Something's very wrong here

Tragically, another Canadian police officer has been killed by someone deranged.  Sgt. Maureen Breau, a 20-year veteran of the Quebec Provincial Police, was stabbed responding to a call about a local lunatic -- a lunatic who had been charged, release and charged again over a number of years, but who had again been released.  

What's mind-boggling was that as this heartrending coverage of Sgt. Breau's murder was all over the airwaves, several Quebec unions were on TV raving about racism in police forces.  I was dumbfounded!  Did these members think their "racism" beefs trumped the murder of a fellow officer!!?? 

Guess so.

Why is the only agenda of people-of-colour race?  As I keep saying, we're all the same race:  Human.  The protesting officers all have great, well-paying jobs -- for which they applied and dearly wanted -- yet, when they get there, they focus solely on "racism".  How about postponing your press conference and focusing on the tragic murder of Sgt. Breau?  The juxtaposition of the two events was jarring.  It was as if these complainants were in a parallel universe!?  Someone needs to make them attend a course on PR 101.

As for the scathing report on the RCMP's disastrous handling of the worst mass murder in Canadian history -- the days' long killing rampage in Nova Scotia during, which 22 innocent people were gunned down by another lunatic -- all I can say is, "Because it's 2018".  

That's what Trudeau declared when he appointed the under-qualified Brenda Lucki as commission of the RCMP.  I have blogged about her many times.  She was parachuted in over the heads of several more senior officers solely because Trudeau wanted a woman in the job -- regardless of qualifications.  

How'd that work out, Justin?  It didn't.  Having snuck a peek at the draft report of the inquiry into her mess, Lucki quickly "retired", otherwise she would have been pummeled in a stockade in the public thoroughfare.  Report coverage of the tragedy is devastating.  It lays bare the incompetence of the once-revered RCMP, an organization that needs to be brought down and re-built from scratch.

Lucki's appointment mirrors another "Affirmative Action" disaster that is Theresa Tam, Canada's chief officer of public health.  After SARS, Tam was appointed solely to ensure Canada would be prepared for another deathly virus.  In fact, that was her only mandate.  But after cozying up to, and getting in bed with, the Chinese and the World Health Organization, Tam sat back and did nothing, while COVID laid bare her incompetence.  

She and Lucki have much blood on their hands.  In fact, both should have been fired, charged and jailed for the deaths they caused.  But thanks to Trudeau's "Because it's 2018", they are still collecting bags of money.

Another blow to women.  Tam and Lucki should be in jumpsuits:

Misogynist

Before I get to the above, I just have to scream about two guys:  Sure Health and Steve Ranson.  Every time, on every program I turn on, there they are.  They make me insane!

I remembered I had blogged about the Sure Health loser a while ago.  Checked and it was back in 2018 (see, 'Can't Stand Them', June 17, 2018) !!!!  On that blog, I also lumped in Kurt Browning, who was shilling for Chip at the time.  All admiration I had for him went out the window when he started that.  Here are the Sure guy and Steve:  They need to GO AWAY!  

There's another ad on the radio here voiced by the store owner and it's also terrible.  Why do proprietors insist on appearing in their own ads?  They're bad actors and cringey.  That's another store I'll never frequent.

Anyway, back to misogyny.  Apparently, this photo prompted a fb contact to call me that:

  

I said that Notley needs to freshen up her unkempt look, trim her unruly hair and keep her roots dyed, if she insists on remaining a "dyed blonde".  She is campaigning to be premier again and this is not a professional look.  Do they affect her ability to do the job?  That's another question.  Based on her performance last time around, she was a disaster, but these comments were apparently "misogynist" in this fellow's books.  

As you all know, my opinions and comments are never gender-based.  Many are aimed at women in the public thoroughfare, but as many are also directed at men.  I know many undiscerning people support women just because they are women.  I don't.  I also don't care what your culture is, be it Black, Asian or South Asian.  We're all the same race, the human one, so I can never be racist, just as I cannot be misogynist when I criticize the performance of a woman.

So, let's get that one out of the way.  Let's focus on issues and competence.  But to be honest, the self you present to the public says everything about who you are and strive to be.    

           

  

 

Another step backward

That's what happens when women like Sophie Trudeau -- er, Grégoire-Trudeau, sorry -- flounce into the House of Commons on their husband's coattails.  Last time I checked, Sophie hadn't been elected to office, so her place was in the visitors' gallery.  She could even have sat in the VIP section to pull rank, but no, she entered the chamber itself and waved like a celebrity.  

Were you a duly-elected back-bencher, how would you have liked that?  Exactly.  Her actions were just plain wrong.  And as much as I abhor Ng, Joly and Freeland for their negative influence on young women, they too were at least duly-elected.  Wonder how they liked sitting in the back pews behind the "wives"?  Exactly, again.

Jill Biden accompanied her, but Jill at least has serious credentials.  She is a PhD and an active professor at the Delaware Technical College.  Nevertheless, she should also have sat in the visitors' gallery when playing the role of "wife".  Sophie?  She is an ex-minor TV host on a frivolous entertainment show.  Since when do wives get to sit in the House of Commons?  When US presidents give the State of the Union Address in the House of Representatives, their families sit in the gallery.  They do not sit in the House.  Here were the 'Real Housewives of Washington and Canada' today:

This pisses me off because it reinforces that women's status is still attached to that of their husband's.  Fifty years after the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, apparently we're still appendages.  I was in the cohort in the late sixties that went to the barricades to get rid of our second-class status.  Nothing's changed.  Here's the job you opted for Sophie, honey; stick to it and stay out of the House of Commons:

I remember when the late John Turner was prime minister and B and I were in the gallery for an important speech.  His wife, Geills, sat beside us in the gallery; she was not swanning around waving in the House.  

With Biden visiting Canada, you have to laugh when every Canadian newscast has scuttled regular programming to cover his every utterance and precarious wobble-hobble.  Switching to CNN, no one gave a sh-t.  Why would they?  

We are a banana republic and branch plant for the US.  

That's why Biden has taken two years to visit Canada.  We don't matter.  But NORAD matters and, in the face of aggression by Russia and China, we better step up and upgrade our quill pens, word perfect, cap guns, paper airplanes and floppy discs so we can detect those enemies when they fly over the top of the earth to get at the US.  Anyone listening here?  Trudeau's smarmy grinning was sickening, as he turned the House of Commons into a party room and private salon.  Surprised he didn't pile on and light up a joint!  The guy has no clue.  He's an international embarrassment.  But then again, what would a kid who went to Lycée Claudel know about our hallowed Westminster model?

Apparently, Roxham Road will be closed to the 40,000 illegal migrants who cross into Canada every year.  But we had to agree to take 15,000 Mexicans, Haitians and South Americans now crossing illegally into the US to get the Third-Party Agreement extended to unofficial borders.  Well, I guess 15,000 is fewer than the 40,000 now costing Canadian taxpayers $16,000 each when they get here.

Countries have borders for a reason.  They're countries.  There are rules.  They have to be enforced and obeyed.  

   

Cottage in winter

I have never been to our cottage at the Gatineau Fish & Game Club, just north of Gracefield in Quebec, in the winter, but our sons were there not long ago:

The bay I swim around every morning on Lac Pemichangan.  It's about a 1 km swim.

Club house from the road.

1 Annex

We'll be there in August when the wildflowers will be at their best.  Can't wait!

Nuts!

Had I been able to change my gender as a kid, I probably would have!  I was a real tomboy, but thank God I didn't.  Here's what's happening today: 

Support Detransition Awareness Day!

 

March 10, 2023

 

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Detransition Awareness Day:

 

On March 12, the Hollywood gang will congratulate themselves again at the Academy Awards, and some Oscar winners will no doubt make obscene comments. It’s who they are.

 

On the same day, an event that is of much greater cultural significance will take place: it’s Detransition Awareness Day. Hollywood will not be cheering, but everyone else should be. Detransitioners are people who have made the courageous decision to transition back to their normal sex.

 

Last year those who had transitioned to the opposite sex, and back again, held a Zoom conference on March 12 to discuss their experiences. Participants logged in from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Chile, Brazil, and other countries. Their stories would shake most people.

 

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in children who are confused about their sex, with girls transitioning to boys much more than vice versa. The latest data show that approximately 30 percent now transition back to their father-determined sex.

 

It is a national scandal that the elites in the medical profession are mostly supportive of transgender ideology. To counsel young people to switch their sex—which despite anatomical surgery can never happen in any true biological sense—is child abuse.

 

Virtually every boy and girl who has expressed misgivings about his or her natural sex has been encouraged by therapists, and those in the medical community, to take the next step. If they were left alone to work through this stage, 80 percent would choose not to transition.

 

Why do we need Detransition Awareness Day? Because those who make the decision to reverse course are attacked for doing so. They are harassed, verbally abused, stigmatized, shunned and treated like dirt. Many examples could be cited. Here are a few.

 

Sinead Watson works as an advisor to Genspect, a parent-led organization opposed to transgenderism. In 2015, she made the switch from female to male; she decided to detransition in 2019.

 

Her second decision was greeted by therapists with scorn. “They just didn’t want to speak about detransition,” saying “it was like a kick in the stomach.” She calls the initial push to transition young people “disgusting,” arguing that the affirmative model must change.

 

Chloe Cole is the first person in the United States to bring a lawsuit against those who assisted her, as a minor, to make the medical transition. That was when she was 12. Four years later she realized this was a mistake.

 

When she made the first transition, her parents were told what has become the standard line—if you don’t support your child to transition she may commit suicide. Chloe says that “they were pretty much coerced into allowing this to happen.” Her lawsuit expressly says that she and her parents were “falsely informed” that she was “at a high risk for suicide.”

 

When she changed from male back to female, she was “attacked online” and in person. “I started getting harassed a lot.” She was shunned at school and made to feel like a pariah, if not a traitor to the cause of transgenderism.

 

There is no end to the services afforded to those who buy into the transgender scam and seek to transition. But there is nothing available for those who seek to detransition. This includes the Biden administration, which has shamelessly taken the side of the child abusers.

 

Those who choose to return to their nature-given status should be given every resource available. They are the ones who truly deserve our compassion and support.

______________________________

A Salute to St. Patrick

I have re-printed this from an outside source:  

Salute To St. Patrick

 

Bill Donohue

 

March 17, 2023

 

[Note: We run this article each year on March 17]

 

The heroics of St. Patrick are not appreciated as much as they should be. He is the first person in history to publicly condemn slavery, and one of the first leaders to champion the cause of equal rights.

 

There is much to celebrate on March 17. Fortunately, his writings, though slim, are eye-opening accounts of his life: Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus and Confession reveal much about the man. Along with other sources, they paint a picture of his saintliness.

 

Patrick was born in Britain in the 4th century to wealthy parents. It is likely that he was baptized, though growing up he did not share his family's faith. He was an atheist.

 

When he was 15, he committed what he said was a grave sin, never saying exactly what it was; it appears it was a sexual encounter with a young girl. No matter, it would haunt him throughout his life.

 

At age 15 or 16 (the accounts vary), Patrick was kidnapped and enslaved by Irish barbarians. They had come to plunder his family's estate, and took him away in chains to Ireland. While a slave, he converted to Christianity, praying incessantly at all hours of the day. After six years, he escaped, and made his way back home.

 

His family thought he was dead, and with good reason: no one taken by Irish raiders had managed to escape and return. St. Patrick biographer Philip Freeman describes how his family received him, stating "it was as if a ghost had returned from the dead."

 

After he returned home, he had a vision while sleeping. He felt called to return to Ireland. This seemed bizarre: this is where he was brutalized as a slave. But he knew what Jesus had commanded us to do, "Love thy enemy." He was convinced that God was calling him to become a missionary to Ireland. So, he acted on it, despite the reservations of family and friends.

 

Patrick became a priest, practiced celibacy, and was eventually named a bishop. Contrary to what many believe, he did not introduce Christianity to Ireland, nor was he Ireland's first bishop. But he did more to bring the Gospel to Ireland than anyone, converting legions of pagans, especially in the northern parts of the island.

 

His missionary work in Ireland has been duly-noted, but his strong defense of human rights has not been given its due.

 

No public person before him had denounced slavery, widespread though it was. Jesus was silent on the subject, Aristotle thought it was a natural way of life, and neither master nor slave saw anything fundamentally wrong with it. Patrick did.

 

Though he did not invoke natural law specifically, he was instinctively drawn to it. He taught that all men were created equal in the eyes of God, and that the inherent dignity of everyone must be respected.

 

Patrick did more than preach—he lashed out at the British dictator, Coroticus, harshly rebuking him for his mistreatment of the Irish. In fact, Patrick found his Irish converts to be more civilized than Coroticus and his band of thugs.

 

Patrick was way ahead of his time in the pursuit of human rights. Not only were men of every social status entitled to equal rights, so were women. In his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, he scolds "the tyrant Coroticus—a man who has no respect for God or his priests." More important, he made a startling plea: "They must also free Christian women and captives." His reasoning showed the power of his faith when he said, "Remember, Christ died and was crucified for these people."

 

He did not mince words. "So, Coroticus, you and your wicked servants, where do you think you will end up? You have treated baptized Christian women like prizes to be handed out, all for the sake of the here and now—this brief, fleeting world."

 

What makes this all the more dramatic is the way the pagan world thought about women: the idea that women were equal to men was totally foreign to them. But the women understood what Patrick was saying, and gravitated to him in large numbers. The Christian tenet that all humans possess equal dignity had taken root.

 

Did the Irish save civilization, as Thomas Cahill maintains? Freeman thinks not—"it had never been lost." But everyone agrees that had it not been for St. Patrick, and the monasteries that followed, much of what we know about the ancient world would not exist.

 

Indeed, it is difficult to fathom how classical Greek and Roman literature would have survived had it not been for the Irish monks who attracted students from many parts of Europe. They are responsible for preserving the great works of antiquity. And all of them are indebted to St. Patrick.

 

It is believed that he died on March 17, sometime during the second half of the fifth century. That is his feast day, the source of many celebrations in his honor. His impact extends beyond the Irish and the Catholic Church—human rights are a global issue—making him a very special person in world history.

More money

Apparently, the UN sent some flunky to Canada to write a report about how native women who married off-reserve should have their status restored, be compensated and handed more money.  Yep, the UN is horning in on the issue because that's what the UN does to justify its existence.

We give native billions every year, but again, not enough.  You know how many billions?  $20,500,000,000 is the overall budget for Indigenous and Crown affairs, another $1.4 billion on dental, vision and pharmaceutical (not required by treaties or constitution, by the way) and topped off with another $15 billion tossed in for good measure as compensation for forcibly educating them in residential, i.e., boarding, schools.  Do the math, that's a lot of money to deal with the country's 1.8 million natives.  But as usual, it's not enough.  Here was the headline today in 'The Globe and Mail':  "Indigenous women stripped of status should receive compensation:  UN official."

The Indian Act was amended in 1985 to allow native women to retain their status even if they marry off-reserve, but their demand is to now go back and restore the status of thousands of native women pre-1985 and give them more billions.  It should be noted that native men who married off-reserve did not lose their status and even after the passing of the 1985 bill, lineage still follows the male line, even though natives themselves trace their heritage through the maternal line.   

It's insane, but the UN "special rapporteur" on the rights of Indigenous peoples, some guy called Jose Cali Tzay -- credentials unknown, other than that he is a Mayan from Guatemala, thus with a personal axe to grind -- just wrapped up a "fact-finding" tour across Canada and has now declared that, "Canada must create a timely and accessible remedy to compensate women and their descendants made ineligible for status."

Tzay also called on the Canadian government to, "remove barriers to Indigenous self-governance and allow 'nations' their right to self-determination and to assert their own identity."  Self-governance they already have in spades.  No sane politician would dream of making any decision affecting natives without consulting ad-nauseum with every band, tribe or leader within a thousand-mile radius.  

But what Tzay doesn't realize is that, in the face of their cries to the contrary, natives do not want to touch one word in 'The Indian Act' because that is the mechanism by which the money flows.  That act isn't going anywhere.    

__________________________________

Another headline that caught my eye the other day proclaimed Trudeau's intent to convene a "closed door probe" into election interference by the Chinese.  How can a "probe" be "closed door"?  It can't.  It's all moot, of course, because this issue isn't going away.  Never mind that he has promised to appoint a "special rapporteur" sometime soon to look into whether or not an official inquiry is required, it still won't go away.  Evidently, Trudeau has much to hide -- probably millions in election-donation fiddling -- but the public isn't buying his delay tactics and obfuscation.

Please Gawd let this be the issue that brings him down.  Oh ya, I forgot, the NDP has entered into an iron-clad agreement to support him, so it won't bring him down.  Why?  Because as Bob Fife said, "In the next election, the NDP is toast."

Please Gawd.............please.   

_________________________________

Another sad story on a northern Indian reservation:

The headline says it all.  Apparently, the animals were "pets".  Did someone not feed them?  So, so sad.  It's also a crime and the parents should be charged with neglect of the dogs and murder of the innocent child.  A 10-year-old child also died in a house fire on another reservation the other day.  It just goes on and on.....

  

 

My family and Beechwood

I cannot remember a time when we didn't all go to Beechwood Cemetery (see its history, blog below).  My grandfather, Charles Stapledon, died in 1953.  I was six, but I remember the unremitting weeping of my grandmother, Lillian Lord, at Hulse and Playfair, where he was laid out.  Thereafter, we took her to the family plot in Beechwood to visit him every Sunday after church before a big family lunch. 

Beechwood sits on 160 acres of magnificent treed land in the city and is the final resting place for 85,000 souls.  But you'd never suspect it as you wander through because it is beautifully laid out in little park-like areas off narrow, winding lanes.  In fact, it is a mature urban forest and home to a host of bird and animal populations and flocks.  An absolutely magical and peaceful place. 

In the Spring, my cousins and I had to plant flowers and trim the trees my grandmother had planted.  Summers we tended her flowers and clipped the little shrubs she had put in on either side of the grave stone; in the Fall we pulled the flowers up.  Our plot was opposite the old military site, where WW I and II vets were interred.  I used to wander among their markers, marveling at how impossibly young they all were:  

When my grandmother died, I continued to take my mother to tend to the landscape maintenance.  Soon I began to pack a little picnic lunch, which began a tradition of many subsequent Beechwood picnics with family and often friends.  My picnics included tomato, cucumber and egg salad sandwiches, on white bread, crusts cut off, just the way my mother insisted, plus a big pitcher of martinis for me and a thermos of tea for my temperate husband.  Why not?  I used to say, after all we own land here.  We'd see others walking dogs or jogging, but we seemed to be the only visitors picnicking.      

"Well, at least you can't kill anyone here," joked my father when he took me through the lanes among the trees where I learned to drive.  Later, that's where I took all my kids to learn to drive.  They all had to learn on a stick and there were lots of little ups and downs, where they could practice braking and starting without stalling and rolling back.  Great memories of those days.

My father was the last to be buried in a casket, the Stapledon/Griffith plots becoming eventually too crowded to fit anyone else in au complet.  My late brother, John Griffith, who tragically committed suicide at 32, is there with them, as B and I will be.  In fact, our stone is already planted, missing only the dates of death.

Since moving out West, we pay the cemetery to plant flowers and maintain the plot.  Around ours are the names of families I knew at school.  I used to look to see if any fellow students had joined their parents -- many of the latter I knew as a teenager.  I also spotted the grave of one of my least favourite bosses and tried to be respectful.  (Probably failed after a few cocktails; he was not a nice guy.)

The grave of the son of my best friend is also nearby.  He died at 24, the result of an epilepsy attack while swimming.  That was so tough and I always visit his resting place.  

All this to say, Beechwood holds a special place in my heart and I am comforted knowing we will all be together there one day.    

    

Wonderful take on Beechwood

This is from Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen columnist, and it's a fascinating look at Ottawa's famous Beechwood Cemetery.  I'm going to blog about my family's ties to Beechwood, where B and I will be laid, but this gives the big picture:

______________________________

Some of the headstones at Beechwood Cemetery, particularly in the older military section, are almost completely covered in snow these days, the names of those interred below them temporarily hidden from view.

But winter hasn’t completely won. There are indentations in the snow around each marker, as the sun warms the stones and the reflected heat melts the snow around them. If you squint your imagination a little, it’s not difficult to picture the stories of those long dead souls freeing themselves for our benefit.

Beechwood turns 150 years old this year, and it’s worth reflecting on that, too. Far from simply a place to house the departed, it is a repository of the lives and stories of close to 85,000 people scattered throughout the cemetery’s 160 acres. They are the threads that made up the fabric of Ottawa. The statesmen and stateswomen are here, true, but so are the rogues, the “unfortunates,” the friendless. It’s a living, changing testament, with new stories added all the time and old ones occasionally amended. It’s full of tradition, history, poignancy and, sometimes, humour. In many respects, it’s a public library with fresh air.

Many of Ottawa’s founders and builders are here that I wonder if one could faithfully recreate a map of the city’s streets based on the headstone names: Booth, MacLaren, Besserer, Rochester, Bronson, Featherston, Fisher, Gilmour, Hopewell, Lyon, Powell, Holland and Slater are only a few among them. (Sir Wilfrid Laurier calls the adjacent Notre Dame cemetery home now, a not-insignificant hole in the map.)

Meanwhile, there has to be a full cord’s worth of lumbermen buried here, and more than enough prominent politicians to start a debating club, including Sir Robert Borden, Marion and Paul Dewar, Tommy Douglas and Andrew Haydon, with former governor general Ray Hnatyshyn available to moderate.

On the topic of debates, one can only imagine the spectral discussions that might occur here between the likes of Nicholas Flood Davin, Duncan Campbell Scott and Peter Henderson Bryce — architect, advocate and whistleblower, respectively, of Canada’s residential schools. If you don’t know their stories, I urge you to attend one of Beechwood’s Reconciliation tours (June 11, July 16 and Aug. 20).

As home to our national military cemetery, Beechwood boasts generals and privates and every rank in between. Lt. Alexis H. Helmer, whose death inspired Maj. John McCrae’s war poem In Flanders Fields, is memorialized at his family’s plot here. I like to come here on Remembrance Day, hours before the official ceremony begins, and ask visiting family members to tell me about their loved ones buried here.

But the Who’s Who list is only one aspect of Beechwood’s attraction. You’ll also find lesser-known stories and relationships that, together, etch some kind of understanding of humanity. Detective Thomas Stoneman, the first Ottawa police officer killed in the line of duty, is buried at Beechwood, as is his killer, Eugene Larment, the last person hanged in Ottawa.

The flat markers of Rosa Shaw (1895-1981) and Bettie Cole (1908-1989) also fascinate and draw me. Shaw was the first women’s pages editor at the Montreal Gazette and a champion and mentor to young female journalists. She threw lavish parties, drove around town in a convertible roadster and, according to former CBC journalist and Senator Betty Kennedy, was in her heyday the “best-heeled woman in Ottawa.” Cole, meanwhile, according to her marker, was the first “girl journalist” on the men’s general staff at the Ottawa Citizen. 

The pair lived together in numerous houses in Sandy Hill in the 1940s and ‘50s before moving to Cumberland in the mid-1950s, and then to Orleans in the ‘70s. They reportedly had a falling out, and when Shaw died in 1981, only three people attended her burial. Cole was not one of them. Today, though, the two are buried five plots apart, perhaps mirroring their close but ultimately estranged relationship. Their headstones, identical in style, were paid for by Cole. If Facebook had been around then, I suspect each would have listed her relationship status as “It’s complicated.”

Elsewhere at Beechwood, the institutional group plots of the Protestant Orphans Home, the Protestant Home for the Aged, and the Home for Friendless Women, all of which opened in Ottawa in the latter half of the 19th century, were once just that: institutional, without names of those buried there. But in 2013, thanks to the largesse of an anonymous donor, a plaque was erected commemorating and naming the 87 people who had been forgotten and nameless for so long — another example of the cemetery serving as a chronicler of Ottawa’s past.

There are also the headstones themselves, a collection of beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) fonts, iconography, architecture and sentiment. Some have curious stories behind them, such as Agnes Wilson’s, who died in December 1939 at 37, before her husband could fulfil his promise to one day buy her a castle. Instead, he did it posthumously, her headstone a castle carved from a large rock.

On most visits, though, I’m content to take it all in without turning it into a history lesson. There’s a large headstone that simply reads “PROPER” on one side. I’ve never checked the opposite side, as I figure it will likely ruin my hope that that’s all there is, like simply an announcement of a proper burial. A little mystery is not always a bad thing.

Meanwhile, with its undulating landscape, crisscrossing paths and preponderance of trees, Beechwood is simply one of Ottawa’s most idyllic spots for walks and early-morning reflection. It’s a favourite of dog-walkers, joggers and those who simply need some quiet. When my kids were youngsters, we’d sometimes just drive through the cemetery at dusk, each lost in our own thoughts.

Consider this Ottawa Citizen report from June 1874, when Beechwood was only a year old:

“The Roman Catholic and Beechwood Cemeteries were visited by crowds of citizens yesterday, desirous of escaping the blinding dust of the streets and enjoying the beauties of nature in this romantic spot. Beechwood Cemetery is becoming a favorite resort on Sunday, and we would advise those of our readers who have not seen the ground to pay it a visit some pleasant afternoon during the present month while the foliage is at its greatest.”

Beechwood is holding numerous events this year in celebration of its sesquicentennial. The next is on March 28, when Ireland’s Ambassador to Canada, Eamonn McKee, will be a guest speaker to talk about the Irish and their roles in making Canada. 

Or you can simply visit anytime,  and learn as much or as little as you want. For the best access and foliage, though, you might wait until the sun has finished melting all the snow.

I am zero percent

Chatting coming home from waterpolo last evening, granddaughter Hilary (almost nine) informed me that I was zero percent.  "Zero percent what?" I asked.  "Stupid," she replied.  I burst out laughing!  "I'm also zero," she added.

"Well, what about the rest of the family?"  Running though the other members, all the females in her world came out zero, but the males fared a little worse.  They ranged from one to three percent stupid.  I almost drove off the road laughing, as she proffered her reasons which centred around what she considered dumb things a brother, father or grandfather had done -- or not.  Next she ran through her friends.  Same results by gender.  Her powers of observation are impressive! 

Apparently, all we women are perfect!  What welcome news on International Women's Day!  Speaking of which, it always hits me that Blacks get a month, as in Black History Month; Indigenous get a week, as in Aboriginal Awareness Week; but women only get a day.  Anyone, other than me, notice this?  Here's to us!

Frankly, I wish the whole thing would go away.  We don't need it.

Another day we don't need is National Secretaries Day -- a similar scam.  Notoriously underpaying them, bosses think they can make up for the cash gap with some sort of token gesture one day of the year.  In my experience, it usually involved taking the secretary to a boozy lunch -- also enjoyed by the boss, by the way -- and probably making a pass at the trapped and compromised damsel in the process.  You may think this cynical, but it was true in my world back in the day.  Never having been a secretary, I escaped the horror -- but not the pass-making, which was ubiquitous.  Let's hear it for the put-upon Jills of all Trades!

               

Let's get one thing straight

We are all the same race:  The human one.  Everything else is cultural, upbringing and personal decisions.  Colour is just colour, it's not race.  I am stressing this upfront -- again -- because I am going to come down hard on a mother who is taking on the Toronto School Board for subjecting her son to "cruel and unusual punishment" because he was made to sit outside the classroom for bloodying one of his classmates.

The kid who did the bloodying was six and because teachers and school officials can't ignore classroom fights that result in bodily harm, the kid was given what amounts to a "time out".  Remember being made to stand in the hall when you disrupted the class?  Exactly. 

Cue the racist outrage.  The mother then took her fury and wrath to something called the 'Parents of Black Students' advocacy group -- a new one to me, but why am I not surprised?  Naturally, the head of the group went postal, alerted the media and hit the airwaves.  What did the school board do?  Well, of course, they suspended the principal, vice-principal and teacher, thus neutering, knee-capping and blighting their reputations forever.

What is wrong with people??!!  Why is anything that has to do with people of colour automatically "racist"?  If a student transgresses the rules, there must be consequences -- regardless of colour.  But no, if the kid's Black, the immediate reflex is racism.  That should never be, but that barn door was shut long ago.  

This mother, egged on by the head of the advocacy group, actually put a listening device into the jeans of the kid so she could "prove" racism.  Whaaaaaat??!!  You're coaching a six-year-old to spy and mistrust authority figures in the school?!!  What'll that teach the kid?  That all authority must be railed against and not heeded?  Is she raising a future delinquent?  Certainly a distinct possibility, in my view.

"We prefer to believe the child," said the cocky advocacy head when faced with evidence the child had not been not locked in a dark room, as he had claimed, but rather put in the hall.  The question I have is, why do so many people desperately want to come to Canada, mainly Toronto, yet when they settle here, choose to challenge and work against the system, thus undermining what they wanted to benefit from in the first place,.  Then, to top it off, why do they go postal-public?  Their Andy Warhol 15 minutes?

Pierce Morgan had two interesting guests on his feed the other day.  Both Black, one accused Morgan of raging racism because he had called out someone on his behaviour who happened to be Black., while the other, also Black, took the position that not everything is about race; it's about behaviour.  When Pierce challenged the first guest to give concrete examples of where he had been racist, none were forthcoming because there were none.  See, that's what I'm talking about.   

Remember when any trouble you caused at school was automatically your fault?  Remember when teachers were respected members of the community and supported by parents?  The daughter of a friend of mine is a teacher.  She has been subjected to students who pull her hair, slap her, spit on her and disobey on a daily basis.  What do the parents do?  March right into the principal's office and blame the teacher.  (They might want to actually parent, instead of letting violent video games take over.) 

That's just wrong, but it's the norm these days.  Anyone want to be a teacher in rough downtown Toronto?  Didn't think so.  Wouldn't it be nice if classrooms were left to the professionals -- not highjacked by meddling, unqualified, disgruntled parents.  Too bad the tail keeps wagging the dog.

    

     

    

"That's not Santa.....

....that's Mr. Stapley because those are his shoes."  That's what I said to my mother during a kids' Christmas party at our church.  Mr. Stapley was playing Santa, but I didn't buy it.  He may have been dressed up as Santa, but those were his shoes, so that wasn't Santa.  I was about three.  

On another occasion, I was shopping with my Dad when he bumped into someone he knew and stopped to chat.  About six, I stood quietly and listened to their exchange.  "Daddy, that man is so stupid he doesn't know he's stupid," I said when we parted.  Turns out that one holds universally.  I mean, if you're stupid, obviously you can't realize it.  (At six, I didn't have the capacity or empathy to qualify "stupid".  I just used that general word, so don't everyone get offended please.)

Evidently, powers of observation emerge early, which is why I enjoy 'The Behaviour Panel' on YouTube.  These guys analyze every gesture made by public figures and it's fascinating.  Panelists Mark Bowden, Chase Hughes, Scott Rouse and Greg Hartley -- all experts in the field -- pick apart body language, speech inflection, gestures, eyebrow flashes, brow furrows, word choices, wardrobe, hand gestures, foot movements and a million other body movements that give away whether someone is lying or not.

According to their observations, Megan and Harry are evidently huge strangers to the truth.

I have refrained from blogging about these two bores, but when 'The Behaviour Panel' weighed in, my opinions were confirmed.  Harry has been seduced on all levels by Meghan and that's a huge problem because she is behind his thrashing of the Royal Family.  Thrashing the Royal Family means you're thrashing the British government, constitution and the monarchy itself.  You're not just whining about your family, you're attacking a system of government.  Wrong.  

I'm very surprised they have apparently been invited to the coronation because that will turn it from a solemn, religious and holy ceremony to a cheap side show.  Charles should have second thoughts there.   

 

Why the Leafs can't win

Because they're not a team.  They're a collection of superstars who can't play together.  By contrast, the best hockey player (probably)ever, Connor McDavid, is a team player.  The evidence for this is that Connor has 52 goals so far this season, but 69 assists.  Sixty-nine!  That's how many goals he forfeits so the team can win.  Sadly, they're a sh-tty team, but that has nothing to do with McDavid.  Ya gotta feel sorry for McDavid, who, in spite of his greatness, will probably never win a Stanley Cup with the Oilers, who will never trade him.  

But back to the Leafs, a losing team worth $2 billion.  Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Matthews are each paid gargantuan bags of money, but a team they do not make.  And wasn't Tavares a superstar when he played on the Junior Olympic team?  Yes, but once these guys sign a megabucks professional contract, they quit trying.  Everyone settles into mediocrity and cashes cheques -- McDavid excepted.  B's formula for creating dynamic NHL teams is to pay every player $100 K when they enter the league.  After that, salaries rise for the number of goals, the reverse for goalies.

I ran that scenario by an old journalism colleague from my Maclean Hunter days, who has just retired from 'The Globe and Mail' sports desk, and he wholeheartedly agreed.  "But it'll never happen because they all have agents."  Ah yes, money.  Again.

I'm not a hockey fan, but some stuff I glean through osmosis; B is a big fan and gives me a running narration when games are on and I cannot escape their din.  I am also a devoted fan of Globe sports columnist Cathal Kelly, one of the best writers you'll ever have the pleasure of reading.  That's why I read sports, because Kelly writes about them.  

So, like the Raptors, the Leafs remain mired in defeat and their devoted -- for some reason? -- fans continue to take it on the chin season after miserable season.  The last time they won the Cup?  1967, a 56-season drought that is the longest in the NHL ever.  Me?  I am a Habs fan, but rarely watch because they're sh-tty too.  Can't even find a colour photo of the Leafs winning he Cup, that's how long ago it was:

I grew up watching the original six, so one is spoiled forever.  Those were the glory days of Belliveau, Hull, Esposito, Howe, Horton, Armstong, The Rocket, The Pocket Rocket...I could go on, but you get the drift.  Money has ruined hockey and you can lay that directly at the feet of Gary Bettman -- a New York money boy who probably can't even skate.  

I'm only writing about hockey because Kelly wrote about it this morning and the trade deadline has passed.  The big takeaway for me is that the mulligans afforded the front office guys who run the Leafs remain limitless.  

   

Breathtaking ignorance

I'm talking about the CBC, you know, the public broadcaster funded by the taxpayer.  Had the news on in the kitchen a few minutes ago -- I know, I know, I should not be watching the dreadful CBC, but I was wearying of the coverage of the irrelevant Murdaugh case -- and heard a reporter talking about Charles III's upcoming coronation.  

"Monarchists in Canada are concerned about the lack of announcements about celebration plans for this event," said anchor Lois Lee to a reporter in the field.  "Well," this dunce replied, "Canadians have other things on their minds these days, like the price of food.  So, I think the government is not going to focus on the coronation, or do much about it.  And remember, Charles is not as popular as his mother was."

OMG!  And Lois, obviously as ignorant as the reporter, did not even question him.  

The Monarch is Canada's Head of State!  He cannot be compared to the price of a head of lettuce, or to his late mother's popularity.  The King of Canada anchors our entire system of government.  (See "Canadian Constitution 101", Feb. 21)  He's not just some guy in England who's going to be hosting a bunch of parties in May in Jolly Old to celebrate his crown.  These are the honourable symbols of Canadian government:

This is the direct result of the elimination of civics and history in our  dismal "educational" system.  No one has a clue about how this country functions?!  Yes, yes, I know, it doesn't at the moment, but theoretically.  This is also a direct result of Trudeau's horrific attack on Parliamentary government and his silencing of all MPs.  He has concentrated power in his office, which is now run by the Kids in the Hall and his other drinking buddies.  Duly elected Members?  Who cares.

I hope the 'Friends of the Canadian Crown' and the 'Monarchist League' start to yell bloody murder at this disgraceful state of affairs.  Someone, besides me, needs to start yelling at the top of their lungs.  Someone needs to give the CBC a good public flogging because Charles III is not a head of lettuce.      

I have been blogging this forever

The following was written by retired Manitoba judge, Brian Geisbrecht (above), Frontier Centre for Public Policy.   It should be required reading in every university and high school in Canada.  But it won't be.  I highly recommend it to Tanya Talaga, Pam Palmeter, Carolyn Bennett, Marc Miller and Justin Trudeau --  "experts" who dine out regularly on the scam that is the Indian Industry.  Justin, do a little research on what your father and "Uncle Jean" came up with 54 years ago and smarten up.  I also invite all my Indigenous readers and followers to share generously.

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Pierre Poilievre recently made headlines when he criticized The Indian Act – calling it racist and archaic. In fact, his remarks were not even controversial, because many indigenous leaders have said the same thing for more than half a century. The Indian Act is indeed a racist anachronism that should have been consigned to the rubbish bin decades ago. No one defends it.

In fact, Indian chiefs called for the abolition of the Act decades ago. This was in the 1960s. The chiefs said that it was shameful that a country that called itself enlightened and progressive could live with itself, while it had an apartheid system that treated Indians like children. They said it kept them in a ghetto.

They explained that most indigenous people lack basics that most Canadians take for granted. They don’t have the education or job skills, too many sit in jails, or are taken as children into child welfare systems, too many abuse alcohol, and live shorter, bleaker lives. In short, too many are part of a chronically unemployed and dependent underclass that lives short, bleak lives, and passes that dismal legacy on to their children.

And those chiefs were right. The Indian Act and reserve system is everything they said it was. Even in the 1960s, there was absolutely no excuse for hanging on to such a disgraceful system – a system that did indeed keep status Indians in a ghetto.

With that in mind, then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and his young Indian Affairs minister, Jean Chrétien, set out to get status Indians out of that ghetto. In their 1969 White Paper, the beginnings of a plan were outlined that would slowly, carefully and expensively, get rid of The Indian Act, and its regressive reserve system.

However, it was respectful of the fact that indigenous people had clearly rejected assimilation. The Paper tried to navigate a third way – that fine line between forced assimilation and continued segregation- finding a path to the needed integration, without forced assimilation.

Specific strategies were suggested. Status Indians would be helped to move into the economic mainstream, with ambitious government programs that promised to let them obtain the necessary education and work skills. In addition, financial and other assistance would be made available to status Indians who wanted to move from uneconomic remote reserves to centres where jobs and careers were available. Eventually, according to the plan, there would be no legal differences between status Indians and other Canadians. Everyone would enjoy exactly the same rights.

Trudeau and Chrétien were proud of the White Paper. Although it was acknowledged to be only the beginning of what would have been – even in 1969 – an extremely lengthy and complicated process, they thought that this was the beginning of a sound plan to get them out of the ghetto.

But when the White Paper was presented, all hell broke loose. The chiefs called the plan that would make their people the equals of every other Canadian “racist”. The reality was that they refused to give up their perks.

This is why an angry Pierre Trudeau told the chiefs “Okay, then stay in your ghetto”. He withdrew the paper, and initiated the indigenous policy that has been basically the same for the last fifty plus years, namely: Send money, and don’t touch The Indian Act.

That is where things sit today. Astounding sums of money are spent maintaining this gilded, but fundamentally rotten ghetto. Politicians pretend to be making significant changes to this stagnant system, with countless expensive government programs. They also humour indigenous politicians by declaring the totally dependent, mostly dysfunctional reserves, to be independent “nations”. Chiefs and status quo and media apologists call any criticism “denialism”.

But nothing has really changed since 1969, except that the money amounts have increased astronomically. Despite the fact that many good people live in those communities, most reserves remain basically dependent human warehouses, rife with corruption and abuse.

And perhaps the most debilitating feature of these ghettos is the culture of permanent victimhood that now plagues reserves. Hysterical conspiracy theories about priests poisoning, murdering, and secretly burying thousands of indigenous children now run rampant in these communities. Reserves are indeed the ghettos that the chiefs correctly described so long ago.

But Pierre Trudeau got one thing wrong when he angrily told the chiefs that they could stay in their ghetto. The chiefs are not in a ghetto at all. They enjoy generous tax-free-salaries and expense accounts. Life is good for them. Neither are many other people who feed off this system- a system indigenous leaders William Wuttunee and Calvin Helin sardonically – but accurately – called “The Indian Industry”.

And lest this last sentence be considered offensive, it should be noted that there are at least as many non-indigenous, as indigenous people, who are dependent on this system. Entire universities, expensive law firms, and legions of indigenous affairs bureaucrats are doing very well because of it.

And they have no intention of letting it go.

There are many reasonable and progressive leaders within the indigenous community who can clearly see how the privileged position of the chiefs depends on the permanent marginalization of the underclass majority. However, those honest voices are drowned out by the majority – the AFN – who refuse to give up the many special perks the system offers them. The money always wins. Their voices are also ignored by reckless writers and activists, who advance their careers by pushing the grievance narrative. True reformers, like Winston Wuttunee and Shawn Atleo, never stood a chance.

So, Pierre Trudeau was prescient half a century ago, when he told the chiefs that the marginalized indigenous underclass majority would continue to live in a ghetto. The dismal statistics that are well known attest to this.

And, the question must be asked: What if those chiefs in 1969 had at least agreed to consider Trudeau’s plan, and work with him to address their legitimate concerns? Would we now live in a country where more indigenous people had integrated into the mainstream, while keeping those parts of their indigenous identity that mattered most to them?

We will never know.