Our failure as a Society witnessed

We do live in a Society which promotes individual worth and values at the expense of the Community as a whole. When we say our Community or Community values it is a very vague concept and one which does not or must not interfere with personal individual rights and values. In fact the word community nowadays in modern Canadian Society is pretty meaningless, the same goes for Community Leaders this is a term the media loves to use when it is trying to support the idea that an initiative or a project has a wide support amongst people. That is not true, the majority are too busy pursuing personal goals to bother much with the so called community.

In Canada today there are 3 types of what could be defined loosely as a community, there is the Rural group mostly farmers and individuals who live outside cities.

Then there are suburbanites, people who live in these large bedroom communities with malls and is composed mostly of either Heterosexual White Christian groups or large single Ethnicity groups who live in a suburban ghetto, they can be Asians like in the Suburb South of Montreal or in Suburb around Toronto which use to be small towns now absorbed in larger metropolitan areas. This group usually sees the inner city as dangerous and full of crimes, despite the fact that the crime rate in Canada is as low as in 1970.

Finally you have the City Core dwellers who are either old or young, rich, middle class and the urban poor, the Natives, the disabled, comprising every ethnic background in very varied neighbourhoods. Many have always lived in the City itself and are usually more progressive socially.

So in other words the idea of a community does not really exist in a Society dominated by the pursuit of individuality, social responsibility is diluted and this may explain, only in part, why we have so much indifference towards the many poor people old and young in Canada. There is also in the last 25 years the rapidly changing economy and in Canada we are clearly creating more minimum wage jobs in the service industry and inequality in general is on a rapid rise. One million Canadians do not have enough to eat or go without food on any given day, that is what is called food insecurity, 14% of children in Canada are poor and suffer from lack of adequate food, this is the highest rate in all industrial nations. Some 40% of Canadians pay two thirds of their income in rent or mortgage, housing in Canada is expensive.  All this to say that Canada is on the fast track to economic disparity and poverty for the majority.

The economy may be rock solid for some, like the Banks and the Oil Company an image our PM Harper spins endlessly, but for your average Canadian it is very far from being rock solid, more choppy seas with much uncertainty and with record personal debt. You loose your job and all of a sudden you are tipped into poverty.

Yes the urban poor is nothing new and existed since we have had cities in Canada, it has been a difficult problem to effectively deal with. Most people prefer to think that it exist but is not that serious and could be remedied easily with a bunch of social measures. Or worse that people who are poor deserve it because they are lazy. It is also easy to look down on the poor because they fit into a category we do not understand and do not want to know about.

All this to say that like most people I had heard of poverty in our cities but in the last 16 months I have become more aware of it. First was a conversation I had with the Director of the Soupe Populaire in Gatineau, his soup kitchen feeds the urban poor in the city across the river from the National Capital, he told me that in the winter of 2013, some 12 people had frozen to death on city streets in Gatineau. In Ottawa the Nation's Capital the numbers are a little higher, unbelievable when you think that most Canadians love to tell the world how rich we are. It is a National disgrace that this should happen, we do have enough shelter beds in the City provided by Churches and other groups but some people because of mental health issues do not want to participate and fall in the cracks. The other national disgrace is the situation of the Native people in Canada, there are about 1 million natives all around Canada. Recently I was speaking with UN Officials and I was told how completely horrendous the situation of Natives has become, the effect of years of neglect by the Federal Government on top of the savage budget cuts of the Harper government and the incredible level of violence suffered by native communities is beyond what we imagine Canada to be about. As a country we are failing at several social policy levels and also in terms of responsibilities towards our Native population. But most Canadians are totally oblivious and simply do not want to hear about it, which suits Harper and Co. fine. At any rate the UN is not much liked by the current government and this has been made clear in Official speeches.

I started to volunteer at the Shepherd of Good Hope on Murray Street in Lower Town, it is the largest shelter in the Capital, very well established it provides many services to the homeless and disadvantage including those suffering from mental illness though on that level what they can do is limited.  So I go and serve lunch, the routine is fairly simple, we get there by 08:30am and you are given food preparation duties, you may be asked to peel potatoes, cut up meat, make sandwiches, etc..

This past weekend I made about 150 sandwiches in about 2:30 hours, these sandwiches are given to anyone who comes after lunch looking for food. At 11:30am lunch service starts, all the food served is fresh, the menu changes daily and the food is good and wholesome, there is always a hot dish, a stew or a pasta, a soup, salad, bread and butter, dessert and coffee or tea. There are also vegetarian meals for those who want them.

The manager asked me to go to the door to greet the lunch crowd. Some 260 men and women came in, all young or old, many were faces I recognised, you see them in the market or around town. This was a slow day, being August, a long weekend and welfare cheques had just been given out. On a busy day some 400 to 500 persons will come in. One fellow asked me if there was any food left, he said he was really hungry he had not eaten in a day or so.  I could see the pain on his face, the stress and the fear that he might have missed lunch. It is very hard to think that anyone would be in that position, shocking in fact.

The Shepherd of Good Hope buildings is in a central location in the Capital surrounded by expensive condo towers and affluence in the nearby Rideau Centre, expensive shops and National Museums. This is not an isolated part on the edge of town.

What is amazing is how polite they all are, many are very courteous, quick on the thank you and speaking softly, no one that I have seen was loud or aggressive though I can imagine this happens.  I did have one fellow who came in and said to me rather sharply that he had heard we had chili with meat again, is that all you folks can prepare he asked. I told him simply what the menu was today, he looked at me surprised and said oh well that is nice and lined up at the counter.

Some people wore the marks of a recent fights, two women had big shiners, a man had his nose freshly broken and someone had taken a knife to his face. Another women maybe she was in her forties, hard to say, had a leg that had been broken and had not healed properly so she had a pronounced limp. Many Natives in the group and Innu, they are a special case because they come from the Arctic circle and here down South they are completely out of their element, it is very sad to see. Some are manic and this is out of character given their culture but obviously under a lot of stress.

So I stand by the door and say hello to those who come in, they will ask me about the menu of the day, all insist on washing their hands, and then line up at the cafeteria with their trays, they can eat as much as they want. Eating is such a human thing, no food and you die, washing one's hand, the need to feel clean is very important also. Simple courtesies, a simple hello, a word of welcome, a smile, it makes anyone feel more human, part of society. It is so simple, but it is what we all expect without often realizing it.

I also tell them, though they know the routine, that we have sandwiches also for the afternoon. Some will ask about water for their dogs, though we do not give them food for their pets. When you see such numbers coming in for a meal, it gives you an idea of the magnitude of the problem. I also work at the slop table which is clean up after the meal, cleaning plates and trays. All the dish ware is heavy duty porcelain, same with cups.

I do not know if I could do this volunteering on a regular basis, it is psychologically hard. Your first reaction is to feel embarrassed to see this kind of poverty. We do live in a world where most people feel they are paying too many taxes and the government is too intrusive, so you hear or read the heart less comments, few want more social programs, not understanding that organizations like Shepherd of Good Hope keeps the lid on social peace and is our safety net. I know first hand the misery of poverty in the Third World where there is little or no social programs or Caritative organizations like Shepherd.  There is an urgent need to get off the mean and corrosive thinking wagon we have embarked on in the last 9 years.  I can only hope that the support Shepherd is getting in Ottawa will continue and be strengthen, their role is valuable in providing a respectful and stable place for those who have been pushed to the wall.

Canadian Supreme Court 5, PM Harper 0.

Canada is a country of rules and laws and everyone defines Canadians as law abiding, we have a Parliamentary democracy since 1848, modern Canada was founded on the principle of Peace, Order and Good Government.

It also has to be remembered that it was the 4 original Provinces ( Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario) who created the Federal Government by uniting as one single country in 1867. Dividing clearly responsibilities and powers in our Constitution on how we govern ourselves.

Each Prime Minister since has known what the Federal Government can and cannot do Constitutionally. We have had Prime Ministers who favoured decentralization and others like P.E. Trudeau who believed in centralizing powers and intervening or overlapping into fields of jurisdictions clearly in the Provincial domain. This has been the source of much irritation for the Provinces now numbering 10 not to mention the 3 territories.

However in each dispute there has been in the past Federal-Provincial Conferences in Ottawa usually in the old Union Train Station across from the Chateau Laurier Hotel or the Supreme Court has been asked to rule on matters of jurisdiction. Though in the past talking out problems has been the favourite way to go instead of going to the Supreme Court which hands down final decisions.

In the last  9 long years of the Harper government we have seen an important shift, no talks and no communications with the Provinces, the Harper philosophy is to ignore them all together. Even with Alberta, PM Harper ignores the Provincial government in Edmonton and pursues his own vision of how his home province should evolve, doing so by protecting one sector the Oil industry to the detriment of everything else.

This has been the one theme of his government pursuit of power by all means at the expense of everything and everyone else, inability to connect with the people in general and his lack of social skills in feeling a kinship with the voters and issues.

Canada has always been a country of consensus, of bringing diverse views together and finding a common goal, something PM Harper is loath to do.

Supreme Court of Canada building on Wellington street 

Early on into his mandate he openly expressed his contempt for the Supreme Court, labelling the judges as activists and going against the will of the people. He even went so far as to criticize openly the Chief Justice, no previous Prime Minister has ever done so in public for all to hear.

He was reminded by Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin of the separation of powers in our system of government between the Crown, the Legislative and Judicial. PM Harper seemed unable to understand that anyone could challenge his authority.
But this has not stopped him from continuing his criticism always displaying publicly his ignorance on the workings of our Constitution and the separation of powers in our system of government.

A few weeks ago his nomination of Judge Nadon to the Supreme Court was thrown out because Justince Nadon did not meet the requirement to sit on the bench of the highest Court in the land.
Harper was angry and said that the Supreme Court is interfering, worst his Justice Minister Peter MacKay claimed that the PM could not have known about the new rules for nominating Justices to the Supreme Court. The rules have been in place since 1864, not exactly new. No again it was a challenge to the Constitution. Will PM Harper appoint someone else who meets the rules to the highest bench, no probably not, he will in his fashion continue to ignore the Supreme Court. We currently have 8 sitting Judges they will be 7 in November out of a total of 9 members on the bench.

Other previous negative decisions by the Supreme Court have to do with well established Jurisprudence, PM Harper does not like this at all and believes that he can change what he does not like by simple decree. In a dictatorship you can do this, no problem, but not in Canada. Jurisprudence interferes with his notion of Law and Order and severe punishment for criminals. He has failed to notice that our crime rate in Canada has been falling for years and now stands at the level of 1973.

This is why he is now proposing to pass a law called the Bill of Rights of Victims of Crime, again he demonstrates his ignorance of established jurisprudence which deals with victims rights. Justice is not about vengeance or revenge but if you read the bill you will see how persons victimized by crime would be able to make demands financial and otherwise beyond any sentence a Judge in a Court of Law might impose on a convicted criminal. All along PM Harper has maintained that Judges are too soft and too liberal in sentencing dangerous criminals so victims are never properly satisfied, let the punishment fit the crime so to speak.

In the same idea of law and order he now surrounds himself with more security than Colonel Khadafi of Libya use to have, to see Harper's motorcade in Ottawa and the hundred of police surrounding him at an event makes you wonder if he has lost his mind. This way he can entertain the notion in the mind of a certain public that we live in a very dangerous and violent society. Currently spending over 20 million $ a year on his personal safety or more than we have ever spent on all Prime Ministers combined.

PM Harper has also consistently ignored Parliament, refused to answer questions in the House, refused to be held accountable for the actions of his government. Has launched negative ad campaigns against opponents in Parliament treating them like ennemies instead of colleagues with whom he is disagreeing in a Parliamentary debate.  Obviously he has never heard of Oliver Cromwell or Charles I.

How PM Harper has failed to see that his decisions and crime bills in Parliament would be rejected by Judges is beyond comprehension when you think of the briefs and analysis papers prepared by lawyers, advisors and experts. The conclusion can only be that he does not read anything and simply acts on what he alone believes is right. After this fifth negative decision by the Supreme Court on a Constitutional matter of such serious importance as the reform of the Canadian Senate, any credibility Harper might have had is gone. He lacks judgement and lacks a fundamental knowledge on how to manage the affairs of the Government.

Canadian Senate Chamber in Parliament 

What is worst was his reaction to the decision on Friday morning, he said in the petulant tone of a spoiled child that the Supreme Court stood for the Status Quo and that the Provinces were to blame in this failure. There was nothing more he could do. This is not what the judgement says, he deliberately presented a false interpretation of the decision of the Court preferring as he usually does to throw the blame on others for his own misdeeds to please his base, the 30% of electors who support him.

He knows that any reform of the Canadian Senate must be done in consultations between the Federal Government and the Provinces and abolition requires the unanimous consent of all 10 Provinces. This he won't do since he has not spoken to the Provinces in 9 years. So all his talk of reform for all these years was nothing more than talk, what a sad, nasty little man our Harper.  

However many Canadians have come to understand how dangerous for our democracy Harper has become. In 17 months we will have a general election, it will not come soon enough.

 

Winter is ending finally

We have been in snow since 24 November, first snowfall day. Today I noticed at 17:35 it was still day light and the sun had not set yet. The temperature was around 7 C so there was a big melt. But next week winter is back but it will be milder, the worst is over.

This weekend is the National Liberal Party Convention in Montreal and 3400 delegates are at the Convention Centre. The Democrats have sent people to talk and do presentation, Liberals unlike Mr. Harper and the Conservatives like Obama.
The latest poll shows that 54% of Canadians support Justin Trudeau and the values he is promoting.
The Liberal Party has 258,000 new members and millions in funds raised in the last few months.

It looks like Canadians are tired after 8 years of the nastiness of Harper and his government of right wing evangelicals modelled on the US Tea Party, Ted Cruz and assorted misfits.

What is interesting is the right wing press in Canada, CTV News, Postmedia, Maclean's who are harsh in their criticism of Justin Trudeau. Paul Wells, Colin Horgan, Don Martin have nothing good to say and I wonder why. Ottawa is well known for its Press Gallery and we also know that journalists are not as neutral as they claim they are. You do not always get the facts, you also get a lot of personal opinions and slants. Here I suspect that producers are in on it and calling the shots to get a story which they can spin for days. Even photos are not flattering and I know from my previous career how the media can fix it so, even little Red Riding Hood would look nasty.

The Conservatives have also sent spies down to the Convention in Montreal. Minister Poilievre who is trying to convince us that voting is really not necessary and is shepherding bill C-23 Election suppression voter act, is in Montreal. I personally think that he is trying to defect to the Liberal Party. Come the next election his riding has been split in two by the new re-mapping of electoral boundaries, he may find himself in difficulties, what is a 34 year old unpleasant little man to do.

The party that has been completely left out in the cold is the NDP who despite the fact that they are the Official Opposition in the House of Commons are nowhere to be seen or heard.  Their Leader Tom Mulcair has done an excellent job of showing up Harper for what he really is and has nailed him on several important issues but for all his hard work and effort it looks like Justin Trudeau has stolen his thunder.

The one I feel sorry for is Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party who is an excellent member of Parliament and does incredible work but the media ignores her all together.

Tomorrow Saturday is Justin's big speech at the Convention. Will the election really be in the fall of 2015 or sooner. Who knows, however the rumour is that if Harper continues to sink in the polls and he is pretty low as it is now, he will leave before having to face certain defeat and abandon the Party to some other person, a bit like Mulroney did years ago.

With Hope and Hard Work, you can be part of the change!

One Year Later, 28 December

So we are now at the close of 2013, in terms of world events well we had the usual disasters, wars, massacre of population and very little Peace on Earth. One Supreme Pontiff resigned not the first to do so in the history of the Holy See replaced by the first Jesuit ever to reach that exalted position. The new Pontiff  is a very good PR man and knows how to catch people by surprise, in a way the old Polish Politician Jean-Paul II could not, despite all the Media hype. We have also come to learn of his role and lack of action in the whole child abuse scandal. Of his powerful friends who were deeply involved and were he failed to act because he was pursuing a political agenda closely tied to Polish Politics. A moral failure on his part in my view which does not deserve his elevation to Sainthood. Luckily Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) will also be elevated to Sainthood, a much more deserving choice.

Then the Civil War in Syria, we came close to a military intervention again in a conflict the West did not understand and had little interest, though for reason of public policy politicians had to show the masses they cared. Once the matter of the chemical weapons was settled, the West lost interest and the Civil War continue apace. As for our so-called friends in the Syrian Opposition it looks like Russia knew all along that they were not trustworthy and President Assad is the devil we know, a classic case of I told you so, the Russians are laughing now and the Americans well have poor quality intelligence but then again that is not new. The series of articles in the New York Times of 29 Dec 2013 explain the whole Benghazi affair and the many failures of the CIA, yet again.
Then there was Egypt and Morsi and the Brotherhood. The Egyptian crisis will continue for some time to come, not to mention the many crisis in the whole region, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Qatar.
Iran elected a new President it appears some change may be at hand, will see. Hopefully no war with Iran it would be a huge mistake. The so called Arab Spring that was not really a change for democracy, how can you have democracy with extreme poverty, lack of economic opportunity, illiterate people, lack of basic sanitation and clean water and corruption. It looks almost like a luxury this democracy thing. In North America we are very naive, too often thinking that people want to copy us and our culture.

There were other conflicts in Africa, Mali and Central African Republic where France and their President are playing old Colonial Masters coming to help the poor Africans. Would it not be better to simply let Africans settle their own score? Am sure they are quite capable without the help of France.

In Canada well we saw more GOP and Tea Party Politics thanks to our born-again Evangelical, Rapture seeker Prime Minister, several of his ministers have shown how out of touch they are with reality, spitting on the poor, the elderly, the disabled, Veterans, pensioners, the public service and poor children, in the immortal words of Minister James Moore, ''It is not my responsibility to feed my neighbours children'' or in the words of Minister of Veterans Affairs, Fantino, ''We have no responsibility to our wounded Veterans'' or better still Minister of Justice, Mackay ''the homeless should sell whatever they have so they can pay their fines". This same government is now involved in a political scandal which is destroying the faith we might have had in our democratic institutions. For years Canadians lived in this dreamy stupor believing that we did not have corruption in Canada, we now know that we are a very corrupt country where many political appointees are on the take and have Mafia connections. Canadians have also woken up to the fact that our Governor General cannot do a thing about any political situation, no matter how dangerous it might be given the near dictatorial powers Mr. Harper has given himself, that being a flaw in our own Constitution of 1867. The GG's role kiss babies and eat cake, basta.

I will not go into the depressing situation with the Mayor buffoon of Toronto the former metropolis of Canada, a role the city held for a brief period between 1977 and 2006, before being replaced by Calgary.
Toronto today is bankrupt and is the fruit bowl of Multicultural Policies that simply do not work in the real world, no matter how hard Canadians wish to believe in our national myths.

I will not bore you with the rest of the news which had little to make anyone smile. I am sure you have your own favourite news story.

But let's look instead on the brighter side of things, this year has been my first year in retirement. I volunteered with our National Museums, spending over 360 hours working as a volunteer.
I learned a great deal and it has been an interesting experience.

We travelled in May to Salzburg to the Pfingstfestspiele Music Festival. We had like in years past a wonderful time and we are returning in 2014. Then in August we travelled to Stratford Ontario for the Theatre Festival, a first for me, fell in love with this lovely city.

During our stay in Stratford we met with fellow bloggers we had been corresponding with. Meeting people in person after speaking and commenting on the internet is always a bit daunting but it was a rewarding experience and met like minded fellows and made new friends. See their blogs at http://sporeflections.wordpress.com
and http://harpersvalley.wordpress.com We will most likely meet them again this August at the Festival.

Then in November we flew to Rome met with many old friends and then on to our cruise on AZAMARA which took us to Spain. It is our second cruise with this line and we love it. www.azamaraclubcruises.com

Spending 23 days in Europe and visiting many famous sites was a pleasure. We discovered Valencia, Gibraltar, Séville and Granada. The beauty of the Alcazar and the Alhambra, treasures of our past. This trip was our gift to ourselves on our 35 Anniversary, (1978-2013). At the end of our trip we met in London with our friend D.N. who suggested a wonderful fish restaurant J. Sheekey and entertained us with a delightful conversation on music and the arts. I am always in awe of his prodigious memory for details. We stayed in London with my fiancée C. at her very central flat near Baker Street. She also took us to a great restaurant Brasserie Zédel.

On this blog I am ending the year with 92,000 clicks, thank you for all the comments. This is our 3rd year in Ottawa we have re-connected with friends and have our old regular circle back.

Being retired is not difficult and life takes on a different look, I now have other priorities which have nothing to do with work and more to do with what I like and want to do. I do not regret for one moment having retired. As for 2014 I do not have any resolutions, I do not really believe in them. Will see what this new year brings.

In Capri at Dr. Munthe's House

 

Reading newspapers

I ask myself sometimes what is the point of reading newspapers either in print or on the internet. Most National papers in Canada are now owned by large corporations who have little to do with the news world, owning a paper is a matter of prestige and more to the point of pushing ones business/corporate agenda on the public. Canadians believe or want to believe that newspapers are independent and stories based on facts, editorials are serious unbiased reflections on events. Not so anymore, the news is all about entertainment and influencing public opinion.

This past week I read about the Harper government doing away with the Canadian Health Board which  monitors health program delivery in all provinces in Canada. Reason given by PM Harper is that as of 2014 the agreement on health care program funding between the Federal government and the Provinces will come to an end. The Federal government will no longer be involved and this means that Western Provinces who currently are wealthier will have better health coverage than poor Eastern Provinces (this includes Ontario), in general the health of Canadians will be affected.

In Parliament the New Democratic Party (NDP) who are the Official Opposition are presenting a motion on the secret FIPA treaty between China and Canada, the life of this so called free trade treaty is 31 years. The Chinese Government will be able to sue secretly Canadian Companies and demand damages which is to be paid by the Federal Government. You can well imagine that the Communist Party in China will go after all Canadian companies, think Bombardier and will undermine them so that Chinese companies can take over, economic colonization. PM Harper sees nothing wrong with that claiming it will create jobs. Canadian companies will not gain anything in the process and certainly will not be able to sue Chinese companies (mostly owned by the Communist party) for damages in China.
Strangely the little Western African Country of Benin has been able to negotiate a better trade deal with the Chinese.

Parliament is broken, it was revealed by the Whip of the Conservative Party that Members of Parliament do not represent their constituents but the views of the Party Leader. In Canada we do not elect our Prime Minister, the leader of a Political Party is chosen to form a Government by the Governor General based on the majority of seats won by any Party after an election. Something most Canadians do not understand. The right of Members to ask questions in the House on what is of concerns to their Constituents has been taken away by the Party Leaders and instead MPs ask questions based on what the Party Leader wants to hear. The Speaker of the House has become a lap dog to the Prime Minister.  Currently there is a fight in Parliament for more independence for Members of Parliament so they can re-assert their rights. Otherwise what is the point of Parliament if the business once conducted in the House, like the latest Budget, is now handled by un-elected staffers in secret who work for the PM.

In the last 7 days the attack ads against Justin Trudeau have been shown more than a quarter of a million times on television by the Conservative Government of Mr. Harper. Who pays for all this, the taxpayers.  On Radio-Canada this morning a commentator gave this analogy, it was Herr Goebbels, Propaganda Minister to the Fuhrer, who said repeat a lie 10 times and it is still a lie, repeat it 1000 times and it becomes the truth.

The Minister responsible for the now defunct Canadian International Development Agency (now a branch of the Dept of Foreign Affairs) asked for all his briefings to be written in English only, in other words ''Speak White''. The Harper Government tried to deny this but unfortunately for them, there is a paper trail pointing to the Minister. So much for Official Languages in Canada, most of the Members and Ministers of the Harper Government do not speak French and have no interest in respecting Bilingualism. It was Sir John A. MacDonald our first Prime Minister who said in 1867 that if you wanted a man to vote for you, you had to speak his language. Sir John A. a Conservative, spoke French.

Also this morning a story in the papers about a Cézanne discovered in the vaults of the National Gallery of Canada. The morning show on Radio-Canada said that the painting had been lost in 1983 and was only discovered again by accident last week. Great deal of laughter all around, how can you loose a Cézanne. However in the English paper The Ottawa Citizen, the story is very differently presented. Apparently this painting which is just a sketch and is unsigned though it is known to be a Cézanne arrived in Canada from Europe via Bermuda during the Second World War and it is believed that it could be part of stolen art works belonging to a Jewish family or someone, that is not clear. The Citizen goes on to suggest that maybe the NGC knew this all along and was not forthcoming in returning to painting to its rightful owners whoever that may be, no one knows despite research into the matter.

The Ottawa Citizen has always been anti-museum, its editorial line is, why do we need to spend money on art in general, its not efficient and it brings in no money, its for the elite, the masses have no need of art and culture, unless we are speaking of Justin Bieber.

The Director of the NGC pointed out correctly that the National Gallery does not claim to own this painting, it is only acting as custodian for the time being, it is a very complex situation given the lack of records on it and no known owner. The director pointed out that the NGC has never in its long history been involved in looted or stolen art works, The Ottawa Citizen appears unsatisfied.

I have also noticed how the Globe and Mail which use to be a respectable National Newspaper has now sided very clearly with the Prime Minister, the editorial line now appears to be Mr. Harper can do no wrong, while the Opposition and the new Liberal Leader are fumblers.

Canada use to be known as a wealthy country, it is now referred to by political commentators as a relatively poor country.

There is a lot more, this is why I wonder why read the news.



 

The man who has no argument....

Have you ever heard the expression the man who has no argument is the man who shouts. 
This is what is happening now in Canada in our Parliament and in our political life. Our Prime Minister
Stephen Harper has ordered a new negative campaign against his latest target the new Liberal Party of Canada Leader Justin Trudeau. The campaign at the moment is based on a series of videos stolen from the Huffington Post, yes copywrite material which the Conservative Party has manipulated digitally and is narrated by its spokesperson Fred de Lorey**, the text is saying that Trudeau has no judgement because he participated in a fund raising for a charity. At this fundraising the female audience was asked to bid on a male stripper, Mr. Trudeau is young, muscular and good looking so he took his shirt off but kept his white undershirt on and raised a lot of money for the Canadian Liver Foundation. The video is very tame and frankly looks more like a lot of good fun at a Church picnic.

All this is very sad because instead of attacking him on a political level and issues debated in Parliament the Conservative have decided to pick at the lowest common denominator in the hope that this will embarrass and make small of a political opponent. There is a principle in a democratic debate that is upheld in any functioning democracy governed by Laws, Constitutions and Parliaments. You can disagree strongly with an opponent and oppose any views this opponent may have but you have to remember that it is a democratic debate of ideas and that in the end your opponent in Parliament is a colleague and NOT your enemy, there is mutual respect despite the strong differences.

Under the government of Mr. Harper that idea has been tossed aside, the Opposition is the enemy and must be either ignored or attacked by slander. For the last 7 years of the Harper government has made an art of slandering in any way possible its opponents or anyone in the public seen as opposing their ideas. Facts are never acknowledged, scientific fact is ridiculed, logic turned on its head, this approach to governing is wearing thin.  But it also shows that Mr. Harper has a limited understanding of democracy and that ultimately is far more dangerous.

Today in the House of Commons, Mr. Trudeau asked 3 questions directed at the Prime Minister on tariffs and trade during Question Period. Mr. Harper instead of answering went on attacking China and linking Mr. Trudeau to facilitating trade with China. This is a rather bizarre reply, given that a week ago Mr. Harper was welcoming Pandas from China we are now renting for $1 million dollars a year for 10 years to facilitate trade with the PRC.

Mr. Harper has also done much to point out that Justin Trudeau has no experience and knows nothing, cannot be trusted he says. That is another strange statement, given that when Mr. Harper entered politics 7 years ago he had never travelled outside Canada, did not have a passport, and is entire political life was concentrated on what he had learned from extreme right wing elements in the USA who were his mentors, many of whom were part of an Evangelical Church whose main tenet is to bring the Rapture. No one has forgotten the days of robot Harper where his clothes were chosen for him and his make up lady made his face up for official photos.

On the other hand Justin Trudeau was born and raised during the period his father was Prime Minister and received a very broad education and travelled around the world with his Dad. Trudeau by his upbringing has a far more universal experience of the world, Government and Parliament than Harper can ever hope to achieve.

So our current PM is worried, this kid could unseat him. It reminds me of Mark Anthony and young Octavian who inherited the Roman Empire when his uncle Julius Caesar died. Octavian was just 19 years old and Mark Anthony was 40. He thought this kid is immature and has no experience we will get rid of him quickly, that is not what happened and Octavian became Augustus, Pater Patriae.

To my mind Harper is the man who has no arguments, a sad pathetic figure whose vision of Canada is not universally accepted. To the attacks Justin Trudeau replied today that since he was 5 years old he has had a microphone shoved in his face so he is not phased by the latest nastiness.


** De Lorey is a member of the International Republican Institute chaired by US Senator John McCain. see iri.org

new leader

After almost two years of searching the Liberal Party of Canada has a new leader in the person of Justin Trudeau, 41 year old son of our former and long serving Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1919 to 2000.  I remember when his father was swept to power in April 1968 and how Trudeaumania gripped the country, Pierre E. Trudeau was in power from 1968 to 1984. I remember when he married Margaret Sinclair a women much younger than him and when Justin was born on Christmas day. He had two younger brothers Alexandre known as Sacha who is a film maker and Michel who died tragically in an avalanche in 1998, his body was never found.

Today Justin became the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he was elected with 80% of the vote taken from all 308 ridings across the country, some 104,000 people voted, the most ever in any political party leadership race in the history of Canada. There were 6 other candidates for the leadership but they failed to gather votes. Justin is popular because so many people remember his father and the vision he had for Canada. However Justin is quite young and so far has not said what his program will be, though he made it clear in his acceptance speech today in Ottawa that he would lead the people but not rule the masses, which is very different from the style of our current Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Who talks down and largely ignores Parliament, taking the attitude that you are either for him or against him.  

Currently Justin is also the only Canadian politician who garners the most donations and this is a serious worry for Mr. Harper. Tomorrow will be his first day in the House of Commons as the Leader of the Liberals and everyone will watch to see during Question Period or QP has it is called how his first question to the Prime Minister will go down. It was noted today that within 3 minutes of Trudeau being named as the new Liberal Leader, the Office of the Prime Minister launch their first negative statement. Again this is the style of Harper, negative and partisan to the extreme, the PM could have been more gracious, after all Canadian Federal general elections is not for another 18 months at least.
The Liberal Party was in power in Canada for 69 years during the last 146 years of Confederation. Will Justin be able to bring them back to power, that remains to be seen. Harper has made it clear that he has a profound dislike for the legacy and the ideas of Pierre E. Trudeau, he will have to be careful not to malign the dead through his son, that would not be acceptable to Canadians.