patriotism

Wednesday June 30, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 30, 2021

Make Canada Day a time for reflection

By almost any standard, Canada can be judged one of the world’s best countries. Yet its riches, rewards and life-changing opportunities are not enjoyed equally by all who inhabit this land.

June 25, 2021

By almost any estimation, Canada’s history is filled with rousing stories of courage, vision and achievement. Yet there remains a long and shameful record of past injustices — many of which have yet to be set right.

Most notably, evidence of the glaring wrongs done to the people who first called this place home is now out in full public view as never before. As shocking as the recent discoveries of almost 1,000 unmarked gravesites at former First Nations residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan have been, they have also provided one more necessary jolt to this nation’s collective conscience.

All these contradictions and paradoxes explain why it is so difficult for people to know how to mark Canada’s 154th birthday on Thursday. Do we wave the flag or lower it to half-mast? More than a year into a devastating pandemic and just as the arrival of another summer offers glimmers of respite, many Canadians ache for something to celebrate, something like the festive national holiday they’ve cherished in years past.

June 2, 2021

Yet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has wisely called for this July 1st to be a more sober affair. Having reached a similar conclusion, many communities across the country have cancelled their traditional Canada Day festivities.

This is not the same as cancelling Canada Day itself, however, and no one is seriously recommending such a move that would, even for this one, fraught year alone, deny the country its nationwide holiday. But let’s also agree that after the discoveries of the graves of so many First Nations children, many Indigenous people would understandably consider the traditional celebrations with their parades and fireworks to be completely tone-deaf. 

We do not anticipate a clear national consensus on the matter of July 1, 2021. Whatever people do or don’t do this Canada Day, we would only urge everyone to pause and reflect upon what Canada is, how we got here and what remains for us to do — together.

There are abundant national treasures for which we can all give thanks. Judged by our national living standard, our health care and education systems and by the enviable rights and freedoms we enjoy, it is easy to see why this is so. The land itself, in all its staggering beauty and enormity stretching across a continent, lies waiting for new generations to explore. No wonder hundreds of thousands of people from around the world arrive eagerly each year to start a new life with this goal in mind: becoming new Canadians. And how wonderful it is that they do.

June 26, 2018

But none of this can or should drown out the voices of the Indigenous people who knew and loved this land for millennia. They are reminding us daily of what we need to regret, lament and correct. For this to happen, the Trudeau government must move from reflection to taking the action it has promised for years. It continues to ignore far too many of the recommendations from the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

The recent passage through Parliament of new legislation, Bill C-15, could bring overdue, transformative change by codifying with greater meaning than ever before the rights of Indigenous people to their land and self-government. But an even greater commitment to learn and change must be there, not just for our federal leaders but for all of us.

When that happens, even those who feel unable to celebrate the creation of Canada 154 years ago may be able to support something different: the creating of a new Canada today. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Friday June 25, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 25, 2021

Prime Minister Trudeau must expand residential school investigations

Like a nightmare Canada can’t wake up from, the real-life horror stories about the country’s Indigenous residential schools won’t go away.

June 1, 2021

On Thursday the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan announced it had located as many as 751 unmarked graves in a cemetery located beside the community’s former residential school. 

This mind-boggling discovery, which the band’s chief, Cadmus Delorme, believes is evidence of criminal acts, comes less than a month after the remains of 215 Indigenous children, some as young as three years old, were found in unmarked graves near a former residential school outside Kamloops, B.C.

That first, grisly finding stunned the country. It also led to a national outpouring of grief and solemn commitments from our political leaders to help discover the truth about what happened to Indigenous children who died or went missing at these hellish, misguided institutions.

Now more than ever, as the shock waves from the Cowessess First Nation reverberate across Canada, the federal government needs to ensure the money and expertise will be there to achieve this.

After all, the 2006 Indian residential School Settlement Agreement covered 138 schools across the country. So far, investigators using ground-penetrating radar technology are looking at unmarked, nameless gravesites at just two of them. We have but scratched the surface of what might lie buried across this land.

By now, everyone in Canada should have a basic awareness of the dreadful things that happened at institutions supposedly created to educate Indigenous children but which were, in reality, diabolical machines for forced assimilation, a practice the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide.”

June 3, 2015

From the late 19th century to the late 20th century, about 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were torn from their families and compelled to live in appalling conditions in these institutions which, while instituted and funded by Ottawa, were operated by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches.

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation register counts 1,420 children as having died of disease or accidents while attending residential schools across the country. But Murray Sinclair, the former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has long maintained as many as 6,000 children died. The discoveries from the past month have led to speculation the final death toll could be even higher. 

That’s why the $27 million Ottawa has freed up to help Indigenous communities with their own searches is nowhere near enough when it comes to addressing the scale of the challenges ahead. It’s also worth remembering this isn’t new money. The Liberals set it aside in their 2019 federal budget and simply hadn’t spent it.

June 27, 2017

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should consider that money a mere down-payment on what this country still owes to its Indigenous peoples. We all need to find out if crimes occurred at these schools and if coverups took place. Investigators — who should be chosen by Indigenous communities — will need the power to subpoena records from governments and churches that ran the schools, as well as access to the locations.

We need as much information as possible to know what happened, what might remain to be done and if anyone alive today should and can be held accountable.

The path ahead will not be a straight one. The Cowessess cemetery was used by the community both before and after the residential school operated there. There are likely adults buried there, too. Only a much broader investigation will take us to the truth. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday May 20, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 20, 2021

Vaccination Patriotism

Ten thousand shots was the hope. The result was 10,470. That’s how many doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered at an immunization clinic at the Thorncliffe Park Community Hub in Toronto on Sunday. Until well after dark, long lines snaked through the parking lot, where people were entertained by DJs before entering the cavernous site. By the end of the day, the clinic, run by more than 50 local community and health care organizations, set a record for the most shots administered at one location on a single day. That record-breaking day in Toronto is a reason why Canada is about to surpass the United States—likely on Thursday—when it comes to the percentage of population with first doses. Right now, Canada has given first doses to 44.7 per cent of its population. In the United States, it’s 47.3 per cent. 

March 31, 2021

First doses is an important metric, for not only do first doses slow the spread of COVID-19 within communities but they are “a sign of people’s willingness to get vaccinated,” says Trevor Tombe, an associate professor of economics at the University of Calgary who provides daily updates on Canada’s vaccine progress on his Twitter feed as well as his GitHub page. “You can’t get your second shot unless you’ve got your first. And so measuring how many people are willing to get their first shot tells us the state of demand for vaccines in Canada.” 

This week alone, Canada will receive 4.5 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine (Pfizer moved up next week’s delivery because of the Victoria Day long weekend). And that has allowed provinces to open the vaccine appointment spigot even wider: As of May 18, everyone aged 18 and older in Ontario can book a time to get their shot on the provincial system. 

March 4, 2021

This ramp-up in Canada’s vaccine rollout has been a long time coming. On March 1, vaccine deliveries were so small that Canada wasn’t on pace to reach 75 per cent of its population having first doses until Nov. 24, 2022. Then, vaccine supply accelerated in April and May. Now, at our current pace, Tombe’s model suggests that Canada should reach 75 per cent by June 19. In addition, 75 per cent of all eligible Canadians 12 and up could have second doses by the second week in August. 

Any comparison with the United States interests Canadians. On April 9, when Canada’s per capita rate of new cases surpassed that of the United States for the first time, there were rumblings about what went wrong—Canada’s third wave was intensifying while the United States was seeing a long-term drop in cases as its vaccination effort was yielding results. While Canada’s rate of new cases has improved from the 205 per million population on April 9, the U.S. has dropped even faster. As of May 16, Canada posted a seven-day average of 160 per million while the U.S. is at 100. 

March 13, 2021

But the United States is struggling with the concerning issue of vaccine hesitancy. A late-April poll showed that around a quarter of adults in the U.S. don’t want to get a shot. In Canada, only nine per cent say they won’t get the vaccine compared to 88 per cent who either will or have received a dose, according to a new Angus Reid poll, which bodes well for Canada achieving herd immunity. (Maclean’s)  

Meanwhile, The world has reached a situation of “vaccine apartheid”, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday, and was no longer just at risk of that status. “The big problem is a lack of sharing. So the solution is more sharing,” he told a virtual Paris Peace Forum event. (Reuters) 

April 28, 2021

Also, An international humanitarian group is calling on the Canadian government to commit to sharing its COVID-19 vaccine supply, at a time when other low- and middle-income countries are falling behind on inoculation.

May 11, 2021

The medical non-profit group Doctors Without Borders is asking Ottawa to stop accepting vaccine supply from COVAX, the global pool procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines. It recently announced that it’s short at least 140 million doses, in part because of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in India. The World Health Organization, UNICEF and other international agencies have called on G7 countries to donate excess vaccine supplies. While countries like the United States and France have announced plans to donate millions of doses, Canada has yet to make such an announcement. In the meantime, it’s continuing to receive COVID-19 doses from COVAX, with 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca that arrived last week, and more expected by the end of June. (Yahoo News) 

 

Thursday April 23, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 23, 2020

How Trump allies have organized and promoted anti-lockdown protests

Republican politicians and individuals affiliated with President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign are organizing or promoting anti-lockdown protests across key electoral battleground states, despite the White House’s own cautious guidance on relaxing restrictions, interviews with two dozen people involved show.

April 18 2020

In Michigan, the organizers of last week’s rally against Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic are involved in the Republican president’s re-election effort, a Reuters review of their profiles and interviews with them show. 

In other swing states, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina, Republican lawmakers, party leaders and Trump allies encouraged their social media followers to join the protests, often organized by conservative activists and pro-gun- rights groups, and attended the events themselves. 

Their actions contradict the Trump administration’s recommendations for a slow and phased reopening, as well as warnings from its own medical experts that opening the economy too fast risks a resurgence of the novel coronavirus that has infected almost 810,000 people in the United States and killed over 45,000 – the world’s highest number of cases and deaths. 

A bipartisan majority of Americans – 88% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans – also want to continue to shelter in place despite the impact on the economy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday. 

Regardless, many Trump supporters saw his criticism of Democratic governors for going too far with economic restrictions, and his recent tweets calling for those states to be “liberated,” as endorsing their cause, protest organizers and Republican officials said. 

They said there had been no communication with the Trump administration or his election campaign over the protests. 

The Trump campaign declined to answer whether it had been involved with the protests, referring instead to Trump’s daily coronavirus briefings in which he has expressed sympathy for the protesters, saying he understands their frustration.

Several of the main organizers of the Lansing, Michigan, protest that police estimated drew about 4,000 people have ties to the Trump campaign, and are deeply involved in state Republican politics. (Reuters) 

 

Saturday June 29, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 29, 2019

Time to remind the G20 there’s more to Canada’s economy than trade with China

China’s latest trade attack — this time on exports of Canadian meat — is a fresh warning of the current volatility in global commerce.

As the world’s largest trading nations gather at the G20 summit in Japan this week, there have been stern warnings that a failure to resolve the tariff dispute between the United States and China will have a dire effect on the entire global economy.

But despite repeated warnings of trade Armageddon, the North American economy has shown itself to be surprisingly resilient and the latest economic indicators tell us that Canada is actually doing quite well.

And as painful as it is for Canadian producers that have benefited from the Chinese market, the dark cloud of politically motivated trade action may have a silver lining.

For one thing, it tells Canadian exporters that China, willing to cast aside a long, close trading relationship in favour of  short-term political bullying, may not be a reliable trade partner.

For another, it is a reminder that, for Canada, exports to China are by no means the only game in town.

Certainly in the run-up to the G20 meeting in Osaka that officially begins Friday, spillover from the U.S.-China trade battle has been seen as a key subject of discussion. Whether there is any hope of a resolution is widely disputed.

“We were about 90 per cent of the way there and I think there’s a path to complete this,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin this week, insisting he is optimistic talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will lead to progress.

But there have been many other signals from the U.S. administration that there are large issues outstanding. Trump has warned of a “plan B” — including more tariffs — if China does not back down.

So far Xi has been equally intransigent, unwilling to give up key elements of his country’s long-term technology plan, the Made in China 2025 strategy, in exchange for short-term trade peace.

Between those two poles, Canada has been caught in the middle. U.S. hostility toward China, including its demand that Canada arrest Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, has led directly to the Canada-China dispute. (CBC)