You've got to pull back the curtain

Whenever I read about something dumb and un-Canadian some official or other is proposing, I look into the background of who is doing the proposing.

That's what I did when I read about the Toronto District School Board deciding to remove the name of Sir John A. Macdonald from one of its schools.

People, we are talking about the guy who created Canada!  The visionary who had the guts and determination to envision a huge country from sea to sea and then make it happen.  The guy who hailed from a teeny, tiny country, yet imagined a massive land of hundreds of thousands of acres and actually created it.

Canada's sacred public schools.

Ya, that guy.

Yes, we know that Macdonald did a lot of things that are now considered evil in some quarters, but let's remember that many native parents pushed for residential schools so their kids could be educated and fed.  That's another inconvenient fact no one ever mentions.  Children on reserves were starving to death and residential schools saved them.

And as to the sexual abuse, the majority of it was perpetrated on younger children by older.  Another reality always overlooked, but I always do my research and that's a fact.

But back to the school board.  Who is the head?  A guy called Neethan Shan.  The vice-chair is a guy called Zakir Patel and the director of education is a guy called Clayton La Touche.  None is of Canadian heritage, so none can really be expected to grasp the gravitas of Macdonald's accomplishments.  La Touche is also the guy who led a group of high school kids on a field trip to the Grassy Narrows First Nation to stage a noisy and violent protest, joined by pro-Palestinian disrupters.

Ya, that guy.

Neethan Shan is a Tamil from Sri Lanka; La Touche was a backup singer for Raffi.  Not exactly Canadian scholars, but nevertheless duly-elected.  Patel is of Gujarati descent, so as I say, these guys are steeped neither in Canadian history, nor heritage, so Macdonald's breathtaking accomplishments, I would wager, are by definition not top-of-mind.  Their cultural and historic heroes would obviously be Gandhi and Nehru.

This is NOT racism, so don't go there.  We are all one race, the human variety, so that's the end of that argument.  I am talking background, culture and core beliefs, which influence everything we all believe and do.  Why do you think they ran to get on the school board?  To change things because that's why anyone runs for any public office.  They want to change something.

Well, erasing Sir John is certainly one way to do it, but it's wrong.  Macdonald created Canada -- the country everyone clamors to get into.  So, settle down and leave the guy, his name and his statues in place.        

Whimsy

That's how Trump operates, on whimsy and personality.  As the Liberals prepare to pick a new leader, they'd better take heed.

Trump loathes Chrystia Freeland -- almost as much as he does Trudeau.  Freeland's problem is that she was in lock step with our hapless PM for 10 years.  She can't shrug that off.

As for Mark Carney, he probably doesn't like him either just because Carney is a snob and an elitist -- both no-no's for the Orange guy.  Since the next PM's main focus will be on dealing with Trump, neither candidates will fare too well, but his hatred of Freeland will be much more prevalent.

Freeland, you will remember, was the minister who negotiated the now-ignored Canada/Mexico/US free trade deal.  The American who had to deal with her, Robert Lighthizer, also loathed her.  The photos of her, four foot nothing, wagging her finger at the man were pathetic.  Way to bring people in, Chrystia!  She has a real knack for turning people off and I'm definitely one of them.

She made it seem negotiating the deal was such a huge task and only thanks to her brilliance was it possible!

Her she is, a wanna be prime minister, clipping her toenails in the House.  Charming!

I was on the team who negotiated the first Canada/US Free Trade agreement back in 1988, when I was with Customs and Excise.  You know what?  It wasn't that difficult because both sides negotiated from a spirit of cooperation, respect and give-and-take.  I can just picture Freeland striding into a meeting, guns blazing and pissing everyone off.  We didn't do that and it all worked out pretty well.

But what is is about Freeland that bugs people?  Is the hair flipping?  Is it the too-tight, too-short dresses she insists on wearing?  Is it those God forsaken pearls she wears with everything (probably a hand-me-down from some long-dead grandmother)?  Is it that smug look?  Is it the way she lectures and talks down to the ignorant, unwashed proletariat?  Frankly, it's all of the above.  A more annoying politician you couldn't find:

Can you seriously imagine this harridan as our prime minister?!

As for Carney, people forget that yes, he may have served as governor of the Bank of England, but only for two years.  They leave that part out.  His term was for five, but they dumped him after just two because his rabid green agenda was ruining the economy.  Brexit was being negotiated and Carney was in the way.  So, rather than having been a glittering governor, he was actually a total bust.  Too bad the lazy media never mentions this.  Don't be fooled, Carney is an hysterical greenie.

If you want to know what's really going on, watch John Mearsheimer and Victor Davis Hanson on YouTube.  That's where you will get the truth about what's happening in the world.  

You won't find it on mainstream media.    

Breathtaking hypocrisy!

Yesterday, we went to a lovely ceremony, where the Alberta Lieutenant Governor, Salma Lakhani, pinned medals onto the lapels of 40 worthy recipients of the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

B was one of them:

Brian Marley-Clarke with the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta.

First name called was Alison Redford's, former premier of Alberta.  Blank, silence.  She was a disgraceful no-show.  That just confirms to me how unfit she was to be premier in the first place.  A premier doesn't thumb her nose at our Head of State, but Redford did exactly that.  When you're too great to be honoured by a mere King, you bring shame on the office itself.  A very poor show, Alison.  

What made me almost burst out laughing was the presence of five or six Indigenous people who were also getting the medal.  Remind me, isn't it the Indigenous who rail against the Crown and the colonialism it "perpetrated", ruining their culture and destroying their people and way of life?  So why were they there to accept a medal in honour of the King they blame for all their ills?!  But there they were, dressed in all their regalia and feathered headdresses, enjoying the largesse of His Majesty and basking in his glory.

Shouldn't they have indignantly refused the honour?  Rhetorical.  But I did have a nice chat with one Indigenous woman who was wearing a traditional ribbon skirt.  She was shocked I knew the history of that skirt, but, I -- an ignorant white woman -- always do my research.  There she was, running up to get a picture of her Siksika husband while Her Honour pinned a King Charles gong on his lapel.

As I say, it's both hypocritical and bullsh-t.  

Most of the Indigenous recipients were leaders in the "recovery" industry.  More irony was when we were stopped at a red light as we left and were harassed by a drunk Indigenous man who banged on our car window for money.  What a bizarre juxtaposition  -- leaving an awards ceremony honouring the Indigenous and then encountering the main problem with that population in Canadian downtowns everywhere.

Particularly galling was that Her Honour announced she was awarding the medal to a slew of aides de camp who work in her office.  What?!?!  Why were they getting one?!  A healthy dose of blatant nepotism there because it cheapened the currency of the award a tad.

As for the reception, I have to say it was cheesy.  A few small tortilla wrap bites, a couple of danishes and tons of sweets (which I don't eat).  As for beverages, coffee and tea only.  That was a real slap in the face for the medal recipients who collectively have given thousands and thousands of volunteer hours for their various causes.

But Her Honour Salmabegum Lakhani, a self-proclaimed "proud Ismaili Muslim", was born in Kampala, Uganda, and doesn't imbibe.  So, the rest of us weren't permitted a drop of the grape either.  She evidently forgot that this is Alberta, Canada, where traditional toasting with a little alcohol is the expected norm.  We are not in Uganda any more, Salma.  Open the bar, please.  But it stayed closed.

She was appointed by Jason Kenny, who must have done so in a moment of extreme diversity-ism.  Poor Jason, so many misguided moments in his brief tenure.

As for Salma, time to let a little "Alberta" rub off on your shoulders.  Afterall, as Lieutenant Governor that's where your pride should be draped -- not in Kampala at the local mosque.  Take a page from B's grandfather's book, who told him when they immigrated, "Forget about India, forget about England, my boy.  This is Canada.  Just be a Canadian."  Wise words of advice B has heeded since.

One other bizarre moment was when the emcee announced that the words to 'God Save the King' were written on the back of the programme.  Huh?!  Are you telling me that Canadian medal recipients in Alberta, Canada, were not expected to know the words to the Royal Anthem when they received a medal from His Majesty?!  But there they were, written on the back so we could sing along;

Seared into the minds of most Canadians, one would have thought.

All in all, it was a lovely sight to see B up there getting his second Royal gong, but as I say, all a bit cheesy.

There we are, B and son, Gene, who drove us there and looked after everything.

 

He actually cried

After the strip J.D. Vance tore off the European Union the other day in Munich, Security Conference chairman Christoph Heusgen broke down in tears and had to be comforted and helped off the podium:

 Wailing over failing.

How ludicrous!  If you watch 'Plank of the Week' on YouTube, they actually awarded him the plank the other day for this pathetic display.  Watch it, it's hilarious because it's always accurate.

Vance, of course, was absolutely correct to upbraid Europe for doing absolutely nothing over three years to end the Russia/Ukraine war that has dragged on and killed millions on both sides.  Nero fiddles while Rome burns, comes to mind.  

Frankly, it's all thanks to Ukrainian president Zelensky -- that sawed off ego maniac who keeps flying around the world in his phony fatigues costume extracting money from all sorts of virtue-signaling countries who keep giving him billions for his personal fight with Putin.  Oh, and a lot of it goes to his yachts, dachas and luxury homes and condos all over the world.  (See "My theory", Sept. 6, 2023).  

Of the more than $100 billion the world has given him, he has skimmed off and pocketed about $100 million personally.  Canada has given $19 billion, which is ludicrous.

Trump is calling him a dictator and I agree.  He is.  He is complaining that he hasn't been given a seat at the table.  He's been at the table for three years and has accomplished nothing except the death of millions and the complete destruction of many cities.  He has cancelled elections and rules with neither oversight, nor rules -- just does what he wants.  Wrong.   

Thank God Trump is coming to the rescue.  And he has correctly cut Zelensky completely out of the peace process he will forge with Putin.  It had to be done and now all European leaders are exposed for what they are:  Posers whose self interest has rendered them moribund.

Starmer and Macron are the Eunuchs-in-Chief on this file.  All bluster, no action.  Just a lot of blah blah blah.

Zelensky saying Ukraine will never accept any settlement made without him at the table reminds me of Monty Python's 'Holy Grail', where the knight keeps railing against his opponents as all his legs and arms are being been cut off, rendering him immobile and impotent.

In my opinion, Zelensky is a war criminal who has committed the mass murder of millions of his own people -- as well as those of Russia -- in a vain and egomaniacal quest for the glory of Ukraine and himself.

Who does he think he is?  As I say, thank God for Trump and Vance.  It has to stop.  

    

Ten!

That's what one of the little girls I am now tutoring replied when I asked her if she had any brothers or sisters?  Ten!  In this day and age, even Catholics don't have that many, so I assume her family is Mormon.  It is.

I asked her what number she was and she rhymed off four older brothers' names, then her, but after that she kind'a couldn't remember the littlest ones' names.  "I forget," she finally said.  I had to stifle a laugh.

She is one of five or six eight-year-olds I am helping with their reading in my daughter's grade two class here in Cochrane.  Teachers are swamped, so I volunteered to help her with remedial reading.

Every Friday, I go to her class, where she has set me up at a little table in the hall outside her room.  Settling my a-- into a miniature chair at a miniature table is quite the sight!  Then we go through a series of exercises laid out by daughter.  So, there I am, remembering my own grade one and two classes at Crichton Street Public in Ottawa, when Dick, Jane, Sally and Spot were our reading companions:

Playmates from my youth.

"See Dick run.  See See Jane jump.  See Spot catch the ball."  All phrases I remember so well from when I was seven and eight.  It's so much fun for me because the kids are so sweet and try so hard.  "Sound it out," I say, as they struggle with the words on the page in front of them.  "Just read what's there, don't add other words.'

"Here's Mrs. M-C," daughter says when I walk in.  "Hi Mrs. M-C," they all chant enthusiastically.  Valentine's Day was especially sweet, with all the girls dressed up for the occasion.  As I was leaving, one of my little pupils spoke up.  "Mrs. M-C, wait," she hailed as she rushed over.  To my great surprise, she gave me a huge hug!  I was speechless.

So, this is my calling of late.  Venturing back to a simpler time with sweet children, their entire lives still ahead of them.

   

More that $3 trillion

That's how much money the natives have been handed by Canadians since since 1946.  Actually, it's $3.3 trillion, but hey, who's counting?!  Certainly not the Indigenous leaders, who keep demanding more.

The Canadian money tree, repeatedly shaken by so many.

Has this avalanche of money made any discernable difference?  Rhetorical.  And still they want more under the guise of "reconciliation".  A high school student I know, who was doing a class project, asked me what reconciliation meant?  "Money", I replied.  She immediately got it.

When you hear Patti Pettigrew, founder of the 'Thunder Bay Woman Lodge', say natives are being "nickel and dimed to death", you want to scream and hand her the bank statements of the 'Indian Trust Fund".  Today, that fund is holding $625 million.  And that's over and above the 2024-2025 allotment for Canada's 1.8 million natives, which is $32 billion.  $32 billion!!!

Why doesn't Ms. Pettigrew ask her own leadership for a few clams out of that fund?  Why doesn't she ask her leaders where the money has gone?  Oh, wait, she can't because the first thing Trudeau did when he took office 10 years ago was cancel the Accountability Act, which attempted to compel native leaders to account for the money they were given.

That I don't get.  When I was working and travelling, I had to account for every coffee in my expense claims.  But they don't have to account for billions?!  It's only going to get worse until Trudeau exits because he said the other day, "I'm going to do exactly what I want, now that I'm leaving."  Never mind that, he has done exactly what he wanted -- or what Katie Telford told him he wanted -- since he set foot in the PMO.

Is the Indigenous leadership so incompetent it can't run a bath, let alone a reserve?  Is that why no one knows where the money goes?  Or maybe it's because they simply don't want Canadians to find out.  Patti Hajdu should demand answers on behalf of all hard-working Canadians, some of whom have to decide between rent and food every month.

I wrote to Bob Fife about this and he replied that it was a foolish decision to cancel the Accountability Act.  Obviously, I agree.  But I am sure Trudeau is relieved Trump has distracted us from all this with his tariff threats because Trudeau can now focus on being 'Captain Canada' again.  Do you think he actually might stick around?  Do you think there's a chance the Liberals could sneak in again?

Gawd help us.

Dear Diary

Why did I ever start watching that ridiculous Paramount series 'The Affair'?!  I don't know, but now I regret it because it's interminable!  Problem is, Diary, I'm hooked.  Other problem is it never seems to end.

The unendurable stars of 'The Affair'. 

It's one of those annoying series that is all chunked up -- you know, one episode shown from one character's perspective, the same episode shown from another's completely different perspective., so you never know what's really going on.  Sooooo annoying!  

It's also one of those shows that features a lot of those maddening "Three years earlier" scenes, where you have to forget what you just watched and pretend you don't know what's going to happen next.  The whole thing begins with famous author Noah, played by Dominic West, having an affair with a mousy, cheap waitress nobody, Alison, played by Ruth Wilson, but it branches out into a million other side plots and affairs that are mostly irrelevant.

Firstly, Alison does not strike me as someone anyone would have an affair with -- let alone the three or four other characters who throw their entire lives in the toilet because of her "irresistibility".  She's boring and vapid, but happily she's now dead.  The coroner says it was suicide, but we know she was murdered by one of her many lovers.  At least she's gone.  For now.  But who knows?  She may reappear in some future episode -- God forbid!

B hates it because it's stupid, so to spare him, I watch it while he is busy or out.  However, Diary, we are also watching another series, 'Inspector George Gently', starring Martin Shaw as Inspector Gently.  Set in the sixties, I am really enjoying it because I came of age in that era and can relate to so much of it.  It also makes sense, unlike the ludicrous 'The Affair'.

___________________________

As an aside, Diary, I wanted to update you on the saga of my erstwhile ex-"friend", Diane, who dropped me 18 months ago because I blogged that I thought she could at least buy me a glass of wine when we went out for lunch, but she never would.  Remember her?  She's the one I drove around, picked up and dropped off because she had had a stroke and could no longer drive.  I guess I just wasn't worth a $10 glass of wine.  Oh well, her loss.   

We usually had a few laughs and shared our very irritated views on the Indians and how they were ripping off the Canadian public.  Other than with B, I can't really express my opinions on the natives and their "leadership" in polite company because everyone, except me, seems to have drunk the Kool Aid on that file.  But Diane shared them, so we'd rave on privately.

One thing that really riled us was their claim of nationhood.  To be a nation, a people has to raise its own capital and protect its own borders.  The Indigenous do neither, so they aren't nations.  All this nation-to-nation bunk is just that:  Bunk.

I guess you could say some of them do raise their own capital -- if you count the millions they get from the criminal smuggling of people, guns and drugs across the St. Lawrence between the US and Canada via the Akwesasne reserve, which straddles both countries.  It's all illegal money, but they claim it's their land, so they do what they want, give the police the finger and pocket the ill-gotten proceeds.

It's not their land, as we know.  I looked it up.  It's Crown Land given to the natives for their exclusive use.  But it's still Crown Land.  I once tried to point this out at a dinner party and was furiously and righteously set upon and attacked by all the bed wetters (as the 'Plank of the Week' gang hilariously calls the hoards of insufferable liberal lefties) at the table.  Never going to try that again, Diary!

 I also brought up the billions we give them -- along with all the illegal migrants -- and have now vowed to never, ever, bring up either topic again while in the company of the great uninformed mob.  

Well, Diary, that's about it for today.  I'll keep you posted on whether Alison rises from the grave to piss us all off once again.

Cheerio!     

Why would she do that?

Why would Margaret Thatcher send the Queen to Saudi Arabia, where she was forced to remove her shoes and wear a hijab?   

We're talking about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II!  She actually had to cover her head in that Muslim country.  It was an outrage.  Do you think for one minute a Muslim ruler -- or any Muslim -- would come to England and be forced to wear western dress?!  

Never!

But they force non-Muslims to adhere to their archaic dress code and kowtow to men.  Absolutely ridiculous.

The Queen in hijab dress.

The Monarch is the Head of the Church in Great Britain.  She is not a Muslim and should never be forced to wear Muslim attire.  But, she did it.  And she looked as regal as anyone could with her head covered.  Again, why did Thatcher send her?  Was it personal?  I know they didn't get on -- probably because Thatcher thought she was the queen and resented the fact that she wasn't.

Whatever the reason, the Queen should have stuck to western dress and Thatcher should have insisted on it before sending her.

____________________

Just to show you how insensitive I can be, I stupidly asked a WestJet pilot I regularly swim with what he thought of the recent collision between that military training helicopter and a passenger jet.  Can you imagine!  I might as well have asked him how he'd like to have died like that.

Just so dumb.

I'm confused?

Isn't it the job of US customs and border agents to screen who and what gets into the US?  Shouldn't they be the ones -- not Canada -- responsible for all the illegal migrants, guns and fentanyl apparently flowing freely into our neighbour to the south?

The answer is yes.  So why is Canada being blamed and incurring the wrath of President Trump?  He should be instructing his own, hand-picked border czar, Tom Homan, to stop it -- not penalizing Canada with ridiculous tariffs that will cripple both countries.

While experts and pundits are all over the airwaves, trying to analyze the "why's" of such ludicrous tariffs, Trump himself gave the answer:  "I love Canada, I dislike its leadership."  He actually said that the other day and that translates into: "I love Canada, but I can't stand that squat babushka Freeland and I loathe that vain, narcissistic spoiled leader Trudeau."

Funnily, no one has picked up on the fact that it's all personal for Trump.  There is no logic or economic thought here.  He just can't abide Freeland and Trudeau.  On that fact, most Canadians agree.  Freeland was bragging the other day about how she had pushed back and stood up to the US during the trade negotiations, not realizing that her abrasive style was anathema to reasonable people like Robert Lighthizer.

Trudeau and Freeland's unworkable stance.

As for the border, unless the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are on the take with the Chinese and turning thousands of blind eyes at their borders, they are the ones responsible for enforcing the laws of their country.

My next question is, why is no one but me calling this out?  No reporters, no columnists, no politicians -- nobody is mentioning this inconvenient truth.

As I said, I am confused -- but then I often am.

Another thing that confuses me is the decision of the Victoria school board to remove police liaison officers from its schools.  

The woke run amok in B.C.

Apparently, any police presence in the school intimidates Black and Indigenous students.  So Victoria, in its preeminent wokery, has removed them.  I guess what these students object to is the oversight of their gang activities by the police.  I mean, what else could it mean?  If everyone was law-abiding -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge -- why would they not want to keep it that way by having a few police officers hanging around the lockers and liaising?

Thankfully, Premier Eby has fired the entire board -- very surprising considering the rabidly woke NPD premier is drenched in do-goodery and tolerance.  It took two years, but he actually did it.  Guess he calculated the election math and figured there weren't enough Indigenous and Black votes in 'Tea Party City" to sway the results.

Another thing that confuses me is 'World Hijab Day'.  Apparently, in some quarters of our woke-to-the-back-teeth country, we actually have one and it's today.  Who knew?! 

World Hijab Day

Just to remind myself of how un-woke I am, I had to google it.  'World Hijab Day' was proclaimed by a Canadian resident, Yasmine Mohammed, in 2013 and "...celebrates the resilience of hijabs around the globe who courageously challenge stereotypes, while embracing their identities with pride and determination".

In Canada, a country about as tolerant as you can find, I would not think we'd need a special day to celebrate and protect hijabs.  Maybe in Quebec, where they have finally legalized the separation of Church and State in Bill 21, which bans religious symbols in secular institutions, and are about to enact another requiring immigrants to adhere to Quebec culture and mores, I can see where they might need a special day.  But nowhere else.

Maybe part of the issue in Quebec stems in part from the actions of that teenage girl in Montreal, who claimed she had had her hijab ripped off while she was walking down the street minding her own business.  After a big public kerfuffle and investigation, it turned out she had been lying all along.  Never happened.  She was trying to stir up an issue that wasn't there and her false accusations didn't help. 

I have also recounted the Muslim girls I taught at Algonquin College in Ottawa, who wore the hijab for "modesty", yet had faces plastered with makeup and wore very, high heels and nail polish -- both clearly sexually provocative gestures which flew in the face of the "modesty" they claimed to support.

As a Christian, I have never understood why women and girls have to cover themselves at all.  We are all equal and all children of a loving God, so why does the female gender in Muslim societies have to hide themselves.  That's wrong, but in Canada we live with it.

As I said, I am constantly confused and bewildered by what Canada has become.  We are a country with no identity whatsoever and I am only glad my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts aren't alive to see it.