Mmm., Bambi thought Mr. Trudeau was the expert of dressing up (being a skilled drama teacher/actor before becoming a PM). It turns out that his Minister, the honourable Mona Fortier, is also into it. Just like the former Premier of Alberta (Ms. Rachel Notley, NDP party), see further below the earlier post from Bambi.
If you are interested in watching the video of Ms. Fortier , you can check her Twitter or Facebook page. Her official title is as follows: « Min. Middle Class Prosperity & Associate Min. of Finance | Min. de la Prospérité de la classe moyenne et min. associée des Finances – Députée/MP Ottawa-Vanier» :
Bambi is convinced that her Ramadan message is meant to be kind. She thanks her for her thoughtfulness… but the video it is not only somehow insulting. It is also stupid, sorry to be that direct ☹.
By wanting to be highly “inclusive” Ms. Fortier forgot that there is no such a thing, as one woman, to begin with. So, imagine one Muslim woman! Indeed, some are observant. Others not. Those who observe Ramadan are also diverse: Some are veiled, others are not. Some freely chose to be veiled (especially when they are adults). Others, many others, are forced to be veiled. Surely without wanting to, Ms. Fortier is not only excluding these women, she may be putting them in danger, without knowing it.
From a French-Canadian liberal
politician, Bambi would have expected more intellectual refinement. She is
disappointed.
Once again, she is worried about Canada. We are collectively being too ridiculous. Don’t you see it too?
The interview is conducted by Ms. Barton. Well, the latter and Dr. Tam may have two points in common: (1) Each of them is skilled in her field, one as a Canadian journalist, the other as a medical federal bureaucrat BUT (2) Sadly, despite any talent, both of them appear to be sucking up a bit too much to their big boss, the government, likely to remain employed. Anyhow, can we blame them for wanting to keep a position in uncertain times? No, for sure. However, as communication and health authority national figures, they have a responsibility to act a bit more professionally with the Canadian public, without insulting people’s intelligence (see below).
Last but not least, here are a few of the NUMEROUS comments to the article that Bambi selected to share with you. She is not sure if she should smile or cry to the contrast between this article and the citizens’ comments. Because she likes to laugh, she will just smile, hoping you do have a sense of humour too ?:
“Was
it perfect? No – it wasn’t even good. Sharon Harrison
“We didn’t expect
perfect, but we deserved better”. Stephen
Parker
“Not taking any responsibility for her
slow response and then making excuses. We deserve better”. Glen
Goertzen
“This is one of a series of articles
designed to try to make us believe the Federal government did an awesome job. It
tries to tell us some of our concerns about what the government did not do or
did too late were really not critical. Other stories like this will emerge”. Liberal
CYA, Jean Caché
“…’Was it perfect? No’……….” About the only thing that Tam has correctly stated thus far”. Jay Shirazi
“Why do
we need to pay someone $350k a year to just relay messages from WHO?” Abe Fukumaya
“Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam told CBC News that simply shutting the border to travellers from China and other COVID-19 hotspots earlier wouldn’t have stopped the virus from coming in from other countries” — If so then why is the border closed now??? Continues to make little sense. Dunstable Kolbe
“On
Jan 29, when Tam rejected calls for a ban on travellers from China saying
“racism, discrimination and stigmatizing language are unacceptable and very
hurtful,” it was clearly not based on science, but rather political
interference from the PMO, who was more concerned about China’s support for
their pointless UN seat than protecting Canadian lives.” Peter While
“One big question mark regarding our top doctor was her insistence of not requiring people returning from [Huban] province to self isolate after returning to Canada lest a certain segment of our population become stigmatized. That sounds a lot more political than anything scientific.” Anthony Kennedy
“The
key word in her statements is “we”. Tam and Trudeau got it wrong
enough times that they should both step down from their positions, aka resign!”Health
Ward
“It
is her JOB to know how a novel virus spreads. No hindsight needed. She failed
many many many Canadian families.” Tish Lapierre
“China,
the WHO, and Dr. Tam will all have many questions to answer when this is all
over.” Rory
Cain
Bambi came across this short documentary about Lebanon by the Deutsche Welle (see below). The situation is Lebanon worrisome, to say the least.
Without understanding the complicated internal politics, it would be safe to say that public corruption is everyone’s fault in Lebanon, period (like the slogan of the revolt). This is regardless of a particular name or face. Indeed, corruption in Lebanon is so deeply rooted, that is no longer at a political, confessional, or institutional (= group) level. It is rather at an individual level, as Bambi understood from a conversation with a loved one describing her country’s tragedy.
This being said, decent people exist in life too (they are the silent majority!), one must not forget. They exist among public servants too, and we do need more of them in our world, today more than ever.
To come back to Lebanon, its financial saga, that began on October 17, 2019, is not just due to corruption per se. It may have also been due to mismanagement of public funds and/or over-investment of certain sectors of the economy only (e.g., services, including banking, etc.) or overspending. Richer countries may also have a public debt problem, like Japan. No one is immune… Canada, included.
Anyhow, here is the DW video. As you can see, hopeless Lebanese citizens forgot about their fear of the coronavirus and the lockdown, they are on the streets again.
Bambi is relieved to know that Mr. Raif Badawi (and other prisoners) will no longer get this brutal treatment, called flagellation. She also hopes Saudi Arabia will finally release him to his family in Québec, Canada. Bambi feels for him, especially since she has started her blog (he was accused of insulting religion, as a blogger).
Bambi is for the freedom of practising one’s religion whilst being for the freedom of being a non-believer or a non-observant, even with faith. Yes, as human beings, we are absolutely free to believe or not, whether in a God or in another “truth” (e.g., any religion or apocalyptic claims about climate change, including “burning houses” :)).
To conclude this post, Bambi has always been against death penalty. In her mind, this would apply to anyone… Imagine if it is for youth? Of course, not everyone could be rehabilitated in life. A minority of extreme cases will remain hopeless (e.g. the Paul Bernardos, Luke Magnottas, or Russel Williams, and other types of psychopaths of the world, etc.). Even them deserve a fair trial, as lawyers say.
Anyhow, to come back to Saudi Arabia, which applies the Sharia law, this is a significant change. Bravo, good luck in the implementation, and please keep it up!
Bambi just came across a thoughtful article published yesterday in the Journal de Montréal and signed by Mr. Mathieu Bock-Côté. Below is the original article followed by a quick translation:
“As the
COVID-19 crisis intensifies and security measures are intended to be ever more
ambitious to protect the population, we learned on Wednesday that Ottawa will
once again authorize the crossing of the Canadian border by “irregular
migrants”
Certainly, they will no longer go through Roxham Road, but through Lacolle. But they will pass. We are geographically moving the problem by pretending to better frame it.
Immigration
This is called laughing at people.
Let’s pay attention to the vocabulary used. The dominant discourse wants to force us to speak of “irregular migrants” and justifies it with superficial legal quibbles. It is a language manipulation.
Rather, if we were not afraid of words, we should speak of illegal or clandestine immigrants, who benefit from the transformation of the right of asylum, by definition exceptional, into a migratory route among others.
The humanitarian rhetoric taken up by activists in a borderless world is in fact aimed at making people feel guilty and demonizing those who simply want to uphold the law and fight its wide-ranging circumvention.
In the context of the pandemic, this explicit opening up to illegal immigration seems irrational.
However, it does not really surprise us. The Canadian government was clearly unable to permanently break out of the ideological parameters of globalism. It claims to be the global promoter.
Spending measures
More broadly, Ottawa is doing as it pleases, by multiplying the measures of mega-spending to place itself at the centre of the crisis and to recover from its early incompetence, even if it means setting up initiatives that contradict the strategy of the provinces in general, and Québec in particular.
Justin Trudeau, himself, is preaching and arrogant.
How can we not see in these pharaonic spending a crude attempt to buy the electorate with increasingly “generous” benefits and transform the crisis into an opportunity to centralize the federation?
Canada, for Québecers, is a crippling and costly
burden”.
Caracalla is a famous Lebanese Dance theatre, that has performed worldwide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracalla_Dance_Theatre), “from the Osaka National Theatre, to the Carnegie Hall, Sadler’s Wells to the Kennedy Centre, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées to the Frankfurt Opera House, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo Opera Houses, Centre of the Arts Los Angeles to Places des Arts in Montreal, as well as numerous other festivals and venues…”. More recently, the group even performed in Saudi Arabia for the first time ever… on Valentine’s Day (which was forbidden before!).
Anyhow, below you can find a video from Caracalla to the confined Lebanese people and to the world, with a message of hope. Bambi would like to thank her dad for sharing it with her (je t’aime, papa!).
Sadly, almost at the same time she received this message of hope, she learned about the death of her friend’s uncle due to Covid-19. She would like to dedicate this video to “Henri”, if she may. Rita, please consider it as a sort of a tribute to him from his country of origin (via Bambi). May he rest in peace… May his memory be eternal whilst his soul flies with freedom… just like those dancers in the video.
The title of Ms. Bombardier’s article makes Bambi recall a conversation she had with a friend whilst visiting Lebanon in December, 2019. They were talking about Canadian politics. Her Canadian friend, who moved to Beirut a few years ago, described Mr. Trudeau in these terms: “I call him “Papa Noël” [Santa Claus, in English] because he is a dreamer”.
Well, our Santa is busy today with daily announcements.
Ms. Bombardier has another good reason to call him Santa. You will see
below… As usual, first the French original article published today in the Journal
de Montréal. This is followed by a translation of her article:
“Every day, Prime Minister Legault [this is how Premiers of Québec are called in French] announces the number of deaths in the past 24 hours since the National Assembly.
Ahead of
him, Prime Minister Trudeau announces at noon outside of his residence, not
from Parliament, billions of dollars for Canadians in precarious economic
situations. Rarely does he address the issue of deaths from COVID-19, as if
such contingencies would undermine his role as a distributor of hard cash.
To date, Justin Trudeau has provided nearly $140 billion in assistance to individuals and businesses. Certainly, it is the role of the government to ensure that the country’s economy does not collapse.
It is clear that no government can currently leave its citizens without employment income, a roof over their heads, and the money to support their families.
Generosity
What is problematic is this daily staging where Justin Trudeau appears as the generous distributor of the billions that will go to swell the public debt which will largely exceed the 200 billion; as our columnist Mario Dumont, a public finances and political analyst, so eloquently reminded us of yesterday [at the end of this post, you can read an earlier post about his article].
Justin Trudeau’s dramatization of his message can be summed up as follows. The bad news is transmitted by the provincial premiers while the good news remains the preserve [“chasse gardée”, in French] of the one who currently heads a minority government in Ottawa.
Fortunately, if one can put it this way in the circumstances, Ontario has high rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, because the barely contained irritability expressed by Justin Trudeau about how François Legault leading the fight against the pandemic would suggest that the situations experienced in Québec’s CHSLDs [long-term care centres] are proof of the endemic carelessness of Québec.
Like father
In 1970, we were treated to Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s War Measures Act [called Emergencies Act since 1988], which abolished civil liberties to subdue a handful of hotheads who played terrorists. Today, Trudeau Junior might wish to apply the Canada Health Act to CHSLDs and thus appear as a savior in the eyes of Québecers?
The $9 billion this week awarded to students by Justin Trudeau under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) seems to be a way for the minority Prime Minister to buy the votes of young people in the next election. Giving $5,000 to students not to finish a semester, but to spend the summer on vacation also testifies to the vision of a bohemian bourgeois accustomed in his youth to traveling around the world in dilettante.
It’s also a trip up [“croc-en-jambe”, in French] to François Legault, who called on young people to work in the fields offering them bonuses of an additional $100 to help Québec agricultural producers save their fruit and vegetable crops.
Who would have thought that Justin Trudeau, during this crisis, would try to weaken Québec?”.
Bambi heard this beautiful song on the internet radio she listens to whilst working. Not even twenty-four hours later, she got a link to it from Moncton (thanks Mary!) and from Beirut (merci Roula!). She is sharing it with you in this post.
The song is in Lebanese Arabic. The words are filled with simplicity and tenderness. The music (by Mr. Rayan Habre) is lovely to listen to. In addition to her talent, this young singer seems to be cute (check her expressions and see for yourself ?). As you can see, the musicians are skilled and the production is well done too.
Well, just for her own fun, Bambi translated the words for you into English (please see further below). Bravo and thank you Ms. Chantal Bitar et al.!
“How are you in your confinement? You are crossing my mind in confinement?
I think
of writing to you and then I delete.
How are you to begin with? How are you spending your time? How is the prevention and how is the cleaning? (twice)
How many novels have you read? How many phone calls have you made?
Are you taking good care of yourself?Are you eating healthy?
You are
crossing my mind in confinement.
Despite the physical distance, my mind is confined with you.
In these times of science fiction and in this wasted era.Even if the world will fall apart, you will remain here in my heart.
I know
you are bored by yourself. For me,
please make a sacrifice.
You are
crossing my mind in confinement. I think
of writing to you and then I delete.
Let me
hear your words. Turn off the news. I promise, all this will end. One day will
come (twice)
A day where
we will dance, hand in hand, and you will carry me far… and your hand on my
face will charm me and will awaken my eyes
You are crossing my mind in confinement.I think of writing to you and then I delete.
How are you to begin with.How are you spending your time?
How is
the prevention and how is the cleaning? (twice)
How many
novels have you read? How many phone calls have you made?
Alberta is home to many Albertans of Muslim faith, who are observing and celebrating the Holy month of Ramadan, a time for self-reflection and spiritual renewal through prayer, fasting and being mindful of doing good for others. It is a glorious and holy time, and reminds all of us of the importance of having empathy and compassion for all.I know Ramadan will be a bit different this year, but we hope you are still able to find joy in your faith and rejoice with those close to you. Our Caucus wishes all those who celebrate all the blessings of this holy month. Ramadan Mubarak.
Above is a Ramadan greeting (2020) by a Canadian politician, called Ms. Rachel Notley (NDP). She was the Alberta Premier. Below is her Eid greeting from 2017.
How sad to see a Western woman of influence without any genuine regard for other women who may be forced to wear the hijab.
Bambi wonders how Muslim Canadian women perceive this? What about those who may be aspiring for freedom in an abusive family environment? Will they feel that the Government is going to support them?
This being said, “Ramadan Karim” to all Bambi’s friends and relatives!
