Category: Canada

Global Migration Film Festival

Many Canadians never think about how and why our ancestors came here.

My father’s ancestors emigrated to North America from Alsace in the early 1800s.  Although no one knows why they came, it may have been that they were German at a time Alsace was in French hands, but it was probably economic.  They entered the US at Batavia New York and wandered around a lot before setting roots in the vicinity of Walkerton, ON.

In the early 20th Century—as a very young woman, my paternal grandmother emigrated to Canada all on her own.  She left Germany at the height of the post WWI runaway inflation, so economic chaos may have been part of the reason she came, there’s also a story about an unsuitable romance her family wanted to break up.

And my mother and her brother were the only children in her family to be born here after her family fled the Russian Revolution.  So my forbears certainly include refugees.

All three of these stories fuels my interest in history, and stirs my curiosity.  There are many reasons for migration.

I just discovered the Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership is hosting a Global Migration Film Festival that will run through December.  I’ve already missed a few films I would very much have liked to see, but the remaining lineup of documentary films looks pretty spectacular.

Lately some extremist politicians have made some negative pronouncements on recent global migration.  When we meet people from other cultures, when we see them as the real live living breathing human beings they are, it becomes much more difficult to dehumanize them.   Waterloo Region owes a lot of its success to the fact it has long been a destination for Canadian Immigrants.

Come see the films and listen to the stories.  Get to know something about some of the people who have come—or will come—here.  And bring a friend or several!

Friday, December 7th, 2018

Bushfallers – A Journey of Chasing Dreams
6 p.m.  at the Queen Street Commons Café
43 Queen Street South, Kitchener, ON
MOVIE TRAILER:

Thursday, December 13th, 2018

A Thousand Girls Like Me
7 p.m. at the Cambridge Centre for the Arts
60 Dickson Street, Cambridge,ON
MOVIE TRAILER:

Friday, December 14th, 2018

I Am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts
6 p.m. at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery
101 Queen St N, Kitchener
MOVIE TRAILER:

Tuesday, December 18th, 2018

Abu Adnan
6 p.m. at the Kitchener City Hall Rotunda
200 King St W, Kitchener, ON
MOVIE TRAILER:

Salaam B’y – A Story of a Muslim Newfoundlander
7 p.m. at the Kitchener City Hall Rotunda
Kitchener City Hall Rotunda
MOVIE TRAILER:

#BCpoli: Real People Choose #ProportionalRepresentation

Film maker Joel Ashton McCarthy has turned his talents toward promoting Proportional Representation in the BC Referendum.

Joel crowd sourced his excellent video, again demonstrating ordinary people think Proportional Representation and democracy are important.

How can they call a system that routinely gives 100% power to candidates & parties who’ve won less than a majority of the votes a democracy?

Instead of providing representation to as many voters as possible, our “First Past the Post” system disfranchises most of us.

The only real majority government (elected with 50+% of the votes) elected in BC was the BC Liberals who were elected on a promise of electoral reform in 2001.  But once they had 100% power in hand, they lost interest in adopting fairer elections. In fact, the idea that Proportional Representation would limit their future power to what they earn in votes lost all its charm.  They designed the 2005 Referendum to fail.

Even with 57.7% of the voters voting to adopt Single Transferable Vote Proportional Representation in the 1st BC Referendum, it failed.  Nothing changed. Even so, it was a little too close for comfort, so they worked even harder to keep it from being adopted in the second referendum.  And so nothing changed and the BC Liberals enjoyed nearly 2 decades of majority power without ever winning a majority of votes again.

Politicians across Canada and around the world stack the deck against meaningful electoral reform.  In the UK they promised electoral reform but managed to keep a Proportional Representation option off the referendum ballot.   The status quo serves them unfair advantage they just can’t resist.

Justin Trudeau's Election Promise: "We will make every vote count."In spite of the mind numbing voter apathy that arises from votes that don’t count,  enough ordinary people have begun to understand the issue– and care– that it has never gone away.  The push for electoral reform is growing stronger every day.

Mr Trudeau’s promise of voting reform resonated so strongly with Canadian voters because we knew our system was not working well.  Mr Trudeau’s broken campaign promise So instead of killing off the idea of voting reform forever, the net effect of has been to galvanize Canadians.  The genie is out of the bottle, and is not going back.

PEI picks PR (Brigitte Werner's photo dedicated to the Public Domain with CC0)PEI voters voted to adopt Proportional Representation, but their government refused to go through with it so they’re going to have a second referendum.   And the ruling party has bent over backward trying to design an iron-clad-can’t-possibly-pass referendum process for the next one.

All the Quebec opposition parties got together and made a pact that whichever formed government would just go ahead and implement Proportional Representation.

And right now BC is having its 3rd Referendum.  Votes must be in by December 7th, 2018.

Looks like we’re at a tipping point, folks.  Something is going to give. And when it does, it will be clear that the fearmongers defending the status quo have been dishonest with Canadians.  Voters will discover what representative democracy is supposed to be like.  And the sky won’t fall.

Once that happens, the dominoes will fall.  Which province will be first?

If you’re in BC, make sure to vote. Maybe your province will lead the way!

The fair vote Canada guy sports a Canadian Flag cape: No More Wasted Votes

And don’t forget to subscribe to the filmmaker on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujB8KLFtAjA  and on Twitter where @joel_mccarthy will keep you informed on how to get your ballot in if you haven’t mailed it in yet.

 

 

My Submission to the Ontario Consultation: A made-in-Ontario climate change plan

The first thing we need is to keep the independent watchdog agency, the Ontario Environmental Commissioner. Ms Saxe has done a good job, and her 2018 report should be adopted. It is a lot more economical to limit water pollution than pay the price to clean it up afterward. We need to commit funding to programs that protect municipal drinking water sources, as well as increase the protection of wetlands, woodlands, and wildlife across the province. Currently it is getting harder and in many places impossible for homeowners to get home insurance against flooding. One reason basement floods are becoming more prevalent is the loss of wetlands. So increasing the protection of wetlands is essential. Woodlands and wildlife across the province need protection too.

After all, we can’t exist without water.

You’ve asked about the effects that climate change is having on our households, businesses, communities and public infrastructure. Here in Waterloo Region we’re increasingly having extreme weather events. “100 year storms” are happening yearly. In this century in Elmira we’ve had several ice storms, with trees coming down ripping into homes. I understand basement floods are so prevalent that homeowners can’t get insurance to cover them. Even though some governments don’t believe in climate change, the building standards for eavestroughs have changed to accommodate the torrential downpours we get almost every rainfall now. Such rain used to be the exception, now it’s the norm. With all the ice storms, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get our hydro lines underground.

The most valuable help you can give homeowners is subsidies to facilitate retrofitting existing homes.

We also need to protect our water sources for municipal water supplies so we don’t have another Walkerton.

The best way to hold polluters accountable is putting a price on carbon. While I agree cap and trade wasn’t the ideal way to go about it, the federal government’s fee and dividend system is a better choice. Don’t waste our tax dollars fighting a no-win battle.

Binding emission targets can be legislated so we can keep Global warming to 1.5%. We need a 15% reduction below 1990 levels by 2020, 37% reduction below 1990 levels by 2030, and we can be Net Carbon Neutral by 2050. Government has the power to jump start change with legislation. Mandate all government buildings and operations move to zero carbon.

The province needs to support the clean economy, but also support energy efficiency and conservation. We can do that by investing in public transit, and switching to electric buses and trains, and replacing gas stations with charging stations. People want to switch to electric vehicles but many can’t afford it without subsidies.

We need serious investment in cycling infrastructure. New York City has discovered that reducing street parking in favor of protected bike lanes makes the brick and mortar stores in our towns and cities prosper.

Intensification of housing in our urban cores especially along existing public transit lines. This will help keep our farmland and greenbelts secure, so we will have food security.

The greatest efficiency the government can make would be to wind down our nuclear plants whilst ramping up alternative energy initiatives. Wind and solar are only part of the story, geothermal is good too. Encouraging micro energy generation, especially for farmers and folks living in rural Ontario would help them help themselves. As they do in Europe, small biogas genberators can be fuelled by organic waste generated by the farm property would help make them secure.

But we really need to do what’s necessary to protect our environment.

 

Today is the deadline to submit.
https://www.ontario.ca/form/tell-us-your-ideas-climate-change

Today is Louis Riel DayLouis David Riel (English: /ˈluːiː…



Today is Louis Riel Day

Louis David Riel (English: /ˈluːiː riːˈɛl/, French pronunciation: ​[lwi ʁjɛl]; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people of the Canadian Prairies.[1] He led two rebellions against the government of Canada and its first post-Confederation prime minister, John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence. Over the decades, he has been made a folk hero by the Francophones, the Catholic nationalists, the native rights movement, and the New Left student movement. Riel has received more scholarly attention than practically any other figure in Canadian history.
—Wikipedia

Lest We Forget

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, M.D.

Remembrance Day is supposed to be about remembering our war dead.  Although Canadians are told the red poppy sold by the Royal Canadian Legion is supposed to symbolize all war dead, in truth the red poppy symbol has become synonymous with Canadian military veterans and their families in Canada.

Whenever Remembrance Day rolls around, the focus is always on the two World Wars of the 20th Century.  Yet World War I wasn’t called World War until there was a second World War.  The war that inspired Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s famous poem was originally known as “The War to End All Wars.”

But as often happens, the haunting words of Dr McCrae’s pomm, “In Flanders Fields,” were used almost from the start as a war promotion.

It is one of the most quoted poems from the war. As a result of its immediate popularity, parts of the poem were used in efforts and appeals to recruit soldiers and raise money selling war bonds. Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world’s most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict. The poem and poppy are prominent Remembrance Day symbols throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly in Canada, where “In Flanders Fields” is one of the nation’s best-known literary works. The poem is also widely known in the United States, where it is associated with Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

Wikipedia

In Flanders fields the poppies grow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. -- John McCrae Although we are admonished “lest we forget,” war is still very much with us.  And perhaps the most frightening thing about it is that Canada has been at war for most of the 21st Century, but we are barely aware of this fact.  Think of any WWI war movie; no matter where it’s set, everyone everywhere, whether or not they supported the war, everyone  was acutely aware it was going on.

Viet Nam changed all that.

When the people at home were faced with the unromanticized horrors of war, up close and personal at their dinner tables, an anti war movement of epic proportions arose, making it near impossible to keep the war going.

Governments learned from this mistake, and so the news coverage shared with the populace in the Main Stream Media is carefully managed.

Here in Canada, those of us at home are barely aware we’re at war at all.  Many still bask in the outdated notion that the Canadian military is engaged in Peacekeeping. To get a real look at what the situation actually is, we need to know the facts. Fortunately, the Internet allows us to discover what the MSM fails to tell us.

That’s why I believe this video I recorded at the KWPeace Perspectives on Peace 2018 Symposium is so important.  Canadians need to know.

I’ve heard it said one reason the Canadian Government (whether run by Conservatives or Liberals) hasn’t got enough to adequately compensate our war veterans is because advanced in medical technology mean they’re much more likely to survive in the 21st Century, than they would have in the WWI. It used to be that most casualties in war were sustained by the military. These days that is no longer anywhere close to being true.

Even though funds raised through poppy sales are ostensibly to help veterans, the symbol is so entwined with the mythos of war that I personally can no longer bear to wear one. The white poppy is the only one for me. Unlike the red, it truly symbolizes all casualties of war, winners and losers, soldiers and civilians, and just as important, it asks for peace.

—Laurel L. Russwurm
November 11th, 2018

“Fun” fact: A few hours ago, Catherine McKenna tweeted out a screencap of the NY Times article about that UN report on climate change, apparently oblivious to the fact that her own climate change plan is not even close to what Canada actually needs to do in order to avoid the worst case scenario described in it. Maybe that’s why she just tweeted out a screencap and didn’t link the article itself =/

~~~~

Good Neighbors

A long ago sunset over the Shuurrmans’ farm

When I was living hours away, though my parents got older, I never had to worry they’d need help with the yard, or that they’d be snowed in, because they were blessed with wonderful neighbors.  My parents befriended young Henk, the immigrant farm hand who lived in the tiny house next door.  Perhaps because my father’s mother had once been an immigrant farm worker, or maybe because my stepmom had spent much of her own life away, and the friendship grew when Henk married Bettina.

The young couple raised their kids and took over the operation of the modern dairy operation across the road.  Although my Dad never regretted his own decision not to go into the family farm business, I know he was glad of the chance to see how a modern Canadian dairy farm was run.  Henk gave him at least one guided tour, and Dad (whose childhood on the farm didn’t include indoor plumbing) was tickled by the idea that modern Canadian cows were give showers!

When my own family moved back to the Elmira area, although my son played soccer against their sons (the “Shuurrmanators”) one year, I didn’t really know Henk and Bettina Schuurmans myself.  But every year I’d see their Christmas card on my parent’s fridge.  And later, when my mom went to live in the nursing home, I know Bettina would visit her.

Henk and Bettina Schuurmans on their "Ask This Dairy Family about Canadian Milk" John Deere 6430 Tractor.
@DairyOntario tweeted: “SaskMilk and DFO have set up a GoFundMe to assist the family with costs. If you wish to contribute, you may do so here: gofundme

With their kids grown, no doubt serious concerns about political unrest threatening the food security of the Canadian supply management system and so called “free trade” agreements that always seem to leave Canadians worse off, Henk and Bettina Schuurmans decided to set off on a cross-Canada tractor trek to promote Canadian Milk and family farming.

So it was a huge shock to learn their Tractor trip ended in tragedy.  In the light of day, somehow the semi truck driver didn’t notice their very large distinctive vehicle, and the tragic accident claimed Bettina’s life.

I understand Henk is recovering after surgery, and I hope on the way to a full recovery, but I’m saddened that he and his family have had to suffer such a terrible loss.

Image Credits

My photo of “Sunset across the Floradale Road” released with a Creative Commons Attribution License

“Henk and Bettina Schuurmans’ #CDNmilkTOUR” from Dairy Farmers of ON @OntarioDairy

Contribute to the Henk & Bettina Schuurmans & Family gofundme page