What is Sacred in our world?

I get to read a lot of news and the more I read the more I wonder about what our XXI century society considers Sacred with a Capital ''S''.
Is there anything in our world left that is Sacred? I mean by that something we all hold in common and can agree upon that is Sacred.

The word Sacred as defined means: From the Latin, Sacrare, Middle-English, Sacren, French, Sacrer.
Inviolable, untouchable, Holy, worthy of veneration. Humans in all cultures and since time immemorial have held certain things to be sacred, one is life, birth, another is burial grounds, Religious Temples in every Faith are sacred, anyone performing a religious rite in a ceremonial,
a Constitution, a National Flag, Human Rights as defined in the UN Charter and recognised as such by the Nations of the World.  

However because our general culture tends to trivialise what was considered Sacred many now think that little or nothing is Sacred and can be ignored or discarded, at any rate it is open to debate on the internet where people are free to insult each other with impunity and anonymity.

Is Life Sacred? Recently a man was shot to death in a cinema for texting before the show started to his child. Some commenters, several of them, commented that he fully deserved it, he had it coming, they said. Really? A human life is so worthless today that a simple text message, a disagreement can lead to murder?

In Ottawa in the last 3 years there has been an epidemic of hit and run by careless drivers who injured seriously or killed people. After hitting someone the driver simply takes off, thinking no one will have noticed. However escaping justice is difficult since all car repairs are reported to the Police in case of accidents. Only after the drivers have been found or denounced by someone do they come forward, how disrespectful can you be towards another human being. It seems that not assuming any responsibility is the norm.

What about all the children and other people who are slaughtered in various schools or public places in the USA and still despite the horror, some people claim that their right to own an assault weapon trumps everyone else right to live in peace.  An obscene point of view based on twisted logic and depraved sense of entitlement.

Many great figures have been ridiculed and attacked publicly because they did not meet a certain modern popular idea or standard decided upon by a trendy way of thinking.

I think here of Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) who devoted his life to others, built a hospital in Africa and cared for his patients, a visionary in his time.  A Nobel Peace Prize Winner and recognised by the World as a Humanitarian of high moral standing is brought down by an article with unproven facts, simply vague rumours claiming he was an awful person, this is trumpeted on Radio-Canada in an historical segment.

No one is safe from salacious rumours and stories surfacing decades later simply to titillate a bored public thirsty for dirt. No one will ask if it is true or not, the public appears more than willing to believe just about anything.

There are schools of thought, I do not know if you can call them that, but this is how they present themselves, who will say the harshest things simply in a crusade to set the record straight or this is what they believe. Correct the mistakes of the past by denouncing them in the present, very reminiscent of Communist Regimes like China and North Korea. Can we ever correct the past? How? What is past is past. How can anyone not living during a specific time period and born later sometimes decades if not centuries later, claim that he or she can correct or apologize on behalf of the dead. We can correct current behaviour or not repeat past mistakes, though with the prevailing ignorance of events more than 20 years old, one wonders if we are not condemn to repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

The same in the work place, we have policies on a Respectful Workplace but that is totally meaningless. No one understands what it actually means. Employees who are incompetent hide behind it. It appears that bullying by Management is now the norm, it is all passive, aggressive behaviour, lies and deceit. Management unable to provide proper guidance and a lack of interest in the job to be done. Every manager has her eye on the Media, what are they saying and how will this affect my bonus or promotion, doing the job is not even on the table. Customers and employees are abused in the worst way and no one is held responsible.

Have you ever noticed now how when you phone a large corporation who is suppose to provide a service they will address you by your first name. You have no idea who this person is speaking with you, but they treat you with contempt and provide generally poor service. You have little choice in the matter. Where is management, they are no where to be found and will not respond to any enquiry. It seems that lack of respect for people in general is the way of the world. But why have we descended to this level?

Another outrage was committed recently in a London Cemetery where the ashes of Sigmund Freud and his wife were interned in an antique Urn 2300 years old. The vandals smashed the Greek Urn at New Year in what appears to be an aborted theft. Freud died in 1939 and his wife in 1951, they had been left at Peace until now. Again what kind of mentality in our society allows people to disturb the dead and vandalise burial grounds. A total lack of respect, of consideration for others. Unable to understand the gravity of the gesture or the words expressed.

Unfortunately there is more and more lack of respect in our society for people, ideas, or what was considered until now as Sacred by all. We strive so much to push the real accepted rights and the made up imagined rights of the individual over those of the collectivity that our shared values are forgotten. What hope is there for any Civilization amid such confusion.

Tiepolo, Pulling teeth.

Reading Legislation

The other day Will came home with some news, he pointed out to me that the Budget bill now in front of the House of Commons, bill C-60 and bill C-38 has some disturbing aspect to it. So I went to the Parliament of Canada website to look into it and read the legislation being proposed in this budget bill.
www.parl.gc.ca

Indeed both bills do away with a lot of government institutions. Some is interesting, like the fact that for the very first time ever since 1914 (when income tax was first instituted) the Governor General of Canada, www.gg.ca will have to pay income tax on his salary. Though Parliament gave a substantial increase to mitigate any taxes paid.

Governor General personal Royal Standard

A budget bill in our Parliamentary system is very important because if the Government looses a vote then it will fall automatically, this is the rule for any money bill. This current Harper Government is not going to loose a vote in the House on the budget. However the changes these bills bring are enormous and will have a very large impact on life in general in Canada. One change which has garnered much attention is a provision to insert Treasury Board control over Crown Corporations like the CBC. When the Canadian Broadcasting Corp was created in 1936, like all Crown Corp it had a charter making it independent of government control, though it receives $1.5 Billion from the Canadian public. Now if Cabinet through the Treasury Board can control collective agreement, salaries and budgets this means the CBC would become nothing more than the Official Broadcaster of the Government of the day, a propaganda mouthpiece, hello Mr. Goebbels.

It is no secret that the Harper government does not like the CBC or Radio Canada, they do not dare abolish it all together, that would cause too many political problems.
His government has tried by all means possible to stifle the broadcaster. It is the school of, you criticize me, you are against me. The same has happened to budgets of all our National Museums, who can only function now with the help of armies of volunteers.  In the USA at the National Endowment for the Arts there is a saying: Great Nations deserve great Art. This is something Mr. Harper has not heard or does not believe in. A man who prefers to go to Tim Horton to get a doughnut instead of attending a session of the General Assembly at the United Nation. Who has forgotten that?

The changes to our National fabric are so numerous that one looses count, but if you bother to read Bill C-60 you will see what is coming. This is why I disagree with people who do not vote and claim that it does not matter, nothing will change, life goes on.

Seven years ago, many said that Harper had a secret agenda, now we see the result. A country divided, basically 9 provinces against Alberta. Poor against Rich, old against the young, the natives abandoned to themselves, living in dire condition, neglect so grave the ICRC and the UN have denounced Canada for its ill treatment of the people of the First Nations. Our role in the UN fading into irrelevance, Canada was one of the founding members of the modern United Nations. We lost our seat at the Security Council out of neglect, we may loose the HQ of ICAO in Montreal, established in 1947, also out of neglect. We were kicked out of the Middle East Peace Process because of the extreme bias of the Harper Government towards Israel, not to mention the terrible gaffe of our Foreign Minister John Baird during his visit to Israel recently.
We stepped out of the Kyoto Protocol, not good for Tar Sands business in Alberta said Harper, we walked away of the Treaty on Desertification, again Mr. Harper does not think that helping struggling African Nations is worth it, though our contribution was extremely small at $350,000 per year.

The list goes on, the danger with the Harper agenda is that once division in a Nation take place it is difficult to erase them. Once negativity is enshrined in our political life it is difficult to reverse course. Our country is becoming poorer, we are no longer a rich nation, Canada is now described as a relatively poor country. All this has happened in the last 7 years of the disastrous Harper Government who is fixated on Police, Security and the Crown, harsh prison sentences and sending more and more people to jail for longer terms. An example all military regiments will regain the old names they had before 1930 with the word Royal now affix to all of them. Is this nation building, will it help any of us?

So obsessed Mr. Harper is with security that he has named his own personal chief bodyguard as Ambassador to Jordan and Iraq. The nominee has NO experience and no knowledge whatsoever in diplomacy, no education background nothing to prepare him for such a difficult and complicated position where only a steady hand and a specialist knowledge is required. Being a good police officer is irrelevant to the job.

Reading legislation is educational it tells you much about a government and the mind set that animates it. Not enough Canadians bother to read the website of Parliament, general apathy is what the Conservatives are hoping for.

As we approach Ferr'agosto

It is that time of summer when cities fall into a sort of somnolence or drowsiness. In Italy the approach of Ferr'agosto the great summer holiday for all around 15 August which last 30 days, the cities empty and everything is close.

To this wonderful time of summer a little summer music by Emmanuel Chabrier, (1841-1894) his Suite Pastorale with paintings by his close friend Edouard Manet (1832-1883). Chabrier was much admired by several musicians like Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Stravinsky. Francis Poulenc wrote his biography. This music was the theme of a favourite radio afternoon show on the CBC called ''Off the record'' hosted by the late Bob Kerr for 40 years. Kerr was truly a Canadian broadcasting legend.

Concerts at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa

We have season tickets with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Pinchas Zukerman. For several years we have been subscribing first in Rome at the Accademia Santa Cecilia to the symphonic season at the Auditorium del Parco della Musica off Via Flaminia, now back in Ottawa we continue with our attendance at concerts.

This past Thursday 26 April, the night of game 7 between the Ottawa Senators and the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, we went to the concert. It was presented by Eric Friesen, who has been a host of several musical programs on the CBC. Eric has one of those melodious voices of the classical radio announcers of years gone by and is a very good interviewer and an elegant presenter. On stage with Maestro Zukerman, he interviewed him asking about the pieces we were about to hear. Zukerman did a wonderful job of speaking about the pieces and what to look for in each one. It made the experience all the more interesting. We heard, a first for the Orchestra, Franz Joseph Haydn, Symphony no.70 in D major, followed by Mozart, Piano Concerto no.9 Jeune Homme played by Garrick Ohlsson. During the short interview by Friesen of Ohlsson, the pianist explained that the titled Jeune Homme is not correct, apparently Mozart wrote this piece for a lady who was probably Hungarian and whose family name was spelled something like Gynomie and it became with time Jeune Homme.

Finally we had Mozart's symphony no. 36 Linz which was composed in 3 days. A letter written from  Linz by Mozart to his father in Salzburg explains that since he had no symphony music with him, he decided on the spur of the moment to simply compose this symphony in four movements and present it to Count Thun at a concert a few days later in November 1783. According to Maestro Zukerman, this was a novelty at the time and showed how Mozart was a forward thinker, probably 100 years ahead of his time.

We plan to also get Ballet and theatre season tickets for the Fall. So we should be quite busy all around.
But this is what you have to do here in Ottawa. We are also members now of the 3 big museums, The National Gallery, The Museum of Civilizations, The War Museum.  

Restaurant reviews in Ottawa and elsewhere

I have taken up the new hobby of reading restaurants and hotels reviews I frequent. I have also subscribed to different sites like UrbanSpoon, Booking.com, Trip-Advisor. By far my favourite is the hotel site, Booking.com, for the last 15 years I have used it for all my hotel bookings around the world and have never been disappointed, given the amount of travel I do in Europe, Asia and North America, something could go wrong but not with Booking.com. If I select an hotel with an 8.5 point average or better and read the reviews and I also read between the lines, I find that I will not be disappointed by my choice of hotels. As for restaurants it is a different matter. I often will ask the Front Desk at the hotel about a restaurant they would recommend. However I always tell them that I want a good restaurant with local specialties and a medium price range or better, a good selection of wines and a restaurant that is known by the locals and not by the tourists. Is it family owned and how many years has it been in business.  Too many people make the mistake of saying, they want something fast and cheap, I don't want to spend too much or look at the menu and if they see lots of foreigners around at tables conclude it must be good. That's a big mistake in most cases, another mistake is too go to a restaurant or café or bar in a very touristy area, prices are always far higher catering to the tourists.

This week in Ottawa our local newspaper announced that the restaurant reviewer for the last 20 years, Anne Des Brizay, was retiring. She often suggested restaurants I really enjoyed. Then the CBC on one of their radio shows asked the following question; Do we need professional restaurant reviewers nowadays given that so many people can give an opinion on any number of sites on restaurants?
I would say, yes we do need professional reviewers. The opinions you find on many sites are often not very detailed and give you a very inaccurate idea of what the restaurant really is like. Per example this week UrbanSpoon in Ottawa featured 3 restaurants which are trendy at the moment. The Red Apron had great reviews, everyone who has been there loves it. But it is not really a restaurant, they only serve a light lunch and otherwise it is a take away shop with great offerings of the all prepared variety. The menu changes all the time and the ingredients and dishes are said to be superior to what you would find elsewhere. Another one that I like a lot is Parma Ravioli on old Wellington street, everything is fresh and can be taken away or eaten in a small area with a few tables. There specialty is fresh pasta, many daily fresh items and great sauces and breads all made on the premises.

However two other restaurants, one being the Hintonburg Public House, got terrible ratings, unfortunately the reviewers put in their personal comments without explaining what they did not like. Example one person wrote; we walked in we had no reservations and the staff was not friendly, we walked out. Or another person wrote: my 23 year old son did not like his salad. Ok what does that mean? Did he only have a salad? You go out for salad? Another one complained that the waiter did not introduce himself, did not do the usual, Hi him Bruce and I will be your waiter tonight and blah, blah, blah, how are you guys schtick, still to common in Ottawa. Who cares! Another one complained that the water glasses were not promptly refilled, really you go to the restaurants to drink water? Other complaints is that the food was not flavourful or the dishes did not blow them away, you mean you like terrorist chefs.  Many want many flavours in their dishes, one wonders what is it they are looking for in food? But no one said what they were eating or had ordered, no one said anything about presentation or if the dishes where appetizing or if it was good value overall. They will tell you they went out with this or that person, for this or that reason, on this or that night. Not really relevant, I am not interested in personal life details.
Far too many appear overly concerned with how much they paid, one person wrote that he had 24 oysters and a half bottle of white wine, paid $45 dollars and thought that far too expensive. Really two dozen oysters and wine, did this person have any idea of the cost of fresh good quality seafood? Considering also that oysters have to be imported. Words like awesome, amazing, very tasty are not good examples in terms of description of food or if it was prepared properly or presented well, though these are expressions that come back constantly on sites where people put in their impressions of a restaurant. You wonder about the quality of what they eat every day.

This is why I believe we still need good professional reviewers like Anne Des Brizay to guide us and give an honest impression. It has to be said that despite the fact that Ottawa has matured in terms of restaurants and quality of chefs and cuisine, it remains still a city where many people go out to a restaurant only for a special occasion and are often happy with mediocre food and poor service has long as the decor is nice. This last remark was one left by a person living here. Having said this, Ottawa does have wonderful new, young chefs like Marc Lepine of Atelier restaurant on Rochester street who won the Gold medal at the Pan Canadian Culinary contest this weekend. There are many other great chefs in this Capital but the public has to be made aware and educated to what exist. Here are there names:

-Ces Santaguida, Vittoria Trattoria-Michael Hay, The Courtyard Restaurant-Matthew Brearley, Castlegarth-Norm Aitken, Juniper-Michael Blackie, Le Cafe at the NAC***-Jamie Stunt, Oz Kafe***-Pat Garland, Absinthe***-Arup Jana, Allium***

 
-Jason Duffy,  Arc the hotel

-John Taylor, Domus Cafe-Yannick Anton, Cordon Bleu Bistro***-Steve Mitton, Murray Street-Caroline Ishii, Zen Kitchen-Charles Part, Les Fougeres-Michael Moffat, Beckta Dining and Wine-Matt Carmichael, Restaurant E18hteen 
 

 
-Clifford Lyness, Brookstreet Hotel-Chris Deraiche, The Wellington Gastropub-Trish Larkin, Black Cat Bistro-Steve Wall, Luxe Bistro***-Mike Radford, Savana Cafe-Matt Somers, It's a Matter of Cake-Michael Farber, Farbs Kitchen and Wine Bar-Matt Carmichael, Restaurant E18hteen

To think we have now in Ottawa so many good restaurants is quite a development for this Capital, which until 2005 had precious few good restaurants. The ones with *** are restaurants I know for having been there and enjoyed the cuisine.

                            Château Laurier Hotel, Ottawa (1911-2011)

an institution in Canada

I was reading today an interview with Hubert Lacroix President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CBC. In March the Federal Minister of Finance will table in the House of Commons the Government's budget for the year, we are told that very deep cuts are coming and the CBC as the State Broadcaster is facing a 10% cut in its budget.  This time around Mr. Lacroix says that after this most recent series of cuts the public will notice some drastic changes in the way CBC's radio and television network operate. The cuts are so deep that either the French Radio Service could disappear or the English Service or 2 full days of television broadcasting. It is unlikely that one or the other of the radio service would disappear completely for reasons of Canadian National politics but this illustrates the seriousness of the matter.

Since we returned to Canada in August 2011 we have already noticed how the CBC is not the way it use to be, the programming has suffered and it is certainly not the same standard it once was as the premier broadcaster and the image of Canadian Culture to the world. The CBC and Radio Canada was lots of great radio and television programming, many famous hosts known across the country by listeners a National following from coast to coast. The CBC brought us Canadian content and told us about our country Canada like no private broadcaster in Canada could. Currently the CBC receives about 1.1 billion dollars annually from the Federal Government not exactly a fortune given their mandate spanning the airwaves of the second largest country in the world.

Currently a lot of our politicians appear to have no time for the CBC and do not seem to know of its contribution to the Nation or they think it is passé, belonging to another era, would anyone call the BBC passé? There is no debate about the CBC's future or debate is stifled under the speeches of fiscal constraint, it appears that talk of deficit and cuts and being responsible is the only talk in town, it has been whipped up into mass hysteria, though on the other hand we are also told how sound our banking system is and how good our financial position.

How much of these speeches is manufactured for cynical political aims remains to be seen. I suspect like many Canadians that the fact that the CBC as a broadcaster cannot be controlled or dictated to by the politicians is the real reason for the trouble. Though with the disappearance of this great National institution or its belittling we as Canadians loose.

The promotion of our National Culture is one area where private industry cannot replace the role of a State Broadcaster looking after Canadian interest as the CBC-Radio Canada has done so well since 1920. A private company has no interest in promoting arts and culture because it never makes money and private broadcaster are not interested in broadcasting outside their market area. The CBC- Radio Canada is recognized as our greatest National Cultural Institution.

Unfortunately despite having lots of friends supporting the CBC, our government has decided otherwise and is not listening. Private industry will do it all for us apparently, I have heard private radio and seen the re-runs on TV and it is not worth the time of day. We live in sad times in Canada. To quote Graham Spry of the Canadian Radio League who testified in Parliament in the 1930's, the founding of the CBC was a choice between private interests and the people's interest, it should be the same today.

What no Television

We are now at the 5 month mark since our return from Italy. Our intention was when we returned to buy a new television, we even made a date to go to the store and look at models, the latest technology with gadgets etc.... This was in August, we were still unpacking and moping for la bella Italia, boxes everywhere and chaos. So we postponed our trip to the shop and then simply forgot about it. It turns out that we did have a large flat screen TV in Rome but never watched it, we always had other things to do or things to go and see, so the television just sat there. Now last weekend we were in Montreal and our hotel room had a large screen TV, we turned it on mostly for the puppies as background noise when we were not in the room to distract them. I did watch a bit of news but overall I found the contents of what was being presented on various and numerous channels totally vapid and of no interest to me what so ever.
The talking heads in most cases, no in all cases had no idea what they were talking about, just flapping their gums about this and that and finding themselves very funny, I just found them boring, sorry Radio-Canada and CTV. Most announcers on television are so pretentious and so full of their own importance its comical, they are also desperate to look just like everyone else on the street, faux common bond. They are dying to tell you what is new and hip and why you should do like they do, because their mothers or someone in their family think its great. They got their finger on the pulse of things, really?  All this to say that I would not buy a television set based on what I saw on television. I found most announcers and assorted talking heads good reasons not to get involved with the thing to begin with.

At Christmas lunch at one point the conversation turned to a series on television, I had never heard of it
neither had Will.  We told family that we did not own a television set and did not plan at this point to get one. We got strange looks, in North America the television culture is deeply ingrained and is part of everyday life, no one really thinks of doing without a television.  We have come to realize that we are a breed apart, too much travel, too much living abroad, too many different experiences. We are on a sort of permanent jet lag. So we will continue to do without a television for the foreseeable future.

The Oath

Our Minister of Immigration and Citizenship who is also responsible for Multiculturalism, the Hon. Jason Kenny ordered yesterday that anyone taking the Canadian Oath of Citizenship had to be seen and heard by the Judge administering the Oath and it had to be done in either of Canada's Official Languages, French or English.  Since 1977 and until now the Oath was taken in various forms, in a variety of languages and the Judge or Consul administering the Oath could not be certain if the person understood what was happening.  The new measure clearly spells out that the Judge who administers the Oath of Citizenship has to see the person's face and hear them say it in our Official Languages since it is a legal process.

It's the old principle come forth and be heard which is the principle of Justice given by the King under the Oak tree, it goes back at least one thousand year if not more. However there are people who are screaming loudly against such a simple measure. The media has turned this into a feminist issue because it involves Muslim women who wear face covering in public. Editorials on Freedom, Tolerance and accommodation, Canada being such a welcoming country, allowing just about anything to please just about everybody. I have come to understand that the free Press is not about informing you as it is about fomenting discord in society under the guise of trying to inform you. A lot of the editorials are half baked and ill conceived and gloss over facts by being facile.

The measure announced clearly states that anyone, man or woman, even a child over the age of 14 must show their face to the judge so that he can see them pronounce and make the Oath. It is not just a question of hearing someone but of seeing them. It is a public gesture you are showing yourself in public and affirming your allegiance to the Crown and to the Country. But again the critics say we should not even ask foreigners to take the Oath, apparently is infringes on their rights. They should become citizens simply because they are here. What a concept, more a fantasy really. Other Western countries demand that you speak the National language to be able to drive a car or become a Citizen. Exam are given in the National language and you have to pass a test administered by a Government inspector, the pass mark is high and citizenship is given after a long painstaking exam. In Canada we simply ask that you go through what can be called a simplified process and take an Oath in public. I think here of the American process or the French, Italian, Polish, German, Swiss, Austrian or British processes to acquire Citizenship, much more difficult than Canada. So why the indignant cries from the media?

In a Court of Law, you swear in front of a judge and everyone present that you will tell the Truth, when you marry, you say to all assembled that you are entering into matrimony, it is your pledge. It is something we do here in Canada, our pledges, our Oaths are public displays, it is our tradition. It should be pointed out that in Canada to obtain a driver's licence which is a Provincial jurisdiction you are required to show your face to obtain a driving permit because an ID photo is inserted into the driving permit, no one Muslim or otherwise has protested. But wait, for Canadian Citizenship which is a high privilege, you have all this moaning. Why?

What I have noticed in the last 25 years in Canada is an evolution, there are some people and they are loud, who simply  reject any notion that belonging to a society, any society, involves responsibility to others or duty to that society. There are many selfish people who only wish to take and see what they can get for themselves.  Rejecting commonly held values for such people has become a virtue. The Oath of Citizenship in certain quarters has been ridiculed amongst many other public symbols which makes our Canadian identity.

What I find particularly disturbing is the CBC, the State broadcaster, making itself the mouthpiece of such groups, giving them a platform. People are encouraged to phone in and voice their opinion, so the sample of calls being broadcasted ridicule the notion of Citizenship as not important, taking an Oath is not important, it does not matter. Our society is Patriarchal so of course men tell these Muslim women that they cannot cover their faces in public. It is dangerous, to have men say such things we are told. The Citizenship Oath is just a ceremony of no importance apparently. We are asking foreigners who wish to become Citizens to jump through hoops like circus animals. Since when is taking an Oath comparable to some kind of cheap trick? This last remark comes from a University Professor in Ottawa, presented as an expert.  The number of offensive remarks being broadcasted on the CBC are nothing short of shocking and maybe this is what the public broadcaster wants, shock value for ratings. Responsibility, Civic duty is not important because individual rights come first. What appears to be important is the notion of what can the Country do for me, is this the last stages of a culture of entitlement.

I am just happy that the Government has finally taken steps to ensure that the Citizenship Ceremony is restored to what it was intended to be to begin with, a dignified affirmation of the wish to become a Canadian Citizen. Foreigners need to understand that in taking this Oath, you have duties and responsibilities and that you will be asked to uphold certain principles, one of which is that we are all equals as Citizens and that women cannot as is the case in certain cultures, made into second class persons with no voice. In an open society like ours certain foreign cultural concepts have to be abandoned if you wish to be part of our Canadian Society, for the sake of harmony and social peace.

Certain cultural habits you bring with you from foreign lands are a private matter and not part of who we are as a Nation, you do not like how we live as Canadians, fine, but, if you wish to become a Citizen of Canada, you will have to accept our basic principles. Canadian Citizenship is a privilege not
a right!

The Oath of Canadian Citizenship

I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.

Further this week a poll by Forum research reveals that 81% of Canadians overwhelmingly support the decision of the Government to have no veils or face coverings at Citizenship Oath Ceremonies.