Le Jour du Souvenir

Today 11 November is Remembrance Day in Canada.

Here are some photos of the day in Ottawa. This year the Princess Royal, H.H. Princess Anne and her husband Admiral Tim Laurence were presiding the ceremony at the National War Memorial with
H.E. the Right Honourable the Governor General David Johnstone, Commander in Chief. The crowds are said to have been the largest in living memory for an 11 November, no doubt a response to the events of 22 October in Ottawa and 21 October in Quebec.

May 21, 1939 The National War Memorial is inaugurated by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

November 11, 2014 very large crowds at the Remembrance Day Ceremonies at the National War Memorial in Ottawa

The Governor General as Commander in Chief shaking hands with Veterans at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

Soldiers of the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry Regiment, wearing their Afghanistan Campaign Medal.

The Princess Royal, H.H. Princess Anne with the Governor General at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. She is examining a military medal she has just received.

This evening the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial covered with poppies and flowers from Canadians as is the tradition each year. 

Canada is a Constitutional Democracy since 1982.

BY IRWIN COTLER, SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE MAY 14, 2014

MONTREAL — Recent comments by the Harper government concerning the Supreme Court of Canada have garnered much criticism. The Council of Canadian Law Deans has decried the government's "impugning the integrity of the Chief Justice and the independence of the Supreme Court," while 11 former Canadian Bar Association presidents have denounced "disrespect by the executive branch for the judicial branch of our constitutional democracy."

While the specifics of l'affaire Nadon add up to a veritable judicial-appointments whodunit, perhaps it is worthwhile to appreciate the real issue in Harper vs. the Court.

The government has thus far maligned Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, casting aspersions that she made an "inappropriate and inadvisable" phone call. And it has openly criticized court rulings, even impugning the court's timing. The prime minister has called the Senate reference "a decision that the vast majority of Canadians will be very disappointed with," while Justice Minister Peter MacKay has charged that "it was not this government that decided to table (the Marc Nadon reference) in the middle of the Quebec election."

In disparaging the high court, the Conservatives ignore three inconvenient truths. First, the prime minister appointed the majority of current Supreme Court justices. Secondly, the Conservative government itself asked the court to pronounce in the Senate and Nadon references. Thirdly, and most importantly, Canadian law and policy — and the roles of the courts and Parliament — have changed in the last 30 years, and dramatically so, with the advent of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Under the Charter, Canada has moved from being a parliamentary democracy to being a constitutional democracy. Courts have moved from being the arbiters of legal federalism — whether the matter is federal or provincial — to being guardians of our constitutional rights, not because the courts usurped Parliament's authority but because Parliament, on behalf of the Canadian people, gave them that power in 1982. Individuals, meanwhile, have moved from being the objects of rights to being subjects of rights, with rights and remedies that were unavailable in pre-Charter law.

This is not to suggest there were no rights in Canada prior to the Charter's enactment. Indeed, the rule of law, common law, statutory protections and the like did exist. Yet, pre-Charter life and law often tell a disturbing narrative of discrimination against, and marginalization of, vulnerable groups, including discrimination against women, aboriginal people, the disabled, immigrants and refugees, racial and religious minorities, gays and lesbians and others.

Enshrining our rights in the Charter provided an additional check on the authority of Parliament, thereby limiting its actions. Our courts ensure that acts of Parliament respect these fundamental rights and freedoms.

A healthy democracy has disagreement; and indeed freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Charter. Yet, critique of the court as an institution — or maligning its members — not only runs the risk of bringing the court into disrepute, which may in fact be the objective, but ends up bringing critics into disrepute as well, and harming us all.

When I asked the minister of justice, "Why malign the chief justice?" and "Why consult the nation's highest jurist if the government did not value her counsel and advice?", the response was: "Mr. Speaker, I would not be surprised at all if there were times on occasion when the member, as a former justice minister himself, did not agree with what a judgment might have been."

There is a difference between disagreeing with and disparaging the judiciary — between seeing one's role as minister of justice as having responsibility for the promotion and protection of the independence and integrity of the Supreme Court and the judiciary, and being injurious to its role and reputation.

Regrettably, attacking unfavourable court decisions and those who make them is becoming modus operandi for the Conservative government. Instead of focusing on who or what made a decision, the government should look to why these decisions are being made. Invariably, the answer is found in the Constitution or Charter.

The solution, simply enough, is to accept and welcome these legal instruments — and accordingly respect and defend them to the fullest extent.

Irwin Cotler is the Liberal member of Parliament for Mount Royal riding, and a former federal justice minister and attorney general. He is an emeritus professor of law at McGill University.

7 January 2014 Christmas Season is Officially over!!!

So it is over, we had some fierce weather from 23 December onwards. We took down the decorations today house is back to normal.  It also means we now enter the dark period of winter, no festive lights, it's winter and the reality of icy sidewalks and difficult driving conditions, cold unpleasant weather and dark days with little sunlight is our lot.

            The tree waiting to be put away, puppies taking the morning sun. 

In Ottawa we will have a kind of, sort of bureaucratically nice Festival called Winterlude Jan. 31 to Feb. 17.
Last year the weather cooperated and the ice sculptures at Confederation Park where interesting. Skating on the Rideau Canal was good. Hopefully this year the weather will stay sufficiently cold for all the outdoor activities, if not it can be a watery mess. Winterlude is really a weekend carnival of sorts, all activities are concentrated on the weekends of the festival with nothing much happening during the week. The activities are mostly about skating on the canal with activities for children.
Though it is 30 years old it seems that the organizers have not much thought about what else they could do to make this festival more interesting to visiting tourists from abroad and for the population in general.

Until the May Tulip Festival that is pretty much all there is in Ottawa, meaning this is the worst of time in the Capital. Lucky those who can escape to Florida or warmer climes wherever they may be.

For me it will be a return to my volunteer activities, reading and being a pillow to my dogs.
I am reading the new biography of Johnny Cash by Robert Hilbrun, a fascinating book, I can see why it got such good reviews.  I am not a Cash fan but he was a popular music figure while I grew up and remember him from the 1970's.

As for being a pillow for my dogs, well the hounds have decided that they can just sleep on us whenever they feel like it. Just climb on top and make themselves comfortable. They go into a deep sleep and weigh more than elephants. After a while you have to move them, to which they do not take kindly, giving you sleepy eyes dirty looks, uncomprehending.

Of course Nicky can be bought off for the price of a cookie, just say the word ''Biscuit'' and he stares at you the way wolves do before the kill. Biscuit is an important word not to be fooled with. Nora is the same though not so obvious. She also will make herself comfortable on you but you won't be, it is very one sided. Hounds will be hounds I suppose.

SAKAHÀN International Indigenous Art Exhibit

The new summer show at the National Gallery of Canada has opened. I was instantly taken by this exhibit and its character, wonderful art, representing the various artists and indigeneous people from around the world, on exhibit the work of 75 artists from 16 countries, all with an indigenous history of conquest by foreign elements in all 150 works of art.

Sakahàn (to light a fire in Algonquin) is not only provocative but helps us to think about issues in our society, of conflicts, domination, dominant culture and contradictions, how we rationalize what has happened and possibly gain a better understanding.

In Canada, we, like elsewhere, are much influenced by our myths as a Nation, this exhibits challenges those officially sanctioned views or National myths. I am thinking here of the artist of Cree ancestry Kent Monkman and his painting ''The triumph of Mischief''. A disturbing piece for sure because of what it shows, it is a challenge to our Western Concepts. Monkman has in all his art work questioned the official version of history. Someone said that to believe Official History was the same as believing verbatim the word of a convicted criminal.  Monkman turns the tables on the viewer, it is the Indigenous man who has the upper hand not the colonialists.

The other exhibits from various parts of the world also shows the myths of countries like Australia, New Zealand, various African and Latin American countries.  The exhibit raises questions about suppressing cultures or rejecting cultural aspects which are not acceptable to Western ideas of culture in a Judeo-Christian frame.

No doubt many attending this exhibit will feel uncomfortable. I listened to some comments around me, one person questioned the painting presented, was the scenery real, did it really exist. According to the explanation in the exhibit catalogue, it was Yosemite Park. Still this person questioned if this was true.

Another art work portrayed a person in 3 different poses, all were different but this person looking at them voiced the comment that there was no difference. While another walked right by the work in question and other works as if seeing nothing but looking instead for the Exit. The eyes would not see what was obvious. Many of the art work portrays naked bodies, naked in the way nature intended them to be, basically unclothed humans, nothing more. Some show indigenous people in a dominant position compared to western people in a submissive attitude. There are erect phallus, but it is an arousal that is natural and not aggressive nor shown in a commercial pornographic way, but in a natural almost medical text book setting, but also mischievous. From the reactions around me, I would gather that these works are seen as threatening to some.

There is much exploration of the Berdache type of person in the native Canadian concept, this duality of personality, transgender or of the Indigenous Dandy type which is acceptable in the European Dandy model but not so in the Canadian Indigenous model.

This exhibit is refreshing because it present indigenous people and their artwork and culture as they are and not as we would like them to be or as we define them. The message is '' I can be an indigenous person with traditional beliefs and modern all at the same time''.

An interesting note, when the first white settlers came to Australia they declared that the continent was un-inhabited, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of Maoris lived there, the settlers saw them as non-persons, non-humans, in other words no one lived there.

A wonderful exhibit well worth seeing if for no other purpose than to educate oneself. It is curated by Greg A. Hill, Christine Lalonde and Candice Hopkins. See website:

 www.gallery.ca/sakahan

24 March

Today is my birthday, many friends have sent good wishes and I thank them all.

We are now in Spring time Canadian style which means that snow is still on the ground. Though it is still winter weather in parts of Europe too, but warmer weather is just around the corner.

In 2011 photo taken in Vienna at the Hofburg Palace.

Today 24 March 2013 at Le Café, Centre national des Arts, Ottawa

This Begonia Bonsai is my birthday gift from Will, Nicky and Nora