Canada - European View of the Great Canadian Experiment in Madness

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"The predatory psychopath has been able to figure out how to cloak himself in the guise of compassion" 

- Dr. Jordan Peterson

Canada’s woke nightmare is a vision of Britain’s future

Drug decriminalisation, gender ideology, legal euthanasia – the country seems to

have adopted every policy on the progressive wish list

29 August 2023 • 2:47pm

Steven Edginton, Telegraph

video 38:05

Under Justin Trudeau, Canada has sought to position itself as the global bastion of progressive politics. In my latest Telegraph documentary, seen above, I went to the former British colony to find out how Canadians are dealing with Trudeau’s radical reforms; from the promotion of gender ideology in schools and the mass legalisation of drugs, to his extreme new suicide laws and clamp downs on freedom of speech.

I began my investigation in one of the country’s most liberal cities, Vancouver. Possession of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs, including heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, has been legalised in the city as part of a three year experiment which began in January of this year. If the aim was to combat the opioid crisis that already beset the city then it appears there is still much to be done as vast tent sites line the streets, patrolled by roaming zombie-like drug addicts.

As we filmed on Hastings Street, infamous as the epicentre of Vancouver’s homelessness crisis, I witnessed a topless man shoot a needle into his arm five feet from me. Though it wasn’t quite as bad as San Francisco, where my cameraman and I came under attack from angry vagrants, the scenes were still shocking.

It’s not just the homeless who patrol the streets of Vancouver. Chris Elston, better known online as Billboard Chris, campaigns against the imposition of gender ideology on children, whether through Canada’s education system or via dangerous operations to “transition” children. As his nickname suggests, Chris walks around Vancouver wearing signs protesting gender ideology, encouraging lively debates with passers-by which he puts on X, formerly Twitter.

Chris kindly allowed our crew to join him on a walkabout, where we found many Canadians horrified by the use of puberty blockers in children and the promotion of biological men in women’s sports.  

We did encounter some opposition of course, mostly through the odd shout or flicking of the finger. So much for Canadian politeness.

One aggressive gentleman, tall, ageing and angry, began a tirade against Chris with the rather bizarre singular message that he is “queer”.

For those who do question gender ideology there can be severe consequences. We spoke to a nurse, Amy Hamm, who faces losing her licence to practise after two members of the public complained about a poster she was involved in pledging support for the gender-critical author J K Rowling.  

The promotion of transgenderism in Canadian schools has led to a fierce backlash from some parents, not least from some of the country’s ethnic minority communities. While multiculturalism has become a key pillar of Justin Trudeau’s vision of Canadian identity, not everyone fits in with his mould of the enlightened immigrant.

In Toronto, I caught up with a family originally from India to discuss their experiences of modern Canada. Neerunjun, a social worker fired by his company for refusing to take the Covid vaccine, discussed how his eight-year-old son was asked to wear the opposite sex’s clothes for a school day promoting cross-dressing. He let his child have a day off instead of submitting to such woke indulgence.

Part of Canada’s social revolution can also be witnessed in its extreme new euthanasia laws. In 2016, the ruling Liberal Party passed legislation enabling assisted suicide for terminally ill Canadians. Next year the legislation will be expanded to include those with mental health problems. As Christianity declines across Canada, and the liberal obsession with “bodily autonomy” and “personal freedom” reaches its logical conclusion, a new dystopia is forming. As Dr Konia Trouton, a euthanasia advocate, told me, “we are an organised society but within that organisation we have to allow some freedoms and opportunities, this is not a communist system where we can try and reign that in”. The campaign group Euthanasia Prevention Coalition estimates that 13,500 people chose state-assisted suicide last year.

For a nation to be truly woke, it must have its own narrative of oppression. In America, activists focus on the country’s history of slavery and racist laws. In Britain, they focus on the Empire. In Canada, where historically there were very few black people, the nation’s story of guilt centres on a so-called genocide against its indigenous population. Supporters of this narrative point to the discovery of hundreds of disturbances in the earth around an Indian residential school in Kamloops, which is supposedly evidence of a mass grave site. 

However, no bodies have ever been found and many question the idea of a genocide as being at best an exaggeration and at worst a total fabrication. We interviewed a man who questioned the genocide story, and was fired from his job as a teacher as a result. Canada’s Justice Minister David Lametti has said he is open to punishing those who deny the indigenous genocide narrative, similar to bans on Holocaust denialism.

To prevent wokeism from spreading it is important to have a strong opposition party. Canada’s Conservatives have been historically weak in pushing back against Trudeau, however, their recently elected leader, Pierre Poilievre, has injected fresh energy into the party. Whilst there are some who still question Poillievre’s conservative credentials, his strategy seems to be working; one recent poll gave his party a twelve point lead over Trudeau’s Liberals.

However, the most successful opponents to Canada’s social revolution have so far not been politicians but members of the public. Our film highlights some of these brave individuals, including Dr Jordan Peterson, perhaps the most high-profile Canadian in the world other than the country’s leader.

During my travels I found ordinary people appalled at Canada’s surrender to drug dealers, its contempt for freedom of speech, its enforcement of gender ideology on children and a breezy willingness to terminate the lives of its own citizens. However, for all the depressing stories of people losing their jobs, or being hounded by the government, these cases were equally inspirational. Whilst Canada is a warning to the West, there are also individual messages of hope from those brave individuals fighting for their freedom.

How has Canada changed in recent years? Have you noticed the impact of progressive politics? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section at the Telegraph.

Approaching Sodom > Left Abandons Truth - Leaves it for Right-Wing < Melanie Phillips

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MELANIE PHILLIPS SHOCKED THE LEFT BY

SAYING THIS OUT LOUD

written by Phil Schneider 

May 31, 2023 2.1K views

Israel Unwired

The left-wing today has completely shunned the ideas of liberalism and adopted cultural totalitarianism. Melanie Phillips says it so well and so eloquently. She understands and knows how to explain the nature of the absurdity of cancel culture better than anybody else today. Reason, argument, discussion, and open-mindedness have been tossed out the window.

How did this happen and when did this happen? This was not the norm in the crazy 60’s. In the 70’s and 80’s, this was not the case either. It seems to have begun sometime in the 21st century. The political landscape was very volatile in the 60’s, between McCarthyism still being a force, civil rights marches on Washington, and race riots across the United States. But, there was no cancel culture even after a popular President, a Civil Rights Leader, and Presidential candidate were all assassinated. It was just a very emotionally charged atmosphere.

The Vietnam War pitted masses of youngsters against the leadership of the United States. But, even the opposition to the Vietnam protesters knew that the Vietnam War was not going well. The protesters had a point – even if they were extremists. And the protesters knew that Communism was indeed a threat that needed to be contained – just not via American lives in Vietnam. Each side knew that the other side had legitimate logic backing it up.

But today, young people – in the masses – are flocking towards hard to fathom values that are completely at odds with basic concepts of existence – such as the very existence of genders. And these ideas are not based on respecting the values of others, as anyone who thinks otherwise is repudiated and cancelled as a member of the Dark Ages.

Discussion and difference of opinion are not praised but tossed aside as negative phenomenon. What has really been thrown away is the placing of any concept of truth at the top of a pedestal of priorities. That is why Melanie argues that truth has become a right-wing concept. What a horrible tragedy for mankind.

Can this be reversed? Can the left-wing repudiate the obsessive focus on gender issues and woke concepts of reality? Today it seems hopeless. But the world does not only spin out of control in a negative fashion. Sometimes, concepts that were thought to have been gone from the world come back into fashion.

What is needed on the left is a big dose of some old-fashioned open-minded liberalism. Difference of opinion needs to be embraced. Striving towards truth needs to be a common goal among those who disagree. Recognition that no specific political persuasion can rule over the other needs to be the norm.

Was liberalism ever open-minded? At 75 years of age, I cannot remember a time when it was. 

A Twitter follower asked one time what the difference between left-wing and right-wing was? I answered, "Truth". Truth is something that seems to be related to belief in God. No such belief leaves one with no fear of lying. But 'fear of God' makes one wary of lying. Jesus said, "I am the Truth". If you refuse to believe in Jesus, you have no reason to tell the truth. This blog is dedicated to the truth.

It is indeed a battle over the culture. The culture of basic decency.

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The Insanity of Canadian Politics - Honestly, It's Not Just Americans, eh

I am quite certain there has been outside interference in Canadian elections in the past few years, not from Russia, but from far-left liberal organizations, some of which are most likely financed by George Soros and other left-wing lunatics. The consequence is a series of wins by far left leaning parties in both provincial legislatures and the federal parliament. 

It's not that Canadians aren't capable of making remarkably stupid decisions at the polls, we've proven that we are, we re-elected Pierre Trudeau several times. Pierre was Justin's dad and threw the country into spectacular debt from which we have not recovered in the 40 years since. Now, son Justin is following in his father's footsteps, dismissing a balanced budget and driving another generation of Canadians into massive debt.

Ontario madness

One Liberal government, Ontario's, is so far left that they installed a school curriculum that was, in part, written by a convicted pedophile. The consequence, elementary children are being taught gender dysphoria, a mental illness, is a good thing, and are being read to by drag queens in full gear. 

An election is underway in Ontario this week and the Liberals with their gay leader are being tossed out like yesterday's trash. The somewhat right-wing Progressive Conservatives have lead the polls by a wide margin over the Liberals and a largely unknown NDP (New Democratic Party). The NDP were only ever in power once in Ontario's history and left the province with crippling debt and a bad taste in their mouths.

Nevertheless, this same NDP party is rapidly closing on the PCs. Traditionally in Canada, the NDPs are farther to the left than the Liberals. That may not be the case any longer as it is almost impossible to be further to the left than the Ontario Liberals or the Federal Liberals for that matter.

So, why are Ontarians even considering voting-in the NDP? I suspect it has somewhat to do with outside interference. I can't believe Ontario voters would willingly risk voting-in someone who might be even farther from equilibrium than Kathleen Wynne.

Alberta & British Columbia - the Wild West Show

It has never happened before but both BC and Alberta have elected NDP governments. Well, not exactly. BC has 3 parties in the legislature, left, far left, and out of this world. That would be the Liberals, the NDP and the Green Party respectively, but not respectfully. More Liberals were elected in last year's election than NDP but not enough for a majority government. The NDP, with the Green Party's 3 seats had just enough to form a coalition government. 

The NDP and the Greens hooked up because they are both far left loonies and because neither of them like the Liberals. The BC economy was the best in the country last year, but that matters not when there is money coming into election coffers from mysterious sources south of the border. The agreement to hook-up was dependent of the NDP Premier, John Horgan, being determined to block the twinning of an existing pipeline by Trans Mountain Pipelines. 

Horgan has gone to court to get a ruling that he has the authority to refuse the movement of diluted bitumen through such a pipeline. That ruling has yet to occur. Meanwhile, the proposed pipeline has already passed environmental review by the federal government and consultation with first nations bands along the route from near Edmonton to near Vancouver. Many of those bands are in favour of the project, and many are against and complaining that the consultation was inadequate.

Enter Justin Trudeau, climate hero. He who thinks Canadians are not paying nearly enough for gasoline, so he added a carbon tax to improve things for us. He doesn't seem to realize that this is Canada and there are hundreds, and even thousands of miles (excuse me, kilometers) between major cities. The first major city east of Vancouver is Calgary, over a thousand kms away. We drive long distances because we have to and most of us didn't inherit millions of dollars from our dad to pay for the gas.

Justin, with his shallow cabinet based solely on looks, very quickly after being elected closed two pipeline projects aimed at getting Alberta oil to markets. Suddenly, Alberta is suffering from a lack of investment as oil companies see no way of getting their oil to tidewater or to refineries on the US gulf coast. So, Alberta's NDP Premier, Rachel Notley, makes a deal with Justin to install his carbon tax in exchange for a promise to get the Trans Mountain pipeline built. 

Now we have two far left governments fighting to build a pipeline through BC that the BC government doesn't want. Never mind that the majority of Canadians and the majority of British Columbians do want it. Horgan can't throw in the towel because Green leader, Andrew Weaver, will throw it right back in his face and collapse the government.

Rachel Notley, in the meantime, has passed a bill allowing her to stop the flow of oil on the existing pipeline to the Burnaby refinery near Vancouver. If she does that, the price of gas will skyrocket in southwest BC. It is already the highest in North America. Horgan is challenging that bill in court.

So here we have Horgan, on the one hand, fighting in the courts for the right to prevent diluted bitumen from flowing into BC, and, on the other hand, fighting in the courts to prevent Alberta from having the right to stop oil from flowing into BC. 

It's all very silly. Horgan will almost certainly lose his court battles, at least the one that counts. But the struggle along with the usual left-wing activists demonstrating and trying to block any construction has caused Trans Mountain to give up on the project. Canada, Alberta and BC are not investment-friendly environments under left-wing lunie governments. Are you getting this Ontario?

Justin is smart enough to realize this is a disaster that will shut down a lot of investments coming to Canada, and so he decided today to buy Trans Mountain's entire stake in the pipeline. $4.5 billion - the good news is, they are Canadian dollars which, in Trudeau's Canada, aren't worth an awful lot. But it does increase our budget deficit by about 25%. Not to worry, sunny ways, my friends, the budget will balance itself, eventually, if we live long enough, which seems unlikely.

So now, we Canadians own a pipeline that may or may not get built. But our tax money is going to buy the company and, hopefully, build the pipeline. Meanwhile, as British Columbians, we have to pay for Premier Horgan to fight against our pipeline in court, the pipeline that British Columbians own and will pay for for at least a generation. And, we may possibly have to endure extreme gas prices should Premier Notley turn off the tap.

Is there any possible way all three governments could screw this up any more? If there is, I'm sure these fools will find it.

Lebanese Organizer Scraps Gay Pride Parade After Arrest on Morality Grounds

Gay Rights vs Depravity and Vulgarity - in Lebanon

By Sara Shayanian  | (UPI) 

Gay pride celebrations in Lebanon this week have been canceled after the event's organizer was arrested for "breaching" public morality.

Organizer Hami Damien was detained by police for questioning over the pride events after Lebanese authorities tried to stop a related event Monday night, saying it was not approved by the country's censorship authorities.

Damien was released after signing a pledge to cancel the week's remaining events.

Damien said he was warned that if he didn't make the promise he'd be interrogated by an investigative judge "on the basis of articles pertaining to the incitement to immorality and to the breach of public morality."

Layal Saqr, Damien's lawyer, said she advised him to agree.

"This was a warning ... and the aim was to stop the events," Saqr said.

Damien said he signed the pledge to avoid a wider crackdown.

"I didn't want to cause panic or disappoint in the LGBT community," he added.

Last year, Lebanon became the first Arab country to hold a gay pride week.

I expect, officials in Lebanon were horrified by last year's parade at the sheer vulgarity of the thing. They can be shockingly obscene.

Although Lebanon is considered more tolerant than other neighboring Arab nations toward the LGBT community, many still face potential legal action.

Article 534 of Lebanon's penal code allows punishment for "any sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature." Violators can get up to one year in prison.

Beirut Pride's festivities included a street party, a drag show, legal workshops, concerts and poetry readings.

In the region, only Israel and Turkey organize pride week celebrations.

Is Ontario Shifting to the Right, or Just Up-Righting?

Tanya Granic Allen

We recently documented Europe's 'listing to starboard' - a clear response to far-left policies and actions of governments which were leading their countries into cultural suicide with uncontrolled Islamic migration.

Islamization is not a big problem in North America, yet, although it is rising and perhaps some people's excessive reaction to that problem is a bigger problem. 

In Ontario, the Premier, Kathleen Wynne, is a lesbian, a Liberal, and far to the left of any premier who has gone before, even the NDP 's Bob Rae, who was an absolute disaster. Liberals are supposed to be centrists and NDPs leftists. But Wynne has taken the provincial Liberal party far to the left of even the NDP, just as Justin Trudeau has taken the federal Liberals far to the left of the federal NDPs.

As pointed out in a recent post, when you steer a ship to port (left), it will list (lean) to starboard (right). It is not Islamization that has caused this list but the use of the educational system to inflict a far-left version of cultural progress, or social engineering on Ontarians.

Wynne employed, among others possibly, the Deputy Minister of Education, Benjamin Levin, to write a new curriculum with regard to gender equality and bullying. But Levin had to step down as DM after he was charged with and convicted of having child pornography. Levin is a paedophile!

His curriculum was very much about normalizing homosexuality and transgenderism from a very young age. This is bolstered by libraries across Canada embracing drag queens, in full costume, going into classrooms and reading to little children as if that is supposed to be anything close to normal. 

There is little mention of child sex abuse - safe touch/unsafe touch, who to tell and how to tell, etc., etc. in the curriculum. Nor is there any mention that gender dysphoria is a disease and there are options to deal with it. They teach that it is quite normal for a man to look down at his scrotum and decide that he is a woman. Extreme liberalism!

Wynne's other big problem is having sold 50.1% of Hydro One, a Crown Corporation until then. Hydro One is the primary electrical distribution company for Ontario. Hydro One suffers from aging infrastructure and consequently, rates jumped spectacularly after the sale. Many homes are paying several hundred dollars per month for hydro even after measures to reduce usage.

Wynne's solution to this issue, after nightmare stories came out of people being, or threatening to be cut off because they couldn't pay the extraordinary increase in their bills, was to reduce everyone's hydro bill by 25%, which will be underwritten by the government. Consequently, all taxpayers in Ontario will pay for the increased hydro rates for decades to come.

Now the story really gets bizarre:

In 2017, Hydro One agreed to acquire U.S. energy company Avista for C$6.7 billion in cash! Where did they get $6.7 bn in cash? Why didn't they invest that money into Hydro One's aging infrastructure? Where will they get the money to invest in Hydro One's infrastructure?

Christine Elliott

Ontario Conservative Party leader Patrick Brown put forward an idea to fix the Hydro One problem, and with Kathleen Wynn's approval rating down around 12%, it appeared he would get a chance to employ that solution after a provincial election in June. Then #MeToo came along (2nd story on link) and Patrick Brown suddenly and dramatically resigned just a few months before a provincial election. He went kicking and screaming, then joined the race to be his own successor, and a few days later, withdrew from that.

Caroline Mulroney

That sounds more like BC politics than Ontario. Nevertheless, the extremely rushed leadership convention occurred last week with 3 high profile and very different contenders, plus one relative unknown. The list included Christine Elliott, the wife of the late, and very popular, federal Finance Minister under Stephen Harper, Jim Flaherty; Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of long-retired Prime Minister Brian Mulroney; and Doug Ford, the brother of the late, internationally infamous, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. 

The 4th candidate was a dark horse with no political experience and no pedigree. She is, however, the head of a parental rights group called PAFE - Parents As First Educators. It was clear Tanya Granic Allen was not going to win the contest and Canada's left leaning media often completely ignored her in their 30 second sound bites they call news. But Granic Allen made a significant impression in the few opportunities she had and received a number of 1st choice selections on the leadership ballot.

The ballot was structured to choose 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices so that in the event of no-one getting enough votes on the first count, the candidate with the fewest 1st place votes would drop off and their ballots would revert to their 2nd choice. Most of Granic Allen's voters chose Doug Ford as their 2nd choice and that was enough to push him ahead of Christine Elliott in a very close race.

Doug Ford, an outsider to provincial politics except that his father was once a backbench MPP, was the most right wing of the candidates with the exception of Granic Allen. He stated that he would change school curriculum to reflect societal norms rather than extreme left-wing ideologies. He also stated that he would allow MPPs to bring forward bills challenging the right to abortion. Both of these positions are probably due to Tanya Granic Allen's presence and forceful presentations on the candidacy platforms.

Granic Allen hasn't decided if she will run for MPP in June, but if she does, I would expect her to be a powerhouse of an MPP, possibly in the cabinet, and a possible successor to Ford sometime in the future if she can survive the disdain of Canadian media.

When a ship lists to starboard because it is steering to port there are only two options: continue to steer to port and go around and around in circles, or, steer to starboard until the ship is upright again. Ontarians deserve an upright ship for a change.