Month: July 2021

In the following press release, we learned that the European Union (EU) delivered on its promise to adopt a legal framework to sanction Lebanese politicians by the end of July:

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/07/30/lebanon-eu-adopts-a-framework-for-targeted-sanctions/

Led by France, this EU initiative seeks to increase the pressure on Lebanon’s politicians. The move is part of larger international efforts to force overdue reforms, following: a political chaos, an economic collapse after the financial crisis, and the Beirut port blast that destroyed half of the capital on August 4, 2020. Yes, that was almost a year ago with total impunity!

Will this European initiative work? Time will tell…

This being said, below is a picture from US Today, which illustrates the diagnostic made by the Lebanese people concerning their surrealistic Beirut port explosion:

While reading the EU press release, a powerful Lebanese song came to Bambi’s mind. She recalls having posted it on her blog in the fall of 2019 (when the people of Lebanon revolted against their central bank’s exposed Ponzi scheme). The singer is called Mr. Rabih el Khawli. To repeat a comment by Bambi’ friend/reader Aline, “Mr. Ghassan Saliba sang this song in the 1990s“.

Regardless of the artist, this song remains timely as Lebanon’s current tragedy is the result of MANY years of political mismanagement and financial corruption. Indeed, the situation in Bambi’s birth country is so bad that, when she recently asked her dad if it was worse than the 15-year-civil war (1975-1990), he did not hesitate in replying: “MUCH worse!” Can you imagine :(?

Thus, thanks to all the international efforts trying to stabilize Lebanon by shaking its heartless leaders. It is Bambi’s hope that those international efforts will also remember to shake the hegemony of powerful countries over Lebanon.

To conclude this post, and before sharing a short version of the song (thanks to MTV), here is a quick English translation for you, taken from Bambi’s earlier post:

“You who were waiting, what are you waiting for? What do you expect from those who stole the sunshine and sold the wind, along with their consciousness? From those who stole the country and built houses larger than its squares?

You who were waiting, what are you waiting for?

Revolt for once. Stand up in those squares and tell them: You have stolen, you have killed, yes you have assassinated the people, the country, and the dream…. And you turned this land into a refuge for the Pharisees (or self-righteous)”.

Last year, shortly after the unforgettable August 4th, 2020, the President of Lebanon promised a 4-day-investigation.

In 4-5 days, it will be 365 days since the Beirut tragedy.

There is still no justice.

Yesterday, before going to sleep, Bambi read that the Lebanese Parliament was ready to lift the immunity on politicians, so Judge Bitar (leading the investigation) can interview them (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-parliament-ready-lift-immunity-beirut-blast-probe-2021-07-29/).

This morning, she read in the media that a large political party (close to the Hezbollah and, of course, as corrupt or as innocent as all the others) voted against lifting immunity (https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1270022/berry-appuie-les-propositions-du-futur-le-cpl-sy-oppose.html). Can you imagine, even if this in itself tells us something? The irony, as Journalist Roula Azar-Douglas hinted at in a tweet sharing the article above, is that this political party is called “Le bloc du changement et de la réforme!” (yes, change and reform, in English). Where is the change? Where are the reforms?

For a change, can Lebanon begin holding its political leaders (i.e., former warlords) accountable for this surrealistic criminal negligence?

The 200+ families of the victims are still waiting. We are all waiting with them, including the 6000+ injured people, the 300,000+ homeless ones, the Beirutis, all the Lebanese, the diaspora all over the world, and all the friends of both Lebanon and justice.

Thank you ABC News for this moving short news documentary…

You may wonder why Bambi is offering this song for Liberty of Ms. Nana Mouskouri to Mr. Trudeau et al. Well, she hopes to refresh their memories about the meaning of the beautiful name of their party: “Liberal“.

You may wish to take the time to read the following iPolitics article below, which informs us of our federal government’s proposed bill, which will complement Bill 36. Both are supposedly meant “to crack down on online hate“.

As a reminder, under Bill 36 (if the Senate passes it), citizens can be fined up $50,000 and eventually silenced. Who would be defining hate and deciding on it? Our federal bureaucrats? Wouldn’t that be arbitrary? How fair is that? How logical? How liberal?

Even Lebanon’s Hezbollah did not come up with such bills (yet) to crack down on “online collaboration with the (Israeli) enemy“… Let’s hope our government will not give them such ideas.

Bambi believes that a (truly) liberal approach remains the healthiest approach when it comes to (online) freedom of expression. Let people remain free to express themselves, except for calling for violence or defamation.

Luckily, we already have laws to address the above as well as all the other criminal activities stated to justify this new legal framework on “online hate speech” (i.e., child sexual exploitation, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, incitement to violence, and terrorism).

Mr. Trudeau et al., Bambi is against your proposed Bill 36 as well as your proposed plan to regulate or monitor social-media content. She is saying so, even if she is not on social media herself. She thinks so, even if she has been the target of an online censorship campaign because of her blog.

Enough of authoritarianism please, despite any good intention!

Thank you.

Ottawa proposes plan to regulate social-media content

Bambi’s earlier posts on this topic:

Can Minister Steven Guilbeault stop using both Muslims and Jews to promote Bill 36, which will eventually serve to silence us all… including them?

Democracy: No to censorship, whether by governments, private companies, public institutions, militia organizations, etc.

No to Bill 36 on “online hate speech”: Why is our Federal Minister of Justice, Dr. Lametti, contributing to turning our country into an authoritarian one?

Bambi would like to thank her two sisters, Roula and Rania, who at different moments shared this beautiful song by the talented Egyptian singer Yasmine Ali.

Bambi took the time to quickly translate this uplifting song from Arabic to English from the best of her capacity and with the help of her friend Google (Egyptian Arabic is a different dialect from Lebanese Arabic, that Bambi finds very musical to the ears).

She also found a German translation online, for those who understand this language:

https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Yasmine-Ali/Naabel-Nas/translation/german

What a beautiful song and angelic voice. Bravo to Ms. Ali for singing Acapella!

The song is called: “Meeting people“. Below are the quick English translation and the Youtube video of the song. Bambi hopes you will enjoy it :)!

“We meet new people, we leave other people.

Our life can change, or turn upside down, in one second. What can we do?

This one is harming another person, this one is being hurt. This one is living in the past.

And our life conditions are baffling. If we are satisfied, they will deteriorate. Yes, we will be upset.

 And whose life is always safe? No one can guarantee the future days.

The one who is satisfied with his life conditions and differentiates between “halal” (good or allowed in life) and “haram” (unlawful or prohibited).

A question and its answer, we know it, although one day we will forget it, and what do we take with us in the end?

As long as we leave the world and we will leave it, why will we be upset?

A piece of advice, just live and do not let anything disturb your peace of mind.

Take one minute only to look around you and you will see the sun shining brightly.

And then, at the height of the night, you will see the beautiful moon enlightening you.

Other than joy and laughter, do not leave in your features when you will go.

What are you arranging and calculating? What will happen will end up happening to you.

Hope is so close to those who want to see it. You will be optimistic, and life will laugh back to you, in the blink of an eye, and the world will be yours.

Our lives are hours that we paint and beautify with colours.

With one colour, we choose to end life and with another colour we can give our life safety.

Tomorrow your worries will pass; there is nothing that shall not pass.

A life that wants you to be strong; the more you feel empowered, the fullest you will live.

We meet new people, we leave other people.

Our life can change or turn upside down in one second, what can we do?“

Two days ago, Bambi was honoured to join Mr. Kenny Xu on his podcast!

Thank you, Mr. Xu (or Kenny) for your invitation and for our enriching chat.

Bambi will share this podcast chat with her readers and on her personal blog below.

Before doing so, she would like to first salute your talent, Kenny. As she mentioned in the interview, she is eager to read your new book entitled “An inconvenient minority” (already sold out in Canada!).

For those who do not know it, Mr. Kenny Xu is also the President and Primary Spokesman of “Color us United“. He has challenged Harvard University for discrimination against Asian Americans. In addition to his book mentioned above, he has written numerous articles for City Journal, The Federalist, The Daily Signal, and The Washington Examiner.

I’m Rima, Associate Professor of Health Psychology

What is Bill 21?

In an earlier post, Bambi wrote the following:

“Bill 21 is about Québec’s secularism as a government. It states that public servants representing the state (in position of authorities) will not be wearing any religious symbol. For example, Crown Prosecutors in action BUT not the other lawyers (e.g., defense, etc.).

Bill 21 came after 10 years of public debate in Québec about reasonable accommodations.

Bill 21 is moderate, compared to other bills in secular countries in Europe.

Bill 21 is mainly about public servants in positions of authority, including all the following:

“the President and Vice-Presidents of the National Assembly, administrative justices of the peace, special clerks, clerks, deputy clerks, sheriffs and deputy sheriffs, clerks and deputy clerks respecting municipal courts, and bankruptcy registrars, members or commissioners who exercise their functions within the Comité de déontologie policière, the Commission d’accès à l’information, the Commission de la fonction publique, the Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec, the Commission des transports du Québec, the Commission municipale du Québec, the Commission québécoise des libérations conditionnelles, the Régie de l’énergie, the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux, the Régie des marchés agricoles et alimentaires du Québec, the Régie du bâtiment du Québec, the Régie du logement, the Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal, the Administrative Tribunal of Québec or the Administrative Labour Tribunal, as well as disciplinary council chairs who exercise their functions within the Bureau des présidents des conseils de discipline, commissioners appointed by the Government under the Act respecting public inquiry commissions, and lawyers or notaries acting for such a commission, arbitrators appointed by the Minister of Labour whose name appears on a list drawn up by that minister in accordance with the Labour Code, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, and persons who exercise the function of lawyer, notary or criminal and penal prosecuting attorney and who are under the authority of a government department, the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, the National Assembly, a person appointed or designated by the National Assembly to an office under its authority (or a body referred to in paragraph 3 of the bill), persons who exercise the function of lawyer and are employed by a prosecutor (Code of Penal Procedure), unless the prosecutor are persons acting in criminal or penal matters for such a prosecutor before the courts or with third persons, lawyers or notaries acting before the courts or with third persons in accordance with a legal services contract entered into with a minister, the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, the National Assembly, a person appointed or designated by the National Assembly to exercise a function under its authority (or a body referred to in paragraph 3 of the bill), or lawyers acting in criminal or penal matters before the courts or with third persons in accordance with a legal services contract entered into with a prosecutor, peace officers who exercise their functions mainly in Québec; and principals, vice principals and teachers of educational institutions under the jurisdiction of a school board established under the Education Act or of the Commission scolaire du Littoral established by the Act respecting the Commission scolaire du Littoral.”

Bill 21 includes a “grandfather” clause, which allows existing public servants to keep serving.

Bill 21 also has a section on the necessity to have one’s face uncovered whilst receiving public services for safety concerns.”

Is Bill 21 meant for Manitoba?

Bill 21 is not ideal, but Bill 21 is made by Québec for Québec ONLY.

No, it is not for neither Manitoba, nor the rest of Canada.

Can we dislike Bill 21?

Of course!  As Québeckers and/or Canadians, we may dislike Bill 21. For instance, we may think it is a useless or a silly law. We may consider its potential effect as being (systematically) discriminatory toward a particular group (i.e., Muslim observant/veiled female teachers), despite any good intention. Like Bambi, we may also see the contradiction of Québec. On one hand, it came up with this bill. On the other hand, it keeps funding, to a large extent, private religious schools.

How is the CBC lying about Bill 21?

This is what the CBC, Manitoba is saying about Bill 21 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-islamic-association-islamophobia-survey-1.6116144):

“In light of the national summit, Vali says the federal government must take a stronger stance against oppression and systemic racism, including condemning Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans the wearing of religious symbols in certain places.”

Clearly, this is a false statement/fact. At this stage, it would be appropriate to talk about propaganda even. The latter is defined as the dissemination of misleading information (e.g., lies, half-truth, rumours) in order to influence public opinion. Another possible definition of propaganda would be techniques of persuasion, including repetitive information, used to promote a doctrine or opinion to achieve a certain political objective. If you do not believe Bambi that the above false statement is not an innocent or unprofessional journalistic mistake, she invites you to search all her archived posts on the characterization of Bill 21 in the media of the rest of Canada. You will see a similar pattern.

For Bambi, such lies are clearly no longer in the range of incompetent journalism. These are mere lies about Québec that are comparable to what citizens used to read in state newspapers under the Soviet Union era or currently in countries like Iran or maybe Syria.

What is Bambi’s conclusion?

Shame on our CBC, which is funded by OUR tax money. Mind you, other mainstream newspapers have been bailed out by our federal government. They all seem to fall in the trap of intellectual mediocrity. Don’t we deserve better journalism, as citizens?

This video shows us a journalist, called Mr. David Menzies (from Rebel News), asking tough yet relevant questions to a Conservative candidate in Thornhill (ON). Check what happens next…

Perhaps this candidate is highly competent (truly chosen by her party for her competence and potential)? If not, perhaps she will still be most competent, despite other political calculations behind her nomination?

Perhaps she truly felt unsafe by the direct questions, especially the last one?

Perhaps she is not the one who called the police, but rather her apparently unprofessional team (to say the least, after watching the video)?

Regardless of all the above, what happened is totally unacceptable!

Indeed, Mr. Menzies was mistreated: he was knocked on the head, he said. In addition, we saw water thrown at him. The police arrested it him like a criminal for 10 hours. Of note, a staff took pictures of his notebook.

He has been accused of using homophobic words (given the sexual orientation of the candidate, if Bambi understood the story well). The politician made a public statement about how she felt unsafe, and her boss (future one?), the Leader of the Conservative Party, Mr. Erin O’Toole tweeted about how his party is the only one fighting for free speech. Is the latter a (bad) joke given this incident?

Luckily Mr. Menzies will get a good legal defence. As usual, he has the support of his caring boss, Mr. Ezra Levant.

Whether you like Rebel News/Mr. Menzies or not, do you find it democratic, civilized, and morally acceptable to treat a journalist like that?

Why are we becoming increasingly intolerant to that extent in Canada?

The first video is serious and it is about Lebanon. Thank you Mr. Mark Hachem (Montreal, QC, Canada) for honouring the birth country of your parents and of Bambi.

The second video is funny. It is entitled “What not to say to an Arab“! If you happen to be too politically correct, just pretend that you live in the Canada of the past 20 years before listening (life was fun then :).

Thank you Mr. Mark Hachem for your talent!

Above is a tweet by Minister Guilbeault (July 23, 2021) that Bambi just saw today.

If our Honourable Minister Guilbeault cares to also address “hate” or arson in real life, not just online (while preserving our “Canadian Heritage” as per his responsibility), can he please denounce the vandalism of churches in Canada (i.e., 48 of them lately, if Bambi did not lose count)? By the way, this suggestion applies to all our public servants, those in power as well as those in the opposition.

Bambi is asking because she is against violence to anyone and to any place of worship, including Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox churches (as well as synagogues, mosques, other temples, etc.).

Thank you.

—

Latest posts of Bambi on the vandalized churches and on Bill 36:

Enough of church burning in Canada!

Democracy: No to censorship, whether by governments, private companies, public institutions, militia organizations, etc.

No to Bill 36 on “online hate speech”: Why is our Federal Minister of Justice, Dr. Lametti, contributing to turning our country into an authoritarian one?

Bambi learned from a friend in town that a Change petition is circulating against Mr. Bill Evans, one of our Town Councillors.

Councillor Evans is not appreciated by many citizens because of so many reasons that Bambi is not interested in getting into. On a more family note, Mr. Evans was instrumental in the whole saga against Bambi’s spouse ostensibly for testifying at the Assessment and Planning Appeal Board.

Yet, Bambi is against using psychological manipulation in the form of those Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity training (i.e. Maoist style of sessions) for anyone.

To do this to an elected official is an insult to the population, even to those who did not vote for him.

Enough of power abuse, even to those who resort to it!

https://www.change.org/p/anyone-who-feels-women-are-equal-women-are-not-chattel-councilor-evans?original_footer_petition_id=&grid_position=&pt=