Diversity is our strength and all thatI never much cared for Marco Mendicino during his tenure as public security minister, but he's got more sense than his prime minister. There was Justin Trudeau wittering on about how the Liberal Party's diversity had caused “hard, but necessary conversations” as he tried to explain why Canada had voted against Israel at the UN, in calling for an unconditional ceasefire.Mendicino, who since he was fired in July would have no remaining love for the prime minister, tweeted that "I disagree with Canada's vote at the United Nations today. I do not support its call for Israel to agree to what is, effectively, an unconditional ceasefire. At present, that would only place in further jeopardy the safety and security of Israelis & Palestinians in Gaza."Quite. On that, he's right. As our columnist Paul Forseth pointed out last night, it is logically impossible to (as the PM apparently put it to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu) "work with partners in the region and around the world towards an enduring two-state solution," when one partner — Hamas — has explicitly rejected the idea and wants only to destroy Israel and every last Jew in it. What happened on October 7th was the practical demonstration of a larger aspiration, for which words have yet to be invented to describe its wickedness.Inclined as we are to doubt the prime minister's mental acuity, it nevertheless cannot be that he does not understand that you cannot get two people to agree, when one is determined not to. The wishy-washy stance he has adopted is therefore nothing more than an attempt to be all things to all people.Which, at a time when moral leadership is required, is despicable. I doubt that 'all people' will think much of it; certainly not all members of Mr. Trudeau's diverse caucus like it, and are calling him out in public.Kudos to Mr. Mendicino..A burning ambition to be greenI suppose if your house is on fire, you’ll take whatever the fire department sends. So if the pumper is electronically propelled what would you care as long as it works when it gets there?However, if you’re in the business of buying pumpers for the local fire department, why would you order up a fire truck that uses a technology that is known to spontaneously set fire to itself?Of course, this is in Vancouver, where between the green imperative and the joy-smokes, decision making is done differently.Still, according to the literature, the thing needs a recharge after three hours. (Less in cold temperatures, as anybody on the prairies will tell you.) If the call goes long, they send a back-up, plug-in diesel generator.And as for the fire possibility… Keep your fingers crossed.Seriously, this is virtue signalling. If it doesn’t end well, whose fingers get whacked?.It all depends upon how you define privilegeSo, according to the Trudeau Foundation, people using assisted suicide (MAiD) are exercising their white privilege. That’s right, according to Trudeau Foundation fellow and medical ethicist Dr. Jocelyn Downie, and as reported by our own Jen Hodgson, the majority of Canadians who use MAiD are “white and privileged.”Let’s say she’s right.Now let’s work on a solution.Let’s say we go out and find people who are not white and not privileged — we could start on Vancouver’s east side but every large city has a homeless encampment — and we start handing out the business cards of the quacks who do this kind of work, along with the use-once-only voucher. (MAiD costs about $500.)By judicious selection and with a little gentle suggestion of the kind offered to disabled veterans, we could eliminate racial bias in assisted suicide in no time at all, reduce the load on Emergency Services and incidentally save money on welfare while we’re doing it.Brilliant!Somehow, I don’t think that is going to happen.Nor should it.But let’s get a couple of things clear.First, the good doctor is not right.Assisted suicide is a deeply disappointing end to the miracle of a person’s life. And while it’s a free world where people are and should be able to make that choice if their alternative is the tortures of the cross, suicide can never be defined as a privilege. Not for whites, not for blacks, not for anybody no matter who they are or what they look like.As for the Trudeau Foundation, they have the same right to be wrong as any other band of closet bolsheviks. But, isn’t it funny how these people find each other? What are they teaching in ethics-school these days?
Diversity is our strength and all thatI never much cared for Marco Mendicino during his tenure as public security minister, but he's got more sense than his prime minister. There was Justin Trudeau wittering on about how the Liberal Party's diversity had caused “hard, but necessary conversations” as he tried to explain why Canada had voted against Israel at the UN, in calling for an unconditional ceasefire.Mendicino, who since he was fired in July would have no remaining love for the prime minister, tweeted that "I disagree with Canada's vote at the United Nations today. I do not support its call for Israel to agree to what is, effectively, an unconditional ceasefire. At present, that would only place in further jeopardy the safety and security of Israelis & Palestinians in Gaza."Quite. On that, he's right. As our columnist Paul Forseth pointed out last night, it is logically impossible to (as the PM apparently put it to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu) "work with partners in the region and around the world towards an enduring two-state solution," when one partner — Hamas — has explicitly rejected the idea and wants only to destroy Israel and every last Jew in it. What happened on October 7th was the practical demonstration of a larger aspiration, for which words have yet to be invented to describe its wickedness.Inclined as we are to doubt the prime minister's mental acuity, it nevertheless cannot be that he does not understand that you cannot get two people to agree, when one is determined not to. The wishy-washy stance he has adopted is therefore nothing more than an attempt to be all things to all people.Which, at a time when moral leadership is required, is despicable. I doubt that 'all people' will think much of it; certainly not all members of Mr. Trudeau's diverse caucus like it, and are calling him out in public.Kudos to Mr. Mendicino..A burning ambition to be greenI suppose if your house is on fire, you’ll take whatever the fire department sends. So if the pumper is electronically propelled what would you care as long as it works when it gets there?However, if you’re in the business of buying pumpers for the local fire department, why would you order up a fire truck that uses a technology that is known to spontaneously set fire to itself?Of course, this is in Vancouver, where between the green imperative and the joy-smokes, decision making is done differently.Still, according to the literature, the thing needs a recharge after three hours. (Less in cold temperatures, as anybody on the prairies will tell you.) If the call goes long, they send a back-up, plug-in diesel generator.And as for the fire possibility… Keep your fingers crossed.Seriously, this is virtue signalling. If it doesn’t end well, whose fingers get whacked?.It all depends upon how you define privilegeSo, according to the Trudeau Foundation, people using assisted suicide (MAiD) are exercising their white privilege. That’s right, according to Trudeau Foundation fellow and medical ethicist Dr. Jocelyn Downie, and as reported by our own Jen Hodgson, the majority of Canadians who use MAiD are “white and privileged.”Let’s say she’s right.Now let’s work on a solution.Let’s say we go out and find people who are not white and not privileged — we could start on Vancouver’s east side but every large city has a homeless encampment — and we start handing out the business cards of the quacks who do this kind of work, along with the use-once-only voucher. (MAiD costs about $500.)By judicious selection and with a little gentle suggestion of the kind offered to disabled veterans, we could eliminate racial bias in assisted suicide in no time at all, reduce the load on Emergency Services and incidentally save money on welfare while we’re doing it.Brilliant!Somehow, I don’t think that is going to happen.Nor should it.But let’s get a couple of things clear.First, the good doctor is not right.Assisted suicide is a deeply disappointing end to the miracle of a person’s life. And while it’s a free world where people are and should be able to make that choice if their alternative is the tortures of the cross, suicide can never be defined as a privilege. Not for whites, not for blacks, not for anybody no matter who they are or what they look like.As for the Trudeau Foundation, they have the same right to be wrong as any other band of closet bolsheviks. But, isn’t it funny how these people find each other? What are they teaching in ethics-school these days?
