Why?

It's obvious.  Natives are overwhelmingly the majority in Canadian federal prisons because they have committed the offenses for which they have been convicted and sent there.  Currently, natives make up more than 30% of all inmate population and yet they comprise only two percent of the population.

Instead of being outraged by these numbers, journalists should start asking why that's the case?  Furthermore, while native numbers in jails have increased by 20% since 2010, non-natives have decreased by 14%.  In spite of bend-over-backwards efforts to ensure natives are legitimately convicted by the courts, and not discriminated against, the numbers just keep increasing.

"The fact that the numbers are getting worse despite multiple reports from the Correctional Investigator's office is an indication of failure to fix the problem," said NDPer Jack Harris.  "It's a significant human rights issue," he added.

Really?  Canadians are failing to "fix the problem"?  Who's the cause of the "problem"? I'd ask.  Non-native Canadians?  And of course, the blame is still being put at the feet of residential schools -- in spite of the fact that the majority of natives currently incarcerated have never set foot in one.  Just to top it off, Canadians are now financing a $120 million "investment" to support the reintegration of previously-incarcerated natives.

Sorry, but it's another OMG! here.  And apparently, black inmates are now accusing "the system"  of discrimination and gang stereotyping.  In response, they too will be provided with "culturally responsive services, programming and interventions," whatever that means?!?!  I shudder to think.

A disaster

That's what Meghan Markle has visited upon the Royal Family -- or "The Firm", as it is known.  I first smelled a rat when she said she really hadn't known anything about Harry until she had met him.  She then doubled down and had an elaborate, virginal white wedding after having been married before.  That does not work.

It's been all downhill from there. Guess her family -- including her father -- was right when they said she was a self-centred b-tch with whom they wanted nothing to do.

Poor Harry.  He has taken off his big-boy pants and insisted Markle wear them.  She does.  With gusto.  Didn't take her long to decamp to Los Angeles, where she is much more comfortable.  Having to play second, third or forth fiddle to Catherine, Sophie and Anne would not sit well with her.  She has clambered and clawed her way up and is now dragging poor cuckold Harry down with her to dart among the freeways of California.  At least they will not be embarrassing Her Majesty under her nose.  Seems Harry is more like his mother than we'd like.  Diana, by the way, was a narcissistic distraction for The Monarchy.  Sadly, Harry is the same. 

It's all so sad -- especially when Andrew has just been told to stand down.  Apparently, Charles and William are white with rage that Meghan just announced -- willynilly -- that she and Harry will be resigning from their duties without even discussing it with The Queen.  Who does that?!  The Queen will have to strip them of their titles, no question.  After dipping extravagantly into the public purse to renovate Frogmore Cottage, Meghan has shat upon and flown the coop.

Ah well, that's Americans for you.  In the past, kings and princes kept actresses as mistresses.  They didn't marry them.

Huh?!

OK, you join the army and are sent to a Canadian or NATO base somewhere.  Presumably, the location of that base has been strategically chosen for the part of the world in which it is located -- you know, should some conflict arise so Canada could step in and help.

A conflict arises, this time in Iran.  Now, remember, you are a soldier.  But what happens?  The Chief of the Canadian Defence Staff, Jonathan Vance, sends you to a safer place so you won't get hurt.  Whaaaat?!  Huh?!?!  You're a soldier in the army, a conflict comes up and you are immediately shipped off.  And not only that, Vance sends your family a reassuring letter apologizing for any risk and assuring them you'll be safe.

How effing dumb is that?!  Must make every soldier who fought and died in other wars turn over in their graves.  And speaking of dumb, Canada has been in Afghanistan for 18 years, trying to train up the local "army" and what have we got to show for it?  Nothing -- except a couple of hundred dead soldiers.

How pathetic.

Letters to the editor

Here are two letters I wrote to the editor of The Calgary Herald, which may be published (but probably not).  It is difficult to write anything critical of natives because political correctness is soooooo rampant when it comes to the subject:

Dear Editor,

It should not be surprising – or even in doubt – that the courts have ruled the BC pipeline can proceed, in spite of opposition from some First Nations.  The Canadian constitution states that projects in the national interest, i.e., railways and pipelines for example, take precedence over provincial and territorial law – including “Indigenous Law”.  

Indigenous people live on Crown Land given for their exclusive use.  However, such lands are not “owned” by the Indigenous peoples.  All Crown Land – Indigenous or otherwise -- is owned by The Crown and subsequently delegated for use as the Canadian government and its citizens decide.  With more than 600 Indigenous tribes in Canada, allowing some to restrict development would severely impede any project deemed in the national interest.  If “Hereditary” chiefs are included, numbers double.  Were every band, every elected chief and every hereditary chief to decide to block or obstruct every project, chaos would cripple progress.

That is not the way forward, given Alberta’s gloomy economic forecast.

__________________________________________________

Dear Editor,

For the B.C. Coastal GasLink pipeline project to have received approval, the company would have had to have met every stringent legal and environmental condition and regulation imposed upon it.  Otherwise it would not have been approved by the courts.  For the Wet’suwet’en First Nation to continue to oppose this project ignores the fact that oil and gas generate much of the wealth required to fund Canada’s First Nations. 

In other words, what’s in the ground is where the money comes from.  You have to get it out to convert it into funding.

The kid was 11...

...but he knew all about Jackie Robinson.  What the......?!!  We were watching a baseball game at lunch and a black kid was intently watching with us.  Trying to be a smart-a--, B asked the boy if he knew who the first black man to play in the pros and Ari, the kid, said, "Jackie Robinson."  I was floored.  Wow!

This was during our Christmas trip to Toronto to visit our son.  The flight there was the usual kerfufle of coach people trying to use the first-class washroom and jamming carry-ons into two or three overhead bins rows away from their own seats.  That really pisses me off.  Actually, both MO's piss me off.  The last time we flew first-class, the stewardesses let anyone and everyone use the washroom for which we had paid handsomely for exclusive access.  "Well, what can we say to them?" said one when I asked why she was letting everyone use it.  How about, "It's back there."

Sorry, but when I pay, I expect a few perks.

The visit was wonderful.  We stayed in a (very cheap) hotel, the accoutrements of which indicated just how cheap it was.  Yuck.  But Christmas dinner at the Royal York was perfect -- except for the $500 we shelled out for three people.  Really?  Here we are:

Here are a couple of observations about the "Centre of the Universe":

• The city is at least 80% ethnic, and
• Torontonians are very rude.

We hosted an unorthodox, but lovely, family reunion with a daughter my ex had with a girlfriend after our divorce.  Who knew?  She found us a few months ago and we all got together.  Here we are at lunch:

Eavesdropping, I heard a couple of guys debating tennis.  Naturally, I butted in.  "Lobs are nothing but defensive tennis,"said one, when I remarked that baseline-pounding tennis was boring.  "All the points in baseline-pounding are losers," I added.  "The point ends when someone hits it out, or into the net.  There are no winners like there were back in the Edberg/Navratilova era."  

"I'm getting training for my daughter so she can pound it into the corners and paint the lines," he announced.  "Well, then she'll lose," I said.  All the great players play defensively when they have to, I explained.  But when I called into question the thousands he was paying out so his daughter would never make the big leagues, the conversation came to an abrupt end. 

Turning to the bar tender, who was talking about "hat tricks", I asked, "Do you know where that expression came from?" I asked.  He didn't.  "It began with a haberdasher on Yonge Street here in Toronto who gave a free hat to any player who scored three goals in the game."  What else didn't he know?  Where the name "Habs" had come from.  "Les Habitants," I told him.  Short-form:  Habs.  

Sometimes, old folks know stuff.  But then, like Ari, so do young ones.