Category: Sackville’s Memorial park

Thanks to Mr. Guy A. Le Page from Radio-Canada (French CBC in Montreal) for hosting Dr. Bock-Côté on his show “Tout le monde en parle”.

It was refreshing for Bambi to watch a debate of ideas (rare nowadays).

Indeed, Bambi is homesick to eras of exchange of thoughts and… to tolerance in our world.

Tolerance of all opinions, even and especially those which we do not agree with.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/tout-le-monde-en-parle/site/segments/entrevue/212491/guy-lepage-bock-cote-livre-controverse

Here is a quick translation of the summary of this TV show as taken from the French CBC website:

Mathieu Bock-Côté is not resentful toward the Association of Booksellers of Québec for temporarily withdrawing the video in which the Prime Minister suggested reading his essay entitled “The Empire of Political Correctness”. The columnist does not personally take offense at the blunder, but he is concerned about the strong tendency it reveals in our society, which consists of censoring and demonizing any speech that does not correspond to the values ​​imposed by the woke culture. From “Kanata” to “La petite vie” through what happened recently at the University of Ottawa, events are piling up and creating, he says, a certain frustration among the population. Social media may amplify the phenomenon, but it does not explain everything.

Since the interview above was in French, in case you do not understand the beautiful language of Molière, here is a quick translation of Dr. Bock-Côté’s earlier article published in the Journal de Montréal a few days ago. It is entitled “Courage in the face of the woke sect!” [Courage face à la secte woke!].

As he explained on the TV show above, “woke” is an English term. For him, using this term in French is perhaps a reminder that it is an American movement, precisely stemming from American campuses. This is not a local movement made in Québec. (Bambi sometimes uses the term “les illuminés” to refer to this illuminated movement or illuminated folks, etc.).

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/12/02/courage-contre-la-secte-woke

“For months, cases of censorship have been piling up. They are particularly concentrated in intellectual circles which, paradoxically, should be the first to defend freedom of expression.

Recall the example of SLAV in the summer of 2018. Racialist activists sought to have the show canceled and succeeded. Others had brought down Kanata.

Let’s remember the fate that befell Wendy Mesley at CBC who lost her show for using the title “Les nègres blancs d’Amériques”. This bad luck was shared by Catherine Russell at Concordia University who had the misfortune to pronounce the same title. Apparently, this was a violent act.

Censorship

We will also think of the storm that hit Lieutenant-Duval Verushka at the University of Ottawa, for uttering the forbidden word in an educational setting.

Let’s not forget Radio-Canada which decided to censor an episode of La Petite Vie before rescheduling it with a warning.

Obviously, the political correctness empire extends to Québec.

It is in the light of these events that we must look at the censorship of François Legault, who has occupied the news for the last few days. It is indicative, in fact, of a major trend, namely the deployment of a new ideological fanaticism which is no longer marginal.

It is a testament to the influence in the intellectual world of a new sectarian left from the United States. It intimidates on social media and seeks to ruin the reputation of those who do not submit to its dogmas. Its weapon: accusations of racism, sexism, transphobia. We call it the left woke. It is a religious left. It sees blasphemy in contradicting it.

We will note, through these many crises, the little resistance of the various administrations to the controversy. We could talk about the decline of courage in our societies, to say it with Solzhenitsyn [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn]. The fear of appearing badly in the circles of the social left leads these administrators to bow.

It is true that it is not particularly pleasant to endure a continuous smear campaign.

For six months now, François Legault has been the target of a media harassment campaign to force him to adhere to the wacky and dangerous theory of systemic racism. He stands up. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the head of the PQ, also resists the normalization of this shaky concept.

We can guess that many of them are pushing them to kneel down, hoping to buy peace with the fanatics.

Resistance

However, we must hold on. Even if it’s unpleasant. We will be insulted, demonized, despised. We will have on our backs full-time activists busy sullying our reputation, transforming us into monsters, so no one wants to be around us [“infréquentable” in French].

However, we must reconnect with this elementary virtue: civic courage. That of saying what you think and not just confessing it discreetly to loved ones away from others. The courage to confront the woke religion and those who repeat its slogans.

It represents a threat to democracy.”

Bambi is happy to watch this short video below. Here is why? Yesterday, she watched images of soccer players in the UK kneeling before a game and had similar thoughts as Dr. Saad.

Like him, she loves soccer (it is the least when you come from Lebanon :)). Seriously, she thanks him for sharing his thoughts and own story.

His (Jewish) family escaped Lebanon during civil war (their house was taken over, they were kidnapped, etc.). Listen how he tells us that some Muslims and some Palestinians may have put them at risk true, but others (many others!) helped them to escape, including Palestinian militia.

Thank goodness, Dr. Saad does not think in black and white, like these young athletes and their coaches. Listen to his piece of advice at the end of the video. It is worth thinking about.

To come back to Bambi herself, she was sad to watch those images, telling herself that “wokeness” has truly gone to high levels of religiosity [often out of a deep desire to be better persons in life (bravo for that!) AND a trend of social/global conformity, along with some virtue signalling].

Can’t we denounce racism and be respectful to our brothers and sisters in humanity without all these rituals? Why should we fall into the trap of dogmatic levels of religiosity (guilt feeling may be common in the latter, mind you)?

What happened to sportsmanship?

What happened to kindness in life?

What happened to respect…. of oneself and of others?

Aren’t these universal qualities enough by themselves?

MANY thanks Dr. Facal for your EXCELLENT article published yesterday in the Journal de Montréal.

Here is a quick translation… but first, the original in French.

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/12/05/la-grande-demission-des-intellectuels

“When I spoke to Richard Martineau on his show “Les francs-tireurs”, he noted that the most astonishing transformation of our time is that of the left.

I obviously agree [Bambi too ☹].

The traditional left wanted universal solidarity: to unite, beyond divisions, on the basis of a common right to dignity.

The new left proposes a return to ethnoreligious and identity tribalism: we define people by their colour, their religion, or their gender.

Alliance

Why has this left, in spite of its silliness and its excesses, the wind in its sails?

For two reasons.

The first reason for its strength is that it is the combination of four streams of thought.

First, we recycle residues of Marxism to feed an anti-capitalist discourse.

Capitalism certainly poses multiple problems, but all the attempts to get out of it have produced widespread poverty and the decline in freedoms.

There are no known exceptions.

Second, this new left is often the relay for anti-Western Islamism.

It will suggest that a free thinker who was murdered has asked for it, a little bit, with his words, or that Islamist extremism is a reaction to the discrimination suffered by all Muslims in our societies.

Third, the so-called “anti-colonial” left chooses to see only one racism, that of whites, and to see it everywhere.

Fourth, radical feminists fuel the hatred of all men, and defend a religious extremism of which they would be the first victims in the Middle East [Good point, thank you. In many earlier posts, Bambi denounced the silence of our contemporary feminists following several stories of honour killing in that part of the world].

When these four mighty forces combine, the wind starts ruffling our hair.

But this wind is blowing hard, I said, for a second reason.

It is blowing hard because many don’t dare stand up to it.

It is in universities that these discourses are constructed before being picked up by columnists and activists.

However, in universities, fear reigns.

Entire departments are kidnapped by activists: they are not researchers because they already have all the answers.

Disgusted or scared teachers walk away and let these excited people take control.

Worse, they justify their resignation by saying they are too busy with a job of which, in the vast majority of cases, nothing, absolutely nothing, will remain in a few years.

Worse, they often do willful blindness.

Our Charles Taylor defends Islamist Tariq Ramadan, who wants us to believe that the rape charges against him are the result of a conspiracy!

Who?

As they flee their responsibilities, there are not many people left to recall the obvious.

Remember that so-called anti-racism, if it targets all white people because they are white, is racism, quite simply.

Remember that “systemic” racism is not a scientific concept, but an ideological weapon.

Remember that women in the Middle East are fighting against this religious obscurantism that many of our feminists support.

Remember that making all Muslims victims is the best way to relieve them of responsibility.

If the intellectuals, if those who have the means to deconstruct these falsehoods, do not do it, who will?”

Ms. Freeland has asked Canadians who have savings (extra unspent money) to give it to the government (see video below, if you do not believe Bambi).

OK, she has a fancy, more politically correct, term to her odd request called “pre-loaded stimulus“ ?.

Are Ms. Freeland and Mr. Trudeau serious in their request?!

Bambi is afraid that Canada is well engaged on the path of Lebanon’s financial tragedy… with high debt and a forthcoming hyperinflation.

Ms. Freeland asked for our ideas. Well, here is a straightforward one for her:

Start taking care of our public debt that you are leaving behind for the next generations of Canadians IMMEDIATELY! This debt was already high, pre-coronavirus pandemic. It is higher now for sure.

Thank you.

As you can see in the links at the bottom of this post, a lawyer, Mr. Azim Hussain, on the payroll of the federal government, is making connections of Québec’s Bill 21 on secularism of the state with… the Nazis.

Yes, the same Nazis who killed tens of millions of innocent people!

Can you imagine the level of stupidity of our times of collective insanity?

This lawyer then goes on to talk about the reading list of Mr. Legault :). Should we laugh or cry at this Orwellian technique, both absurd and deceptive.

This story is the saga of censorship by the Association of Booksellers of Québec that invited the Québec PM to share his list of books… and then partly censored it because of the pressure of a FEW radical left individuals. This is the level of cowardice in our society… in addition to stupidity. We are talking about business owners supposed to earn a living selling books. They ended up coming to their senses and apologized, but only after Québeckers loudly expressed their disapproval.

Their association preferred ideology to culture and censorship to profit. Should we laugh or cry at this insanity?

Bambi posted about this story last week. Once again, if you do not like a book, do not buy it yourself, but do not be fascist about your own preferences with the rest of us. This applies to all books, any book. This is a principle. This is the least in a democracy. It is called freedom of expression.

This being said, the lawyer in question made a link between this censorship of the PM (and specifically one of the books he presented in his list) and the rise of populism in the world :). What a crazy strategy to the point of making Bambi wonder if she is listening to a serious lawyer in court OR she reading a CBC article by a so-called journalist (oups… so-called “activist” too).

This lawyer wants us to believe that this moderate bill is populism, that populism is worse than elitism, and that the current PM is guilty of having a majority Government.

Mind you, our current federal government is a minority one, but it often acts like the opposite. It is surely doing it right now and this is a disgrace.

Mr. Legault was a successful businessman before becoming a politician. Québeckers learned last week that he also loves to read. Isn’t that fantastic? He is a moderate and surely smart leader. Yes, he did and he will make mistakes (who doesn’t?). At least, he has the humility to admit that and to remain pragmatic and focused.

It must be hard to govern in a pandemic, for sure. It must be even harder to govern in our times of collective insanity!

This is why Bambi saluted his courage in defending freedom of expression in an earlier post (see further below). He did it with elegantly simple words on his Facebook page. She also allowed herself to email his office, as a “québécoise of heart” “to congratulate him for, courageously and simply, defending freedom of expression in our country“. And of course, she did it in the beautiful language of the Belle Province :)!

What he did is what we all should be doing, to use the words of Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté himself, be courageous and say no to the mobs. Bambi will add the following: Today, it seems to be coming from the far left. Tomorrow or yesterday, from the “truly” far right. So left or right (or in any other direction), totalitarianism is unacceptable. Bambi is saying so, because she knows too well what it can do to a society.

Anyhow, the title of Bambi’s current post candidly expresses her thoughts after reading the article in question. She is sad because Canada could be much smarter than that, by simply respecting Québec’s spirit, culture, history, etc. If the federal government (led by our current PM or another PM one of these days) does not want to accept/honour cultural differences whilst respecting the majority in Québec (which would be truly “inclusive and diverse”, to use own governmental buzz words), it is perhaps time to consider reviving the Sovereignty movement.

Talking about the sovereignty movement, there is a political party in Québec that is known to be into this movement. Well, this party has a new dynamic young leader now. Guess what? A Concordia University professor called him Pol Pot, imagine (again who killed so many innocent people!). The politician demanded apologies. The professor was wise enough to do so. End of the story.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/concordia-university-professor-apologizes-for-comparing-pq-leader-to-pol-pot

To conclude this post, why would a Muslim friend from Nova Scotia quickly express respect of Québec’s choices when Bambi told him about this forthcoming bill (his veiled cousin was considering immigrating to Québec from Lebanon)… AND not our own federal government. Does that make any sense?

Why can’t we accept that Canada is about multiculturalism and Québec chose interculturalism. It is as simple as that, period. Mr. Trudeau called Canada a postnational country. Well, thankfully, Québec still has pride in itself and its heritage. Perhaps Mr. Trudeau can learn something from this patriotism and vision, even if his vision is also valid?

To conclude this post, as a reminder, Bill 21 is just about government workers in position of authority. It is not about anything else. It protects people who have visible religious signs currently in those positions (no one will lose his or her job, thankfully).

Bambi has repeatedly written about Bill 21. We may not like it, but it is Québec’s choice (following 10 years of a public debate on reasonable accommodations). Whether we endorse this bill or not, it is made by Québec and is meant for Québec.

So, please give Québec a break!

——

In French… from the Journal de Montréal:

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/12/04/loi21-un-avocat-fait-un-lien-avec-lesnazis

In English…Google Translate of the article above:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/12/04/loi21-un-avocat-fait-un-lien-avec-lesnazis

Bravo to Mr. Legault for being one of our rare politicians to defend freedom of expression

Bambi would like to thank her spouse for sharing this article:

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-crisis-financial-explainer/explainer-lebanons-financial-meltdown-and-how-it-happened-idUKKBN268223

If you have up five minutes to devote to reading this weekend, it is worth it.

What an excellent explanation of Lebanon’s financial crisis… and why some Lebanese citizens are now forced to steal food from supermarkets or medication from pharmacies to feed or heal their families :(. These sad stories have been reported by both the media and by Bambi’s loved ones (different friends or relatives living in different regions of the country).

It is heart-breaking, to say the least.

Lebanon deserves better than this.

The world deserves not to always have to worry about Lebanon.

All countries deserve to live in economic prosperity.

Lebanon’s problem has nothing to do with neither covid-19 (although the pandemic adds to the financial tragedy!) nor climate-change (although Lebanon needs ecological reforms too).

Lebanon’s financial tragedy is all about mismanagement AND corruption, period.

Of course, Lebanon has also another potentially deadly problem called “Hezbollah” (which literally means the “Party of God” as if God needed to be defended) . This pro-Iranian Lebanese party has a militia wing that is larger than tiny Lebanon and its official army (which, by the way, cannot afford to feed its soldiers with meat anymore).

The mafia-like governance co-exists with militia.

One hides behind the other. One justifies the other.

Both are ruining Lebanon.

MANY thanks to Mr. Wark for his informative article (see below) about what is happening in our town with one of the most decent politicians in our province, country, and perhaps in the world.

Bambi will name Mr. Bruce Phinney.

Mr. Phinney is far from being perfect because he is a human being.

However, this being said, one of his BEST qualities is his honesty.

He tells the truth as it is. How many of us still speak our mind in such a candid way?

Indeed, with all due respect to all our politicians in town, including our MLA (a former town councillor), Mr. Phinney was the only elected official who stood up to defend Bambi’s spouse.

Ironically, Mr. Phinney is now being accused (for the second time) in a similar way.

In Bambi’s non-expert citizen opinion, this way is all about silencing. It has nothing to do with politeness.

Since when a town councillor and a citizen cannot criticize town staff or provincial politicians?

When will we have accountability in our town?

When will our town truly respects its citizens, even those who are not part of the elite?

Is there any hope?

Sackville Councillor Bruce Phinney in hot water again apparently for dissing town CAO

First, here are some of the families of the 200 victims and 6000+ injured victims of the Beirut blast.

They are still waiting for the 4-day-promised investigation 4 months following Beirut port bast.

They are still demanding an international investigation!

Of course, this demand is also Bambi’s wish, hoping for courageous outcomes, unlike the ridiculously shy judgment of the UN’s Special Tribunal for Beirut’s blast of 2005 that Lebanon has partly funded over many years. As a reminder, this explosion assassinated Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Mr. Hariri, and MANY other innocent victims.

Second, here is the ironic part where Hezbollah hides behind “progressive” words such as “right-wing” ? and “to prosecute and pursue all those who practice deception, fraud and false accusations” (this would be the equivalent of “hate speech” in our Western societies in our strange times).

They also add that “they have faith in the judicial authority”. Of course, they do! They massively control it, just like Wharf 12 of the Beirut port where the warehouse exploded.

Do they think that their fellow citizens are stupid?

Or do they think the world is stupid to believe them and bail the Lebanese corrupt government out without any reform.

The truth of the matter is that the Lebanese people (including those from Hezbollah’s own communities who refuse to act like sheep) want to live in a SAFE country without their silly weapons (real ones or… just ammonium nitrate).

They are fed up of their warrior mindset.

This is the truth, Hezbollah. Can you learn to adjust to it?

Hezbollah Suing Those Accusing It Of Beirut’s Port Explosion

We teach our children not to cheat.

We teach our athletes not to dope, and we punish them if they do so.

We try to lead by example, by always choosing honesty… In both our failures and our successes.

Of course, in politics as in life, there is cheating from time to time.

However, when it may be systemic and likely orchestrated (even by a party we may like and prefer), sorry this is unacceptable!

So, if what Mr. Trump is claiming is true, this is very serious.

It has consequences, not just in America and its beautiful constitution (https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript), but for democracy around the world, for economy, for common sense… and for security in some hot spots like the Middle East.

Whether we are allergic to Mr. Trump or not, whether we are in love with Mr. Biden or not, we should be concerned.

Not just the Americans, but us here in Canada and around the world.

Bambi is not in love with Mr. Trump’s character, but she respects the 70+ million who voted for him (as well as the voters in the other direction).

Perhaps the choice between both politicians is a choice between two “evils” (if one is smelly like pee, the other would be smellier like feces… sadly, the choice is between the two). She is saying this with all due respect to both men.

However, if systemic cheating has occurred, this would be unacceptable to both democracy and the Republicans (i.e., Mr. Trump).

If no systemic cheating occurred, why aren’t the Democrat members supporting the recounts to prove their numbers?

Bambi is puzzled.

She is even more puzzled, given her earlier post further below.

Could Mr. Trump legal claim be founded in the end?

Of course, the Canadian media is as biased as the American media. They diabolize Mr. Trump so much and do not show us the facts and up to us to make an opinion for ourselves. For example, the CBC article below did not even show us the video of Mr. Trump’s speech. The CBC only told us about that video. Is that normal in journalism? For Bambi, this sounds more like Tehran Times or media by the Syrian regime ?.

She is saying this, and she does not care about neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump. She cares about truth (not the truth of each of one of them, but the Truth with a big T. This means: the facts).

https://www.cbc.ca/news/trump-rant-biden-1.5826116

Rebel News: “Dominion Voting shares office with far-left George Soros linked group”

Criminal negligence, stupidity, and perhaps criminality!!

The end result is Beirut’s nightmare of August 4th, 2020 :(!

Thank you Forensic Architecture for your clever work and for making your video public (in both English and Arabic versions).