SHAWVILLE, QC | The flooding of 2019 is not over -- we are
still dealing with its aftermath. One issue is the province's
flood-plain identification plan with its preliminary mapping and
building restrictions. These questions cover the province, wherever
flooding occurred.
Election Canada: guess
who's back!
Posted 8.31.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | The IDU's
own funding is unclear, since most comes from non-profit foundations
which do not have to reveal their funding amounts nor the people
involved. The Koch Brothers, US billionaires, have not been shy. One
former employee, Mike Roman (his Koch salary in 2016: $286,000), has sat
not only on the US Republican Party National Committee but as treasurer
of the IDU. He has acknowledged, with pride, digging up dirt on liberals
of all stripes, on environmental groups, unions, etc.
A national debate in
Canada on Climate Change?
Posted 8.21.19
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | National polls consistently register that
"action on climate change" is one of the top concerns of
Canadian voters, even Conservatives (although with less gusto). The
polls results vary with place, time, class, education, income, age,
affiliations, and occupation, but, clearly, the issue remains high on
Canadians' all-governments-must-do list.
If legalization works, how
about nationalization?
Posted 8.15.19
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Legalizing cannabis has reduced the violence
associated with illegal pot production, distribution and sales --
according to researchers in Norway and the USA (Economics Journal, July
19, 2019). It may be early for Canadians to draw such optimistic
conclusions, but this study looked at the legalization of medical
marijuana, which has been in effect in many places since the late '90s.
California legalized medical use back in 1996. We can be forgiven our
optimism if we project these benefits into recreational uses -- a more
massive market than for the medical herb.
We are all populists,
right?
Posted 8.8.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Populism is
not new; the concept stretches at least to the 1800s with political
parties using that term in both the US and Russia. Then, populism was
left of centre, advocating for collectivization in Russia and the
nationalization of public goods, like railways, in the US. US populists
(The Peoples Party) argued for a graduated income-tax, and it is curious
that today's born-again populists are pushing to reverse tax laws, so
the wealthiest citizens pay the same as do the poorest.
Measles? TB? What's
Next?
Posted 7.30.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Finding
three cases of measles in this region in 2019 (barely half-over) has
re-ignited the debate over making vaccinations mandatory. Measles was
once conquered, easily avoided by childhood vaccinations. Yet it's back.
So, too, is tuberculosis. Could polio's resurgence come next? These
scourges of humanity were considered gone, and, given their seriousness,
their partial return has prompted varieties of hysteria.
Wax
Wings?
Posted 7.18.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | The older I
get, the more unavoidably obvious are changes in our climate. Perhaps
for someone who lives mostly indoors, in a city condo maybe, or those
who hardly notice such things as trees and snowfall, birds and heat
waves, as they rush from car to work to car to home ... perhaps it's
understandable that the whole idea of a climate catastrophe is
irrelevant, or a luxury, almost, when the daily chaos in just making
ends meet eats anyone's time ... perhaps the climate is not speaking to
them, not saying a thing. Is our climate is mute or it's us who aren't
listening, looking around?
Climate change and voting
reform
Posted 7.11.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Real-media
news seems focused on climate change, with a recent report of polling
firm Abacus showing climate change as the number one concern in voters'
minds across Canada. Climate change polled high even among committed
Conservative voters.
About One Quebec
Graduation
Posted 7.05.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | First, this
relatively large graduating class' teachers and administrators were
female. Of the 18 teachers on stage, two were male. The influence of a
female-heavy administration pervaded the whole ceremony -- decorations,
music, all the hugging (rather than only male-ish hand-shaking) and
general excitement. These are clichés, but they reflected an
ambiance.
Canadian Military and
Sexism
Posted 6.11.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | One of
Canada's national news items was our military's failure to reduce sexual
harassment within its ranks. This is serious (anyone dismissive should
think of their sisters, daughters, grand-daughters), and the military is
taking it seriously.
After the
flood...
Posted 5.27.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | With the
floods in retreat, the long cleanup underway, summer soon will be
full-force, full of BBQ, kids, a road trip or two -- and we'll be in the
midst of a federal election. Over a year ago, this scenario (apart from
the flood) would have raised only a yawn. The election then seemed a
slam-dunk for the governing Liberals, but since then they and the world
around them have collided, providing us a very different set of
electoral possibilities.
Quebec's Bill 21 -- Fred
thinks -- is "liberating, not
oppressive"
Posted 5.17.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC |
Bill 21-- Quebec's efforts to "secularize" its public service
-- includes minor ramifications, some rarely-heard, some with deep
implications. Bill 21 implies that religious belief, what we hold in our
hearts as well as in public, should first be a private and personal
thing.
UN : Reshaping life on
Earth
Posted 5.13.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | About 75
percent of land and 66 percent of ocean areas have been
"significantly altered" by people, driven in large part by the
production of food, says the IPBES. Cropping and livestock co-opt more
than 33 percent of EarthÕs land surface and 75 percent of its freshwater
resources.
Hard-wired to
self-destruct?
Posted 5.8.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC |
This month, following the first peak of the flooding, a group took to
the streets to protest the provincial government's secularization
proposals. Naturally, they were met by another group, much smaller,
supporting Bill 21.
The haiku of political
hard-headedness
Posted 5.1.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC |
Besotted as we are, finding ourselves in yet another season of flooding,
giving us just a taste of the anguish and massive expense to come,
assuming we continue to refuse a concerted and personal effort to thwart
the changes we ourselves are forcing upon our climate, how about an
editorial different from the usual -- un-cynical, when cynicism is
understandable, focussed on the tiny, when the big picture needs our
attention, one step, one life-change, every day ...
Whose planet is
this?
Posted 4.22.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Many
households have been watching the series "Our Planet" on
Netflix, with the slow, wise voice of narrator David Attenborough
reminding so many of their grandfathers. Attenborough has much of Aylmer
sitting in a circle around him as he tells us the tales grandfathers
seem best capable of passing along. But he's not our grandfather; he is
relating to all of humanity the modern tales we do need to hear about
our world and its future. His measured tone and his observations,
combined with absolutely stunning photography, makes this series a
must-see for us all.
Show some
respect
Posted 4.12.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Can't we
finally acknowledge that climate change is moving faster towards us than
expected -- and that there are measures we can take to combat (and
adjust to) it?
Open the door to the
Boreal!
Posted 3.28.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Talk to
most people about current affairs, public personalities, important
places and events, and chances are most of their news will be from south
of the border. Maybe you'll hear some comment about events and places in
Canada, but they'll almost exclusively be from the few big cities on our
side of that border. We live in the second or third largest and richest
country on the planet, yet our attention is focused somewhere else...
Why does our distant focus even seem natural?
"I've got my own
sources"
Posted 2.24.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC |
Don't trust the media? Too many "smut-seeking journalists"?
Too much sensationalism? Unchecked facts? Unverified claims and
assertions, innuendos, rumours reported as fact?
Canada's PM with a
plan?
Posted 2.14.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | With
Suicide Prevention Week just past, it's a wonder the federal Liberals
didn't take some of the Week's precautions to heart. After foolishly
stepping into Trump's neck-snare over China, then joining the distinctly
un-liberal gang-up on Venezuela, on-side with the hemisphere's most
anti-democratic forces (Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil, Paraguay, and the
USA), and now protecting SNC Lavalin from bribery prosecution by, in
effect, firing the cabinet's senior Aboriginal minister, Justice and
Attorney-General -- is something wrong with the lemmings in the Liberal
Party's management? Heading for the nearest cliff, with only a few
months before the election, seems unwise.
Funding Canada's print
media?
Posted 1.26.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Recent
emergency federal aid for print media has proven to be a productive
decision, so far. This support is nowhere near federal support for
petroleum, pipeline, ship-building, and a few other industries. Yet it
seems proportional to the size of each sector's difficulties -- and to
their economic and social importance.
Here's a bone to chew
on
Posted 1.22.19
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | I'm
impressed by the dogs on Aylmer's sidewalks and trails -- breeds one
seldom sees (Kuvasz or Great Pyrenees), and all their shapes, sizes, and
personalities. Everything from Danes and Newfoundlands down to miniature
mutts I cannot identify. "Mutt" is a term of
endearment.
The passing of James Shea
and the future of school boards
Posted 1.9.19
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | West Quebec's anglophones were saddened to
learn of James Shea's passing after his lifetime of commitment to our
community. His funeral reminds us that the threat to minority-language
school boards is real. Mr Shea appealed for respect for QuŽbec's
minority community's constitutional protections, especially school
boards.
A Christmas
enough?
Posted 12.20.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC |
This is a rough time of the year for pessimists. Gift-giving, hearty
meals, and coloured lights reflecting off pure white snow are hardly the
stuff from which nightmares and disasters are made. In fact, since these
features combine better now than in any other public holiday during the
year, might we consider expanding its pleasures, fun, and warmth? Expand
it, you ask, how?
On Dying and other
Autumnal considerations
Posted 11.27.18
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | These are a few reflections on our final
autumns, on the end of life. We're all heading there, so sooner or later
these lines might provide some understanding and, through that, comfort
to all our readers -- but let's hope it's later!
Canada's postal strike:
crocodile tears?
Posted 11.23.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC |
News of the stalemate in the labour dispute at Canada Post includes an
announcement that 550 tractor trailer loads of parcels are waiting
across the country to be sorted and delivered. With the union applying
pressure where it would be most effective -- at Canada Post's few
centralized big sorting centres -- the labour dispute has become
something more.
PTSD and you? And
us?
Posted 11.20.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Around
Remembrance Day, I was in a local Canadian Legion hall and saw on the
wall a collage of photos of Canadian servicemen & women who have
given their lives in Afghanistan; it was a simple yet noble statement of
the terrible costs of war, something which should balance our tendency
to rush off to foreign battlefields in the pursuit of grand
ideals.
Together?
Not.
Posted 11.9.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Today we
view our society under multiple fracturing -- we divide ourselves
between immigrants and non-immigrants, among racial types, left-to-right
political positions -- all the dimensions into which we force our
communities, slicing and dicing ourselves, but one big divide we rarely
heard about is the rural -- urban split.
So what
happened?
Posted 10.8.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC |
Post-election, are we to accustom ourselves to a new era of change for
the sake of change? So it seems. Voters did want change, but every party
offered changes, big lists of promises -- and yet a lot of voters had no
idea what was on those lists. The voters knew mainly one thing:
"change." This seemed to motivate voters in the US
presidential election, in BC and Ontario elections, and now in Quebec.
New era, or back to the 1800s?
More Canada politics: guns
'n ammo
Posted 10.4.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | However, if
gun owners want guns to protect themselves from "big
goverment" -- this is insurrection, clearly illegal. What's wrong
with owning a gun or two or five, but keeping them in a regulated,
secure environment? Is "gun control" even the issue?
The coming Canadian
disaster
Posted 9.27.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | The
question isn't if the greatest disaster will occur, or a lesser one, or
something far worse -- the question is, why are we even taking these
chances? Why would we allow a gigantic radioactive mound in that
location, and under these circumstances, at all? Why would we even take
the chance?
Notpetya ~ a cautionary
tale
Posted 9.18.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | I stood for
some time behind a couple paying for two coffees -- with a debit card.
Next, a guy pulled out a fiver and paid for his in under two minutes.
Did that couple really not have a few bucks between them? That seems a
stretch, cashless out in the world, or maybe with a cell phone to make a
payment.
Letter to Cousin
Marjorie
Posted 8.7.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | Cousin,
think about that -- wouldn't you do exactly the same thing if you and
Ronnie decided to emigrate, say, to Argentina? Tell me you wouldn't
insist on real maple syrup!
FROM TRUMP TO FORD TO
QUÉBEC?
Posted 6.23.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC |
Your safety belts fastened? We have an election coming - - in October,
four quick months away. Growing parts of the world don't have elections,
or they're for show. And we did hear plenty about Ontario's vote in
early June, but you'd never know we'll be picking a new government,
soon, in our own province.
Happy Birthday to all
Geminis!
Posted 6.21.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QC | What a
birthday gift
to be born in this time of year...
For stupidity, how about a
UN monument?
Posted 6.21.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| When we think about Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, or Fukushima - - of
dikes bursting, cities flooded, and infrastructure built on earthquake
lines or on eroding sea cliffs - - and when the inevitable does then
happen, we inevitably exclaim, "What were they thinking!"
Ontario's vote will affect
West Quebec
Posted 5.26.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | One
thing the Liberal government in Ontario has accomplished is to keep
Quebec tightly engaged with the federation -- as a deliberate policy.
While this would likely be continued under an NDP or coalition
government, it's unlikely that relations with Quebec are even on the
Ford/Conservative radar.
Really, a Trump-Trudeau
axis?
Posted 5.10.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | When Mr
Trump was elected many Canadians wondered how our avant-garde
"feminist" leader would deal with the new president, already
known for outrageous actions and views. Canada has historically walked a
very thin line between what we profess and what our American protectors
expect of us. This would surely challenge that relationship.
False-flags right here at
home
Posted 5.5.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The
most cynical of false-flag events are "public consultations."
It's a rare one that actually consults with anyone. Usually they're
public announcements: "this is how it's going to be - - and how do
you feel about it?". That's no consultation, although there's a
smidgeon of feedback requested. Substantive changes rarely are birthed
in public consultations except in very dramatic circumstances - - say,
as a close election approaches.
$1.2 billion misdirected
in Canada
Posted 4.24.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The
Harper-Trudeau solution to our Canadian nation's nuclear waste over-flow
- - dump it onto a mound, covered by a 'membrane' - - is going to
backfire. Who doubts this?
In the gig economy,
where's the synergy?
Posted 4.4.18
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | We're constantly told that today's world is
at a boundary. We've reached a no-return point, and life will be very
different in the future. We heard this first via predictions about the
changes digitization would be bringing us, and indeed that seems to fit
-- in our homes, work, in businesses, the arts, sports, travel,
etc.
On plagiarizing
news
Posted 3.31.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The
Bulletin's discovery that one of its journalists has been plagiarizing
material published in another newspaper, while very embarrassing, has an
up-side, a lesson, as much for the reading public as for journalists
everywhere.
Facebook & Orwell,
tongue-in-cheek-ishly
Posted 3.21.18
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | "One of any citizen's rights is the
right to copyright material in our possession, generated by our
processes and devices. We have the legal right to copyright all
information, photos, data, numbers, and recordings generated by our
various systems. The purpose of this Notice is to inform you personally,
as our valued client, that Facebook has copyrighted your
life."
Are we in the midst of
World War III?
Posted 3.17.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| While we await, certainly with trepidation, for the US President's
next Twitter threat against North Korea (or Iran, Venezuela, Yemen,
Somalia, Niger ... ) it's worth considering that America's "War on
Terror" is actually a third World War. Add to Trump's crazy
threats, his threats to end trade agreements that don't favour America,
and it seems hard to say that we are not there.
Ah,
stereotypes
Posted 2.21.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | We're
constantly reminded to avoid stereotyping, but I can't get through a
single day without making a stereotype of one kind or another,
especially to myself. I've tried to stop, but, to be frank, it seems
most conversations would grind to a halt. (Or else blow into long-winded
storms of convoluted verbiage.)
Valentine's Day: Love's
changing numbers are written on water
Posted 2.13.18
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | This arithmetic of romance is highly
emotional and usually calculated in-the-moment, not from an calm moment.
Any estimation of costs - - or benefits - - of a relationship is
ethereal and shifting; love's changing numbers are written on water.
"Give us the money,
but not your rules"
Posted 2.8.18
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | But look at the implications. Does the
Conference of Bishops (all unmarried males) really believe that any
appeal to "freedom of religion" trumps federal law? Where and
when did we agree that our charters and legal heritage are subservient
to religious beliefs?
Clean, clear, easy to find
and understand
Posted 1.27.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Accountability? The public deserves the project's details. Details of
managerial salaries, consultant fees, contracting-out fees -- the big
costs. Quarterly reports. We have to know what the managers are being
paid, to assess the projects. (Sorry but privacy concerns their private
lives, not our tax dollars.)
Climate change is NOT the
only problem, folks
Posted 1.27.18
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | "It won't re-charge," he argued.
Even if the next ten years were as wet as the last were dry, and this
because the soil structure holding the aquifer has by now silted up and
collapsed; there is no longer much storage capacity down deep. Even if
the Americans were able to divert an entire Canadian river down there,
the aquifer no longer exists as it once did. The river would run off,
drain away.
The Me
Species
Posted 1.19.18
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Making
one nation great is clan-thought. Nations, tribes, even families,
religions, languages : each means one nation really can be separate. Yet
it's obvious the world is a network, and it's hard to imagine that
changing.
"I'm from the
government, how can I help?"
Posted 12.16.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The Quebec government just announced a
budget to help "traditional media," including small community
newspapers. Great idea! The help? Oh, that community newspapers stop
being newspapers.
The internet and no
communications
Posted 11.28.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Quebec's federation of municipal governments -- the FQM -- this week
announced it's support of efforts to extend high-speed internet to all
rural municipalities in the province. The FQM claims there are 244,000
households without real access.
Proud to be
Canadian
Posted 11.22.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Canadian patriotism is big in 2017. National celebrations on July 1,
and the 150th projects and festivities have been inspirational, but just
what do they mean to us, as patriotic Canadians?
West Quebec in provincial
cabinet?
Posted 11.16.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Even on the federal level, Pontiac had, for years, the senior minister
in Prime Minister Harper's government - - Harper's Quebec lieutenant, no
less - - and is there one project in the Pontiac which was helped by
"having a seat at the table"?
Critics! Methinks thou
dost whine too muchÉ
Posted 11.8.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Not only does Canada have a new
Governor-General, an astronaut-scientist-engineer, but she's not shy.
One of Mme Julie Payette's first speeches -- to a science forum -- has
generated an uproar. Most GG's avoid controversy, and many conservatives
are complaining. She dared to question creationism and embrace
evolution.
And that was just the beginning. She restated the science
of climate change, lamented the quackery of cancer panaceas, and
dismissed astrology as junk science.
The trouble with
stories
Posted 11.2.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | This is
not about turning the profession of journalism into story-telling. Nor
is it about the stories we continually tell ourselves to explain our
actions, urges, mistakes, and achievements. No, this is about
surrounding ourselves with stories, drowning in them - - and shouldn't
that be a concern for us, coping with an evolving world?
Expropriate the old rail
line?
Posted 10.28.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| However, the Municipality of Pontiac declined, and sold off the old
rail line to the line's neighbours, effectively strangling the Route's
access to the Ottawa Valley, and killing any chance of the
municipality's own fledgling tourism businesses profit fro this popular
tourist link.
Loony
anthropology
Posted 10.19.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Following the last full moon, I watched it rise and sail eastward each
evening - - until one night I was out before the moon. All the stars!
All exceptionally clear and bright - - and everywhere! Perhaps there was
less humidity on the air.
Quebec Day-care
strike
Posted 9.25.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Four
hundred educators in the Outaouais have been without a contract since
March, 2015. There are 11,000 unionized workers in Quebec working with
no or with expired contracts. Is this the way to run an economy? How can
this be considered good government and good business management? How
family-friendly is it to push day-care workers to strike?
NAFTA: Will Quebec's
Pontiac region get milk - - or milked?
Posted 9.19.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Meanwhile Canada is re-negotiating the
NAFTA pact with the US and Mexico, and this "revision" will
directly harm - - or help - - the Pontiac. Is NAFTA not news because
Canada's farm supply-management system is not high on Ottawa's priority
list?
Is CBC radio out of the
news business?
Posted 9.12.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Radio-heads will answer that there's a news minute or two at the top
of every hour on our national broadcaster, and they're right. But if the
fans call those few minutes "news reporting," are they
actually listening?
NOT THE FAIR'S SIDESHOW --
he's our president, too
Posted 9.6.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | In the old days, when farm fairs began,
there were side shows with weirdos and wonders in which we'd find
Trump-like buffoons, orange comb-over, all mouth, little Napoleons - -
that sort of thing - - and we'd all marvel, laugh, and go home feeling
smug and superior. Today, the real show has taken over centre stage and
there's no going home to avoid it.
A challenge for
anti-immigrants
Posted 8.2 4.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| The spectacular media circus created by, largely, alt-Trump supporters
in the US has caught our attention - - how could it not? But less
attention, as usual, seems to be on events and issues closer to home.
Specifically, in Quebec - - and not that our province has a worse record
- - the mosque shootings in Quebec, the anti-Muslim cemetery campaign,
and more recent demonstrations of anti-immigrant feelings by groups,
like La Meute, "the pack", or individuals who put up large
anti-immigrant banners outside the venues housing immigrants make it
clear that we Canadians still carry old fears and prejudices.
America's Growing
Neo-Fascists
Posted 8.16.17
FRED RYAN
CHARLOTTESVILLE,
VIRGINIA | Again the leader of the "free world" is caught up
in violence and racism -- the Charlottesville, Virginia, rally by
America's growing neo-fascists was last week's top news.
Harm reduction, a safe
injection site?
Posted 8.2.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| It is good news that a safe injection site has been approved for
Ottawa's Sandy Hill area, and that Ontario has offered funding. It's
important to note that it will be part of an existing drug and alcohol
treatment centre, one with a good record on all counts. The elephant in
the room, and not a silent one, are community fears that such a service
will attract more drug users and contribute to local criminality.
Surveys have shown that this is unlikely.
A little R-e-s-p-e-c-t, or
a lot
Posted 7.22.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Just
back from a Zydeco festival in Louisiana, a musician friend was steamed
up - - about garbage, not music. "When the music was over and
everyone rolled up their blankets, the venue was 10 inches deep in
trash! Wasn't our generation past all that?" (expletives
omitted).
New
proposal for the nuclear dump on Ontario's Ottawa
River
Posted 6.23.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (non-government) announced a year ago
their proposal to build a very large above-ground dump for nuclear
wastes, near a fault-line, not far from the Ottawa River, up-stream from
Aylmer, Gatineau and our nation's capital. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Our
LCC home in Cobden, Ontario, is on Muskrat Lake, which feeds into the
Ottawa River. We buy our daily drinking water from the Culligan plant in
Pembroke, which is just down river from the proposed nuclear dump site
at Chalk River.]
Apart from local newspapers, this project has
received almost no attention, and even less from our political leaders.
Isn't their silence unsettling?
We're all newspaper
people
Posted 6.14.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Over
the years we've all noticed that: Radio was killed off by cinema. Movies
were then killed by TV. Television was wiped out by video cartridges.
And VCRs were destroyed by DVDs. Vinyl succumbed to cassettes, which in
turn were killed off by CDs. CDs themselves fell under multiple
streaming sites. E-books have ended hard-copy books (which mysteriously
increased 17 percent over e-book sales last year); flaming fake news has
built social media, and now real news is hammering social
media.
Go tax
yourself!
Posted 6.2.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Arts
are not a luxury, they are a necessity. Necessary for a whole life,
living in a way that assists us translate all that life throws at us
into our happiness index. The arts help us appreciate the multi-wealths
surrounding us, and not merely count the years until our pensions kick
in (one sorry approach to living! Life has to be more than accumulating
junk and preparing for its final years).
In Canada, the monarchy's
a good thing
Posted 5.23.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| The old argument about Canada being -- or not -- a monarchy has indeed
grown old. It's no longer a burning issue, except, probably, within the
Monarchist League and in various republican grouplets. Yet it's still
worth some thought.
Ontario's Chalk River
Plant: nuke waste risk, with no gain
Posted 5.11.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | It is strange, indeed, if any good can come
from the flooding we've experienced almost everywhere in our region.
There will be many individual stories of bravery and perseverance,
certainly, but I am marvelling at the coincidence of these floods and a
great decision that is facing us -- the decision on the proposal for a
massive nuclear waste dump in Chalk River, upstream from much of Ontario
and also West Quebec. This is our decision, not only that of a
"panel of experts.
CANADA'S FIRST 150
YEARS!
Posted 5.3.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |
Wouldn't it be interesting to read readers' reflections on what Canada
means to them, as we look back over our nation's first 150 years? It's a
safe bet we'd prefer to remain Canadian and not "American",
despite our admiration for America's achievements. Canadians admire
Americans' openness, friendliness, and optimism.
Are governments enemies of
democracy?
Posted 4.21.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | In
early April the CBC reported the closure of a reputable Mexican
newspaper, El Norte, in Cuidad Juarez, opposite El Paso, Texas. The
interview with the publisher focused on the assassination of one of the
paper's reporters, a woman specializing in political stories, including
government corruption. Her murder was a message to journalists. She
was the third Mexican journalist murdered in March alone. The CBC
interview focused on the murder. Rightly so for two reasons -- one, to
congratulate ourselves that no matter how inexplicable things might be
at home, they are surely worse elsewhere. That's the Canadian
mantra.
It's not "for
families" at all
Posted 4.11.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | When I was a young man, one fashionable
idea was that the family is the key to any society's success.
"Family units" were considered a community's building blocks
-- social organization seem to grow from this format, therefore all
energies should go to protecting and encouraging "the
family."
Oh, the Chalk River
nuclear plant -- what could go wrong?
Posted 3.30.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | An 18-foot high mound, the size of multiple
football fields, all above ground - - not far from the once-mighty
Ottawa River, the source of life for much of the Valley - - picture it.
Of course it's covered tightly, under and over with a membrane. A
high-tech membrane. There are pumps to suck out leaking - - what, you
ask? Here's the kicker - - this big mound will be filled with
radioactive waste. What exactly, we can't tell
Ignore Trump, watch
Ryan
Posted 3.22.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Reader
Joanne Forsythe recent letter voiced her frustration with the media's
wall-to-wall coverage of Donald Trump, and that's probably media of
every stripe, shade, or ownership. "It's Trump, Trump,
Trump!", she writes, expressing an anger many people share. Surely
there's important news, not this man's idiocies!
In Canada: Broken promise
-- or unexplained change?
Posted 3.1.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The latest big topic in our region has been
the federal Liberals' plan to walk away from their promise to reform the
Canadian electoral system.
Revolution is in the
air
Posted 2.22.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The
Brexit vote in Britain, Trump's win in the US, the Hungarian and Polish
extreme-right regimes, plus Putin's promotion of Great Russia
nationalism, all point to a political lurch to the right underway in the
world today. There are many explanations, and most may be correct within
their frame of reference, but the fact that these nationalisms seem to
be rising everywhere at the same time should indicate that there's even
more at play here than a single, local explanation.
A new regime south of the
border -- or not?
Posted 2.6.17
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Approaching the new regime in Washington,
analyst Gwynne Dyer borrowed Rene Levesque's famous prescription:
"OK, everybody, take a valium!"
Women
marching
Posted 1.23.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The
participation rate in the "women's march" in Washington, the
day following the inauguration of Donald Trump, certainly upstaged the
official celebration. It is not difficult to grasp why so many women --
and men -- came out for this protest; the response of Mr. Trump's press
secretary to a question about the size of the women's march demonstrated
in the clearest way why they were making a statement with their
presence: "there were more people at Mr. Trump's inauguration than
had ever come out -- but the press covered it up" or something to
that effect. A bold-faced lie, which he later retreated from. Too many
lies É was one element being protested.
Putin turns the
tables
Posted 1.16.17
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Two or
three years ago it seemed that Russia had been backed into a corner by
the West - - from the Sochi Olympics to NATO's forces stationed along
Russia's borders, including the very-provocative NATO move to rotate
warships continually through the Black Sea, along the coasts of Russia
and Iran. NATO was negotiating for use of what used to be Russia's
largest naval base in the south, Sevastopol in the Crimea.
CBC's new Canadian plan:
more of the same?
Posted 12.30.16
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | CBC has proposed a new operating model --
semi-new, since the BBC & TeleSur have used it for years -- in which
CBC no longer competes with private media for advertising dollars.
Government funding (more) makes up for the missing advertising revenues.
Sounds interesting, especially for the private media conglomerates who
have long complained about competing with the national
broadcaster.
No fear & loathing
Ôround this old Christmas tree
Posted 12.22.16
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Since when did, "Have a safe
Christmas!", become a seasonal greeting? Did you hear this as a
kid? I didn't. Or if I did, it meant "don't drink too much",
but today this so-called greeting encompasses the most horrendous
threats.
Tabloid news reborn --
bigger, brighter, louder!
Posted 12.05.16
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The American election just demonstrated --
if there remained a doubt -- that people across this continent are
getting their news in new ways. They once favoured "the
tabs."
Fake news, but
where?
Posted 11.25.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| A month after the American election, the extent and influence of
"fake news" is slowly being uncovered. Fake news is now at the
top of most pundits' lists of explanations. Unbeknownst to us in
Snowflake Kingdom, the internet was jammed with "reports" of
Hilary Clinton's mis-deeds: with no evidence, apart from multiple
repetitions of the accusations, she was charged with corruption,
bribery, money-laundering, foreign influence, and favouritism.
Creeping fascism to
Canada's south
Posted 11.08.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| A lot of observers rolled their eyes when Donald Trump accused the US
elections process of being "rigged." However, when the FBI
"leaked" the bombshell, two weeks before the vote, that Ms.
Clinton "may" be investigated for misuse of e-mails when she
was Secretary of State -- resulting in a huge drop in voter support,
just as she was putting distance between her candidacy and Trump's --
Trump''s claims all of sudden had some sense to them.
We need
immigrants!
Posted 11.01.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| There are few villages and towns across West Quebec which are not in
decline. Given the exhaustion of our forest resources, the marginality
of tourism, the lack of infrastructure (even the internet!), the flight
of younger generations to the cities, given all this, is there any
wonder that Outaouais towns are almost zombie-towns?
The political parade
reaches West Quebec
Posted 10.16.16
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | It's a screwy system we've let develop,
where our so-called representatives and our so-called government leaders
are not representative at all, and, in many cases, hardly leading anyone
real at all. If they represent anything, our reps represent not us to
the government, but they represent the government to us.Our system has
morphed into a top-down governing process, rather than what we used to
romantically call "grass roots" democracy.
Values that are
Canadian?
Posted 10.08.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| One of the candidates for leadership of the federal Conservatives has
proposed screening immigrants and refugees for their acceptance of
"Canadian values and principles". It is possible that this may
not mean what it appears to say, and is a code-word for anti-immigrant
prejudice.
What's wrong with Truth
& Reconciliation?
Posted 09.23.16
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Canada's Truth & Reconciliation
Commission has been judged a big success -- so far. It takes its place
with similar successes in countries as varied as South Africa,
Argentina, Chile, and, now, Canada. I am not aware of any such efforts
elsewhere which have failed.
YOU ARE A
TROUT
Posted 09.17.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Imagine for a moment or two a very different life. Imagine you are a
trout, beautiful, quick, sleek and wary -- in every way -- and you live
in a deep pond on a wide river not far north-west of Aylmer, Quebec. But
the pool sits above a high falls and fierce rapids. You live your life
in this great pool and you feel constantly the pull of the current as it
rushes towards the falls.
Victories at Rio: stunning
& incomplete
Posted 08.19.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Writing conclusions from the Olympics with the Games still underway is
risky since everything can change with a single competition. Except one.
The Games have already made an immense mark, and that is on the struggle
for full equality for women. These Games have set that standard, as
anyone viewing, say, the women's 100 m would easily see
Before the classrooms are
humming again
Posted 08.05.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Excuse me for bringing this up in the heat of mid-summer, but about a
month from now the kids across West Quebec will be heading back to their
classrooms. Once the school year begins, it seems, there'll be too much
going on and too much to get through to allow time for any reflection on
our schools' activities. Allow me to raise one consideration: school
trips.
Mohammed Ali,
1942-2016
Posted 06.10.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Ali deserves to be considered the sports icon of his time. Today,
stars rate themselves by their salaries and little else. Ali's place in
history is marked by his bravery, his principles, his still-unmatched
skill in the ring -- and by his lip! Here's a guy who stimulated the
careers of rappers everywhere with his lyrical and very edgy
trash-talking. Ali, contrary to today's sports millionaires, used his
career and his phenomenal successes not to push product but to push
principles -- and good sense.
How to be
wealthy
Posted 05.30.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| This headline reads "be", not "become", wealthy. I
have no unusual ideas on how to become wealthy; if I did, would I be
writing this column every week? Which is something to consider when
faced with all the self-help books promising wealth and success which
fill book stores.
The hounds of
capitalism
Posted 05.18.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| My puzzlement over such blind support for capitalism grows from my
personal frustration with our economic system. Why would we want more of
a system which must lie to us, apparently, to sell us their products
(wall-to-wall advertising, deceptive packaging, hidden ingredients,
phoney stats and testimonials).
Simplicities are
us
Posted 04.23.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |
Speaking from fifty years in journalism and especially in
editorial-writing, I am continually impressed with our predilection to
go with the simplistic solution to any problem. As the problems become
more complex and convoluted, as many political and social problems do,
our desire for a simple answer grows stronger.
"Buy local"
under threat -- by the USA
Posted 04.15.16
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Or, we might say that our ability to
buy-local to support our home-town economy may also be under threat by
Japan, Chile, or any of the dozen coastal nations signing on to the
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Panama's alarm: Wake up,
Canadians!
Posted 04.08.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The so-called Panama Papers have everyone talking
about off-shore accounts and tax avoidance - again. A week earlier the
same subject was in the news. The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) was then
in hot water because the Agency admitted giving soft rides to the
wealthy. Tax avoidance and off-shore banking were the subjects then,
too. The Panama disclosures add shell companies to that list. And the
Panama disclosures identify hundreds of Canadians and Canadian companies
using these devices to avoid paying their taxes in Canada.
Hydro-Quebec For Sale? No
Thanks!
Posted 03.23.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Hydro-Québec may have its occasional scandal, fraud, or
embarrassment, but it is a model across the continent for efficient
delivery of energy under even the most extreme conditions. We can see
how often Ottawa consumers are hit with black-outs and interruptions of
service; we should be proud of Hydro Quebec's record.
Free University, or
University for -- what?
Posted 03.17.16
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Since high school seniors are applying at
this time of year, two recent events are worth noting about university
education. First was the Ontario premier's proposal that university be
free, essentially for students from low-income families.
Finally!
Seeking a better
view
Posted 03.10.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Some
Asian cultures use the expression, "The Ten Thousand Things",
to refer to the world or everything that presses in on us day after day.
I recently found a nice line of poetry about this concept
America, example to the
world?
Posted 02.27.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| We seem to avoid meddling in foreign nations (most of the time), or we
may be really good at camouflage, but anyone watching the American
presidential primaries will have wondered what might happen if the likes
of Trump or Ted Cruz end up in the White House, unleashing their macho
rage-culture on the world. We may have to reconsider our hands-off
attitude toward other governments.
Any good
news?
Posted 02.23.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| There is good news in the news; it's not as rare as we think. There's
plenty -- read through this newspaper! But bad news gets our attention
-- disasters, with warnings and scary items at the top of the list.
Especially scary. Good news can be medical discoveries that'll save
millions of lives, eventually, but this becomes invisible next to a
gunman massacring school children -- because it's awful and it's
today.
Cosmic
weather
Posted 02.16.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| I'm convinced there's something like "emotional weather.".
It's not weather at all Ñ there are no clouds rolling in, no blizzards
or sunny days, except as metaphors, and as for metaphors,
"weather" will have to do.
Physician-assisted
depression
Posted 02.11.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| However, there remains a big question, one raised last year by an
American surgeon, who asked why are we opting for a longer life, without
any thought of the quality of that long life? If life is painful and
incapacitated, due to terminal illnesses, or cancer, what is the purpose
in prolonging it?
Real change in
Ottawa?
Posted 01.27.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| While we, and apparently much of Canada, are still happy with the
results of last fall's federal election, it's worthwhile to consider
that election in terms of Canada's electoral history. The most common
view is that Mr Trudeau's convincing victory marks a significant shift
in popular feeling and in the country's vision of its future.
Promoting conflict to
promote sales
Posted 01.19.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Obviously the incredible influence -- power -- of the NRA to prevent
and derail legislation aimed at tightening gun possession laws is
foreign to us in Canada. At least we think this.
New Year's Resolutions --
or questions
Posted 01.08.16
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| I had little success in convincing my granddaughters that New Year's
resolutions are appropriate -- or helpful.
Are Quebec cities in the
sports business?
Posted 06.12.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Simply, cities cannot afford such extravagance, and there is good
reason to question whether any city should be in the business of
building facilities for corporate-owned commercial sports franchises, no
matter the popularity of the sport.
In Canada: Truth, first,
then Reconciliation
Posted 06.05.15
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | So why refuse to call a spade a spade?
Compensation claims? Does that explain, too, why the Catholic Church
still refuses an apology for its role in the Residential Schools. Mr.
Harper has apologized, at least, so why not our & quot;new&
quot; Pope, the man who claims to be bringing a conscience back to Rome?
He lectures the world on eliminating poverty and fixing climate change,
fine, but the Church was one of the three principal players in the
Schools and it does claim a general moral high road.
The future of the
past
Posted 05.30.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | We can
remember the grand promises when we were in high school from experts
studying the future -- flying cars, housework robots, world peace
through better education, and, especially, the end of labour. Our
leisure lives were supposed to steadily grow, leaving us with decisions
not about careers but about filling up those leisure hours. With robots
taking over manual labour and electronics providing all capabilities,
the future indeed looked like a big vacation.
No spring this year? Or
just for some of us?
Posted 05.25.15
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The year 2015 may be remembered as the year
without a Spring. We went directly from never-ending winter to 30 plus
degrees in early May. The daffodils barely had their beautiful heads up
when the heat slumped them over. Lilacs are struggling with this
Spring-squeezed year.
Posted
05.19.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Ottawa keeps calling
itself senior-supportive, but aside from this propaganda, there isn't
much for us to cheer about -- or to vote for once again.
Reclaiming human
values
Posted 04.19.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| With the wave of austerity sweeping today's right-wing governments,
choices for public funding become more difficult and, thus, more in need
of full discussion.
You and me and the
news
Posted 04.11.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |
Personally, I can't resist a newspaper on the table, or a radio near
news time. (TV I can avoid.) But I wish I could. And you know why: it's
awful.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Personal train
wrecks
Posted 04.05.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| The disaster and tragedy at Lac Megantic, Quebec Ñ the train wreck
supreme Ñ remains in our minds. Flames in the sky, billowing black
clouds, night-time explosions, all framed by buildings which could have
been any of our neighbourhoods (those near train
tracks).
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Public
art
Posted 03.17.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The
great murals of the world attract thousands of tourists, and, for those
in Mexico City, for example, visitors come from Europe, Asia, the US,
and our own cities. Look at the guest books. These murals deserve their
notoriety -- they are beautiful, awe inspiring, stimulating.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
More on
wood
Posted 03.06.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | What
luxury, in the context of any other place in the world, to be able to
burn hardwood for heat. In many countries burning up maple, oak, yellow
birch, or beech would be unthinkably extravagant. How wasteful to just
burn up such valuable woods. We must seem clueless to the rest of the
world.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Plain old
firewood?
Posted 03.04.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| This winter's frigid temperatures remind us that the proper term is
not "global warming," at least not around here. "Climate
change" is the concept, even "runaway climate change."
Sometimes cold, hot, usually fierce, always destructive -- that's
climate change, and this winter our household had almost burned through
our total wood supply by February first.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Sitting on your [Canadian]
hands?
Posted 02.15.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| National polls show the government inching past the divided
opposition. How can this be? Obviously, my friends, despite their
agreement, are remarkably insulated from what motivates so many other
Canadians.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Dirtying whose
nest?
Posted 02.05.15
LFRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Here's some more-than-local news: astronomers have found a solar
system not terribly unlike our own, named Kepler 444, with five
earth-similar planets. They don't believe there's life there, since
these planets revolve too close to the star to accommodate life, as we
know it. The news is that the scientists were able to assign an
approximate age to this system -- and its age is exceptionally old,
several billion years older than our own.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
What's this you're
reading?
Posted 01.31.15
LILY RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| How many of us know what makes a newspaper work? We have reporters who
go out and get the news. This news is edited, laid out, printed up, and
delivered, right? And that makes a newspaper?
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Pay your own
way
Posted 01.20.15
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The
revolutionary idea is that these costly institutions -- hospitals and
CLSCs, schools and day-cares and so on -- should be obligated to earn
their own way, just like you and I. This plan was proposed when Quebec
City was studying the Hull and Gatineau hospitals; those geniuses, and
they deserve this title, had decided that the two hospitals which were
unable to work together an any file, should be given a brand new
super-hospital for them to run jointly. Being in one building, they
would have to, at least, talk to each other in the
hallways.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Money isn't everything in
Quebec, Premier Couillard
Posted 12.27.14
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The Christmas Holiday season may not be the
best time to raise the question of money -- although maybe it is, since
this is exactly the season of money. Cartoonist Aislin of the Montreal
Gazette noted last week that Christmas shows Canada's true colours --
not Jesus, not democracy, not personal liberties, not justice, but
buying stuff. And then buying even more stuff.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Christmas in the Middle
East
Posted 12.11.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |
American sources estimate that their wars against Iraq and Afghanistan
have cost roughly four trillion dollars -- so far. That is an immense
amount of money, making these wars the most expensive in history -- not
only among the least successful. Why that is the case, and where all
this money has gone are hard to uncover -- they're deliberately
well-concealed.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Am I the only misanthrope
in the newsroom?
Posted 12.04.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| This title refers to the media's universally awful coverage of last
month's attacks on our soldiers in Canada. Is no one else revolted by
the flood of platitudes, pomposities, clichés, repetitions,
vacuous statements, emotional outbursts, and total lack of informative
content which filled the national media, private or public, as it
pretended to cover the week's terrible events and the subsequent
outpouring of tears, angst, and even more platitudes?
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
Can
"anti-collusion" be a smokescreen?
Posted
11.25.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Large corporations
are using "anti-collusion" as a smoke screen to obscure their
growing domination of our economy. Price-fixing is already a crime. Just
use the legal system, as we already do. Why now kill local
entrepreneurship and jobs?
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Is this Quebec school
board election our last?
Posted 11.20.14
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The Liberals in Quebec are questioning
free-standing school boards, and proposing to close many down and
centralize school management. The Couillard Liberals' centralization
mantra is very old news Ð- most of the health system restructuring in
the last decades was designed to combat the problems of a top-heavy
bureaucracy, too far from the people it is mandated to
serve.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Law 'n order is not making
Canadians any safer
Posted 11.10.14
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | We are not safer under the Harper
government than before. Despite this government's commitment to
law-and-order jingoism, it seems that although we may indeed have more
laws and stiffer regulations now, we are not safer. The attacks on
soldiers here at home could be seen as a dramatic and tragic blow-back
from this government's foolish commitment to heavy-handed military
approaches to complicated problems.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Homegrown terrorists in
Canada?
Posted 10.30.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Amid the sadness and shock of the recent attacks in Canada, there have
been voices of reason and careful analysis, but they've been drowned by
the media's single-minded focus on tears and
breast-beating.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Can day care destroy
Canada?
Posted 10.16.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Finally, a political party is awake. After years of talk,
hand-wringing, and hypocritical concern for families, one federal party
Ð the NDP -- has bitten the bullet and figured out how we can afford a
national day-care program. Finally! Bravo!
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Bound for
glory?
Posted 10.08.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| We each, on average, have a little more than 1000 months of life to
live. That's how much time we have to discover -- or create -- meaning
in our lives.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
On dying and
dignity
Posted 09.26.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Canada's doctors proposed at the their annual convention this summer
that euthanasia be left to individual doctors. Those who disagree with
assisted suicide would not be required to assist their patients. Sounds
good and democratic -- for doctors.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Anti-Valentines
Posted 09.17.14
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Since we are near the opposite side of the
calendar from Valentines Day, it might be interesting to look at love
and relationships without the candlelight and red lingerie of February
14.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
On Desiderata, that old
poster
Posted 09.12.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Ages ago it seemed as though every apartment and dormitory room had a
poster called "Desiderata." The poster, presumably, carried
advice on how to lead a happy and fulfilling life. The advice was hardly
Earth-shaking -- "Go placidly amid the noise and haste." --
"Do not feign affection." And the now-famous "You are a
child of the universe, no less than the trees and stars." Yet every
one of its ten suggestions is solid and realistic
advice.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Re-making
Ottawa?
Posted 09.04.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| "Attention servants of the Canadian State..." that's how the
communique was supposed to begin, I'm certain.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DOIN'
IT
Posted 08.27.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | It's a
rare person today who criticizes "social media" as a basic
tool of communication. Just look at any gaggle of teens in the mall, all
tapping away on their phones as if they each were alone in the world;
look at adults constantly checking their mail on a date, during supper,
while driving. People sleep with their cell phones, and check them
during the night.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Books -- reading one,
holding one
Posted 08.13.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| To relax and pursue my personal interests, I pick up a small
paperback, say one from the City Lights Poets series, not much bigger
than my hand. I open at my bookmark, smile at the silence and speed of
this procedure, and I read a few pages.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Gas prices at the
pump
Posted 08.05.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | When I
was in high school with my first car, gas prices were less than a dollar
a gallon. That's right, per gallon. And at time Canada was producing
almost no oil.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
That swastika was more
than graffiti
Posted 06.23.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| When Councillor Mike Duggan, of Aylmer's Lucerne Ward, took out his
tools and safety gear and removed the swastika graffiti on a sidewalk in
town earlier this month, likely he was not criticizing the slow reaction
of the city's Public Works Department.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Locally, we could be more
creative
Posted 06.17.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Cultural events and shows are considered one of Montreal's main
attractions, and its infrastructure keeps the millions, yes, millions of
visitors, in the city for days. They spend more, visit more sites,
expositions, view shows, tours -- all leaving substantial funds behind.
Ottawa is another powerhouse cultural destination.
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
The school calendar of
years ago
Posted 06.12.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| As we unwind with the school year towards summer vacations, do we ever
wonder why our schools have the schedules they do? Why two or three
months off in a solid block during summer?
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Why collect books in a
digital age?
Posted 06.03.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| They add warmth to a room. On an exterior wall they add insulation.
Sit close to them and notice the warmth -- compared to a blank wall or
to a screen. There's warmth.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Could a musician save
America?
Posted 05.10.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Any of our readers who travel often in the US, or follow American
media, are aware that the United States is a fractured nation. The
political arena seems toxic and the idiocies that come from many
politicians and candidates are, frankly, unbelievable.
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
Economic optimism in
Aylmer, Quebec
Posted 05.02.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| These business people attribute the up-tick to the last provincial
election. Every one of them said they felt consumers and home-owners had
put plans on hold as they waited for Mme. Marois and the PQ try for a
majority government and, likely, another independence
referendum.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Catching up to
Quebec
Posted 04.21.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Of all the commentaries about the Quebec election -- and there are no
end to them -- we learn a great deal about the parties, their
strategies, and their missteps. What we don't see are comments on the
people who made the difference here -- the voters.
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
Post-election -- You are
white and I am black
Posted 04.11.14
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Close up, each of our contraries can be a
division, a Berlin Wall, a conflict. We dis-learn about each other; we
dis-learn how to speak to each other with respect and
understanding.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
When the voting is
over
Posted 04.03.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |
Everyone's talking about the Quebec election slated for Monday, April 7,
2014. So many opinions, and so many highly charged with emotion. But if
we really want to help ourselves, the future for ourselves and our kids,
we have to do it ourselves. And that means more than
voting.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Nouveau Parti Quebecor,
eh?
Posted 03.27.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Karl
Peladeau's entry into the Quebec election campaign has been well
dissected but one question has not been carefully studied -- the man's
motive for this radical career change. Why has he jumped into politics,
and why on the side of the PQ? What's in it for him -- this man who owns
so influential a part of the Quebec economy, Quebecor (including the Sun
newspapers)?
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Damned if you
don't
Posted 03.18.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| There is a temptation to tell all the politicians to just Go to Hell
in this provincial election. How? By not voting. Or by spoiling our
ballots, which is supposed to indicate an unhappy electorate. If only
politics was this simple and clean.There is a temptation to tell all the
politicians to just Go to Hell in this provincial election. How? By not
voting. Or by spoiling our ballots, which is supposed to indicate an
unhappy electorate. If only politics was this simple and
clean.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Focus, in
hindsight
Posted 03.15.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| I am an unashamed admirer of the Olympic Games, both winter and
summer. The massive expenses of both the Sochi and the Peking Games may
dismay many people -- myself included -- but why are we surprised by
such extravagance when every year we learn of multi-million dollar
contracts to hockey and baseball players, or the huge amounts invested
in sports training? Are these our nation's priorities?
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
Student debt -- it's
societal self-abuse
Posted 02.25.14
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | As economists try to make sense of Canada's
stuck-in-the-mud resource economy, one interesting consideration is the
dampening effect of over $15 billion taken out of the economy by
outstanding student debt. Some $15 billion is owed to the federal
government -- much more is owed to the provinces, the banks, family
coffers, and to credit cards by the graduates, 15 percent who are unable
to find work.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Canada's Conservative
Party War against the Placenta
Posted 02.05.14
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | With Canada's Parliament back in session,
we've just been told that the Dirty Tricks Squad will re-introduce the
"abortion debate" this term. Oh, these folks!
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
Do I remember who I am? Do
you?
Posted 01.28.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Last
fall, in-laws visiting from British Columbia were struck by our Quebec
license plates. "What does the slogan mean, 'je me
souviens'?," they wanted to know.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
In Canada: Privatizing
Public Service
Posted 01.17.14
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| The Internet has already hit [Canada's Post Office] hard, so
increasing postage and parcel rates means business revenues decline even
further. With the revenues down, run up the costs. Appoint a political
guy to run the post office and pay him roughly $600,000 a year (with
perks). Add a whole bunch of vice-presidents, all well-paid. Say,
appoint twenty-two vice presidents.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Read too quick, talk too
soon
Posted 12.16.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | One of
the key cautions in our era of click-n-send e-mails is to write your
message, save it, take a break, review it, and only then hit the final
"send." That is good advice for replying to anything and
anyone -- including letters to the editor.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
A great Santa parade, but
was it successful?
Posted 12.09.13
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Who came to see Santa during the recent
parade in Aylmer? Tens of thousands, apparently! And although it is
difficult to figure out how the organizers come up with attendance
numbers, it is clear that the parade attracts thousands.
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
In Quebec, a (Pontiac)
Charter of Values, yes!
Posted 11.25.13
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Our local economy has effectively ceased to
function. Most people work outside, and government payments (pensions,
EI, welfare) make up a major source of Pontiac income. The Pontiac has
been not merely de-industrialized, but de-economied.
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
We cannot be against
war
Posted 11.14.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |
Pacifists weren't evident at this year's Remembrance Day ceremony here,
no white poppies in the sea of red. Yet in the most ordinary of
circumstances, most of us are pacifists -- which parents wish to have
our sons and daughters head off to a war? At best, we see those
departures as necessary evils.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
And the little children
shall lead them
Posted 11.10.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| In the last several weeks of the recently completed campaign, I was
surprised to have my granddaughter, who is in Grade Three, explain the
election to me.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Winning could be losing
Posted 11.02.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | In
other countries and times, a disinterested population, coupled with some
national decline or crisis, opens the door for The Strong Man to step
in. A dictator.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Democracy doesn't end when
the election is over
Posted 10.27.13
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | We aren't picking a lottery number -- we
hope -- but no candidate comes with a guarantee. Our homework gives us
an inkling of what we might expect; real life throws so many unexpected
curves that promises are only guidelines. That is why voting is just the
beginning, not the end of our citizen opportunities and
responsibilities.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Damage
Control
Posted 10.19.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| While many of us watched the dramatic revelations of Quebec's
Charbonneau corruption commission, we were relieved to learn that this
cancer has not spread to Gatineau's political life. But then, a couple
of weeks later, we learn that Radio Canada has found something worth
examining in the relations between a major contractor -- and a local
school board.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Magicians
Everywhere
Posted 09.24.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Magic and magical thinking are topics that grow bigger, more
widespread, the more thought and attention they're given. For example,
politics is magic...
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Lousy government equals
lousy voter attitude
Posted 09.17.13
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | With a municipal election here in west
Quebec this November -- plus elections for school board commissioners --
let's not look at the candidates, but at our role in an election, you
and me. It's not a pretty picture.
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
A good wife? A good
husband?
Posted 08.09.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Editorials are usually about current events, politics, topics of the
day -- from a new streetlight to closing a school, bullying to
illiteracy rates, high gas prices and the lack of recycling in your
local mall, you name it --but always removed from our most personal
concerns and certainly far from our personal lives. Editorials appeal,
most often, to our brains rather than our feelings, to our community
more than our bedrooms É and why is that?
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Sound Management or
Foolhardy Ideology?
Posted 08.09.13
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | More than a year ago, Japan's new prime
minister, the conservative Shinzo Abe, announced his government was
giving up on "austerity" measures because twenty years of
austerity had not yielded any economic improvement. When Abe announced a
100 billion dollar spending plan to stimulate Japan's economy, the
experts called the plan, "Abenomics," and waited for Japan to
sink.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
We can do
better
Posted 07.26.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| We ask our youths to work very hard at school, to put in the long days
| and long weeks of college and university study, take part-time jobs --
| and to also assume $20,000 to $45,000 in debt, in their twenties.Could
| we make it any more difficult for our kids to get a higher
| education?
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
Big, quiet
change
Posted 07.18.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| The difficulty with historical change is that the people within it
usually are unaware that it's even happening. Once it's passed,
historians and the media tell us all about it. Why don't they inform us
while we are in the middle of it?
Fred Ryans column
archives: Click Here
In Canada today: More than
just cronies
Posted 07.01.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Although most prime ministers have misused their power to appoint, Mr.
Harper's blatant use of appointments to reward big donors, party
workers, or his party's losing candidates seems, well,
shameless.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click
Here
Today's miracles and
magical thinking
Posted 06.22.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| It's a bit like fantasy, a bit like wishing, where self-contradictory
statements, programs, and plans are taken to be accurate reflections of
the way the world works.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
What we're learning about
Canada's Senate
Posted 06.11.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| As the Senate expenses scandal ripples outward, and as surprising as
| is the venality of the few senators who've been caught, it is what we
| are learning about the Senate's operating rules that is most
| informative. This is a genuine scandal. In any other jurisdiction,
| this would be a criminal matter.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
What Canada Senate
expenses scandal?
Posted 06.02.13
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| We haven't forgotten, have we, that politics is all about what's under
| the radar screen, not what's grabbing today's 3-minute media bite? How
| else explain this government's record-breaking use of omnibus bills to
| slide in innumerable measures that would, by definition, surely not
| pass on their own. Or, at minimum, these secret-agenda items would
| bring public wrath or a spotlight on the manipulations of this
| toxically-secretive government.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
The [Quebec] Pontiac's
reality options?
Posted 05.24.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| We do have a sovereigntist government at the helm in Quebec City.
| Pontiac being one big chrome-plated municipality or eighteen
| independent fiefdoms won't mean much to us if we are thrown into
| another independence referendum. Kiss investment
| goodbye.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
Alert!
Alert!
Posted 05.09.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| We all love kids, especially our own. We love grandkids. That is not
| the issue. Just about everyone will do what they can to prevent harm
| to any child. We do not have to prove we love kids by supporting every
| call for hysteria, nor do we have to embrace fear as our guiding
| emotion.
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
April Moon
Thoughts
Posted 04.23.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Late at night, when there's not much left of the daylight world to
think about, it is interesting to consider that when we are looking at
the moon, we are in fact looking at the sun. Looking at the sun is a
no-no, while looking at the moon is a romantic and philosophic moment,
although moonlight is no more than sunlight reflected. Can reflections
make such a difference?
Fred Ryans column archives: Click Here
The chainsaws of
springtime
Posted 04.15.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| With the air finally warming and the days nice and long, we're clearly
in spring. And spring means one thing: chainsaws.
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
Libraries and urban
villages
Posted 04.02.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Debates about public libraries are not limited to QuebecWhat's wrong with Truth
| & Reconciliation?
Posted 09.23.16
FRED
| RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |Canada's Truth &
| Reconciliation Commission has been judged a big success -- so far. It
| takes its place with similar successes in countries as varied as South
| Africa, Argentina, Chile, and, now, Canada. I am not aware of any such
| efforts elsewhere which have failed.s Gastineau.
We've seen them in Montreal, Seattle, Singapore, Berlin, Ottawa, and New
York City. A major impetus is the digitization of printed material. It
has been estimated that the entire collection of the federal Library of
Parliament can now fit into a shoebox. Why, ask library critics, do we
need massive, expensive buildings to house a shoebox?
Fred Ryans
column archives: Click Here
Can you afford to raise a
kid?
Posted 03.28.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC |
Statistics tell us that it costs an average of a quarter million dollars
to raise one child to the age of 17 (in the US). High-earners can spend
a half-million. I don't know about you, but I have three grown kids and
I know we didn't run through that much money.
Hydro-Québec
"green-washes" its new fridge campaign
Posted
03.21.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | First, Hydro is
asking us to discard our old appliances. How is that done? Dumped on the
curb, or traded in to appliance shops? Where will the carcasses of all
those old machines end up? What's "green" in dumping thousands
of working appliances into landfills, before or after they've been
stripped?
Talking too
much
Posted 03.14.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | At a
recent evening get-together, with people talking on all sides, several
conversations at once, I had a startling revelation, to wit, that most
people don't know what they are talking about.
New check-off boxes on our
ballots?
Posted 03.05.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| It amazes us to hear that in Russia and the old Soviet republics there
are many people who want communism back, and that the Communist Parties
do well in elections in many places. "Are they crazy?" we ask;
"They want megalomaniacs back in power?" They do. But they
wouldn't put it that way. Few people want mass murders or secret police,
but a lot of people want guaranteed jobs, enforced low prices on food
and staples, free education through university, even free telephone and
bus services. They want the security that dictatorial regimes can
provide.
Quebec is not a bilingual
province
Posted 02.27.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| It will come as a surprise to some of our readers, but our province is
officially unilingual; its legal language is French, and only French.
Many who write letters to the editor believe Canada is a bilingual
country and they assume since Quebec is a province, it must also be
bilingual. This is mistaken, and the mistake is a big one: Canada is not
a bilingual country.
Where's the money
gone?
Posted 02.16.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Where has the world's wealth gone? Since personal and family debt
loads have never been higher, pensions are being cut -- or evaded by
some corporations -- and Canada, once rated the number one country to
live in the world by the United Nations, now can't afford to keep our
scientists and researchers working, our health system functioning
smoothly, schools teaching, infrastructure maintained -- we can't even
fund a restoration of St Paul's Church!
Guns?
Posted 02.09.13
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | There are so many guns in the US that some
are bound to be pointed at us all. We wring out hands, shed tears for
parents and teachers, and we tsk-tsk their culture of extreme-gun
ownership. We can do little about all this, apart from a shared sorrow
and our oh-so-Canadian indignation.
A lesson from the
States?
Posted 01.26.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| This picture is changing, says my nephew. This town does have the
deserted downtown and the ostentatious suburbs, but few malls -- in fact
there were none. None open.There were no small stores at all, but there
was one massive Walmart.
Don't get stuck in
idle
Posted 01.15.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Need
proof that we live in interesting times? How about the Idle No More
movement, the student anti-austerity protests last spring, the Occupy
movement, the Arab Spring upheavals -- all just the start of a
list.
Those New Year
resolutions
Posted 01.10.13
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| What a relief that the world didn't end. The media's analysts
misinterpreted the Mayan calendar, or likely they exaggerated someone
else's misinterpretation, similar to the Y2K crisis when the digital
world was due to end. So we have a reprieve.
Quebec municipal
corruption for decades. No one noticed?
Posted 12.26.12
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | We're still in shock from the Charbonneau
Commission's revelations. There's more to come, but what often happens
is that we, the public, are overloaded with information and quickly grow
jaded even with the worst scandals. As a public, our population seems to
suffer collective Attention Deficit Disorder -- we continually want to
hear about a new scandal, new horrors in Syria, new massacres in the
States, new anything.
Pontiac's Easy Street?
Posted 12.15.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | As
close as we are to Ottawa, no one could have missed hearing about
Ottawa's big idea to build a casino of its own, right downtown where
traffic is bad, parking terrible, light-rail construction chaos is
starting, and the area is already over-built and crowded. And why a
casino?
Atomic
Anger
Posted 12.07.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Nuclear is the big dark horse. Atomic energy is the door to so much
debate - and confusion. Shouldn't we cut through some of that confusion
if we could by speaking more clearly?
A different Turkey,
different Thanksgiving
Posted 10.23.12
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | With the Quebec election only a month old
and the US presidential election heating up, the conversation over wine,
cheese, and smoked whitefish and salmon quickly turned to politics. This
might alarm those who avoid mixing politics and family, but given the
range of opinions, backgrounds, and experiences present, these
conversations were enlightening.
Posted
10.02.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Say the word
"democracy" and most of us think of voting every four years.
That's the shopper's view, similar to choosing a brand of toothpaste or
detergent in the store. What if democracy means music in a park, kids
parading with banners and drums, and choices among chili-dogs, salmon
burgers or a Mexican atole drink? Democracy is closer to what goes on in
a park like that, than it is to voting once or picking out one of 100
identical toothpastes.
Quebec's political sanity
Posted 09.13.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Mme.
Marois has a place in history as our first female premier. Will she be a
footnote to history or an entire chapter? If she feeds her old guard,
the geezers my age who want one more kick at the referendum can before
they croak, her record may read, " . . . she stalled Quebec's
future by immersing us in the quarrelling of another unwinable
referendum"?
An automatic referendum on
separation?
Posted 09.04.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| We may get or avoid a referendum, but we don't get the projects which
had caught our attention at the start. We are hostages.
This Quebec election is
part of something old
Posted 08.21.12
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | As I get older, I'm surprised to find that
some of my prejudices are getting stronger, not dying away.
Who needs another bridge?
Not Ottawa
Posted 08.03.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Ottawa's mayor claims he is against another bridge because it will
allow more people to move to Gatineau's cheaper housing and better
family services, and Ottawa will lose even more tax base. Is Mayor
Watson considering a wall around Ottawa to keep his ratepayers paying
their taxes only to Ottawa?
"Ain't seen nothin'
yet!"
Posted 07.25.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| We're getting accustomed to reports of weather that would have been
shocking twenty years ago. Two weeks ago Edmonton was hit with
tornado-speed winds, hail, and flash flooding, with many drivers
abandoning their cars on flooded highways. American reports of multiple
tornados, floods, continent-sized drought and lightning-caused blackouts
amid super-hot weather are almost routine.
The community of
"us"
Posted 07.12.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| With our excessive regard for individualism, do we pay as much
attention to this reciprocity as it merits? Isn't our personal happiness
connected to the genetic collectivity to which we each and all
belong?
Je me souviens -- but can
we go back there?
Posted 07.02.12
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | A drive home from work is a great place to
think. My route has little traffic and less stress -- perfect. This
isn't about relaxation.
Canada joins the
petro-democracies
Posted 06.20.12
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | There were plenty of crocodile tears shed
in Canada during the last federal election about the weaknesses of a
minority government. Although the country seemed to be doing just fine
with its minority governments, we were assured minorities are the road
to disaster.
Our moon and
Venus
Posted 06.12.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Driving out into the rural areas earlier this month, I followed the
graceful sliver of the moon drifting off to my left, while to the right
was Venus, about to set and burning crystal-clear in the distant sky --
what is it that makes us smile at these celestial bodies, what seems so
familiar about them, so home-like? What pulls our attention
upward?
Do yourself a lifetime
favour
Posted 06.03.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Is buying a painting extravagant? Is it any more self-indulgent than
buying a boat, skidoo, patio set, even a microwave or a new outfit? If
we bought only essentials we'd have a lot more money in the bank, but
not much else.
Does shooting yourself in
the foot feel that good?
Posted 05.19.12
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | On occasional trips through Eastern
Ontario, I can't help noticing a few large signs put up by various
"landowner associations." They carry short, loud messages like
"Back off, government!"
Better Quebec education,
more Quebec education
Posted 05.03.12
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | Students across Quebec have changed the
"national dialogue" within the province. Premier Charest and
his party had sunk everything into their famous Plan Nord, yet, at the
peak of the Premier's campaign to sell the Plan as the means of
re-setting Quebec's future, thousands of students have all but knocked
that plan off the public's radar.
Why wear a red tag of
support?
Posted 04.17.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| In my extended-and-blended family, two broad approaches to staying
alive regularly surface during our multi-generational meals: to spend
less, be more frugal in everything, and require less income, and the
other, maybe the opposite, is to earn more. Earn more, live with more
abandon, spend more, work more, spread wealth around so it comes back --
option two.
The Canadian Federal
Budget or the Harper Rip-off Plan?
Posted 04.13.12
FRED
RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The government isn't proposing that the
present slow and inadequate regulatory process be revised and updated.
No, the Harper solution is to close it down -- make it shorter, cheaper.
This budget is for corporations; we merely pay the bills.
Data-mining (your name
here)
Posted 03.27.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| One advance in our high-tech world is to allow people in every
check-out line to pull out their debit card for a pack of smokes, a
scratch card, groceries, or merely for a liter of beer, and, of course,
have to make two or three tries to get the card to work -- while the
rest of the line-up glares.
I can get it
cheaper
Posted 03.20.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| If it is OK for you to drive to Ottawa to pick up sporting gear, for
example, would you also say it's OK for your boss, one morning, to tell
you he can get someone else to do your job at a cheaper rate?
Obesity, the new
normal?
Posted 03.06.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| This is not a moral or ethical question. It's a health issue. It is
not about telling someone how to live as much as being aware that obese
people cost everyone, not just themselves, since we all pay their
eventual health bills. The list of ailments which apparently grow from
obesity is long and chilling. The current flood of diabetes, for
example, is repeatedly said to be in large part due to obesity. Ditto
for heart problems.
A Valentine's Day message
-- for guys only
Posted 02.13.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Sigmund Freud asked that famous question -- to his life-long
embarrassment -- and it's still heard in sports bars. If you were to
scratch most guys, you'd find this question floating in their heads,
although more likely, "what the heck does Carrie really want?"
Or Ruth, Marie, Anik, someone personal.
Clear the air, Mr. Prime
Minister
Posted 02.03.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| The Prime Minister made headlines flutter over a week ago, accusing
the opposition to that pipeline of being, basically, puppets of the US
environmental movement and for interests in the US who do not want
Alberta's tar sold to China.
The War on Terror should
come home
Posted 01.25.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| Smoking is also big business, and tobacco corporations make millions
from the drug, millions they can use to insulate their drug from
criminal investigation. Imagine what the cocaine and heroin dealers
could accomplish if they followed tobacco's political pressure
tactics.
The real nitty-gritty of
progress
Posted 01.15.12
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| It's popular to insist that schools and colleges teach specific skills
-- like plumbing, circuit-board design, or nursing. These can lead to a
job, quickly. But when the job changes, grows obsolete, or becomes
cheaper in China or Mexico, that skill-based education suddenly is a
constriction. It is flexibility, vision, knowledge of history, and the
ability to create absolutely new combinations that will see us through,
and which will be our tools to use what the complex modern world throws
at us. These skills help us grab the ball and run with it.
2011 -- One big
year
Posted 12.27.11
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | We are
nearing the end of the first year in which our society is being
remodeled: the Boomers are stepping aside.
Research -- with
credentials?
Posted 12.14.11
FRED RYAN
SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC
| "Privatize Hydro-Quebec" is a favourite idea of the Montreal
Economic Institute. This think-tank argues that, to cut to the chase,
hydro rates are too low in Quebec, but in corporate hands, the rates
would go up and investors would earn more profit, making Quebec a more
profitable place for investment.
Great logic, from this tank so
generously funded by those very investors who want to save Quebec by
charging us more.
