Things have changed

After dragging their heels for years, the last of the many native bands -- the Athabasca Chipewyan, lead by Allan Adam -- finally signed off on the Teck project.  Ten minutes later, Teck pulled out.  Kind'a serves everyone right on all sides.

What this means is that native approval, once touted as the route to getting such projects done for the betterment of their people, no longer means a thing.  So, that dithering just backfired in everyone's faces.  That has changed.

Writing in The Herald yesterday, columnist Chris Nelson said his heart sank when he saw young children being brought along to various protest rallies and blockades.  "Yep, there go the next 30 years,  We'll be consulting, apologizing and reconciling to them too when they're well into middle age.  The seed is now planted and it's planted deep(ly)," he wrote.

Made me think of a native I know who said, "Don't worry, I have taught my daughters well.  They will have long memories."  How does this help anything?!  That component of the mess, sadly, hasn't changed.

This approach helps nothing, but it's happening anyway.  Puts me in mind of the slogan on the Quebec licence plate:  "Je me souviens."

Oh dear, oh dear...............

A bit of a gap

I look at the picture of these women and say, "Really?  You two are standing up for sexual assault victims?  How credible is it for two dyed-blondes, who evidently have become blondes on purpose, to be in those jobs?  The image they project is -- and has been since the original "blonde bombshell" Marilyn Monroe -- one of a sexualized nature.  And here's a tip:  Your best-before bombshell dates have long expired. 

The one on the left is CEO of the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton and on the other is with the Edmonton Police Service Sexual Section.  Sorry, but in my opinion, neither look matches the jobs they're in.    

The Alberta way

Driving back from Cochrane yesterday, grandkids in the back, taught me something:  I will never complain about young men in big trucks again!

The grands were sugared up from a couple of birthday parties, so we know what that means:  Squabbling, yelling and fighting.  Hoping to calm things down, I pulled off on a deserted side road to deliver a minor tongue-lashing about safety, no fooling around, etc.  Making a U-turn to get back on the highway, my front wheels promptly jammed into deep soft snow I had thought was part of the solid road.  Wrong.  "Oh shit," I muttered, realizing I was hopelessly stuck.

Getting out of the car, I was amazed to see another motorist and his wife turn in and stop.  "How can we help?  Can we drive you home?"  Without even getting a chance to think and reply, a big truck, driven by a young man, also pulled in.  Right behind him was another young guy in a truck.  "No worries, I have a tow rope in the back and we'll have you out in a couple of minutes," one of them said.  "Let me get behind the wheel while he pulls you out," said the other. 

And just like that, they had me safely out in fewer than five minutes.  Otherwise, things would have taken a lot longer. 

Telling this to my son-in-law, when he came by to pick up the kids this morning, he said, "Ya, well that's the Alberta way."  Not only am I grateful, I have been chastened.   

This is appalling!

The city of Thompson, Manitoba with 13,446 residents pay its mayor, deputy mayor and council members a total of $80,474.45 annually for taxable salaries and per diems (the mayor's annual indemnity is $29,745.45 per annum, council members are paid $9,915.15 per annum and the deputy mayor gets $11,068.40 per annum). Brokenhead Ojibway Nation with a registered population of 1,918 paying their FN chief and band council members a total of $415,357 in TAX-FREE salaries AND per diems plus $1,557,766 in tobacco and fuel tax rebates. Long Plains First Nation @ Portage La Prairie with a registered population of 813 paying their FN chief and band council members a total of $539,918 in tax-free salaries and per diems. Little Grand Rapids First Nation with a registered population of 1,590 paying their FN chief and band council members a total of $706,182 in tax-free salaries and per diems. Buffalo Point First Nation with a registered population of 126 paying their FN chief and band council members a total of $300,000 in tax-free salaries and per diems. Shoal Lake No. 40 First Nation in Ontario with a registered on-reserve population of 293 people paid their FN chief and band council $267,799 in tax-free salaries never mind $58,930 in tax-free expenses. Mathias Colomb First Nation with a registered population of 3,192 paying their FN chief and band council members a total of $601,726 in tax-free salaries and per diems. Samson Cree First Nation with a registered population of 8,059 paying their FN chief and band council members a total of $2,149,998 in tax-free salaries and per diems ($266.78 per capita). Fort McKay First Nation with a registered population of 827 (It’s not a typo, it’s 827) paying their FN chief and band council members a total of $2,067,098 in tax-free salaries and per diems, never mind $151,428 in travel expenses ($2,499.51 per capita). Chief Jim Boucher was paid an annual tax-free salary of $644,441 tax-free ($53,703 per month), AND tax-free expenses of $35,359 ($2,947 per month), AND tax-free other remuneration $25,000 ($2,083 per month) AND tax-free travel expenses of $60,157 ($5,013 per month)!!!!! Per month!!! Enoch Cree First Nation with a registered population of 2,469 paying their FN chief and band council members a total of $1,159,707 in tax-free salaries and per diems never mind $84,030 in travel expenses ($503.74 per capita). Also, Enoch Cree First Nation are also paying their Board of Directors $1,511,457 in tax-free salaries and tax-free expenses. No wonder there is poverty,  poor housing, no health facilities; the money can’t seem to get past the chief and council ! The money is certainly not getting to residents of the reserves.

The inconvenient truth that MUST be told

Rail blockades could turn into a full-blown secession crisis

The government stand that it does not want to “inflame” the blockade situation is pure cowardice.

The nation is being blackmailed and we must never agree to pay a ransom to appease a few

bullies who are pressing dubious claims of having sovereignty that pre-dates confederation.

As MS Francis observes below, “Such lawlessness has been emboldened since 2015,

when Trudeau decided the federal government would not enforce the First Nations Financial

Transparency Act.”
Having waived accountability, our government is shovelling funds to indigenous people.

2019-20 transfer spending for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

Transfer payments for Negotiations of Claims and Self-Government Agreements $140,082,583 $140,082,583 Transfer payments for Specific Claims $683,719,699 $683,719,699 Transfer payments for Management and Implementation of Agreements and Treaties $1,016,898,027 $1,016,898,027 Transfer payments for Consultation and Accommodation $600,000 $600,000 Transfer payments for Consultation and Policy Development $33,080,295 $33,080,295 Transfer payments for Federal Interlocutor's Contribution Program $79,591,830 $79,591,830 Transfer payments for Basic Organizational Capacity $25,285,531 $25,285,531 Transfer payments for First Nation Jurisdiction Over Land and Economic Development $80,397,462 $80,397,462 Transfer payments for Northern and Arctic Governance and Partnerships $108,867,172 $108,867,172 Transfer payments for Individual Affairs $5,455,720 $5,455,720 Transfer payments for Residential Schools Resolution $1,000,000 $1,000,000 Transfer payments for Indigenous Entrepreneurship and Business Development $43,670,000 $43,670,000 Transfer payments for Economic Development Capacity and Readiness $99,174,748 $99,174,478 Transfer payments for Land, Natural Resources and Environmental Management $139,304,896 $139,304,896 Transfer payments for Climate Change Adaptation and Clean Energy $32,550,000 $32,550,000 Transfer payments for Northern and Arctic Environmental Sustainability $8,956,499 $8,956,499 Transfer payments for Northern Contaminated Sites $95,317,628 $86,443,610 Transfer payments for Nutrition North $95,317,628 $95,317,628 TOTAL $2,680,395,430 $2,680,395,430

It appears that about $2.6+ billion of the transfers are to offset legal costs incurred by Indigenous bands. In short, taxpayers are funding Indigenous tribes to sue us. Activists blocking highways and rail lines have good reason to believe the federal government will not hold them to account. This illusion can be dealt with. Start with arresting and detaining all protesters who engage in the disruption of or access to government or private services. Make a peace bond a condition of bail. Do not impose fines; require a few hundred hours of community service with the alternative of time in jail. Indigenous hereditary chiefs are trying to impose 17th century rule by kings on a portion of Canada. Like their counterparts in Europe and Africa they live in obscurity dreaming of a day when they can exercise the powers of their ancestors. Royalty in a democracy has a tough road to travel.  Claims by hereditary chiefs that their sovereignty precedes confederation and “colonial law” repeals the human and charter rights of the people living on the lands claimed and negates the common law protections for order and peace. A successful claim by hereditary chiefs would mean that residents in the area would receive no services or support from the federal and provincial governments they refuse to recognize. Imposing a royal prerogative cuts two ways. There can be no negotiations with hereditary indigenous chiefs until they can prove conclusively that most residents living on the land that they claim accept the chiefs as their leaders.  Land claims are one thing and can be argued in court. Claims that inherited rights include the rule of people under royal entitlement is not acceptable in any free world nation. Too much blood has been shed to break the arbitrary rule of kings for us to ever go back to those horrors.                                                     *********************************** Rail blockades could turn into a full-blown secession crisis — and Trudeau's government is to blame Five years of pandering and subsidising 632 First Nations leaders has led to this catastrophe Diane Francis National Post February 13, 2020 The illegal road and rail blockades perpetrated by Indigenous radicals across the country are not about pipelines or fossil fuels. It’s an existential threat to Canada and its sovereignty — and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is to blame. Five years of pandering and subsidizing 632 First Nations leaders has led to this catastrophe, which is being spearheaded by five unelected hereditary chiefs in British Columbia who claim their nation — the Wet’suwet’en — is exempt from Canadian laws and regulations. They claim sovereignty over a 22,000-square-kilometre swath of land, an area the size of Israel, and have successfully invoked nationwide solidarity protests that have crippled portions of the country’s rail system.      Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders and their accomplices have defied court orders and ignored agreements signed by 20 band councils, including their own. The issue at hand is the building of a 670-kilometre gas pipeline to a $40-billion LNG plant on the coast, but at stake is the future of Canada itself.     On Dec. 31, the B.C. Supreme Court ordered protesters to allow workers access to a remote logging road in northern B.C. But Wet’suwet’en activists continued to block the road and, days later, 28 were arrested (six of whom were released without charges). Now, dozens of arrests have followed across the country.      Such lawlessness has been emboldened since 2015, when Trudeau decided the federal government would not enforce the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. The law requires Indigenous leaders, often inherited chiefs, to be accountable and transparent by forcing them to publish audits of band expenses, including their compensation. Along the way, Ottawa has also sidestepped disputes involving corruption, rigged elections, no elections, nepotism and charter rights violations.      By ceding its oversight powers to band chiefs and councils, without checks and balances, or any semblance of accountability, the feds have allowed the rights of the Indigenous people who fall under the control of these chiefs and councils to be trampled upon, according to Indigenous lawyer and activist Catherine Twinn. Now, the rights of all Canadians are being trampled on.      Read on: https://nationalpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-rail-blockades-could-turn-into-a-full-blown-secession-crisis-and-trudeaus-government-is-to-blame/wcm/37ffc56a-86d4-45ba-bdbb-64b5cb5c56bb John Feldsted Political commentator, consultant & strategist Winnipeg, Manitoba

Seriously?

The airwaves are full of people on cruise ships complaining about being in quarantine.  Really?  The Canadian taxpayer will now be footing the bill for your trip home, so shut up.  Please.  I have absolutely no sympathy for you.

Reminds me of the Lebanese "Canadians" who screamed when they moved to Lebanon and were trapped in a civil war a few years ago. We had to fork over for these ex-pats too -- some of whom had been living there for years!  There are many, many "something-or-other" Canadians who live here for convenience, but aren't really "Canadian" and have no intentions of ever being so.  And let's not forget the heavily-pregnant Chinese tourists who come here to give birth so their kids can be "Canadian" and get them back in when they need health care.  This is a booming industry!  Sickening.

Heard a "Chinese-Canadian" charging that Norwegian Cruise Lines was "racist" because they had cancelled all bookings for anyone holding a Chinese passport. This woman held Chinese and Canadian passports and called the whole thing "racism".

Complete bullsh-t.  None of this is racist.  We are all one race:  The human race.  Everything else is cultural.  But frankly, Canada should not let its citizens hold two passports.  You are either a "Canadian" or you are not.
____________________________________________

Oh, and as an afterthought, Bombardier was $9 billion in debt before it dumped all its manufacturing, save one.  Hey folks, that's after you and I have dumped millions -- or was it billions -- into it!  The Beaudoin's should be jailed.

What's going on?!

Apparently, Canadian university students are experiencing crises of mental health issues.  Huh!?  What's going on?  When I was at university, no one had these issues -- at least no one I knew.  How did we handle pressure?  Hit the student bars, as I recall.

It's all very sad because frankly, unless you are going into medicine, dentistry, engineering, architecture or law, don't bother with university.  All other disciplines are luxurious wastes of time, in my opinion.  I mean, fascinating and charming though it may be, what can you do with a degree in philosophy?

I took English, which was useless even back in 1968 when I graduated from Carleton.  We had brilliant professors, mainly from England, and I loved it all, but B.A. in English?  Where does that take you?  Luckily, I landed a job in the advertising department of IBM Canada.  But that was an embarrassing fluke.  I had moved to Toronto and pounded the pavement to a bunch of advertising agencies on the advice of a then-boyfriend, who worked in one.  He suggested I go through magazines and re-write ads and present them to creative directors who interviewed me.  So I did.

After getting rejection after rejection, I ended up in the office of one kind, middle-aged man who again told me to forget it.  At that point, laid low and rejected yet again, I burst into tears.  The poor guy was so taken aback, he jumped up and said, "You poor thing, you're probably hungry.  I guess you haven't eaten in a while.  Let me buy you lunch."  So he did.  After lunch, he phoned one of their biggest clients, which happened to be IBM, and got me an interview.

I went and got the job.  How?  By crying.  I then moved on to Maclean-Hunter, the 'Mad Men' of the day, where I had a ball and indulged many very naughty, sixties things.  We all smoked all the time, drank in the office, partied and....well...."socialized" very intimately with each other.  I also learned to be a fairly decent writer, thanks to a brutal editor named Jean Portugal.  Her red pen had a field day with my copy because in those days of hot type, every word cost money.  To this day, I have yet to read anything I don't mentally cut to shreds.

So, to those innocent university students, toiling away in emotional and psychological agony, I say:  Get yourself to a community college and get a degree in something which will make you employable.  Please, please don't keep committing suicide.  The other thing you might consider is falling on your knees and asking God for help.  As scripture says, ask and the door shall be opened.  Might put a whole bunch of psychiatrists out of business. 

A great loss

Journalist Christie Blatchford has died.  I am stunned.  I knew her (sort-of) when I worked for Maclean-Hunter in Toronto in the late sixties and early seventies.  I was on the editorial staff of a number of trade publications, but Christie was already writing for consumer publications.  Back then, I was part of a team that organized an editorial conference and I invited her to speak on a panel.  The topic was, "Interviewing men, why women do it better."  Can you believe that?!

I actually believed -- and still believe -- that women are better at getting to the heart of men than male journalists are.  Something about sexuality and male/female stuff is at work there.  She completely agreed and was so great on the panel.  The fact that I put myself on the same panel surprises me, when I look back.  I thought we were about the same age, but it turns out I am four years older.

I admired everything about her.  We actually went out drinking after the conference was over.  Can you believe that?!  She died of lung cancer, can't remember if she smoked, but back then we all did.  We all smoked everywhere-all-the-time; the office was 'Mad Men'.  I know that a number of years ago she decided to get fit and started running regularly.  But the smoking must have caught up with her.

One of the things I do remember was (is this grammatically correct?  Anyone?) her columns on the death of her mother, not that long ago.  It was around the time I had lost mine and she talked about how she did her mother's laundry separately from hers until she finally just did both together.  I did that too, for a while.  Weird.  She was a bitch, but in a good way.  She had definitely earned it!

She was a role model because she was so "male" -- something B always tells me I am, while still being "female".  Go figure.  B is on the board of our condo corporation and the rest of the board is made up of all women.  They all vote as a block against B because he is a man.  I got so fed up, I wrote a letter to one who might still be young enough to maybe "get it".  I am sure Christie would have agree with what I have written.  Did this 35-year-old woman even reply?  No.  Here is my note to this misguided young woman:
________________________________________     

Good morning, blank,

I just have to say, as a professional woman who went to the barricades in the late sixties to protect and expand the rights of working women, I am absolutely dismayed at how unprofessional and personal the women on this board behave.  Brian was criticized and attacked for flagging the financial irregularities here and calling for an independent audit.  But instead of being respectfully heeded, he has been called confused, sad and suspicious by two women and when his suspicions were verified, neither had the integrity or grace to step up and apologize. 

As a matter of fact, the woman loudest, most off-base and personal in her comments has been on the board for 17 consecutive years, while all this has been going on.  Perhaps it is time for her to look in the mirror and take some responsibility for how this complex has been managed on her watch.  

I, and others in my cohort, did not fight for women’s rights to have females be so unprofessional and petty.  The fact that the women on this board are incapable of professional and gender-blind conduct is not what we fought for.

I write this personally, not as any defence of Brian (who does not know of this letter and can certainly defend himself, if he so chooses), but as a condemnation of how these two women behave.  Any woman unable to be objective renders herself a disgrace to our shared gender, in my view, and unworthy of what we fought for way back then. 

Never join in a “women’s chorus” just because you are of the same gender.  Be on the side of truth and integrity.  I hope you take this in the spirit with which it is intended.  Over my long career, I have counselled many young women who have gone on to break out of female stereotyping and made something of themselves.    

Regards,

Nancy 
____________________________________
Rest in Peace, Christie

This is untitled because I am so enraged.  Can't think of a title that would help?!  Here we have some poor schlep arrested by the RCMP for moving illegal blockades from tracks or roadways so he could get through illegal barricades.

And they arrest this law-abiding citizen and molly-coddle the criminal natives!?!?!?  OMG!?!?

Native after native after Indian is on the airwaves saying that they only obey Indigenous laws.  Whaaaat!!??  There is no such thing in Canadian society as Indigenous Law.  Maybe on the reserves, but in the rest of Canada, it doesn't exist.  Indian reserves are on Crown Land given them for their exclusive use.  It is not "unceded territory", as they claim.  It's Crown Land!

To hear all the Indian female and male hysterics raving on about the whole mess and claiming they are right -- after the courts have said they aren't -- is outrageous.  How in Gawd's name did Pam Palmeter get a law degree and a PhD?!  She is also a professor of something-or-other.  Completely ignorant about the Rule of Law and the Canadian Constitution.  Frankly, why does the government bow to these criminals?  They neither identify as "Canadian", nor vote, so who cares?!

I am so sick of it.  Here they are:

        

The gall

So, a guy from Sri Lanka comes to Canada seven years ago on a work permit, then promptly sponsors his wife and kid, then she promptly pumps out two more kids in Canada and now -- of course -- they want to stay.  Gee, big surprise!  They have been ordered back and now they media are wailing, the wife is crying and saying, "We followed all the rules, why do we have to go back?"  Because those are the rules, but you thought you'd skirt them by having a couple more kids as your ticket to bypass the system.

Same as all the border strollers.  What have there been, more than 50,000 of those?  And the thousands who have been unsuccessful and ordered to return, most have simply gone underground and disappeared. 

It's absolutely wrong, yet no one does anything about it.  As for the Sri Lankan wife, who claims she wants to be a Canadian and stay here, what has she been doing?  Teaching traditional Sri Lankan language and dance to other Sri Lankans in Canada.  How does that indicate she wants to integrate?  It doesn't.

When I think back to B's Scottish nephew who was refused by Canadian immigration authorities, when I think back to B's late British mother who was also refused -- even though we stepped up to sponsor both -- and when I think back to B himself, whose family waited in the immigration queue for seven years, it makes me wild.

Canada is such an effed up country. 

And the winner is......

Melania!  Of all the women at Trump's 'State of the Union' speech last night, the biggest winner was the First Lady herself.

There she was, looking absolutely gorgeous sitting in the presidential box.  By the way, ladies, she's living in the White House, she has the wardrobe, she has the jewellery and she has the president's ear.  This immigrant girl has captured the brass ring!  Sorry, all you bleating in the cheap seats, you are losers and you essentially have no power.

Pelosi's display was a disgrace, not only to her office, but also to her gender.  Is that the behaviour she wants young women and girls to emulate?  Sitting there sneering at the president and ripping up his speech in a grotesque display of hubris and post-menopausal hysteria.  I was disgusted.

And what was with all the harridans garbed in white, sitting in a block on the democratic side?  What was the white supposed to mean?  Purity and perfection?  Just appalling.  They looked like nothing more than a herd of lost heifers waiting for the field hand to tell them where to go next.  If Pelosi represents the best the democrats have got -- and if the Iowa vote is any indication -- the Democrats are doomed.  It'll be four more years. 

And there was their ignorant field hand, with her facelift(s) and her dyed hair, signalling which way they should look and when to clap.  As a woman, I was disgusted.  No, we certainly haven't "come a long way, baby". 

Here's the problem

Two headlines tell you what's wrong with Canada's natives:

Enough said.

Just got a PhD

Yep, must have because I know how to get kids to eat everything on their plates.  Tucked away in either The Globe or The Herald was a little article about how some researchers somewhere are trying to figure out how to solve the problem of the "picky eater".  Their "solution" was to give the kid three spoonfuls of something they liked and then three empty spoonfuls.  The theory was that because they ate the three they liked, they would simply be conditioned to chow down on the empty bites that followed in quick succession.

How stupid is that.

Any kid I have ever fed knows in a nano-second if he/she doesn't like what he/she just tasted.  I used to make all my baby food and as long as I mixed in a sweet potato (yam), that kid ate anything I gave it.  And I'm talkin' onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, liver, kidneys, fish, brussel sprouts, broccoli, spinach -- anything.

As a kid got older, if it didn't like what was on offer for dinner, he/she was served it for breakfast.  Cold.  "Can you please heat this up," was requested once.  "No, this is not supposed to be pleasant."  That only had to happen once with each kid and subsequent plates of.....whatever.....were cleaned with rapidity.

I have actually heard mothers lamenting the fact that they have to make three and four meals at dinner because this one didn't like this and that one didn't like that....blah, blah, blah.  What is wrong with these women?!  As I kid, I can remember sitting in front of a plate of liver until 11 o'clock at night.  But I ate it because any such test of wills was always won by my mother.

As to eating disorders?  All these spoiled brats need to think of are the billions around the world who are starving.  That would do it, in my view. 

So, that's my PhD thesis, done and dusted.