some believe the press gallery is full of left-leaning journalists who don’t give them a fair shake. 

According to Raj, controlling the message is paramount in the Conservatives' strategy.

The Conservatives already choose not to hold news conferences in the National Press Theatre, where they don’t control who asks the questions. Away from Parliament Hill, Poilievre’s team often decides which reporters ask questions — and there are no followups. Poilievre has also picked fights with the journalists who ask him probing questions. Rather than answer, he attacks: the CBC, the Canadian Press, freelance reporters he doesn’t like.

People like PP know that social media play an increasingly important role in conveying propaganda information, especially to young people.  That may be good for his political fortunes, but ultimately bad for democracy. The mainstream media are still our best bets for accurate information, given the fact-checking that goes into their reports. No such constraints exist for social media. 

And I am sure that suits PP just fine.

UPDATED: Another Reason To Avoid Travel To The U.S.

As I have been writing of late, more and more Canadians are choosing not to travel to the U.S. for holiday purposes. The American attacks on our sovereignty have rightly rankled people, but now there are additional reasons to avoid the increasingly fascist country.

You have probably heard of new rules requiring Canadians visiting for more than 30 days to register as aliens and be fingerprinted. However, there is something else to now worry about beyond administrative inconvenience, as evidenced by the horrifying experience of Canadian Jasmine Mooney. While some may say she brought this on herself because of a visa 'irregularity',  most Canadians do not expect imprisonment upon entering America.

Jasmine Mooney, an actor who is also co-founder of the beverage brand Holy! Water, was detained on 3 March in San Diego, California.

The 35-year-old Canadian citizen’s work visa to the US was reportedly revoked back in November while traveling from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and she was attempting to file a new application.

Her mother, Alexis Eagles, who lives in British Columbia, says Mooney was detained at the San Ysidro border crossing between Mexico and San Diego, the busiest land border crossing in the world, on 3 March with an incomplete application for a work visa. Eagles told the Vancouver Sun that instead of sending her daughter to Canada or advising her to fix her application, US Customs and Border Protection officers arrested her.

What ensued was nothing short of a nightmare. 

She spent three nights in the detention centre, then was transferred. “We eventually learned that about 30 people, including Jasmine, were removed from their cells at 3am and transferred to the San Luis detention center in Arizona,” Eagles said.

“They are housed together in a single concrete cell with no natural light, fluorescent lights that are never turned off, no mats, no blankets, and limited bathroom facilities.”

Every time Mooney was transferred, she was handcuffed and in chains, Eagles claimed.

Mooney told ABC 10 that she was appalled by the conditions inside the private detention facility in San Luis where she was being kept.

“I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane,” she said. “I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days.”

The case did not escape the attention of David Eby, C.C.'s premier, who said

he was "profoundly concerned about these kind of actions" by the U.S. administration, saying they "violate the very idea that Canadians are safe in the U.S. when we visit." 

"The nature of our relationship is so fraught right now that this case makes us all wonder, you know, what about our relatives who are working in the States? What about when we cross the border, what kind of experience are we gonna have?" 

Mooney is now back home in British Columbia, but her experience sends a chilling message to all of us. As my mother used to say, "It's better to be safe than sorry." Indeed, all Canadians would be wise to keep such observations in mind if contemplating crossing the border, and err on the side of caution. 

UPDATE: If you would like to read Jasmine Mooney's first-person account of her ordeal, please click here.

A Message For Amerika

Theo Moudakis captures Canadian pride and resoluteness here.

As if to drive home the fact that we are not Amerika's vassal, Carney has made this decision:

Prime Minister Mark Carney has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the G7 summit, which will be held in June in Kananaskis, in a sign of solidarity as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth year.

The invitation was extended on Sunday when Carney spoke to Zelenskyy by phone, days after Carney was sworn in as prime minister .

It isn’t uncommon for non-member countries to be invited. The summit usually has 16 tables, and in 2023, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia and South Korea attended talks in Japan.

The gesture to invite Ukraine comes as the country has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in exchange for the lifting of U.S. military aid restrictions following a fiery meeting between Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump.

At a time when countries seem increasingly timid for fear of offending Don Trump, it is refreshing and invigorating to see our Prime Minister setting his own course. 

The Dead Shall Have No Rest

Some mornings I get up and think I will take a break from writing for the day. Usually, however, something manages to stir my blood or strain all credulity. Today is one of those days.

In its rush to burnish its racist and misogynistic bona fides, the Trump regime has decided that even the dead are fair game.

First, some background information:

Approximately 400,000 veterans are buried in the Army-run cemetery, which was established after the US Civil War at the home of the South's general, Robert E. Lee.

On the cemetery's website, internal links that directed users to webpages with information about the "Notable Graves" of dozens of black, Hispanic and female veterans were missing on Friday.

The Independent reports the following:

The purge follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s declaration that “DEI is dead” as he implements Trump’s agenda at the Pentagon.

One of Trump’s many executive orders was banning DEI in federal programs, and Pentagon bosses have carried out orders to remove any content that “promotes” it.

That includes removing internal links to educational materials on the cemetery’s website.

On the website’s “Notable Graves” dropdown menu, African American History, Hispanic American History and Women’s History no longer appear...

According to the BBC, 

A spokesperson for the cemetery said ... it wanted to ensure that the content aligned with Trump's orders and also with instructions from Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.

These shameful actions form part of a larger pattern:

Trump has made dramatic changes in the military in his second term, including firing the country's top general, CQ Brown, a black man who had supported diversity in the armed forces.

Secretary Hegseth - a former Fox News host and military veteran - has pledged to root out all diversity initiatives and had accused Gen Brown of being "woke". 

Understandably, given that over 30% of those currently serving identify as Black or Native Americans, and 18% as Hispanic or Latino, and one-fifth are women, outrage is widespread.

Democrats and veterans groups hit out at the move. “This is a terrible affront to the veterans posthumously dishonored and canceled and to their families,” Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said. “It is a pathological statement that the MAGA government cannot even accept inclusion in death.”

Progressive Veterans group VoteVets accused the Trump administration of “whitewashing history.”

“Arlington National Cemetery just erased DEI from its website — because Republicans threw a tantrum over honoring ALL who served,” the group said. “The same GOP that cuts Veteran healthcare now decides who’s worthy of remembrance. This isn’t patriotism. It’s whitewashing history.”

I'll close with a picture and information of one of the dead who have been 'erased:

 AltSpaceForce 🚀🇺🇲

‪@altspaceforce.altgov.info‬

The Defense Dept has deleted references to Black, Hispanic & female service members as well as topics such as the Civil War from its website in order to remove all references to diversity, equity, & inclusion. 

Sgt William H. Carney, a former slave, is the first black man to get the Medal of Honor. 

If enough people resist this madness, Sgt Carney will not be forgotten.