Month: May 2024

This musical post shares an uplifting bilingual performance by Mr. Marc Hervieux.

The selected song is My Way, which was originally written in French as “Comme d’habitude” by Mr. Jacques Revaux and Mr. Gilles Thibault, along with Mr. Claude François (the singer).

Of note, It was Mr. Paul Anka who came up with the English lyrics for this beautiful melody (https://shorturl.at/kHoga). My Way was popularized in 1969 by Mr. Frank Sinatra (https://shorturl.at/kHoga).

In the language of Shakespeare, My Way is about one’s creativity and agency. In the language of Molière, Comme d’habitude tells the story of a couple’s separation, namely the end of love that united Mr. François and Ms. France Galle for three years (https://shorturl.at/8uPOZ).

May you keep creating the life you love to live. May your relationships, with both yourself and others, be enriching and inspiring. Happy weekend to all of you!

No school, whether secular or religious, should be the target of shooting.

Neither a Jewish nor a Muslim school.

No to intimidation and criminality against any human being, especially children.

Parents of Jewish heritage deserve to feel safe and dignified in their country, like everyone else. They do not need to have to worry about the safety of their children.

Four days ago, a shooting occurred in a school in Toronto (https://shorturl.at/8B18D). Today, it happened again in Montreal (https://shorturl.at/4xujI).

Enough is enough!

UNIFIL stands for the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon.

Today happens to be Peacekeepers’ Day (https://shorturl.at/wHP3u).

Thus, Bambi thanks all the “soldiers of peace” who are serving around the world. A heartfelt thank you to UNFIL, which operates in South Lebanon.

Of note, UNIFIL originates from about 50 countries. It is composed of 330 men and women who work to de-escalate tensions to prevent fighting and wars (https://rb.gy/vim4x2).

Do UNIFL peacekeepers always succeed in their de-escalation efforts on the ground? Of course not. Even if at times they do, sometimes tensions are too powerful or there is literally an ongoing war, including the latest one since October 8, 2023. How could UNFIL’s mission succeed when spokes can be added to their wheels at any time? Indeed, as reported in an older post (shown below), UNIFIL peacekeepers were attacked in a cowardly way on December 15, 2022. This resulted in the death of Mr. Seán Rooney. May his memory be eternal.

Yet, despite the challenges on the ground, UNIFIL peacekeepers try to remain focused on helping implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Specifically, the latter “calls for the full cessation of hostilities, the deployment of Lebanese forces to Southern Lebanon, parallel withdrawal of Israeli forces behind the Blue Line, strengthening the UN force (UNIFIL) to facilitate the entry of Lebanese Forces in the region and the establishment of a demilitarised zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River. It also calls for UN Secretary-General to develop proposals to implement the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords as well as Security Council Resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006) and imposes an arms embargo on Lebanon” (https://rb.gy/vim4x2).

Last but not least, in addition to its mission, UNIFIL regularly provides a much appreciated humanitarian assistance to Lebanese civilians who are struggling with harsh living conditions since October 2019.

For all the reasons mentioned above, many thanks to UNIFIL and, by extension, to all the peacekeepers who have contributed to peace around the world, not just in South Lebanon. This includes 125,000 fellow Canadians (https://tinyurl.com/dx8ecx26). May peace, and ideally love, prevail everywhere!

—

Lebanon: Peacekeepers deserve to be thanked, not killed

Who hasn’t dreamed of seeing the face of a lost lover or of a deceased loved one?

Mr. Jean-Pierre Ferland wrote a heartfelt song about his beloved’s face. It was released in 1960 and its music was composed by Mr. Paul de Margerie. This French-Canadian song is entitled “Ton visage” [“Your Face”].

Ahead of his national funeral (https://shorturl.at/BQe1j ; https://shorturl.at/ayQdN), which will take place at the Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral Basilica (June 1st, 2024; Montreal, Québec), Ms. Elaine Thibert paid tribute to Ferland by recording “Ton visage“. Bravo to her for the moving performance. Congratulations to the talented pianist, called Mr. Emmanuel Pitois, and thanks also to “groupe Paradoxe” for this beautiful production.

Following the YouTube video below, if you are interested, you can listen to the original song by Mr. Ferland himself. For those of you who do not understand French, you can find a quick English translation at the end of this post. Bambi is grateful to her friend Mr. Google Translate who stayed up late with her to help translate it :).

May Mr. Ferland’s memory be eternal. May Québec and Canada always cherish not just his pen and his voice, but also his unforgettable face.

“Brown eyes for the day, green eyes for love, your face

Eyes that I will love, for two eternities, your face

A mouth forever, sweet like a secret, your face

It’s beautiful, it’s warm, it’s the flower of my skin, your face

Closing my eyes, I sense it in the hollow of the clouds

I had to close my eyes, I should have tied a knot to the clouds

The wind turned and the rain blew me away, your face

And I got drunk, to try to forget your face

But it remains stuck, established on my past, which misses your face

I redraw it and the wind blows it back, your face

I am the captain of a boat of sadness that will never sink

I have twice the sorrow, of a hundred captains who will no longer embark

And I got drunk to try to forget your face

And I get drunk again, sober and starboard, what a trip

Yesterday was tomorrow, tomorrow will always be your face

It persists in sticking, like a wet flag, in retreat

I redraw it and the wind blows it back, your face

Brown eyes for the day, green eyes for love, your face

Eyes that I will love, for two eternities, your face

It’s beautiful, it’s warm, it’s the flower of my skin, your face

Closing my eyes, I sense it in the hollow of the clouds

Brown eyes for the day, green eyes for love, your face“.

Thankfully, laughter is free. Thus, the latter is accessible to all who have a sense of humour. Indeed, Bambi could have being writing to you now about serious issues of the world, including the endless conflict in the Middle East among many other matters. This post could have been about worrisome domestic stories in Canada like shooting at a (Jewish girls’) school yesterday. She preferred to spare you (and herself) all this, hoping to make you smile with Mr. Yannick Lemay (or “Ygreck”)’s cute cartoon, which was published this morning in the Journal de Montréal.

Before sharing Ygreck’s cartoon below, a few words about the drama unfolding on many university campuses are perhaps needed to provide some context. There are encampments here and there, at times called in the media pro-Palestinian and at other times anti-Israel. Whether there are truly this or that, or both or whatever, they have been going on for too long now. Administrators seem to be reluctant to act to end them, even if they are on private properties. Mayors, like Ms. Valérie Plante in Montreal, seem to be reluctant as well (so no police’s intervention), lawyers and judges seem to be shy as well in their judgments (which means more camping at least until July 2024; https://shorturl.at/NGArr). As a result, the situation seems to have become absurd, to say the least.

Of course, you may be someone who is cheering for such camps or finding them offensive. The latter could be perceived as a form of an imposed freedom of expression on private properties, or intimidation if you want, with odd slogans like “à bas l’empire“,which means “down with the empire” (unclear which empire though? The American, the Québécois, the Israeli?). Some other slogans, at times written in Arabic are clearly more offensive like “free Palestine from the river to the sea“, etc. As a reminder, some university students have families or friends living between the river and the sea. How would they perceive the latter, regardless of the intentions behind them?

Anyhow, if you are curious to know, Bambi happens to be someone who is not surprised at all by those encampments. She saw them coming way before the latest tragic fiasco of the Middle East. Indeed, at the height of the BLM agitation on campuses and on the streets, close to the climate justice agitation (perhaps even when her censorship saga was unfolding), she predicted (in a private conversation with her spouse) that the next cause du jour will be the Palestinian cause. Of note, the latter replaced the Ukrainian cause, which sadly is still existing.

What is sad for Bambi is how the true suffering of the Palestinian people is used by some people, despite the authentic care of some other people. As she has mentioned in a previous post, she does not believe that silencing, cancelling, and stonewalling are healthy strategies. She prefers bridges of exchanges instead to solve problems and move forward in life. This is why, on Friday evening, she happily signed a circulating petition against the Boycott of Israeli academics. In the same vein, she is against the boycott of Palestinian, Syrian, Iranian, Saudi, Chinese, or other academics (or artists) from other parts of the world, regardless of the awful actions (or reactions) of their governments.

Anyhow, enough of serious blahblahblah by Bambi. Time to laugh now with the talented “YGreck”, if you are not too shocked by what she just shared :). The title of his cartoon is: 2024 Camping Season. This couple is wondering where to go for their summer camping: McGill university or UQAM (“Université du Québec à Montréal”)? Check the flag on the backpack of the guy, it helps to understand the context of the joke.

To conclude this post, once again, for Bambi what matters the most in life is what lies deep in our hearts (our convictions and core values). Ideally, this would congruently translate into our behaviour when interacting with others. Bambi is talking about values like respect, compassion, and even love for all. For instance, we can have the utmost respect and compassion for the suffering of people, and wanting justice for them, even without any public demonstration on any private or public property. We can choose to publicly denounce an injustice while also naming another one. Yes at the same time. It is called seeing the big picture. Plus, we can respect the individual choices of people, even if ours are different (to cite a different example, it can be the choice of not using any gender pronoun for ourselves while accepting the choices of others, and vice versa). Despite the need for clever champions of social justice in our world, let’s also remember to be thinkers before being activists or to be thoughtful activists, so to speak. Let’s keep in mind that we do not solve injustice in the world by creating newer ones elsewhere. Above all, let’s keep our sense of humour, and thus perspective, alive.

Mr. Nicola Ciccone’s voice makes Bambi’s heart melt. Maybe he touches her heart because of his sensitivity mixed with his artistic talent? Maybe because his moving and beautiful voice sings for beauty in the world, love, friendship, happiness, coping with domestic violence, autism (i.e., he is the spokesperson for the “Fédération québécoise de l’autisme“), and many other meaningful topics? Who knows? Maybe also because of sweet memories of the genuine peer he had been in graduate school?

Anyhow, Bambi was happy to discover today Mr. Ciconne’s new song, which is entitled “Tu sei la voce“. She wished she could understand all the Italian lyrics (she can get a word here and there). Maybe those of you who understand this beautiful language can translate it for her one day :)?

Until then, she would like to imagine that this song is about being the voice of truth, love in the world, healing, and of humanity. May each one of us be the best voice we can be, that is our own unique voice. May our voice know how to listen to all the other voices. May other voices also know how to respect our voice.

Wherever you are, Happy weekend, whether it is a short or a long one for you. More specifically, for those of you who may be reading this post from out of the United States, Happy Memorial long weekend to you!

Lebanon is an ill-fated yet highly resilient tiny Mediterranean country.

The people of this country are heroes, according to Bambi, because they refuse to see themselves as victims, even if they like to kvetch by nature.

Instead, they are highly resourceful and creative. They keep re-inventing themselves.

Even if their bank savings have been stolen, along with their dreams, they keep moving forward and cope to the best of their capacity.

Even if they do not have a government, they literally become the latter, as needed. A striking example is what happened post-Beirut explosion when generous people, and especially youth, came from all over the regions to join forces in helping the traumatized Beirutis clean their houses, shops, and streets.

Even if they sadly find themselves (once again) at the mercy of unwanted wars, they keep dreaming of stability, beautiful summers, and of better days for them and their children.

Bearing all the above in mind, it is with sadness that Bambi read today that “poverty has tripled in Lebanon from a decade ago“, according to the World Bank (https://shorturl.at/6cczc).

Lebanon’s financial crash and economic crisis (since October 2019) is the “worst globally since the mid-nineteenth century” https://shorturl.at/9bUyV. Indeed, the country has been facing hyperinflation, with a devalued currency (up to 95%!). One must recall that banks have prevented most depositors from having access to their own savings. There are severe power outages (7 hours per day on average), water outages at times, and a limited access to healthcare, medication, and education for many citizens. Indeed, over 80% of the population is now living below the poverty line (https://shorturl.at/DfZfV). The collapsing currency, called Lebanese lira, is replaced with the American dollar. As reported by Reuters (https://shorturl.at/DfZfV), the Lebanese “government estimates losses in the financial system total more than $70 billion, the majority of which were accrued at the central bank“.

In addition to the tragic living conditions described above, the innocent people of Lebanon are once again caught in the middle of absurd “military adventures”.

Last but not least, according to Mr. Ernesto Ramirez Rigo (head of the International Monetary Fund or IMF), “Lebanon’s economic reforms are insufficient to help lift the country out of its economic crisis” (https://shorturl.at/DfZfV). As per Mr. Rigo, “Lebanon’s ongoing refugee crisis, fighting with Israel at its Southern border and the spillover from the war in Gaza are exacerbating an already dire economic situation” (https://shorturl.at/DfZfV).

The above being shared with you, Bambi is now speechless. She wishes she had a magical stick to invent the creation of political leaders who will put Lebanon’s national interests above their personal interests or ideological and/or religious fantasies. The people of Lebanon deserve better than this. Indeed, they deserve to live in safety, dignity, respect, unity, peace, love, and especially prosperity!

It is not a secret, Bambi adores Mr. Charles Aznavour who lived from May 22, 1924 to October 1, 2018 (https://shorturl.at/dNmXF). Yes, he would have turned 100 today, had he still been among us. What is Bambi saying? Even without turning 100, he remains alive through his exceptional music, beautiful texts, and inspiring career. Thanks to Mr. Aznavour for having existed. Thanks to all those who will continue to sing his eternal melodies. May his memory be eternal, today more than ever.

Bambi just learned from the Journal de Montréal (https://shorturl.at/V08q6) that Mr. Mario Pelchat must cancel 45 concerts he had planned to perform at his vineyard in Québec this summer. Why? Because the “Commission for the Protection of Agricultural Land of Québec” refuses to give it authorization“. It is unclear why precisely, but he has been told there was one single complaint. However, he did not know by whom and for what precisely. Too much noise? His vineyard is large, mind you, and no neighbour has ever complained (https://shorturl.at/V08q6). This governmental agency expressed to this artist that they only have 7 inspectors to drive through the province over the summer. Hence the refusal to authorize his 45 summer concerts. Mr. Pelchat expressed his disappointment because he filed all the required documents for his business (https://shorturl.at/V08q6).

Yes, the 45 planned performances at his estate this summer are now sadly cancelled. Furthermore, Mr. Pelchat reported having much anxiety over this saga. Why would someone want to become a paper pusher, if it is at the expense of his/her well-being and the result is negative at the end of the long process?

Of note, Mr. Pelchat had planned to perform his own songs and make a tribute to Mr. Gilbert Bécaud. Unfortunately, from 9,000 to 11,000 tickets are now lost. Some clients were coming from as far as New Brunswick and even from France. Too bad as it would have been a nice opportunity to discover, and ideally purchase, his/his spouse’s wine while enjoying the beauty of their place/region. Thankfully, some disappointed clients reassured him that they are still planning to visit, minus the music. They will be reimbursed for the latter (https://shorturl.at/V08q6). Good for them, but how unfair not only to only to Mr. Pelchat, but also sadly to 35 employees and… to tourism in Québec!

Bambi wrote this post tonight because she is in solidarity with Mr. Mario Pelchat, in particular, and with entrepreneurs in general. Long live summer, music, wine, fun… and may governmental bureaucracy know how to find its flexibility and common sense again.

For those of you who may be reading this post not from out of Québec, Canada, you may not have heard of Imam Adil Charkaoui. Who is he? This Imam (or Muslim religious man) is “a Morocco-born Canadian citizen who was arrested in 2003 by the Government of Canada under a security certificate” (https://shorturl.at/AiWef).

This post, which is is not about Mr. Charkaoui per se (it could have been a case about another religious speaker), is rather about our odd Canadian laws. It is a translation of Mr. Philipe Léger’s thoughtful article, which was recently published in the Journal de Montréal (https://shorturl.at/Ikg1M). Thanks to Mr. Léger for teaching Bambi about this change in the Canadian criminal law. She was not aware of it.

Before sharing the article in question about the decision of the “DPCP” concerning Mr. Charkaoui, one must clarify what is the DPCP? It stands for “The Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales”. This means something like the “Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecution”. From the Government of Québec English translated website (https://shorturl.at/fEHdi), we learn that the DCPC entity “authorizes and directs criminal and penal prosecutions on behalf of the Québec State. The DPCP is a public body that exercises its powers independently from the government and other political authorities.  Its work is not influenced by political, economic, police, media or popular pressure“.

Bearing the above in mind, below you can find an English translation of Mr. Léger’s interesting article, with thanks to the faithful Mr. Google Translate for his assistance:

“The DPCP ultimately decided that there was no incitement to hatred in Adil Charkaoui’s comments, within the meaning of Canadian law. No charges, therefore, will be filed against him.

Let us recall the events.

Charkaoui’s remarks were made six months ago, during a demonstration on October 28. The imam then took the microphone, and uttered the following words in front of a crowd:

“Allah, take care of these Zionist aggressors. Allah, take care of the enemies of the people of Gaza. Allah, identify them all, then exterminate them. And spare none of them!”

These words – public, recorded and proclaimed “Amen!” – are unequivocal: they are in the register of hate speech, and the call for violence against a group, the Zionists, that is, the Jews favourable to a Jewish state, the State of Israel“.

Religious Exemption

The DPCP was careful not to explain its decision. And I’m not going to play armchair Crown prosecutor here.

However, it is Charkaoui’s defence that is revealing.

You see, for him, these stinking sentences were only a call to God according to the imam, not a call to violence against the Jews.

Did the DPCP not move forward because the “Zionists” do not constitute a clear and identifiable group? Maybe.

Is it rather because of paragraph 319(3)(b) of the Canadian Criminal Code, to which Charkaoui refers with his “appeal to God”?

Wait, the what paragraph?

Imagine that there is a religious exemption in the Canadian Criminal Code for public incitement to hatred. An exemption added in 2004 by the Liberal government of Paul Martin.

Today, therefore, Canadian law gives precedence to freedom of religious expression over incitement to hatred, when the remarks are made “in good faith” or “based on a religious text in which one believes”.

If you are a rabbi, a priest, an imam or any other religious person, good news: the law gives you a privilege on public incitement to hatred.

A Two-speed Law

Because that’s exactly what it is: a religious privilege, which Charkaoui seemed to want to protect himself with as a defence.

This exemption raises all kinds of questions.

At what point does a religious statement made in “good faith” become reprehensible under criminal law? If the Charkaoui degree is not, when does it become so?

Why does religion have a free pass on hateful incitement? How can faith be an acceptable alibi? Why does religion benefit from an exemption, but not a political ideology for example?

Why would believers have an advantage over nonbelievers when it comes to hatred? Do you think I’m exaggerating? However, that’s it: one group – believers – has a right that another group does not have – non-believers. Can we really speak of the religious neutrality of the Canadian state, in this case?

Preferential Treatment [“passe-droit” in French]

Worse, it is quite clear: this provision is not meant for citizens who practice their religious freedom peacefully and respectfully.

It constitutes a free pass for fundamentalists, for whom the targets always converge: unbelievers, Jews, homosexuals and women…

The Canadian government currently offers them additional protection. Charkaoui wanted to use this protection.

This is, right at the heart of Canadian criminal law, an unreasonable religious accommodation [“un accommodement religieux déraisonnable” in French]”.