JUSTCAWS

The need to shock people to gain attention is nothing new. Advertisers have been doing it for years. Remember those cheesy ad headlines - SEX - now that I have your attention. Well now the protest movements have taken a page from Madison Avenue to do their own version. They describe anything they believe needs changing and describe it in alarmist terms. Canada is a racist country that commits genocide. Excuse me, what was that? Now that social justice warriors have your attention a stunned public can continue to be enlightened on how everything they thought they knew, is in fact, wrong. Dare to temper their extreme views with nuance and context - good luck. Your comeuppance will be to be labelled the very thing you question. Many learned it was best to just let them continue. Trouble with that, is that silence is often misinterpreted as acceptance. While often the exact opposite is true. The pressure to comply can lead to a bitter resentment and retrenchment. I have heard the grumb...

  Often it takes some quiet reflection for things to become clear. This time it was a long drive back home after taking my son to school after the holidays. On the way we went under numerous overpasses in the GTA covered with Palestinian flags. I recalled this being done for fallen soldiers during the war in Afghanistan. Back then it put a lump in my throat. Now it gets me hot under the collar, but not for the reasons you might think.  I have been annoyed by a number of protests in my life when they disrupt my day to day.  The most egregious being when the First Nations blocked the rail tracks near Belleville. That action cost me both considerable time and money on more than one occasion. I may have fired off a disgruntled tweet, but there is a part of me that respects the cries of injustice or pleas for justice and the legitimate personal sacrifice protesters make to demand change.    I may not always agree with their cause or methods, but I will take pass...

  Trust but verify, was a line from former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. I have heard it being used more now as there seems to be an erosion of trust in global affairs. It is a line I believe our news media needs to follow in a world where deciding between what is fact and fiction is only going to get more difficult. I have been an avid consumer of news for decades. Whether it be from watching a nightly newscast or getting the daily paper to now streaming and digital subscriptions - I will follow. Obviously, the evolution in the distribution model is what people will point to when discussing change in the news media, but I believe a more profound transformation has taken hold. Some argue that once the U.S. News became a profit centre for networks that the decline in journalism began. Just take a look at this prophetic article from 1986 in the LA Times that predicts pending doom . The onslaught of social media was the next salvo to hit the news as more people discovered they could b...

  I find stalemates frustrating at the best of times. Arm wrestles and tugs of war that don’t end quickly seem to go on forever.   Sadly, for the citizens of Ukraine these are not good times indeed.  The months of this war risk spilling into another year and no one sees an end to this conflict coming anytime soon.  Ukraine’s latest offensive has not been the success once hoped. It is becoming increasingly clear that without the West’s continuing supply of weapons and equipment, Ukraine can only hold the line.   The idea that Russian citizens will someday soon realize the madness of their leader and turn on Putin was doubtful right from the start. Now with drone attacks coming from Ukraine bringing the war to Russian soil - good luck with that. Russia is in this for the long haul. They are now well aware that they cannot prevail with the West’s long distance support of Ukraine.  Their only hope is that the resolve among the citizens of Western demo...

With the recent decisions from the Saskatchewan and New Brunswick governments regarding parental consent, I wanted to go back to a post I made when Florida was pushing back with its own sets of education policy changes. As you can read I did see this coming. As for this issue, my hope is that balanced solution will emerge that can respect parents rights and protects vulnerable kids. As always I try to see both sides of an issue as I have questions for both concerned parties. To those who support parental consent of name or pronoun change - I ask why? If you are even a semi involved parent - wouldn’t you be aware if your child was having identity issues. If not, perhaps it is because the child is not comfortable discussing them with you in fear of reprisal. If your kids know they grow up in a house of unconditional love - you shouldn’t need a note from school telling you what name your child goes by. For those opposed, can a child not express their concern of their parents expected or s...

As June begins I thought it would be appropriate to have a discussion about the pride flag being flown at Ontario schools. Recently, I opined publicly that the Canadian flag should be the only flag flown at schools as it should represent all of us. It is our symbol of unity, pride and progress.  That opinion, however, was liked and commented on by people who were not sharing my enthusiasm for the maple leaf, but liked the exclusion of anything pride. Their derogatory, inflammatory rhetoric made me realize we have not progressed  as far as I had thought or hoped. The importance of the Pride movement hit me more this year than any other. Some comments did give me pause though, to wonder if progressive voices were losing the room.  Even my own support of progressive causes and awareness campaigns is not absolute or without hesitation,  I’ve tried not to become numb to the constant awareness campaigns being pushed at schools for a variety of worthy causes and movements. ...

Another tragic mass shooting in the United States has Greg address the divisive issue of gun control. Sadly, the time for federal gun control in the States has come and gone. Too many rational citizens want guns to protect themselves from guns. This leads to escalation in madness with no apparent end in sight.  Only hope now resides at the state and local levels to enact their own common sense regulations. Time for progressives to get creative as lawmakers have done with abortion laws in conservative states. Perhaps with clear evidence of reduced gun violence in gun controlled jurisdictions a pathway out of this madness can be found.  My hope is for Canada to avoid this vicious cycle altogether. Canada’s superiority complex to the U.S. is deserved - on this file, but we haven’t done much lately to address the increase in gun related crimes. Most Liberal government initiatives are symbolic, and used to exploit divisions. Ban handguns - fine - but without  increasing penalt...

Originally Published in the Guelph Mercury -   January 12, 2008 Looking back at this column and its predictions...  There is much talk and concern about the alleged apathy of our young people when it comes to the political process and exercising their civic duty. Media campaigns and slogans are used to persuade young people to do something they haven't done in great numbers in the past --vote. But we need not worry. The youth of today do care and will vote. And perhaps in even greater numbers than previous generations, once they feel they are part of the process and truly believe that politicians are actually listening to what they have to say. We may be seeing this start to occur south of the border as young people are being turned on by the charismatic Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries. His ability to get out the youth vote could break the current practice of politicians catering mainly to baby boomers who have the numbers and who turn out to vote. The boomers' electo...