death

Sunday September 20, 2020

RIP John N. Turner

When John turner became the new Liberal Leader there was a very strong sense of change in the air in Canada. It wasn’t just the Liberal party that was looking to renew itself, the Progressive Conservatives had done that very thing by electing a promising, charismatic newcomer to the political scene, Brian Mulroney.

It wasn’t until I neared the age of 16 that I witnessed my first major changing of the guard in Ottawa. With the exception a brief interregnum when Joe Clark seized control the same machine that guided Liberal governments in the 1970’s was there into the mid 80’s.

The election leaders, 1984

Pierre Trudeau had essentially been Prime Minister since before I was born. 

People forget that by 1984 Canadians had grown quite tired of Pierre Trudeau. While his legacy now shines for repatriating the constitution and putting the nation on a progressive path, thanks in part to inspiring activist movements of the 60s and 70s, there were big dark clouds that hung over Trudeau and his government. Relations with the western provinces were horrible thanks to the National Energy Program, and Quebeckers were in full on separation mode thanks to work left undone in signing on the province to the Charter of Rights. The arrogance of the elder Trudeau had highlighted by growing deficits, crony patronage appointments, and a lavish farewell world ego tour (minus cultural costumes his son would later show up in) to promote peace in the waning days of the cold war.

A walk in a snow storm convinced Pierre Trudeau to retire from his position, a whiteout, perhaps, that was a metaphor for an empty slate of ideas left to run on. 

The last John Turner cartoon – May 26, 2016

John Turner, the Prince in waiting, had all the qualities to become a long reigning Canadian Prime Minister: Rich, smart and well-educated, athletic, handsome, bilingual, connected, and well experienced in powerful cabinet positions. 

Timing was Turner’s worst enemy, however. 

He couldn’t brush off the reek of arrogance left from 16 years of Liberal rule, and faced formidable opponents not just in Brian Mulroney, but also Jean Chretien, who, when running for the leadership against Turner in 1984, used the slogan, “call for a man from Main Street, not Bay Street.” The Turner vs. Chretien struggle was a carry over from the Trudeau vs. Turner fight that had brewed since the latter’s resignation from cabinet several years prior. This inner party challenge would play out among future Liberal leaders and wannabe leaders.

Patting the bum of Liberal Party President Iona Campagnolo during the 1984 election might be regarded as Canada’s first #MeToo moment that may not have sunk him were he a 1960’s cabinet minister. It did him no favours in the mid 80’s and will remain part of his ugly legacy, and among one of the many reasons which resulted in a rump of 40 or so Liberal MPs in the House of Commons.

by Graeme MacKay, 1988

The Free Trade debate and the passions it unleashed in John Turner may be his most enduring legacy of his leadership. But again, timing was his biggest enemy when he fought hard against Mulroney while at the same time having knives stuck in his back from the dissent in his own party.

Turner was able to oversee a doubling of the Liberal caucus following the 1988 convention he might have been able to carry on were it not for the ongoing sniping and sideline maneuvers from power hungry Jean Chretien. It became too much for Turner and he resigned from politics in 1990. Eight years of Chretien rule would send Turner deep into private life and declining health. While the testimonials are full of praise for a gentleman who devoted much to the importance of public life, he as much a victim of political skullduggery and dirty politics from within his own party.

It is interesting to see that in the recollections of the life lead by John Turner the strongest voice comes from his biggest foe, Brian Mulroney. 

Often said was the line that Robert Stanfield was the greatest Prime Minister Canada never had. Perhaps that’s true of an older generation, but from my vantage point John Turner was the greatest Prime Minister who never really got the chance.

August 25, 2015

Wednesday April 1, 2020

 

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 1, 2020

Breaking down the COVID-19 numbers

Coronavirus cartoons

In a little more than two months, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, raced around the world and turned a handful of known cases to more than three quarters of a million, with at least 36,000 lives lost – reported figures that the scientific and health communities widely agree are too low.

The spreading virus has pushed numerous countries to scramble to lock down cities, shutter non-essential businesses, and close their borders to all but their own citizens, adopting some of the extraordinary measures executed in China that might have previously been unthinkable elsewhere.

Researchers and armchair epidemiologists alike are analyzing the trove of data to create models, find patterns and clues on whether curves are being flattened, which country is on a faster or slower trajectory, why death rates and ages vary, what measures seemed to work, and when the pandemic might end.

The flood of numbers and questions they raise can be overwhelming for the average person trying to make sense of the data.

Epidemiologists and an infectious disease expert who spoke with CTVNews.ca said it was too early to make predictions or draw conclusions from the data, but stressed the importance of understanding the context surrounding the numbers. 

While most of the focus has been on the daily tally of new cases, epidemiologists say that other data points are more useful.

Cynthia Carr, a Winnipeg-based epidemiologist with two decades of experience interpreting and developing protocols for gathering and analyzing health data, said the daily focus on new cases can be a distraction and spark unnecessary panic.

“[The public was] not listening to the information. They were in a store with 1,000 people at Costco buying toilet paper” when that was the last place they should be, said Carr.

The total number of tests administered, infections, hospitalizations, intensive care patients, and deaths are all key indicators for different reasons, explained Erin Strumpf, an epidemiologist and associate professor at McGill University.

“It’s more about the rate of change in those numbers than it is about the actual numbers on a given day,” she said.

The mortality and hospitalization rates – and whether they are increasing or decreasing over time – gives more context and balance to the data, Carr noted.

“You should never just look at one piece of information,” Carr said.

“I have said from the beginning, when we increase our testing capacity, you would quickly see an increase in cases… we’re getting more of an accurate denominator, an accurate representation of the number of people with the illness.” (CTV) 

 

Friday January 10, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 10, 2020

As Iran and US take step back from the brink, Canada grieves

The worst had passed, it seemed, and the United States and Iran no longer appeared poised at the edge of war.

April 13, 2018

“All is well!” President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night, days after a U.S. drone strike killed Iran’s most powerful general, and Iran, after a barrage of missiles, had signaled it was stepping back from further escalation.

But 27 seconds before Trump’s tweet, commercial flight trackers had lost contact with a Ukrainian International Airlines jet that had just taken off from Tehran’s main airport. On board were 176 people, including 138 passengers on their way to Canada and at least 63 Canadian citizens and 11 Ukrainians. The plane, which never made a mayday call, slammed moments later into the ground.

Everyone on board died. They were students, newlyweds, doctors and parents. The youngest was a 1-year-old girl, Kurdia Molani, who was flying back home with her parents to the Toronto suburb of Ajax.

January 6, 2016

By late Thursday, Western leaders said that Iran had most likely shot down the jetliner with a surface-to-air missile — probably by accident. The loss of so many lives transformed the U.S.-Iran confrontation, which had seemed to conclude with limited bloodshed.

Instead, what had begun with a drone attack on Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s motorcade at the Baghdad airport had suddenly rippled outward until dozens of Iranian-Canadians, dozens of Iranian students studying in Canada, were dead.

“The community is overwhelmed with mourning and sadness,” said Payman Parseyan, a prominent Iranian-Canadian in western Canada, counting through the names of the friends he had lost. There was Pedram Mousavi and his wife Mojgan Daneshmand, both of them engineering professors, and their two daughters, Daria and Dorina Mousavi. There was Dr. Shekoufeh Choupannejad, an obstetrician-gynecologist, and her two daughters, Saba and Sara Saadat. It seemed impossible.

January 8, 2020

Some in Canada quickly blamed Trump for the disaster.

“This is insane. Sickening. Imagine having a family member on that plane,” said Rob Kent, a 42-year-old Toronto resident. “One man, and only one, is responsible for those deaths. And he will never face consequences for them.”

But Parseyan wasn’t so sure.

“It takes two to tango,” he said. “It’s not hard to see the downing as a result of the escalation between the two countries. However, Iran is responsible for its own military defense equipment. While it has the right to defend itself, as it should to protect its own people, it should also have the responsibility with that right to make sure their defensive systems aren’t targeting civilian aircraft.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has at times had a rocky relationship with Trump, was careful not to say the U.S. strike was responsible for what happened. (Associated Press) 

 

Friday September 6, 2019

Editorial Cartoon Gallery by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 6, 2019

Mugabe dies; liberated Zimbabwe, then held it for 37 years

Former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, an ex-guerrilla chief who took power after independence from white minority rule in 1980 and presided over a country whose early promise was eroded by economic turmoil and allegations of human rights violations, has died in Singapore at the age of 95.

February 27, 2002

Mugabe enjoyed strong support among the population and even the West soon after taking over as Prime Minister and Zimbabwe’s first post-colonial leader. But he was reviled in later years as the economy collapsed and human rights violations increased. His often violent takeover of farms from whites who owned huge tracts of land made him a hated figure in the West and a hero in Africa.

His successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced Mugabe’s death in a tweet Friday, mourning him as an “icon of liberation.”

June 26, 2008

Singapore’s Foreign Ministry later said he died Friday at the Gleneagles Hospital there, saying it was working with Zimbabwe on arrangements for Mugabe’s body to be flown home. Mugabe had received medical treatment at the hospital in recent years.

Mugabe’s popularity began to rise again after Mnangagwa failed to deliver on promises of economic recovery and appeared to take an even harsher and more repressive stance against critics. Many began to publicly say they missed Mugabe.

Forced to resign amid pressure from the military, his party and the public in November 2017, Mugabe was defiant throughout his long life, railing against the West for what he called its neo-colonialist attitude and urging Africans to take control of their resources — a populist message that was often a hit, even as many nations on the continent shed the strongman model and moved toward democracy.

July 22, 2008

A target of international sanctions over the years, Mugabe nevertheless enjoyed acceptance among peers in Africa who chose not to judge him in the same way as Britain, the United States and other Western detractors.

“They are the ones who say they gave Christianity to Africa,” Mugabe said of the West during a visit to South Africa in 2016. “We say: ‘We came, we saw and we were conquered.’”

Even as old age took its toll and opposition to his rule increased, he refused to step down until the pressure became unbearable in 2017 as his former allies in the ruling party accused him of grooming his wife, Grace, to take over — ahead of long-serving loyalists such as Mnangagwa, who was fired in November 2017 before returning to take over with the help of the military.

November 21, 2017

Spry in his impeccably tailored suits, Mugabe maintained a schedule of events and international travel during his rule that defied his advancing age, though signs of weariness mounted. He walked with a limp, fell after stepping off a plane in Zimbabwe, read the wrong speech at the opening of parliament, and appeared to be dozing during a news conference in Japan. However, his longevity and frequently dashed rumors of ill health delighted supporters and infuriated opponents who had sardonically predicted he would live forever. (Continued: AP) 

 

Wednesday July 25, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 25, 2018

Does Canada Have a Gun Control Problem?

July 18, 2012

In the aftermath of the deadly mass shooting in Toronto that left two bystanders and the shooter dead and 12 others injured, a right-wing blogger has questioned whether Canada’s gun control laws actually work.

 
“I thought they had gun control in Canada,” Laura Loomer, tweeted. “What happened?” she asked.
 
That tweet was one of dozens of others posing the same question, with many branding the shooting as evidence that gun control laws do not work. 
 
But others have been quick to point out that the number of shootings should speak for itself. 
 
“This is the first mass shooting in our country in almost two years,” one Canadian tweeted. “How many has the USA had just this year? Gun control DOES work, obviously. Just not 100 percent of the time.”
 
The past year has seen a spate of mass shootings across the U.S., with a total of 154 taking place since June 28 alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as any that results in four or more individuals shot or killed in the same general time frame or location. 
 
Sunday’s mass shooting in Toronto was the first in Canada since an attack on a mosque in Quebec City on January 29, 2017, which saw a single gunman kill six people and wound 18 others. 
 
Before that, Canada had not had a mass shooting since January 22, 2016, when a 17-year-old student shot and killed two people at a residence in La Loche, Saskatchewan, before continuing his rampage at La Loche Community School, killing a teacher and an assistant, and wounding several others.
 
A firearm is nearly seven times less likely to be used in a homicide in Canada than in the U.S., according to Statistics Canada. (More Stats: Newsweek) 
 

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