Today's tonic: "Crappy as it is, the @CBC may turn out to be the hero we need," by Rick Salutin

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. 

Here are excerpts below:

"In true melodramatic fashion, now that it’s on the brink, it may’ve become indispensable to our very survival  

"CBC was created in the 1930s by a Conservative government, under prodding from a national grassroots body called the Canadian Radio League whose slogan was, The State or the States.

"That is, unless a publicly funded network was stood up, U.S. networks would fill every Canadian media need and Canadians would functionally, and then literally, become American. Unlike its model the BBC, which had various justifications, the CBC was created as an existential necessity for Canada.

"The ads still exist but have migrated to the gargantuan platforms — Meta, Google, Amazon — on which news is now mainly delivered. In response, the effectively defunded news orgs cut and cut again. CTV recently cancelled most noon and weekend news. In the U.S. a third of newspapers and two-thirds of journalists have vanished since 2005. The financially healthy news ops are mainly those publicly funded and not dependent on ads, like BBC, CBC or Al Jazeera.

"CBC is probably Canada’s strongest and most reliable news source, crappy as it is and has always been. (Excuse me while I shut the window to dim the howls of indignation wafting uptown from the Globe and Mail.)

"I’m aware of dangers in governments exerting influence on news sources dependent on them, though I’ve never understood why that’s worse than the influence corporate advertisers exert in the private ads model. In either case you can erect ‘walls’ between sectors that will succeed only partly, at best.

"Nor do I see how citizen journalists or feisty, somewhat smug outlets like The Line, can fill the gap left by big news orgs. They sometimes seem oblivious to how dependent they are on actual, very costly news to opine about. Without that, they’ll grow ever more implausible and self-absorbed.

"So you need big news ops and today these are adequately funded chiefly by public sources. Ergo, the CBC. Love it or loathe it, democracy may need it, at least for now."

#cdnpoli #media @TorontoStar @CBCNews

Today's tonic: "TikTok, Snapchat respond as Ontario school boards sue social media giants"

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. 

"Four major Ontario school boards are taking some of the largest social media companies to court over their products, alleging the way they're designed has negatively rewired the way children think, behave and learn and disrupted the way schools operate."

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.  

This week’s tonic: “The Middle East and the Erosion of our Public Discourse” by Liberal MP Ben Carr

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. 

Carr does an excellent job describing the situation and calling for moderation in the language used in the political discourse.  

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.    

In this debate, Carr's comments are welcome tonics.  He reminds us to be vigilant, engaged, and urges moderation in rhetoric, to try to de-escalate the already inflamed political discourse.  

Today's wakeup call: "Young people becoming less happy than older generations, research shows"

"Report finds falling happiness among youth of North America and western Europe, but rise in sub-Saharan Africa and eastern Europe, says the Guardian. 

"Young people are becoming less happy than older generations as they suffer “the equivalent of a midlife crisis”, global research has revealed as America’s top doctor warned that “young people are really struggling”.

"Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, said allowing children to use social media was like giving them medicine that is not proven to be safe. He said the failure of governments to better regulate social media in recent years was “insane”.

"Murthy spoke to the Guardian as new data revealed that young people across North America were now less happy than their elders, with the same “historic” shift expected to follow in western Europe."

Today's tonic: In his SOTU speech, "Biden projects a vision of strength that’s been missing from his presidency but will be needed in 2024 campaign"

Today's tonic: In his State of the Union speech last night, "Biden projects a vision of strength that’s been missing from his presidency but will be needed in 2024 campaign" 

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.   

Today's call out against hypocrisy: "The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts"

I wanted to highlight this Xtra article this week by trans writer and activist Faye Johnstone, "The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts." 

Here's an excerpt below: 

"Never underestimate the willingness of rich, cis, conservative gay people and so-called allies to sell out the rest of us.

"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.”