{"id":112,"date":"2019-07-21T13:51:37","date_gmt":"2019-07-21T13:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=112"},"modified":"2019-07-22T23:25:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T02:25:00","slug":"sackvillesmemorialpark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2019\/07\/21\/sackvillesmemorialpark\/","title":{"rendered":"Sackille’s Memorial Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Nearby
Nearby town of Amherst, NS<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My first post is a reaction to a comment by a certain \u201cWrayton\u201d who wrote on the Warktimes (https:\/\/warktimes.com\/<\/a>), a blog by our talented journalist Mr. Bruce Wark (article posted on July 5th<\/sup>, 2019 and entitled \u201cMohawk Grand Chief speaks out against installing Cougar in Sackville\u2019s Memorial Park<\/a>\u201d).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to publish my comment below on the Warktimes on July\n8, 2019 unsuccessfully. This person calling himself\/herself Wrayton wrote that\nmy words were \u201cignorant, racist or both\u201d twice in a raw, the first time\nimpolitely calling his own login name \u201cRoll up Rima\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome thoughts come to my mind, after reading Wrayton\u2019s\nwords, and I feel like sharing, if I may:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, when Louis B\u00e9liveau\u2019s legal saga with our town about\nthe old beautiful white church downtown began (i.e., the false permit of\ndemolishment), I told him from the beginning: if those parishioners themselves\ndo not want to preserve their own church (its architectural heritage), the\nbattle will be hopeless, I am afraid; despite all the best efforts of the\ndevoted heritage board volunteering members, including himself. I said what I\nsaid whilst eventually supporting Louis all the way until the Supreme court, of\ncourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, 2-3 years later, I will say the same about our\nbeloved Canada: If (some) Sackville citizens do not want to stand up for their\nOWN legion of veterans\/army and country themselves anymore, I am afraid there\nis not much one can do to save OUR Canada\u2026 from ourselves. Pride usually\nemerges from within. Sadly, pride can be also \u201ckilled\u201d from the outside in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extreme social justice activists did not care about our\ntown\u2019s local matters to the point of missing the news about the Hussars\u2019 gift\nin February. Suddenly they woke up in June and, because of lack of leadership\n(too much political correctness or stakes at hand), our authorities listened to\nthem, instead of the majority. Sackville became the laughingstock of not only\nthe rest of NB but also of Canada, including Qu\u00e9bec (along with Kanesatake<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By going to this extreme in our noble social justice\nobsession, we have ironically let down hundreds of Native families of\nKanesatake who live in fear (a former Chief and his family had to escape to\nOntario because their house was burned down; another Chief moved to the nearby\nOka; https:\/\/urlzs.com\/XaFkz<\/a>). Guess\nwhat? We have naively invited their current Chief to also interfere in our\nsmall town\u2019s municipal affairs. Is this a wise move? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will also add the following saying— meant for the vocal\nminority that imposed its views on the VAST majority AFTER a democratic process\nhad taken place months earlier: \u00abQui s\u00e8me le vent, r\u00e9colte la temp\u00eate\u00bb. [= He\nwho sows the wind, reaps the whirlwind].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope history will prove me wrong in the years to come but,\nif this wind is to become a hurricane one day (who knows what can happen in the\nworld one day), how could we \u201cstand on guard for Canada\u201d if we have\ncollectively already stopped feeling proud of our past\/heritage, historic\nachievements as well as future endeavours?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the Memorial park saga, sad public matters\nhappened lately. For instance, on Canada day, unless I missed it, I did not see\nany single flag of Canada in our town. Furthermore, we have even been virtually\nlectured by our MLA (on twitter) about what it means to be Canadian whilst\nraising some philosophical questions. Why this turn off when all what people\nwanted was to simply have fun with family or friends, celebrating Canada\u2019s day?\nIn my non-expert citizen opinion, there is a time to celebrate and a time to be\npolitical. Any lecture or deep question could have waited until the next\nworking day, it seems to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conclude, will Wrayton (\u201cthe Mysterious– yet impolite–\nWrayton on the Warktimes\u201d) accuse me again of being \u201cracist or ignorant or\nboth\u201d for loving my country?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addendum (added on Bambi\u2019s Afkar on July 21, 2019):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony of all our Memorial park saga in Sackville, NB, is\nthat, on July 11, 2019, the disputed piece of land that provoked the Oka crisis\nin July 1990 was offered by the Oka developer as an \u201cecological gift\u201d to the\nMohawks in the nearby Kanesatake (https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/yxlyqlxk<\/a>).\nA new chapter seems to be opening in Oka. Despite this piece of (apparently)\nwise news, one can sarcastically wonder why the whole tragic crisis, 29 years\nago? Could we have prevented the past crisis simply with an earlier gift?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, if people are able to put the past behind them\nin Oka itself to move forward together, why are we bringing the ghost of the\npast to our small town here in NB, which is located miles away from Montreal?\nAre we truly genuine in doing so? Or are we just being a bit too \u201cilluminated\u201d\n(as I like to say)? Are we using Native issues (or other issues eventually) to\nscore ideological, virtue signalling, points? Is this yet another sign of\ndisrespect of our past and of the memory of the dead? I cannot help not to\nwonder. Why don\u2019t we try to learn to draw a balance between our illuminated\naspirations and the pride of our heritage? Is it that complicated? Can\u2019t we\nintegrate the two aspects? Or should we go to the extreme, yet again, by\nself-attacking our own civilization\/country? Will this make us better Canadian\ncitizens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of days ago, we started to read\/hear about\nincreased tensions in Oka (the same old conflict \u2639). We can wonder if all this new\ndevelopment is a true coincidence or an orchestrated saga behind the scenes for\nunknown reasons? Who knows? Who cares to know? Regardless, it is dangerous to\nplay with fire. Words are not innocent. Words have weight. We need to be wise\nand restrained in using them, as politicians or Chiefs. However, words are\nsometimes all what people have to express themselves or name things. All words deserve\nto be said and listened to, even and especially those we say in conflicts. Just\nlike spouses who argue, some truth often comes out in a moment of anger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first post is a reaction to a comment by a certain \u201cWrayton\u201d who wrote on the Warktimes (https:\/\/warktimes.com\/), a blog by our talented journalist Mr. Bruce Wark (article posted on July 5th, 2019 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}