Author: Bambi

Dr. Patrick Provost is a Full Professor of Microbiology, Infectious diseases and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of the Université Laval. He is an established researcher at the CHU de Québec Research Center/CHUL Pavilion (https://www.crchudequebec.ulaval.ca/en/research/researchers/patrick-provost/).

According to Libre Media (https://libremedia.ca/article/affaire-patrick-provost-le-quebec-a-la-merci-des-interets-prives), “for twenty years, he has been running an RNA research laboratory. He has published almost 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications. His research work on the role of messenger RNA in gene expression is one of the 10 discoveries of the year 2003 by the magazine Québec Science and the five discoveries of the year 2021 by the daily Le Soleil.“

Before Quebecor withdrew its last text from all its media, Professor Patrick Provost was suspended by the Université Laval for comments he made in December 2021 on the vaccination of children. Can you imagine the level of censorship in our collectively insane times? A scientist, expert in the field, cannot express a scientific opinion or share any research findings that may challenge an apparently merely politically-driven health narrative. Is Québec (and Canada) “at the mercy of private interests” to that extent, as raised by Libre Media?

To read a translation of the Libre Media article featuring an interview with Dr. Provost, please use the following link (thanks to Google Translate): https://libremedia-ca.translate.goog/article/affaire-patrick-provost-le-quebec-a-la-merci-des-interets-prives?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp .

From the interview above, we can read the following powerful statement by Professor Provost:

“I had not seen this climate coming. […] I would never have thought in my life that I would one day have to fight for my rights and freedoms in a country like Canada. I was shocked to see how people gave up their rights and freedoms because they were afraid”. 

As reported in the above article, and to end with a note of hope, Professor Provost seems to be relieved because a growing number of Canadians “have a thirst for truth and openness”. Indeed, and to borrow his own words again: “in recent days, I have received dozens of messages of support and it is still encouraging”.

Good for him! She does not know about you, but Bambi stands with Professor Provost and with his right to academic freedom and freedom of expression! Isn’t Québec’s latest bill precisely meant to protect this right (as previously posted by Bambi)?

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Isn’t it shocking when the Québec government seems to care more about academic freedom than unions of university teachers?

Bravo Québec for being a national and international leader in the protection of academic freedom!

She does not know about you but Bambi loves after-sunset moments in life: The end of a day mixed with the promise of a new one. This is why she was happy to discover this picture, which was tweeted by journalist Roula Douglas earlier today. Thanks to the latter for sharing the view from her balcony with the world.

To conclude this brief post, first here is Ms. Douglas’ picture for you. Second, here is a song dedicated to this moment in Roula’s life (when she took her picture): Ironically for Bambi, it is entitled “Ne laissez pas le soleil se coucher” [“Do not let the sun go down“] :).

Bambi went to bed late yesterday after reading about the tragic news from Oslo. May everyone’s memory be eternal. Of course, even without mortality thank Goodness, there is also sad news about intolerance in the world, including Lebanon. Intolerance of others. Intolerance of other beliefs or opinions or ways of living (which makes her think of Oslo’s tragedy again).

Well, perhaps to forget about all this and keep alive the mood of celebration of pure love she has been in all day long yesterday (thanks to her friends and congrats to them ❤️❤️ ), a song is coming to her mind now. It is about a flower in our imagination. You can decide what type of flower it is and what you wish it would represent for you. Perhaps this superb Classical Arabic melody is meant to be romantic? If you wish, you may imagine it to be the flower of family, friendship, love with a big or small L, open-mindedness, and respect of others. The flower of authenticity, kindness, and of humanity. You choose since our thoughts are and will always be free in our own mind at least.

In this musical post, Bambi is referring to the song of Mr. Farid El Atrash, this Egyptian-Syrian artistic legend (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farid_al-Atrash). He would have surely been VERY proud of Ms. Amal Murkus had he been still alive.

Bambi is so happy she just discovered you Ms. Murkus. What a voice. What a talent, both yourself and your musicians. Thank you for this moment!

From time to time, Bambi hears this song on the radio. Over the years, it has been performed by both Lebanese and French artists. What a lovely song, whether in its original French or its more recent Arabic (or mixed) version.

May Mr. Elias Rahbani’s memory be eternal. Thanks to his inspiring artistic legacy, he will always be a treasure in our hearts, a pleasure to our ears, and a pride to his country’s cultural heritage.

If she may, on this Saint-Jean Baptiste day, Bambi would like to dedicate this song to all her fellow French-speaking Canadians from coast to coast to coast!

If your answer to the question in the title of this post is NO, why are you doing it to your (and our) own country then?

Are your loved ones (or you?) perfect? Of course not. No one is in life. So is Canada. Does the latter deserve to be celebrated on July 1, despite its imperfect past or even present. Of course it does!

Indeed, exactly like every year for the past 32 years, Bambi is eager to celebrate Québec on June 24 and Canada on July 1 on her blog!

She is just fascinated now by how all the titles of our mainstream media are the same in both English and French, telling us about Canadians’ mixed feelings: Some wanting to change the name to “a New Day“, as has just been done in Winnipeg, and others disappointed:

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1892906/fete-canada-fourche-winnipeg-changement-reaction-autochtone

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/landmark-winnipeg-canada-day-celebrations-rebranding-to-new-day-at-the-forks-draws-mixed-response-1.5957529

A couple of years ago, they told us we must cancel Canada Day because of BLM, etc.

Then, they told us it was to be “inclusive“, that is to all the so-called diversity from immigrants to Indigenous people (with Canada’s flags still lowered since the heart-breaking “mass graves” of last year).

Has anyone asked immigrants what they think of all this?

Does anyone care about the thoughts of Indigenous fellows who love Canada like the great Ms. Jody Wilson-Raybould?

So far, and to Bambi’s best knowledge, whether we like him or not, there seems to be one decent federal politician who clearly and promptly denounced cancelling Canada Day. Yes, you can guess that it is Mr. Maxime Bernier. Thanks to him. Will other politicians dare to do the same? Or will they be afraid of being called “racist” or “white supremacist” or “proponents of colonization”, etc.?

Our collectively insane times (of political correctness) are absurd: Imagine that we have to be “daring” now to express our (healthy) love for our country, even if it is only on one single day per year. Do you find the latter sad, like Bambi?

Bambi would like to thank her friends Cherry/Olga, Nayla, Aline, and Joëlle for sharing this video. BRAVO to the Mayyas, the incredibly talented Lebanese dancers!!

They make their birth country so proud!

Bambi is honoured to have had an older post featuring them, as shown further below.

“Mabrouk” and all the best! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Talented young Lebanese made their dreams come true in the United States and Britain

Bambi’s heart is with her friend who has been driving many miles, day after day, to the office of passports housed in the Complexe Guy-Favreau in downtown Montreal. She did not need this extra stress in her life when already she is dealing with chronic stress in her family. All what she needs is a renewed Canadian passport to be able to fly in 3 days to Beirut to see her family after three years apart.

Thank you Mr. Mario Dumont for your article about the unacceptable delays in passport renewals in Canada, published in the Journal de Montréal (https://www.journaldemontreal.com/opinions/mario-dumont). Bambi will try to translate it for you in the following paragraphs. She will just make one final sarcastic comment: At least Lebanon’s delays could be explained by the country’s bankruptcy and justified by the fact that this country is part of the so-called (or formerly called?) third world.

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“I spent a night under the stars in front of the Guy-Favreau complex, the main passport center in Montreal.

I spent the night outside on a folding chair because my government is no longer able to issue passports. Yesterday, federal ministers finally recognized the seriousness of the crisis. I spent the night outside because the managers of the federal buildings where the passport offices are located decided not to accommodate citizens. They didn’t want to hire a few night guards to allow queues inside, with restrooms and sheltered from the weather. Although the citizens who wait are the poor victims of their incompetence.

This decision is representative of the rest. Tax payers who exercise a right by applying for their passport are left to their own devices. Security agents have been given the mandate to manage these herds of disturbers and to prevent the cameras from showing the disaster live. To hell with the service.

The absolute blur

No one provides any information to the people waiting. Security guards do not work directly for Service Canada. So they don’t know the procedures. And those who hold the answers are not very accessible.

The hundreds of citizens waiting do not even understand what is happening. Not a single sign provides explanations of the procedures. Not a single document is given to people who have been waiting in some cases for two nights. The distress is unspeakable. I understand that employees are busy processing files and getting out passports as quickly as possible. They even work overtime! But the bosses, in their role, must ensure communication with the public. When hundreds of people are waiting for explanations, they have a duty to respond.

Bosses in their burrow

Passport office bosses don’t want to see the waiting herd, they don’t want to be confronted with it. In this sense, they project the same image as their department and as the entire federal government in this crisis. Sitting in an ivory tower while things go bad on the pitch. We were led to believe for a while that the government was receiving inordinate demands. In fact, the current volume is the usual volume that we knew before the pandemic. And the return to normal numbers was more than predictable with the resumption of travel. Only the federal government did not see this coming. What I saw that night is deeply shocking. My neighbour slept on the asphalt on a yoga mat. Her husband had waited all night before, for nothing. Being an immigrant, she has not seen her father and mother for 4 years. She hoped to submit her application in the morning, to receive her passport in the afternoon, in order to catch the plane in the evening. “Such chaos, I didn’t think it was possible in Canada,” she concluded…”

Bambi would like to thank both her Lebanese-American internet radio station from LA (yesterday eve) and her friend Aline from Nova Scotia (today) for introducing her to this new song. It is a call to fly to Beirut this summer. Yes, a musical invitation to all the Lebanese diaspora and the tourists of the world.

In the song, we see Ms. Machaalani and her friends wearing T-shirts with the names of each town, village, or Beirut’s famous neighbourhoods. The lyrics go like this: “The summer is here, “yalla” [Come on!] let’s fly to Beirut… whatever happens, we only have you Beirut. You remain a diamond in the the Levant. Yes, your name will shine again one day”… and then the singer names all the regions, cities, towns of Lebanon, including Beirut’s neighbourhoods. Her song ends with beautiful words of hope in Arabic about how the dark cloud will move away in the end and the sun will shine again on the Lebanese capital.

While listening to this song, Bambi could not help not to recall her sister Rania’s words about the sadness in the air of Beirut. She was referring to the economic tragedy that may be perhaps more visible in the city than in the mountains or on the beautiful beaches, etc. Indeed, one must keep in mind that many parts of Beirut have been totally destroyed, or hit hard, by the surrealistic blast of the port on August 4, 2020.

May the summer 2022 bring hope and some healing to Beirut. May it also hopefully inject some fresh money into the market, which would contribute to save, and ideally revive, Lebanon’s economy.

Thank you, Ms. Mchaalani! Happy and safe travels to all!

June 21 is here! Yes, today is the summer solstice with the LONGEST day and SHORTEST night of 2022 in the Northern Hemisphere. Isn’t this exciting?

To welcome the summer season in music, Bambi will share a few songs with you. They are all about the imminent summer season.

Some of the chosen songs are medleys of summer melodies, by talented kids, or simply kids’ songs. Other songs are light and joyful. Some other songs are more romantic. Yet other melodies are classical music.

The songs’ languages range from French, German, English, Lebanese-Arabic, Egyptian-Arabic, and partly Portuguese (in the last medley).

If you take the time to listen, Bambi hopes you will enjoy the songs, wishing you a wonderful June 21 filled with whatever you aspire for. This being said, it is now time for music!

Vive l’été… In a melody in the charming language of Molière.

Happy summer season… in the beautiful language of Goethe.

To continue, it is now the time for the practical and lovely language of Shakespeare with the famous Summer in the City song.

Following the above, it is now the time for the rich Arabic language with a lovely song by Fairouz (in Lebanese-Arabic dialect), which is subtitled in English. Those who understand this language will know that it is about the last days of the summer,as per its title.

To continue in the same vein, how can Bambi have a post devoted to the summer without her favourite romantic yet joyful Egyptian-Arabic song?! Yes, you may have guessed right, she means the three daqat [referring to a 3 heartbeats of love :)].

Now, time to switch to French again to listen to a song Bambi likes too. Thank you Mr. Gilbert Montagné!

The above will be followed by another French song that Bambi adores. It is by the late and great Mr. Joe Dassin!

Please, make no mistake: It is NOT the end of summer/fall season yet despite the cooler days. Yes, she can assure you that it is not l’été indien yet, no worries :). Although Bambi is joking about the weather, she considers herself blessed to live in a a place with a milder weather than the rest of Canada or parts of Europe, which are now ironically warmer than Beirut. Can you imagine?!

How about some classical music now? Of course, it will be Vivaldi’s “Summer” from “Four Seasons” performed by Ms. Mari Samuelson. Bravo!

To continue with melodies about the summer, here is another French song called “nuits d’été” [“Summer Nights”] by Mr. Oscar Anton and Ms. Clémentine. Bambi hopes your nights are as comfortable as possible given the heat in some places and/or lack of power in other places of the world… Yes, Lebanon is on her mind now.

The next French song is by Mr. Claude Barzotti called “On se reverra cet été” [See you this summer!]. It is romantic. You have been warned :).

Enough of romance :). Time to celebrate summer games now. If she may, Bambi would like to dedicate Ms. Ginette Reno’s song to her dear cousin Khalil in Doha wishing him to keep up his great work… and spirit!

How about continuing with another great French-Canadian song by Mr. Claude Dubois, in duo with Ms. Natasha St-Pier, and entitled “Laisser l’été avoir 15 ans” [hard to translate in English :)]?

Last but not least, a medley of Kids United will conclude this post with songs in French, Portuguese, and English. Bravo to these talented children and thanks to them!