Looking for Loopholes

 Direct Answers
from Wayne & Tamara

Looking for Loopholes
Q My boyfriend and I had a great start to our relationship. We were medical students then. We trusted each other and were both clear that cheating is a dealbreaker for us.
     When we moved to different cities to start our specialty training, we saw each other less. Things got busier but we tried working things out, always thinking about the light at the end of the tunnel. Nonetheless, we felt really happy once we met.
     Two years ago, someone anonymously messaged me on a networking site saying my boyfriend was seeing someone else. There was no evidence, but I immediately called him and he denied it.
     One day, I went into paranoid mode and checked his phone while he was asleep. I saw flirty messages. The next morning I confronted him and asked who she was. He said they were coworkers and friends, and he was just helping her review. That was our first big argument.  Of course, I believed him. We even got engaged last year!
     Fast forward to three months before our wedding. Another person messaged me, this time with proof! Turns out, their relationship became physical both before and after he proposed to me.
     Bit by bit, he told me the truth. He admitted they were friends, part of a group who went out together and reviewed in his apartment, until the two of them were left alone. But he never once mentioned this group of friends to me. He said he was afraid I wouldn’t give my permission to hang out with them.
     He said the girl made a move and kissed him first, and his lust took over. After that, they had sex for a few more meetings until he realized what they were doing was wrong. He claims he ended it with the other woman three months ago and was going to tell me.
     My life crumbled. The person I thought I knew best and trusted most, suddenly became a stranger. We broke up and our wedding was canceled.
     A month and a half after D-day, we still communicate. He’s remorseful and readily answers my calls, even though he knows I just want answers.
     I will be flying to another country for 18 months of further training, while he’ll be staying in our home country for his training. He says he’ll fly to see me once he’s done and court me again. He says I’m the person he wants to live with in this lifetime.
     Can a person really change? Will I be able to get past this feeling of betrayal?
Heidi

A Heidi, a loophole is defined as an exemption that can be used to avoid the effect of a law. You and your boyfriend are both looking for a loophole.
     In this case, the law you want to avoid is a law of human nature.
     Your boyfriend’s first line of defense was to lie. His second line of defense was to blame you. (You wouldn’t approve of his group.) His third line of defense was to blame the other woman. (She started it.)
     If you stay with him, his final defense will be, “It couldn’t have been all that bad because Heidi stayed.”
     Of course it isn’t all that bad to him. He’s not the one betrayed. Proceeding as before is what a cheater wants because they are not the injured party. But if you had cheated on him, would he be so lenient on you? Of course not.
     His excuses are the archetypal responses of a cheater who is caught. It’s the classic pattern, but because you haven’t been through this before, you don’t recognize the pattern. Still, your gut told you to cancel the wedding.
     When he blamed the other woman, he admitted he can “fall prey” to any other woman. In trying to wriggle off the hook, he set the hook. He admitted, “I cannot control myself and you cannot trust me.”
     You were not paranoid when you checked his phone. You smelled gas and looked for the leak. That’s realism, not paranoia.
     Perhaps you’ve had to explain to a patient that they have a terminal disease. Now you’re on the other side of that. You must face that your relationship with this man is terminal.
    Reactions to cheating—the disgust, the outrage at the unfairness, the suspicion, the traumatic response—are not something a skillful counselor can talk you out of. They are part of your human nature.
     Counseling can be helpful in many areas, but it cannot overcome the basic needs built into us for trust, for justice, and for love.
     In a marriage, there can be no loopholes. Why? Because with people who belong together, none are needed.
 Wayne & Tamara  

write:  Directanswers@WayneAndTamara.com

Hey where are we going with this!

hey where are we going with this!

By Rosaldo Russo Allow me to introduce begin this column by thanking the newspaper for allowing me the opportunity and access to the press. Not to many if any allow an average person like me to tell the world what I see and think. My name is Rosaldo Russo. I came to this great country to make a better life for myself and my family. I thank Canada for everything it has allowed me to do. I worked construction all my life. I know the value of hard work and honesty. I remember as a boy my father always telling me to work hard and buy land. I remember days when I did not have enough to eat or go to work... but I did not wait for hand outs. I rounded up my pride my skill and my determination to succeed and went to work. In those days the only benefits we received was the fact we were employed. Before retiring I was the owner and operator of local material supply company that allowed me to retired without worry. Now that I have time to enjoy life. I look around me and have some concern for future generations. I see that the world is finished. Opportunities for our youth are hard and few. The type of hard work I use to put in is hard to see. It appears we all have become robots of a system that does not appreciate honesty and hard work. I remember my motto when it came to my customers. Customer satisfaction comes first. I made millions of the fact that I treated my clients with respect and courtesy. It appears that in today’s world. Customer satisfaction is gone. Look at anyone doing business with companies like Bell or Rogers. They are not about customer satisfaction and or service. These giants treat their customers like cattle. A number in a sea of millions. You do as they say or they cut you off. Where are we going here... How can this happen. I tell you how it is happening. We Canadian people have no choice. When we allow this giants to not fear loss of clients. They treat us like cattle. Their meaning of convenience cost us. They want to get paid at a particular date and in particular way. No credit card. No service. Mis a payment. You get cut off. How dot these companies stay in business. Come on people. Wake up. Unfortunately we can’t do nothing about it as there is no other choice. What is happening to our Canada that we allow these giants to openly rape us? If anything they should be charged for false advertising as they claim 1G speeds and no one gets them. Or 1000 channels that are all repetitive.

BEND OVER TAKE IN THE ASS AND LIKE IT

 

BEND OVER TAKE IN THE ASS AND LIKE IT
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”   

    As a child I remember how much I hated going to the doctor.   As a kid you only went there for a vaccination or a minor check up.   On the first, I remember him lowering my pants and before I knew it.  Boom he had pricked me with a needle on my ass cheek.
  I had no choice.  I was more worried about the fact that my genitalia was exposed then anything else.... Meanwhile I was getting pricked in the name of public health.   My mom would always kiss me in the forehead to comfort me as she slipped me a candy as a treat for being a good boy.
  In modern society it appears the same principles are being employed by the government.   They take us to a place out of fear.  In the name of public health.  Then without really having much choice prick us with a vaccine that in my opinion has not fully been studied or understood.  All they tell us is that it has shown in some fictitious study to have an affect on a virus that even today we(governments) of the world have no clue what it truly is.   
We have an idea.  But no one can without a doubt clearly say they know what this virus is doing across the planet.
   Could this be what they mean by ‘the writing on the wall’.   Could it be that out of our own ignorance we are entrusting governments.  Governments that go on a hit and miss agenda and not on what is best for the people they represent.
   They say that Russians are the most upfront people.  The people with the most real choices.  A people with true freedom.  I say this because as free and democratic the Russian may be.  They are only given one choice.   Therefore the choice is always right and easy.  This mentality appears to be what our so called ‘FREE AND DEMOCRATIC’ nations of the world are employing.
   I say this because it appears that governments across the globe without fully understanding the choice.  Taken choice from their citizens by creating a sublime hysteria over what they perceive to be the magic shield against COVID.   Only to be exposed for their ignorance of the truth by variants of COVID.
   You can’t blame the politicians.  They are flags in the wind of an agenda that is way beyond their intellect and understanding.  
Much like me taking it in the ass.  We are all taking it in the ass and forced to like it.
Just this week.  Some brilliant mind in government decided to put the idiotic idea in the arena of public ignorance, that somehow governments have given themselves the power to pass vaccination passports.   Not only that.   The same brilliant minds put the seed of ignorance amongst public opinionatos that it is OK to refuse services, entry and or opportunity based on vaccination choice.
This is in part sparking the debate over forced vaccination in general.   As it stands if you are not vaccinated for some disease you can be banned from schools and the like.  So why is it that the COVID vaccination has such an opposition?   Simple.  The COVID vaccine is to new and a fallacy.  We must not trust science but depend on it’s byproducts.  We must not enforce compliance but instead promote civil duty, free will and choice.  As a society we have given up common sense.  Basic human decency and for that we are being oppressed by laws and social pressure to comply.   Vaccines that have a solid proven record are obviously good.  Vaccines that are put forth in urgency to attempt to calm and unknown is wrong as it is not logical.  People  lets use common sense.  Let’s stop taking it in the ass in the name that science knows best.
Let’s first completely understand the source then let science find a logical solution that is reasonable and true.  Humanity will never move forward blinded by ignorance.  Open your eyes.

Tales from the war in Afghanistan

 

Tales from the war in Afghanistan
    by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
   The military Canadian mission in Afghanistan officially ended in May 2014. There are many memories of it and we always will remember the sacrifices made by the 158 comrades fallen. As I was deployed in 2007 at the beginning of the most violent phase of the war I remember with pleasure working with the Afghani people on the Kandahar base.
The evolution of the situation in Afghanistan and the new political events there with the Taliban rising again it is important that we think about these people who helped our mission with dedication and do something for them and their families.
As Afghanistan is on the brink of descending into a civil war we should set out to rescue those Afghans who worked with Canada's diplomats and soldiers before Taliban assassins find them and kill them. We should have envisaged a prospective of this, when Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's first president after 9/11, who was forever pleading with the Taliban, his "brothers," his fellow Pashtuns, his "sons of the soil," to talk peace. However, you cannot make peace with mass murderers, as history has repeatedly shown.
The surviving leaders of the resistance during the dark Taliban years warned loudly and often that any effort to reconcile with Mullah Omar's mass murderers would end in disaster and here we are.  Unfortunately their warning fell on deaf ears of politicians who might have done something about it. Down through the years as I followed the events after my deployment there among Afghans, the woolly idea of peace talks was dismissed time and again as a dangerous folly.
The Afghani diaspora have said so, as many Afghani associations and especially Afghani women's associations have expressed their deep concern about dealing with the Taliban for peace. Burhanuddin Rabbani, who headed up Afghanistan's High Council for Peace before the Taliban assassinated him, also said so.
But the unfortunate wisdom in the NATO capitals purported to know better as well as former U.S. president Barack Obama who thought he knew better. Even former President Donald Trump, thought that a peaceful reconciliation between Ashraf Ghani's tenuously democratic government in Kabul and the Taliban's Islamic Emirate, comfortably domiciled in Quetta, Pakistan would be possible.  So the US has bet on the wrong horse again, because the Taliban, supported covertly and sometimes quite openly by Pakistan, has taken a step by step operation to recover the lost territories and influence. Pakistan is a principal participating factor in this equation, but nobody seems to take this into consideration.
President Joe Biden proceeded into this fantasy world with a determination that anticipated a full American withdrawal by September 11 of this year, which quickly accelerated to the objective of having American troops out before the end of the summer, and all NATO forces out with them.
It is clear now that when the foreign forces leave the country without bringing about a positive change in the security, the situation will unfold as predicted. First there will be a civil war and regional instability, and then the Taliban will rule again.
It was known that training more than 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police was never going to be enough as the rule of the Taliban has already been extended over much of the country. The Taliban have taken control of most of Afghanistan's border posts and a bloody civil war is already in the offing.  So that is the reason that Ottawa should continue to set out to rescue those Afghans who worked with Canadians and a network of military veterans who were left behind after 2011 now that the Taliban are closing in.
In 2011, when the last Canadian troops finished their combat operations, a special federal program had allowed about 800 interpreters to emigrate and settle in Canada. But many were left behind.  As the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating at a rapid rate, the first planeload of Afghan refugees who supported the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan has arrived in Canada. It is the first of a number of flights that the government is promising to spirit refugees out of Afghanistan as the resurgent Taliban retakes control of some districts in the country following the withdrawal of American troops.
The government last month announced a special program to urgently resettle Afghans deemed to have been "integral" to the Canadian Armed Forces' mission, including interpreters, cooks, drivers, cleaners, construction workers, security guards and embassy staff, as well as members of their families. Applicants must still meet all the usual admissibility requirements, including security, criminal and health screenings.
In a statement last week, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the government is working "around the clock" to identify eligible individuals. "The government has been seized with the urgency on the ground and is working as quickly as possible to resettle Afghan nationals who put themselves at great risk to support Canada's work in Afghanistan," the ministers said.
They said a team is on the ground in Afghanistan to help Afghans submit applications and provide the necessary documentation. "We are doing everything we can to get every Afghan refugee out as swiftly as possible but we recognize that the security situation can change rapidly."
Hoping for the best for the people who helped Canadians in Afghanistan, we should however never forget our fallen Canadians who fought there for democracy.

Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank

  

Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank

 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones
 How would you like to have a cart full of healthy foods and still save money? Anyone who does the grocery shopping will tell you, it is more expensive to buy the ingredients for a healthy diet like vegetables, nuts, fruit and fish than the refined grains, processed prepared foods and meats of an unhealthy diet. Is there a way to buy healthy and keep costs down?

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Professor of Nutrition at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, emphasizes that it is worth spending the time to spend your grocery dollars wisely. “We have seen again and again that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancers and other chronic diseases.”
His colleague, Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg, notes that planning makes a big difference in the food budget. He says, decide what you need for a week’s meals and buy only those items. Try to incorporate healthy meals that advantage of store deals. Build meals around items you already have in your pantry, and plan menus that are suitable for cooking extra portions that can be easily reheated for another meal.
Blumberg adds, look into the refrigerator to make good use of the things you already have. For items that have a long shelf life, buy bulk. Remember, when buying perishable foods consider what you will use promptly and freeze the rest.
Avoid purchasing ready-made meals. They are invariably more expensive than buying the ingredients.
There’s also a myth that organic selections are more nutritious than conventional counterparts. Dr Alice H. Lichtenstein, professor of nutrition and science policy, also at Tufts, says all fruits and vegetables (whether fresh, frozen, cooked or raw, organic or conventional) are health promoting choices from a nutritional standpoint.
Another misconception is that gluten-free foods are better for health than those that contain gluten. But Dr. Mozaffarian says replacing refined wheat products with refined rice and corn products may have some health gains but also possible harms. Gluten-free diets, according to studies at Tufts, were significantly lower in protein, magnesium, vitamin E, dietary fiber and higher in calories that most people do not need.
The point is that unless you are in the one percent of the population that suffers from celiac disease or the six percent that are thought to have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, there is no need for gluten-free foods. Save your money.

A few years ago, researchers showed that, on average, it cost $1.50 a day more to choose healthy foods when shopping in a supermarket. They also wisely suggested that you could save that much by saying “no” to coffee, dessert or some other goodie. These savings translate to better health for individuals and tremendous savings for families and governments in terms of health care expenditures down the road.
Finally, consider the impact of smarter shopping in terms of food wastage and environmental concerns. It is estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the North American food supply goes unconsumed every year. That is a matter of disgraceful waste and economic inefficiency. But the amount of food and food packaging that terminates unused in landfills is also an environmental problem that industry, governments and consumers all share. As consumers, when you shop, make a point of refusing to buy products in excessive or nonrecyclable packaging.
While there are still big challenges around easy and equitable access to nutritious and affordable food, you can take steps toward smarter shopping. In this uncertain world, remember this sage advice: a dollar saved is also a dollar earned.
Sign-up at www.docgiff.com to receive our weekly e-newsletter. For comments, contact-us@docgiff.com. Follow us Instagram @docgiff and @diana_gifford_jones

Don't Underestimate What Your Cover Letter Can Do

  Don't Underestimate What Your Cover Letter Can Do
By Nick Kossovan
Hopefully, you've been reading this column religiously. If you've been implementing my suggestions, you'll now have a stellar resume and LinkedIn profile. Congratulations, you're almost ready to conduct a serious job search. Yes, I said "almost."
With fingers-crossed, hoping the answer will be "No," every job seeker asks: Is a cover letter necessary?
Do hiring managers read cover letters in 2021? Not all of them, but many, such as I, still do.
Whether the hiring manager reads your cover letter shouldn't be your focus. Your focus should be, why take a chance? In previous columns, I've mentioned there's no universal hiring methodology; thus, there's no hard rule a cover letter is essential; however, why wouldn't you want to give yourself every competitive advantage possible?
A cover letter will never be held against you by a hiring manager who doesn't read them, but for those who do, not having a cover letter can mean your resume will not be read. As much as possible, throughout your job search, you want to stack the odds in your favour of getting a "yes" to move forward in the hiring process.

A cover letter is non-negotiable if:
- the job posting instructs applicants to include a cover letter with their resume (Many job seekers will still apply without a cover letter.),
- if you're applying directly to a particular person whose name you know, or
- if someone has referred you for the position.
Cover letters have one job-to get the reader to read your resume. Suppose your resume's recipient doesn't know you (a likely case). Why should they read your resume over the hundreds of other resumes they receive, many accompanied with a cover letter?
I read cover letters to assess your writing skills, a skill I value highly, and how well you can sell yourself-it's a critical component of my decision-making process. Call me old school, but I view not having a professionally written cover letter accompanying your resume as being lazy. I don't hire lazy, and I don't know any hiring manager who does.
The power of a cover letter is such that it's worth noting there've been several times where I've granted an interview based on the candidate's cover letter, even though their resume was far from impressive. Yes, a cover letter can make up for flaws in your resume.
Most importantly, use your cover letter to tell me something that isn't on your resume that'll help me decide you're worth my time to interview-convince me!
How do you make your cover letter convince the reader to call you in for the interview? First, grab them at "Hello." Next, draw them into your professional story, making sure you're coming across as a solid "Yes" to each of these questions:
- Can this person do the job?
- Will this person be liked?
- Will this person fit in? (Are they "one of us"?)
Your cover letter is your first opportunity to explain your value proposition (What you're able to bring to the employer.) and therefore stand out from the many other candidates just as qualified as you. It's also your chance to explain the reason(s) for any gaps in your employment and what you've been doing during the gap(s).

There are 5 parts to a cover letter:
1.Header (your contact information)
2.Greeting the hiring manager
3.First paragraph (introduction) - Grab the reader's attention with 2 - 3 of your top achievements.
4.    Second paragraph (sales pitch) - Persuade why you're the right candidate for the job.
5.    Third paragraph (closing, call to action)
TIP: When writing your cover letter, get into a headspace of writing to provide the reader with a sense of who you're going to be should they meet you (presuming you're invited in for an interview). Don't be afraid to convey your personality; it's your most straightforward high yielding approach to standing out from your competition.
Next week I'll be covering the first two parts (header, greeting the hiring manager) of crafting a cover letter that'll get the reader to read your resume. In subsequent columns, I'll discuss how to write the first, second and third paragraphs. Yes, there'll be plenty of examples.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers advice on searching for a job. You can send him your questions at artoffindingwork@gmail.com.

OPUC LOVE LETTER

 

OPUC LOVE LETTER
By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”   

       I remember the days of Gordon Burnette.  The longest standing OPUC voted chair.   During his reign at the OPUC.  The OPUC was the pride of Oshawa.  No one went without power and the man was a true  gentleman.
  Gordon was the type of person that believed in helping those he represented.  Many would come up to him and explain their financial situation and Gordon would make sure these folk would not get turned off.  He understood the value of a dollar and most importantly hardships.
Gordon and honest man to a fault.   The OPUC never ran on a deficit and every penny was accounted for.   He did not take a penny of reenumeration as any benefits he would donate back to the community.   Today’s OPUC is nothing short of sham.  A huge cash cow for the City... And yes we the people of Oshawa own the OPUC.    Under the  Diamond era... in her hate for Gordon.  She had vowed to destroy the OPUC.   Gordon and Diamond never agreed on much as Diamond was very selfish in her ways as if you did not agree with her.  You had a enemy for life.  I remember on one occasion Nancy calling Gord and old goat and Gord turn around calling her and old cow.  This sparked the first MMA type of fight half way thru a OPUC meeting.
I remember stepping in between them as Nancy at 6.5, 300lb and Gord at 5.1 barely 150lb was not going to turn out well for Gord.
When the government passed the resolution to abolish PUBLIC - part of the Utility.  The utility incorporated.  The City kept control of the utility but now had to hire outsiders to run the daily business.  
Since then the utility has operated as a run away train. Accountable to no one and hire men like  Ivanno Labricciosa.   An outsider with a questionable history.    The current management run business with an iron boot.   All they seem to care about is preserving their jobs and keeping what they make a secret.
Just recently people have been calling me to verify if the letters they are getting in the mail are valid.   Apparently our good community minded managers at the OPUC  are mailing out disconnection notices with a warning of service cancellation.  This leaving many consumers fuming.    In the middle of covid and they have the balls to send out these notices... Wow...  yet this Labricciosa sits on the Mayor’s useless economic recovery task force.  What the hell does he know about recovery.. and helping those that need it.   This same man use to sit in the BIA.  Really, who is this masked man.   I should not be so hard on him as he is proof of all that is wrong in the city.   People with little or no experience in the real needs of those on the front line on one hand giving themselves false importance by showing up at brown nose committees and tasks forces only to turn around and under his watch send out threats and harassment to his customers during Covid.  I call for his resignation.  We need leaders not hypocrites.   The OPUC needs to be accountable to the people that pay their wages.

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.

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

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 Means Double Trouble, and Worse

 

COVID Means Double Trouble, and Worse
 W. Gifford-Jones, M.D. and Diana Gifford-Jones
If ever a time to act on your health, this is it. Study after study in leading medical journals reports compounding troubles from COVID-19. What was described as a lung disease early in the pandemic is now better recognized as an attack on health systems – your own body’s systems involving multiple organs as well as societal systems of disease surveillance and care delivery. Whether you have been infected or not, chances are high your health is becoming worse.
New research should raise alarm bells.
In the journal, Nature, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research at Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System, reported on deteriorated health of COVID-19 survivors. To his amazement, the disease was not just deadlier for people with underlying conditions like diabetes. Data show that people are seemingly developing metabolic disease as a result of the infection.
How this happens is yet to be understood. Some scientists think SARS-CoV-2 not only damages the lungs, but other organs too. The pancreas which produces insulin needed to convert blood-sugar to energy might be affected by the infection. Another concern is the sedentary lifestyle brought on by the pandemic. Late or missed diagnoses of health issues among people skipping or unable to maintain medical appointments could be a factor.
Obesity and poor lifestyle issues are leading ever more children down the path to avoidable chronic disease. COVID is compounding problems for children who develop Type 2 diabetes. A study of such youth published in Diabetes Care showed a troubling and unexplained increase last year in diabetic ketoacidosis, a dangerous buildup of acid in the blood due to inadequate insulin supply.
Pregnancy is another area of concern. Research published in JAMA Pediatrics involving 18 countries found COVID-19 in pregnancy was associated with consistent and substantial increases in severe maternal morbidity and mortality and neonatal complications when pregnant women with and without COVID-19 diagnosis were compared. This underscores precautions to prevent COVID illness during pregnancy by following public health measures.
But how is COVID making you sick, even if you don’t catch the virus?
For one, the pandemic has caused a sharp decline in preventative care and screening, particularly for breast, colon, cervical and lung cancers.
One study in California, conducted by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that between March and June of 2020, the rate of cervical cancer screening among 1.5 million women decreased by roughly 80%, compared with the same period in 2019.
Another study at the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre found that in March 2020 alone, more than 800 appointments for lung cancer screening were postponed. Upon resumption of screenings two months later, the percentage of people tested who had lung nodules suspicious for cancer had increased from 8% before the pandemic to 29%.
In some health care systems, a rapid switch to at-home screening tests, such as the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) for colorectal cancer, has kept pace with pre-pandemic testing. But in most places, individuals need to take the initiative to request the test kits and get it done.
Delays in screening, especially among people at risk, can mean missing early diagnosis. Cancers may grow larger and more deadly before they are detected.
Delays in all kinds of surgeries are yet another concern.
Research has only begun to emerge regarding the tsunami of mental health problems that have crept or crashed into the lives of many. An echo pandemic of mental illness will almost certainly follow.
So do not wait for trouble. Prevention is key. Make lifestyle changes to improve your health. Get tested where advisable or do at-home screening. Read past articles at docgiff.com if you need reminders.

Sign-up at www.docgiff.com to receive our weekly e-newsletter. For comments, contact-us@docgiff.com. Follow us Instagram @docgiff and @diana_gifford_jones

Recycling Game

 WELCOME HOME FOR LESS
Recycling G

ame
 Written by,  Sharleen Cainer, BSW RSW
The sustainability and recycling game.  In the 70's the youth created what they thought was about to become the alternative culture. They were infamous for creating utopian communities where they spouted peace, love, shared resources and living off the land.  They were considered drop-outs, dropping out of society, and referred to themselves as freaks. Women became liberated and men became mystified. Didn't free love mean they could be sleeping with anyone they wished when the mood was upon them?  Well, no, it really didn't mean that gentlemen.  Meanwhile the Freaks were getting their ducks in a row, quite literally.  Small farming operations were affordable, and many young people went out to the "country" to raise their food and families.
What happens to the economy when the largest demographic decides they don't want to play ball on the same field as everybody else.  So, the 70's produced a group of youngsters who knew enough to know they didn't want to go to fight in a global war but wanted to take up social causes. They fought sexism, racism, and back then what was called pollution.  The baby boomers through no planning of their own, represented the largest demograph in society.  
What ever happened to those ideals? Where is the Utopia that was created back then? Utopia was co-opted and became a cash cow for the advertisers and corporate America.  Canada holds a developing world economy dependant upon the American dollar trade and investment, often using social grids.  A social grid is an amazingly easy graph that measures the age of people against the social needs so as to be prepared. For example, as the baby boomers age society will need many more nursing homes and old age homes, medical treatments and proactive health initiatives such as a fitness boom. When the baby boomers were younger, society needed many schools. As this demograph grew up and had families of their own, they needed to have French emersion schools because they wanted their kids to be competitive in the job market, speaking fluently in both of Canada's official languages. Changes to social order were somewhat easy to bring about, due to the sheer numbers that influential group, the baby boomers held.
What happened to those days when life seemed so much easier? The baby boomers coopted themselves and began marketing their ideas, and amassed large amounts of cash. In an about face, the very group that we depended upon for a read on clean air, clean water, and clean earth; to give us a full report on what was then called "living off the land" had become corporate Canada. They morphed into the oil tycoons, the builders, the shipping companies, and the corporate leaders of today. They became ruthless. They created the buzz words to be used like keys to unlock secret rooms of untold treasures so as to be catapulted into an elitist group of shakers and movers, The policy makers.
If sustainability was popular, we would be a sustainable society by now. We are no where close that that. Hydro, and oil make too much money to let it go the way of the dinosaur.  Government backs fossil fuels despite saying they are moving towards sustainable, renewable energy. Canada promised they would meet certain goals by this year and have yet to achieve success. Why? Follow the money.  Fossil fuels make money, and nobody wants to give up the golden goose. Nobody wants to give up air travel to save the air, and nobody wants to stop dumping waste in the water ways to have clean water. Lets talk about the water. If people were interested in saving the water they would have done it by now. The water would be thriving and its not. Water is life. Without its force the land, us, animal life will not survive. Bottled water was unheard of in the 60's. In 2021, the disposal of the single use bottle is big business and one of the biggest polluters of the waterways.   Everybody wants to drink bottled water and reject the water that comes from the taps. Why? What's wrong with the tap water? Well let's talk about what's not in the water. Microbes. The microbes are missing. Little tiny organisms not visible to the naked eye, are dying off and are not being replaced. A microbe will consume much of the debris in a body of water, in the air and in the earth, leaving the habitats in which it lives in good balance.  Our environment cannot be sustained without microbes. When the microbes go missing then animal life and plant life cease to exist. To reach sustainability the environments which support all live forms, consumer societies must change the habits of unsustainable consumption to respectful consumers of renewable resources.  There in lies the ideology of the movement of the 70's when all was plentiful. What was unforeseen was the extent or the seriousness of today's present climate or planetary catastrophes that are looming on the very close horizon.
During the pandemic, the provincial government has developed many strategies and pre-emptive strikes on environmental legislation. Greenpeace has outlined many initiatives the government has taken such as  expanding their ability to override or circumvent local government land through Municipal Zoning Orders (MZOs) and through this power has greenlit controversial projects that threaten wetlands and heritage sites. Other changes made under the Bill make it easier for the government to expropriate land in conjunction with a new highway expansion that will, if approved, pave over wetlands and send chemical runoff into Lake Simcoe.  Greenpeace use their website to outline all of this. What is our part and what can we do to change this trajectory?

Victory in Europe 2021

 

Victory in Europe 2021
     by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
   As we continue to deal with the worst pandemic of this century, Covid-19, we need to remember one of the greatest tragedies of the last century, which was WWII. This was one of the greatest challenges to humankind and to democracy. The time has come to reflect on this event, in order to avoid a repetition of it in any shape or form.
   We need to protect our basic rights of freedom and democracy, especially our freedom of speech which is under siege from many sides.
In each year we commemorate Victory in Europe Day, also known as V-E Day. On May 8, 1945 Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Forces of the Second World War. This day in history marked the end of World War II in Europe, although the war would continue in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
V-E Day marked the end of most of the fighting in Europe, where tens of millions of service members and civilians had been killed since the start of hostilities. The second world war was the deadliest conflict in human history, which saw 50 to 85 million fatalities.
This year we celebrated the 76th anniversary of V-E day and because of the issues around the Covid-19 pandemic it seems that this anniversary was relegated to back stage.
We need to remember that the defeat of Nazi Germany was a great success for democracy and freedom. We need to remember and be grateful for the sacrifices made by millions of people to ensure that in today's world we can enjoy relative peace, progress and stability.
It seems however, that there are many challenges ahead, and the forces of darkness are again trying to raise their ugly heads under several incarnations.
So let us take a closer look at the events leading to V-E day in Europe. After six years of heavy fighting in Europe, Nazi Germany was finally defeated on 8th of May 1945 by the allied forces, lead by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Soviet Union (most of today's Russia).
The countries in Western Europe mark the victory in Europe on May 8th. May 9th was chosen in the Soviet Union (Russia today), as it was already the next day when the German military surrendered to the Soviet Union and its Allies in Berlin late in the evening of May 8th 1945.
We need to remember that during the course of the Second World War, over one million Canadians served in places like the North Atlantic Ocean, Italy, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, France, and Germany.
One in eleven Canadians had participated and 42,000 were killed (2,024 in the Navy, 22,917 in the Army, and 17,101 in the Air Force). It was a long and arduous war whose end was long awaited.
When Victory in Europe Day (VE-Day) was declared on May 8, 1945, excited celebrations spilled into the streets and neighbourhoods throughout the world, including Canada.
Prime Minister Mackenzie King, in San Francisco at the time, wrote in his diary, "this has been a good day- a happy day… one in which the burden has been greatly lightened from the knowledge that Nazi militarism has, at last, been destroyed."
Not everyone was at home to celebrate. Around 200,000 members of the First Canadian Army were still in Europe at the time of VE-Day. In addition, over 35 Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons as well as more than 250 Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) warships were abroad when victory in Europe was officially declared. Hundreds of those naval and air force personnel joined the revelries in Britain and France.
Many European cities, especially those in England, had been perpetually blacked out for nearly 5 years due to the impending threat of air raids by the enemy. On VE-Day, lights were free to shine again, and this added to the enthusiastic atmosphere.
Despite all the jubilance, the deaths of millions and the horrors of war tempered the spirits of many. Communities across Canada were deeply affected by the tragic loss of their young men and women. Many found themselves widows and widowers. The small town of Sackville, New Brunswick witnessed 350 of their men enlist-ten per cent of their population-of whom 33 died. For many town residents, VE-Day became a day for remembrance and reflection rather than celebration.
Canada's involvement in the Second World War was costly. In addition to the 42,000 military personnel who died, 54,000 were wounded, and of the volunteer merchant civilians, 1,600 gave their lives for the cause. For those returning home from serving abroad, the experience represented a completed chapter, both in their own lives and in the history of Canada; they relished the long-awaited opportunity to build normal, better lives for themselves, and a better nation for Canadians.
Victory day is about remembering those who gave their lives to achieve the victory we have enjoyed for almost four generations against the forces of evil.
We cannot allow those who would oppress us to succeed, making a mockery of the supreme sacrifice our ancestors made for us during World War II!
It has been said that freedom is not free.  Truer words were never spoken.  Throughout history there have been those who would take freedom from the independent, the individual, the type of person who succeeds by his/her own efforts.  
For generations North America has been the beacon of freedom to the rest of the world, but in the last half century that beacon has been slowly fading.  Our beloved Canada is fast approaching the point where the torch of freedom will totally fade. Indeed, the time has come for Canadians to once again stand up for the freedoms that our ancestors gave their very lives to defend during World War II.  
We need to stand up against the tyranny of incompetence in leadership, political correctness at the expense of merit, and the stripping away of our individual freedoms under the guise of political expediency.  
Are you willing to stand up and be counted?

2021 census arriving in a nightmare scenario

2021 census arriving in a nightmare scenario
by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament
Pickering-Scarborough East
    Statistics Canada in their bureaucratic wisdom, with the enthu
siastic support of the Liberal government, has decided to go ahead with the census of Canadians this year, in the middle of the pandemic.
The last census was taken in 2016, and by law, it is supposed to be taken in 2021.
Section 8 of the Constitution Act, 1867 mandates that a national census must be done every 10 years, on years ending in 1 (1871, 1881, 1891, etc.). However, the section has been interpreted to mean that a census cannot be conducted beyond that 10-year period, but this does not indicate that a census cannot be conducted more regularly-such as every 5 years, as is now required of Statistics Canada by the Statistic Act of 1971.
So, Statistics Canada conducts a national census of population and a census of agriculture every five years and releases the data with a two-year lag.
The Census of Population provides demographic and statistical data that is used to plan public services such as health care, education, and transportation; determine federal transfer payments; and determine the number of Members of Parliament for each province and territory.
The Census of Population is the primary source of sociodemographic data for specific population groups, such as lone-parent families, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, seniors and language groups.
Data from the census is also used to assess the economic state of the country, including the economic conditions of immigrants over time, and labour market activity of communities and specific populations.
Census data are also leveraged to develop socioeconomic status indicators in support of analysis of various impacts on education achievement and outcomes.
Now the question to federal politicians is, why they cannot make a provisional amendment to the Statistics Act in order to take care of the exceptional circumstances and problems raised by the Covid-19 pandemic and postpone the census till the end of the pandemic?
Apparently Statistics Canada has no problem to run the census. They say they are aware that COVID-19 may have an impact on the way Canadians answer some of the census questions, including those on employment, education, commuting and expenditures.
The question is how this exceptional circumstance is defining the scope of the census and how it will reflect the after pandemic effects which will really define the future of Canada. Any thoughts?
For some Canadians it's never a great time to fill out a census form, especially at this critical time. This year, for the first time in its history, Statistics Canada is asking them to do it during a pandemic.
The country's chief statistician says this is precisely the time to find out more about how Canadians are living, working and commuting, because COVID-19 has thrown those things into flux. Is this right and sensitive?
"Getting a snapshot now is absolutely crucial," said Anil Arora. "All these trends that are happening at this time are really important for us to take note of because ... so many policy makers will look at what's happening now and see what do we want to retain, what do we want to change?" The question is, if the data will only be available after two years, how actual will it be?
Though many Canadians aren't commuting to work these days, the census will still ask how they are getting there, though it will offer more options, including multi-modal transport - cycling part of the way before hopping on a bus or LRT, for example.
This census will ask Canadians to list the language in which they received their education. It will also include a question on gender, giving respondents the opportunity to identify themselves as transgender or non-binary.
Canadians will be receiving their access code in the mail, and Statistics Canada hopes that people will file their answers on line.
Canvassers could still knock on doors in areas where the response rate has been low, but they'll be wearing masks and keeping their distance.
"We are absolutely aware of the situation. We understand ... people would have, rightfully so, concerns about their safety," Arora said.
And do not forget that the census has its requirements. The Liberal government brought back the mandatory long-form census and takes pride in doing so. In their opinion the long-form census is key to getting good data about Canadians.
So, when the country is gripped in survival mode and economic hardship, Statistic Canada enjoys its time planning for the census with the government chorus singing support and the opposition of the day insensitive to its citizens. Isn't this akin to the scenario of 'Rome is burning and Nero is playing the fiddle'?
In conclusion enjoy the upcoming census!

My Dear Penny

 

My Dear Penny

By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”   

   Dear penny so neglected yet so faithful.   So small yet so mighty
My dear penny how is it that I live day to day and neglect to acknowledge the importance you play in  my life.   How is it that your contributions go unnoticed to my success.   Penny without you I am worth nothing.   
  My life without a penny for my thoughts would be thoughtless.   My Earless penny so profoundly critical to the dollar.   Yet can someone please explain how something so important is being used as a weapon of mass economic destruction?
How do you feel about your pennies?  Do you even think of them?
  Have  you been keeping an eye on the prices at the gas pump lately?  It seems it inches up day by day, penny by penny without us giving it much attention.
A small insignificant increase that most don’t think anything about.  We have gone from 80 cents a litre to almost $1.30 in less than a year.
When we as Canadians wake up and realize that we are being ripped off.
I have a global question.   How is it that during Trump’s presidency he managed to be energy self reliant and force the global price of oil to tumble.   I know first hand that fracking has come to a halt.
We have another newspaper in the state of West Virginia and I can tell you first  hand... that West Virginia has been impacted by the Biden administration.   First no coal.  That killed the traditional labor force in the area.  Then now fracking has halted.   Gas prices are going through the roof again much like during Obama.
I think the biggest mistake Trump made was going after the oil cartels. Buy announcing to the world that America did not need foreign oil.
How else do you explain the sudden drop in oil prices during his presidency.
All I know is that as I drive by my local gas station.  Penny by penny the price at the pump keeps going up.   This is not a reflection of global barrel pricing.
Penny by penny in my opinion is a strategy to increase the prices without consumer confrontation and or knowledge.  After all.  We as modern day slaves pay without thought.  What real choice do we have?
Complain to whom?   File a complaint with whom?   We are led to believe that we have rights and freedoms when in reality we have none but choices.  Pay or walk simple.

Write a LinkedIn Connection Request That'll Get Accepted

 The Art of Finding Work
By Nick Kossovan

Write a LinkedIn Connection Request That'll Get Accepted
   Last Thursday, when I logged into LinkedIn, I had nine connection requests (on average, I get around 35 - 55 per week). Three were from recruiters, five from complete strangers, and one from a past co-worker. They all said the exact same thing, which is LinkedIn's default connection message:
"I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn."
I'm no longer surprised when an invitation isn't customized - I'm surprised when it is. Nothing announces, "I'm lazy," more than an uncustomized request.
In last week's column, I mentioned the importance of having LinkedIn connections to increase your profile's visibility, reach, presence, and influence. The more connections you have, the more likely you'll appear in search results and have a higher search ranking.
Richard Branson once said: "Succeeding in business is all about making connections." In 2021 there are no truer words. Your first step towards increasing your LinkedIn connections is to connect with your low hanging fruits; people you already know. With pen and paper, list everyone you currently know and have known but lost touch with. Think of current and former colleagues, bosses, customers, suppliers, friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. Search for them on LinkedIn.
TIP: Use LinkedIn's search feature to search past companies you worked at and then click on 'See all XXX employees on LinkedIn'
Connecting with people on this list should be as easy as clicking on the 'connect' button, adding a simple note, something along the lines of "Hi Bob, great to have found you here. Let us connect." (In some cases, you may want to give some details to refresh the person's memory of how you know each other.), and then click the send button.    
Now create lists of, for lack of a better word, strangers you'd like to connect with. Start by listing the companies you'd like to work for. Using LinkedIn's search features and Google, find hiring managers, department heads, leadership team members, and those holding a human resource title at the companies you want to work for. Your next lists will be professionals in your field (focus on those in your region) and recruiters who work with your industry.
The key to getting strangers to connect with you is your introduction. You must customize each connection request (you have 300 characters to do so).
I like to open with, "We've never met," and then why I'd like to connect. I have found being truthful about not knowing the person gets their attention.
Here are a few simple examples:
1. Professional in your field (295 characters with spaces): Hi Arlene,
We've never met. I came across a comment you left in the LI group Electrical Engineers Networking in Canada. I particularly liked your insights regarding using our industry jargon when interviewing, which I found thought-provoking. I'd like to connect and stay in touch.
- Nick Kossovan
2. Hiring Manager (283 characters with spaces): Hi Karam,
We've never met. I'm currently searching for my next opportunity. For the last 15 years, I was at Telus, where I moved up to VP of Sales. I believe I'd be an asset to Rogers and would love to chat about how my background might fit any openings you may have. Can we connect?
- Nick Kossovan
3. Recruiter (299 characters with spaces): Hi Eric,
We've never met. I came across your profile and want to reach out to discuss potentially working together. I'm a social media strategist with 6 years of experience seeking new opportunities. I'd love to chat about whether my background might be a fit for any of your openings.
- Nick Kossovan
The time you spend crafting your invitations will be time well spent. A customized invitation to connect will be a pleasant surprise for the recipient and significantly increases your chances of being accepted. As we all know, LinkedIn offers a huge opportunity to connect people who can assist you in your job search and career. Spend a few thoughtful moments writing irresistible LinkedIn connection requests, and you'll start quickly building up your network!
Next week I'll begin discussing how to create the hardest working document in business today, your resume. I'll be guiding you on how to create a resume that WOWs!
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers advice on searching for a job. You can send him your questions at artoffindingwork@gmail.com.

All That’s Left Is Goodbye

 All That’s Left Is Goodbye
   Q My boyfriend was married to a psycho for 30 years. She stole over $100,000 from his company accounts and didn’t file personal or business taxes for five years! She wrote herself checks and kept no receipts.
     When they separated six years ago, their children were grown, and I was in the picture. She vandalized my Jeep and followed me. She found out where I worked and phoned me 30 times a day. Over a three-year period, I filed five police reports and got a restraining order. Even the police were getting exasperated. All the while my boyfriend was still talking to her! He told me many times he would stop because there was huge drama with her and I couldn’t deal with it.
     A couple of years ago, he changed his number because I said I couldn’t handle them talking. He promised, if she discovered his phone number, he would change it as many times as needed for my sake.

     Eight months ago, we bought a beautiful house and she is still calling. He says he can’t be mean to her, and he now refuses to change his phone number.
     I am starting to hate him. Before we bought the house, I told him the only thing important to me is keeping her as far away as possible. Now he thinks I’m overreacting.
     The other day, when he told me he wasn’t going to change his number, I heard her voice and I lost it. I was livid! I don’t know what else I can say to him. I don’t know how long I can live there, yet I would hate to lose it all! My mind won’t let me calm down about her. I was honest with him from the beginning and said I would never be okay with it. It seems like it doesn’t matter to him.
Misty

A Misty, the author Simon Sinek became well known by encouraging people to ask themselves a simple question: what is your why? Why do you get up in the morning? Why do you do what you do? Why are you living the life you live?
     In the same spirit, we ask you two things. What is his why? What is your why?
     Perhaps your boyfriend is one of those men who are attracted to crazy. He has a toleration for her after all those years together. It must seem like a radical change not to live in the same house with this woman. His life went from 100% crazy to 50% crazy.
     But every year you stayed with him made it harder for you to go. Each year proved to him that you could deal with things as they were. When people don’t get consequences, they know they don’t have to change. That’s why, when errors persist in our life, we have to eat the blame and take responsibility for what happened.
     If there is no consequence for not paying your bills, then why pay them? If your kids have a 9 p.m. curfew and don’t come home until 10—and you do nothing—you just gave them a new curfew time.
     So the question becomes, what is your why? Why have you stayed? The answer cannot be love because he is actively involved with someone who harms you.
     One police report might not have been enough for you to leave. But five? The police got sick of both sides of this, and the man you live with still isn’t protecting you.
     Buying a house with him was self-punishment, it became one more reason not to leave, and you proved to him that he need not change. He knows you won’t leave. He probably knows why you won’t leave, whether it is money, lifestyle, or something else.
     Ask yourself, what is my why? And if you can’t come up with an answer, then ask him.
 Wayne & Tamara  
write:  Directanswers@WayneAndTamara.com

Hello Mr. Joe

 SCAM ALERT

By Joe Ingino
Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”

    Not to sound prejudice.... but am i the only asshole that is tired of getting some uneducated thirds world criminal calling me by using the wrong syntax when addressing me.   Mr. Joe....  I got a deal for you.
A message to you fucker... Go to school to at the least address people in  proper syntax...   You never use Mr. after a person’s first name.
GOOGLE IT.  
Ok.  Now that my blood pressure has lowered a bit... Here is the number one reason WE THE WEST.  Must stop outsourcing to these third world ‘SHIT HOLES’.  (not my words that of former President Trump).
  99.9% of today's scams come from over seas.  Scams that have obtained our personal information illegally from these so called corporation such as Bell, Rogers and others.   
These giants instead of keeping the jobs at home they farm it out to people they pay a bag of rice and a coke a month.
Now these fuckers in their desperation to make an extra buck.  They steal our personal information and sell it to scammers.... as in most of these countries... ..SCAMS are as rampant as the poverty.
  We from the WEST are so ignorant of the fact that lurk around the world.   How the rest of the world see us and how they in a heart beat kill each one of us and take our place only to turn it into another shit hole.    It is a well documented theory amongst sociologist that if you give a cave dweller a pent house.  He will treat it like a cave.   If you give a penthouse dweller a cave. He will treat it like a penthouse.
DON’T BITCH AT ME I AM NOT GOD.   Life is what it is.  If it offends you FUCK OFF....now you have a reason to be offended.
 It appears that more and more fraud is being reported.   The latest comes from Sri Lanka.   The way this scam works is as follows.  Victims get an email as follows:
Thank You for processing the payment.
Renewal charges of $347.26 is processed VIA  CHECKiNG ACC0UNT
Your confirmation number is NJSM-5S85678
RENEWAl  DATE           :         04/29/2021
RENEWAl AM0UNT      :          $347.26
PR0DUCT                       :         #N0RT0N# firewaII
lssue with the transaction
call us @ +1(855) 528-2639
Thanks & Regards,
  Victims call to inquire as they never ordered anything from NORTON.  Upon calling you get someone with a very heavy Sri Lanka accent.   They inform you that the call is being recorded and it is not.   They then proceed to identify you.... they will ask you for your banking information to confirm that it is you.... DO NOT GIVE THEM ANYTHING.   Then they proceed to tell you that in order to refund you the $347.26 that they will have to take out a dollar first.    What they are doing is verifying your account.   Here is where it gets interesting.  If you give them the right info.  They will take every penny in that account.   THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO.  YOU REPORT IT TO THE POLICE.... They can’t do nothing.  You report it to the mounties they can’t do a thing.   You just lost all your money.  The bank will investigate but their hands are tied as it was a legal transaction from their end.
This is not the only scam... Another very notable one is the GOOGLE registration scam.  You will either get a very formal email and or call informing you that if you do not update your GOOGLE account right away that GOOGLE will delete all your online information.  DO NOT DO IT.   These scammers will also ask you for $350.  to update your account.   It is a fraud.   This fraud comes from the U.S.   Cops in Canada can’t do a thing about it.   These companies what will sell you is an optimization package...under the disguise of GOOGLE.   These companies have nothing to do with GOOGLE.  These companies take advantage of small businesses.  People ignorant of technology and desperate for some results.
At the paper those that claim to only be advertising through GOOGLE, we deemed them third class as they are normally small businesses with little or no budget and have very limited knowledge of advertising and promotions.
GOOGLE ranking in itself is a kind of a scam.    GOOGLE ranks your business in accordance to a parameter.  Outside of the parameter you are just another ranking.    People pay because it gives them a false sense of worth.    They get some response as GOOGLE is notorious for flooding local markets with spam type advertising including some of the local.    I always tell people.  If you are getting any results from GOOGLE.  This is a huge indicator that you are missing a large number of possible clients that GOOGLE will never reach.  The key is to use GOOGLE as a ruler or indicator of where your customers come from.
Speaking of GOOGLE.   Another GOOGLE oriented based scam includes.  People showing up to your door and claiming that they must check your internet connection.  That according to GOOGLE, your system has been compromised.  Once inside they attempt to charge you $400 for something that they never repaired and or touched.
Consumers be aware that there are all kinds of scams out there.    Rule of thumb.  Let no on in your house.  Do not accept offers of any kind.  No matter how good they may be.  Never ever give out your personal information and or contact.
We live in an age of information.   Our beloved companies like Rogers, Bell and others that outsource to third world countries put all of us in Canada in great risk of our personal information ending up in the wrong hands.
The Rogers and Bells of the world will promise to no end that they have the outmost secure system to protect consumers from their personal information from being sold.   What they do not tell you is that the main vein of information leak is by employees.   Something that can’t be prevented and or stopped.   These corporation hire people and pay them a fraction of what they would have to pay someone in Canada.  The people they hire are not stupid and see by the amounts they are being asked to collect on the corporation behalf is 100x what they would  make a year.
People are people, so they look for ways to increase their wealth.   Easy money.  Sell information to the highest bidder.   Make extra money on the side.  A victimless crime.   An untraceable crime.
What has become of Canada.  What has become of our standards.   We through our generosity have become those that we have so generously welcomed.    Corporations are taking advantage of our confusion and make claims that in order to stay competitive and lower costs they must go off shore.
In reality... these corporations are ripping us off.  Take Rogers.   Their biggest cost is employees. Followed by equipment.   Cellular technology is FREE.   Once you have the equipment set up and running.  All you have to worry is maintenance, upkeep.    In other word it is a legal golden goose that keep laying that golden egg every month.  Look at how much the CEO and top brass make.   Look at how they push convenience.   Just recently, I signed up for their 1G net service.  Once they install it. They tell you that in fact is not 1G service, but instead up to 1G service.   Your system on the best of day may push 550mgbts.
Is this not false advertising?   How about their TV service?  Half of the channels are duplicates, not to mention to the 100’s of music, off the air and the like.  The question is why do we let these companies treat us this way?  I guess for the same reason our gas prices have gone from .70 cents a litre to now almost 2.00 dollars.  Are we the Canadian consumer that ignorant?  Hey maybe that is why scammer target it us.