anger • mackaycartoons

Saturday August 24, 2015

August 21, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 24, 2015

“I am very sorry:” They smoked, he sprayed Glade

Ed Steel says, quite simply, that he couldn’t take it anymore.

After what he says was weeks of having to wheel his common-law spouse through a constant crowd of smokers every time he went in or out of Dundurn Place, and after complaining to everyone he could think of — the long-term care home’s administration, the police, the health department, even a city councillor — nothing had changed.

“It’s illegal — there are signs right there. But it all just goes into a dead ear. Nothing happened.”

His frustration arises, he says, not just from the disregard for the law, or the health of those who have to pass through the smoke, but because of his first wife, who he says died from a smoking-related illness.

So on Monday, Steel brought a can of aerosol air freshener with him from home and as he passed through the smokers gathered by the front door in their wheelchairs and scooters, he let off blasts from his air freshener “to show them that I deserved some fresh air.”

On his way out, one of the smokers challenged him, he says, told him “he’d better not spray that again.”

So out came the Glade.

“I sprayed it at the ground, not at anybody’s face … if the wind blew it her way, I am very sorry.”

Police tell a different story and unfortunately for him their witness Ingrid Boiago, the centre’s director of clinical nursing, was until very recently a Hamilton police officer.

Steel was charged the next day with two counts of assault with a weapon; in their press release police allege Steel sprayed the women in the face. In an interview Boiago declined to go into specifics of what she saw.

Kevin McDonald, a manager at Hamilton’s Public Health Services, says Dundurn Place “is a challenging location” for the department partly because some of the long-term care residents have a diminished capacity “and it’s a challenge for them to understand the requirements.”

Enforcement staff have issued 11 tickets (minimum fines start at $365) and these have yielded some convictions, but also some charges have been withdrawn because of diminished capacity. McDonald said staff have met with Dundurn Place staff this week in light of the incident.

Ironically, the Mary Street facility is the only long-term care home in the whole city to have a legal, indoor smoking area, a specially ventilated room that meets provincial requirements and is inspected annually. It also has a rear patio that can be used for smoking.

But many residents, McDonald says, prefer the front entrance because that’s where all the action is.

Leslie Watson, Dundurn Place’s administrator, acknowledges smoking at the entrance “is an ongoing issue. We continue to go out and ask the residents to go down the ramps (away from the front door). I take it extremely seriously and we work very hard to get the residents to understand the requirements.”

For his part Steel, 67, hopes the attention this incident has generated will lead to a more permanent solution and in the meantime he’s looking to move his spouse to a different facility to finish her rehabilitation so she can come home.

“If this is all for nothing, then I’m going to be really upset.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Wednesday November 7, 2012

November 7, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 7, 2012

‘The beginning of a new era in America’

Pharmacy’s poll finds split between headache and anger relief

President Barack Obama’s re-election — in a ferocious campaign dotted by charges of racial anger and minority-voter suppression — has provided what many blacks say will surely deepen his legacy: irrefutable evidence that his presidency is hardly a historical fluke as he has now won two national campaigns with overwhelming white support.

Obama, the nation’s first black president, was already soaked in history, a figure seen in the aftermath of his 2008 victory as the culmination of a decades-long civil rights crusade that suffered the assassination of beloved figures who fought and marched for the right to vote and freely pursue the American dream.

But Obama’s first term as president also saw him pelted with racially charged denunciations — some from politicians — that reopened festering wounds and even fears in the African American community for his safety. At times it felt as if the W.E.B. Du Bois prophecy — the problem of the 20th century would be the color line, he famously opined — had leapt right into the 21st century.

“In many ways,” said Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, “Obama’s reelection can be seen as resilience on the part of the African American community.”

But Bunch admitted that he felt, as did many blacks in the waning weeks of the campaign, that Obama — despite accomplishments in the war on terrorism, a strengthening economy and passage of a universal-health-care law — had been mercilessly castigated.

There was jubilation on the streets of Washington with Obama’s re-election. Janice Brown, 30, a staffing consultant who lives in Suitland, Md., stood in a corner of Busboys and Poets restaurant, excited and relieved. “It’s awesome for America. Not only is he a great leader, but he is inspiring.” (Source: The Independent)

Thursday September 13, 2012

September 13, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday September 13, 2012

Attacks On US Free Speech: US Responds – Analysis

The killing of three consulate officials and US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, the burnt down US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the burning of the US flag by protestors at the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, have created the mixture of anger, fear, and politics.

Some analysts have suggested that at least some of the instigators were al Qaeda and that the attacks were staged and not random reactions to the film, “The Innocence of Muslims” which discredits and disgraces the Prophet Muhammad. Viewing footage of the protests in Cairo, it is more likely that they are disgruntled Muslim Egyptians than terrorists.

This official Cairo Embassy Statement as released on their site September 11, 2012:

“The Ambassador and staff of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo condemn the burning a copy of the Koran that occurred several days ago in the state of Florida by a small group of individuals who represent no one but themselves. Since the founding of our nation, the United States has upheld the principles of tolerance and respect for religious freedom. Millions of Muslim-Americans practice their faith freely throughout the United States and enjoy the full rights guaranteed to them by our laws and constitution. Public condemnation of this event has come from a variety of organizations representing the diverse religious traditions that flourish in the United States.”

Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News that the official US “apology” to the protestors is “disgraceful”—an “embarrassment.” Freedom of speech is “our sacred right” and the message to the protestors should be, “Go to Hell.” (Source: Eurasia Review)

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

May 2, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Gas prices shoot higher across Canada

Gas prices shot up right across the country overnight, with some stations in Vancouver reaching $1.28 a litre while pumps hit $1.13 in Halifax.

Montreal motorists saw prices reach $1.18 on Tuesday, while Calgary residents saw prices increase by nine cents overnight to around $1.08.

Across the Greater Toronto Area, the cost of gasoline climbed to $1.08 a litre, up from about $1.05 on Monday.

In Ottawa, prices at the pumps also rose three cents a litre to just under $1.10.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague, the consumer affairs critic and longtime critic of the oil industry, says prices have soared to the highest levels since Hurricane Katrina.

McTeague says the increase can be blamed on a jump in the wholesale price for gasoline. He adds refineries increased the wholesale price and the gas companies have now passed along the price hike to motorists. (Source: CTV News)