Category: Sackville’s Memorial park

Thank you, veterans… Merci pour vos sacrifices!

On this November 11, 2021, Bambi feels like thanking the Town of Sackville (New Brunswick) for having given us this year enough time to appreciate our street decorations… so we can remember how to remember to honour our veterans.

While jumping on the streets, as a deer who refuses to forget (especially because she is a peace lover), Bambi has appreciated each face in each picture, and with it each story of each veteran. Many thanks to their families for having shared their pride and grief. What an honour to walk under the pictures of their loved ones who gave their lives so we can collectively enjoy our freedoms… even when the freedoms of some of us are under attack.

At 11:59 pm on September 21, the Atlantic Canadian province of New Brunswick (NB) introduced a health measure about proof of full vaccination to attend the funerals of loved ones (https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2021.09.0654.html).

First, here is the exact language used by our government:

“New COVID-19 measures go into effect tonight at 11:59 p.m.

21 September 2021

FREDERICTON (GNB) – Beginning tonight at 11:59 p.m., people will be required to show proof of full vaccination when accessing certain events, services and businesses, and masking will be mandatory in all public indoor spaces. In addition, anyone entering New Brunswick must pre-register through the New Brunswick Travel Registration Program.

People will need to show proof of full vaccination whenever they access certain services, businesses and events, including:

• indoor festivals, performing arts and sporting events;
• indoor and outdoor dining and drinking at restaurants, pubs and bars;
• movie theatres, nightclubs, amusement centres, pool halls, bowling alleys and casinos;
• gyms, indoor pools and indoor recreation facilities;
• indoor group exercise facilities;
• indoor organized gatherings, including weddings, funerals, parties (excluding parties in a private dwelling), conferences and workshops;
• indoor organized group recreational sports, classes and activities; and
• visiting a long-term care facility.”

Second, among the list shown above, one event/activity stands out as being quite different from all the others. It is funerals, which is a spiritual ritual meant to remember/honour the life of a loved one whilst saying “good-bye” to him/her.

Like birth, is there a moment more significant that funerals in a lifetime!?

Earlier in the pandemic (especially prior to vaccine developments), public funerals were cancelled altogether in many crowded places around the world (only attended by the immediate family).

If Bambi may, she would like to make a comparison here with the times of civil war in her childhood in Beirut (where funerals were so common). For instance, Bambi’s aunt was buried without the presence of her loved ones. Due the siege of Beirut by the Syrian forces at the time, and the HEAVY shelling, only a priest and a kind relative on the other side of the family (bless his heart) were able to proceed with the burial of Ramona, Bambi’s dear aunt. It was hard for the whole family, even the youngest ones, not to be able to say good-bye (even her dad who wanted to brave soldiers and shelling, could not enter the city from which they managed to escape just before their tragic loss). It is precisely at that time of her life, at age 6, that Bambi began writing a daily diary (in a sense similar to this blog, but handwritten, not online as it was pre-internet times).

Anyhow, to come to NB and to our current Covid-19 times, Bambi can only understand how shocking it may be for some of her fellow NB citizens to be legally prevented from participating in the funerals of their family members if they are not fully vaccinated (for whatever medical or personal reason). To them, perhaps this measure may be even experienced as an apparently psychologically cruel policy-related punishment than a protective measure per se (as a reminder, they are the ones who are most at risk of being severely ill, which we tend to forget).

Third, keeping the above in mind, Bambi invited a citizen of her province to an interview because he had something interesting to express on this topic. He kindly accepted and Bambi is very grateful to this citizen, called Mr. Louis, for his time, generosity, and insights. Food for thought, if anyone cares to read and reflect.

May God protect everyone’s loved ones. Plus, may no one have to go through the additional sadness of not being able to honour his/her deceased family member or close friend. For Bambi, perhaps the saddest part of all this is the following: Contrary to the harsh reality of civil war, what is happening in Canada (i.e., NB and NS precisely) is that governmental health measures seem to be dividing grieving families in their grief, at a time where they may need to come together more than ever. No, it is not due to the absurd, uncontrollable (yet highly controlling) violence of civil war. It is rather because of a cold, either unwise or harsh, political decision (taken from the comfort of an office, that could be perhaps disconnected from people’s reality or grief journey).

Start of the interview here:

Bambi’s question # 1: What do you think of the health measure of NB, and NS, to require proof of full vaccination to attend funerals of loved ones?

Mr. Louis’ answer # 1: “I think that it’s beyond the pale of disgusting.

For a start, I disagree with the whole proof of vaccination system as a whole, as being intrusive and unneeded. For something like that to be acceptable, there would have to be extraordinary justification for it, it would have to be highly effective, the
alternatives would have to be even more unacceptable, and it would have to be very time-limited. None of those apply here, and all the indications are that it’s becoming a tool of marginalization and nothing else. The most amusing way of showing this is looking at the NB gov’t “Potential Public Exposure” notifications of the last few weeks. Eyeballing it, about half (if not more) are for places that require proof of vaccination. That makes my point.

Secondly, even if one were to accept such a system as a sort of harm reduction measure, it’s beyond outrageous to apply it to funerals. Consider that the province allows an alternative for religious services in general, but specifically excludes funerals! Why? Is it the province’s idea that punishing people by barring them from funerals is an incentive? I find it to be very much an incentive… to lose any and all remaining respect that I had for this government.

At the very very minimum, they should have excluded immediate family, possibly with a testing requirement. Considering the effectiveness of the vaccine, this would probably make the unvaccinated+tested *less* of a risk at such events, amusingly. Note that I’m not suggesting this: I’m saying that at least it wouldn’t have the level of inhumanity of the current arrangement, which bars someone from attending the funeral of a spouse, of a parent, of a child. To do that is worthy of a totalitarian dictatorship. Even more shocking is there appears to be no visible push-back to it.”

Bambi’s question # 2: You wrote to the government to express your opinion about this funeral-related health measure. Would you like to share your expressed opinion with Bambi’ readers? And did you get any reply to your email from our government?

Mr. Louis’ answer # 2: “My expressed opinion was similar to what I wrote above. They never answered.

As an aside, I no longer use “our government”. I say “the government”. They’re certainly not mine, and I don’t view them much differently than I would view an occupying power, at this point. The last time I checked, occupying powers don’t usually keep people from their loved ones’ funerals.”

Bambi’s question # 3: If not already addressed, how would you have done it differently had you been an NB health-decision maker?

Mr. Louis’ answer # 3: “I would have treated it in the same way as a supermarket or a pharmacy: distancing recommended. I would encourage venues to set up in such a way that the especially vulnerable can avoid extra mingling: having the option of a plastic sheet as a barrier for grieving immediate family in a condolence line, for example. I would also encourage maximum ventilation and humidity range control, which appears to help in slowing transmission. That being said, people who leave home at present do so in the knowledge that there is a non-zero risk of exposure, and they have an individual decision to make for themselves.”

Bambi’s question # 4: Do you have any opinion to share beyond this specific pandemic-related health measure?

Mr. Louis’ answer # 4: “I think I already did, but overall, I’d say that we as a society seem to have gone crazy over this. At first, it was a reasonable
position to be extra-cautious, as we had no idea what we were dealing with. At present, it has become increasingly apparently that this virus will never go away(*), and that we just have to learn to live with it. That will include living with some of the damage that it causes. We will all unfortunately know people who will die of COVID. We also know people who will die in car accidents – but nonetheless drive. As with a lot of other things, it’s a balancing act. Clearly, to me, there’s no example of the balancing being more misguided than in banning people from funerals.

(*) This article sums up nicely where I think that the situation is going:
https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/qa-why-history-suggests-covid-19-here-stay  “.

Once again, many thanks Mr. Louis…

A new medical diagnosis in the world… made in Canada, one of the coldest countries in the world, one must add (https://www.wionews.com/trending/suffering-from-climate-change-canada-woman-first-in-world-with-such-diagnosis-428006).

The BC physician who made the diagnosis, along with some peers, even demonstrated a few days ago for climate action: https://www.rosslandnews.com/news/nelson-doctors-and-nurses-demonstrate-for-climate-action/.

Regardless of your opinion or perhaps personal level of activism with this particular topic, Bambi wonders if you are also noticing the increasing contradictions in our country (and world), like her.

Indeed, such a VERY novel diagnosis, not rooted in clinical guidelines, is making local and international headlines simply because it is socially and globally encouraged.

You may think this is normal in a country where its prime minister called for a “global climate change tax” (what a creative solution). More seriously, he will soon be tailoring policies that will very seriously limit the economy of his/our country (in times we badly need to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic). All this and Canada is not even one of the largest contributors to any human-made part of the climate change (not as much as China or India or other countries). So instead of all this, why don’t we put more efforts into funding research on green technologies that actually work?

To come back to healthcare providers, in contrast to this story, when a physician or a nurse questions something like the need of mass vaccination of young children with a new technique not tested enough and they are not an at-risk group for severe symptoms of Covid-19, he or she is cancelled by the health authorities. Of course, Bambi is not talking here about kids with complex health conditions or those with known adult-like risk factors or not even about those who parents are eager to vaccinate their 5-11 years old.

To conclude this post, she does not know about you, but as a deer who consumes the healthcare system from time to time, Bambi personally prefers to be treated by competent clinicians who will focus on her medical care per se than on world’s ideologies that are increasingly colouring or invading the healthcare delivery as well as our personal daily lives, as citizens. She is saying so with all due respect to this particular physician (and to his peers) as well as to all our health professionals.

A song for Lebanon, and to all the nations of the world, struggling for their existence. Thank you Ms. Carla Chamoun for your moving interpretation of “Mawtini” (which means “my country”, in English, or “ma patrie”, in French).

Early this morning, Bambi read in the L’Orient Le Jour that the young and talented artist, called Mr. Hussein Kaouk, is the target of a violent campaign from a Lebanese newspaper as well as from kind folks on social media who are literally calling for his death (https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1280781/violente-campagne-des-partisans-du-hezbollah-contre-lhumoriste-chiite-hussein-kaouk.html). Can you imagine?

Why this violence, you may wonder? Well, in his new stand-up comedy, Mr. Kaouk seems to be making fun of the mafia of his country. Yes, all those corrupt mainstream political parties from the era of civil war, including the most powerful one, along with another allied one if Bambi gets it right.

After 31 years of migration, it is sometimes hard to understand the details of local jokes or humour. However, it remains very easy to: (1) Recognize an artistic talent, even after watching only one of his older pieces (kindly shared by a loved one many months ago) and (2) Stand up for freedom of expression. The latter is the easiest one for Bambi!

Calling for the death of someone is criminal. Killing journalists/intellectuals is literally barbaric (i.e., as a reminder, a murder that took place nine months ago remains unpunished… may Mr. Lokman Slim’s memory be eternal). Falsely accusing comedians of “collaboration with enemies” and throwing them in jail is the top of moral and human corruption (thankfully, the truth was uncovered and Mr. Ziad Itani found his freedom and hopefully dignity again).

Attacking freedom of expression, and particularly humour, is unacceptable, period. Thus, bravo to all the courageous Lebanese folks standing up together, in solidarity, by sharing Mr. Kaouk’s comedies on their social media platforms, as per the article above. Laughing about their problems is all what is left to Lebanese people (after they saw their money, their lives, and their dreams stolen). So, do no take humour away from them for their own sanity.

To conclude this post, by supporting this artist, and through him all the artists of their country, Lebanese people are saying no to totalitarianism, no to the violence of cancel culture, and no to obscurantism. This means yes to freedom of expression. Yes to arts and humour. Yes to democracy in Lebanon… and, by extension, hopefully everywhere in our world (including us in Canada).

Bambi would like to thank her good friend who shared this very informative and thoughtful article:

https://quillette.com/2021/11/07/anti-racism-as-office-politics-power-play-a-canadian-academic-case-study/

Bravo and thank you to Mr. Jonathan Kay for his clever article!

Why are these people destroying our universities, and thus country, with destructive ideologies? Who is funding all this non-sense and made it our new orthodoxies? Can someone tell us, please?

Can we have our universities back, please?

Can we have our country back, please?

Enough is more than enough!

Mom, this post is meant for you, hoping you will enjoy your two songs:

The first is entitled “Les yeux de la mama“. It is a masterpiece, according to Bambi. She discovered it a few days ago only (although it is from 2015). What a talented and moving French artist, this 25-year-old Mr. Kendji Girac (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendji_Girac), with his poetic words stemming from his heart, his warm and melodious voice, along with his unique music. Bravo to him for singing for his mom. You deserve every word of his lyrics, of course including the reference to his mama’s beautiful eyes (olive green in you case)!

As for the second song, it is simply meant to make you smile or hopefully even laugh (after the moving song above). It is that Egyptian children’s song of Bambi’s childhood, entitled “Mama Zamanha Gaya”. If you recall, it is about a dad baby-sitting his child and telling her not to cry because her mom is on the way and she is bringing her toys ? (an English translation here as well as a performance by a cute little Egyptian girl: https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=273). Bambi suspects that other Arab-speaking readers may also smile, perhaps while singing this song.

Happy birthday, mom, with much love across the miles!! “Akbel El Mieh mama” (this Lebanese birthday expression wishes loved ones to live until 100 years… OK, let’s say, this is the minimum acceptable number of years ?). Have fun today and thank you for giving Bambi (and her siblings) life, for being an inspiration, and for ALL the rest!

When Bambi migrated to Canada in 1990, she was disappointed by only three Canadian realities (and winter is still not among them :)):

1. She naively thought that, in Canada (“sold” abroad as a bilingual country), each citizen speaks both English and French. Not the case. Not realistic also.
2. She had trouble imagining a world (OK precisely its washrooms 🙂 without a “bidet” (see picture). There is even a funny French song for the bidet, shown below.
3. Well, although Montreal is an island, the Saint Lawrence river water around it was not salty obviously. Bambi loves salty waters, like the Mediterranean sea of her childhood or the Atlantic Ocean of her current times.

OK, seriously now, this post is specifically about the first point.

It is one thing to be unilingual (French is harder to learn when we are an anglophone than vice versa). It is a totally different matter to having a disrespectful attitude toward the language of French-speaking people (or with speakers of English or any other language, of course).

Bearing the above in mind, what happened in Montreal recently was an expression of an arrogant attitude, which is surprising when it comes from a clever businessman, leading one of the largest companies of our country, namely Air Canada. At least this man (ironically with a French name, Rousseau) apologized. After the insult, he is now telling us that he will work on learning French. Mind you, this is what our Governor General also told us (by the way, did she find the time to start her courses :)?). At least in her case, she showed more respect than this businessman (https://www.qub.ca/article/le-bureau-du-pm-a-aussi-averti-air-canada-1060030199). Thanks to her. At least, in his case, he expressed his regrets and this wise move must be saluted, even if it does not erase what he said the day before (and how he said it) and no need to go into the details of the wording. It is a question of attitude, not of specific words or lack of them. The main point is that he refused to give a bilingual talk to the Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain, although requested by the province’s Commissioner of Official Languages, the office of the Prime Minister François Legault, and the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, new federal Minister of Official Languages (thanks to her!).

Sadly, Mr. Rousseau’s actions speak volumes about some of the widespread attitudes of many across our country. Indeed, the only socially acceptable discriminatory attitude seems to be toward Québeckers. If you do not believe Bambi, do a quick tour of the mainstream English media or just think of the moderator’s horrible and misleading question to Mr. Blanchet in the English federal debate. Ironically, her question was stating how Bill 96 on the French language is racist and discriminatory. One must keep in mind that although Air Canada is a private company, federal laws of bilingualism apply to it. Why can’t its CEO have a minimum of respect for the beautiful language of Molière, especially after 14 years in Montreal?

Luckily, there are defendants of French in Québec who are immigrants or children of immigrants and who chose Québec, precisely because of its language (just like Bambi’s family). They worked hard to learn or master its language and they respect it. Bravo to Mr. Antoine Robitaille who highlighted the Québec politicians, Ms. Ruba Ghazal and Ms. Marwah Rizky, fo their responses to this story (https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/11/06/inspirantes-ruba-ghazal-et-marwah-rizqy). It is moving to hear their family stories (their parents took the time to work hard to learn French, including one mother with a disabled child). Mr. Robitaille is right: They are living proof of the success of immigration into a nation that still respect itself, that is its language and values (how refreshing nowadays!).

To conclude this post devoted to the French language, why can’t we be respectful for all the minorities equally? Why should we always seem to have double standards in life? Luckily, for those of us who are not talented in learning languages, we do not have to speak the same language to show the universal attitude of respect. The latter does not need much time and energy to be learned like French. It is widely available for free to those who chose to have the agency to resort to it. By apologizing, Mr. Rousseau showed us that he can be much talented in learning the respect of Québec (and by extension Francophones and Francophiles across Canada and even the world). There is hope in life and, because of that, he deserves the beautiful song below about the French language, as a gift from Bambi… of course in the language of Voltaire and Molière.

CTV News just informed us that “Feds expected to announce plans to raise, re-lower flags for Remembrance Day” (https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/feds-expected-to-announce-plans-to-raise-re-lower-flags-for-remembrance-day-1.5652596).

If this is not a joke, what is it then?

Since when the love of a flag is not for all?

Since when grief is not a heart journey before anything else in life?

So why are they so disrespectful to our flag… and thus to all of us?

Why are our politicians politicizing our flag, like that, and insulting our/their country?

They tell us it is to please Indigenous leaders. So, if that is truly the case, why don’t they also listen to the sharp words of Ms. Melissa Mbarki, “a policy analyst and outreach co-ordinator at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and a member of the Treaty 4 nation in Saskatchewan“. According to her (and Bambi agrees), “the lowered flag is a mockery to all Canadians, including Indigenous people” (https://nationalpost.com/opinion/melissa-mbarki-the-lowered-flag-is-a-mockery-to-all-canadians-including-indigenous-people).

—

Bambi’s earlier posts on the topic:

Mr. Mario Dumont: “Jour du Souvenir: relevez ce drapeau!” [“Remembrance Day, raise this flag!”]

Mr. Trudeau, despite the sorrow in our hearts, can we now raise our Canadian flag again… just like in the Mohawk territory?

Thank you journalist Roula Douglas for re-tweeting this moving picture taken at the destroyed Beirut port.

Bambi’s heart goes to Jessica’s sister/mom while she re-affirms her support to Judge Tarek Bitar. May his investigation (now suspended) continue again… “until the end“, to use his own words (as per the earlier post below).

Regardless of the outcomes of this investigation, this decent and courageous judge is a “hero“, to use Maya’s words (as per the comment to the post below). Indeed, he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize (Bambi is nominating him now in her heart)!

To conclude this post on a musical note, here is Mr. Fadi Bazzi’s timely French song for Beirut following its blast (subtitled in English).

—

Beirut port investigation saga: For how long can a judge resist political interference?