There's no doubt most Ontarians are realizing the scarcity of affordable housing or shelter is what is destroying economic opportunities and basic human life in this province for so many.
On this and so many issues, Ontario is a broken society.
As we struggle with these economic realities, we have a premier desperately trying to distract us from who he really is and what he's not bothered to do with his immense power these last 7 years.
Today’s tonic: “It's time, Justin” by Max Fawcett.
I have to agree there seems no tinkering that will save Justin Trudeau from calamitous defeat and the country from the catastrophes the petulant, quick to scorn, narrow-minded Pierre Poilievre will enact.
I’d put my hopes in either Mark Carney or possibly Anita Anand to turn things around for the Liberals. The Liberals need much more than superficial change. They need a fundamental change to a leader and a government that is more mature, honest, detail oriented and fighting on all cylinders to combat the country’s challenges.
I’m happy to share this link to Max Fawcett’s latest. Here are some excerpts below:
“The guy who has been their biggest asset for as long as he’s been on the ballot has become, slowly and now surely, their biggest albatross. As Abacus Data pointed out back in August, their routine polling hasn’t seen any change in how people feel about Trudeau, with more than twice as many Canadians (58 per cent) having a negative view of him than a positive one (25 per cent). For the mathematically challenged, that puts his personal (un)popularity at a staggering -33.
“The Liberals can continue to tinker at the edges here, whether it’s adding Mark Carney as a special advisor or doing another cabinet shuffle, and they can hope that the continued decline of inflation and interest rates makes Canadians less angry than they are today. If they’re lucky, they’ll be able to hold onto half of their 154-member caucus.
“But if I was in that caucus and at that retreat, that wouldn’t be nearly good enough for me. I’d thank the Prime Minister for his service, tell him to enjoy the highly lucrative speaker circuit that so clearly awaits and get to work on choosing a new leader. Maybe that’s Chrystia Freeland. Maybe that’s Anita Anand. And maybe it’s even Mark Carney. It just can’t be Justin Trudeau.”
My first vlog post on my YouTube channel was launched on Saturday and already has garnered over 4,000 views and lots of engagement, I'm glad to say.
Please check it out above. I'll continue to post my YouTube vlogs here as well as I publish them.
August 25, 2024
Dear Toronto Mayor Chow,
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| Photo I took in waiting stall at Centre Island port on Aug 4, 2024 |
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| Canadian beach volleyball Silver medalists |
But for today, another topic: It's been a busy summer with work where I supervise a team of media librarians at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. Our team conducts media management of digital workspaces for two Toronto servers at CBC, one for News and one for all other production including CBC Sports. We also manage several more servers at CBC locations across the country.
Our team has been since late July setting up records and maintaining and archiving records of all Olympic events, plus any interviews, footage, stills captured, etc. our CBC crews have been shooting with athletes over in Paris. We ensure the CBC Sports digital server has enough capacity to take in all of this content so that editors and producers can do their jobs getting Olympic shows to air.
It is an immense responsibility, one we do every Olympic games (as long as the CBC hosts them for Canada). We look forward to doing the same work for the Winter 2026 Games in Milano, Italy. That is, if we still have an English CBC to work for.
That is, if only Pierre Poilievre is stopped implementing his promise to destroy English language CBC. The iconic cultural institution with other 80 years of branding and accomplishment, the best source of journalism for English Canadians in this scary world overrun with disinformation.
Public broadcasting's aim should be to bring Canadians together, as we did these last two weeks with the coverage of the Paris Games. Public broadcasting also ensures a clear source of reliable information, not tainted by association with private corporate interests. CBC journalists go after stories to tell Canadians, regardless if those stories favour the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP, or any other points of view. The CBC is as unbiased a media organization as you can get in English Canada and is structured to provide excellent national, provincial and local news coverage that impacts you in your communities.
From far right wing eyes, the centre (or CBC) can look left wing. From far left eyes, the CBC also looks fairly conservative and too safe. I've always admired the CBC for its clear, concise, non-sensationalist approach to covering the news of the day.
Today, I'm happy to share this article by Mark Hill in the Toronto Star, which details how the CBC's coverage of the Paris Games this year has brought Canadians together to share moments of joy, excitement, heartbreak and spectacle. Over 13 million Canadians watched a part of the Opening Ceremony.
Destroying the CBC would turn our backs on decades of Canadian-first media. Poilievre's plan would ensure that "Schitt's Creek" for example would never have existed. That popular English-language comedy became an international hit and its creator has said that CBC gave the kind of artistic freedom to create that show that made it so special and allowed it to find international audiences including several Emmy Awards a few years ago.
The examples go on and on. This will be a huge fight to save Canadians' right to journalism, to public broadcasting, to more English language news and entertainment and sports programming.
Here's an excerpt from Hill's article:
Reports indicate the shooter was a 20-year-old white man named Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was reportedly also registered as a Republican. His motives for this crime remain unclear.
I have long detested Donald Trump including for everything he has put the world through due to his deep personality flaws and noxious political ideology. He has promoted a culture of political violence and vicious disrespect of anyone who dares to oppose him or his MAGA movement. He has empowered violent, intolerant people the world over, inspiring our current era of polarization and hateful misinformation.
Trump's irresponsibility reached its horrifying height on January 6,
2021 when Trump's supporters, incited by Trump's lies about the 2020
election, violently attacked the U.S. Capitol, on the hunt to murder
Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi and anyone else who wouldn't help Trump steal
the 2020 election from American voters.
Republicans and former Trump supporters who turned on him in recent years, warning Americans about how he must never again get close to the White House, have been living in fear, forced to hire their own security to protect themselves from Trump's violent mob.
When Nancy Pelosi's husband was viciously attacked in 2022 by a home intruder with a hammer, Trump made jokes about it and even a year later took the opportunity to call her a "Wicked Witch". Trump's creepy son made light of the attack with a post on social media.
Despite this heartless, immature behaviour from Trump and his offspring, Pelosi showed herself to be the better person yesterday when she condemned the violence Trump and his rally supporters faced:
For Trump and his supporters to now criticize any political speech as inappropriate in light of their years of misbehaviour, inflammatory and violent rhetoric, and vicious disrespect is beyond the pale.
I do sympathize with any victims of violence and trauma. I wouldn't wish violence on anyone, including Donald Trump and his supporters, despite their viciousness all these years.
I am sophisticated enough to understand that the reasons people support political candidates can be nuanced and complicated. Regardless of their reasons for being at the rally yesterday, no one deserved to suffer what happened yesterday.
My heart goes out to the family of the unlucky man who reportedly jumped to protect his family when shots were fired and died because of it. My heart goes out to the badly injured as well.
Will this near-death experience cause a change in Trump? I would hope so. But I won't be holding my breath. He has never shown anything except complete narcissism and total selfishness.
Sadly, I suspect that Trump will try to use this incident to stir up and inflame the American political discourse even worse than he already has, all to his own personal benefit, as he has always done.
I hope not. The next few weeks will be scary to behold.
UPDATED AUG 28, 2024
Renowned U.S. historian Allan Lichtman's famous "13 Keys" predictor of U.S. presidential elections has correctly predicted the outcomes in every U.S. election since the 1980s (with one exception in 2000 when the election was stolen by the U.S. Supreme Court from the rightful winner, Al Gore, who the "13 Keys" predicted would be victorious.)
Lichtman's "13 Keys" method predicted Trump would win in 2016. It also predicted Biden would beat Trump in 2020.
So this year, with all the uncertainty about Biden's age and fitness for office, what are the "13 Keys" saying? Lichtman has gone out of his way this past week to argue that Joe Biden's halting and alarming performance in last Thursday's debate will have "zero" impact on the final result of the U.S. election.
Other key factors will determine the outcome, not debate performances, he says, reminding many thought Ronald Reagan was too old to be re-elected in 1984, but went on to win 49 out of 50 states that year.
So what are those key factors that determine election outcomes?
I've taken the 13 Keys and done my own assessment for both Joe Biden versus Donald Trump, and also Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump. Please feel free to comment below on if you think I'm fair and accurate with my analysis:
The updated (August) results are Biden wins over Trump 9 to 4 and wins the election.
The results also show that as long as Harris is acclaimed as the Democratic candidate to replace Biden at the top of the ticket, she takes it 8 to 5 over Trump.
It's possible that Key #6 (Long Term Economy) might not break in favour of Biden & Harris if the Democrats can't get their honest message out about robust economic growth since 2020 exceeding the disaster of the Trump Covid period, nor the somewhat stagnant growth 2012-2016. But I'm betting the Democrats will pour their money into making sure Americans understand the long-term economy has been doing well under them, despite the Republican narrative.
My decision to give the foreign policy points both to Trump is perhaps a good counter to my giving the economic points to Biden & Harris. It's possible Ukraine could be seen as more promising before November, or perhaps a ceasefire will be negotiated in Israel-Gaza (although it remains doubtful that conflict could ever be seen as a Biden success.) So I'm confident awarding these 2 points to Trump remains fair.
Nevertheless, it seems that Trump is headed for defeat against both Biden or Harris. Any other Democratic presidential candidate besides Harris would undoubtedly emerge after some kind of contentious race, denying crucial Key #2 from that candidate, thus risking their chances to stop Trump in November.
My new main point: both Biden and Harris have excellent and equal chances of stopping Trump.
“No pride in occupation’: queer Palestinians on ‘pink-washing’ in Gaza conflict”
Does this mean Israel is all bad and that progressive activists should align with Hamas? Of course not. But we should be reminded there is a definite need for truly oppressed peoples to sympathize and support other truly oppressed peoples if you claim to be a supporter of human rights for all. And point out when allies are committing truly heinous acts.
Most of the world is still hellish for LGBTQ folks for a variety of unfortunate reasons, mostly rooted in ignorance and religious bigotry. Those fights continue and I'll be happy this week to attend Rainbow Railroad's Freedom Party to help raise money for this crucially important cause.
But lately even the gains we’ve made in most of the democratic world are under increasing threat thanks to a resurgence of right-wing bigotry and irresponsibility.
Republicans south of the Canadian border, taking advantage of public ignorance about trans people, have been on a rampage, overstepping government power to try to control and destroy trans peoples' rights and safety. Sadly, they've inspired some Canadian conservatives to similarly target queer youth in Canada.
After his own attacks on trans youth, creepy New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs continues to peddle more attacks on other vulnerable youth, his latest including obsessing over and banning sex education provided to teenage girls designed to teach them about consent and healthy sexuality, before he even bothered to research the education he was banning.
All of these attacks on vulnerable youth including queer youth are just ploys by conservatives to distract voters from their real agenda, which has always been to give more power to the already powerful elites and gatekeepers of society, all at the expense of the rest of us.
"Don't worry about those massive tax cuts we are giving the rich while we enslave you and your family to their unfettered corporate greed, and cut your health care and public services! Look over there! Those scary trans extremists are trying to rape or hurt your children and only we will stop them," those disgusting conservatives are implying through their legislative actions and messaging.
None of the gains we've made are chiselled in stone. In fact, Canadian conservatives have shown they are just as willing as Republicans south of the border to attack our rights and invoke any legal means necessary to play their hateful games.
Pierre Poilievre has also said he's happy to use the notwithstanding clause to roll back rights. Considering most of his caucus is still dominated by dinosaurs who still obsess over controlling the bodies of all women on the abortion issue, we ought to be very alarmed about the future.
I want to urge all people who support equality and dignity for all to reject the politics of hatred being espoused by conservatives or others. We need to stand up against and challenge this hatred, and to let our more moderate conservative friends, family and neighbours know it's not okay.
Stay strong, keep up the fight, and carry on!
Today's tonic: "Mark Carney had a chance to weigh in one of the defining issues facing Canada. The answer he gave suggests he isn’t ready for public life" by Matthew Mendelsohn, CEO of Social Capital Partners and a previous federal and Ontario deputy minister.
I knew and admired Mendelsohn when he was Deputy Minister for Democratic Renewal in Ontario in 2003. He's a great guy and a great thinker with clear progressive ideals.
"EXPLAINER - Brutal heatwaves and submerged cities: what a 3C world would look like"
As we surge forward, expecting everyone else to pay to stop the effects of climate change.
As we hop in our big vehicles to drive to local stores to do more shopping, or jump onto our big boats to do more sailing, or skip onto yet another plane for a trip around the world again this year, creating incessant demand for more carbon while the world burns.
Thank God PP Le Pire came to power and got rid of that nasty retail carbon tax the lefties had been imposing on me. Now I can spend and do everything I've been doing with my inherited wealth without any consequences for myself, except for good ones.
Sure, our new summer ritual is occasionally looking up at the forest fire burning smog-filled skies with fleeting worry, ignoring the ugly old people around me who can't breathe and need to go back home (all the better not to have to look at them, I guess, because they make us feel guilty and worried about our own future and who wants to feel like that?)
Get out of my way as I need to speed down my new Highway paved over marsh lands and endangered species so I can get back home a couple minutes faster and watch the latest episode of the junk we're watching on Netflix. And turn on the bbq to eat more dead animals farmed using the carbon-heavy practices, now treated equally with other cleaner farming options because we don't tax pollution anymore. And still the price of meat is higher than ever at my local grocery store despite the carbon tax elimination, funny that.
Today's lament: "Doug Ford is dumbing down Ontario" by @maxfawcett
Today's tonic: "Why do so many ignore facts, like the carbon tax works? Because we’re hard-wired to follow the pack," by columnist Andrew Phillips of the Toronto Star.
This piece is a great reminder about how most people choose to think and approach the issues of our time.
Here's an excerpt:
Today's tonic: "Crappy as it is, the @CBC may turn out to be the hero we need," by Rick Salutin in the Toronto Star.
I read this story today and felt relieved that responsible professionals who are charged with the care of children and youth are taking action to hold gluttonous, unethical social media companies accountable for how they've targeted all children and youth for addiction to their platforms.
This has of course happened in the spare time of children and youth, not in the classroom, where cell phones have been banned in Ontario since 2019. The result of these companies targeting youth to get them addicted to their platforms has been catastrophic in terms of social impacts that we are only just beginning to experience and understand.
The story then quotes Ontario Premier Doug Ford's reaction. Without the benefit of his highly paid advisers and partisan professionals or a teleprompter telling him what to say, Ontario Premier Doug Ford gave us all another peek into who he truly is.
His instinct always is to give unconditional, thoughtless support to private businesses NO MATTER WHAT. And to criticize everyone else. And his mind is as lazy as they come:
"At an unrelated news conference on Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he "disagrees" with the schools boards' lawsuits, referencing a provincial ban on cellphones from classrooms back in 2019.
"We banned cellphones in the classroom, so I don't know what the kids are using," Ford said.
"What are they spending on lawyer fees to go after these massive companies that have endless cash to fight this? Let's focus on the kids, not about this other nonsense that they're looking to fight in court."
This answer might make sense if kids only access social media sites during school hours from cell phones in school. But of course as anyone who is not an idiot knows, kids access these sites at all other hours of the day.
When Doug Ford has got no one to tell him what to say, he's still the thoughtless turd he's always been. Ontario can do way better than this.Winnipeg South Centre Liberal MP Ben Carr is one of many Liberals in the federal caucus torn between his strong support for Israel as an ancestral home for Jews the world over, and the horrors that country's right-wing government and armies have inflicted on innocent Palestinian civilians in reaction to the disgusting pogrom that took place on Oct 7th, 2023.
Most mainstream Canadian minds and hearts were with Israel, as well as with our Canadian Jewish friends in the immediate aftermath of those vicious attacks. We demanded the Israeli hostages be released and that the Hamas forces that conducted the pogrom be destroyed and removed from power.
Sadly, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's armies overplayed their hands and enacted a policy of collective punishment targeting all Palestinians in Gaza for what Hamas did. Rather than utilize the technology that Israel no doubt possesses to surgically target Hamas leaders where they're located, Israeli armies instead decided to shoot missiles into Gazan neighbourhoods, seemingly indifferent to the civilian deaths and injuries they were causing. Claims that the IDF were simply targeting Hamas when they blew up yet another Gazan school or residential neighbourhood rang less and less true, as none were accompanied by verified evidence. We had to take Israel's word for it and ignore what our own eyes were seeing.
The deaths of 1,200 innocent Israelis on Oct 7th do not justify the deaths of 32,000 and counting innocent Gazans. It's disproportion on steroids. Coupled with the racist rhetoric coming from Netanyahu's cabinet and the accusations of thuggery by the IDF, it was clear this was more than simply taking out the Hamas leaders who organized Oct 7th.
Suddenly, it became clear that a grotesque act of genocide against Israelis on Oct 7th was being met with an even larger and more grotesque act of genocide against Palestinians by Israel.
There's been a shift in world opinion on this conflict this time. People like me who didn't have such a nuanced understanding of the long history of the conflict but had long supported Israel's right to exist were suddenly confronted with new facts that horrified us.
We were being told to "Shut up! Support Israel! Any criticism of Israel is antisemitic! And there is no end to the number of missiles we need to shoot at Gazans because they deserve what they're getting for supporting Hamas!"
These assertions also included, "Oh by the way, if you try to hold a single Canadian Jewish person to account on this conflict, you are guilty of antisemitism and need to be stopped."
I feel for Canadian Jews caught in the middle of this conflict. Like I've said before, most Canadian Jews I know have very nuanced, torn feelings about Israel's actions going back decades. I don't believe random Canadian Jews should be targeted by protesters or be held to account for Israel's actions, any more than random Palestinians in Canada or in Gaza should be held to account for the actions of Hamas.
Calls from governments the world over for Israel to show restraint have gone mostly ignored by Israel.
Against this, what are concerned Canadians with families trapped in Gaza, either by Hamas kidnappers, or by the Israeli army, to do? Some take to the streets to protest.
Do I take issue with the tones of some of these protests, which seem to be targeting random Canadian Jews, trying to hold them to account for the actions of the Israeli government? Yes I do take issue with that. It is wrong and it is antisemitic to target anyone in this way just because they're Jewish or perceived to be Jewish.
Amidst all of this conflict, I found this piece this week by Liberal MP Ben Carr, who is Jewish, to be a breath of fresh air.We would never hear such fairness and nuance, coupled with steadfast support for a Jewish homeland in Israel, from any Conservative in this debate.
Sadly, so many in this debate are talking past each other. Some Israeli supporters are engaging in character assassination, questioning the motivations of protesters using heavy-handed and unfair logic, and writing off all protests as antisemitic. Any criticism of the atrocities perpetrated by Israel is immediately met with the accusation the person giving that criticism is antisemitic.
On the pro-Palestinian side, there is ample overstatement and conflation/simplifications that are simply illogical. There are rings of truth, though, too. Ultimately, we are seeing catastrophic death, famine and destruction inflicted on a people by a military with a long history of racist oppression of Palestinians. Where is this is all going? We shudder in horror to admit we appear to be witnessing a genocide in practise, if not clearly in racist intent. The distinction between the two seems insignificant. The end result could be the same, unless Israel pulls back on their destructive efforts.
I hope negotiations to reach a ceasefire, free all of the hostages, and see Hamas removed from power, succeed soon.
Like many decent, progressive people, I've been alarmed by the return of the lying, criminal, rapist, fraud-loving, anti-democratic, narcissistic, ineffectual, dangerous Donald Trump to the American presidential race this year.
Despite the misguided worldviews of the Republican base who seem happy to tolerate the lowest depths of depravity their favourite candidate constantly embodies, despite everything his corrupt Supreme Court Justice appointees are doing to help Trump win, I still had confidence in the wisdom of the majority of the American people to not return this villain to the White House this year.
Last night, President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech put to rest any notion that Biden's too tired and unable to show the strength, vigour and inspiring progressive vision to excite the United States again and win this thing. Biden knocked it out of the park! He gave us all a tonne of great policy to get excited about and get behind to help him win re-election.
I've learned to ignore the media frenzy, the constant coverage of this race designed to keep you watching, keep you riled up and upset, and worried for the future. It's not real.
The fundamentals of this race are clear. And last night, we're reminded that Biden can and always brings it when he needs to. He did it spectacularly well in 2020. And I think he's in the process of doing it even better in 2024.
Time will tell but I'm feeling very good today thanks to Biden's performance last night.
In the meantime, if you didn't watch it, have a look at the speech from last night.
Here's an excerpt below:
"In the 1970s, some gay community leaders turned their backs on the “less respectable” (read: trans, gender-weird, drag-performing, poor, racialized and/or flaming) members of their community in a cynical ploy to gain acceptance and power for themselves—at the expense of their more marginalized peers. There’s no better example than when, in 1973, the New York Pride Committee tried to bar trailblazing trans women of colour Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera from participating in the Pride parade because they were giving the organization “a bad name.” This decision by the local Pride committee exemplified a broader trend where some gay activists sought to push out more marginalized community members to win respectability and influence.
"Flash forward 50 years and history is repeating itself in Canadian politics. As anti-LGBTQ2S+ hate rises across Canada, with even CSIS sounding the alarm, and trans lives being used as a political punching bag by far-right groups, Melissa Lantsman and Eric Duncan, the two (and only two) openly gay Conservative MPs, and other Conservative MPs who’ve called themselves our allies, are turning their backs on LGBTQ2S+ rights.
"Following federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre siding with transphobes in his opposition to gender-affirming care for minors, his remarks at rallies about so-called “gender ideology” and, most recently, his comments in support
of banning trans women from women’s washrooms, not only have Duncan and
Lantsman refused to speak out, Lantsman went so far as to defend
Poilievre’s comments. Asked about his stance by the Hill Times last week, Lantsman
said, “I think the leader has made his common sense Conservative
position very clear, and our caucus stands by it, alongside most
Canadians.”
Intelligence agency says risk will 'almost certainly continue' over the coming year
"Canada's intelligence agency is warning that extremists could "inspire and encourage" serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community — a threat the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says almost certainly will continue over the coming year. |
Smith's history supporting queer rights isn't stellar. Just 12 years ago, she didn't think it was a big deal for one of her
then-Wildrose candidates to have called for all queer people to burn in a
"lake of fire". Her judgment has been questioned for some time. I think she's just gotten better at looking the part of premier lately.
Except last week when Smith announced new legislation she plans to introduce this fall in the Alberta legislature that would, among other things, ban gender-affirming health care of any kind for Alberta youth 15 years old or younger, even puberty blockers and hormones.
Smith's paternalistic rationale given to justify this ban is that youth must be prevented from making decisions they may regret later in life.
It's the same sort of paternalistic, nonsensical thinking that surrounded the debate over sexual orientation and gay people in decades past in Canada. Back then, many conservatives like Smith also believed being gay was somehow a "phase" or something you fell into by choice, and could easily be "converted" out of through some old-fashioned Christian deprogramming. Of course, they were wrong then about gay people, just as they're wrong today about trans people. I knew I was gay when I was 13, and it definitely wasn't some "phase."
The end result of this particular provision in Smith's proposed law today will be that more trans youth - who typically experience higher rates of depression, self harm and suicide after the onset of puberty - will have to suffer in painful silence until they're 16 before they can do anything about it. Many more of them won’t make it to 16 if this law passes.
Smith is also promising to ban trans girls from competing in
sports against cisgender girls. It's not clear at all that this is a
problem in Alberta or anywhere else. It's not like there are armies of
highly athletic and muscular trans girls demanding to get into girls'
soccer leagues or swim teams. This is a solution in search of a problem.
In addition, Smith announced that should trans kids under 16 want to at least be called a name or a pronoun that conforms with their gender at school, they will be outed to their parents, who will then be able to veto this freedom. If those parents then become violent toward those kids or kick them out of their homes, Smith doesn't seem to care.
Furthermore, Smith announced if 16 or 17-year-olds want to change their names or pronouns at school, they will also be outed to their parents (who at least won't have a veto over that choice). If those same parents then become violent toward those young people or kick them out of their homes, Smith again doesn't seem to care.
The end results of all of these policies will be more suicides, more self harm, and more violence.
Smith's plans also call for bans on any types of gender-affirming surgeries for those under 18.So why ban something that isn't even happening?
The answer is simple: Smith's priority is playing politics and further inciting cultural wars, and she seems happy to sacrifice the well-being and safety of queer youth to do it. Rabid right-wing zealots have latched onto the issue of transgendered peoples as a wedge issue to try to spread hate, divide societies and win more political power.
Smith is a part of that problem, as evidenced by her recent appearance with American right-wing liar Tucker Carlson, Canadian asshole extraordinaire Jordan Peterson and convicted criminal Conrad Black.
Even more awful was Smith's duplicitous presentation last week, speaking in soft tones (what an accomplished actor she is), pretending to "care" about the well-being of queer youth. While in truth, she stabbed them in both the face and the back.
Tucked away in the announcement is the pledge to now remove "sexual orientation" education, as well as "gender identity" education and even sex education from school lessons for all Alberta youth unless their parents "opt in" and consent to their kids receiving these lessons. Yes, Alberta students won't be allowed to learn anything about LGBTQ+ people unless parents are okay with it.
In the 80s and early 90s, my high school was a hotbed of homophobia and violent harassment mostly thanks to my fellow heterosexual students. I suffered in great silence and isolation in my Catholic public school, but I don't think my experiences were much different from those who attended public schools in Ontario. Rampant, repulsive homophobia was completely mainstream then. It was hard to live through.
Today, sadly, I suspect if you walk down typical high school hallways in Ontario, Alberta, or anywhere, I'm sure there's little difference: verbal assaults using the word "faggot" I hear are still common, as is vicious bullying, as we know.
Schools, school boards and governments are obliged to try to provide safe learning environments for all children, not just heterosexual children.
The introduction of mandatory education into the truths around sexual orientation - including that LGBTQ+ people don't choose their orientations, and that homosexuality exists in roughly the same percentages (about 3 to 5%) across all demographics in society and has for centuries (since we've been able to record these histories) - is essential to combating homophobia in schools and promoting the safety of queer youth in our care.
To make this essential education now optional, with the likelihood the most homophobic will now be free to continue their homophobic bullying, even encouraged to do so implicitly by Smith's draconian law, will make Alberta schools more dangerous for queer youth and queer people in general.
Even to target LGBTQ+ peoples for this special mistreatment sends a message of anti-queer disrespect, that there is something wrong about learning these truths. Why else would you be required to opt in to receive them?
Merely teaching children that LGBTQ+ people exist is not indoctrinating children. It's teaching them the truth about the real world. For the queer children in schools, learning you’re not alone saves lives.
It has long been clear that when it comes to laws governing children or youth in our care - such as in our public schools, or in other laws impacting on children - those laws must always be in the "best interests of the children." Courts have struck down numerous laws that violated the "best interests of children."
Of course, "best interests of the children" doesn't mean "doing whatever the kids want." In fact, many children might disagree often with what is determined to be in their best interests.
I do sympathize with parents who feel they have a right to know if their kid is using a different pronoun or name at school. I also sympathize with queer youth who have a right to privacy and safety as they struggle to figure out who they are and where they fit in this scary world.
As we struggle to find the right balance on this issue, I think one thing is clear: our laws should always be written with the best interests of children in mind.
The proposed laws announced last week by Danielle Smith are anything but. When or if Smith actually introduces this legislation in the Alberta legislature, we'll see if she includes the Charter of Rights' notwithstanding clause in it, which would exempt the legislation from Charter challenges for five years.
But I’m not sure even the notwithstanding clause would protect these laws from being challenged and struck down. They are clearly written in violation of the best interests of children or youth. They clearly put children and youth in danger and subject them to considerable harm. I expect the courts would agree and strike them down given the chance.
This is not an area in which provincial governments should be legislating. One-size-fits-all policies will lead to inevitable harm. We ought to leave these difficult, deeply personal and medical issues up to the individuals involved: the parents, the medical professionals, the educators, and most importantly, the children and youth in our care. Not overreaching, misguided politicians trying to win more political power for themselves.
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| Actor Andrew Scott |