Roger Varley has been in the news business almost 40 years with The Canadian Press/Broadcast News, Uxbnridge Times-Journal, Richmond Hill Liberal and Uxbridge Cosmos. Co-winner with two others of CCNA national feature writing award. In Scout movement over 30 years, almost 25 as a leader. Took Uxbridge youths to World Jamboree in Holland. Involved in community theatre for 20 years as actor, director, playwright, stage manager etc. Born in England, came to Canada at 16, lived most of life north and east of Toronto with a five-year period in B.C.
A little ticked off
A little ticked off
As regular - or even occasional - readers of this column should know, I am often ticked off with someone. But just lately, I seem to be ticked off with a good many people.
I don't like being ticked off, although I must admit it does make it easier to write columns. However, being ticked off leads to stress and, because I believe stress is a major contributing factor to ill health, I have tried to eliminate as much of it from my life as possible. But to eliminate it completely, I would have to stop reading, listening to or watching the news. Now there's an old saying that what we don't know won't hurt us. Unfortunately, that's not true. Even if you have no idea what is contained in the Harper government's omnibus budget bill, rest assured that somewhere along the line it is going to hurt you.
And that is the number one group of people I'm ticked off with: the current crop of Conservative MPs in Parliament. Tell me of any similar sized group of people who agree 100 per cent with everything their organization or leader proposes or espouses. You'll see more dissent on a Trinity United Church Christmas pageant committee than there is in the Conservative Party. How is it possible that every single Conservative MP agrees that it is okay to cut back on fish habitat protection, reduce environmental assessments for major resource projects, set eligibility for OAS back two years, allow Canadian companies to hire foreign workers and pay them 15 per cent less than Canadian workers and allow U.S. law enforcement officers to pursue and arrest suspects on Canadian soil? All these things and more are contained in what is supposed to be the budget. You know, that thing we used to anticipate every year to see if we were going to pay more taxes on liquor and cigarettes, more or less income tax, that kind of stuff.
Before you decide this is going to be another rant against what I consider to be the undemocratic behaviour of Harper and his minions, let me move on to the next group: the U.S. government and its department of defence. Today's news saw the U.S. government condemning the Russian government for supplying attack helicopters to the Assad regime in Syria, presumably so that Assad can more efficiently and effectively murder thousands more of his citizens. At the same time, however, the defence department says it has no problem buying attack helicopters from the same Russian arms manufacturer to supply to the Afghan government. Talk about being two-faced, not to mention the hypocrisy of supplying the Afghans with attack helicopters from what is probably the same company that supplied the Russians when they invaded Afghanistan. That in itself brings us back, briefly, to the Canadian government. It is currently pursuing a new trade deal with the Russians while at the same time castigating the Soviets for their support of Assad.
Let's move on to smaller fish, such as the Quebec government. Whether or not one agrees that the Quebec university students have a legitimate gripe over tuition fees, one has to agree that Canadian citizens have the right to protest. The fact that a number of louts decided to use the protests to engage in violence does not alter the fact that thousands didn't. Presumably, the government thought it would blow over, but they were surprised when the protests went on daily for more than a month. The government's answer? Declare protests illegal! Now, there's democracy in action!
How about some smaller fish? Would you believe Scouts Canada? At least the Fiasco District scouts, to which our own Uxbridge scouts belong. They decided in their wisdom that parents who want to register their children for the next year of scouting in Owasco District had to drive to Ajax on Tuesday to do so. Parents will not be able to nip into the Uxbridge Community Centre to sign their kids up as they have in years past. Owasco figures it is better to put more vehicles on the highways and take a couple more hours out of parents' busy lives than allow the local scout groups to handle their own registrations. This from a group that supposedly promotes the environment and self-reliance.
And finally - (and this is the one that will really get me into trouble) - there is my own family. At the last couple of family gatherings that I have attended, any time I have broached the subject of politics I have been shut down immediately and forcefully. "No politics!" they said. "We're here to have fun."
If I can't discuss politics with my family, then with whom? If I have concerns about the future of my country and what that future might hold for my granddaughters and nieces and nephews, surely the first people I should be able to talk to would be my family. It seems to me that if we don't talk about these things - all of us - then the real dictators, the would-be dictators and the petty dictators don't have a thing to worry about.
Tell me, am I wrong?
