Tag: MP

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VOTE. You. Have. To. VOTE. Part 1 #vote #canada

The horrors have been coming so thick and fast that no one can process them all. Which is part of the strategy, clearly: throw in all the immigration, abortion, and press bans, one right after the other, and there are too many things to nail down and protest.

Which is why I am — for the moment — still happy and relieved to be Canadian. Because we still have time.

The solution is very simple, so simple we already know what it is, but it does take work. Part of the issue has been simple complacency, the old “we took for granted” that racism, sexism, and hate speech weren’t as bad in Canada, and we made the false assumption that “not as bad as” meant “no problem at all.” Pretty obvious now that assumption was incorrect. So the obvious, simple way to combat all that is to: STOP. IT.

People who aren’t white are being harassed. When you see that, stop it. Call the police. Yell. Start carrying a black marker with you, and when you see hate propaganda posters anywhere, DON’T tear them down, but write this across them: Section 319 (1) . That’s “hate speech”, in the Criminal Code of Canada.

CANADIANS EVERYWHERE, in Canada, living outside of it, ALL OF YOU:

Write to your MLA, your premier, your MP, and the Prime Minister. Today, every day. Tell them that what it happening in the US will not happen here.

And if the new president wants to get shirty, I am willing to live without avocados. I survived without a car most of my adult life. If things get so tough that I can’t get a job in Canada, I now have the ability to teach pretty much anywhere in the world, and come back…thanks to my Canadian passport. That’s how lucky I am.

Refugees — NOT “migrants” for god’s sake! — are worse than unlucky. They are in danger. People who are anything but white-Caucasian, are in danger.

Canada is better than the US. Prove it, and make the people we elected to represent us prove it.

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Let’s get rid of guns.

Yes. An insane, impossible idea, and one which brings the trolls to this website, I’m sure.

Three very, very bad events have happened the last two weeks, in California, then in Moncton, New Brunswick (a place not even many Canadians take note of…our radio broadcasters in Edmonton got the capital city of New Brunswick wrong!), and another, just yesterday, in Seattle.

We Canadians take some rather misplaced pride in not having the level of gun violence the US does. I say misplaced because ANY is too much. Despite what this says.

While I was living in Scotland, a police officer was shot and killed in Bradford, Yorkshire, England. This was huge news, gigantic. I admitted to being surprised at how big the news was…a police officer was killed in the line duty – awful but true, that happens. NOT in the UK, ladies and gentlemen. Read this Guardian piece from the time…”more than 160 officers have been ‘killed in the line of duty by a criminal act’ in mainland Britain since 1900.” That was in 2005. Since 1900 ?? Know WHY that is?

Because in the UK, it’s almost impossible for even criminals to get guns. It’s all but impossible for anyone to get one.

So I have a preposterous idea. I’m writing to my (conservative) MP, and requesting that guns – whose purpose is too kill things – be subjected to the same restrictions as cars. Vehicles are recognized as useful, yet potentially dangerous items, and so the use of them is subject to the users proving they can use cars responsibly. THE SAME SHOULD GO FOR GUNS. Rifles of any kind, hunting, recreational in a gun range, doesn’t matter. Anyone who wants to buy a gun has to go through a GRADUATED licensing program. And, at certain periods, gun owners will be required to undergo a test to prove they are still sound and capable gun users. Part of that test will be proving you have done the utter utmost to make certain no one else can get your gun or its ammunition. IF THEY FAIL the test, THEY LOSE THEIR GUN. And, AND, the government could usefully track something: instead of eavesdropping on cellphones, why not use all the technology and manpower instead to track who is building and selling guns, and to WHO.

I’m sick of this argument, which shouldn’t even BE an argument. Guns are for killing – in the hands of responsible people, they kill animals for eating. And if someone breaks into a responsible gun owner’s house, that gun is then apt to get to someone who will kill people. I’m sick of guns getting into the hands of, and remaining with, people who shouldn’t have them, and I’m REALLY sick people being surprised when others are killed as a direct result of those people having guns.

Let’s prove that we are better than the US on this. PROVE IT.