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Author: Graeme MacKay

Saturday June 24, 2022

June 27, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 24, 2022

U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, leaving abortion rights up to states

May 6, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the Roe v. Wade opinion that has secured constitutional protections for abortion in the country for nearly 50 years.

The milestone ruling, a draft of which was leaked last month, has the potential to claw back abortion access across the U.S. by allowing states to restrict or outright ban the procedure.

The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The vote was 5-4 to overturn Roe v. Wade, with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts writing separately to say he would have upheld the Mississippi law without taking the additional step of erasing the Roe precedent altogether.

That original 1973 Roe v. Wade decision ruling found that a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy was protected by the rights that flow from the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects a citizen’s right to “life, liberty and property.”

But Associate Justice Samuel Alito disagreed with that interpretation in Friday’s majority opinion on the case challenging the Mississippi law, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“The constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” Alito wrote in the opinion, which was very similar to the leaked draft.

May 7, 2022

“It is time to heed the constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

The right to abortion, Alito wrote, is “critically different from any other right that this court has held to fall within the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection of ‘liberty.'”

It’s also different, he said, than the rights recognized in the court’s past decisions on matters such as intimate sexual relations, contraception and marriage, because it “destroys” what Roe and a subsequent abortion case that the court also overruled Friday, Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, called “fetal life” and the Mississippi law describes as an “unborn human being.”

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito said. “Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

In Roe v. Wade, the court ruled that states could only interfere with a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy after a fetus reached the “viability” stage, around 24 to 28 weeks of pregnancy, when the fetus could be considered viable outside the womb.

After Friday’s decision, individual state legislatures will now decide how to regulate the medical procedure and to what extent they want to allow, restrict or ban it outright.

May 25, 2019

Twenty-six states asked the Supreme Court to overrule the Roe and Casey decisions and allow them to “regulate or prohibit pre-viability abortions,” Alito wrote in his opinion.

Many of those, largely in the South and Midwest, have already signalled that they will likely move quickly to ban abortion or restrict access to it to some degree.

At least 13 states have so-called trigger laws that ban or severely limit abortion and moved swiftly to enact them as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned. Some abortion clinics in those states stopped performing abortions immediately in the wake of the ruling as they assessed their new reality.

The Supreme Court decision also overrules the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, which upheld the protection of a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy without undue burdens such as waiting periods and consent and notification requirements but allowed states to add some limitations, including in the first trimester.

Liberal justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan issued a joint dissent.

“Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens,” they wrote. (CBC)

 

Posted in: USA Tagged: abortion, coat hanger, handmaid’s tale, reproduction, reproductive, rights, SCOTUS, states’ rights, Supreme Court, USA, women

Friday June 24, 2022

June 24, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

June 24, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 24, 2022

What Doug Ford’s new cabinet faces: inflation, housing crisis, union talks

Ontario Premier Doug Ford will unveil his new cabinet on Friday morning in what is forecast to be glorious sunshine outside of Queen’s Park.

Young Doug Ford: The Series

But after that, stormy economic and political weather looms for Ford’s second-term government. 

Ontario confronts the highest rate of inflation in nearly 40 years, an economic reality that will have a strong influence on everything from the amount of tax revenue the government brings in to the amount of pressure public sector unions exert for higher wage increases. 

The new cabinet also faces a housing affordability crisis that has spread to all corners of the province, an overburdened health-care system weakened by more than two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and a long list of promises to be kept.   

Ford and his newly appointed ministers are scheduled to be sworn in at 11:15 a.m. in an outdoor ceremony in front of the legislature. 

Here’s a look at the five biggest issues facing Ford and his ministers: 

1. Inflation – The rapid rise in the cost of living is a far-reaching economic problem that no provincial government can be expected to solve, yet it’s a problem that stands to have a profound effect on much of what the Ontario government does.

2. Public sector contract talks – Whether it’s teachers, nurses, hydro workers, police officers, road maintenance crews or Service Ontario staff, they’re all seeing inflation eat into their take-home pay. That is bound to lead to public sector unions asking for higher wages whenever their next round of bargaining begins, the argument being that any annual wage increase of less than the rate of inflation amounts to a pay cut.

3. Health system – Ford’s new minister of health will step into the shoes of Christine Elliott following her decision to leave politics. Elliott’s successor will inherit responsibility for a $68-billion system that is struggling to cope with staffing shortages, record wait times in emergency rooms, and a huge surgical backlog, even though there’s currently a lull in COVID-19 cases in the province’s hospitals. 

4. Housing affordability – The soaring cost of buying a home has receded slightly in the past few months, since the Bank of Canada jacked up interest rates in an attempt to rein in inflation.

5. Keeping promises – Ford’s won re-election on the simple slogan of “Get It Done” and a mantra of being the party saying “Yes.” The lengthy list of things Ford said “Yes” to provides a handy scorecard to mark the government against over the coming months and years.  (CBC) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-ontario-cabinet-preview-1.6497872

Ontario, Young Doug Ford, Stephen Lecce, Monte McNaughton, Weird Al Yankovic, Pierre Poilievre, Peter Bethlenfalvy

Posted in: Ontario Tagged: Monte McNaughton, Ontario, Peter Bethlenfalvy, Pierre Poilievre, Stephen Lecce, Weird Al Yankovic, Young Doug Ford

Thursday June 23, 2022

June 23, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 23, 2022

Rwanda is a brutal, repressive regime. Holding the Commonwealth summit there is a sham

Back when I was a reporter based in Africa in the 1990s, there were two organisations whose meetings regularly took place amid widespread media indifference: the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the Commonwealth.

August 12, 2005

There were solid reasons for our lack of enthusiasm. Such get-togethers were strong on pomp and rigmarole, but the interesting decisions usually took place behind closed doors. Both organisations were widely seen as little more than dictators’ clubs, attuned to the interests of ruling elites while aloof from the millions of citizens they nominally represented.

The Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Kigali, Rwanda this week will do nothing to challenge those assumptions.

Held in a country primed to receive Britain’s unwanted migrants – a deal that even Prince Charles, who will be chairing for the first time, apparently regards as “appalling” – the meeting will highlight the weaknesses of the organisation on which Britain is pinning its hopes of future global relevance.

In the run-up to the EU referendum, Brexiters talked up the benefits of ditching the EU in favour of a market that – thanks to the vastness of Britain’s defunct empire – holds 2.5 billion consumers, a third of the global population. And, since Brexit, it is true that free-trade agreements have been signed with Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, while a host of other deals are being negotiated with members of the 54-nation association.

September 25, 2012

But the Commonwealth, like the EU, aims to be more than a trading bloc. Supporters talk about a “values-based organisation”. Its nominal belief in individual liberty, the democratic process, the rule of law and the importance of civil society were enshrined in both the Harare Declaration in 1991 and a Commonwealth charter adopted in 2012. Rwanda’s hosting of Chogm exposes a gaping hole where delivery should be.

Kigali will certainly look fantastic. The city where Hutu militiamen once hacked Tutsi families to death at roadblocks has been transformed into a gleaming conference hub. The flowerbeds have been meticulously weeded, every kerb will have been freshly painted, there won’t be a homeless person in sight.

But the explanation for that latter detail – before important get-togethers, the government relocates homeless people to “transit centres” for “reeducation” – highlights why the choice of Rwanda sends out nothing but worrying signals about where the Commonwealth is heading.

Rwanda is one the most repressive nations in Africa. It may be a “donor darling” whose oft-vaunted development indicators impress outsiders, but it is also a claustrophobic police state premised on violence. The president, Paul Kagame, routinely wins elections with more than 90% of the vote. The Rwandan government muzzles the press and human rights activists and opposition leaders are killed or jailed, or simply “disappear”.

October 8, 2013

Kagame not only has a terrible human rights record at home, he has for decades cynically exported instability to Africa’s great lakes region. Whatever the truth about the 1994 downing of a plane carrying two African presidents – former colleagues have publicly accused Kagame of ordering the attack that triggered the genocide, which he denies – Kagame certainly created and armed the rebel movement that toppled the president of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko. It went on to slaughter tens of thousands of Hutu refugees in the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). His troops hoovered up diamonds, coltan, gold, timber and coffee, which were then passed off as Rwandan produce – in what Jim Freedman, who worked on a UN Group of Experts report on DRC mineral resources, described to me as “a national money-making effort”.

Ten years ago, western donors cut aid to Rwanda because of its obvious support for M23, a rebel movement terrorising eastern DRC. Shockingly, M23 has been on the rampage again in the buildup to Chogm. Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and Boris Johnson will be toasting Kagame’s statesmanship less than a day’s drive from a region where this proxy force and Congolese army units are blasting away at one another, sending tens of thousands of villagers fleeing for their lives.

September 6, 2019

Rwanda’s appetite for intervention is not limited to its neighbours. Permanently insecure, Kagame has overseen a regime that hunted down former generals, spy chiefs and advisers who fled into exile. His intelligence services’ assassinations and attempted hits have been staged not only in Africa but in the west. The US group Freedom House last week described Rwanda as “one of the most prolific perpetrators of transnational repression in the world”.

We can take it as read that very few of these ugly facts will be aired during Chogm, so skilled has Kagame proved at making himself useful abroad. For years he traded a willingness to dispatch Rwandan peacekeepers to conflict zones for international respect as “Africa’s policeman” – a deeply ironic bargain, given his simultaneous support for militias destabilising the DRC. Now his readiness to accept the west’s unwanted migrants – Denmark may soon be striking a similar deal to Britain’s – wins him a new free pass.

Last year, at a UN human rights conference in Geneva, British officials robustly called out Rwanda on its record of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture. Once the asylum-seekers deal was signed the tone abruptly changed, with Johnson praising Rwanda as “one of the safest destinations in Africa”, while Priti Patel talked admiringly of a country where refugees could “prosper and thrive”.

June 10, 2022

A Commonwealth that took its own charter seriously would have reached out to those who have been domestically silenced: jailed bloggers and citizen journalists, for example. An international coalition of 24 human rights and journalist groups has formally called on heads of government to press for detainees to be freed and for guarantees that Rwandan media and civil society will be allowed to work freely during and after Chogm.

But the Hutu opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, whose jailing prevented her running in presidential elections, has seen her requests to attend the civil society events running alongside the main meetings stubbornly ignored. “It seems the people at the Commonwealth are collaborating with the government of Rwanda to exclude me,” she said. Chogm in Kigali, it seems, will faithfully reflect its unaccountable, exclusionary host state.

Thanks to Covid, which forced Chogm to be twice postponed, the Commonwealth actually had two years in which it could have credibly announced an alternative venue to Kigali. But that would have required something approaching a backbone. As it is, the organisation has certainly shown itself to be a “values-based” organisation; they just aren’t the values many of its billions of citizens share. (Michela Wrong – The Guardian) 

 

Posted in: International Tagged: Boris Yeltsin, Commonwealth, dictatorship, diplomacy, International, Justin Trudeau, Paul Kagame, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth, Rwanda

Wednesday June 22, 2022

June 22, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 22, 2022

Change will be key in this fall’s municipal election

Hamilton’s municipal election this fall will now include a race for an open seat in the mayor’s office. On Monday, three-term mayor Fred Eisenberger announced he will not be seeking a fourth term.

This is not intended to be report card on Eisenberger’s time in the city’s top political job. But some things need to be said. Serving Hamilton citizens for 12 years, and more if you count Eisenberger’s time as a city councillor, is no mean accomplishment. He deserves credit and accolades for that public service, and is receiving them, at least from many people.

Yes, he has his share of detractors. Much, but not all, of the criticism directed at him has merit, and we have authored some of it ourselves. But there is a time for everything, and this, we would argue, would be a good time to say thanks, and offer best wishes in whatever comes next for Eisenberger.

Those 12 years add up to three terms. While Eisenberger hasn’t said so himself, it is fair to argue three terms is enough. In this election, on this city council, change should be a key part of the campaign.

We have already heard from some incumbents — Sam Merulla, Brenda Johnson and Judi Partridge come to mind — who are enacting their own self-imposed term limits. Other long-sitting councillors should be having similar reflections. It’s not about failure, it’s about new ideas, new faces, new personalities and new energy. Hamilton’s government needs that.

But back to the mayor’s race. Right now there are just three candidates — former chamber of commerce chief Keanin Loomis, former Liberal MP Bob Bratina, who broke with his party because he disapproves of LRT, and former taxi union official Ejaz Butt. But there is a shoe that has not dropped yet.

Speculation is growing that outgoing Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, herself a former Hamilton councillor, might be considering entering the race. Queen’s Park insiders say comments she made this week suggest she is leaning toward running. After Eisenberger made positive comments about her potential candidacy, Horwath said: “I’m humbled that Fred considers me a strong candidate for mayor of our great city … I’m not ready today to make any announcements about Hamilton’s municipal election. But I can tell you that my heart is always in Hamilton.” Whether the speculation is right is anyone’s guess, but those comments don’t sound like someone who has decided not to run.

What would Horwath’s candidacy mean? Might she split the so-called progressive vote with Loomis, allowing ex-mayor Bratina to come up the middle? You would think her NDP affiliation would help her in Hamilton, but she sustained damage from some local labour advocates after she turfed Paul Miller from the Hamilton East—Stoney Creek provincial race. Might that factor in? And while she would almost certainly win many progressive votes, how would an NDP-leaning mayoral candidate go over with liberal and conservative voters (note the small l and small c) who make up a large chunk of Hamilton’s citizenry?

Still, bearing in mind that name recognition plays an outsized role in municipal politics, Horwath holds better cards than Bratina, and certainly than Loomis.

But then there is the timing. Horwath is due this week to be sworn in for another term as MPP for Hamilton Centre, which she won handily in the provincial election. How will it look if she quickly leaps to the mayor’s race in time to meet the Aug. 19 nomination filing deadline for the municipal election? The optics leave something to be desired.

The upcoming election will be a change election, even if public discontent with many sitting councillors doesn’t translate into wholesale change. We’ll have a new person in the mayor’s chair, and new faces in Ward 15 (replacing Partridge), Ward 4 (replacing Merulla), Ward 5 (Russ Powers temporarily replaced Chad Collins who won federally) and Ward 11 (replacing Brenda Johnson). Our bet is that we may see more change by nomination deadline day. Stay tuned. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: 2022-20, dash, farewell, Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton, mayor, politics, retirement, squash

Fred Eisenberger Gallery

June 22, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger has announced he will not see a fourth term in elections later this year. He served in office from 2006 to the present, interrupted by a term under the mayoralty of Bob Bratina from 2010 to 2014. He has been on the receiving end of many editorial cartoons over the years.

August 18, 2000
August 18, 2000
May 14, 2003
May 14, 2003
October 2, 2006
October 2, 2006
November 11, 2006
November 11, 2006
February 21, 2007
February 21, 2007
April 14, 2007
April 14, 2007
May 16, 2007
May 16, 2007
March 27, 2008
March 27, 2008
October 27, 2008
October 27, 2008
November 2, 2009
November 2, 2009
August 25, 2010
August 25, 2010
May 15, 2010
May 15, 2010
August 14, 2010
August 14, 2010
October 19, 2010
October 19, 2010
October 25, 2010
October 25, 2010
October 4, 2013
October 4, 2013
July 4, 2014
July 4, 2014
September 5, 2014
September 5, 2014
September 26, 2014
September 26, 2014
September 30, 2014
September 30, 2014
Fred Eisenberger, Live Sketch
Fred Eisenberger, Live Sketch
October 18, 2014
October 18, 2014
October 25, 2014
October 25, 2014
October 28, 2014
October 28, 2014
December 2, 2014
December 2, 2014
December 23, 2014
December 23, 2014
January 27, 2015
January 27, 2015
June 30, 2015
June 30, 2015
August 7, 2015
August 7, 2015
December 8, 2015
December 8, 2015
February 6, 2016
February 6, 2016
October 1, 2016
October 1, 2016
October 27, 2016
October 27, 2016
April 7, 2017
April 7, 2017
May 10, 2017
May 10, 2017
October 14, 2017
October 14, 2017
October 18, 2017
October 18, 2017
November 4, 2017
November 4, 2017
November 29, 2017
November 29, 2017
January 20, 2018
January 20, 2018
April 7, 2018
April 7, 2018
October 4, 2018
October 4, 2018
October 23, 2018
October 23, 2018
March 30, 2019
March 30, 2019
November 25, 2019
November 25, 2019
November 27, 2019
November 27, 2019
November 29, 2019
November 29, 2019
December 7, 2019
December 7, 2019
December 17, 2019
December 17, 2019
December 21, 2019
December 21, 2019
January 7, 2020
January 7, 2020
February 1, 2020
February 1, 2020
March 30, 2022
March 30, 2022
June 22, 2022
June 22, 2022
Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: 2022-20, Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton, mayor
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This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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