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Queen Victoria

Saturday May 17, 2025

May 16, 2025 by Graeme MacKay

Victoria Day takes on new significance as Canada reaffirms its sovereignty in response to U.S. rhetoric and diplomatic tensions.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 17, 2025

Victoria Day Vindication

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's meeting with Donald Trump, highlighted by Kevin O'Leary's theatrical presence and ambitions, underscores the complex dynamics and urgent need for a unified Canadian strategy in light of impending U.S. tariffs.

January 13, 2025

As Canadians ready themselves for the long-awaited May two-four weekend, a celebration traditionally filled with barbecues, beer, and the unofficial launch of summer, this year’s observance takes on a deeper resonance. Victoria Day, a holiday that honours the long-deceased Queen Victoria, has evolved over time to become a moment of reflection on our nation’s heritage, rather than merely a nod to our constitutional monarchy.

However, in 2025, amidst a backdrop of strained relations with our southern neighbour, the United States, this holiday carries heightened significance. The recent tensions, sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports and his dismissive rhetoric about Canada as the “51st state,” underscore a growing need for Canada to affirm its sovereignty and unique identity.

News: King Charles to open Canada’s parliament amid escalating tensions with the US

Trump's Court: The New Era of American Monarchy

March 6, 2025

President Trump’s affinity for monarchy and grand ceremonies, recently illustrated during his tour of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where he was enveloped in luxurious tributes and golden welcomes, contrasts sharply with Canada’s steadfast commitment to its own democratic principles and global partnerships. His anticipated state visit to the United Kingdom, featuring dinner with King Charles III, further emphasizes his penchant for spectacle over substance.

In this climate, the upcoming Speech from the Throne, presided over by Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, and featuring the King’s speech, serves as a powerful reminder of our rich history and sovereign status. It is a moment that not only honours our past but also projects our commitment to an independent future on the global stage.

Prime Minister Carney’s recent meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office, where he firmly stated that “Canada is not for sale,” encapsulates the spirit of resilience and dignity that defines our nation. As we mark Victoria Day, we do so with the understanding that our ties to the monarchy are part of a broader tapestry of national identity, one that embraces diversity, democracy, and international cooperation.

News: ‘Perfecto’: Wealthy Gulf rulers bring A-game to Trump charm offensive

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer strategically employs the British monarchy to gain favour with Trump, while Canada faces challenges under his administration.

March 1, 2025

The rhetoric of reducing Canada to a mere extension of the United States must come to an end. Our nation, with its rich history as an old confederation and a proud member of the global community, stands firm in its values and principles. This Victoria Day, as Canadians gather to celebrate with family and friends, let us also take a moment to reflect on the significance of our sovereignty, the strength of our alliances, and the enduring legacy of our constitutional traditions.

In recognizing these truths, we honour not only our past but also our present and future as a nation that commands respect and partnership, not as a subordinate, but as an equal on the world stage.



Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: 2025-10, 51st state, beaver, Canada, diplomacy, Donald Trump, Monarchy, neighbours, Queen Victoria, rhetoric, sovereignty, tariffs, Uncle Sam, USA, Victoria Day

Tuesday March 28, 2017

March 27, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 28, 2017

Trudeau government to legalize marijuana by Canada Day 2018: reports

The Liberal government plans to announce legislation next month that will legalize recreational marijuana use nationally by Canada Day 2018, CBC News reported Sunday night.

The report, aired first on CBC’s flagship TV show, The National, said the government plans to introduce the legislation the week of April 10.

Another report, however, indicated the bill would be introduced on April 20, or 4/20, a symbolic date for marijuana users.

According to the CBC report, Ottawa will secure the country’s marijuana supply and license producers. The national age limit to purchase the drug will be set at 18, but provinces will be able to set it higher.

Provinces will also control price, along with how marijuana is bought and sold.

Also, Canadians who wish to grow their own marijuana would be limited to four plants per household.

The new rules generally follow the recommendations of a federal task force chaired by Anne McLellan, a former justice minister. The task force delivered a 106-page report in December with 80 recommendations.

Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief who, as a Liberal MP, was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s point person on the issue, briefed the Liberal caucus on the roll-out plan and planned legislation during meetings this weekend, CBC said. (Source: Toronto Star)

 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: alcohol, beaver, Beer, Canada, cannabis, holidays, legalization, Marijuana, May two-four, Queen Victoria

Tuesday July 8, 2014

July 8, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Tuesday July 8, 2014

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 8, 2014

Justice minister expects legal challenge to proposed law

Current and former sex workers led the debate on proposed changes to Canada’s prostitution laws Monday, making their cases for and against the legislation.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay kicked off a week of justice committee meetings by warning MPs that prostitution will be decriminalized if his proposed legislation isn’t in place by the end of the year. He told reporters following the meeting that he expects a Supreme Court challenge if Parliament passes the bill into law.

Thursday June 26, 2014Later in the day, MPs heard from current and former sex workers.

Timea Nagy of Walk With Me Canada Victims’ Services said she supports the government’s proposed law, and says the vast majority of sex workers are forced into the industry.

Nagy described her horrifying experience as a victim of human trafficking. Her first encounter was with three men at a massage parlour.

“I closed my eyes, and I looked up and I was thinking that if anyone would have seen this, would anyone come and rescue me? Only to find out later that my so-called bodyguard was watching the whole thing on video,” she said.

“I was indoors, it was safe, they paid for their services, but nobody told me the rules because I was new to it, so I was raped for about an hour by three different men.”

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s old prostitution law last December in a ruling known as Bedford, and gave it a year to replace it with one that would comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

MPs also heard from current and former sex workers who say they chose their profession and want to be able to protect themselves.

“If this bill becomes law, clients will not provide information on themselves, which is essential to protect ourselves from people who are badly intentioned,” said É​milie Laliberté, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform.

“This approach is in contradiction with the Bedford decision because it criminalizes clients as well as our professional and personal relationships and infringes upon our right to personal safety.”

One argument against the legislation is that it infringes on workers’ right to expression because it limits how they advertise their services. (Source: CBC News)


 

OTHER MEDIA

Posted to iPolitics.com.

Posted in: Canada Tagged: Canada, Editorial Cartoon, justice, Peter MacKay, prostitution, Queen Victoria, sex, sex trafficking, sex workers, Victoria

Saturday July 12, 1997

July 12, 1997 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 12, 1997

Targeting Goths wrong way to fix downtown

“Here’s a suggestion: build a gibbet in Gore Park and take all these teenagers and the poor beggars down there and hang ’em. We’ll have a hanging every month, and that’ll bring people back into downtown.”– Sarcasm from a shopper who lives on the Mountain and says she’s never been bothered downtown.

Judging people by category never works. In every group, whether you measure it by age, race, belief, wealth, job or gender, there are saints and there are slugs.

Most are somewhere in the middle.

This goes for the people who fight to keep downtown alive by opening their stores every day just as it does for their sometime opponents: the people who sit on the sidewalks and ask passersby for money.

And of course, it applies to the people who provide the cash to keep them both alive: the consumer.

Downtown’s many communities have reacted strongly to this week’s proposal for a bylaw that would prohibit pedestrians from gathering on Hamilton sidewalks.

The primary target is people who call themselves Goths or Freaks: the tattooed, pierced and pancake-faced teens and young adults standing and sitting along King Street east of James.

To them, the bylaw would be an unfair restriction on their freedom to congregate and, for those among them who don’t have homes or jobs, to collect pocket change from downtown workers and shoppers.

The good ones can “pan” up to $60 or $80 a day.

To the people whose goods and services compete for the same pool of money, panhandlers are killing them.

At the downtown strip club Chez M, they take strong exception to the Goths’ plea that they are gentle and non-threatening.

On June 6, a group of Goths chased a patron leaving the club down the alley, catching him just outside the back door.

“They were laying the boots to this guy’s head, ” said Jeannette, a Chez M bartender. “These kids don’t care. They will say and do whatever they feel like.”

Hamilton-Wentworth police confirm a beating took place in that alley and that a 32-year-old man was taken to hospital and treated after being kicked in the chest and head.

An 18-year-old has been charged with assault causing bodily harm.

The staff at Chez M say there is constant trouble with Goth kids hanging around their entrance.

“They ask us for spare change, ” Jeannette said. “I say, ‘Hey, buddy, I work for spare change’.”

She said the same people use the abandoned store entrance next door as a washroom and staff constantly have to pour bleach in the corners just to get rid of the smell.

“I’ve been in this business 10 years. I’m a pretty tough cookie, but this has to stop, ” Jeannette said.

Tough to argue with that.

Further down King Street, the owner of an independent business, who, fearing retribution, asked not to be named, said he used to bring in $200,000 a year. Now, some panhandlers take home more money than he does.

“Sidewalks aren’t for sitting on, as far as I’m concerned. People don’t want to be pestered when they go shopping, ” he said. “The whole downtown’s a mess. I don’t know where to start.”

Not by stopping people from gathering, says Frank Rocchi, a stockbroker who works in the office towers above King and James. He’s no fan of the Goths, but he won’t stand for sidewalk segregation.

“I’m absolutely appalled by this proposal, ” he said. “It’s not only draconian, it’s antediluvian.”

Frank has a good point. So, however, does Louie Petrou, owner of Leathers and Leathers Giant Discount Warehouse. He’s been at King and Mary for 25 years.

He doesn’t think it’s right to target people for what they wear, either, but he knows panhandlers are hurting downtown’s image.

And in business, image is important.

“No one should have to be approached like that, ” he says. “Everyone has the right to be where they want, but not the right to disturb others.”

All these rights still add up to something wrong.

There doesn’t seem to be much patience left among the shopping public — the people who will really decide whether downtown lives or dies.

“I almost don’t care if anything is done, ” said one shopper, “because I think our downtown is toast anyway, whether we have a nice new fountain or not.”

They say their former customers would rather go to a mall, where security guards move along the bothersome beggars. (Hamilton Spectator, 6/28/1997, A3)

Goths are not the problem

The idea of banning Goths, panhandlers or any other visible minority group from downtown Hamilton is truly remarkable in one way: It has absolutely no redeeming value. It’s unfair, impractical, draconian, imprecise, illogical and ultimately useless.

Somebody, please, put this ill-conceived plan out of its misery, followed quickly by the plan to spend $150,000 to study loitering.

Talk about fiddling while the city is burning. Hamilton’s downtown core is a mess. The office vacancy rate is sky high. Storefront after storefront is empty. Our downtown mall is eerily empty. The cheque-cashing outlets, bars and adult entertainment arcades are doing a solid business while retailers suffer through month after month, year after year, of stagnant business.

While no one has suggested Goths and panhandlers are directly responsible, the argument being put forth by some downtown businesspeople seems to be that these are generally unpleasant people, and they intimidate shoppers.

Perhaps this is true. But it’s also true that other people stay away from downtown because of the proliferation of arcades and sex shops, and no one is suggesting they be banned from the core. People have been saying for years they don’t go downtown because they don’t want to pay for parking when it’s free at suburban malls, but to date we’ve only had Band-Aid suggestions and solutions to the parking problem.

Perhaps that is because these larger issues demand bigger, complex answers. There’s nothing simple about solving the parking problem, about recruiting new business and residential properties to the core. Fixing the core requires many solutions to many problems, and above all requires a vision for downtown development.

Getting rid of Goths and panhandlers is easy by comparison, so perhaps it’s understandable in a way that businesspeople and some local politicians, lacking answers for the bigger problems, reach out to do what they can with the simple ones.

But the problem here isn’t too many Goths and panhandlers, it’s too few people. If our downtown core was healthy and well- populated, visible groups like these wouldn’t stand out, or probably even be noticed. Anyone who remembers the chaotic city core of the ’60s and ’70s, hippies, shoppers and businesspeople all sharing the same sidewalk, can attest to that.

That some people are intimidated when they go downtown is a symptom of the area’s overall state of decay, and that’s the problem that must be addressed.

As for the $150,000 plan to study loitering, we’d suggest an’ alternative. Take the $150,000, and hire a qualified, dynamic organizer, marketer and promoter to co-ordinate a downtown revitalization plan, even if only on a one-year contract. The right person in that job, combined with political will and a vision, will go a long way toward really fixing Hamilton’s downtown core. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

 

Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: culture, downtown, Gore Park, goth, Hamilton, loitering, Queen Victoria, tearsheet, Youth

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This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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