Bambi does not know about you, but she is sick and tired of either fear- or guilt-inducing mainstream media articles on how bad it is to travel and how we should pay for it (perhaps mentally preparing us for increased taxes, etc.?).
Indeed, today in La Presse, Bambi read the following article title “how holiday flights are over” and then followed by this explanation: “now that the pandemic may be over, but not the climate crisis“:
French:
https://www.lapresse.ca/societe/2022-03-07/les-vacances-en-avion-sont-elles-finies.php
English, thanks to Google Translate:
If we try to apply the logic of the virtuous article above to our politicians, we immediately observe the irony of the double standards. Indeed, rules do not seem to apply to them. For instance, we saw such a phenomenon at the beginning of the pandemic with Mr. Trudeau himself and his car travels between Ontario and Québec (earlier post further below).
Again we are observing more contradictions now. For instance, our Prime Minister, and at least two Ministers, are/will be heading to Europe to deal with the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Again, travels.
Remember also how, not a long time ago, the world’s elite/VIPs travelled to the Davos conference on the climate crisis in their private jets, as per CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/14/business/private-jets-davos-climate/index.html). Yes, they did that while lecturing us on the urgency of the climate crisis.
To come back to the Ukraine-Russian tragedy, we learned today from the L’Actualité that Mr. Trudeau said that he is happy to «… defend democracy in the world» (https://lactualite.com/actualites/ukraine-justin-trudeau-discute-avec-les-dirigeants-britannique-et-neerlandais/).
Well said. MANY thanks to Mr. Trudeau and his team for their efforts to support democracy abroad. The only question that begs itself is the following now: What about democracy at home, Mr. Trudeau, Ms. Freeland et al.? Doesn’t it deserve your support too?
Freedom of expression has never been as limited in Canada as nowadays. Since when do Canadians’ bank accounts get frozen for having participated in any demonstration?
Imagine if the latter happened to Bambi and her spouse when they walked for peace in the Middle East (no to war in Lebanon) in the streets of Toronto in 2006.
Imagine if this happened to those who walked for BLM in our town, province, country, the USA, and the world. Would this have been acceptable then? Of course not (despite the violence observed in some of these demonstrations in the States).
So, why is it acceptable now?
Why can’t we all come together and say no to state authoritarianism?
Yes to freedom of expression for ALL.
In addition to the above, and for years now, we have been observing increased censorship cases related to plays, songs, and books. Talking about books, some were burnt in Ontario schools, as per an older post, shown further below.
We have heard of… or we personally know of artists, school teachers, university professors, and even Gelato Café owners as well as truckers and farmers who have been punished or silenced in one way or another.
Is this the Canada that our leaders have envisioned for their children when they will grow up?
Our federal government tells us there is no place for hate speech in a society. It even came up with Bill C-36 in the name of fighting this so-called hate speech. We wonder how the government would define this concept and who would decide what and where is hate. For Bambi, the definition of hate speech is becoming clearer with every passing day: It seems to be any speech that our government hates.
To conclude this post, one thing is sure in Bambi’s mind, this is not the Canada she immigrated to. This is surely not what she wishes for her species (of deer) and her fellow Canadian humans for the next few years. In the meantime, to end on a musical lighter note, here is Fairouz’ song on kites entitled “Tiré ya tiyra”.
—
