Time to get serious about Canada's economy

 Time to get serious about Canada's economy
    by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
Enough is enough! The time has come for the leadership of this country to pull together and seriously look at restarting the Canadian economy.
The blunder of vaccinations, mismanagement of lockdowns, hypocrisy of mask/no mask, travel bans/no bans and fake science have collectively induced a new disease in the political establishment; that of the allergic verbiage syndrome.
Allergic Verbiage Syndrome is characterized by a lot of talk that seems to erupt (like hives) uncontrollably, attempting to justify bad decisions, spinning issues to death, and in the end, believing in one's own lies. This seems to have become the order of the day in Canada, particularly in Ottawa, provinces not excluded.
The time has come to seriously knuckle down and face facts. Otherwise the dark clouds of an economic meltdown gathering on the horizon will sweep the Canadian economy into oblivion.  Printing more money will not be able to stop the tsunami of social unrest that will accompany an economic disaster.

So get to work, as some wise people are thinking that politicians should do, to avoid this state of potential doom. Canada needs a quick start, as other nations in the developed world are already pursuing. Open the stores, open the small businesses, open the parks, open the borders and think smart if you still can, if you have any little grey cells left.
Canada's tourist industry, a major contributor to our GDP, is in shambles.  Fifteen months of restrictions, quarantines and travel bans have seen air travel plummet to only 10 percent of 2019 levels. The land border with the US is still closed for so called non essential travel, though essential travel is loosely defined and encompasses many exceptions.
We need to take immediate steps to open the border to discretionary travel and eliminate the hotel quarantine for foreign visitors, or our tourism sector may have an even more brutal summer this year than last. Even though Canadians will be able to travel internationally more easily this summer, none of the foreign visitors our tourism sector relies on will be able to visit Canada's thousands of exciting destinations, attractions and events.
This is a matter of urgency: many of Canada's trading partners, including the U.S., U.K. and Europe are also our tourism competitors and way ahead of Canada in their reopening plans.  If we do not open our borders in a safe but timely manner, vaccinated international tourists won't wait; they will happily travel to countries that are ready to welcome them.
It was rather ludicrous to see our Finance Minister be the only person wearing a mask at the recent G7 finance ministers meeting. Is this the signature of the state of the Covid -19 pandemic management in Canada we want to communicate to the world?
It's high time our MPs showed some professionalism and stopped behaving like illiterate dilettantes insisting on tyrannical solutions. Parliament is not a place to learn on the job, it is a place to lead in the interest of the nation.

A proper restart plan, which would include measurable milestones and timelines for how and when Canada would lift travel restrictions is needed urgently. Many parts of the world, including the U.S., are opening up more quickly than Canada, and we cannot afford to be left behind.
To comprehend the urgency of the need to act on the economy, the political leadership of Canada need only consider that Canada's inflation rate increased to 3.6 per cent in May, the fastest pace in a decade, according to Statistics Canada.
The agency said in a news release last week that the cost of just about everything is going up at a much faster pace than usual, from shelter and vehicles, to food, energy and consumer goods.
The cost of shelter increased by 4.2 per cent in the year up to May, the fastest rise in the cost of putting a roof over one's head since 2008. And the cost of filling a home with furniture and appliances also went up, by 4.4. per cent. That's the fastest pace of increase for so-called durable goods since 1989.
Furniture prices in particular rose by 9.8 per cent in the past year, their biggest jump since 1982. Last month the government slapped tariffs of up to 300 per cent on some types of upholstered furniture from China and Vietnam.
Gasoline prices have risen by 43 per cent in the past year, a figure that looks especially high because it's being compared to May of last year, when demand and prices for gasoline cratered. But even on a monthly basis, the cost of gasoline went up by 3.2 per cent in May, compared to the cost in April.
Gas isn't the only cost of driving that's getting more expensive either, as the price of new cars increased by five per cent in the past year. That's the biggest jump in vehicle prices since 2016, and the major reason for it is an ongoing shortage of semiconductors, a global trend that has jacked up the price of anything that uses microchips.
If this trend continues, the mortgage rate on homes will soon increase, creating a major problem for many Canadians who have been caught up in the flurry of home purchases in recent months.
Business leaders have called on Ottawa for a clear path to reopen the economy and international borders.
Perrin Beatty, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said:
"Canada is a G7 outlier for not having a fleshed-out reopening plan"
What we are waiting for?

IMPACTFUL LEADERSHIP: CHALLENGES, BARRIERS, and EMERGING ISSUES

 

IMPACTFUL LEADERSHIP:
CHALLENGES, BARRIERS, and EMERGING ISSUES
By Nadene Joy
CEO of Nadene Joy Consulting Inc.
Chair/Founder of The Global Lead 2 Impact Summit
Featured in USA TODAY
  The statement “leadership is lonely at the top” poses its own distinct challenges as leadership, done well, should never be lonely.  In fact it is quite the contrary, where research tells us that the most effective leaders are in fact those who are highly engaged with others. Leaders are constantly presented with scenarios that  challenge them and their abilities regardless of age, country of origin or culture. These challenges that are faced are an incitation to rise to another higher level to become the best most authentic version of yourself possible and also, as a leader, help others do the same.  These challenges are most times necessary to test and refine yourself in the process and to show that you can accomplish something that may have seemed incredibly difficult or perhaps even impossible or “the unthinkable” to many. This article aims to describe the many ever increasing fluid challenges, barriers and pressing emerging issues a leader faces, and suggests some ways in which leaders can improve upon their current practices and benefit from them in the near and distant future fo the betterment of themselves and their teams .
  From my personal experience as a top global leader, I can confidently say that it’s essential to first accept the unwritten truth that “perfection” is simply an illusion which is unattainable and is the wrong thing to try to pursue as your centralized focus as a leader.  Do not take any form of criticism personally and learn to completely let go, without judgement, of the need and worry about being right all the time. Instead of perfectionism, aim for “doing your very best” in whatever you pursue as  the old saying goes “how you do one thing, is how you do everything.”  Be honest, consistent, compassionate and utilize the theory of adaptive  communication which is “the ability to recognize individual differences in personality and communication and adapt your approach accordingly,” and stay intently focused at all times on the “real authentic person behind the “title.”
Leadership Challenges and Successful Strategies to Thrive as a Leader
As leaders it is inevitable that role comes with many feats and challenges that are faced globally across the board with leaders regardless of title—whether you are a CEO, VP, mayor of a community, teacher of a classroom or president of a nation these are some of the top challenges faced universally today with almost everyone as we all are leaders who has the ability to positively impact lives.
 Below you will find a few of the top challenges faced by leaders.  By knowing and creating awareness around these challenges it moves and motivates us to take action to adapt our behaviours for the good of all starting within ourselves first.
In a Q4 2020 Vistage CEO Confidence Index, CEOs were asked what is the most significant leadership challenge they are facing as they looked to adjust to life during the pandemic and beyond. Overwhelmingly, the response was morale and burnout. Business leaders and employees alike are experiencing extreme fatigue from excessive video conferencing meetings, in isolation, and the professional, personal, and family stress of the pandemic lifestyle. Suggestions to combat this would be to focus on short-term vs long-term goals, reinforce company values to improve culture on a regular basis, add adventure and creative ways to change up your routine each week, and focus on the vision and purpose of the task at hand and entire organization or within the targeted community.
Other challenges leaders face are leading change in a rapid technological advancing world, developing others and handling differences in perspectives based on wide age gaps and old outdated styles and patterns of relating with others, providing consistent inspiration, feedback and appreciation, lack of alignment with what is said vs actions that are taken to get the job done, lack of clear vision, poor execution strategies, fear of firing or letting go that which no longer best serves the good of all, lack of clear vision and purpose, difficulty managing a team, creating a positive supportive culture, dealing with “imposture syndrome,” and lack of accountability.
One of the biggest challenges faced by leaders irregardless of time, dimension, or geographical space in my personal opinion is the lack of communication, lack of authenticity and miscommunication.  This is all a part of creating a healthy culture dynamic within your organization which is a challenge to focus on diligently and master in its own right. The complexities of today’s business world and economies require leaders to be able to communicate effectively and just as important, authentically and compassionately, on multiple levels.    Communication and having the courage to be real and vulnerable with others about your own challenges helps build trust which is the foundation of all relationships and has been proven to lead to astronomical transformation within individuals and the unprecedented growth within corporations, communities and nations as a whole. It all starts with the changes you, as a leader, choose to make and take action upon as Boon Pickens so relevantly stated “ A plan without action is not a plan. It’s a speech.
Pertinent Barriers to Great Leadership
In order to more effectively empower others it is imperative to discuss the main barriers leaders face in successfully going from where they are to where they aspire to be. A few of the most pertinent leadership barriers are insecurity and lack of confidence, lack of trust, personal involvement, refusing help, not letting others on your team do their job, not asking for the right things, lack of functional credibility, ignoring the usefulness of mistakes and lessons learned, believing it can’t happen to you, not enough courage to let go of yesterday's tools, and lack of focus on personal development and growth from within first as a top priority.
  The title of a recent article in Fox Business reads: “Every Leader’s Achilles Heel.” The subject? Allowing oneself to get too involved in projects and/or with your employees.  This is otherwise known as micromanaging others and will backfire in the long term is implemented regularly. The more freedom you allow others to utilize their gifts and be creative in solutions the better off everyone is.
Fears is another major barrier leaders constantly face.  Fear is a natural emotion, however, it becomes an issue when you allow yourself to be carried to a place where you become so fearful of a potential risk that you do everything to avoid it or become paralyzed in your tracks. This is known as “risk aversion,” and can be very detrimental to a leader at any level or position.
This next barrier is a new word I only just recently came to discover.  Hubris, otherwise known as extreme pride, “is a personality element that many people assume executives “just have.”  It’s important to reiterate that past performance is no indication of future results..
Lastly, Inc. magazine interviewed a top executive leader who stated: “Only you can control self-indulgence. The more successful you become, people won’t necessarily call you out. So, I hired a professional coach because then you’re hiring someone to tell you [the cold sometimes hard to hear truth.]” Look at mentorship from a new perspective snd not that it makes you weak, but rather it helps to build your character, intellect and makes you a stronger more proficient leader.  Did you know the famous NBA player Michael Jordan has five coaches, one expert for each area of his life.  This is how he became one of the greatest basketball legends alone today and how we too are able become the best we can be as a leader.  You are not expected to do this on your own.
The purpose of mentioning these barriers and shortcoming here today is to create awareness first of all that they exist so that you can begin to take steps forward to consistently work on them. Nobody is perfect nor are you expected to be but that doesn’t mean you should give up on personal development and improvement, it means quite the opposite and contrary to work on yourself first all the more.  As this is where real lasting impactful change begins. Hopefully these tools will help you become the best leader and executive you can be so that you can in return give your team, your business, your community, your family and the world the best of you.
Lofty Emerging Issues in Leadership
There have always been certain issues that have been focused upon with leaders over the course of history, however here we will only scratch the surface of a few emerging issue to note leaders are facing on a much greater level and depth today then ever before.
Some of the top issues that have emerged from leadership research that warrants further discussion here includes emotional intelligence, social marketing, demographic dissonance and generational differences within organizations ie/ Gen Z), trust, virtual teams/hiring and employee engagement, women leaders, diversity, environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, purpose/vision and mission,  and  transformational and servant leadership.
For the scope of this article we will not have the capacity to revisit each of the above emerging issues in depth. However, it is highly encouraged to be proactive in learning more about each one of them listed above.  It is only when we take action that real change takes place which begins with the first person you see every morning in the mirror.  It is imperative as leaders we stand together and strong as we can do more together then we can apart. As the iconic legendary Les Brown states: “Live life to your fullest and die empty. Make every day and your life count and don’t take this time you have for granted.” As a leader, you all have a God-given purpose and when you fear stepping into this place you are depriving not only yourself but everyone around you of greatness. Never forget that the “speed of the leader is the speed of the group—when a fish dies.... it stinks at the head first.” “Most people live out of there MEMORY as opposed to their IMAGINATION— Einstein once said that imagination is the preview of what’s to come in your life!!” As a leader, once you give yourself permission to show up completely and the opportunity to stretch yourself with no limits, you’ll find out that you can do so much more than you could have ever imagined!  I believe everything matters and what we choose to do today is simply “the seed or internal fuel and motivation” that we consciously plant within ourselves and in others through the power of our positive thoughts and creative imagination, encouraging words we speak and/or actions performed to serve.  Over time, the seed begins to grow when we consistently sow, water and tend to the deeper needs of ourselves internally first and then outwardly externally towards others.  This process, over time, builds positive satisfying relationships and authentic human connections which is at the foundation and heart of all interactions as a leader, in business and in life.
Nadene Joy is a top advisor, executive leadership strategist and global mindset coach who helps leaders who are feeling anxious and frustrated achieve their goals and wildest dreams in business and in life. She is the CEO of Nadene Joy Consulting Inc., a Certified CMHA Psychological Health and Safety Advisor, NLP Practitioner, top executive leader, speaker, and international bestselling author. Nadene is also a director and advisor on various local and international boards including Global Ambassador with The Commonwealth Entrepreneur Club (CEC) and is on the advisory board council with Coaching Suicide Awareness (CSA).  
Nadene Joy also has been awarded several achievements of excellence throughout her career and is the recipient of the prestigious 2021 International Women of Substance Award from The St. Mother Theresa University in India.
Nadene Joy is a member of The International Society for Female Professionals, Chair/Founder of The Global Lead 2 Impact Summit and has been featured in media outlets including USA TODAY, CBC, iheartradio in NYC, and NBC. She is also the author of “Uncover Your Purpose: Heal and Share Your Gifts With the World” and “Love is...A Guide to the Power of Love,” and is the co-author of “Cracking The Rich Code Vol. 4” with Kevin Harrington hit star of the TV Show, SharkTank and business icon, Jim Britt.
Nadene Joy is passionate about being an impactful leader, mother to 4 beautiful children and friend who makes a positive difference in our world through taking bold action in sharing her authentic wisdom, experiences, God-given gifts, and serving others with kindness by bringing hope, love, joy, purpose, inspiration, transformation and love to all she encounters.   http://linkedin.com/in/nadenejoy      Nadene@NadeneJoy.com
free gift offer included to receive the first chapter of the book by Nadene Joy  “Love is...A Guide to The Power of Love”

 Are You Taking Too Much Medication?

 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones
    Many diseases can be effectively managed thanks to therapeutic treatments involving pharmaceutical drugs. But have we gone too far in popping pills for every ache?  Or even for serious health conditions, has your doctor put as much thought into how to get you off prescription medications as has gone into putting you on them?
The statistics are alarming.  A study of drug use among seniors in Canada in 2016 found that 2 out of 3 Canadians over the age of 65 were taking at least 5 different prescription medications and over a quarter took at least 10 different prescription medications!  In the U.S., a 2018 national survey found that 48.6% of the entire population used at least one prescription drug in the month prior to the survey.  Some of these statistics are certainly made up by people who are taking medications they no longer need.
Among adults aged 60–79, the most commonly used drug types in the United States were lipid-lowering drugs, antidiabetic agents, and beta blockers; in Canada, they were lipid-lowering drugs, analgesics, and proton pump inhibitors.
          How should you proceed if you want to reduce the numbers of medications you take?  First, take all your medications to your doctor and have a discussion.  But don’t expect miraculous answers, as doctors are known for writing more, not fewer, prescriptions – and sometimes, for good reasons.
About 50% of those prescribed medications for chronic conditions stop taking them within the first year of starting therapy. This non-adherence can further deteriorate health. More hospitalizations result, costing an estimated $300 million in avoidable expenditures per year
About 1 in 5 individuals prescribed antidepressants who stop medication can suffer a host of problems, collectively called discontinuation syndrome.
But there are many situations where less medication is not such tricky business.  Sleeping pills, for example, should only be for short-term use.  Allergy medication should only be used when allergens cause symptoms.
Stopping blood pressure medication needs your doctor’s endorsement.  But one way to manage hypertension and get blood pressure into the normal range is to lose extra weight.  Finding natural alternatives to strong, addictive painkillers is another smart move.
It’s also highly advisable to have a strategy for reducing cholesterol medicines, known as statins, which can have devastating side effects, including liver damage and memory problems. Has your doctor made you aware of all your choices? If you’ve read this column for years, you’ll know that high-dose vitamin C could be a life-saving option for reducing the rick of heart attack or stroke.
A special note about those who are very elderly or frail.  These individuals can be more susceptible to medications, particularly when considering the extent of inappropriate polypharmacy (i.e., too many drugs, unnecessary drugs, and/or doses that are too high) that they are often taking without adequate oversight.  If you are, or know someone, at risk, then be careful to ensure that the doctor has full information about all medications and that the patient understands benefits and harms of medication and gives consent.
Socioeconomic factors are also noteworthy. Seniors living in long-term care facilities, low-income neighbourhoods and rural/remote neighbourhoods used more drugs, with one study showing 21.4% of seniors living in the lowest-income neighbourhoods were prescribed 10 or more drug classes, compared with 14.3% of seniors living in the highest-income neighbourhoods.
Finally, if you have been able to make reductions, how should you dispose of all the unused or expired medications?  Most jurisdictions have drug take back sites.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a “Flush List” of those medications that can be disposed of in the toilet.  Whatever your means of disposal, remember that drugs pose a huge hazard to unsuspecting children or pets.  Dispose of them safely.

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Urges

 Direct Answers
from Wayne & Tamara
Urges
   Q My best friend is a guy I’ve known six years. He is like family. I am married and we are all friends. We would do anything for each other. He had a girlfriend who hated me because she thought we were way too close.     I hadn’t seen him for about a month because he travels. I’ve always been the chunky one, so during that time I decided to lose weight. Well, when he saw me again, I was down about 20 pounds. He was shocked.
When I got out of the car, he looked me up and down, put his arms out for a hug, and said, “Well, are you going to give me some love?” So I gave him a hug and we went inside. I’ve lost even more weight since then.
The next time I saw him, I picked him up. He stays with us when he is in town. We hung out, talked, and drove back to my house. He, my husband, and I went out that night to a little bar where a friend works.
We were having a great time when one of the guys my husband and I know walked over and gave me a hug. My friend freaked out. He said, “You know she’s married, and this is her husband.” He said that like five or six times.
Ever since that night, whenever we talk or text, he makes comments about how he will never have sex with me. It doesn’t even fit the conversation. He won’t even look at me anymore when he is talking to me.
He also says I don’t support him, though I have supported him, right or wrong, a million times. Fine. I don’t see what the problem is after all these years.
 For no apparent reason, he’s not talking to me much, though he calls my husband to ask advice about his ex-girlfriend. Then he goes off about how I don’t pay enough attention to my husband when we all go out. He told my husband he wants to hang out with him, and not include me.
 He also gave my husband a hard time about our “agreement” and said it’s not right. My husband and I have an agreement, when we are out, that we can socialize with whomever we want as long as we go home together.
My husband and I are not the kind who are all over each other, and our agreement does not include cheating. This is the way it’s been for five years, and my friend has never had a problem with it.
 What in the heck is wrong with him? Why is he acting like this?
Dominique

A Dominique, Shakespeare’s wrote, “Beshrew the heart that makes my heart to groan.”
Beshrew is an unusual word that means “to make evil.” If we updated Shakespeare’s language, the quote would read, “Damn that heart of yours for making my heart ache.”
When you lost weight, he moved you from his friend zone to his sexual fantasy zone. He said he would never have sex with you, because that was exactly what was on his mind.
You understand that. That’s why you included the phrase “he looked me up and down.”
 First, he tried to warn off other males from giving you attention. Then he tried to get you to show him more affection by claiming you don’t support him. Finally, he began working on your husband. He thought excluding you from their company would increase your desire for him.
He is punishing you for his thwarted sexual interest, breaking the rules of friendship, and blaming you for it. His heart groans with desire for you.
He is either going to have you or end his friendship with you. That’s why you and your husband can’t be friends with him anymore.

Wayne & Tamara                                             write:  Directanswers@WayneAndTamara.com

Canada in the twilight zone

Canada in the twilight zone
    by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
A number of disturbing incidents have occurred in Canada lately, that make a mockery of our international reputation as a peaceful, welcoming society with freedom and equal justice for all.
The most recent one being the targeted killing of a family in London Ontario. Five members of a Muslim family went out for a walk on Sunday night. Before the day was done, four of them had lost their lives in what police described as a targeted hate crime. The only survivor - a nine-year-old boy - was seriously injured.
Then there was the Quebec City mosque shooting, a terrorist attack on the evening of January 29, 2017, at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, a mosque in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood of Quebec City, Canada. Six worshippers were killed and five others seriously injured after evening prayers when a man entered the prayer hall shortly before 8:00 pm and opened fire for about 2 minutes with a 9-mm Glock pistol. 
The infamous Toronto van attack which was a terrorist vehicle-ramming attack that occurred on April 23, 2018, when a rented van was driven along Yonge Street through the North York City Centre business district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The driver targeted pedestrians, killing 10 and injuring 16, some critically. The attack is characterized as misogynist terrorism because it was motivated by revenge for perceived sexual and social rejection by women. The incident is the deadliest vehicle-ramming attack in Canadian history.
Add to all this, the recent violent demonstrations motivated by various political agendas, that are creating instability in a country which has previously had a reputation for being peaceful and welcoming.
As Canadians across the country express their shock, horror and grief, about these events, the dark reality is that all kinds of hate crimes and terrorist attacks are on a dangerous rise in Canada.
While Canada has been preoccupied with a pandemic that seems to have affected everything, most of us have forgotten that the rise in hate crimes is a real danger against religious beliefs, racial communities and Canadians in general.
Hate crimes speak of a different level of humanity, which judges a person for who they are and not what they have done.  They affirm that you have no place in this country and don't belong because of your race, country of origin, faith, or skin colour.  Hate crimes like these are the very antithesis of what this country claims to represent on the global stage.
We need to ask why these things have been happening in Canada lately, and determine the root causes so we can find remedies.
This new racially and religiously motivated hatred, never before encountered at this intensity in Canada, known to be a tolerant and welcoming country for many people, is a new and a dangerous phenomenon. If they continue without an imminent and workable solution, Canada as a country is finished.
I do not want to be a pessimist but as of today the Canadian political elite is only focusing on their own self interest to hold or gain power. The interest of the people and the nation is put on the backburner. They are a bunch of hypocrites looking only for their own personal ambitions and interests.
At this point Canada is a rudderless country and soon anarchy will be the common denominator in the lives of Canadians, if things do not see a radical change. 
Calls to banish Canada Day following the discovery of the remains of 215 children, buried in unmarked graves at the Kamloops residential school is gaining momentum.
Statues of John A. Macdonald and Egerton Ryerson, architects of the residential school system, have been removed by both fiat and brute force. Demands for an apology from the Catholic Church are growing ever louder.
While the pain behind these terrorist and dark historical events are undeniable, and those terrible acts that inspired them are inexcusable, we still need to maintain our national identity and recognize Canada's creation.
We need to remember that the history of Canada is not one long march of oppression. Canada has fought bravely against tyranny. Canadian troops, including Indigenous troops, gave their lives in not one, but two world wars to preserve our freedoms. Canadians battled the regime of Nazi Germany, which committed the worst genocide of our era, in which six million Jews were slaughtered.
Over two centuries, Canada has also welcomed the downtrodden and oppressed to its shores. From Irish migrants starving during the Great Famine, to Doukhobors fleeing religious persecution, to refugees from conflicts in Vietnam, Rwanda, and Syria, Canada has taken in millions of people in search of a better life.
The reason was simple: Canada was a country that stood for freedom, equality and opportunity. Those values are enshrined in our charter and in the best of our history and we need to preserve and maintain them to be proud Canadians and keep our nation great.
Political correctness, lip service to justice and fairness and turning a selective blind eye only create more resentment while driving true emotions underground to fester and boil over in time.  We need to strive for a society where everyone can depend on the justice system to abide by the laws that created this country, and a police force to fairly enforce them.  A society where everyone has an equal chance to succeed based on the merit of his/her performance, not his/her color, creed, religion or origins.  And we need to teach our children that our precious individual freedom is not free.  It comes with the corresponding responsibility to stand up for it. 
As of now there is a lot of work to be done in this country, significant and essential work in order to eliminate hatred, bias, superficiality and to build a new confidence in our countrymen. It must be done not just in our legislatures but in our neighbourhoods and institutions, in our homes and our own heads.
It is a social pandemic that will outlast Covid-19, and the fate and reputation of Canada hangs in the balance.

NO PLACE IN SOCIETY FOR SAFE INJECTION SITES

 

NO PLACE IN SOCIETY FOR SAFE INJECTION SITES
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”   

    Come on people where will the stupidity end.   This past week in conversation with a local politician.   They bragged on how much they are doing for addicts and the drug scene.  They had the audacity to state that safe injection sites are the answer to the drug addiction problem.   I could not believe my ears that someone could be that ignorant.   We are supposed to be at war with drugs.   How can the police arrest people for possession, sale and distribution if idiots in municipal government support safe heavens.
  How can the police do their job when our municipal elect deem it ok to shoot up in a warm safe place.   Their argument is that if we don’t supply them with a facility that these needles will end up in our parks and creeks as it is happening now.
  Really, do we live in such an ass backwards society that we can’t even understand the basic concept of common senses?
Common sense would tell you... that if we allowed safe injection sites that all we are doing is promoting drug use.  Something that is against the law.   By allowing safe injection sites we would indirectly be supporting the drug  trade as those dealing would find ways to make drugs more available to any of the patrons of safe injection sites.
 Common sense folks.  Common sense would tell me that instead of safe injection sites.   We need for police to have the authority to send anyone caught under the use of any drug to a government run detox facility and not one of those revolving door facilities.   A facility that would have the authority to keep addicts for indefinite period of time until it is assured that the person is not a threat to themselves or society.   If suffering mental health.  Keep them at the facility until such time as they can come back to society without been deemed a nuisance.
Let the police go after the drug dealers with a vengeance.   
Is it not bad enough that we have pot legalized.   What are we pushing for cocaine, heroine a meth to become legal.
  Imagine what society would become.  I think we have let our standards drop low enough.   I think we should take back our Country, our communities and our society.
No more rationalizing insanity in order to make it appears as we care.   If we care we do the right thing and grab the bull by the horns.   Deal with the real problem.  Not create bigger ones.
We in Canada need significant changes to  how we deal with many things.   We need to bring national pride to our country.  We need to unite for the right reason and not loosely use the word inclusive to patronize interest groups.    We need to have higher standards and stop compromising our national identity.  Canada for Canadians should be the new standard.

THE HUMAN STUPID RACE

 

THE HUMAN STUPID RACE
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”   

    What is it with human kind?   Why are we so bent over backwards and keep on making the same old mistakes.   In Ontario we are down to about 700 cases per day.   Instead of keeping what is working going.  No politicians get all ansey and decide to make plans for going back to the causation of another wave of COVID.
Come on people wake up.  This COVID is not going away all of a sudden.   The fact that we have  had a large number of people vaccinated it does not mean that those people can’t still become ill.  Or worst be a carrier and further cause sickness.  This false sense of security with the vaccine in my opinion is like putting a band aid on the crack of  a dam.   It may hold for a bit.... but the crack will eventually rupture and the after affects are obvious.
  Instead of rushing to open anything back.  Why not sit on it a little longer.   Why not truly see if we can get the numbers  under 10 per day.  That to me would signify reason for opening.
  In a radio report this morning.  A bar in Chicago was allowing patrons to come in only if they had a vaccination card.  Once inside patrons could mingle without masks on.   Really.   1st, what right does the bar have to refuse entry to anyone.  2nd Are bar manager now experts in COVID transmission and are they going to accept liability in the even someone becomes sick while in their bar?
Society today faces the worst governance problem ever.   We elect politicians to do jobs they are not qualified to do.   Way over their expertise and or intellectual aptitude.  This means that their decisions have to be based on advice from so called experts.
Common sense and rational thinking become clouded by influence, greed and money.   We the human race are  becoming the stupid race as we are ignoring past mistake and continue to commit the same one expecting different results.
We can’t afford to be stupid.... can we?

It is a sad day for Canada

 It is a sad day for Canada
    by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
   As we all know by now findings from a survey of the grounds at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School has uncovered the remains of 215 children buried at the site, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced last week.   This is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. It is a stark example of the deep wounds the Canadian residential school system inflicted upon indigenous peoples and how the consequences of these atrocities reverberate to this day.
Looking at a brief history of the residential school system we can see that the first residential school was opened in Brantford, Ont. in 1831, before Confederation, although there were a handful of schools run by missionary groups even earlier than that.
In 1847, Egerton Ryerson - the man Ryerson University in Toronto is named after - was superintendent of schools in Upper Canada, and wrote a report recommending the establishment of residential schools for Aboriginal students in the province. Soon after his report, in the 1850s, Methodist missionaries established a number of such schools in southern Ontario. Other schools were opened in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories in the 1860s.
Post-Confederation, the federal government became more involved in residential schools in the 1880s, and the number of schools expanded.
A total of 139 residential schools were identified in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, though this doesn't include those run by provincial governments and those run solely by religious orders, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The residential school system which functioned in Canada until 1996 has seen 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children placed in the name of integration into the society built by the settlers.  Children were taken from their families and placed in this schools scattered all over the country.
Their treatment was miserable and they were exposed to a lot of abuses which were ignored by the authorities of the day. There is a lot to say and a lot of things have come to light lately from the testimony of survivors.
Residential school students were subject to physical and sexual abuse by staff, were often malnourished or underfed, and lived in poor housing conditions that threatened their safety, according to reports. Infectious diseases like tuberculosis and influenza often ran rampant among the students, leading to many deaths. In addition to attending class, students at many schools also had to perform chores to maintain the school and sometimes even had to do farm work to feed the school. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which released a report six years ago following a lengthy investigation into residential schools, made six recommendations regarding missing children and burial grounds. It called on the federal government to work with churches, Indigenous communities and former residential school students "to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children."
The Kamloops Indian Residential School was in operation from 1890 to 1969, when the federal government took over administration, until closing it in 1978.
The discovery of 215 children's remains there confirms what community survivors have said for years, that many children went to the school and never returned. It is also a fact that federal agents often moved children around, so it is possible that some of the remains found on the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School were from other First Nations communities.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified 3,200 deaths as part of its investigation. For one-third of these deaths, the government and schools didn't record the student's name. For one-quarter of these deaths, the government didn't identify the student's gender. And for around half, the cause of death wasn't identified. These numbers might not include students who got sick at school and were sent home, where they later died, or Métis students whose attendance at school wasn't funded by the federal government but who may have died there.
"Due to the limitations in the records, it is probable that there are many student deaths that have not been recorded in the register because the record of the death has not yet been located," the Commission wrote in its report.
Indigenous children in residential schools died at far higher rates than other Canadian children, the report notes. The recent discovery of unmarked burial sites containing 215 bodies at the site of the Kamloops Residential School in B.C. has highlighted that there is still a lot to learn about where these children are buried.
In a report attached to the Commission's work, anthropologist Scott Hamilton of Lakehead University noted that, "Most of these children died far from home, and often without their families being adequately informed of the circumstances of death or the place of burial."
For the most part, the cemeteries that the Commission documented are abandoned, disused, and vulnerable to accidental disturbance," wrote the TRC in its report. This issue certainly is not something that Canada as a nation should be proud of, particularly in light of certain Canadian leaders' penchant for systematically preaching and lecturing other nations about upholding democratic values.  Canada should look closely at its internal dealings with the first nations and have a sincere approach in working with them to build a healthy democratic society. Words and money thrown at first nations are not the solution. The solution is an open and clear approach to work together with all Canadians to build the future for a great nation. The things of the past are lessons for all of us and we should work to ensure that such things never happen again in our country. With all this said, we need to look at the more than 150 years of existence of the residential school system in Canada and must ask ourselves where the authorities, both political and civil, were all those years in allowing these abuses to be perpetuated on children?
Yes, there were the supporters of the residential school system including Canada's first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald and other contemporary political figures, but what did successive Prime Ministers, either Liberal or Conservative, do about this issue?  It seems easy to blame only the very founders of our nation for the residential school program without looking closely at their successors in perpetuating this abhorrent institution. We cannot be selective in meeting out responsibility. These successive Prime Ministers are to blame too.  Canada is a great historical achievement. It is an imperfect country, but it is still a great country and we should keep it that way. We need to be clear that the atrocities committed against first nations must be acknowledged and we must learn from them to ensure that such atrocities will never be repeated or imposed on any component of our society.  We must also be careful to avoid going to the opposite extreme in cancelling every historical figure who took a position on issues of their time that we now judge harshly in historical retrospective.
We should mourn the memory of those innocent souls who did not have a chance to live, and we need to reflect and avoid such gross neglect by officials in the future.

STICK HOUSES

 STICK HOUSES
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”   

    I look around and I keep scratching my head wondering what has gone wrong.   In the name of profit we are talked into all kinds of things that end up not being good for us.
   Corporate America/Canada stopped being about customer service/satisfaction and has become more about profits.
They treat customers like numbers and bombard them will false lies.  For example:  “for your convenience”, “for your safety/confidentiality” and so on.
From the fast food sector to construction and everything in between.   Look at what we pay for at McD’s for example.   Look what we get.
What happened to the Big Mac.  You open the box and it is the size of a silver dollar.   Where is the beef?
Under the guise of nutrition.  We are told we do not need to eat so much and a smaller portion has the same affect.   Yet, the price goes up not down to compensate for the smaller portion.
Or how about the ‘vegie’ burgers.... You pay a premium for not eating meat.   REALLY!!!!
   As you drive through construction sites.... Look at how they are erecting ghettos with nothing more than two by fours and plywood.
Then they sell it to you for over half a million dollars.
  Is that value?   Do these home even meet any building code... and if they do.
Have our standards been lowered so much that we allow homes to be built with sticks and compress wood chips?
I truly feel for the future of our kids as Canada is slowly becoming a third world nation.   Our jobs are going over seas and our youth are left filling jobs that are menial and poor paying.   
How are they to ever afford half a million stick homes?
  I think as a people we should put a stop to how corporations are allowed to rape and pileage our economy.
Companies like BELL, ROGERS and many of the Ghetto builders should stopped... but wait how?   We live in Canada.   We can’t put two thoughts together without a legal challenge.   In the land of equality and fairness we are fed the line that individual thought or opinion has no place in modern society.
Sad time we live in...

The lockdown and the D-Day anniversary

 

The lockdown and the D-Day anniversary
    by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
     As Canada continues to be in a fighting mood against the coronavirus pandemic, we also need to remember and reflect on the sacrifices that our forefathers have made for us to secure our freedom, to keep democracy alive in our country, to maintain the rule of law and the comfortable standard of living that we enjoy today. It is time to cherish their memory.  To ensure that their efforts to win over evil were not in vain and that, particularly during this new dark period that threatens our very existence, we keep up our courage and stand up against our adversaries as they have done.
We are currently facing a crucial time in our history in fighting the evil of the coronavirus pandemic and related societal malaises. In combination, the consequences of the pandemic and social dysfunction are similar to fighting a new kind of world war with worldwide consequences and yet unforeseen effects on Canadians.
On the 6th of June we mark the seventy-seventh anniversary of D-Day, the beginning of the Battle of Normandy, along a 100 km stretch of French coastline across the English Channel from Great Britain. This was the largest seaborne invasion in history and a crucial day in winning the war against evil; Nazi Germany.
The assault on the beaches of Normandy by British, American, and Canadian troops on the 6th of June 1944, who would then fight their way across Europe, has gone down in history as a memorable event. The codenames of where the troops landed - Omaha and Utah for the Americans, Gold and Sword for the British, and Juno for the Canadians - remain familiar today. The Normandy landings, Operation Overlord, marked the beginning of the end of six long years of conflict between Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and Allied forces.
The development of the role for Canada in the D-Day invasion has a history going back a few years. Following the Dunkirk evacuation Canadians began to come over to Great Britain. They were well-prepared and took on the role of defending the British Isles. They built up around the south coast of England and operated in a defensive and anti-invasion role from May 1940 to July 1943. At that time the 1st Canadian Division was detached and sent to Italy, but the bulk of Canadian forces remained in Britain for all those years.
Canadian sailors, soldiers and airmen played a critical role in the Allied invasion of Normandy, beginning the bloody campaign to liberate Western Europe from Nazi occupation. Nearly 150,000 Allied troops landed or parachuted into the invasion area on D-Day, including 14,000 Canadians at Juno Beach. The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 ships and 10,000 sailors and the RCAF contributed 15 fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons to the assault. Total Allied casualties on D-Day reached more than 10,000. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, the Allies had suffered 209,000 casualties, including more than 18,700 Canadians. Over 5,000 Canadian soldiers died.

From the D-Day landings on the 6th of June 1944 through to the encirclement of the German army at Falaise on the 21st of August this was one of the pivotal events of the Second World War and the scene of some of Canada's greatest feats of arms.
Juno Beach was the Allied code name for a 10 km stretch of French coast. It fell to more than 14,000 volunteer soldiers from across Canada, under Major-General Rod Keller, commander of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, to storm the Juno Beach coast line. They seized the beach and its seaside villages while under intense fire from German defenders - an extraordinary example of military skill, reinforced by countless acts of personal courage. The 3rd Infantry Division took heavy casualties in its first wave of attack but took control of the beach by the end of the day. There were 1,074 Canadian casualties, including 359 killed.
All things considered, the Canadian troops did very well on D-Day. The Canadians and the British in the Gold and Juno sector made it farther inland than any of the other invasion forces. They had managed to link up their forward units some distance inland, which was a measure of success. At the end of the day, the Queen's Own Rifles had actually captured its objective, which was short of the overall divisional objective but goes to show that some of the Canadian units were quite successful in the first hours.
Their sacrifices will be not forgotten even though their generation is starting to fade into the fog of history. For the time being D-Day still seems to be in the Canadian public's consciousness. Their memory must be preserved for the millennials and generations to come in order to eliminate the causes of further conflagrations.
D-Day embodied the courage and determination to prevail in that war. It was fought over issues that are still alive today - such as ideology, globalism, nationalism and injustice. It was an exceptionally difficult and hazardous military operation.
It was an operation in which Canadians took a major central part in the war to preserve freedom and democracy.  For these reasons and more, it's important to keep the memory of D-Day alive.
The dead, along with scores of other Canadians killed in the fighting during the weeks that followed, are buried in the serene and beautiful Canadian War Cemetery at Bény-sur-Mer, just behind Juno Beach. This, and numerous other memorials throughout Courseulles, Bernières and St. Aubin-sur-Mer, commemorate Canada's sacrifice on D-Day. A private museum, the Juno Beach Centre, overlooking the beach at Courseulles, also tells the story of Canada's role in the invasion of Normandy.

Every year on the 6th of June, the people of the villages along Juno Beach pay tribute to the men who fought and died there. They parade through streets festooned with maple leaf flags and hold services and vigils along parts of the seawall, in memory of their Canadian liberators.
Long live their memory! Long live the courage those men and women demonstrated.  May our current generations show just as much courage in our current hour of need.  We can't afford to wait for someone else to fight for our rights.  We must all take a stand against the tyranny of incompetent leadership, political correctness at the expense of merit, and the stripping away of our individual freedoms in the name of political expediency.  Wake up Canada!
Have we forgotten; what we are waiting for?

Taking a Hint

 

Taking a Hint
Q I’ve had a long and rocky road with a friend who reminds me we’ve known each other over 20 years. Recently, during my two-year engagement, I had a revelation about how much of a dud my “friend” truly is.
     We live in different states. Although she offered her help and had enthusiasm about my upcoming wedding, she tended, as per her usual behavior, to want to dominate conversations and refer to her own wedding and planning experiences.
     When she did have questions, they were often critical or questions attempting to put her back in control. For example, and this was annoying but not the worst incident, when I called to vent about my mother, all she said was, “If your mom is acting this way, why are you having a big wedding in the first place?”
     Why? Many women dream of a big wedding (rightly or not) as a way to celebrate and show the world how happy and in love they are. Why wouldn’t I want a big wedding if I can afford it?
     Alas, I persisted in seeking her advice, though it was peppered throughout with how the money could go towards a down payment on a house. (That’s what she thought when she got married.)
     Even when she tried to pretend she was there for me, she was flippant. When I needed hardcore advice—like when I called her from the dressing room where I bought my dress—she didn’t have anything substantial to ask, like, “How does it fit? Is this your dream dress?”
     When I expressed unhappiness after buying it, her initial response was “It’s just a big, white dress,” instead of saying something uplifting or helpful. She even bailed at the last minute on the bachelorette party, which was scheduled in the middle of winter to accommodate her! That ticked me off because it echoed a letdown that occurred in the very beginning.
     She was going to join me on a trip to look at reception venues—a big deal since I was having a destination wedding. But she added restriction after restriction until finally I told her she didn’t need to come, I was taking someone else!
     More and more, as the planning proceeded, I saw how selfish and single-minded she was. We’ve known each other for over 20 years, but she didn’t even know my parents’ first names until she received the wedding invitation!
     I tried to minimize contact at the actual wedding, but she still managed to annoy me. First, though she claimed she would be devoted to me “on your big day,” she brought her dog. Then, when I had the coordinators track her down to help me go to the bathroom (in my big white dress), she went to our suite and cleaned it, which she probably thought was the best surprise. Meanwhile, I had to pee!
     She also left the wedding early and didn’t help me with my veil, as she promised.
     Doing what she wants when she wants has been her trademark behavior since high school. Instincts tell me, since we live across the country from each other, this would be an easy friendship to fade out.
     At the same time, I feel like someone’s got to be honest with her. She seems to adapt well and make casual friends easily enough. In high school, other girls used to complain about her, but I guess I was oblivious. What do you think? Let it fade quietly, or let her know what’s up?
Brandi

A Brandi, this woman did everything possible to show you how disinterested she was in your wedding, and you did everything possible not to hear it.
     When she heard, destination wedding, she might have thought, An overpriced extravaganza with Brandi as the star. When she laid down condition after condition about going on the trip to check venues, did you hear what she was not saying? “Now I have to go twice to her wedding destination. I can’t afford that, in time or in money.”
     Some people don’t want to tell you, I don’t want my vacation to be about your wedding. They may feel you haven’t given them an invitation. You’ve given them a debt. You didn’t say you offered to pay her expenses, and apparently the bachelorette party was just one more expense for her.
     The only fault we find in her is that she didn’t tell you directly. But some people would rather talk about their sex life than about money, and you shouldn’t be forced to admit your financial situation to a casual friend.
     The source of the problem is the 20 years of familiarity. Because you two go way back, she didn’t feel she could say no to you, and you kept asking.
     There is no reason to tell her off. She already told you off, only you weren’t listening.
Wayne & Tamara  

write:  Directanswers@WayneAndTamara.com

How Diet and Inflammation Affect Colon Cancer

 How Diet and Inflammation Affect Colon Cancer

 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones

  It’s been said “We are what we eat,” or “garbage in garbage out.” Less catchy advice might be “Eat an anti-inflammatory diet, rather than a pro-inflammatory one.” It could make the difference in the likelihood of developing a malignancy of the large bowel. Not many people realize that if you take away skin cancers, colon cancer is the third most common malignancy in North America.
            A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Oncology, points out a strong association between chronic inflammation and the risk of colon cancer.
            Researchers at Harvard University discovered that people who had dietary patterns that triggered chronic inflammation were 32 percent more likely to develop colon cancer than those who followed a lowered inflammatory diet.
            Dr. Joel Mason, Director of the Vitamins and Carcinogenesis Laboratory, Tufts University, says, “This study adds to previous evidence that inflammation is an important factor in colon cancer and that a diet with less potential to cause inflammation can decrease the risk.” How did Harvard researchers determine what foods were associated with inflammation and what foods fought it?
            They analyzed the health and nutrition habits of 120,000 people over a 26-year period. This involved 18 food groups and tracking how they affected inflammatory markers in the blood.
Diets with the lowest level of inflammatory potential were tea, coffee, dark yellow vegetables, dark and leafy greens. In contrast, diets with the highest level of inflammation included processed meat, red meat and sugar-sweetened carbonized beverages.
            Overweight or obese males did not fare well. They were 48 percent more likely to develop cancer of the colon over the course of the study than those who consumed a low inflammatory diet. But even lean males were at higher risk, although not as much as the obese ones.
What about women? It’s strange that being overweight or obese did not increase or decrease the risk of colon malignancy in females. But in lean women who had the most pro-inflammatory diet, there was a 31 percent greater risk of colon cancer than those who consumed the least inflammatory diet. Researchers were not certain if these findings were related to hormonal changes in women.
            So, what’s the message? It pays dividends to stay active and not gain weight. This is not the first time nutritionists have told us that leafy green vegetables are more conducive to a longer life and it’s prudent to decrease the amount of red meat consumed. Hopefully it will help make everyone realize that the use of sugar sweetened beverages is not a healthy habit.
            An equally strong message remains that North Americans are needlessly dying from colon cancer due to a fear of having a colonoscopy performed.
            We know that colon cancer begins in a polyp that remains localized, providing ample time for colonoscopy and removable of this lesion. This procedure should be done regularly starting at 50 years of age or younger, and usually ending at 75 years. Discuss with your doctor whether this is the age for you to end colonoscopy.
            If several colonoscopies have been done over the years without any polyps being detected, the decision is usually to stop. The reason being that it’s unlikely one will form after the age of 75 and if it does some other event will end life long before a slow growing polyp causes trouble.
            The discomfort of colonoscopy is miniscule to the suffering of terminal colon cancer. For those dead set against the procedure, stool card tests done at home are an option. So, never, never, fall into the trap of skipping these life-saving tests.  

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The Political Crystal Ball

 

The Political Crystal Ball
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”   

 How else do you explain it if not to assume they use a crystal ball and consult the same guy that is responsible for setting out what people should pay in fines for the many vehicular infractions.
   Number out of a hat perhaps.  No I still like my assumption of a crystal ball of sort.... cause you are never going to sell me on the fact that there is any science involved in irrational mentalities.
   Men and women that have no medical training yet had the fortunate opportunity to be elected to a position that they clearly have no clue what they are doing.
    With all due respect.  You can’t blame he or her that pulls the trigger.  We got to blame all of us that put the gun in their hands to begin.  If we use the analogy of a gun...   Remember guns do not kill people.  People kill people.
Just this week our beloved politicians once again have gone public and attempted to tell us how to live our lives.
The report read:  What you can do and when under Ontario’s new 3-phase COVID-19 reopening plan
The Ontario government has unveiled a three-phase COVID-19 reopening plan that will gradually guide the province as it emerges from a weeks-long stay-at-home order imposed on all regions.
Premier Doug Ford, Health Minister Christine Elliott and Ontario’s chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams revealed the long-awaited blueprint at Queen’s Park Thursday afternoon.  (Have the three amigos not learned from the last time they opened to fast?   Just because numbers are dropping a bit.  It does not mean to take a leap backwards again.   How long are these politicians going to tug at the same old yo-yo?)
Before the first phase begins, the Ontario government will permit outdoor recreational amenities (restrictions will be in place) to reopen as of 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. (how did the government come to that time and date?  Random science?  Calculations based on the same principles as just ‘DO IT’ and vaccinate without giving it enough time to see the actual side effects?)
Phase one will begin as soon as 60 per cent of all eligible Ontario residents have received their first of two COVID-19 vaccine doses, which is estimated to begin around June 14 based on trends seen in mid-May. This phase is primarily focused on resuming outdoor activities where there are small crowds.
Here are the highlights of what’s allowed under the first phase:
– Outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people
– Patios with up to four people at each table
– Retail will begin reopening with a 15-per-cent cap for non-essential businesses, 25 per cent for essential retail
– Outdoor religious ceremonies and rite with capacity limits and two-metre physical distancing requirements
– Outdoor sports and training for up to 10 people allowed
– Day camps, campgrounds, Ontario Parks, horse racing, speedways, outdoor pools, zoos, splash pads allowed.  (How do they come up with these numbers?  What science has gone in these  calculations.  How do they justify their plan.  10 people, 15 people, 20 people a million.  They go as far as telling us that retail will open... What do the 3 amigos know about retail?  About health? What study was conducted by the chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams.  Or is it just another foretelling of the magic crystal ball?   Hell they are even experts in recreation.  Day camps, campgrounds, Ontario Parks.   I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer.   But for xmas I want my own magic crystal ball.)
A minimum of three weeks will need to pass and 70 per cent of all eligible Ontario residents will need to have their first COVID-19 vaccine dose and 20 per cent of residents will need to have the required two doses. At that point, here’s what else will be allowed:
– Outdoor gatherings for up to 25 people, indoor gatherings for up to 5 people
– Outdoor patio tables will be able to have up to six people
– Non-essential retail capacity will be increased to 25 per cent
– Personal care settings with face masks worn at all times
– Outdoor meeting and event spaces, amusement parks, water parks, boat tours, county fairs, sports leagues and events, cinemas and arts venues will be allowed to reopen
Story continues below advertisement.  (Dorothy said another three weeks.... why not four or five or hell ten.  Could they have got this advice from the same guy that sets fines for auto drivers?   No seat belt 200.  Speeding over the limit $200.  Random numbers thrown out to make it look like their is any validity or significance.   I call on the government to prove their so called path to insanity.  All I see is hit and misses and yet another huge wave.  Vaccination or not.  We are being led right into another suicide mission for many.)
After another three-week minimum period, along with up to 80 per cent of residents receiving their first vaccine dose and 25 per cent receiving their second dose, more indoor activities will be allowed where masks can’t always be worn. Here’s what can operate under phase three:
– Large indoor, outdoor gatherings and indoor dining
– Greater expansion of capacity for retail businesses
– Larger indoor religious services, rites and ceremonies
– Indoor meeting, event spaces
– Indoor sports, recreational facilities
– Indoor seated events, attractions, cultural amenities
– Casinos and bingo halls
– Other outdoor phase two activities will be allowed to operate indoors
At the end of each phase, health system indicators will be reviewed before moving to the next step.
You got to laugh at the last part of the news release.    After another three-weeks minimum period.   Like really.  Dorothy stop clicking your heels we are far from Kansas.   The release it read like a school boys essay.  At the beginning attempting to rationalize something he clearly has failed to do his research to the middle where he attempts to rationalize it by the element of chance and at the end with clear wishful thinking.
Casinos and bingo halls....  Other outdoor phase two activities will be allowed to operate indoors.  
Some scientific explanation.  Some well out thought plan.  To me it reads like.  We need to do something and something is better than nothing.   They say you find everything in  nothing and nothing in everything.   The three amigos have done a great job in bringing to light that philosophy.  
We live in changing times.   We are living through a huge social transformation that could in theory be the end of democracy and in turn the end of civilization. I don’t have a crystal ball.
I have for humanity that we awaken before it is to late.

Covid-19 and the Ontario pandemic mismanagement

  Covid-19 and the Ontario pandemic mismanagement
     by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East

It is well known that crisis of any kind breeds uncertainty and it is important for leaders to make sound decisions and not half measures based on the advice of network teams and area experts.
To exercise true leadership, a leader must learn to pause, think and assess before acting, be transparent, demonstrate empathy to the human tragedy and be on top of the action.
In the case of Ontario, the results thus far are not encouraging. The province is the most locked-down entity in all North America. How did we arrive at this deplorable state of affairs?  Frankly, it is by the lack of sound leadership.
Now in the third wave of the pandemic, Ontario finds itself in a precarious situation. Testing and vaccinations are being applied chaotically, and there is no coherent, long term plan. Of course, some of the blame can be made on the Federal Government responsible for the procurement of vaccines and testing materials.
However, the administration of the vaccine and testing to the population is fully the responsibility of the province. It seems that in this regard Ontario has not performed at all well. In justifying their poor performance, the Premier and the rest of the politicians in power tried to shift the entire blame onto the Federal Government. It is a poor defence based on poor performance.
As the political leadership has failed in its duty, so have the provincial health experts. Otherwise how can we explain the sore state of Ontario, which looks to be the worst in North America?
Premier Ford has tweeted, "From day one, I said I will always listen to our health care professionals. It's very simple; they are the experts when it comes to health care. I want COVID-19 to end as much as you do. Until then, I will rely on our health & science experts to keep Ontarians safe."
Unfortunately, Premier Ford, you were elected leader, so the ultimate decision and responsibility is yours. And you have failed!
Stay at home orders implemented, lifted and implemented again are half way measures and not a solution. The solution is to test and to vaccinate. Once you do that the pandemic is under control, at least. This is an elementary action and the province has failed royally.
It is well known by now that in Israel and the U.K. the vaccine has ensured that you only suffer mild symptoms of the illness if you get exposed to Covid-19, and will be protected from getting a serious and life-threatening infection.
The European Union countries as well as the United States are opening again for business. Here in Canada, where the province of Ontario should be at the forefront of economic recovery, we are in deep lockdown. Fear and fear mongering are not the solution to beating the pandemic. Good leadership is.
Ontarians are looking to Premier Ford to manage this crisis better with the path he now chooses. This is his last chance to prove to us that even though he might not be superhero material, he can at least be the sidekick we need.
On the other hand, our political leaders have leaned too heavily on a message of fear rather than hope, and it is high time to change their tune on the subject of reopening the Canadian economy.
While other countries offer specific details around reopening, the federal and provincial governments risk falling behind and stifling the post-pandemic economic recovery.
Ottawa and other levels of government, need to be much more hopeful, much more optimistic, in order to encourage people to get vaccinated and abide by common sense rules.
Positive reinforcement by political leaders might help ensure that Canada's health measures aren't undermined just as the majority of the public is about to be vaccinated.
There's no shortage of anger, frustration and fear among the public, we see it with each passing day.  Day in and day out. What we need is to give people hope, and to say to them that if we all do the right thing, if we get our shots, if we take proper measures to protect ourselves and others, we can reopen safely and more quickly.
Enforcement by police and health police enforcers will only generate more frustration and anger, because the Canadian people still believe in democracy, not autocracy.
Meanwhile, Canadian Western allies have provided hard timelines for recovery. In February, the U.K. laid out its roadmap out of lockdown, a four-point plan that detailed a gradual reopening over a series of specific dates and according to certain thresholds like vaccinations and COVID-19 case counts. The European Union is also working toward harmonized guidelines for reopening, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has outlined specific rules for vaccinated Americans, like not forced on wearing masks in public.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is the only provincial leader to provide his own detailed plan on reopening, and laid out specific thresholds last week for when certain activities like public gatherings would be allowed in the province. The Saskatchewan leader said he wouldn't wait on the federal government to reopen, saying his province's vaccine campaign has long remained ahead of schedule.
"The fact of the matter is we're not going to have a Trudeau summer here in Saskatchewan," Moe said last week.
So where is your plan and leadership Premier Ford?
Canada's federal health agency recently updated guidelines that provide some general information on the pandemic, like how Indigenous people can access COVID-19 health services or suggested safety protocols for truck drivers. However, industry groups warn that the documents do nothing to provide clarity to the public and to major corporations around the measures by which a reopening would be permitted.  These guidelines are typical of public service bureaucrats, working in a dream world out of touch with reality.
Recommendations that fully vaccinated international travellers need to be exempted from Canada's mandatory 14-day quarantine, as in other countries, is still far from the mind of sanitary bureaucrats and politicians.
A lack of clarity around reopening could also complicate supply chains, which could become a costly shortfall if it happens, seriously jeopardizing economic recovery.
Industries like tourism and hotels will continue to bleed cash in the absence of a plan to reopen. Canada, and Ontario in particular, is likely to lose its tourist season this summer. The United States will still have one. And we're seeing what's happening in other jurisdictions as vaccination rates go up, and infection rates come down.
There is now a proof that Canadian officials have been passive and not keen on engaging with the U.S. on reopening the border, as American officials have been calling for an easing of the restrictions.
So wake up, Premier Ford.  Stop hiding and blaming the feds. Do your job and give people a real plan for their lives and livelihood!

Paid Sick Days: Are You Outraged Enough to Pay for It?

 Paid Sick Days:
Are You Outraged Enough to
Pay for It?
By Nick Kossovan
   As a part of the solution to get out of this COVID19 pandemic mess, which keeps sticking to us like sidewalk gum to a shoe on a hot July day, we need universal paid sick days.  
   On Monday, April 26th, for the 21st time since 2016, the Ontario Conservatives voted against provincial paid leave. Michael Coteau (Don Valley East, Liberal MPP) had put forward a bill that would have guaranteed 10 paid sick days for all workers in Ontario. Coteau's bill was voted down 20 - 55.
Pandemic or no pandemic, should all workers in Ontario have easy access to paid sick days? Of course! All Canadians on a payroll, working full-time (no less than 35 hours per week) regardless of whom they work for, the industry they work in, or their employer's size, should.
 The lack of paid sick time is a public health concern. Long overdue is universal paid sick days. Workers need to be able to stay home and not bring sicknesses into the workplace.
However, as with any social program, especially when birthing a new one, who pays is the thorny question. The last time I checked, Canadians don't like tax increases or any increase in living costs. It's as if Canadians, many at least, believe the many social services and social safety nets Canada offers don't have any expenses attached to them.
For universal paid sick days, permanent and adequate, to happen in Ontario, taxpayers will have to pay. This can be equated to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), which provides universal healthcare regardless of income, place of employment or any other factor other than being a resident of Ontario, being funded by taxpayers. I feel sick leave should be part of OHIP, where the government absorbs the cost up to a daily limit. This can only be achieved by increasing taxes while businesses absorb lost productivity.  For the record, I'm okay with my taxes being raised to make universal paid sick days a reality. Yes, you read that right. I was brought up if you want something, you must pay for it. As a taxpayer, I want universal paid sick days (10 days annually), and I'm willing to have my taxes increased to pay for it.  
That's the "who pays" side of the equation. However, there's also the political side to entertain.  
It's not a stretch to consider because Coteau's bill was an opposition bill, the vote result was a juvenile rejection. If Coteau's bill had passed, that would've been a massive win for the Liberal. The Conservatives couldn't have that.
A few days later, this past Thursday, Labour Minister Monte McNaughton tabled a bill that was quickly passed through the legislative process. The legislation gives Ontario workers 3 paid days of emergency leave. Businesses are expected to foot the upfront cost, which will be reimbursed up to $200 per day, per employee, through the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB).
This program has an expiry date of September 25th, as if at midnight on Saturday, September 25th, COVID will suddenly become history. Therefore, on Sunday, September 26th, workers in Ontario with no paid sick days provided by their employer will be back to square one.
Michael Coteau's bill and Monte McNaughton, now legislated bill aren't even remotely comparable!  Political partisanship has its place governing economic direction, but not when it comes to public health. COVID has taught us many deadly lessons, including how dangerous it is to approach a health problem as a political problem. Ford's handling of this pandemic, which undeniably has been guided by appealing as much as possible to his voter base, is a case in point. As well, to deflect, Ford has been leaning heavily on the federal government's Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) program to claim an Ontario paid sick leave program would be redundant.
The debate around paid sick days has been made into a political issue by politicians of every political stripe. There isn't a political party that can claim not to have been leveraging the social injustices COVID has bubbled up to serve their political agenda.
The largest private-sector union in Canada, Unifor, recently conducted a poll to gauge the level of support for paid sick days (Never judge public appetite by social media posts. Most "social justice" posts are virtue signalling.). Unifor's poll found 70 percent of Ontarians support 5 days of paid sick leave, and 64 percent support 10 days of paid sick leave.
Business interests are often touted as the main reason behind the lack of action on measures like paid sick days. There's much truth to this. Not one person reading this doesn't benefit from profitable businesses populating Canada's landscape. While the yin yang between political power and economic health is complex, it boils down to people wanting good-paying jobs.
For good-paying jobs to be created and exist, a business-friendly environment needs to exist-an environment that's conducive to do business in. Providing businesses with a competitive "cost of doing business" environment, when compared to conducting their business elsewhere (e.g., other provinces, overseas and let's not forget our next-door neighbour, the USA, where most states don't have paid sick leave.), will be the spark for rapid economic growth post-COVID.  Then there's also automation, contracting out, et al., to consider which businesses migrate toward as ways to look after their profit margins. Mandating businesses to take on the financial cost and productivity loss of providing paid sick days will be another incentive for businesses to move elsewhere, outsource work to contractors, fast-track implementing automation, or simply close shop. The common narrative, born from a sense of entitlement, is that because a person owns a business, they are rich and living off the back of their employees. That perception is completely incorrect. Many small business owners-owners of restaurants, convenience stores, mom and pop travel agencies, dry cleaners, coffee shops, retailers-can't afford the financial cost (paying people not to work) coupled with the production loss (work not being done) to offer their employees paid sick days. Imagine the negative impact, financially and productivity-wise, on a flower shop with 5 employees and 2 call in sick or an autobody shop with a staff of 7. The application of economic principles and the ecosystems they create for businesses to thrive can't be dismissed.   Ford has said, "he will not impose any additional burden on the backs of Ontario businesses." This is a fair statement, especially from a conservative perspective and given how most businesses are struggling to stay alive under the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses are on the brink of permanent closure.
You don't need to be an expert to see the economic damage the pandemic lockdowns have caused. Whenever any meaningful "recovery" happens (my guess that it'll be mid-2023), it won't be fair or straightforward. An environment that's attractive to businesses starting, expanding, or entice to come to Ontario will be crucial post-COVID for any type of healthy economic recovery to take place. Keep in mind all provinces will be on the same mission. So will countries worldwide, including our southern neighbours, who are the world's most adept capitalists and possess high energy of self-interest.     
My empathy for employers who can't afford to offer their employees 10 paid sick days annually, especially during a pandemic and with consumers constantly demanding cheap, is why I'm willing to pay more taxes.  Adding to my empathy is my enormous respect for anyone who takes on the financial risk, a risk most people won't take, to start a business that creates jobs.
Due to pandemic spending, Ontario now finds itself with a historic deficit (forecasted to be about $33.1 billion for the 2021-22 fiscal year based on four percent growth in the economy). I'm surmising Ford is reluctant to raise taxes. Inevitably somewhere down the line, taxes will need to be increased-the piper always needs to be paid. Right now, increasing taxes would be political suicide, thus permission needs to be given.   I suggest the message to Doug Ford's government be: "The people of Ontario are demanding permanent paid sick days! Let us help you help every worker in Ontario regardless of whom they work for. Increase our taxes if need be."  All Canadian political leaders should hear such a message.
If such permission were granted, no political leader would have any excuse not to provide universal paid sick days. Call it reverse protesting. Currently, those of us, the 70 percent according to Unifor's poll, who favour universal paid sick days, are just sitting idly by watching politicians playing politics.
Ontario taxpayers offering to put their money where their mouth is might be the protest required for Doug Ford's government to finally provide universal paid sick days. I'm outraged enough to be willing to pay more taxes to bring universal paid sick days to fruition in Ontario, are you?