Stephen LeDrew just came out with some very strong language against the government and the police in the wake of the Toronto G20. I never had much respect for LeDrew as he’s a bow-tie wearing lawyer but I have to say he’s gone up a notch in my books for speaking the truth about the events late Sun Jun 27 10. Keep that up, LeDrew!
Big kudos to the indepth, on the spot, largely unbiased coverage I’ve been seeing from CP24 and CTV. Although I have to say I was disappointed in Ann Rohmer‘s reporting which seemed to over-sympathize with authories. And a big thumbs down to CBC News Network and CBC Radio 1: Where in the world were you??
I’ve been watching the G20 Toronto coverage on CP24 and CBC News Network since yesterday and this is a no-win situation for Toronto, its police, for Ontario, for Canada, and for Harper.
The Toronto and Ontario Police, who will be most closely identified with the G20 because of the location, will suffer lasting and irreparable damage to their reputation because of their actions during the summit.
The distrust and disrespect engendered towards Toronto and its police force by their actions of this summit weekend are very unfortunate.
I certainly hope this comes up in the commons by MPs and MPPs and I hope the ruling parties get roasted for it.
One of the things that happens, during events at which protests will take place, such as the G20 in Toronto, is the designation of protest or “speech” areas. What seems to happen is that any non-peaceful action turns into an excuse to take away the freedom to assemble. Take Queen’s Park, for example, on Sat Jun 26 10…
Queen’s Park houses parliamentary buildings and was designated as an assembly/speech area. When protests elsewhere in the city got ugly, in places not necessarily designated as such, the authorities didn’t move to quell unrest in those places first. Instead, they cleared out the actual designated protest areas.
What good is the right to public assembly for protest if the authorities can take that right away on their whim?
Pride Week Toronto is an annual event in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) celebrating the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community in the Greater Toronto Area. Over the past decade, this event has become huge. It is one of the largest such events in the world. More and more, it is becoming very accepted, very common-place, and has become an event which people of all groups, even if they don’t identify with the Pride groups, will go to celebrate at events. The celebration, however, can not be accepted by a Christian for one very simple reason: When all is said and done, Pride Toronto is an event celebrating sin.
Speaking to a Christian about Pride Toronto, it would be just as absurd to ask him if he’ll be going down to the Stealing Parade or the Adultery Parade or the Murdering Parade or the Idolatry Parade. Remember, it’s not the severity of the action, it’s that the action is an affront to the Christian God. It would be ridiculous, in the highest degree, to support the celebration of sin.
Why can’t a Christian support it?
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (Lev 18:22)
For some other reading on the topic, see the wikipedia article on “The Bible and homosexuality“.
The problem today is that the majority of people now accept the Pride Toronto event as not just “healthy” for that community but also as an event in which they can join in, celebrate and participate in. It is as if the event has lost all sense of immorality about it which, no doubt, it has with non-Christians as they don’t have any absolute moral ruleset to argue against it.
I hope it’s clear why a Christian can not support the Pride event. It is as simple and clear as if that Christian were to be in support of stealing or murdering or any other act that the majority still recognize as immoral.
For more in-depth reading, see Creation.com‘s Q&A on Morality and Ethics.
So, Toronto Transit is/was in discussions with Ashley Madison for an advertising deal on their vehicles. Ashely Madison is an adult website catering to individuals wanting to have an affair. I just tried googling them…that’s all they do, apparently.
Anyway, the ad they wanted to carry with Toronto Transit was “Life is short. Have an affair.”
All notions of morality ignored, just a little thought (just a little!) shows this to be an incredible dumb option to be considering. Basic understanding tells you that partners are a valuable setup to raise children or even just to live life. Further, it follows that encouraging the breakup of that partnership can only lead to more significant problems that you had before. It’s just too simple, people.
Ashley Madison’s response to the controversy is interesting as well. Paraphrased, “We have a right to exist and advertise in the public like every other business…our society is a society of tolerance.”
What they’re really saying is that we have no moral boundaries. I phrase this thought as “What do you expect in a world without God?” There’s no real reason to follow any rules at all. If there is no ultimate thing to which we can all agree on, than it is our base instincts which are the ultimate. And our baseness is profound.
So, tip of the hat to Toronto Transit for being in discussions with Ashley Madison on this. Poor, just poor.
And, think again what it means to have Ashley Madison respond with their “right to exist” argument. It’s true isn’t it? You can’t expect others to follow your rules. That means anything and everything is a go.
Just recently the city of Toronto spent $60million on four boring machines for tunneling. Kudos to them for giving the contract to a Toronto company. That $60million of tax payer’s money is actually a lot less when you take into consideration the positive side-effects of buying local.
Now, I’m all for fair and transparent bidding processes to avoid impropriety, but the problem is not everything just comes down to dollars. I bet the company mentioned above wouldn’t have won the contract if it was just bid dollars being considered. As we find out with most things in life, things are rarely black and white.
So I suggest a sane Buy Canadian or Buy Local system. You tender bids. You initially favour local companies until it becomes evident they do not meet certain criteria. For example, perhaps the local company doesn’t provide exactly what we want, or they have a very bad reputation, or they are unable to scale, or they don’t have sufficient financial backing, etc., etc., etc. This is pretty straight-forward stuff. Just keep removing bidders as they fail to meet criteria. As local companies fall off the list, you start getting into foreign companies. Everyone’s happy (or should be because this is sane and fair).
In the 90s, my father worked for the government and he often recommended Corel over Microsoft. At that point in time, Corel’s office products were arguably better than Microsoft’s. In certain fields, such as law, I’ve been told Corel WordPerfect maintained dominant marketshare right up until recent years. The icing on the cake is, of course, that Corel is/was a Canadian company and an icon on the markets, at that.
So, instead we bought Microsoft. Imagine how the US government would look if they chose Corel over Microsoft? They’d look ridiculous. And so does our government for buying Microsoft. Corel is now a sad, niche player where it used to be a darling of the technology software industry.
So, congratulations to the city of Toronto for buying local. You will gain more back buying local than you ever would’ve seen buying outside the city or outside the country.
It’s pretty simple. Just start doing it Canada.