hazmat

Wednesday January 29, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 29, 2020

Bigotry is the virus we should worry most about

Sadly, it didn’t take long for racism, xenophobia and social media idiocy to become part of the coronavirus story. Mere days after the first confirmed Canadian cases were identified, social media content from the wacky to the downright dangerous began making the rounds.

The virus is a U.S.-government patented germ warfare weapon. It can be treated with herbs and spices. It’s a global population reduction tool.

Coronavirus cartoons

But the worst, and the most offensive, social media poison blames Chinese (or Asian) people in general for the virus. It has been linked to hygiene and eating habits and other things that don’t bear repeating.

Viewed in isolation, most of this stuff is just stupid, some is downright laughable. But it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Thanks to social media, the cranks, trolls and plain evil people in the world live next to a fast-moving river. They can toss their garbage in, and watch it circulate all around the world in no time. Broken telephone syndrome sets in, and then even the most innocuous claims and commentary can get twisted into something much worse. They can even devolve into fomenting hatred.

Bigotry and xenophobia directed at Chinese Canadians is not new. In the 19th century, the racist term ‘yellow peril’ was used to describe the threat posed by the expansion of power and influence of people from Asia. Racism was legislated into Canadian immigration policy.

We might have hoped that Canada had evolved past those offensive views. But the SARS crisis of 2003 proved that’s not the case. Chinese people, and anyone who looked Asian, felt naked bigotry. Businesses went from busy to empty overnight. Toronto lost an estimated $1 billion as tourists avoided the city, especially areas with many Chinese businesses.

As the current coronavirus story gained prominence, some of the same people who experienced all that in 2003 worried publicly that the same thing could happen again in 2020. Amy Go, interim president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, put it this way in an interview in an interview with The Guardian: “I was hopeful it wasn’t going to be like 2003. But it is. It’s happening now and it’s just going to be amplified (by social media).”

A group of Chinese moms worried about the “inevitable wave of racism” that would arrive with the spreading virus. One of them, Terri Chu, said: “My Twitter has just exploded with vitriol since this morning.”

A popular Toronto blog reviewed a new Chinese restaurant on Instagram and the post was drowned in a sea of racist comments. Nine thousand parents at a school board north of Toronto called for kids who have been to China recently to be kept home from school.

Here we go, yet again.

This new coronavirus, like the last one, is a scary thing. But its relative risk to the general population remains very low. In the three cases reported so far, the victims have self-identified, and in two cases have isolated themselves to protect others.

Public health authorities have implemented measures they learned from the SARS crisis. It is too early to call them 100 per cent successful, but so far they’re working. The best advice as of now remains consistent: frequent hand washing, coughing and sneezing into sleeves, reporting symptoms when appropriate and stay tuned to legitimate news sources for the latest updates.

And if you hear or see bigotry or xenophobia directed at Chinese Canadians, or anyone else for that matter, consider saying something. Don’t just scroll by in silence. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

 

Media isn’t helping either… from r/Sino

 

Thursday November 8, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 8, 2018

Clement quits Conservative shadow cabinet after sharing explicit photos, video

Longtime MP Tony Clement has resigned from the Conservative shadow cabinet after he shared explicit sexual images and a video of himself electronically.

Tony Clement Cartoon Gallery

Clement says the images were sent in the last three weeks and he believed they were going to a “consenting female.”

However he now says the person was trying to extort him and he has asked the RCMP to investigate.

“I recognize now that I have gone down a wrong path and have exercised very poor judgment,” Clement said in a statement Tuesday.

Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer said he has appointed Lisa Raitt to take over for Clement as the justice critic for now.

“While I’m greatly disappointed with Mr. Clement’s actions, I am encouraged that he has decided to seek help and I wish him all the best in doing so,” Scheer said.

The RCMP confirmed it had received information from Clement and was currently investigating the matter, but did not comment further.

Clement is resigning his committee roles as well, but will stay in the Conservative caucus.

Clement, 57, has been one of the pillars of the Conservative caucus for more than a decade, and before that was a senior member of the provincial party in Ontario.

He was a cabinet minister for the entirety of Stephen Harper’s near-decade long tenure as prime minister, and was a cabinet minister at the provincial level before that. 

He says he is sorry to his family, his party and his constituents for his behaviour.

“I am committed to seeking the help and treatment I need in my personal life to make sure this will not happen again while also continuing to discharge my duties as a Member of Parliament,” he wrote.

Clement was twice a candidate for the federal party leadership and also ran for the provincial Tory leadership in Ontario once. He dropped out of the most recent leadership contest early on and endorsed Maxime Bernier.

Clement is one of the most recognizable MPs as well as one of the heaviest users of social media. He is a frequent poster on Twitter. It has occasionally landed him in trouble before, including when he had to apologize after cursing at a 15-year-old on the platform.

He is married to lawyer and author Lynne Golding. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Monday June 25, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday June 25, 2018

The flip side of Ford’s content-free campaign: Unpleasant surprises may be in store

October 28, 2003

Starting next week, when they formally take over the levers of government, the Tories are going to have a real problem on their hands: the Liberals were historically unpopular by the time voters had to render a verdict on election day, but many of their policies weren’t. Indeed, the Liberal budget from the spring briefly seemed to make the pre-election period more competitive until voters remembered who had written the big-spending, big-deficit document. Liberal promises on child care, pharmacare, and transit spending were all extremely popular — it was the Liberals themselves that voters had tired of.

June 7, 2018

Now, Ford has promised substantial tax cuts — above and beyond the end of the cap-and-trade system — that will either (a) further burden a budget that’s already in deficit or (b) require substantial service cuts to bring the province’s books back into balance. So what’s going to give? The Tories spent years raising hell about the increase in the provincial debt under the Liberals, so big deficits are going to be awkward. But they’re not going to give up the tax cuts they promised.

That leaves service cuts. And to make cuts substantial enough to raise the billions of dollars Ford needs to find — without affecting front-line service in schools and hospitals — he will need to find lots and lots of small cuts.

June 21, 2018

(Well, technically, there’s also the possibility that the Tories will lose their promised challenge to the federal carbon tax and start receiving billions of dollars in federally imposed carbon revenues, but that would fill only part of the hole Ford’s promises have dug.)

Ford may have promised that there will be no layoffs under his tenure, but even if we don’t replay the labour unrest of the last Tory government, the fate of GreenON suggests that something else could emerge that would be difficult for him in a different way. Voters who planned major spending in their lives around the government they had at the moment — and were promised there would be no major changes to the level of service they receive — will be irritated by any serious efforts to alter its policies.

June 15, 2018

That prospect might not be enough to stop the Tories from making these kinds of cuts. It certainly wasn’t going to save cap and trade, something that, earlier this year, Ford and all of his leadership rivals unanimously promised to destroy. But public backlash to seemingly trivial cuts can sometimes surprise governments — as happened when the Liberals were caught flat-footed by mobilized parents opposed to cuts to autism therapy.

The Tories undoubtedly think they’ll do a better job than the Liberals did of running government. But changing the folks at the top doesn’t make the problems they need to solve any less complicated. (Source: TVO) 

 

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Wednesday February 28, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 28, 2018

Vic Fedeli says it’s ‘time to move on’ from Patrick Brown debacle

Eager to leave behind the Patrick Brown debacle, interim Progressive Conservative leader Vic Fedeli says “it’s time to move on.”

February 21, 2018

“The last 10 days have been unprecedented in Ontario’s politics,” Fedeli told reporters Tuesday at Queen’s Park, noting the controversies surrounding Brown have made for “a difficult time for our party.”

“But we are now ready to turn the page,” he said.

“Today, it’s morning in the PC Party.”

Indeed, his comments came the morning after Brown ended his comeback bid to return as Tory leader a month after resigning in scandal.

On Monday, the ex-chief announced his withdrawal from the leadership contest against former MPP Christine Elliott, one-time Toronto councillor Doug Ford, rookie PC candidate Caroline Mulroney and social conservative activist Tanya Granic Allen.

February 6, 2015

“I simply cannot run a provincial party leadership campaign . . . , while, at the same time, continuing my fight to prove that the allegations are lies,” Brown wrote in a four-page letter to the party, referring to a CTV News report about two women alleging sexual impropriety against him.

Since Brown stepped down as leader on Jan. 25, hours after CTV News’s story aired, the Tories have been in turmoil.

Fedeli has been the steady hand at the tiller, dispatching allies of the discredited former leader, clamping down on spending, and generally cleaning up what he called “rot.”

On Tuesday, he emphasized he had no second thoughts about removing Brown from the PC caucus; if and when the ex-leader returns to Legislature, he will sit as an Independent MPP in a remote corner of the chamber.

“Our party is bigger than any one person,” Fedeli said firmly.

“We are now ready to move on from focusing on any one individual, and to focus on the task at hand.

“And that task is defeating Kathleen Wynne,” he said. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Saturday April 1, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 1, 2017

Swedish, Norwegian newspapers to ditch April Fools’ stories amid ‘fake news’ concerns

As scheming jokesters across the globe prepare their April Fools’ pranks, Swedish and Norwegian newspapers have announced they won’t be taking part in the fun, over fears that silly stories might be spread as “fake news.”

January 24, 2017

Swedish newspapers Dalarnas Tidningar, Hallpressen, Vasterbottens-Kuriren, Smalandsposten, and Jonkopings-Posten are among the publications which say they’re going to suppress their inner trickster this year.

“Historically, we’ve had super successful April Fools jokes. But because of debates and discussions about the media’s credibility being connected to fake news, we didn’t want to do it this year,” Ingvar Naslund, editor-in-chief at Vasterbottens-Kuriren, told TT news agency.

Smalandsposten’s editor-in-chief, Magnus Karlsson, also said he doesn’t want the newspaper’s good name to be “spread with a potentially viral and erroneous story.”

“We work with real news. Even on April 1st,” he said.

March 1, 2017

Erik Berger, editor-in-chief at Jonkopings-Posten, said his paper will be publishing an article on April Fools’ Day as to why it isn’t participating in the international day of pranks.

Media outlets in neighboring Norway have expressed similar sentiments, including public broadcaster NRK, Aftenposten, VG, and Dagbladet.

NRK also reported that local newspapers would follow suit.

One of those local papers is Bergens Tidende, whose editor Oyulf Hjertenes told NRK that it would be a “mistake on our part” to publish jokes on April 1, considering the current climate in which “false news is spreading.”

Meanwhile, the publishing editor of local paper Drammens Tidende said that “what is written in Drammens Tidende must be true,” AFP reported.

“Fake news” has become a household term since gaining the spotlight in the 2016 US Presidential election, with some claiming it helped propel President Donald Trump to victory. (Source: RT)