TAPC

By George Jonas.

I was multitasking: rummaging in old notebooks, while listening to the news. That’s how I discovered that I had commented on last week’s news events 20 years ago.

Prescience? Time warp? No, just serendipity. Continue Reading »

Scenario:
Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1958 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2008 – School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselor called in for traumatized students and teachers. Continue Reading »

Does character matter? We are obliged to say yes. Character must matter. But where does character show itself in the pre-eminent economic conundrum of our times – the market meltdown of 2008 and the deepening recession of 2009? Yes, Chrysler workers accepted pay and cuts to benefits to save their jobs. But that concession was forced on them, and they remain ready to bill the people of Canada for any pension defaults down the road. In this case, the retreat on wages speaks more to strategic necessity than moral choice.
Continue Reading »

I was reading in this week’s Maclean’s how Michelle Obama’s goal is to make employment more family friendly – unpaid time off for having a baby, 24 hours of some sort of leave to attend to a sick child, stuff like that. Continue Reading »

The Canadian character is based on the belief that a person’s actions speak louder than words. It’s driven by our cold, northern climate and mostly rockbound environment.

Canada’s glorious history overflows with individual heroes, explorers, inventors, doctors, warriors, creators, athletes, scholars, engineers, entertainers, businessmen, scientists, architects, builders paladins in every field of human endeavour. Continue Reading »

1. In days of yore, from every shore,
Dauntless heroes bravely came,
And planted firm fair freedom’s flag,
On Canada’s wide domain.
Here may it wave, our hope and pride,
And bind in trust forever,
The Lion and the Unicorn,
The Maple Leaf Forever.

[CHORUS]
Long may she fly,
Our emblem dear,
The Maple Leaf forever,
God keep our land and heaven bless,
The Maple Leaf forever.

2. At Queeston Heights and Chateauguay,
Our brave fathers side by side,
For freedom’s home and loved ones dear,
Firmly stood and nobly died.
And so their rights, which they maintained,
We swear to yield them never.
Our watchword ever more shall be,
The Maple Leaf forever.

[CHORUS]

3. Our fair Dominion now extends,
From Cape Race to Nootka Sound,
May peace forever be our lot,
And plenty for all abound.
And may those ties of love be ours,
Which discord cannot sever,
And flourish green in freedom’s home,
The Maple Leaf forever.

[CHORUS]

December 4, 2004.

Letter to Lorrie Goldstein, Editor, Toronto SUN, January 14, 2007.

It will surely be a long process to unlearn the teaching of many millennia that the people in the next valley/down the coast/across the lake/up in the hills are inferior and are not “the people”. You folks in the media could help.

1. Stop using the term “race”. Science has confirmed the obvious that there is only one race – the human race. There are about 6 billion unique and distinct individual persons in it. If you must, use terms like ancestry, national origin, culture or mother tongue. Continue Reading »

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Pennsylvania reps to the Albany Congress in 1754 which had been convened by the English Board of Trade to discuss taking joint action to a) improve relations with the Indians and b) defend against the “canucks” who were making life miserable for the “yanqui bastonnais” on the borders of the northern colonies. He scolded them for their inability, yet again, to form a united approach to the issues. The seven colonies involved were New hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Two things emerged from the Albany Congress that were off-objective, but positive.

a) In 1755, the English established the legendary William Johnson as Superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern department. He had tremendous influence with the Iroquois due to his committment to fair dealing with them. He had built baronial mansions in the Mohawk valley and lived with Chief Hendrick’s niece and Joseph Brant’s sister, successively, after his first wife died. His influence persuaded all the Iroquoian tribes but a segment of the Senecas to stay with the English in the Seven Years’ War.

b) Ben Franklin had written a plan of Union for the Albany Congress – one of several early attempts to unite the colonies. Part of his plan was incorporated in the Articles of Confederation which kept the states together from 1781 to 1787 when the Constitution was drafted and adopted.

So that’s how myths are born from facts.

There never was a written “Iroquois Constitution”. By sifting through contemporary sources, ie; “The Jesuit Relations”, historians have tried to piece together the real story and still argue about it. Continue Reading »

First Canadian or Original Native Affairs: The damage done to Canada and her original natives by the Indian Industry should never have been allowed to get started, and, has to be stopped, reversed and repaired at the earliest possible date.

It is completely inaccurate to use the term “first nations” when referring to Canada’s first or original native people. At most, 150,000 to 175,000 people were living in what is now Canada at the beginning of the 17th century after about 11,500 years of being here. They lived in hundreds of clans and bands loosely grouped in several dozen tribes that were loosely linked in twelve different language families. The original natives considered themselves to be subjects of the Crown, and their local self governance was totally typical of pre and proto civilized communities throughout history all over the world.

From a witches’ brew of misguided Christian charity, arrogant elitist paternalism, and bureaucratic convenience, our forefathers created the bigoted Indian Status concept and built the segregated ghetto collectives called reservations. Continue Reading »

Cherry-picked extracts from Chairman Keith Spicer’s Foreword to The Citizens’ Forum On Canada’s Future, published in June 1991.

“The idea of Canada as a model for mankind is a grand one, worth defending far more passionately than many of us, or our leaders, do.

This country is dying of ignorance and of our stubborn refusal to learn. Lazy, cynical official minds have too long dismissed the obvious practical answers to these problems as ’simplistic’ and ‘naïve’. Broad travel and exchange opportunities, for example, and better teaching of shared history. Continue Reading »