A 'Values' Test

It’s a new year and methinks that it’ll be an amazing year for writers with political emotions.  

Unfortunately, for me, I really do wish there was something, other than politics, that was sufficiently interesting to write about, but is there ?

There is the liberal indoctrination of youth education (Nothing new there, it could be said);  International sport and drugs, of which I am quite ignorant;  Electric automobiles (This may absorb one paragraph);  Sustainable food supplies, requiring much research (For later);  etc.  This leaves me with Politics, Religion, or the misunderstood Global Warming.

Therefore, I will choose Immigration which, of course, is political (Smiley to be inserted).

I have just listened to a CBC radio programme about Quebec’s new immigration laws (rules) and discovered a few things that many people are ignorant about . This is a simple introductory Blog explaining those laws, such that you will be encouraged to discuss them with me (Fingers crossed).

Introducing a controversial "values" test that some potential immigrants will have to complete.

1. It is a questionnaire of 20 multiple-choice questions.

1. The Pass level is 75%.

1. An example question is:  In Quebec, women are equal to men —  True or false.

1. Or:  In Quebec the official language is;  English;  Spanish;  French;  English and French.

1. Every immigrant requiring a Quebec Selection Certificate for permission to apply for Permanent Residency will be required to pass the test.  This will usually be taken in their country of origin.

1. It may be available for taking on one’s home computer (Believe it or not).

1. This will ensure that applicants will understand Quebec’s values.

1. This test is related, also, to the controversial Bill-21.

I believe it ironic if, in this land of immigrants, people may be disinterested to engage into some, necessary, discussion.

Over to you, mes amies.

“Moments of fear, pain, disappointment, helplessness, torment, and struggle” (Meng Wanzhou)

“If you don't laugh, you'll cry” was a side-heading in Maclean’s this morning, suggesting, it seems, that we should stop whinging about the plight of Kovrig and Spavor in China when compared to Meng in Canada.  Discussing the detention facilities of each person, while not explaining often enough why detention is applied, is a misuse of media responsibility.

China’s roads East and West, to eventual domination have enabled Huawei to expand its 5G security systems into Brazil and, thus, throughout South America.  Meng, chairperson and chief executive of her father’s company (Huawei) and family friend of Xi Jinping has been accused of fraudulent dealings with Iran, and this has created a US arrest warrant.

Knowing, obviously, that she would be arrested whenever travelling in the US, an important visit to Brazil required a diversion.  Normally, flights from China to Brazil require one stop in the US (normally Los Angeles).  Therefore, Meng booked her route via Vancouver, hardly imagining that peaceful Canada would be alerted of her arrival … silly woman !

“Tomorrow will mark one year since Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained by Chinese authorities in retaliation for Canadian police picking up telecom executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. arrest warrant. While out on partial — or should that be palatial — bail, she's found the time to read more books and complete an oil painting. Kovrig and Spavor meanwhile languish in cramped jail cells where the lights are kept on all night and they have no access to lawyers.”                  [Maclean’s]

It seems to me that the Canadian court for extradition is being deliberately, Trudeau-inspired, inactive in this case and, no doubt, if the verdict demands extradition, Meng will take it for years of appeal at the Supreme Court.  She, knowingly, did wrong and, therefore, extraditing her to the US must be the only course of action … now.

Please let me know.  For example, allowing her appeal will extend the horrendous conditions suffered by Kovrig and Spavor.

🇨🇦 Canada's Future Hope 🇨🇦

A Triad of Government Forces

I have removed this from my eMail in order to continue a serious discussion.  My point is that Mr. Trudeau must be removed from his position of decision-maker, and place our country back on the world's stage.

The removal from power (coup d’tat) would follow the actions of Security Minister Saijjan, as written in my next Best Seller, ’The Butterfly and the Tiger’ (Humour).

There being no possibility of finding a male heir, with the necessary tiger-like characteristics, anywhere in government and, thus, by studying an important temperament (or temper) of Mr. Trudeau, i.e., successful feminism, we can deduce the need for a female Triad of Government Forces, with teeth, for future success.

I feel that it is very important to remind people of the credentials of those selected candidates.

Rona Ambrose is a former Canadian politician who was interim leader of the Conservative Party and the Leader of the Opposition between 2015 and 2017.  She was the Conservative Party member of the House of Commons for Sturgeon River—Parkland between 2015 and 2017, and had previously represented Edmonton—Spruce Grove from 2004 to 2015.  In her first term as an Opposition MP, she was the Conservative Party's Intergovernmental Affairs critic. Ambrose also served as vice-chair of the Treasury Board and has held multiple cabinet positions as Canada's Minister of Health,  Environment, Intergovernmental Affairs, Western Economic Diversification, Labour, Public Works and Government Services, and Status of Women. She was President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.  She is also a former communication consultant and public policy consultant for the Alberta government.  Although it is rumoured that she may become the next Canadian Ambassador to the US, a successful return as Prime Minister should not be beyond our imagination.

Lisa Raitt  served as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2017 to 2019. She was the Conservative Party deputy leader, and was the Member of Parliament for the Ontario riding of Milton from 2015 to 2019, having previously represented Halton from 2008 to 2015. She is a lawyer and professional administrator (1999–2008) turned politician (2008–2019). Raitt served in several portfolios (Minister of Natural Resources, Labour, Transport, Opposition Critic for Finance, and Deputy Party Leader) as a minister in the 28th Canadian Ministry of Stephen Harper.

Caroline Mulroney  is a Canadian-American businesswoman, lawyer and politician who is currently serving as the Ontario Minister of Transportation and Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs.  She is the elected MPP for the riding of York—Simcoe in the 2018 election as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and was a candidate in the 2018 Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leadership election, placing third. She served as Attorney General of Ontario from 2018 to 2019.  Mulroney grew up in Ottawa, before being educated at Harvard University and the New York University School of Law.   She also served on the board of directors of the Windsor–Detroit Bridge Authority.  Although somewhat a rookie politician, her family connections and dual nationality would be extremely useful.  Perhaps, our representative at the United Nations should suit her.

Jody Wilson-Raybould  also known by her initials JWR and by her Kwak’wala name Puglaas, is a Canadian politician who serves as an Independent Member of Parliament for the British Columbia riding of Vancouver Granville. She served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada in the cabinet of Justin Trudeau from 2015 until January 2019 and then as Minister of Veterans Affairs of Canada from January 14, 2019, until resigning on February 12, 2019.  Before entering Canadian federal politics, she was a Crown Prosecutor for British Columbia, a Treaty Commissioner and Regional Chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations.  Although well qualified to assume a ministerial position in government, she would be especially well-suited to become our long-awaited indigenous Governor General ... in my opinion.

My position is to suggest and encourage a new party with both gentle, determined, and ambitious policies, for which the example shown could be respected both globally … and south of our border.

I feel sure that there are a few male chauvinists and not-me females that may be amused by my theory for a successful government, and let me assure you that men have not been excluded, but allow me to present the candidate's credentials, as I see them.

As usual, I seriously welcome your thoughtful views.

Politics 22 - Canada's Sheepishness

At the 11th annual Halifax International Security Forum held in Canada recently, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan conveyed the strongest evidence yet that after much indecisiveness, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has retreated into the Liberal Party’s traditional normal approach to relations with Beijing — acquiescence, and submission.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan

As Terry Glavin of Maclean’s said:  “The Trudeau government’s newfound faith in ‘appropriate discussion’ is the Canadian equivalent of ‘thoughts and prayers’ — an easy out when dealing with the China lobby”.

While the people of Hong Kong decisively crushed Xi Jinping’s increasingly savage aggression and belligerence by their district elections at the weekend, Sajjan said at the forums opening, “We don’t consider China as an adversary,”.  Well, Hongkongers certainly do. 

Mr. Glavin continues;  “So do the Uighurs of Xinjiang, a Muslim people whose persecution has accelerated to the point that at least a million of them are confined to concentration camps and forced-labour zones laid bare in the greatest detail yet in a trove of leaked Chinese  government documents just released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.  So do Tibetans, whose dispossession and oppression over the past seven decades is now being replayed in Xinjiang — and whose tragic predicament, once a hallowed cause in Canada, is now rarely if ever even mentioned in polite company”.

My favourite quotes from the Maclean’s article are:

• The findings of Canada’s own National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians contradicts the weird claims Sajjan made at the Halifax conference.  Last April, in its first-ever annual report, the committee officially declared China a threat to Canada’s national security, owing mainly to Beijing’s hostile espionage, its cyber threats and its subversive overseas influence-peddling operations.

• Security Forum president Peter Van Praagh, Sajjan’s co-host at the weekend gathering, sees the same too, and he said so. “I think it’s clear that China and Canada do not share the same interests. There is some intermingling on some issues, but China has a very different view of the world than Canada’s view of the world. And so, what are we willing to surrender in terms of our own values in co-operation with China, and where is that line drawn?”

• For several weeks now it has been increasingly evident that Trudeau’s government is willing to surrender a great deal and to draw that line where Beijing has always wanted it drawn — with diplomatic and corporate relations inside the relationship, and all those bothersome “Canadian values” about human rights, democratic accountability, the international rules-based order and the rule of law left entirely outside of it.

• First came the September appointment of Dominic Barton as Canada’s new ambassador to Beijing. Barton took over from the disgraced China evangelist John McCallum, and while Beijing was sad to see McCallum go, Barton was the replacement China had hoped for.  In August, at a multinational summit in Bangkok, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi quietly told Canadian officials as much.  Barton came pre-approved by Beijing, in other words.  Barton had been an adviser to the state-owned China Development Bank, and he’d spent several years swinging big-money deals in Shanghai.  During his years as managing partner of McKinsey & Company, the global consulting giant had taken on several Chinese state-owned corporations as clients.  Just one of them was an enterprise building islands in the South China Sea, which Xi Jinping has arbitrarily annexed in defiance of the United Nations.  Last year, McKinsey held its glamorous annual retreat in Xinjiang, just a short walk from one of China’s several Uighur concentration camps.

• Ottawa still hasn’t made up its mind about allowing Huawei into Canada’s fifth-generation internet connectivity rollout, even though a green light could end Canada’s engagement with the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in the “Five Eyes” security and intelligence consortium.

• Canada’s new foreign affairs minister, François-Philippe Champagne, a protegé of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, was again asking China’s Wang Yi for Kovrig and Spavor to be released.   Francois-Philippe Champagne, came straight out of the corporate sector when he was elected in 2015. He is not known to have ever uttered so much as a cautionary word about China. 

• Rounding things off was last week’s elevation of Mary Ng to the post of minister of international trade. It’s a file that’s just tacked onto her previous cabinet portfolio — small business and export promotion.  Hired as an appointments secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office after the 2015 federal election, Ng was a political unknown until only two years ago, when she was elected MP in Markham-Thornhill, the riding held by John McCallum.  There are some interesting highlights in her strangely meteoric rise to the international trade ministry, especially with regards to China.

The full text of the reference article is available at:  https://www.macleans.ca/politics/worldpolitics/ottawa-goes-meek-and-gentle-with-beijing/

Astigmatism - A Revelation

I have recently discovered that I have astigmatism and there is nothing really revelational about that except to reveal that my local optician could not fully explain its impact to the patient (me).  Leaving the patient to discover for himself.

It was, as a teenager and electronics student, that I discovered that I was colour-blind (Discrete electronic components use colour to distinguish their value) and, unfortunately, it could have been a career-changing event if I had not seriously adapted to it (I say unfortunately, because my chosen career was a significant error). 

A decade later, a blood vessel ruptured behind the retina causing a visit to the local Emergency Room, and the additional diagnosis of macular degeneration … being a teaching hospital I immediately became the centre of study for a long time, even though, today, I remain curious that the ruptured blood vessel was responsible for the ARMD.  But I digress.  After all, later in life I earned a pilot license that required special eye tests.

Later, in my middle age, a routine medical examination caused my GP to mention the signs of cataracts, but that I was not to worry as it would be a long time before it was serious … so I took him at his word … and forgot about it ... until I met my favourite opthalmologist in China.

About five years ago, my new GP, as a result of testing poorly with the standard eye chart, advised me to visit an optician.  This produced a prescription for glasses and no verbal consultation.  There was no mention of cataracts or anything else, just the advice to buy prescription glasses.  I was already buying off-the-shelf reading glasses and, thus, assumed that the complicated magnification formulae that was written down was intended to simply assist my ability to read … so I bought a new pair of reading glasses … and continued with my life (as they say).

Last year, to cut a long story short, I had cataract surgery, which required a follow-up examination.  It is here that the word ‘astigmatism’ was first mentioned, with a strong warning that I should not drive a car.

You may. now, understand why I use the word revelation.  Apparently, I was, slightly, but legally blind and had been for some time !

I collected my new prescription glasses last week, and with the benefit of Wikipedia studies, I realized that opticians, who were personally unaffected with astigmatism, were at an important disadvantage in describing the effects to a patient.

You see, just as my brain had adjusted to colour-blindness in being able to see correctly the traffic lights or, more importantly, the difference at night between the main runway and taxiway lights, my brain had adjusted the astigmatic field of view.  My brain was telling me that everything that it could see was perfect and normal when in fact, it was not, and needed prescription lenses to show the brain the correct signals from the retina. 

	Sphere	Cylinder	Axis	Prism	Base	Add	PD
OD	0.00	-1.50	90			2.25
OS	0.00	-1.75	84			2.25

Theoretically, all objects in my field of view, for one reason or another, were slightly distorted and, therefore, each letter on the standard eye chart (for example) had left and right fuzziness, especially when I moved my head around, because both the cylinder and axis is different in both eyes.

Now, for the first time in decades, my field of view is not only wider but clearer, and my brain is still trying to adjust … when I remember to wear the glasses.   Hopefully, dear readers, this essay will create some thoughtful attention regarding visits to a skilled optician.