Allies

Thursday May 14, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 14, 2020

‘Social bubbles’ allow you to see friends as coronavirus lockdowns ease — but they might not work

As more countries look to lift their coronavirus lockdowns, “social bubbles” have been floated as an idea of how to ease restrictions, but experts say they could be difficult to put into practice.  

Marvellous Maps

A social bubble entails allowing people to form a group with a select number of people they are allowed to see socially outside their own household. 

They have been put forward as a way to continue containing the spread of Covid-19, which has infected more than 3.6 million people worldwide and killed over 257,000, according to the latest figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

New Zealand — which has been heralded as an example for bringing its coronavirus cases down to zero — has already implemented social bubbles. It lifted certain lockdown restrictions last week and allowed people to expand their bubbles to contact with close family outside their own households. 

April 18 2020

Meanwhile, Belgium is reportedly considering allowing people to socialize with a group of up to 10 people. It currently allows people to meet up with two others outside their household, so long they are outside and keep a distance from each other.

William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said social bubbles were “certainly a component of how, once the initial outbreak is under control, measures could be refined.” 

However, he added that “as the size of the cluster grows, the probability that one of its members could become infected obviously increases.”

Mike Tildesley, an associate professor who specializes in infectious disease control at the University of Warwick, said that while “in principle, it’s a really sensible strategy,” practically it would be difficult to implement. 

He also said that narrowing down a list of friends — and ensuring that those friends also have the same list — sounded like a “social nightmare.” 

“You could envisage this situation where you name a group of friends, they name a group of friends that includes you, but it has some people that aren’t included on your list and all you’ve got is some sort of porous process that (the coronavirus) filters through the population more slowly that it did before,” Tildesley added. (CNBC) 

 

Friday August 10, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 10, 2018 

Here’s why Canadian allies are keeping their mouths shut in dispute with Saudi Arabia

August 8, 2018

As Saudi Arabia continues to volley fresh restrictions against Canada, there’s notable silence from one key group of voices — Canada’s allies.

Since the Middle Eastern kingdom launched the dispute on Sunday evening over tweets sent the week prior, Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador, expelled Canada’s ambassador, frozen new business and trade, ordered Saudi students studying in Canada to go somewhere else, ordered Saudi citizens seeking medical care in Canada to go somewhere else, blacklisted Canadian wheat and barley, and ordered the asset managers of their central bank and pension funds to dump Canadian assets “no matter the cost.”

August 2, 2017

And among it all, the only response from Canada’s two closest allies — the U.S. and U.K. — has been to call both sides close partners and urge restraint.

So why the silence?

Like so many things in politics, it all boils down to the money, said one expert.

“There is an attempt by the Saudis to create some fear and rattle some of those Western governments into not supporting Canada because they may be cut out or shut out from some potential Saudi economic deals and the big boom that it’s undertaking,” said Bessma Momani, a professor at the University of Waterloo specializing in Saudi relations and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance and Innovation.

January 6, 2016

“Saudi Arabia is the largest weapons purchaser in the world, so any company or country in the world that sells arms, as does Canada, is likely to be looking into how this is going to affect bilateral trade ties.”

The dispute stems from what Momani called the “brash” decision by Saudi Arabia to respond to criticism of its arrest of women’s rights activists with a campaign of retaliation meant to send a warning to more powerful Western countries.

And it has not gone unnoticed that the same countries Canada has fought with and died alongside over the last century are keeping their mouths shut rather than speak out against the attacks. (Source: Global News) 

 

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Saturday June 9, 2018


Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 9, 2018

Trump at G7: misses Macron meeting, suggests bringing Russia back

President Donald Trump sounded defiant departing for the Group of 7 summit on Friday, vowing to confront the leaders of America’s closest allies over trade. But he arrived so late to the conference in remote Canada that he missed his first scheduled sit-down. And he’s planning to cut short his visit by several hours a day later.

May 1, 2018

The series of events opened what promises to be a day-and-a-half of open animosity between Trump and infuriated western leaders, who are intent on airing their grievances before the President departs for his talks in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The stark reality of a US president skipping out on fuming western allies to have what he’s described as a “friendly negotiation” with the North Korean despot has not been lost on diplomats and leaders assembled in the Canadian woods.

And Trump has done little to ease their jitters.

December 17, 2016

He suggested just before touching down in Quebec that Russia should be allowed to rejoin the summit after five years in exile — a break in the united front allies had hoped to put forward against Moscow’s destabilization efforts in the US and Europe.

The remark seemed destined to only escalate the existing tensions between Trump and the six other leaders gathered at a riverside resort here. The annual G7 conference is usually a fairly news-free endeavor, with agreements on the global economy hammered out well before world leaders gather for two days of talks.

This year the normally staid affair has been imbued with uncertainty and bitterness. Few expect the assembled leaders will even agree on language for a joint “communique” that typically concludes the summit.

May 24, 2017

In the mid-afternoon, Trump emerged with fellow world leaders and smiled broadly for a “family photo.” The underlying tensions weren’t visible as the Saint Lawrence River glinted in the background. But the group retreated quickly behind closed doors for the start of their talks.

Before leaving the White House, Trump previewed a harsh tone for his foreign counterparts.

“We’re going to deal with the unfair trade practices,” Trump said. “If you look at what Canada, Mexico, the European Union, all of them have been doing to us for many, many decades, we have to change it. And they understand it’s going to happen.”

Trump was initially due to meet mid-morning with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who he’d lambasted a night earlier on Twitter. But Trump emerged from the White House South Portico 30 minutes late on Friday morning, and spent another 20 minutes talking to reporters. (Source: CNN) 

 

 

Meanwhile, today the U.S. President embarks on his first trip to Canada to discuss trade issues… #lotsanews

Posted by Graeme MacKay – editorial cartoonist on Friday, June 8, 2018

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Friday June 6 2014

Friday June 6 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 6 2014

Thousands of veterans, visitors mark 70th anniversary of D-Day

Ceremonies to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day are drawing thousands of visitors to the cemeteries, beaches and stone-walled villages of Normandy this week, including some of the few remaining survivors of the largest sea-borne invasion ever mounted.

World leaders and dignitaries including President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II will gather to honour the more than 150,000 American, British, Canadian and other Allied D-Day veterans who risked and gave their lives to defeat Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

For many visitors, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial with its 9,387 white marble tombstones on a bluff overlooking the site of the battle’s bloodiest fighting at Omaha Beach is the emotional centrepiece of pilgrimages to honour the tens of thousands of men killed on D-Day and the months of fighting afterward.

D-Day veteran Clair Martin, 93, said he’s come back to Omaha Beach three times in the last 70 years — “four if you count the time they were shooting at me.”

The San Diego, California resident landed on D-Day with the 29th Infantry Division and said he kept fighting until he reached the Elbe River in Germany the following April. “I praise God I made it and that we’ve never had another World War,” he said.

Ceremonies large and small are taking place across Normandy, ahead of an international summit on Friday in Ouistreham, a small port that was the site of a strategic battle on D-Day. French President Francois Hollande’s decision to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the official ceremony despite his exclusion from the G-7 summit in Brussels is being seen by some as justified recognition of the Soviet Union’s great sacrifice in defeating Hitler, but by others as a distraction given the West’s dispute with Russia over Ukraine.

With many D-Day veterans now in their 90s, this year’s anniversary has the added poignancy of being the last time that many of those who took part in the battle will be able to make the long journey back to Normandy and tell their stories. (Source: Toronto Star)

Saturday January 25, 2003

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 25, 2003

Waiting to Dance

Jean Chrétien has cast doubt on whether Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, a position that puts Canada at odds with the United States and Great Britain.

“I don’t know if Saddam has these weapons,” Mr. Chrétien said in a weekend interview with the Financial Times of London. In the interview, he took credit for convincing George W. Bush, the U.S. President, to win United Nations approval to dispatch weapons inspection teams to Iraq before launching military action.

”I said to Bush when we met in Detroit [last fall] after his Camp David meeting with Tony Blair –no argument, you must go to the UN Security Council. And he went to the Council.”

The Bush administration opted for weapons inspections on the insistence of France, Russia and China, three of the five permanent members of the Security Council who objected to military action unless there was evidence showing Iraq was a danger to the international community. The United States and Britain are the other permanent members. (CP)