mission – mackaycartoons

Saturday April 25, 2015

April 24, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 25, 2015

Canada Post strikes back in mailbox battle

Canada Post has asked the courts to strike down Hamilton’s mailbox installation bylaw the day after eight charges were laid under the new rules.

Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton said the legal counter-move came after the agency received a city order to stop ongoing installation of the controversial community mailboxes based on the recently passed bylaw.

He said he wasn’t aware of any charges under the bylaw, but added a hearing to consider Canada Post’s application is scheduled for April 28.

City spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos said Friday eight charges related to three unidentified mailbox locations were sworn late Thursday – six against Canada Post and two against a subcontractor, SNC Lavalin.

He couldn’t immediately comment on what the latest court filing means to the city.

“We regret that court action is necessary … but we’re at a point where we need to continue to move forward,” said Hamilton, noting, the agency has been in contact with the city since last June over the planned installations.

The legal battle started when the city enacted a new bylaw earlier this month that requires the Crown corporation to apply for a $200 permit for each of an estimated 4,000 community mailboxes meant to replace door-to-door mail delivery in Hamilton.

Council followed up on Wednesday by asking its lawyers to file a court application to “restrain” ongoing installation by Canada Post. The agency’s counter-move appears to have been filed first, however.

Canada Post has argued from the get-go its federal mandate trumps municipal bylaws and installation of the first of 1,000 mailboxes on the Mountain began last Friday. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Wednesday April 22, 2015

April 21, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 22, 2015

Pull comes to push as the EU wrestles with the migrant crisis

Last week, 400 or more, many of them women and children sheltering below deck, perished in a capsize off Libya. On Sunday, as many as 900 more lost in a single shipwreck. And on Monday, as the contingent agonized over what to do now, came heartbreaking shoreline-view footage of a sinking off the coast of Greek island of Rhodes. Mercifully, most made it ashore. Some did not, reportedly including a four-year-old boy.

Europe’s bad bet now is expected to be reversed quickly by the EU, which will meet Thursday in crisis mode, when it is expected to redouble formal search-and-rescue operations. Its efforts will be joined by a raft of aid groups attempting to bring global resources to bear.

“The world needs to react with the conviction with which it eliminated piracy off the coast of Somalia a few years ago,” said William Lacy Swing, director-general of the International Organization for Migrants (IOM).

“All of us, especially the EU and the world’s powers can no longer sit on the sidelines watching while this tragedy unfolds in slow motion and well over 1,500 have drowned since the beginning of January.”

But as the crisis deepened, agencies involved in the broader effort reminded us Europe is far from alone in this. Canada, let us not forget, was more than a little involved in Libya and now, more than a little involved in the madness that is Syria. (Source: Toronto Star)

Letter to the Editor

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Spectator cartoonist Graeme MacKay has a powerful message. Canadian foreign aid should be used to help refugees, not bomb them! I hope someone sends a copy of Wednesday’s Spectator to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office.
Hughena Matheson, Burlington

Wednesday April 1, 2015

March 31, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 1, 2015

Is Canada’s ISIS mission ready for Syria’s moral maze?

In all of Canada’s long military history, we’ve likely never known less about a territory we are about to attack than the Syria we’re going to bomb from on high.

We’re not alone in that ignorance as virtually no one today can figure out the full scale of the explosive, antagonist-rich tinderbox and moral disaster zone that is present day Syria.

Certainly not the U.S., nor the few Arab countries that will be our sole allies in bombing the ISIS operations there.

Our normal Western allies in these kinds of operations, including the British, French, Dutch, Danes and Australians, fear Syria is an impenetrable maze of horrors and want nothing to do with such attacks.

When British Prime Minister David Cameron tried to lead his country into bombing Syria in 2013, the U.K. Parliament acted as if he’d lost his marbles. A free vote of MPs roared a resounding “no way.”

To put it squarely, there is a democratic and Western world consensus — minus only the U.S. and Canada — that feels military attacks on Syria are far too risky for military, political, legal and, yes, even moral reasons.

The moral objections may seem surprising at first, for surely there is “moral clarity,” as Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson puts it, in attacking the murderous ISIS regime almost anywhere you find them.

The problem, however, is that it is not at all clear that Canadian attacks inside Syria won’t make a chaotic situation even more deadly for innocent civilians.

For example, many argue that Western airstrikes would only help and embolden the Assad dictatorship, whose crimes against humanity probably surpass even ISIS itself. (Source: CBC News)

Wednesday March 25, 2015

March 24, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 25, 2015

Harper seeks Parliament’s approval to extend Iraq mission into Syria

Stephen Harper is asking Parliament to endorse his plan to extend Canada’s involvement in the fight against Islamic State militants by 12 months and to expand the scope of Canadian air strikes against extremists to include Syria.

The Conservatives are putting the motion for expanding the mission on the order paper today and debate will begin Thursday. Both the NDP and Liberals said they opposed the motion, though the vote is expected to easily pass given the Conservative majority in the Commons.

Canadian warplanes have been bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq since last October and Mr. Harper had previously said he believed he needed the consent of the Syrian government before striking Islamic State forces in Syria.

On Tuesday morning, Mr. Harper told the House of Commons that the Canadian government has changed its mind and decided it doesn’t need the approval of the Assad regime, which is a pariah today because of its murderous war against its civilians.

“The government recognizes that ISIL’s [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s] power base, indeed the so-called caliphate’s capital, is in Syria,” the Prime Minister said. (Read Mr. Harper’s speech.)

“ISIL’s fighters and much of its heavier equipment are moving freely across the Iraqi border into Syria, in part for better protection against our air strikes. In our view, ISIL must cease to have any safe haven in Syria.”

He said Canada’s intentions in staying in this fight have not changed. (Source: Globe & Mail)

Reposted to Yahoo Canada News.

Stephen Harper drops Canada deeper into the snakepit #Syria #Iraq #cdnpoli http://t.co/B54PzAMzM3 pic.twitter.com/YeL0PkaHR5

— Graeme MacKay (@mackaycartoons) March 24, 2015

Monday July 20, 2009

July 20, 2009 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday July 20, 2009

Astronauts call for mission to Mars

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the man’s first steps on the moon on July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin said Mars should become the focus of renewed commitment to space travel.

The second man to walk on the lunar surface, he called for the United States to set a goal of reaching the planet by 2035: “To realise that dream we need a unified space vision. The greatest challenge for us is this: ‘Americans, do you still dream great dreams?’, ‘Do you still believe in yourselves, are you ready for a great national challenge?'”

Speaking at a commemorative event at Washington’s National Air and Space Museum, the 79-year-old called on the next generation and our political leaders to follow the president’s campaign slogan of “Yes we can!”

Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 11 commander and the first man on the moon, made a rare public appearance and offered tacit support for his former colleagues. Touting the benefits from the Cold War competition with the USSR to reach the moon, he said: “It was the ultimate peaceful competition. I won’t go as far as to say it prevented war, but it was a diversion, it allowed both sides to take the high road with objectives in science and engineering and provided an engine for cooperation.” (Source: Telegraph)