Best Birthday Gift

Tags

Canada, Concert, Liberal, NDP, Parliament, PEI, Singh, Trudeau, Ukraine

This morning in the news some unexpected developments in Parliament in Ottawa, the NDP and the Liberals have reached an agreement which would allow the current government of Justin Trudeau to stay in power until 2025 for the next election. The NDP would support them on supply votes (Budget) which is very important on the condition that the Liberals would push for implementation with the Provinces of a Pharmacare and Dental Care for all. This is how we got the medicare system for all in 1964. At the time Prime Minister Pearson supported Tommy Douglas the leader of the NDP. The opposition you guess it was the Conservatives who preferred the American system fend for yourself approach, they still do 57 years later.

This agreement is leading to announced progressive policies which will be beneficial to so many people, this includes the national daycare for kids at $10 a day. Now many of these policies will not benefit me but the point is that it will benefit society as a whole and make life more affordable for all including seniors in the case of pharmacare reducing to a minimal amount or $0 the cost of medication. Same with dental care, meaning better health care for all. The NDP and the Liberals have all the votes they need now in Parliament to push all those policies through. Also in this agreement there will be no more run around the bush committee meetings the Conservatives love to attack none stop the Government inventing scandals that do not exist and waisting parliamentary time and money.

Immediately the leader of the Conservative Candice Bergen jumped denouncing this agreement and saying this was illegal and a power grab, you cannot trust Trudeau and Singh, two dangerous socialists. It’s the end of the world, lost jobs, debts, etc… She also called it a coalition, which it is not. The PM did not offer any Cabinet seats to the NDP, it is an agreement to work together in the House. Of course this agreement throws a monkey wrench into the Conservative’s narrative and now they have to come up with a better plan or argument. PM Trudeau has a minority government and such arrangements are feasible in our Parliamentary system. It showed Ms Bergen as disingenuous in her criticism. The Conservatives for years now have always fallen back on how Trudeau is a crook and cannot be trusted, blah, blah, blah. It works with their base, remember the truckers occupying Ottawa, yes that bunch, the white supremacists and the Trump supporters.

So it is all good and will ensure stability in Government for the next few years, allowing for the progressive agenda to move forward including the Green Agenda to deal with climate change.

Jagmeet Singh, Leader of the NDP and PM Trudeau in his Office in Parliament today.

Please keep Ukraine in your thoughts.

Licence and permit

Tags

car, licence, tax, the Queen, Trudeau, Ukraine, Windsor, YouTube

In PEI each year if you own a car you have to renew your Licence plate sticker and have your car inspected for safety another sticker. It happens on your birthday so it is up to you to remember to renew, no one is going to call you about it.

The Licence plate sticker is $100. it is done online and takes about 1 minute to do. The safety inspection is done by appointment to your dealership or any accredited garage and cost $45. However often the inspection has a surprise to it. The garage or dealership may say suddenly, you need new brakes or you need 4 new tires or you need this and that fixed. There is no way out of this one, if you say no, you do not get your sticker showing you pass the safety inspection and your car insurance is cancelled. No appeal. So you do what you are told. I do not like the system in PEI because it is really useless, every year? Could it not be every 3 years. True you do not see old cars or jalopy cars on the road, but we do get the no muffler models cars, trucks and motorcycles which baffles me because it is illegal.

Have you seen on YouTube the numerous videos about abandoned mansions or palaces in Europe or abandoned cemeteries in the USA. I wonder if those places are truly abandoned or just closed up by owners over a period of years and people just break in and tell you it’s abandoned. The same for cemeteries which have big mausoleums where dozens of people are encased in wall niches, the stench alone would be enough to make me run away. One video was of a famous American family of the 19th century, very wealthy and they are all entombed in this mountain side mausoleum outside New York City. The family had to have the doors bolted shut and added steel bars to prevent anyone from entering. It is ghoulish and you have to wonder why anyone would want to film around such a place. Can’t people just rest in peace.

As for the mansions and chateaux here and there, some are in a state of advance ruin, others simply appear shut down for a few months. I did see in one video the keeper of the place come after the intruders with big guard dogs. If it says Keep Out, that is what it means. The people filming always say: would you not want to restore this place and live here? Really, do they have any idea what it would cost to renovate such places nowadays. Just the cost of maintaining large homes or chateaux is beyond most people’s budget. To do what with it, impress your friends?

It seems that on YouTube there are people making a career of developing a hobby of filming just about anything they believe could be of interest to a larger group. I would not call them influencers.

This week Prime Minister Trudeau is in Europe as is the Minister of Defense Anita Anand and the Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly. All 3 are on different missions but all of it is about Ukraine and NATO.

Here is the photo of the audience Prime Minister Trudeau at Windsor Castle meeting with Her Majesty this week. She has known him since he was 5 years old when his father Pierre Trudeau took him on his Official trips around the world. The Queen quite likes Justin and gave him a 45 minute audience. Most people get only 20 minutes.

Political change

Tags

Canada, media, O'Toole, Ottawa, truckers, Trudeau, Trump

We are in day 5 of the occupy Ottawa by so called truck drivers, some facts are coming out now, the demonstration which started last Friday at its height had about 8,000 people participating on Parliament Hill, fairly low number if compared to a Canada Day celebration which run around 100,000 + person.

The number of trucks the police estimate that it was around 2000 trucks. Not the ten of thousands bandied about by protesters. The shadow organization raised about $10 million dollars, now the police has revealed that most of the money is coming from the USA, from American activists who support Trump and right wing activists. This is a very troubling thing, one of the main demand of the organizer is the overthrow of the Canadian Government, the abolition of Parliament and installing a dictatorship. The hatred of Donald Trump for Canada and his minions is well known, he has demonstrated this many times during his presidency. The siege in Ottawa continues but the Chief of Police is now considering bringing in the army to clear the streets. I say, It’s about time!

Many news organizations like SKY News Australia, WION India, The Washington Post, The London Times, Post Media in Canada, The National Post, The Sun, have taken a very strong anti-Trudeau stand. Many reported that Trudeau had fled the Capital as the protesters had arrived. This was #FAKE NEWS, Parliament reopened after the Holiday Season on Monday as scheduled, the Prime Minister was present and continues to govern.

What has happened today Wednesday is the ouster of the Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole after only 23 months at the helm, a majority of Members of his Caucus 73 voted to boot him out while 45 wanted him to stay. This is ironic, O’Toole had openly supported the trucker protest and his party for the last 7 years had an open campaign of hate against PM Trudeau. It all backfired on them. No having any plans on Climate change, constantly being negative about every topic, blaming Trudeau for just about everything under the sun, attacking his family and his elderly mother Margaret. Being in favour of assault weapons for all like we see in the USA, against Abortion rights, against LGBTQ rights, supporting conversion therapy and all manner of extreme right wing causes and finally is constant flip-flop on policy positions and out the door he goes. The CPC is a divided party, the 73 members who voted against O’Toole are the right wing similar to the Trump fringe in the USA. The party will have its 4th party leadership contest and its 6th leader in 7 year. It may very well split up and we shall see a return to the old Conservative party and the other wing will be the Reformers from Western Canada.

This photo courtesy of the CBC shows 3 ladies who live on Cooper street in Ottawa, in our old neighbourhood stopping a truck from travelling down their street. Good for them! We need to stop this madness.

Into the weekend

Tags

Canada, indians, life, Trudeau, woke

This week has been strange in some ways and worrisome. On one hand we have the media in Canada going into overdrive with negativity and what is presented as fact then becomes muddled and is no longer clear.

A story that made headlines around the world that of the discovery of the remains (bones) of what is believed to be 215 indigenous children who died at a Residential School run by the Catholic Church. At first it was reported as small bones, then as bodies, then as remains and no one appears to know if it is 215 or 250. However this was enough for activists to turn this matter into a highly emotional question.

Politicians in the House of Commons made some very controversial statements all trying to look more concerned than the next guy or girl. The gist of it, Canada as we know it today and all non-native people are squatters and they stole everything from the Indigenous people. Some Cities in Canada have cancelled National Day 1 July celebrations because nothing good has come from this project called Canada and 38 million people living here today should just pack up and go back where they came from. Victoria the Capital of British Columbia has announced such plans.

If you go to any show which receives funding from the Canadian Government you will hear the message that whatever building you are in and the land on which it stands belongs to Native groups and you must atone for your past wrongs. A silly message given that no one has any intentions of giving anything back to indigenous groups.

So this message you hear each day has a corrosive effect, and it is not about to stop. The idea of the Prime Minister is to force change upon society through a social engineering. The belief is that we will achieve reconciliation. The problem is after 500 years of European building a country and 45 Canadian Parliaments and 8 Sovereigns, it is not going to happen.

So statues of people long dead have been attacked and defaced as if they and they alone are responsible for what happened while society at large appears to suffer from amnesia.

Now we are finally getting to the short list of who will be the next Governor General and the Government and the Prime Minister are making noises that it will be an Indigenous person. I wonder how that will work out if that rumour proves true.

What is interesting is the push back by people who immigrated to Canada and who are non-white. The attack on Canada, a country they chose for their future life is not acceptable to them. They found acceptance here and prosperity something they did not have in the country of their birth.

Not all indigenous groups accept the current approach, many prefer a pragmatic approach of teaching history correctly and fully and let’s all move along. Unfortunately our Prime Minister is Mr WOKE but it remains to be seen if he can be re-elected serving that line to Canadians daily.

I am a tad tired of Justin T. and his attitude, he lacks judgement and he is dividing the country dangerously. He truly opened the Box of Pandora and this is not going to end well.

Changes

Tags

Canada, Constitution, Governor General, Parliament, The Crown, Trudeau

On the 20 January the USA got a new President and 2 days later Canada saw our Acting Head of State resign under a dark cloud. Our Governor General Julie Payette had to step down after a scathing report on her creating a toxic work place that saw dozens of people quit or go on sick leave, more than 50 people testified against her and her own RCMP security detail had horror stories to tell of how badly she treated them.

Julie Payette was the candidate of our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who once again shows how his idealism and woke agenda coupled with lack of judgement and failure to follow through will always land you in big trouble. Instead of listening to the non-partisan selection committee and doing all the necessary background vetting, Trudeau charged ahead and recommended Payette to the Queen who approved her nomination. Turns out Payette was the worst person for the job, she refused to listen to advice, did not follow protocol, refuse to move into Rideau Hall the Official Residence in Ottawa, preferring to stay in her cottage North of Montreal. Would disappear without notifying anyone including her security detail, which would send alarm bells all around. Refuse patronages which had been on the books for a century, refuse to sign documents or give Royal Assent to Laws preferring to take her time in some cases 5 months. In our Canadian System no royal assent means nothing can go ahead and the government comes to a standstill. She also famously delivered Christmas messages wearing a jump suit like those shoppers at Walmart, there is a relax look but this went far beyond any minimum standard. She did not care and made a point of it.

What really did her in and her good pal and second in command Asunta was her harrassment of staff, majority women. Having screaming rages and tantrums, demanding they answer difficult math problems and name all the planets of the solar system, Payette is a former astronaut, staff were harassed and bullied by a woman who by all public accounts was a shining example of successful feminism, unfortunately no background checks were done. There were rumours about her 2 previous high profile jobs both she quit under a cloud for exactly the same reasons. There was also her tortuous family life with 2 ex-husbands, one pressed charges of battery against her and the un-ending custody battles. How could the Prime Minister be so thoughtless, I would have loved to be listening in on the conversation when he had to call Her Majesty, the big boss, to explain to her why Madame Payette was resigning. Knowing the Queen and her inquisitive mind, I am sure she was well aware of the details before the call and was waiting to see how Trudeau would explain himself for this fiasco. Not to forget that Queen Elizabeth has known him since he was 7 years old.

Incredibly enough Madame Payette in her letter of resignation does not apologize but simply said that that there were some disagreements. Trudeau in Parliament and to the Press lied by stating that the vetting process had not worked well. Everyone knows there was NO process, is he not man enough to simply admit he made a terrible mistake and a costly one at that.

Now the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will take on the duties of Governor General until a new person is named. Hopefully it will not be too long and this time there will be a complete vetting. Life will go on but my faith in Justin Trudeau is shaken, maybe it is time for him to retire, his arrogance has gotten the better of him.

Rideau Hall, Official Residence of the Governor General of Canada, Ottawa.

So a new mandate

Tags

Canada., Government, Liberals, Ontario, Parliament, Quebec, Queen, Trudeau

Well the National Election is over and Justin Trudeau got a new mandate, despite all the  dirt the so called conservative party and its leader tried to throw at him. The CPC has a unit which works at unearthing anything that could hurt a candidate and then publicize it through right wing affiliated newspapers like The Sun, CTV network and PostMedia including the once reputable Globe & Mail. The negative stories are written for effect and are often inaccurate or right out lies simply repeated. A very disturbing trend but you have to know the background of it, the owners are long time supporters of alt-right conservative policies, some big business interests, some American oil companies, the Trump administration and the Republican party including the one surviving Koch brother. No it is not the Russians in our case but the US Republican party. The Chinese Communist party (Chinese Government) also played a very negative role, given our current dispute with China over the extradition to the USA of the Huawei executive. Two Canadian have been kidnapped by the People’s Police in China and held in secret jails, denied Canadian Embassy Consular services and put under psychological torture for months now. Unfortunately the Canadian Media has all but forgotten about them. The position of the CPC and its Chief Andrew Scheer has been to side with China with the false narrative that this will help resolve the crisis.

So this election confirmed one thing, Canadians are concerned about climate change now seen as a crisis, Canadian want action (84%) and will not vote for a candidate who denies the crisis or has no plans to fight it, as was the case for Andrew Scheer.
Canadians also do not like a candidate who imitates the American fashion of posing as a born again or evangelical Christian, like Andrew Scheer did. Canadians prefer their candidates and party leader to be neutral and quiet on this topic. There were too many stories about Conservative Candidates who came out as being anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ, pro-gun lobby and supporting the NRA, while we get weekly news from the USA of gun violence, something that horrifies most Canadians. Several also were not shy and made hate filled comments and rants against anyone who is not white or christian, thinking that it was ok to do so. Finally Andrew Scheer was the master of avoiding to answer any question on pretty much any topic. He also refused to denounce or remove a candidate who displayed hateful tendencies. Scheer also refused to attend any PRIDE event or parade during the Summer, all other party leaders did and participated. Trudeau was accused by the CPC of being a deviant and corrupt. What was suppose to be an easy victory for the Conservative turnout to be a defeat despite getting more votes and gaining more seats in the House of Commons, though not a majority. But they failed miserably in the two big provinces of Ontario and Quebec and in the Maritimes which holds the bulk of the population in Canada, some 26 million people out of the 38 million. It is well known that if you cannot secure the votes in Ontario especially around Toronto and in Quebec you cannot win an election in Canada.

So since the Liberal party victory on 21 October, Andrew Scheer has felt the heat of this party who is planning to replace him ASAP. No despite Trudeau having a minority government he has a workable minority and does not need to have a coalition with another party like the Green or NDP. The way our Westminster Parliamentary system works, there is a way to govern and you can always find support here and there in the House to pass your bills. No one wants another election for at least another 14 to 24 months for the simple reason there is no money and the Conservatives will be looking for a new leader soon.

The media also do not help the issue by spreading false concepts borrowed from the USA. Canada is NOT a Republic we are a Kingdom and our Parliamentary system is a copy of Westminster so it is quite different matter.

When the Prime Minister went to see the Governor General Julie Payette to ask she dissolve Parliament as is her role as Head of State, the Prime Minister and the Ministers all remain in Office for the duration of the election. The Prime Minister only  resigns his position after the election if he or she looses the election and IF he or she can no longer hold the Confidence of the House. That is very important to understand, we have had historically cases where the Prime Minister lost an election but stayed in power because he could hold the confidence of the House. Strange but true in Canada, that is our system.

The day after the election the Prime Minister returned to visit the Governor General at Rideau Hall to inform her of what his intentions were for the new Legislative program and priorities. This is largely a courtesy call because the Speech from the Throne (in England it is called the Queen’s Speech) is read by the Head of State in the High Chamber our Senate by the Governor General or the Queen if she is in Ottawa, but it is all written by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The Press got it wrong by talking about Trudeau seeking permission to form a government. What nonsense, he is the PM and remains so, he has a new mandate NOT a term, we don’t have those in Canada. The only thing Trudeau needs is to get the confidence of the House through a formal vote in the House of Commons on the Speech from the Throne or on the Budget bill. Very unlikely that he would not be able to get it under present circumstances. In Canada the role of the Queen or Governor General is to warn on a course of action or counsel the PM, the power to govern rests entirely in the House in Parliament, this is why we have responsible government since 1867. It is quite amazing to see how many journalists and editors get this wrong, watching too much of The West Wing I suppose.

On November 20 the Prime Minister will announce his new Ministry or Cabinet, a shuffle of portfolio is the big challenge for Trudeau or any Prime Minister because they have to make sure they have all regions of Canada represented in Cabinet and this is tough at the moment with no Liberal Member of Parliament from Alberta or Saskatchewan, pop 5 million total, Trudeau will have to be creative but there are various workable solutions.

So the final result of this election Canadians want modern and progressive governments and NO we are not revisiting the Abortion debate it was settled decades ago, we have rights for all including the LGBTQ and same-sex marriage and Canadians don’t want to deny rights to segment of the population, we also want the right to die which was legislated and gun control including hand guns. It should also be a warning to any new conservative leader at the Federal level not to associate with Neo-Nazi elements and other white supremacist hate groups as Andrew Scheer did thinking that it was a winning card.

I do expect that with the beginning of this new mandate the conservatives and their friends in the right wing press will continue negative attacks against Trudeau but hey that’s life. At least we do not have a Conservative government and that is a blessing. No one wanted the sort of horror show we see in Ontario at the Provincial Level with Doug Ford who emulates Donald Trump his hero or the politics of civil war and hate in Alberta with Jason Kenney. Interestingly the Conservative Premier in Manitoba does not want to associate with Kenney or Ford and the Premier in New Brunswick who is himself in a minority situation is walking back on his own extreme positions which are mostly anti-French in a province considered to be  the heart of French Acadia.

 

 

Canada Voted!

Tags

Canada., Liberal, NDP, scheer, Trudeau

Canadians voted on 21 October and the choice was between a progressive social agenda and a corporatist nativist agenda. Parliament has 338 seats, Liberals have 157 seats, the Conservatives (CPC) 121, New Democratic Party (NDP) 24 and the Bloc Quebecois 32. The Green Party does not have official party status in the House of Commons but have secured 3 seats which is a gain of 1 seat for them. There is also 1 sole independent Jody Wilson-Raybould a former Liberal who decided to leave the party over the SNC-Lavallin affair and is now sitting on her own and likely to disappear behind the curtains of the chamber.

You can see by the topics that the progressive social agenda is that of the Liberal and New Democratic Parties of Canada. The Corporatist and nativist agenda is that of the Conservatives under Andrew Scheer. A very stark difference amongst this two group of voters.

Some 27.7 million people had the opportunity to vote yesterday. Canada’s total population is 38 million.

The campaign was extremely divisive, full of hate and at times bordering on the violent. The Conservative not learning from past mistakes under Stephen Harper doubled down with the negative agenda full of fear of what a progressive social agenda would do. Also the Conservatives under Scheer made the mistake to concentrate their campaign on the issue of pipelines and oil which is the sole topic of one province Alberta with a population of 4 million people. Forgetting that World markets at keeping the price of oil low and private companies are not interested in building pipelines. Scheer during the debate made the mistake of telling the French Speaking Province of Quebec what to do and said he would build the pipeline across the territory of Quebec. How could anyone be so clueless.

The Liberal and NDP represent multicultural and pluralistic Canada, the Conservative represent mostly White, Christian, Anglos, gun lobbyist, evangelical christians, if you do not belong to that group, they don’t want to hear from you. But this is the minority in Canada now. Canadians with this election showed that we do not care for American Trump style political campaign. Andrew Scheer who hid the fact that he is an American, until he was outed and had to admit employing Trump campaign strategists and receiving campaign contributions from Republican groups in the USA created a lot of unease amongst Canadian voters.

Trudeau in his first mandate had controversies and broken promises. He is arrogant and his style can grate on people. However he is more of a people person, whereas Scheer is phony as a $3 dollar bill, something the average person can sense.

The News Media especially PostMedia, the Sun, and CTV and the Globe and Mail had concerted campaign with the Conservative Party to attack and create fake news, even now after the Liberal victory, they are still questioning the legitimacy of the Trudeau victory. This is not good for a democracy because it set people up against each other.

The second term of Justin Trudeau in a minority government looks like what happened in 1972 when his father Pierre E. Trudeau got a second mandate with a minority victory.

We will now have continuity and stability. I do not expect the right wing media to stop attacking the government or Quebec or anyone who does not agree with CPC agenda. However the #Scheer nightmare is over, he will be most likely be replaced pretty quickly by a new contender for the Conservative leadership.

Photos

Tags

PM, pope, Sistine Chapel, Trudeau, Vatican

Yesterday I got a newsletter from the Canadian Club Of Rome, we use to be members when we lived there, lots of nice activities for Canadians living in Italy.

This caught my eye, the Embassy of Canada to Italy not to be confused with the Embassy of Canada to the Holy See (Vatican), is participating in Gay Pride 2017.

Here is a promotional photo taken in the garden of the Chancery of the Embassy on Via Salaria with the staff and the Ambassador holding up the letter D.

They will have a float for the parade which starts at Piazza Repubblica and winds down into the centre of the City.

Today our Prime Minister met with the Pope at the Apostolic Palace for 42 minutes, one on one and many topics were discussed. Sophie Grégoire his spouse joined them for the photo afterwards in the Office of the Pope. The Prime Minister then walked around the Palace which in itself is a museum (not open to the public) and is attached to the famous Sistine Chapel built in 1473. Everyone was smiling on the photos and you could see a good rapport between the Pontiff and Trudeau. The Pope was invited by Trudeau to visit Canada.

Photo courtesy of the CBC. It is rare to see the chapel so empty, it was closed to allow the couple to visit quietly. The Prime Minister then gave his press conference in the beautiful and vast gardens of the Vatican. I once visited the chapel with just 10 other people on a private tour, it beats being in the chapel with the multitudes. Our guide explained the various figures and pointed out that God the Father stands above in the centre of the ceiling wearing a diaphanous pink like toga mooning us. Perhaps a little artistic liberty Michelangelo took with the topic while painting The Last Judgement ceiling between 1508-12, apparently Pope Julius II did not say a word about it. The Sistine Chapel also known as Cappella Magna took its name from Pope Sixtus IV.  The architects were Giovannino de Dolci and Baccio Pontelli.

During the reign of Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance painters that included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Roselli, created a series of frescos depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe oeil drapery below. These paintings were completed in 1482, and on 15 August 1483 Sixtus IV celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of the Assumption, at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

to clarify the record

Tags

#FakeNews, AK47, Alexandre Bisonnette, Canada., Fascism, FOX News, massacre, Quebec City, Sainte-Foy, Terrorism, Trudeau, Trump

 

I believe that I need to write this entry to clarify the record given that FOX News and other like minded news outlets in the USA including the White House are spreading #Fakenews on what actually happened in Quebec City last night at the Islamic Centre and Mosque.

It is important to set context in what actually happened last night. The City of Quebec is very old in terms of North American settlement, founded in 1608 and was the Capital of the French Empire in North America until 1763. It then became the Capital of British North America until we responsible government was established in 1867 in Canada and the new Capital became Ottawa.

Quebec City is a small town, a big village, every one knows everybody, its gossipy, it is also fairly conservative in terms of politics. There are the old families and the others, there is a divide between the Upper Town and Lower Town. My family lived in Quebec City in Sainte-Foy and then Sillery in the 1960’s I have a lot of relatives there since 1662 when my family first arrived in Canada.

Immigrants to Quebec City, they have been there since day one, nothing new. I remember when I was 6 years old that our family pharmacist was a Syrian Refugee that was in 1962, JFK was President then. Jews in Quebec City they go back to the French Colonial days of the 18th century, blacks also most came from France. Though Quebec or New France was suppose to be a Roman Catholic enclave of the French Colonial Empire, there were plenty of Protestants or Huguenots fleeing the wars of religion in Europe. There were also back then 10 men for each women, need I say more…

So the presence of a diverse population and a multiplicity of religions and culture is nothing new. In the last 50 years the Provincial Government of Quebec has recruited almost exclusively immigrants from French Speaking Arabic mostly Muslim countries, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and in Africa mostly from the former French Colonial Colonies, like Cote D’Ivoire, Sénégal, Cameroun, Benin etc…

So yes there are lots of Muslims in Quebec who happen to speak French and are usually well educated. Unfortunately and this is the very sad part, for the last 50 years we have had a lot of xenophobia and racism fostered by politicians on a nativist and populist line to gather votes and money, they will stoke fear of the other. The political line is about race, language and pure French ethnic stock not tainted by inter-marriage with none French ethnic background. Several commentators on the radio in Quebec City are also making a career by offering daily hateful diatribes against anyone who is not #purelaine. We also had a former Prime Minister Steven Harper who loved to single out Arabs and Muslims for his own hate filled speeches, trying to pass himself as the Canadian Donald Trump. Strangely enough he now jet-sets with the GOP in the USA giving the sort of lectures they love.

Alexandre Bisonnette 27 years old 

The events of last night at the Centre Islamique in Sainte-Foy was the work of a young man, a loner, demonstrating anti-social behaviour, who apparently according to neighbours had been bullied in school as a child, though his classmate describe him as a boor and an obnoxious twit, he has an identical twin who lives somewhere in Canada. His name is Alexandre Bisonnette, 27 years old, lived at his parents in the small village of Cap-Rouge near Quebec City. He liked hunting and had a gun collection, this element surprises me because fire arms are strictly controlled in Canada and I hope we will find out how he got his hands on an AK-47 to commit his crime, a weapon that is strictly controlled and impossible to get, unless you have links to criminal gangs. His family claim tonight that they do not understand what happened, such a nice boy. Did they not notice that he spouted alt-right opinions, that he was in love with Marie LePen of LeFront National in France, that he was trolling websites about refugees and women and that he was spewing pure hate for them.

Apparently he had wonderful parents, I strongly doubt that, if the two previous criminal cases in Canada are any proof of parents who are distant and not involved with their child until disaster strikes.

So our criminal terrorist was white, Roman Catholic, French Canadian, living in the suburbs of Quebec City. He came from a comfortable well to do family, never lacked for anything, went to good schools and was a University Student at Laval. Amongst his victims was a Professor from Laval University. Sorry White House, sorry Prez. Trump, sorry Fox News not an Arab, no Islamist here, just a plain white, christian suburbanite jerk.

Prime Minister Trudeau in the House of Commons today spoke on the events and he re-asserted that Canada remains steadfast as a diverse and multicultural country, welcoming to all and that such horrible events will not change our course as a Nation. It is just tremendously sad that this event comes just after the weekend of that Fascistic decree by the Donald, which is an assault on human dignity and decency.

Crowds on Parliament Hill in Ottawa tonight, a vigil for the victims, flags are flying at half-mast to honour them in Canada.

Changing Nation

Tags

abortion, Canada., immigration, mexico, Muslims, NAFTA, Ottawa, refugee, Syria, Trudeau, Trump, USA

Contrary to what is happening in the USA and all the negative news this week coming from the White House which cause many to shudder and worry about the future of our little planet now that the Doomsday clock is 2.30 minutes from Midnight, loosing 30 seconds since last Friday. The reasons being lost opportunity to tackle climate change, pollution and nuclear proliferation, President Trump simply add to the toxic mix.

Today in Canada several articles gives Canadians hope, one being that the  Government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that they will set up a special fund and work with The Netherlands to offer support and services in reproductive rights to women who may loose out because of the Trump decision to cut funding on abortion. In Canada abortion is available under our Health Care system to all women from Sea to shining Sea and this for the last 35 years, in other words that battle has been over for a long time in our Dominion. This plan would extend aid to women in third world countries.

The other news also goes a long way to show how Canadians have governed themselves very differently if compared to the USA. In 1990 the Government of Canada at the time under a Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the author of NAFTA, decided to open the flood gates of Immigration to all. Canada has always been a country of immigration, in fact the very first government department to be created by the new Federal Government after Confederation in 1867 was the Department of Immigration. The Prime Minister at the time Sir John A. Macdonald believed that a country as vast as Canada had to increase its population which stood at a few million people. Most immigrant then came from Eastern and Southern Europe. Number of immigrants from Europe started to dwindle seriously in the 1970’s, so a solution had to be found. Today on any given year 40% of our immigrants come from the Philippine, China and India, the balance come from Africa, South America and some from Europe. Many senior Ministers in Provincial and Federal Governments are themselves immigrants, the current Minister of Immigration was a Muslim refugee from Somalia. Our Minister of National Defence is a soldier who served in Afghanistan and Sikh immigrant from the Punjab in India. Others are from Afghanistan, Iran, Chile, etc, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs etc. Quite the mix of population and the same applies to Mayors of major Canadian cities, Canadians don’t care about your background as long as you have that popular appeal. We can understand the alarm and disapproval in Canada when we see how Mexico is being treated, our NAFTA partner. Close to one million Canadians live permanently in Mexico and another million visit each Winter.

The latest statistics from the Federal Government shows that by 2036 in 19 years Canada will have a population mix of 50% brown and 50% white. One third of Canadians will have been born abroad, another 20% will have at least one parent who will be an immigrant. Every large city in Canada will have 33% of its population born abroad.

Canada is officially bilingual, French and English, however by 2036 only 18% will actually have French as a first language and around 53% will have English, the rest will have another language which is not French or English. Already it is fairly common in schools to have upwards of 40 languages being spoken by students.

Canada is losing its old-time religion. Ninety per cent of Canadians identified as Christians in 1970. Today, it’s 66%, and will be just over one 50% by 2036. Christianity is not being displaced by other religions – only 7 per cent, at most, will identify as Muslim by 2036 – but by no religion at all. A quarter of all Canadians today identify with no faith, and that number could reach 33% by 2036.  Religion simply does not play much in our Society and not at all in Politics.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcoming a group of Muslim women in Parliament

The fact that Canada has deliberately transformed the makeup of its population in a way no other country has managed, or even attempted, speaks to the tolerant, diverse society in which we live.

As for Canadian politicians who think they can exploit the Nativist trend like in the USA to get elected, this is very unlikely to work. There is no future courting the angry white vote in Canada. There just aren’t enough angry white voters.

Lastly on the Democracy index compiled by Economic Intelligence groups Canada ranks at #6 in the world in terms of the quality of its democracy and openness in governance. The other five countries ahead of us are the Scandinavians. The USA has dropped at #21 and is no longer considered a full democracy.

This news on the 150th Anniversary of our Confederation is great to hear and makes me happy as a Canadian. It is truly something to celebrate.

Canadians on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Canada Day!