Looking back over the past few decades there are some things which have changed to make Canada a better place in which to live.
One major positive change in Canada that comes to mind is the acceptance of same-sex marriage in Canada at a time when being “gay” is still identified a crime in some 78 countries around the world. Hate crimes appear to be increasing, but this may well be due to an increased awareness and prosecution of them.
Stats Can reports: Police services in Canada reported 1,036 hate crimes in 2008, up 35% from 2007. Just over half (55%) were motivated by race or ethnicity, 26% by religion and 16% by sexual orientation.
If you carry an outstanding balance on your credit card you should not wonder why you have less and less money to spend. My bank VISA card charges 19.99% on unpaid balance or for cash advances (and 24.99% for at least 6 months if I miss making even one minimum monthly payment). Kudos to our government for requiring these charges to be CLEARLY stated, but reducing the actual rates would be more helpful for most people. No wonder the banks can regularly post obscene profits and salaries for their CEO while they pay out 3 percent interest on investments and reduce employment through the use of ATMs.
The free lunch days of Internet usage are on the verge of disappearing in Canada. The CRTC has passed a requirement that Internet charges will be applied to an individual usage of more than 25 gigabytes per month. That is about 8 HD movies per month. More use than that and it would cost $2 per gigabyte. Minister of Industry Jim Prentice says he is looking into the situation.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
My Canada When I Was “Young”
Up until I was in my 40’s I accepted Canada as “my home and native land” to be taken, along with the Bible and taxes, as just the way things were. I voted every year after I turned 21 based solely on the personality and character of the candidates running. I knew there were things called “political parties” but they were as irrelevant to my vote as a birthday party would be. I donated blood regularly because it seemed like the right thing to do.
Speaking of taxes, it was much easier for me to do my income tax forms a few decades ago, not only because the form was shorter and simpler, but because I didn’t mind paying taxes. I felt I got good value for my money. If I paid more than was required, I just considered it to be a “tip” to the government for things like roads, having a respected national police force (RCMP), for looking after me as a Canadian citizen if I got into trouble when I was out of the country, and all the niceties of living in a civilized democratic country.
I liked it when my family and I would travel overseas and be treated royally because we proudly display the Canadian flag or maple leaf.
During the past couple of decades I have found I was working harder and harder, sweating through an ever increasing number of pages to avoid paying the government more taxes than I really need to because I didn’t feel I was getting good value for my money.
I realized recently that “My Canada” is disappearing fast. A YouTube video shows a policeman in Toronto telling a young man (who could just as easily have been me in my younger days) ,“This ain’t Canada right now . . . it’s G20 land . . . there is no civil rights here, how many times do you have to be told that.” That is not the Canada of I used to know and love.
The videos of the G20 in Toronto do not match my view of Canada, and I certainly am not happy to have my taxes supporting the billion (that's a "B" not an "M") dollars it cost. It wasn`t very long ago that a MILLION dollars was a huge amount of money. I don't even know how many a billion is.
Some 20,000 police in riot gear (some on horseback), herding people around the city outside the chain link fence was bad enough. But the video of a person being run over by a group of 5 policemen on horseback trotting down the street was particularly disturbing in that not one of the group stopped to see if the fellow was hurt - they did not stop or even slow down as he staggered out from under the horses' hooves . They just kept on trotting down the path. I guess they thought they were serving and protecting what they considered to be the important people in their society.
When I was younger I would not have believed that level of callous indifference would ever be displayed by any group of people in Canada, let alone by policemen. The videos of the G20 indicate it was taken as the norm for this event.
I want my old Canada back - as soon as possible.
Speaking of taxes, it was much easier for me to do my income tax forms a few decades ago, not only because the form was shorter and simpler, but because I didn’t mind paying taxes. I felt I got good value for my money. If I paid more than was required, I just considered it to be a “tip” to the government for things like roads, having a respected national police force (RCMP), for looking after me as a Canadian citizen if I got into trouble when I was out of the country, and all the niceties of living in a civilized democratic country.
I liked it when my family and I would travel overseas and be treated royally because we proudly display the Canadian flag or maple leaf.
During the past couple of decades I have found I was working harder and harder, sweating through an ever increasing number of pages to avoid paying the government more taxes than I really need to because I didn’t feel I was getting good value for my money.
I realized recently that “My Canada” is disappearing fast. A YouTube video shows a policeman in Toronto telling a young man (who could just as easily have been me in my younger days) ,“This ain’t Canada right now . . . it’s G20 land . . . there is no civil rights here, how many times do you have to be told that.” That is not the Canada of I used to know and love.
The videos of the G20 in Toronto do not match my view of Canada, and I certainly am not happy to have my taxes supporting the billion (that's a "B" not an "M") dollars it cost. It wasn`t very long ago that a MILLION dollars was a huge amount of money. I don't even know how many a billion is.
Some 20,000 police in riot gear (some on horseback), herding people around the city outside the chain link fence was bad enough. But the video of a person being run over by a group of 5 policemen on horseback trotting down the street was particularly disturbing in that not one of the group stopped to see if the fellow was hurt - they did not stop or even slow down as he staggered out from under the horses' hooves . They just kept on trotting down the path. I guess they thought they were serving and protecting what they considered to be the important people in their society.
When I was younger I would not have believed that level of callous indifference would ever be displayed by any group of people in Canada, let alone by policemen. The videos of the G20 indicate it was taken as the norm for this event.
I want my old Canada back - as soon as possible.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Persichilli's Winnipeg Sun Article Inaccurate on FLQ
In the Sunday, August 26, 2007 article "Confusing Grit policies have a stink to them" by Angelo Persichilli there is an appalling misrepresentation of the actions of the FLQ and the subsequent invoking of the War Measures Act. Correct information is readily available from Google searches such as: http://canadaonline.about.com/cs/octobercrisis/a/octobercrisistl.htm
The most offending to me part of Persichilli's article is:
"They (Liberals) criticize the Americans for over reacting against terrorism, but it was, if I am not mistaken, a Liberal prime minister who invoked the War Measures Act because one person was killed in Quebec."
The facts as I remember them, and verified on Wikipedia and other sites on the Internet are that the Front de libération du Québec, commonly known as the FLQ, was responsible for more than 200 bombings and the deaths of at least five people in 1970.
1) The FLQ kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross on October 5th, 1970, and demanded $500,000 in gold as ransom.
2) On October 10th the FLQ kidnapped Quebec Justice Minister Pierre Laporte .
3) October 17th, the body of Pierre Laporte was found in the trunk of a car at the airport in St.-Hubert, Quebec.
4) November 9, the new Quebec Justice Minister asked for the Army to stay in Quebec for another 30 days.
The trivialization of this series of events as "because one person was killed" indicates to me that the author was one or more of: ignorant of the events, too lazy to do a Google search or deliberately attempting to mislead the Sun readers.
The general tone and content of the rest of the article would suggest the third choice.
The most offending to me part of Persichilli's article is:
"They (Liberals) criticize the Americans for over reacting against terrorism, but it was, if I am not mistaken, a Liberal prime minister who invoked the War Measures Act because one person was killed in Quebec."
The facts as I remember them, and verified on Wikipedia and other sites on the Internet are that the Front de libération du Québec, commonly known as the FLQ, was responsible for more than 200 bombings and the deaths of at least five people in 1970.
1) The FLQ kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross on October 5th, 1970, and demanded $500,000 in gold as ransom.
2) On October 10th the FLQ kidnapped Quebec Justice Minister Pierre Laporte .
3) October 17th, the body of Pierre Laporte was found in the trunk of a car at the airport in St.-Hubert, Quebec.
4) November 9, the new Quebec Justice Minister asked for the Army to stay in Quebec for another 30 days.
The trivialization of this series of events as "because one person was killed" indicates to me that the author was one or more of: ignorant of the events, too lazy to do a Google search or deliberately attempting to mislead the Sun readers.
The general tone and content of the rest of the article would suggest the third choice.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
How does a Member of Parliament's same-sex wedding "make history?"
According to an article in the Sunday Winnipeg Free Press, Scott Brison, federal Liberal Member of Parliament, has "made history" by getting married to Maxime St. Pierre on Saturday. Well, I do realize that this is Canada and we tend to be short on "history," but just what does it take for a marriage to make history?
I doubt the fact that it was a same-sex marriage accounts for its being history making. In the province of British Columbia in 2003 (the first year of legalized same-sex marriage in Canada) there were 774 same-sex marriages out of their total of 21,981 marriages). None of these seemed to be newsworthy as "history making."
Scott isn't a movie star or even royalty. He isn't even an MP in the "new" Conservative Canadian government. He is just a lowly Liberal Opposition government member. And besides, a few weeks ago, George Smitherman, who was Ontario's first openly gay cabinet minister, married his partner Christopher Peloso without headlines. So his being a politician doesn't make it as history.
If anyone can explain to me how Scott's wedding has changed the course of history (Canada's or of any other country) more than did the first same-sex marriage or any of the subsequent ones I would be pleased to hear from them. Maybe it was just a slow news day?
After his engagement to St. Pierre was first reported by The Canadian Press in October 2005, Scott Brison reacted with this comment, "I'm looking forward to the day when the idea of a gay or lesbian politician getting married is not a story at all."
I guess Scott Brison will still have to keep looking forward to that day. It doesn't seem to have arrived yet.
My best wishes to Scott and Maxime for a happy life together. And may the public, press and politicians respect your right to the privacy you deserve in this free and democratic society.
I doubt the fact that it was a same-sex marriage accounts for its being history making. In the province of British Columbia in 2003 (the first year of legalized same-sex marriage in Canada) there were 774 same-sex marriages out of their total of 21,981 marriages). None of these seemed to be newsworthy as "history making."
Scott isn't a movie star or even royalty. He isn't even an MP in the "new" Conservative Canadian government. He is just a lowly Liberal Opposition government member. And besides, a few weeks ago, George Smitherman, who was Ontario's first openly gay cabinet minister, married his partner Christopher Peloso without headlines. So his being a politician doesn't make it as history.
If anyone can explain to me how Scott's wedding has changed the course of history (Canada's or of any other country) more than did the first same-sex marriage or any of the subsequent ones I would be pleased to hear from them. Maybe it was just a slow news day?
After his engagement to St. Pierre was first reported by The Canadian Press in October 2005, Scott Brison reacted with this comment, "I'm looking forward to the day when the idea of a gay or lesbian politician getting married is not a story at all."
I guess Scott Brison will still have to keep looking forward to that day. It doesn't seem to have arrived yet.
My best wishes to Scott and Maxime for a happy life together. And may the public, press and politicians respect your right to the privacy you deserve in this free and democratic society.
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