It takes wisdom and courage to say no (to Ottawa) when it would be logical to do so, to protect the NB population during a deadly pandemic.
This temporary ban is meant to keep our good record of low cases and zero deaths related to Covid-19. Why take the risk of changing these good statistics, after having worked hard to keep them under control by taking wise decisions (fast lockout of senior nursing home, fast closure of borders, tracking symptoms and/or relations of travellers, informing people who travelled on an airplane with a known case, closing schools/campuses fast, etc.)?
The needs of our farmers can be easily filled with volunteering work by our younger people (e.g., maybe students or others, with a little bonus, if we can afford it, like richer provinces such as Québec; if not, as a volunteering work to help each other).
Related to this, it is reassuring to hear that the province will “shift some of the 1,500 foreign workers already in the province to fill gaps at his farm and others”, as NB Premier said.
May this pandemic be behind us, so we can come back to our normal welcoming traditions with our much needed summer foreign workers, with our relatives from other provinces, and with our international tourists or students, etc.
From a recent Warktimes article, we learned that our Green MLA, Ms. Megan Mitton is saying that Covid-19 shows need for guaranteed income: https://cutt.ly/7yd3sSh
Indeed, we can read in the article above: “Now more than ever there is a need to de-couple labour from income and ensure that everyone’s basic needs are met through a Guaranteed Liveable Income” Mitton, who represents the provincial riding of Memramcook-Tantramar, said Tuesday night during an hour-long Green Party panel discussion on Facebook.”
If this is not communism, what it is then?
Indeed, Mr. Karl Marx said the following: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs“.
Is this the solution Ms. Mitton? And if so, from where, would the “Guaranteed Liveable Income” come from? Does money grow on trees? Not to Bambi’s knowledge. This money will come from our taxes and/or public dept.
Related to this? Wouldn’t it be wiser to teach people to fish instead of giving them a fish?
Why do we need to make people so dependent on governments for a living?
Perhaps it would be more efficient for our governments to create winning conditions for entrepreneurs instead of killing their ambitions with handouts?
Anyhow, to conclude this post, Ms. Mitton’s idea is not new and not specific to the Green Party of NB. It has been advocated years ago by similar parties in Ottawa (Green Party of Canada) and Québec (Québec Solidaire):
Bambi’s heart goes to Brady’s parents, extended
family, and friends.
After a lengthy
hit-and-run trial, Judge Denise Leblanc “has found Maurice Johnson not
guilty in the death of Brady Francis that happened two years ago”.
“I am not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt
that Johnson knowingly hit a person,” she said whilst taking over two
hours to read her decision to the court.
It is absolutely heart-breaking to read about the words
Brady’s mom, saying she “felt let down by the Canadian justice system”… “I’m
so angry, hurt, lost … let down,” to use her own words.
“Why did I have faith in this[?]”.
In the same vein, the Elsipogtog First Nation Chief Aaron
Sock said immediately after the verdict: “There’s no justice for First
Nations people in Canada”.
Life is SO unfair… Sadly, there is nothing, not even a
guilty verdict, that would have brought Brady back. It cannot also bring immediate
closure and healing to all those hearts who have loved him.
This NB tragedy makes Bambi think of her family’s
neighbours in Beirut. They lost their two sons in two different car tragedies.
In both cases, the deceased boy was hanging out with the same friend. Of
course, not his fault. It was just fate. The family moved on with their lives,
despite the initial shock and anger.
In Brady’s hit-and-run death whilst waiting for a lift
(perhaps from his parents?), there is no word that can be said or written to
describe the cruelty of the sad story.
Mr. Johnson maintained his version of a deer, thinking
he hit one. Forensic evidence was also missing to make the Judge convinced “beyond
a reasonable doubt” that this man “knowingly hit a person”.
In this judgment, it is clear for Bambi that the ethno-linguistic
background of the young victim was not related to the outcome of this trial. In
other terms, the historic facts and reality of abuses and colonization toward our
first nations are irrelevant here… despite the disappointment and anger of
loved ones.
Justice should be served equally to all citizens, even
when they happen to be from this or that vulnerable group in our society.
Bambi could have misunderstood the CBC article. However,
it seems to her that the RCMP police worked hard to prove their guilt hypothesis.
Despite this, and despite a societal public opinion of sympathy toward first nations, Judge Leblanc seemed to have meticulously analyzed all the evidence at her hand. It takes much courage on behalf of a judge to come to a verdict based on evidence (or lack of?), and not on politics.
Of course, our legal system is far from being perfect,
especially perhaps in NB, but it remains the best “impartial” process humans
can have to obtain a resemblance of justice.
As a citizen self-representing, Bambi’ spouse experienced
the imperfect NB legal system. His experience brought to his/our attention
serious issues/gaps. However, despite this bad story, not a single minute passed
by where him or Bambi thought that his saga with our town and, by extension
with the NB or Canadian legal system, was due to his different heritage (culture,
including language/religion, etc.).
To conclude this post, may Brady’s memory be eternal… May his mom and dad manage to find enough peace to be able to go to sleep tonight, despite their sadness and disappointment.
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.
