Thoughts on Current Affairs

Why?

Why would someone who considers himself a product of a Christian heritage kill people of the same religion as the man he supposedly worships?  The killings in Pittsburgh highlight the whole issue of hatred against Jews.  To start with the obvious, Jesus, who Christians credit with the beginnings of their religion, was borne a Jew and died a Jew.  So how can we carry out anti-Semitism against Jews (note that Arabs are Semites as well) and still think of this as a Christian thing to do? 

Anti-Semitism against Jews is, of course, not a new thing.  It has been around for over a thousand years under one reason or another.  The Nazi holocaust was but one stop on this road.  But we are supposed to be living in a more enlightened era; one that was supposed to have learned a lesson from that horrible event.  But apparently this has not been the case.   The fact that many Jews in Canada and the United States still consider themselves as being at risk simply be being who they are must be a wake-up call for all who consider themselves Christians to be more supportive of Jews and people of other religions.

The Caravan

The caravan of people from troubled parts of Central America is all in the headlines these days, particularly President Trump’s threat against them. The caravan is a migration such as has happened in most places throughout history.  You would find it almost impossible to find any county’s DNA that has not been “tainted” by migrants from elsewhere.  Even those who consider themselves “pure” Americans, British, Chinese or French aren’t.  And the demonization of migrants is nothing new.  Steps have been taken throughout history to curb migrants (Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of China to name but two) even armed intervention such as Mr. Trump has instigated, but none have been successful except in the short term.  This may give Mr. Trump success in the coming mid-term elections, but migrants will continue to come because the conditions they left behind are far worse than anything that can happen to them at the US border.  Nonetheless, I believe that shots will be fired by American soldiers and migrants will die.

Pot Not

In Ontario at least, the introduction of legal pot use has certainly got off to an ignominious start.  You would think that Premier Ford, who was reputed to be a pot dealer in his younger days, could have done a better job of organizing things.  But just because the previous Liberal provincial government had made a plan that would have set up provincially run stores, Mr. Ford, just to spite the Liberals, had to destroy that avenue.  Instead he decreed that only private stores would distribute the weed.  The problem was that there were no such stores in existence on legal pot day, so purchases had to be made on-line or by phone for delivery by mail.  And then came the mail strike.  Legal pot stores will not be in existence until sometime next spring.  Meanwhile, we are told, illegal distributors are making a killing.  Stand by for the next foul up.  A simple answer would have been to allow the government run stores to open on time and gradually replace them with private entities.

If/When

If (when) the Conservatives lose the next federal election, you can be sure that the knives will be out for Andrew Scheer.  As a party leader in this day and age, you are not allowed to lose an election.  It used to be that party leaders could hold their jobs through several elections even although they may lose one along the way. Even Winston Churchill lost the election in 1945 but hung on and returned to power in the 1950s. But no longer in this age of instant gratification.  It’s one strike and your out.  So, who do you think is going to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and possibly our future Prime Minister.  Why, Mr. Doug Ford of course.  Scary isn’t it.

"Our Way of Life"

When you hear people who are against the acceptance of immigrants or refugees, you usually hear their reason as, “It will change our way of life.”  This assumes that their way of life is totally static.  It assumes that at some point time has stood still for them.  It assumes that that new arrivals will be the only thing that could change their way of life.  This is nonsense.

“Our way of life” changes by the day.  Your life today is significantly different than it was three or four decades ago.  It is even different than it was ten years ago.  Our way of life changes through a myriad of ways that affect us every day.  It changes through technology, politics and medicine and many other ways.

Take technology for a start.  Who would have thought ten years ago that we would be seriously talking about self-driving cars, electric cars and cars that stop on their own?  Who could had imagined the computer power you could harness in a watch, cell phone or car infotainment system?  Who could have imagined twenty years ago the concept of smart phones when simple cell phones were in their infancy?  Every one of those changes changed our way of life to a greater or lesser degree.

Politics is an ever-changing fact that affects our way of life almost every day.  Personalities and parties change at every level of governments.  The problems faced by governments change constantly.  Who would have imagined a Donald Trump as President of the US or a Doug Ford as the premier of one of our provinces?  Some love these leaders, and some hate them.  The split they have caused in our societies was unthinkable ten years ago.  It is not only the governments that we deal with directly but the governments of other countries with other leaders.  It seems at times that the only constants in the world are Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin.  

Medicine has made enormous strides in the last ten and twenty years.  Diseases that only a few years ago were considered incurable are now treated successfully with new and improved treatments.  Fifty years ago, who would have believed in knee, hip and shoulder replacements?  

And then there is climate change.  It was unheard of thirty years ago, whispered about twenty years ago and just starting to invade our conscience ten years ago.  Now it is a constant factor in our lives.  It is visibly causing problems almost daily.  The Arctic and Antarctic are losing their ice quickly.  Severe storms are becoming more frequent and deadlier.  When we see the results of Hurricane Michael everybody must wonder.  Some deniers will say that hurricanes have been with us forever, but the rapid intensity and power of this one is almost the worst to have hit the United States and the most severe to hit Florida ever.  The biggest factor we have to be aware of is the rising temperatures of the Pacific Ocean which acts as a veritable heat sink for the planet.  And unless there is a massive, world-wide change in our actions on this one subject, it will have the greatest impact of any other factor on our way of life.

The immigrants and refugees we turn away or denigrate now will not change our way of life to near the extent than any of the above factors will.  Just as the English, the French, the Scots, the Italians and Jews and Greeks and Chinese and Ukrainians did many years ago, these new arrivals will come, settle and become good citizens in the years ahead.  It is the way life evolves in every facet and every day of our existence.  

What Country?

No, this is not a quiz.  

There is a myth that the land we call Canada is an actual country.  But these days it certainly doesn’t feel that way.  Rather it appears to be ten individual fiefdoms each with their own agenda and no regard for other fiefdoms.  We call these fiefdoms “provinces” as if they were part of something bigger.  But more and more, each province is only concerned about looking out for its own interests.  British Columbia is at odds with Alberta.  Quebec would block a pipeline that would benefit the Maritime provinces and allow our resources to benefit the whole country.  Several provinces are threatening to or are in the process of suing the federal government over several issues. (Federal government, as seen by the provinces – an entity only good for dispensing money to provinces) 

“Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.”
  - Harry S Truman

The provinces, most lately Ontario, are now realizing the power they have with the “not withstanding” clause of the Charter or Rights and Freedoms.  This clause, which is in no other constitution in the free world, basically says that as a premier of a province, I can basically get away with any law I want, no matter how unfair or egregious it may be. This gives a premier more power to ignore our rights than the President of the United States.  In other words, Doug Ford can trample on more rights than Donald Trump.  There is no “not withstanding” clause in the United States Constitution.  Although the government of Ontario did not use that clause in this instant because of a technical decision by an appeals court, the mere fact that the Premier threatened to use at any time for any reason should give every one of us a reason to be concerned.

The US fought a civil war over state’s rights, and a strong central government won.  Hopefully we don’t have to go through a modern-day equivalent of that.

 

So how can you hold together a country where the power of the central government can be thwarted by any province?  Or where the Supreme Court can be so easily ignored?  Mr. Ford, and others of the right wing, are even questioning the authority of courts.  They claim that they should be allowed to do whatever they want since they are elected, and judges are “only” appointed.  After fighting for hundreds of years over the idea of Common Law (which means law that applies (is common) to everyone equally) and the power of an independent judiciary to adjudicate such law, we are now to accept the idea that that is all bunkum and we should just let any head of government do whatever they like for four years with no recourse.  That to me is totally unacceptable as it should be for anyone who truly believes that governments should be held accountable.

If we truly want a country rather than ten fiefdoms we must become a mature country.  A mature country is confident in their democratic principles.  A mature country recognizes the superior authority of the federal government.  A mature country lives by its constitution and the power of the courts to uphold that constitution.  A mature country has provinces that support the ambitions of other provinces and don’t hold artificial barriers in the way of progress. Confederation, after all, was intended to allow free markets between the provinces.  A mature country does not need a “not withstanding” clause.

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
  - George Bernard Shaw