Can't change these cultures

Why is everyone surprised that sexual harassment happens in sports, regardless of neither the gender of the perpetrator, nor that of the victim?  Why is it a surprise that it happens in politics, on the Hill, in the offices of ministers?  Why the shock when it happens in the world of entertainment, or even the workplace in general?  And, most obvious, why is it a jolt in the hierarchical military?

Professional athletes never grow up and are at the mercy of coaches and trainers who tell them how talented and special they are.  They believe it.  They also believe that their coaches are all-powerful -- people who can make or break their careers, which is true.  The diddlers thrive in this environment and prey on vulnerable players who may have to live far from home without the protection, love and guardianship of their families.

People who insist this culture has to change are living in a fantasy.  It won't because parents push these kids from a very young age to achieve greatness and reap the truckloads of money that go along with it.  That's just the way it is, tragic, but it won't change unless every kid who is molested comes forward immediately and reports it.  Many did, but were ignored.  However, with the publicity and light that is being shone on the abuse in the public thoroughfare, maybe it will stop.

As for politics, powerful ministers and MPs have total control over their staffs.  I should know because I worked for a couple on contract back in the seventies, before I joined the public service and found safety and security.  Both -- as well as male members of their staffs -- came on to me repeatedly, inferring that my job security was at their mercy and in their control and that I had to "put out", as the degrading description implies, if I wanted to succeed.  I won't tell you how that turned out, but suffice to say it was an unpleasant line I was forced to tread.

During my time in the private sector, working for DuPont of Canada, IBM and Maclean-Hunter in Toronto, I can't tell you how many times a boss or colleague knocked on my hotel room door at midnight during business trips, hoping to come in for a so-called "night cap".  Again, my lips are sealed, but I was certainly vulnerable and had to navigate, cajole and humour such boors and suitors in such a way so as to not "offend" them with refusals.  

In the entertainment industry, the "casting couch" is where the future of many a star lay, so to speak.  No need to go on more about this obvious predicament. 

But the most obvious milieu where sexual harassment is rampant is the military.  As I said, it's a hierarchical workplace, where rank is well-defined and to which serving members rigidly adhere.  Notice the word "serving" in there?  That's the key.  You join the military and you do what your superiors order you to.  As a snarling Jack Nicholson so succinctly put it to Tom Cruise in 'A Few Good Men':  "You follow orders son, or people die."  That attitude and culture often bleeds over to the police (including the RCMP, where Lucki has basically done nothing) -- another place where, with the wrong chief, toxicity can also thrive.  

So, there you have it:  Nothing will change.                

We're being had

 

At Last – someone speaks with some brains.

 

Sobering perspective on ‘net zero by 2050’ from Vaclav Smil

 

Dr Vaclav Smil, global thought leader and the go-to guy for Bill Gates on the future of energy and resources, delivered an incendiary start to the Credit Suisse Asia-Pacific ESG conference last week.

Asked for his thoughts on how to transition energy in the middle of an energy crisis, he said this was the wrong question.

Sure, Glasgow can have its group hug at COP26 but Smil says targets and forecasts are of no use when the world is fundamentally, overwhelmingly a fossil fuel civilisation.

“Next time when you take a chicken breast, that’s one cup of diesel fuel behind it. A small steak, depending on the cut, is nine to 10 cups of diesel fuel, unless it’s an Australian grass fed steak. Most beef is finished in feed yards,” he says. Tractors, combines, trucks and ships mean transport costs more than the food itself.

The emeritus professor from Manitoba University in Canada reads around 70 books a year, outside his brief, and has so far written 45 of his own. All of his are reportedly read assiduously by Gates, who apparently waits on them like a new episode of Succession.

 

Smil pitched a barrage of problems to a slightly stunned investment audience.

 

The world gets 83 per cent of its energy from fossils. For the Middle East that number is 99 per cent, Australia 91 per cent, China 87 per cent, the US 83 per cent. Germany spent 20 years turning itself green but it is still 78 per cent fossil fuels.

 

Since the first global climate meeting in 1992, the world has only achieved a drop from 87 to 83 per cent fossil fuels.

 

In absolute terms, the amount of fossil fuel has increased.  “Now I am told in the next 30 years by 2050, we are going to go from 83 per cent to zero. That strains one’s imagination. We are burning more than 10 billion tonnes of fossil fuels and we are dependent, in every facet of existence.”

 

Smil starts with eating: nitrogen fertiliser, where the main input is gas. Without it, he says we could feed only half the world. There is no ready replacement for ammonia synthesis at scale.

 

Then to heating, which for the northern hemisphere in particular is a human right. The threat of a winter of discontent in Europe and Britain comes just ahead of Glasgow. And lastly there’s the world’s dependence on the four pillars of civilisation: steel, ammonia, cement and plastics, all of which use fossil fuels.

Dr Vaclav Smil.

Smil has no argument about global warming, something he says was acknowledged in 1860. Nor has he an issue with transition, where he sees gas playing a central role. It is the pace of the transition, pushed by organisations like the International Energy Agency, that he believes to be cuckoo.

 

“We are in the very early stages of transition from fossil fuels to something else,” he says. “It took us 100 years to go from wood to 50 per cent coal, 100 years to go from zero oil to about 40 per cent oil. It has taken us so far about 70 years to go from zero gas to about 25 per cent gas.

 

“These transitions are always unfolding, always at their own sweet pace. This could be accelerated, but within reason. You can’t say ‘by 2030 or by 2035’ – it doesn’t work that way.”

 

The reason is that with fossil fuels action needs to be taken at the same time on every front.  Yet the West can barely solve one problem at a time.

The pace of transition is where Smil and Gates part company. Innovation is the DNA of the Microsoft founder, who believes new technology like hydrogen is the answer.  “Bill is an American,” says Smil. “Americans are optimists. They think that they can invent their way out of some problems.”

He points to the Covid-19 vaccine breakthrough.  “Putting it together was no problem, but making it into billions was a problem. We have overcome that, but now 10 to 20 per cent don’t want to take the vaccines, marching through the streets and saying ‘my body, my choice’. Technical solutions don’t solve everything.”

 

Smil remains sceptical of progress in technology. Take the efforts being made to replace diesel container ships that underpin world supply chains.

“The Norwegians put into operation the first electric container ship just this year with 120 containers. It goes about 30 nautical miles. The biggest container ships in the world carry 24,000 containers, can go easily 13,000 nautical miles.”

 

And 20 years since talk began on electric cars, he says, the world has 7 million, with 1.2 billion internal combustion engines still on the road. The 2050 “net zero” target also involves massive amounts of carbon being captured underground, a challenge of scale that looks bleak.

 

Until all five big emitters pitch in to cut emissions – China, the US, the EU, Russia and India – Smil predicts any change will be small, perhaps a fall from 36 billion tonnes of emissions a year to 32 billion. “Neither China, India or Russia is rushing to sign on any dotted line.”

 

Asked what the world will look like in 2050 if it does not meet the 2050 target, Smil says simply: that depends. Perhaps France’s Macron will have convinced the EU to accept nuclear.

 

“We are not powerless, we are always changing – just not at the pace people would imagine it should be now. We have raised expectations too much,” Smil says.

“We’ve got into this habit that anyone can forecast. No, anything beyond about six weeks, it’s not even guessing. A fairytale. Thirty years ago in 1991, there was still the USSR, and China was a minor economy. China’s economy has multiplied 14 times.

 

“Would someone in 1991 have forecast there would be no USSR by now and China would expand and that global warming would be the No.1 international issue? It certainly wasn’t in 1991.”

 

The climate crisis at that time was acid rain. And the world did solve it, and moved on.

This I don't get?

Why is the pope coming to Canada to apologize to natives?  All decisions on schooling were independently made by Canadian bishops -- not the Vatican.  The pope, while he may have other sorry's to say, has nothing to apologize for on this file.  

The same applies to the folly of the Mohawks a few years ago, when they sent a delegation to present a petition directly to Her Majesty.  She, correctly, did not receive them.  And remember when a group paddled a canoe to New York to table their grievances with the United Nations?  Fizzled out too.

Speaking of natives, another move puzzles me.  Just when everyone else is torching and burning the native names and symbols of their sports teams, the University of British Columbia is working with Indigenous groups in BC to research and safeguard the name "UBC Thunderbirds".      

Weird?  Probably because it would be too expensive to chuck all the flags, banners and uniforms and start over.  Everything's always about money.

Speaking of flags, I am impressed with a veteran named Ray Deer, of Kahnawake.  He is the spokesman for the Legion there and wants the flags, lowered on May 30th for missing native children, to be raised immediately.  So does Rick Hillier, who was so apoplectic during the interview he gave 'The National Post' he had to pull his car over for safety reasons.

This is about Remembrance Day, which is fast approaching, but will crash into the already lowered flags.  General Hillier, along with Ray Deer, thinks they should have been raised a long time ago, which Deer did in Kahnawake after 30 days.  Both are very concerned about how the rituals of learning and remembrance can be observed if the integral aspect of lowering flags can't be carried out because they're already lowered?  

As usual, Trudeau is giving the finger to vets.  Runs in the family because, as you will recall, his father skipped town during WW II and wandered about in China.  So disgraceful.  

_________________

I started to write about something else in this blog, but have now completely forgotten the topic?!  If it returns, I'll get back to you.

Who picked the art?

Last time I checked, the governor general was the representative of the Crown in this country.  Last time I was in that hall, a magnificent painting of Her Majesty graced the main wall.  Not now.  Now it has been replaced by a huge, hideous painting that could have been done my one of my grands.

I know, I know, it's modern art, but from my perspective, modern art is really a business, with what is considered "good" or "great" being decided by gallery owners who will profit from the prices pieces fetch.  I've been in that beautiful room many times, most memorably when I ran the 'Vincent Massey Awards for Excellence in the Urban Environment' in 1976.  We had our awards' ceremony there and Elizabeth II presided from her perch on the wall in all Her magnificent glory.

Anyway, as usual, I digress.  One would think that as the Queen is Head of State of this country and that Rideau Hall is Her Majesty's home when she is here, her likeness would -- and must -- be front-and-centre in the main ballroom of the place.

But, not now.  Very wrong, in my view.  The other thing I'm noticing is that the entire swearing-in ceremony is being led by Indigenous people, who are welcoming folks to "unceded" Algonquin territory.  Wonder how Caroline Bennett feels, after having been kicked out of that portfolio for basically doing nothing on the file for a number of years except wear beaded outfits?

This is all in keeping after the feds announced another $308 million for the unearthing of graves at former residential schools to find....uh....the remains of children and others who died of widespread, prevalent pre-vaccine diseases -- not intentionally murdered by those who ran the schools.  

I had to chuckle watching the interview with former PM Jean Chretien on Sunday, when he talked about residential schools and mentioned that he himself had attended a boarding school from age six to 21.  As you know, that's what I have said many times, that these were boarding schools -- harsh, yes, but you got a good education while you were there.  Naturally, he was pummeled in the public thoroughfare for daring to even compare residential schools to boarding schools.  Cindy Blackstock went insane because she gets her money perpetuating the plight of native children in care.  (Why they are in care is another matter, always glossed over.)

So, there you have it, the new 39-member cabinet.  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss -- especially the odious Chrystia Freeland whose smugness shone brightly all over the room.  

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

Another. Sad.

 I knew Barry was ill, but I was still not prepared for his death.  I always read the Ottawa obits and today, an old flame Barry Turner, was in them.  Barry and I were boyfriend-and-girlfriend in the summer of '68, when I was at Carleton and he at Ottawa U.  

Barry and I met at a cottage party in Kingsmere, where his family had a cottage.  Back then, there was a bunch of us who went regularly that summer to parties there and at Meech Lake.  For some reason, Barry and I hit it off.  Actually, however, I was surprised when he called and asked me out because I was not your typical dyed-blonde.  Our first date was to the Ottawa Ex and we had a blast, going on all the stupid rides, eating candy floss and laughing our heads off.

After that summer, he and I drifted -- he with CUSO to Africa, I to Toronto.  But we had never really officially broken up, so we continued to stay in touch over the years through his marriage, kids, divorce and grands and mine.  Every trip back to Ottawa, we would get together and remember the Glory Days, so to speak.  He had been an MP for a few years and had then held a number of interesting jobs.  One I remember was when he was a federal arbitrator for grievances and I was called as a witness because one of my employees objected to an evaluation I had given her.  When my name was called, Barry looked up and interrupted, saying there might be a conflict of interest because he and I had long been friends.  The defence did not object and I testified.  It was weird because we could not look at each other without stifling a laugh and as I left the witness box, I could feel him staring as I exited the room.  

I learned he had cancer a few years ago and battled hard, but mutual friends told me he was in hospice, so the end was expected.  Still, as I say, it was a shock because we had known each other for 53 years.  A few months ago, he emailed me to tell me he had fallen in love and I was so happy for him.  I have written eulogies for my old flame, Barry, and I know he is now making the angels laugh in heaven.  Rest in peace, my old friend.

   

There's no title for this because anything I think of sounds like my bragging another "I told you so".  But Jesse Kline, writing in a column in today's 'National Post', says exactly what I said about our new mayor, Jyoti Gondek.  Basically, she doesn't know what she's talking about.

"Calgary mayor on a fool's errand" is how he described her because she stupidly declared a "climate emergency" in Calgary and immediately vowed an all-out war on oil and gas.  Hello!?  Oil and gas are the life blood of this city, this province, the entire country and every other for the foreseeable future.  Fixing the climate will take decades, if not centuries, if mankind can even make a dent, says Kline.  In the meantime, it's an oil and gas world.  I agree with Mr. Kline, Jyoti, stop shooting us all in the foot, enough of the blah-blah-blah and work with the industry to keep jobs in Calgary and Alberta.

Doug Saunders, in today's 'Globe and Mail', wrote about an interview he had had with Governor General Mary Simon during her "State" visit to Germany.  (I put "State" in quotes because unless she ventured there at the request, and on behalf, of Her Majesty, what was she doing there?  Perhaps a reader will enlighten me.) 

Apparently, Her Excellency kept referring to herself as Canada's "Head of State".  No, Ms. Simon, you've got that wrong.  Queen Elizabeth is our Head of State.  Mr. Saunders reported that her staff actually had to call back to say that she meant to refer to herself as "the representative of Canada's head of state."  

As I have said, please brush up on the Cole's Notes version of what a governor general is, Ms. Simon.   

  

A few observations....

....on the death of Colin Powell.  What a serious man, but when I learned that he had been born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents, a few lights went on.  He was not from "The hood"; his background was influenced by the British heritage in Jamaica, where the Queen remains Head of State.  Much of these values must have rubbed off on him because Commonwealth values are very different from the American variety.

He was an example to all -- especially to the Canadian military, the males members of which can't seem to control their primal urges.  Never a hint or whiff of scandal touched this Four-Star General.  May he rest in peace.

______________________________________

Here's a laugh:

Happening all over, apparently.  The manufacturers of these turbines have certainly sold a bogus bill of goods to the green gang.  

Sadly, it's mostly about race

 So, Jytoi Gondek has been elected mayor of Calgary.  Why?  In my view it's all about race.  Amerjeet Sohi was elected in Edmonton, again a racial victory, with Edmonton's population being only 65% Caucasian and Sohi being South Asian.  (By the way, Sohi, like many other politicians, has lived off the public purse in some forum or other since 2007, when he was elected to the Edmonton City Council.  Nice gig, but I digress.)

Calgary has a population of more than 754,000, 116,000 of which are South Asian, Gondek's group.  If you add in the other ethnic groups, you've garnered another approximately 260,000 votes.  Pit that against a ridiculous 27 mayoral candidates, the rest of the field was scattered about here and there, leaving Jeromy Farkas to get what he could.  In spite of this racial/ethnic voting block, Farkas still managed to come a close second.  

And to the claim by the Laurentian Elite that, contrary to popular belief, Calgary and Edmonton are not redneck cities because they have elected racial minority mayors, I would say, poppycock.  It is precisely because Calgary and Edmonton -- but especially Calgary -- are redneck towns that ethnics of all stripes band together and vote en block for the racialized candidate.  Is this out of fear?  Is it because many of them are here illegally, with fuzzy, messy paperwork?  Is it because they don't understand the issues and simply vote for the candidate who is not white?  Probably a bit of all those things, but it remains my contention that we have ethnic mayors because the ethnics voted for them.  

Even though I now live in Cochrane -- a homogeneous white town if ever there was one -- and thus could not vote in the election, I was a Jeromy Farkas supporter.  Was the fact that he was the first openly LGBTQ (not sure into which category he falls, so I'm throwing them all in?) candidate to ever have run on this issue?  Probably because the majority of rednecks would certainly not have voted for him.  But the guy actually had a very detailed platform and plan for the city, which he published in the newspaper and which Gondek is now cribbing.  Gondek's plan was all bread-and-circuses and universal Pollyanna gobbledegook about "inclusion and blah-blah-blah.  Not an idea to be found anywhere in it.    

Farkas had declared early with much support, but Gondek snuck in later and grabbed all the ethnic minorities (also traditionally not too LBGTQ-friendly) who had always voted ethnically for outgoing Nenshi en mass.  Frankly, I think it's high time people started voting with their brains, instead of their culture and colour.  I was going to say that's what a mature, thinking electorate does, but then I remembered how Trudeau got in and that notion went right out the window.

In her victory speech, Gondek said she was going to go green, re-fill the vacant downtown office towers with thriving businesses, cooperate with the province (but not too much), listen to everyone (and anyone) and thus be the mayor of everyone (and their brother).

Not possible.  But, then again, she has a PhD in Urban Sociology (or as I say, a PhD in "Woke") so maybe she plans on giving money to everyone in town?

Nenshi fought with the province too because he forgot that municipalities are creatures of the province and must go, cap-in-hand, for the bucks that float all their pet "green" projects.  Start fighting with the province and the province will tell Mayor Gondek to run along and ask the feds, at which point, the feds will remind Ms. Gondek that the money she seeks must come from the province.  So, run along again she will be told to do.

As the great philosopher Mike Tyson said, "Everyone has a plan until he gets punched in the mouth." (See "Great lines," March 7th, 2021)  Put up your dukes, Madame Mayor.

Speaking of punches in the mouth, Doug Ford sure got one for telling people thinking of coming to Toronto to only come to work, not get on the dole.  Immediately, people of colour were up-in-arms hysterically!  Problem was, Ford didn't say anything about colour at all, just about people who planned to get welfare.  So, the rhetorical question is, why did these hysterics automatically assume he was referencing colour?  As I said, rhetorical.

And in case anyone dares think this a racist post, forget about it.  I am talking demographics and numbers.  As I have always said, we are all one race:  The human one.  All behaviour is determined by upbringing, culture and personal decisions.  

    

  

Wasn't that your job?

The water crisis in Iqaluit seems to have been a surprise to the burgers who run (ruin?) the place.  Why would that be?  Five years ago, a water quality team told them this would happen soon. Six years later it happened, but they had apparently done...nothing.  

I watched in disbelief as the mayor was interviewed and seemed dumbfounded that there were hydrocarbons, i.e., gasoline, in the water supply.  Duh!?  The expert I listened to said that since the water is routinely tested every day, he could not understand why it had taken 10 days for the contaminants to be identified.  Walkerton anyone?  He singled out the local mayor, the provincial officials and Ottawa for not having flagged this the next day.  "Why has this taken 10 days?" he asked.  Indeed.  And why was the mayor scratching his head and blaming whoever for the fiasco?  Hello, your Worship, over to you.  That is your job, buddy.  You're paid and you're the mayor!

_______________________

And now, in another horror, Chrystia Freeland may be the next leader of the Liberal Party.  Please, Gawd, help us.  Freeland listens to no one, which is why  a few deputies of Finance have quit and taken early retirement.  I can just see her, striding aggressively into a meeting with esteemed, career economists in the department and telling them which end is up.  She is completely ignorant about economics and proud of it.  People seem to think that because she is a woman, she knows a thing or two.  Knowledge has nothing to do with gender; Justin seems to have missed that point.  

The other people she will piss off are the bankers, not a good thing.  Banned from Russia and un-liked in the US, Freeland seems to be expert at burning bridges.  That whole Free Trade tweaking almost fell apart because of her strident approach.  "Often wrong, seldom in doubt" is her catch-phrase on all files.  (See "My thoughts", August 30, 2018) 

I, obviously, am not a fan.  In my view she is a disgrace to her gender.  And please, Ms. Freeland, start wearing dresses neither too short, nor too tight.  And, while you're at it, quit flipping your hair; tie it up.       

Business associates, no doubt

Forty three years ago, after tracking down my birth family -- without the aid of the internet, I might add -- I learned that, among other talents, they had been the biggest bootleggers in Kemptville.  Wow, I thought!  How cool is that!  Back then, one had to diligently slog through city directories, phone books and archives to find anyone.  My mother's maiden name had been "Latimer", so, although not exactly "Smith-like", it was still relatively common. 

My adoption had been handled privately through a lawyer, the Children's Aid at the time having decided my parents would be unfit parents because my father was Catholic and my mother Protestant.  How pathetic when you consider anyone could have and keep a baby.  But they denied my wonderful parents a baby.  Undaunted, they secured me and later my brother via a lawyer and the Salvation Army Bethany Home for unwed mothers.  Still unofficial, I remember having to sign papers agreeing to be adopted when I was 13, yet I had no clue I hadn't been completely adopted when they got me.  Wait, scratch that for now; that's a story for another blog. 

Anyway, got a fb feed from "Old Ottawa and Bytown Pics" that showed Al Capone's secret bootleg cabin off road in the woods near Kemptville.  Apparently, Mr. Capone plied his trade out of there, among other hidden sites in the Valley.  So, it appears the Latimer's hooked up with Al and joined in the lucrative trade.  How brilliant!  Now it all makes sense.  My smart Latimer ancestors profited with Al's help.  I love it!           

When I married my late ex-husband, I had no clue about this notorious past, but wouldn't you know it, his kin were also bootleggers.  I remember my late mother-in-law telling me how her mother-in-law, Old Lady Russell, used to sell booze to dodgy people who knocked furtively at her back door on Sundays, when no booze was permitted on the Sabbath in straight-laced Ontario.  As a child, my then-husband always wondered why Grandma Russell was always running to the back door to deal with strangers?    

Ya gotta love it!

My father, born in 1899, was of another generation and he remembered as a child meeting Buffalo Bill, whose troupe travelled the US on trains run by his father in Kansas City, Missouri.  He also remembered Jesse and Frank James, the latter of whom ran a general store in the town.  More fascinating tales from the crypt!  

The truth on the native file

This needs to be sent far and wide………..

 Testimonial Letter - Residential Schools

..........a very good perspective from one who actually experienced the situation firsthand!!

Here is a letter by a person named Jim Bissell, which he wrote in reply to a Sun columnist related to the “Residential Schools” that is leading to church terrorism (by non-native people):

 The time has come for 70 year old people like me to speak the truth. A little background. I grew up surrounded by 4 reserves and a large community of indigenous peoples (95%). It was a community of wonderful, kind, very generous, very humorous people that remained that way even when very poor. Also I have a wonderful successful indigenous daughter with grandkids and great granddaughters. I am not a Catholic and I do not belong to any church. I belong to me and my family but I like christian values.

 It should be noted that the missionaries were very essential to our success in the northern communities at that time. I had my first TB test administered by a missionary trying to stop a TB outbreak. (I hated her at the time for the TB scratches on my back. LOL). I got my first stitches from a wonderful nun. I got my first tooth pulled by a missionary. My first X-ray by the nuns. My first teacher was an angel called Sister Rita. I will never forget her and her deep love of all the children she met and taught over the years, my best teacher ever and she was not qualified by Government standards. So although I have never been a Catholic, their church has been very good for me and although I now do know of one very bad priest, most of the people were wonderful. I can still see brother Fillion, who later became a priest, working all by himself outside the school window making a wonderful merry-go-round for the school yard.

 There also were two residential schools in the community. When I arrived in the community, there were no phones, very poor roads, mostly winter access, and not a lot of services other than the churches. The mission school was there long before my time. It has been told to me by elders that many small children, some way younger than school age, were dropped off at the missions sick, hoping the nuns could heal them. Sad to say many died from measles, diphtheria, TB, smallpox, flu and many other conditions of the poor. Just the reality of the north. Years ago most of the dead were placed in the trees so the birds and other animals could take them back to nature.

 It was the churches that convinced them that that part of their culture should be changed to stop the spread of disease. So, they started to bury the dead. If the dead were Christians, their graves were marked by a painted rock and a small wooden cross which rotted away in 25 years or so. No one could afford a headstone and if they could there was no one that made them at the time. Times were hard and in fact desperate in the 30’s. Many people owed their lives to the missionaries and we tend to forget that.  They were not always right, no of course not, but they actually wanted to educate, feed and make the lives of all people better regardless of where they came from.

 The churches do not need to apologize for trying to educate the poor in the only system that would work for nomadic peoples.  They need to say sorry though for protecting and moving about the few bad apples (priests). The Government saying sorry is meaningless. They didn't have a clue of the impact of their decisions at the time and they don't now. Most of the older generation that did suffer are long dead and gone or have forgiven. It seems to me that many of the new generation just want to be victims and feel money would solve their pain.

 We need to understand that very few people wanted to live in the north under the isolated conditions at the time just to help out with a few indigenous peoples. After the federal government took over the school system, most of my junior high school teachers were immigrants from the British Commonwealth (India, England, Ireland and other countries) as no Alberta teachers wanted to live up there when they could live in or near a city with a doctor, bank, good grocery store, ambulance and my goodness, even policeman.

 The quality of my education suffered because all of a sudden the nuns were not qualified to teach us in 1967. Thus, I had to try and take lessons from teachers with very heavy accents and hard to understand, who wanting to move close to the cities as soon as they could. Thank goodness the missionaries were there for the past 300 years. Were they all good? No, but many were wonderful and now that seems to be forgotten.  How many of today's critics have relatives that went up to those communities in those times to try and help? Not many, I bet. The media today is only telling half the story, so I feel we as witnesses have to speak up and speak to the truth. If you want, I will take you to a sacred ground where hundreds of people were left in the ramps and trees or layed on the ground when they died. No one but historical memory marked their graves. 

 Please believe me when I say that the missionaries were not a bunch of evil persons out to kill little children like the media claim. That is not what I witnessed. The missionaries knew that the ancient peoples of our land could not continue to exist in a nomadic and isolated society, so they tried to educate them and of course change their culture to be more compatible with the conditions of the times. Were they right? Maybe, I don't know, but at least they were willing to try and help.

 Like I tell my children, I cannot become indigenous like them but they can become Canadians like me and they are. There are more success stories out there than even you realize. The missionaries did not just throw bodies into the ground.  Most were marked by a small wooden cross made by the brothers of the mission or parents of the child. Those crosses are long gone. Sad but true. I can also take you to the unmarked graves of many people that were not indigenous as well if you want. That was the way of the north.

 Sorry to ramble on for so long but many things need to be said and if the elders of our society lack the moral courage to say them, we are doomed anyway. Please encourage people to stand up and be heard for the good not just the bad. Thanks and keep writing.

 Jim Bissell

Which is worse?

Is it worse to die of malaria or starvation?  The vaccine just announced with great fanfare is expected to save 500,000 people a year, 200,000 of them children.  Save them from what?  So they can then die of starvation?  

I never give a cent to Africa because the money never gets to those who need it.  Instead, it ends up in the Swiss bank accounts of the dictators who rule that failed continent.  

Speaking of failed continents and countries, Lebanon was featured in 'The Globe and Mail' today.  What a disaster!  Its currency has lost 90% of its value and the entire country is a mess.  As you know, I am always banging on about the separation of church and state and that's the problem with Lebanon.  It's government and representatives are divided along religious lines, with one third being Christians and the other two either Sunni or Shiite Muslims.  That'll never work, never.    

"The only solution is an agreement with the International Monetary Fund," says Prof. Leila Dagher, an associate professor of economics at the American University of Beirut.  Obviously, she missed a few classes because throwing money at a corrupt country that has been in civil war and dysfunctional for 30 years is not an economic answer when you have a government as corrupt as is Lebanon's.  Just look at how throwing money at the Indigenous here in Canada has worked.  That's a rhetorical question.

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A word about the municipal election in Calgary, where the odious Nenshi is thankfully not running again.  But things are nonetheless developing along racial lines because a recent poll showed that those who thought Nenshi was doing a good job are supporting candidate Jothyi Gondek, a similar non-white candidate, and those who thought Nenshi did a terrible job are supporting Jeromy Farkas, a white candidate.  So, there you have it again.  It's all about the colour of one's skin.  People who still think Calgary is a cow town full of white cowboys have it wrong.  Calgary is a multi-ethnic city, the majority of whom vote for other ethnics regardless of platform or issue.

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And let's give a little space to the nerve of Trudeau, the grim groper, and Freeland saying that the military "just doesn't get it" when it comes to sexual harassment.  Remember when Trudeau was accused of groping a female reporter?  He claimed she had "experienced it differently".  Please.  This was the same guy who crossed the aisle of the House to shove a female MP and manhandle her out of the chamber.  The audaciousness and hypocrisy of the man is breathtaking! 

But what really floored me this morning was a CBC interview with a female, native film maker who claimed that Canada was founded on the genocide of natives.  How outrageous.  People actually believe that missionaries and others went up north with the sole objective to kill native children and throw them into anonymous pits.  This is a lie and anyone who does five minutes research will know this.  I will be posting another blog on this tomorrow.  

   

I blame her

Mary Simon, the current governor general.  She messed up at both ends of this unnecessary election.  In the first place, she should not have signed the writ allowing it to proceed.  Parliament was functioning smoothly, thanks to the unwillingness of the other parties to chance a snap election.  In such cases, the GG has the constitutional power -- duty, really -- to send the PM back to the House to keep working on behalf of Canadians -- especially in the midst of a deadly pandemic.  

But she signed it because she owed her cushy job to the guy handing her the pen.  That was mistake number one.  Number two was in allowing a leader with only 32.6% of the popular vote to become PM.  That also should not have happened because it was ludicrous and she could have stopped it.

Harper had the clarity to convene a learned committee of constitutional experts and scholars to proffer recommendations on who might be suitable GG candidates.  Trudeau scrapped that committee in favour of whoever The-Kids-in-the-Hall thought would tick all the boxes.  In their view, Simon did.  I mean, come on, a female Inuit?  What could possibly go wrong?  We only have to look to the disastrous Payette for the answer to that one.  In Simon's case, I am waiting for the other shoe to drop because she doesn't seem to know her role.  As I have said, brush up on your constitutional Coles notes, Ms. Simon.

Trudeau and his McGill buddies have trashed the machinery of government and instead operate behind the scenes doing whatever they want.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  Trudeau is an expert in that.  Just look at all his blunders, starting with India, the trip to the Aga Khan's island, SNC Lavalin and continuing right through WE, et al.  I could go on.

Remember this?

Taking a knee with a teddy at school gravesite.  It was cringe-worthy then; it's even more so now after his insulting, slap-in-the-face beach holiday.  Vapid, vacuous, narcissistic, gormless, phony and thick.  That's my view of this disgrace to the country.   

      

More "duhs"

While tearfully affirming that Canada's "most important" relationship is with Indigenous people, he jets off at our expense to surf in Tofino on the first National Day for Indigenous People.

Not that that should surprise any thinking person, but sadly the outcome of this election clearly shows that most people -- at least those in the GTA, where all outcomes are determined -- are not thinkers.  They're probably not readers or English speakers either because they're too busy raising families and working hard to be able to pick up a newspaper, peruse it leisurely with a coffee or learn English.  By the time another election rolls 'round, his little jaunt will have been long forgotten.

However, it occurred to me that Trudeau may be coming to the realization that you only have to pay public lip service to native issues and leaders because the majority don't vote in secular elections.  I mean, why bother courting them?  More than one native chief -- particularly the one whose reservation is right beside Tofino -- have expressed "disappointment" over Trudeau's snubbing of invitations to celebrate the day in person.  Heck, for Tofino, he could have hopped on over for a few minutes while his towel was drying.

I truly hope natives wake up and realize that this prime minister is one of the phoniest and narcissistic ever.  I truly hope they start calling him out publically on his hypocrisy.  I truly hope they will concentrate on his lack of character, instead of simply asking for more money.  This behaviour goes to the heart of what he is, a shallow opportunist who thinks only of himself and his personal gratification.

You'd think his wife would step in and prevent him from such egregious and nakedly self-serving displays, but she is obviously as shameless as he.