Only women?

The press release said:

"The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced that she will be hosting a virtual meeting of women foreign ministers on October 20, 2022, to hear directly from women of Iranian heritage and discuss the grave state of women’s and human rights in Iran in the midst of mass unrests and ongoing protests against the Iranian regime. 

“This week, my counterparts and I will gather to send a clear message: the Iranian regime must end all forms of violence and persecution against the Iranian people, including their brutal aggressions against women in particular. Canada will continue to stand by the courageous Iranians who are fighting for their human rights and standing up for their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. Women’s rights are human rights.”

- Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Yep, Joly convened a meeting of female foreign ministers.  No boys allowed.  How dumb was that.  Firstly, Iran is controlled by men, so do you think they'll listen to women about the issue?  No, this virtual meeting had a virtual solution to which no one will pay any heed -- virtual or otherwise.  Affirmative action notwithstanding, most women remain on the periphery of the action -- witness Trudeau appointing a bunch of unqualified women to his cabinet, "because it's 2015".  Not a good reason, Justin.

By excluding men, Joly has excluded the very people causing the problems.  That's a big "duh" in my book.  Here's what came out of her cozy hen party:

  

"October 26, 2022 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

“We, as women foreign ministers, are gathered in solidarity with the courageous Iranian women engaging in their right of peaceful assembly and advocating for their human rights. We recognize that Iranian women are also fighting for a better future for all Iranians and we have the moral obligation to support them. We strongly support the vital work of human rights defenders, in particular women human rights defenders, who ensure people around the world are free to exercise and enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms.

“We also firmly condemn the reported violent actions that led to the tragic death of Mahsa Amini. We reiterate calls by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the use of force by the authorities and the subsequent repression of demonstrations, including the implementation of severe Internet and telecoms restrictions and the excessive use of force against protestors, including students. We also call on the Iranian government to allow the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran to be allowed access to Iran."

So, they have declared moral support for the women and virtual condemnation for the perpetrators.  And who was at the meeting?  Foreign ministers from such powerhouses as:

• Albania
• Andorra (ever heard of it?  Me neither)
• Australia
• France
• Germany (OK, they are a powerhouse, but the only one)
• Iceland
• Kosovo
• Libya
• Liechtenstein
• New Zealand, and
• Norway

In the meantime, the violence continues unabated in Iran.  But I'm sure all the women at the gathering feel so much better.

They used to all be hippies

I'm talking about staff at Central Mortgage and Housing Corp., where I worked when I ran 'The Vincent Massey Awards for Excellence in the Urban Environment' -- one of the many hats I have worn during my varied career.  Lets' see, what were they?

• IBM Canada, first job in communications,
• Maclean Hunter
• The Financial Post
• Chatelaine
• Miss Chatelaine
• Home Goods Retailing
• Office Equipment and Methods
• Dupont of Canada,
• Central Mortgage and Housing Corp. (see above, i.e., awards program),
• Speech writer for several of Trudeau-the-Elder's ministers,
• Supply and Services Canada,
• Public Service Commission of Canada,
• IPAC conference (where I met B, who was running it),
• EXPO '86,
• Comptroller General of Canada,
• Customs and Excise
• Free Trade Task Force
• GST Task Force, and finally
• The Canada Revenue Agency.

Yep, I got around, as they say.  But my favourite job was at Maclean Hunter, where we all enjoyed the hedonistic 'Mad Men' world and all its  glorious and naughty indulgences.  However, I admit I also enjoyed flying all over the country on Challenger jets when I worked for ministers.  All this to say, I had a lot of fun -- some innocent, some not so.  But back to the hippies at CMHC.

Apparently, the 'Thunder Woman Healing Lodge Society' says it is $2 million short of the total needed to construct a seven-storey, residential complex to house federally-sentenced Indigenous women.   

Turns out, CMHC has been the funder for this project, which doesn't surprise me.  The hippies I worked with in the seventies were always pushing demonstration projects and coop housing for the less-fortunate among us.  These granny-spectacled, bearded do-gooders grabbed onto every fad going and healing lodges -- especially for women -- would certainly fit their agenda.

The Lodge Society claims that Indigenous-led ceremonies, classes and therapy reduce rates of recidivism, but I doubt it.  Currently, one out of every three federal inmates is Indigenous, which is outrageous when you consider natives comprise only six percent of the entire Canadian population.  That's 42% of all female inmates are Indigenous.

Googling who is the president of CMHC, I learn it is someone named Romy Bowers.  A woman, with an MA in Finance from the U of T, Bowers may have a clue that another $2 million, on top of the $20 already forked over, might be in jeopardy.  Evidently Bowers' gender is not swaying her.

The Commissioner of Corrections is also a woman, but one with a long career in corrections, dating back to 1983.  Anne Kelly's vast experience in offender programs and reintegration gives her the background needed to assess where money should, and should not, be thrown.  Under section 81 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, CSC funds healing lodge beds on a per diem basis to the tune of $180 per resident.  That seems awfully high, but apparently the average daily cost for prisoners across all CSC institutions is $330. 

What puzzles me is why the CSC is not kicking in more money if lodges are cheaper?  The answer that jumps to my mind is because they don't work.  Thunder Bay -- a city mired in ruinous Indigenous crime -- established something called the "Indigenous Peoples' Court" (see, Not Working, Feb. 1, 2021) run by native, community elders.  The remedies and "punishments" consist of smudging, healing circles and counselling.  In one case, the offender was told to try harder and then sent on his merry way.  Naturally, he re-offended and was eventually sent to jail by a regular court.

As I just said, the lodges go unused because they don't work:

So, while Patti Pettigrew, founder of the Thunder Woman Lodge, claims CSC and CMHC are, "nickel and diming us to death," I think Kelly and Bowers are on the right side of this.  The other option for Ms. Pettigrew is to seek funding from the HUGE Indigenous bank reserves, built up over many years into the billions.  I have blogged about this before, but in 2019-2020, transfers for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada amounted to:

$2,680,395,430.  Yes, folks, that's more than $2.6 billion in one year!!!!  The question is, where is it and who spent it??!!!  Since 1946, the Canadian government has spent $3,300,000,000,000 on Indigenous peoples with no discernable result.  That's $3.3 trillion!!!!!

On the other side of this fantasmagorical ledger, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal just rejected a....wait for it....breathe.....sit down.......$40 billion claim for residential school children.  Yep, they were asking for another $40 billion!^&#$%$#@&*?!!!  At last some semblance of sanity and balance has prevailed somewhere on this file.  A couple of people finally said "No".

  

More delightful bon mots from Tanya.....

So, again we have Tanya Talaga, the half-Polish (yes, sorry), half-native journalist raised on the desolate, rough-scrabble reserve of middle-class Toronto, and thus an expert on everything Indigenous, blathering on about the truly-talented painter, Kent Monkman.  Monkman, a Nehiyaw (Cree) artist, has had his work politically and philosophically coopted by Talaga who tars everything with her infernal "colonialism" blame game.

"Indigenous peoples and settlers experience and see history differently because, until very recently, the so-called victor has been the only one telling the tale, setting out racist policies to violently remove Indigenous peoples from the land and then using public institutions -- including residential schools, universities and museums -- to reinforce and carry on the narrative.  This is how we get erased," writes Tanya in an epic, run-on tirade that tries to jam everything that's ever happened in this country into one sentence.

Whew!

She claims native museum pieces and artifacts in the Monkman retrospective were "heisted and placed in museum collections where they waited to be rediscovered and heard".  Actually, Tanya, many native pieces in museums were gifted to explorers by the people who made them.  They were proud and honourable gifts, but now, according to Ms. Talaga, they were criminally ripped away and stolen.  

Monkman is to be congratulated for the beautiful exhibit and collection the Royal Ontario Museum has put together.  Ms. Talaga should leave it alone, admire it and let it speak for itself.

But she won't.

Why am I the only one who calls her out?  Me, whenever I read anything she moans about:

  

$16 million

Just when you thought it couldn't get any stupider, it does.  The government is now going to spend.....wait for it.....sit down.....hydrate.....$16 million a year for sanitary products in federal washrooms! #%$&$%@!$%!!  $16 million !!@%#^%&%$%@##%^$^

I guess the minister for youth, gender equality and women, failed broadcaster Marci Ien, couldn't think of anything else to do, so she dreamt up this program.  Hey, Marci, why not look into sexual assault in hockey?  Now that's something serious that affects youth and women.  Contracting out sanitary pads isn't.  

And why should the public pay for tampons and pads?  Trudeau the Elder said the government had no business in the bedrooms of the nations, but evidently The Younger now thinks it's a good idea for the government to meddle in federal bathrooms.   

And who stepped right up the support the move?  None other than our trusty "feminist" minister of labour, Seamus O'Regan.  "We don't expect employees to bring their own toilet paper, so they shouldn't have to bring their own tampons," he brilliantly opined.  I remember dispensing machines in women's washrooms for those caught unawares, but you paid for those.  Now, with nothing left to throw money at, the Liberals are going to throw it at sanitary products.  

But this is the best part:  "We'll also be making them available in men's washrooms for all those who identify with one of the other 22 gender options," added O'Regan.  Whaaaat#$^!!@??  Does this mean that men will now be menstruating at will?  Or is it for men who identify as women and want to carry around pads and tampons in their purses for more authenticity.  Or is it for women who identify as "binary" or male, want to use the men's washroom and may be menstruating? 

What's next?  Free condoms?!!   

Remind me, what do the signs say on washrooms these days?  Clearly, they can no longer be "Women" or "Men".  I must start noticing because that's material for another blog for sure.

_________________________

Just a word about the hearings into the truckers' protest.  I have done three blogs on this mess:

• What in Gawd's name?!  February 4, 2022
• Ludicrous, February 17, and
• Three people, February 20, 2022

These blogs outlined clearly what was going on and blamed Affirmative Action for the appointment of the disastrously unsuited Peter Sloly as Ottawa police chief.  It's really laughable to see Diane Deans, head of the Ottawa Police Board, throwing Sloly and everyone else under the bus in her testimony.  Diane, don't you remember it was you who hired the guy?  And, by the way, aren't you a beneficiary of Affirmative Action yourself?

All the government has to do is read those blogs to get the answers.  That'd save 65 witnesses, six weeks and millions of dollars.  Here's Sloly defending his actions and shifting blame.  What a waste of time and money:

  

Only three

Of the 23 prime ministers of Canada, only three have had the country's best interests at heart:  Sir John A. Macdonald, Lester Pearson and -- yes, I'm gonna say it -- Brian Mulroney.  Every other has been a political and partisan hack.

Macdonald, Pearson and Mulroney actually put Canada first at great personal and political cost.  Macdonald is easy; he created Canada.  Pearson made Canada a leader in the world of peace keeping, although he did a few questionable things -- like bringing in the incompetent Trudeau, Sr., which led to the anointing of the disastrous narcissistic, man-child Trudeau, Jr. -- but Pearson's heart was in the right place, even though his judgement about Pierre was calamitous and short-sighted.  Pierre, afterall, was a separatist through and through.  But let's not forget Pearson also created our national flag and introduced the Canada Pension Plan.  So, high marks to him.  

                                                                    Sir John A. Macdonald

                                                                        Lester B. Pearson

                                                                        Brian Mulroney

                                                                        Stephen Harper

I was going to include Harper because he did a lot of good for Canada's economy, but his visceral, partisan hatred of Trudeau coloured some of his decisions to the detriment of the country at times.  So,  although he was a good prime minister, he wasn't one of the greats.

As for Mulroney, he introduced three hugely important things:  Free trade, the GST and the acid rain agreement.  These made Mulroney very unpopular, but they were the right thing for Canada.  I recently caught an interview with him and he talked about doing the right thing for Canada -- not what's best for partisan political and votes.  He's right, of course, and he did exactly that.

Now we are governed by lunatics, headed by the narcissist-in-chief Trudeau, and Canada is currently in a downward spiral both nationally and internationally.  Listening to Freeland hectoring world leaders in Washington the other day I wanted to hide under the couch with embarrassment.  She has absolutely no idea how ridiculous she is.  Swishing her hair, sniffing her unbearable tic and wagging her finger, she was actually telling them how to run their own economies!  It was ludicrous, coming from a finance minister whose policies are bankrupting Canada:

God help us!

Almost outrageous

 We are visiting Toronto for Christmas and have booked in at the Park Hyatt Hotel (previously the venerable Park Plaza).  Full disclosure, in my wild Maclean-Hunter days in the early seventies, I spent a lot of time in the back bar on the ground level, where the late John Robarts, held court in a special corner.  It was a great place, but something has happened to that hotel -- along with many other previously-reasonable establishments.  

Initially, they said they were not offering turkey for Christmas Dinner!!$%^#$@!!  That's right, no turkey was on the draft menu!

I am so sick of Christmas being cancelled because, "not everyone celebrates it".  So what??!!!  Here's the email I just sent to the guest services manager when she dropped the almost-bombshell.  

________________________________________

Email:

Good morning, Michelle.  Brian forwarded this to me.  I would like to formally protest to the GM about this appalling decision. 

December 25^th is Christmas Day and Christmas in this country means turkey.  How can a hotel like the Park Hyatt not offer turkey on Christmas day??!!  It’s unconscionable, inexcusable and an insult to the day and its traditions.  I sincerely regret booking at your hotel, in view of this.  Please don’t tell me that not everyone celebrates Christmas, I know that, but you can’t change the fact that Dec. 25^th is Christmas Day and any self-respecting establishment must offer turkey for this feast.

Things have become totally upside-down in this country.  How would it work if I insisted on pork for a Ramadan meal?  People would be as outraged as I am that no turkey will be on the menu on December 25th. 

A word of advice:  Don’t dare call it a “Christmas Day menu”.  It’s not!

Chefs today have become entirely too high-handed, in my opinion.  Since when do they override guests’ wishes and an age-old feast like Christmas.  I’m tired of everyone highjacking and denying Christmas in favour of “Holiday” and “Season” Days.  Last time I checked, December 25^th was Christmas Day; the holidays and seasons only surround it.  Please, let those of us who celebrate it have one day out of respect for our culture too.

I would appreciate your forwarding this to the chef and the GM.  By the way, please send me the GM’s name and email address.

 I am sorry you are in the middle of this mess, but if the Park Hyatt stepped up, none of this would be necessary.  I look forward to hearing back.  Thank you, Michelle.

 Yours sincerely,

Nancy Marley-Clarke

403-710-9122 

____________________________________ 

Just got a call from a charming manager and Kevin informed me that yes, he had read my email and yes, turkey would be on the menu for sure.  "You can go ahead and cancel your Royal York reservations because turkey and all the trimmings will definitely be on our Christmas Day menu.  In fact, I have already made a reservation for three at 5 p.m."

p.s.  Disaster averted.  We have cancelled our booking with the Royal York.  Sometimes, you just have to put it out there.  Happy Turkey!

You've failed your people, not us

The latest hogwash on the native file involves three bands that have filed an official human rights complaint, alleging that the federal department of Indigenous Services has committed "systemic discrimination" against adult band members with disabilities.

First of all, I hate that word "systemic" because it is misleading.  But hey, it grabs attention!  The bands behind this nonsense are the Siksika, Piikani and Kainai -- all members of the Blood Tribe.  Second of all, babies born with disabilities or abnormalities have usually had a rough time in the womb.  That's on the mothers' behaviours and lifestyle when pregnant.

Tracy McHugh, Siksika councillor, claims that when children with disabilities reach 18, they have to move off-reserve to get help (i.e., more money), or access it via the 'Alberta's Persons with Developmental Disabilities Program'.  In case you missed it, the Siksika and Chief Ouray Crowfoot just inked a $1.3 billion land claim for its 7,800 members.  $1.3 billion!  I'd say that's probably enough to cover the needs of a handful of disabled adults on-reserve, wouldn't you?

The Piikani just bagged $64.3 million from the feds over water rights.  That covers 2,451 people.

And the Kainai?  Google won't tell me because the band won't release the numbers (Gee, I wonder why?), but I'll bet it's also millions.  How many members?  12,800.

"They have to leave the reserve," said McHugh, "And we are a people predominantly under poverty (why is that, anyone dare ask?).  They have to uproot and leave family behind," she complained.  "You leave a whole lot of culture behind," she added.  Here's the "culture" left behind:

"Every government has failed our people with developmental disabilities on the reserves.  It's a long time coming.  A very, very long time coming," she added.  

In previous blogs, (see, "Just a beginning", June 3, 2022 and "Here's a number," May 4, 2022) I pointed out that Stoney Nakoda -- yes, the same people -- were handed $11,000,000 for a new health facility this past Spring.  So, with the usual money they get every year, they also pocketed $11,000,000 for a health facility and now they want more!!??!!!!  Why can't this new health facility treat these people??!!!  WTF??!!!  Systemic racism?  Spare me.

And no one -- except me -- does any research, or has the balls, to call this bullsh-t out.  

So, there you have it, folks.