Our sixth annual Canada Day survey
(Chris Wattie/Reuters)
It can be hard living next to history’s
greatest cultural, military and economic superpower. But that doesn’t mean the
United States is best at everything. As Canada celebrates its 146th birthday we
dig into the numbers to find some of the many ways Canada is better off–from
sports and sex to politics and entertainment.
Life & well-being
1.
We live longer: Canadians born today will live an
average of three years longer than
Americans (81 years in Canada versus 78.7 south of the border). Not only that,
the gap between life expectancy in the two countries is widening with each
passing decade—it was less than a year in the late 1970s.
2.
We’re more satisfied with our lives: According to theBetter Life Index, an international
quality of life comparison by the OECD each year, Canadians enjoy a higher level of life satisfaction than
Americans, scoring 7.4 out of 10, versus 7.0 in the U.S.
3.
Saying “Sorry” is good for you: Canadians are mocked for always apologizing,
but it’s not a character flaw. Saying sorry has been found to boost happiness
and strengthen relationships. Researchers at the University of Waterloo even
found apologizing to
a cop when
pulled over for speeding can get fines reduced an average of $51. True,
scientists did recently claim that refusing to apologize for your actions leads
to a sense of empowerment, but such short-sighted thinking would only appeal to
self-centred Americans. (Sorry, that was mean.)
4.
Our kids are all right: Canada’s schools take heat from all sides, but they
must be doing something right. Our 15-year-olds routinely score in the top 10
of 65 countries that participate in the OECD’s reading, math and science tests.
Last time around, in 2009, we were sixth, just behind Singapore and ahead of
New Zealand. American teens? A lukewarm 17th. Ouch.
There’s
more: (5) We have a lower rate of suicide (11.1
per 100,000 people, versus 12 in the U.S.), (6) a lower rate of infant mortality (5.1
per 1,000 live births, versus 6.1 in the U.S.), (7) and our health care costs per person are
much lower (US$4,445 per capita in Canada, versus $8,233 in the U.S.). (8) New
parents who work are better off (maternity-parental leave in
Canada is 50 weeks, versus just 12 unpaid weeks in the U.S.). (9) More of our
marriages last: For every 1,000 population in the U.S.,3.6 marriages end in divorce annually,
compared to 2.1 in Canada. (10)
Poor kids are more likely to attend university or college here: By age 19 to 21
roughly 54 per cent of Canadian youth from low-income families are enrolled in
post-secondary education, compared to just 30 per cent of the poorest youth in
America. (11) We’re less prudish: An Angus Reid poll found
83 per cent of Canadians believe sex between an unmarried man and woman is
acceptable, versus just 59 per cent of Americans.
12.
We’re better educated: 48.3
per cent of Canadians have a post-secondary degree, compared to 40.3 per cent
in the U.S.
14.
We have more sex: According to a survey by condom-maker Durex,
59 per cent of Canadians say they have sex weekly, versus 53 per cent of
Americans.
16.
We’re richer: Canada’s
average household net worth of $363,000 is higher than America’s, at $320,000.
17.
We accept homosexuality:
80 per cent of Canadians say society should accept gays and lesbians, versus 60
per cent in the U.S.
18.
More of us give to charities: Roughly 64 per cent of Canadians donate money to charities,
compared to 60 per cent in the U.S.
19.
We have better work-life balance:
More than 11 per cent of U.S. employees regularly clock 50-hour workweeks,
compared to 3.9 per cent here.
20.
We brave the cold better:
Our climate is colder and our population smaller, but relatively fewer of us
succumb to the cold. Where Canada has 5,644 excess winter deaths (relative to
average non-winter deaths), the U.S. sees 108,500.
Money & work
22.
Canada has greater economic freedom: So says the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom.
Canada scores 6th place, while America comes in 10th. Credit our sounder public
finances.
23.
We have less income disparity:
While the gap between rich and poor has become more marked in both countries,
it’s more like a canyon in the U.S. Between 1966 and 2011, the average
inflation-adjusted income of the bottom 90 per cent of American workers grew by
a negligible $59. Meanwhile, the income of the top 10 per cent of workers
soared by $116,071. Among OECD countries ranked for worst income disparity, the
U.S takes fourth place, behind only Chile, Mexico and Turkey. Canada comes in
12th out of 34 nations.
24.
Our young workers are doing better: Yes, Canada has a lower unemployment rate than
the U.S., but while the overall gap is narrowing, young workers here are more
likely to find work. Canada’s youth unemployment rate is 13.5 per cent,
compared to 16.8 per cent in the States.
25.
Our banks are better: Earlier this year Bloomberg ranked the world’s strongest
banks. Four of the top 10
were Canadian, and all scored higher than the top U.S. bank, Citigroup, which
came in 9th.
26.
We have more social mobility:
If you want to live the American Dream, move to Canada. Social mobility,
measured by intergenerational changes in income between sons and their fathers,
is twice as high in Canada as in the U.S. In other words, a son born to a poor
father in the U.S. is twice as likely to remain poor throughout his life than
had he been born in Canada.
27.
The money in your wallet is safer: Canadian currency once had a terrible
reputation for being easy to counterfeit, but new polymer bills introduced by
the Bank of Canada have hi-tech features that make them almost impossible to
reproduce. Of the 500 million notes circulated since 2011, only 56 fakes have
been seized. In the U.S., out of every one million bank notes in circulation,
an estimated average of 6.5 are fakes.
There’s
more: (28) Our corporate taxes are lower (PricewaterhouseCoopers ranks Canada
8th out of 185 countries for its advantageous corporate tax structure while the
U.S. is 69th). (29) We embrace transit: Seven of the 10 North American cities
with the most people taking transit to work are
in Canada. (30) We get more paid holidays:
America has no mandated paid holidays or vacation time, so 23 per cent of U.S.
workers get no paid time off, compared to Canadian workers who get at least two
weeks and nine paid public holidays. (31) More women work here: For most of the
past 40 years more American women have been in the labour market than in
Canada, but after 2000 that changed—62 per cent of Canadian women are
in the labour market, compared to57 per cent in the U.S. (32)
More of our immigrants strike it rich: In both the U.S. and Canada the majority
of millionaires are self-made, but a larger number in Canada are immigrants, according to a BMO study—in
Canada nearly half of millionaires are immigrants or second-generation
residents, compared to just one-third in America.
Arts & entertainment
33.
The biggest summer movies of 2013 have Canadian DNA: Aside from the
Canadian-packed comedy This is the End,
Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific
Rim was
filmed in Toronto. The
Wolverine features
everyone’s favourite mutant Canuck. Kick-Ass 2 features
the dark return of Jim Carrey of Newmarket, Ont. And really, Star
Trek Into Darkness would be just a glimmer in J.J.
Abrams’s eye if it weren’t for William Shatner, native of Côte Saint-Luc, Que.
34.
Our opera house is tops: There’s no city in North America with an opera house
to compare to the Four Seasons Centre in
Toronto. Jack Diamond, who built it, was promptly handpicked by Valery Gergiev
to build the new Mariinsky II theatre
in St. Petersburg, Russia.
35.
The best small-screen sci-fi is secretly Canadian:Revolution may
be keeping on the lights at NBC andThe
Walking Dead may be an American creation, but the
best small-screen science fiction—the series that thrill both critics and
audiences—are secretly Canadian.Continuum, Lost
Girl, Haven and Orphan
Black are
all capturing both record ratings and critics’ notoriously fickle hearts—and
all are filmed here, funded by our networks and starring a host of talented
Canadian actors (albeit some of whom are masked in layers of monster makeup).
36.
Our broadcast TV doesn’t have to treat adults like children: Maybe it’s because
Americans are such sensitive folk, or it’s our ill-defined role as cultural
bridge between the U.S. and Europe, but Canadian TV regularly gets away with
showing things broadcast networks south of the border can’t: nipples, F-bombs
and the like. When The
Sopranos aired
unedited on CTV, executive producer David Chase said that could never happen on
U.S. network TV: “It’s just not possible, we have rules against that.”
37.
We’re funnier: Hollywood and American network television have known it for
decades. Wayne and Shuster, Lorne Michaels, Catherine O’Hara, John Candy, Mike Myers, Jim Carrey—all examples of our comedy
supremacy. And a new generation of Canadian comics is keeping the tradition
alive. Vancouver slackerSeth Rogen has
become one of Hollywood’s most bankable comedians, along with Brampton, Ont.’sMichael Cera and
Montreal’s Jay Baruchel (all
three star in this summer’s apocalyptic comedy This
is the End).
38. We’re better at special effects:
While demand for blockbuster visual effects in movies skyrockets, California’s
special effects industry is collapsing. Why? They can’t keep up with Canada (or
Britain or Asia or New Zealand, but that’s beside the point). In Toronto,
Vancouver, Montreal and Winnipeg, visual effects artists have been taking over
the design of explosions, gore and CGI monsters as our technical schools pump
out skilled graduates, and movie studios outsource to take advantage of
Canada’s generous tax breaks.
39.
Hollywood is taking advice from . . . Quebec? Not content with ripping off
their own ideas, Hollywood is now so desperate for fresh-ish material that it’s
turning to the biggest and brightest Quebec auteurs for help. Montrealer Ken
Scott is currently remaking his 2011 Québécois hit Starbuck,
this time called Delivery
Manand starring Vince Vaughn. Scott is so in demand that
he was originally hired to direct the English-language remake of Jean-François
Pouliot’s comedy La
grande séduction, now being filmed by fellow Canadian Don
McKellar, and starring B.C. native Taylor Kitsch.
There’s
more: (40) Canadian musicians rule the charts:Michael Bublé, Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen—and those are just the
mildly tolerable pop stars Canada has produced recently. This year will also
see releases fromArcade Fire, the Weakerthans and
the reunited critical darlings, Death from Above 1979. (41) Our
filmmakers are wilder: David Lynch, eat your heart out. Canadian
movies are wilder and weirder–necrophilia in Kissed,
David Cronenberg’s car-crash fetishism and twin gynecologists, and Atom Egoyan’s
films about father-daughter incest, a schoolgirl stripper,
and a wife who hires a young hooker to test her husband.
(42) Our filmmakers are more worldly, too: Unlike Americans, who wait for the
rest of the world to learn English, Canadians get Oscar nominations for
foreign-language films, and not just ones in French—Deepa Mehta’s
Hindi-language Water was
nominated in 2007. (43) We know our art: When museums want to tour their blockbuster
exhibits, they know to stop here first. From the Picasso show at the AGO to
Sebastião Salgado’s work at the ROM, Canada is the stop for top-tier
North American premieres. (44) Our festivals rule: TIFF is
by far North America’s most important film festival, and the world’s
second-biggest after Cannes. Hot Docs is North America’s biggest documentary
festival. Contact is the continent’s biggest photography festival. Just For Laughs is
the biggest comedy festival. Montreal’s Jazz Festival is
still the largest, with the most free concerts, the largest purpose-built
downtown outdoor concert space and the most audacious programming. And
Toronto’s Caribana is the continent’s biggest Caribbean
carnival.
Sports & leisure
45. We dominate hockey: Stanley Cups
aside, hockey is still Canada’s game. While the percentage of Canadians playing
in the NHL has declined since the 1980s, Canadians still make up more than 50
per cent of all players in the league, compared to Americans, who account for
just one-quarter of players.
46. Better football: Since the late
1970s, the National Football League has been tweaking its rules to encourage
more passing—that is, to make the U.S. game more exciting. Up here, we got it
right the first time: a three-down game on a great, big field. So on second and
10, you can bet that ball will be in the air.
47.
We’re actually better at tennis now: While most Canadians have been preoccupied
with hockey, a young man from Thornhill, Ont., has quietly become one of the
most successful men’s tennis players in Canadian history. As of June, Milos Raonic’s ranking was No. 15 among
singles players and, statistically speaking, he has the strongest serve in the
world, serving more aces per match than any other professional player in 2012.
America’s current top male singles player is Sam Querrey, whose
ranking, as of June, was No. 19.
48.
We were first to the races: When it comes to sporting events, Canada got off to
an early start. Established in 1816, the Royal St. John’s Regatta is
North America’s oldest annual sporting event. Hamilton’sAround the Bay Race is
North America’s longest distance road race, which began in 1894, beating Boston
by three years. And this July Toronto plays host to the 154th running of the Queen’s Plate, the
oldest continuously run stakes race on the continent.
49.
We have better skiing: Canada’s most popular ski resort, Whistler, trumps America’s most-visited
resort,Vail, with more trails (200 vs. 193),
longer runs (a total of 36,960 feet vs. 15,840 feet) and more snow (469 inches
vs. 348 inches)
50.
We see more of the world: Last year Canadians took close to 10 million trips abroad
to countries other than the U.S. Despite having a population nearly 10 times
that of Canada, Americans made just 30 million trips overseas. The poor showing
from U.S. travellers shouldn’t be a surprise. While 65 per cent of Canadians
hold a valid passport, only 35 per cent of Americans do.
There’s
more: (51) We’re more plugged into the Internet: In Canada, 83
out of every 100 people surf the web, compared to 77.9 per cent in America.
(52) We invent more sports: Canadians invented lacrosse, ice hockey and
basketball. Oh, and five-pin bowling. What did Americans invent? Baseball.
(Football doesn’t count since it’s just a mutated form of rugby). (53) We get
outdoors more: A survey by the Canadian Tourism Commission found
that more Canadians (30 per cent) consider themselves outdoor adventure
enthusiasts than Americans (26 per cent). (54) We spend less time on the couch:
Americans watch 34 hours of TV each week, four more than Canadians.
Environment & geography
55. Canada has earned a poor reputation
when it comes to fighting climate change, but if you believe the globe is about
to undergo a catastrophic shift in weather patterns, Canada is the best place
to ride it out. UCLA geographer Laurence Smith has argued that by 2050 warming
will unlock vast new resources and transform Canada into an economic
superpower.
56.
Carp-eh diem: We do not yet have to contend with the dreaded Asian carp, a species of fish that has
invaded U.S. waterways, killing off competing species wherever it goes. The
fish are big—up to 40 kg—and they’re crazy, literally throwing themselves into
passing boats. Natural resources officials believe we’ve so far avoided the
onslaught, but really, if this mini-monster reaches the Great Lakes, our rivers
are doomed.
57.
Less spin: Americans mock our weather, but come late spring, we can only look
south with pity. Weaverage just 60 reports of
actual tornadoes per yearcompared with the 1,200 confirmed
tornado strikes in the U.S., the most of any country in the world. Only five
per cent of our storms reach the EF-3 category of intensity, the level where
winds of more than 220 km/h start tearing up buildings and trees. The U.S. gets
about 37 such tornadoes annually, costing the country 80 lives.
58.
We help them repopulate their endangered species: When the U.S. wants to help
an animal species come back from the brink, they call on Canada. In 1995,
dozens of grey wolves were captured in Alberta and shipped south to be let free
in Yellowstone National Park, 72 years after
the park’s last wolf den was destroyed under a federal extermination plan. Next
year Alaska will reintroduce wood bison, North America’s largest living land
mammals, into the wilderness. The animals come from a captive herd started with
Canadian animals.
59. Niagara Falls: Canada’s horseshoe
falls vs. the American side. Enough said.
60.
Water, water everywhere: With less than half a per cent of the world’s
population, we have seven per
cent of its renewable water supply—the most per
inhabitant of any developed country. The supply for an average American is just
11 per cent of what’s available to us.
There’s
more: (61) We have more beautiful coast to enjoy: 243,000 km of shoreline compared
to 153,000 kmin the U.S. (62) According to the OECD Better Life Index our
air is cleaner (16 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic metre here
compared to 18 in the U.S.) and (63) . . . so too is our water (89 per cent of
Canadians report being satisfied with the quality of local water, versus 87 per
cent in the U.S.).
Politics
64.
We’re more peaceful: This year, Canada was ranked the eighth most peaceful country in
the world. The U.S is ranked 100th.
65.
Our election turnout is more fair: While voter turnout may be higher in the
United States, it’s much more equitable in Canada, with broad social inclusion
of both high-income and low-income voters. In Canada,voter turnout for the richest 20 per
cent of
the population is roughly 63 per cent, whereas the participation rate of the
bottom 20 per cent is only slightly less, at 60 per cent. In the States, roughly 79 per cent of the wealthiest
voters turn out to cast ballots, compared to just slightly
more than half of the poorest voters.
66.
Federally, our politicians are (slightly) more representative of the gender divide:
Federally, women make up 24.7 per cent of Parliament, compared to the U.S.
Congress where women account for just 17.8 per cent of representatives.
67. Provincially, our leaders are
(much) more representative of the gender divide: The governments of Ontario,
Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut are
all led by females who are responsible for governing more than 87 per cent of
Canada’s population. By comparison, America has just five female governors, and
the vast majority of Americans live in male-governed states.
68. We have far fewer assassinations:
Since Confederation, only three Canadian politicians have been assassinated,
including two Fathers of Confederation: Thomas D’Arcy McGee was shot by a
Fenian sympathizer in 1868; George Brown was shot in the leg by a former Globe
employee in 1880 (the wound led to a fatal infection). Quebec minister of
labour Pierre Laporte was kidnapped and assassinated by the FLQ in 1970. In the
United States, a staggering 44 politicians have been assassinated, including
four sitting presidents.
69.
We’re fine with gay politicians: While former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey might
be called the first (and only) “openly gay” governor in American history, it
doesn’t really count if you resign as soon as you come out of the closet. In
Canada, not only is Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne openly
gay, but her sexual orientation barely factors into coverage of Ontario
politics. With all the scandals to beset Queen’s Park, the premier’s personal
life is the least shocking thing about Ontario’s government.
There’s
more: (70) We attract more immigrants:
Canada gets 5.65 per 1,000 people, compared to the U.S., with 3.64 per 1,000.
(71) We have fewer lobbyists: We’ve seen an explosion in lobbying, but in
Canada the ratio of lobbyists to senators and MPs is still 12 to 1, while in
the U.S. the ratio of lobbyists to members of Congress is 23 to 1. Some estimate the U.S. ratio is
as high as 65 to 1since many
lobbyists don’t register. (72) We mandate a time for holding the government’s
feet to the fire: Sure, question period has degenerated in recent years, but
nothing like it exists in the U.S. political system. (73) You don’t have to be
rich to run for the highest office in the land: U.S. presidential elections
cost an estimated $7 billion to
mount, while Canada’s top five parties were allowed to spend a combined $90
million, thanks to Elections Canada spending limits.
Science & Technology
74.
We have the “most social astronaut”: Eight North Americans have commanded the
International Space Station over the last four years, but only Canada’s Chris
Hadfield became a household name worldwide. His photos, duets from space and
that cover of Space
Oddity helped
catapult @Cmdr_Hadfield to
one million Twitter followers. @TheRealBuzz (Aldrin)
has 806,000.
75.
Holy crap, we’re discovering a miracle cure: Canada is a leader in fecal
transplant therapy (it’s exactly what it sounds like). By transferring healthy
bacteria from a donor’s stool into patients suffering from potentially fatal
gut infections like C. difficile,
doctors believe it could one day cure all sorts of ailments, maybe even obesity
and allergies.
76.
We lead in quantum computing: What’s that, you ask? Rather than calculating
with ones or zeros as conventional computers do, quantum computers can
theoretically harness subatomic particles to process more complex calculations
in a fraction of the time. And scratch the word theoretical. In May, Burnaby,
B.C.-based D-Wave said one of its quantum computers, the
only such machines commercially available, will be installed at the new Quantum
Artificial Intelligence Lab, a collaboration between Google, the Universities
Space Research Association and NASA.
77.
We’re wiring the oceans like no one else: Canada’sNEPTUNE and VENUS projects
off the coast of B.C. have installed fibre-optic cables that transmit data from
the bottom of the ocean. In 2011, Popular
Sciencenamed NEPTUNE
one of humankind’s “top 10 most ambitious science projects” alongside the Large
Hadron Collider and the International Space Station.
78.
Our dinosaur discoveries are cooler: Not only did archaeologists uncover the
largest-ever bed of dinosaur bones near Medicine Hat, Alta., in 2010, since
then scientists re-examining old fossils identified a new species of
spiky-headed dinosaur called Xenoceratops foremostensis—or
“alien horned-face from Foremost.”Wired recently listed the
world’s 10 best new dinosaur discoveries. Four came from Canada, while just one
was dug up in America.
There’s
more: (79) We’re more rational: Most Canadians (61 per cent) accept evolution,
compared to just 30 per cent of Americans. Incidentally, the same percentage
believe Bigfoot is “definitely” or “probably” real. (80) We’re world leaders in
space robotics: There’s theCanadarm, of course,
but also Dextre, which lives on
the International Space Station and is the most advanced space robot ever
built–a “space handyman” that fixes up the station. In January, Dextre
performed the first demonstration that a robot could refuel a satellite in
orbit, which could give our satellites longer lives in space.
Crime & calamity
81.
We don’t have out-of-control prison
sentences: Last year 38,700 people were serving time in
Canada, roughly 114 for every 100,000 citizens. That’s nothing. In the U.S.
2.24 million Americans are locked up—716 for every 100,000 citizens, the
highest incarceration rate in the world. Canada ranks 136th.
82.
Our government doesn’t kill people: Canada officially abolished capital
punishment in 1976, but no Canadian inmate has been executed since 1962. By
contrast, the U.S. put 43 prisoners to death last
year alone, while 3,125 inmates continue to wait on death row.
83.
Our judges are appointed, not elected: While some believe Canadian judges
should be picked directly by citizens, as is common in American courts, the
idea has largely been written off as inconsistent with the Constitution, which
could be for the best. Studies showjudges have difficulty being
impartial on the bench, when, as candidates, they rely heavily on donors and
special interest groups for support. As well, a study showed judges increase their sentences when facing
re-election. In fact, electoral zealousness added six per
cent to overall prison time for aggravated assault, rape and robbery sentences.
That helps explain America’s crowded prisons.
84.
We’re more relaxed about pot:
In both countries, support for legalizing marijuana is at all-time highs. In
2012, 66 per cent of Canadians supported legalization or decriminalization,
compared to half of Americans.
85. Mass shootings here are rare: Since
1982 in the U.S. there have been at least 45 shootings in which at least six
people were killed. In total, 434 people were murdered in those incidents, and
another 384 injured. During that time, there were two such events in Canada—the
bodies of eight Bandidos gang members were discovered in a Ontario farmer’s
field in 2006, while in 1989, 14 women were gunned down at the École
Polytechnique.
There’s
more: (86) We have far fewer murders: Our homicide rate is 1.73 per 100,000
people, compared to4.7 in the U.S. (87)
Our roads are safer: The number offatalities from
traffic accidents in Canada is 8.8 for every 100,000
people, compared to 13.9 in the U.S. (88) Our youth are safer: America has the
highest mortality rate for young people ages 10 to 24 among developed
countries, with a death rate of 60 per 100,000 of
the population, compared to less than 40 in Canada. (89) We’re less likely to
get robbed: Canada’s robbery rate is 86 per 100,000, far below America’s rate
of 114.
General Canadian awesomeness
90.
We’re more popular: Backpackers knew it for years, but studies confirm the
Maple Leaf really is beloved around the world. In 2012, the Canada brand held top spot in
the Reputation Institute’s ranking of
countries based on people’s trust, admiration and affinity for them. America’s
reputation rank: 23rd.
91.
Our taste in chocolate is better: Everyone knows we have loads of chocolate
candy varieties you can’t get in the U.S.—Coffee Crisp, Aero, Smarties—but
earlier this year Hershey’s said it re-engineered its chocolate recipe to
better appeal to Canadian palates. A Hershey’s spokesperson said Canadians
prefer smoother and sweeter chocolate compared to the “grittier or even
cheesier flavour” chocolate found in America.
92. Our national symbol is a worthier
animal: Yes, eagles soar high, have incredible eyesight and razor-sharp talons.
They’re also carrion-eating louts. As Ben Franklin once noted, “I wish the Bald
Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of
bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly . . . like those among
Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very
lousy . . . a rank Coward.” The beaver, on the other hand, is a rugged, humble
and industrious little creature (okay, rodent).
93. Roadside wonderland: Canada has
more than 1,200 roadside attractions. The U.S. may have more in sheer numbers,
but nothing compares to our giant duck, perogy, sausage, Easter egg, hockey
stick, moose, apple, dinosaur, nickel or lobster.
94. Our Canadian bacon is better than
their Canadian bacon: This can get confusing, but try to follow along. When
Americans buy “Canadian bacon,” they get a package of fully-cooked processed
slices of ham, which Canadians don’t actually eat. Canadian bacon, on the other
hand, isn’t called that by Canadians. Instead it’s peameal bacon, a Toronto
creation of pickle-brine-cured pork loin rolled in cornmeal. It’s a travesty
most Americans can’t tell the difference.
There’s
more: (95) Giant American corporations associate with our unofficial mascot: Up to 80 per cent of the world’s polar
bears are
in Canada—Americans have to make do with polar bears in Coke commercials and on
pop cans. (96) Our lobsters taste better: It’s an endless debate between
fishermen and chefs in the Maritime provinces and Maine. We claim the cooler
waters of Canada spawn tastier crustaceans. Americans disagree. But most Maine
lobster is processed in Canada anyway, so we dominate both ways. (97) Better
sea monsters: Both Ogopogo and the lesser-known monster in Lake Champlain have
been captured on video in recent years. The U.S.’s most famous sea monster,
Jaws, isn’t even real. (98) We’re record-setters: For our population size, no
other country breaks more Guinness world records.
(99) Our national anthem is better: Musicologists in Britain analyzed eight anthemsto
see which drew listeners to join in most—O Canadaranked 5th ahead of the Star-Spangled Banner (6th)
O Canada Classified
CANADA MILITARY NEWS: July
1- Happy Dominion-Canada Day Folks-147 years young/videos/news/updates/Idle No More/One Billion
Rising/We'll keep the Peter MacKays thx/NewAgeMedia letting down girls, tweens,
teens n youth/Afghan/ALWAYS R TROOPS/bLOGS/ Thank u God 4 loving our Canada-
young, beautiful, brilliant, smart.... protected and free.
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Clam Chowder Canadian
Military Style
"This is a thick,
hearty chowder. I got the recipe from a friend in the Canadian Army. Serve with
fresh rolls or thick slices of bread, if desired."
Ingredients Edit and Save
Original recipe makes 6
servings Change Servings
1/2 cup butter
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 (6.5 ounce) cans minced clams, drained
with juice reserved
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
In a large saucepan over medium high heat,
combine the butter, celery and onion. Saute for about 3 minutes, add the flour
and stir well to make a dry roux. Add the reserved clam juice to make a paste,
then slowly add enough cold water to reach the desired thickness.
Add the potatoes, milk, thyme and salt and
pepper. Reduce heat to low and allow soup to simmer for about 20 minutes, or
until the potatoes are tender. Add the clams and allow to heat through.
---------------
Associated
Links
- See more at: http://www.noodls.com/view/904343E93419515DED10E33438D1AC1939A6E4C5?8309xxx1400806482#sthash.hAn3gLuf.dpuf
----------
BEST QUOTE:
Terry Fox, Rick Hansen and
now Clara Hughes. Is there something in the water in this great country of ours
? As if winning all those medals wasn't enough Clara uses her struggle with
mental health to try and help others. All those over payed athletes out there
could certainly take a page from this athletes book. Love you Clara. Load and
click.
------------
Our Canadian Grl... we love
u Clara- u have inspired millions of youth, youngbloods and kids and oldie
calling us all 2 wake up andopen up and
talk about mental health.... and u have rattled the chains of ignorance, fear
and indifference. thank u
Clara’s Big Ride:
Cross-country ride for mental health coming to an end
-------------
Canada Day photo exhibit:
Images of Afghanistan
By Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa
Citizen June 30, 2014
Canada Day visitors to
Parliament Hill will have a chance to see Canada’s military mission Afghanistan
through the eyes of our armed forces personnel.
Over the course of the
mission’s last 100 days, they tweeted one picture a day until the end of the
mission on March 31, 2014.
Those pictures have been
compiled in an exhibition on Parliament Hill’s West Lawn from 2 to 5 p.m.
Canada Day.
There’s a selection of those
photos in the gallery below. You can see all the photos at the project’s
official Flickr page.
------------
Embassy of Canada in France
05/23/2014 | Press release
Afghanistan Memorial Vigil
travels to Canada's Embassy in Washington
The Hon. Rob Nicholson,
P.C., Q.C., M.P., Minister of National Defence, today unveiled the Afghanistan
Memorial Vigil at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.. The Vigil consists
of plaques commemorating the fallen; 158 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel,
one Canadian diplomat, one Department of National Defence contractor, one
Canadian journalist, and more than 40 United States Armed Forces members who
were under Canadian command during operations in Afghanistan. The Vigil also
acknowledges the bravery, dedication, valour, and professionalism of all
members of the CAF who have served in Afghanistan and the families who
supported the mission.
The Vigil is open for public
viewing May 23-26, 2014. This marks the first time the Vigil has been on
display outside of Canada, and was last in Ottawa, Ont. for the National Day of
Honour on Parliament Hill on May 9, 2014. Following its stay in Washington, the
Vigil will return to Canada and travel to 16 other cities. A full list the
upcoming Vigil locations across Canada can be found here: http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/honours-history-military-memorials/Afghanistan-memorial-vigil.page
Quick Facts
The Afghanistan Memorial Vigil remembers
and honours those who have fallen in Afghanistan. It also acknowledges the
bravery, dedication, valour, and professionalism of all members of the CAF, the
U.S. Armed Forces, and those who have served and supported the mission.
More than 40,000 CAF members deployed to
Afghanistan, making the military engagement the largest deployment of CAF
personnel since the Second World War.
CAF members, alongside our U.S. and
international partners, have supported initiatives in Afghanistan such as
counter-terrorism, combat operations, security for the Afghan people,
protecting those working on development and reconstruction projects, and
training of the Afghan National Security Forces.
Quotes
"The Vigil is a sombre
reminder of the cost of freedom. The 204 men and women inscribed here, both
Canadians and Americans, paid the ultimate price in Afghanistan. This memorial
provides the opportunity for our nations to stand together in remembrance. We
are humbled by the service of our men and women in uniform. Their sacrifices,
and those of their loved ones, will not be forgotten."
- The Honourable Rob
Nicholson, Minister of National Defence
"We are proud of our
partnership with U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, and grateful to
the soldiers, sailors, and air force personnel and marines alongside whom we
served, shared in sacrifice, and delivered results together. The vigil is a
poignant reminder of our shared sacrifices. We are grateful to be able to share
it with the citizens of the United States of America."
- Lieutenant-General Stuart
Beare, Commander Canadian Joint Operations Command
Associated Links
Afghanistan Memorial Vigil Webpage
Johanna Quinney
Press Secretary to the
Minister of National Defence
Office of the Minister of
the Department of National Defence
(613) 996-3100
Media Relations
Department of National
Defence
Phone: (613) 996-2353
Toll-Free: 1 866 377-0811
- See more at: http://www.noodls.com/view/904343E93419515DED10E33438D1AC1939A6E4C5?8309xxx1400806482#sthash.hAn3gLuf.dpuf
----------
Jul 1 2014 — Andrew MacDougall — CBC
It’s
Dominion Day, the time we bust out the clichés over what makes Canada so great.
We Canadians love to define ourselves by what we’re not, and spending the
better part of a year in a truly world-class city (London) surrounded by a
union having an identity crisis (the U.K.) has certainly sharpened my
appreciation […]
------------
KEYSTONE- THE REALITY AND
THE TRUTH... and everybody knows it...
Never mind that the oilsands
account for less than 0.15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while
the U.S. coal-fired electricity industry accounts for at least 30 times that;
or that the oil industry in Alberta has
reduced emissions by more than 25 per cent per barrel since 1990, though
production obviously is way up since then.
Or that Alberta requires
large emitters of more than 100,000 tonnes per year to pay $15 per tonne into a
clean energy technology fund now valued at over $400 million, or purchase
offsetting credits.
For that matter, as Alberta
Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith noted in a Washington Times oped: “The total
amount of GHG emissions from Alberta’s oil sands is about half the emissions
from the coal-fired electricity industry in the president’s home state of
Illinois.”
and..
LEVANT
Ready for Justin's carbon
tax?
Justin Trudeau is going to
bring in a carbon tax. Just like his dad, Pierre Trudeau, did.
His dad called it the
National Energy Program, and claimed it was for national sovereignty reasons,
or whatever excuse worked with the media of the day.
It’s 2014, so the excuse now
is “the environment.”
Trudeau announced his plans
for a carbon tax last year in Calgary — at the Petroleum Club no less. It was a
shocking announcement — but not a single other media outlet reported it, except
a brief mention on the Globe and Mail’s website.
Why would the media ignore
Trudeau’s speech calling for a carbon tax — a speech that is available on his
website to this day?
Easy: the media recalls how
a similar pledge by Stephane Dion tanked the Liberal Party’s campaign in 2008.
The cone of silence around Trudeau’s carbon tax plans is the media mopping up
Trudeau’s political mess for him, by pretending they didn’t see it, and
ensuring no Canadian voters do either.
Over the weekend, Sun
Media’s Faith Goldy asked Trudeau three questions about his carbon tax plans —
three questions more than the rest of the media combined. Trudeau told Goldy
that our lack of a carbon tax is the reason why Barack Obama has not approved
the Keystone XL pipeline.
“If the prime minister
actually took a lead on being smart about environmental regulations, we would
have already seen the Americans approve Keystone XL ,” Trudeau said.
That’s quite something,
given that Obama has never himself said that.
The United States does not
have a carbon tax, nor does the U.S. impose trade sanctions against any other
countries that don’t. China, by far the largest exporter to the U.S., is the
most polluted country in the world. Obama doesn’t block trade with them because
they lack a carbon tax.
Trudeau also claimed that
Obama is declaring war against carbon, and we need to also.
“The United States just put
very strong regulations forward on coal plants, which is their largest source
of emission, and we need to be similar in that we’re already there, no thanks
to Mr. Harper on moving beyond coal, he tried to block it and stall it as much
as he could. And now we have to make sure that we’re taking care of our
emissions, and our emissions happen through the oilsands to a larger degree
than it does in the United States.”
Huh?
But Canada has already
banned any new traditional coal-fired power plants. Only 11% of Canadian power
comes from coal, compared to about 40% in the U.S. Canada’s carbon emissions
have fallen under Harper, not increased.
Obama has suggested new coal
regulations —but has not enacted any. And Trudeau’s last comment — that the
oilsands are to blame for our emissions — is just false.
Less than 7% of all Canadian
emissions of harmless CO2 are from the oilsands. The world isn’t moving to
carbon taxes. It’s moving away from them.
Australia’s new government
won election in large part due to their promise to scrap their carbon tax. And
under Obama, the U.S. has literally doubled its coal exports, from 59 million
tons in 2009 to 117 million tons last year.
Justin Trudeau’s rationale
for a carbon tax on Alberta just makes no sense. His facts about Canada are
wrong; his facts about America and the world are wrong.
But it doesn’t matter. It’s
all just a cover for his desire to bring back a new NEP.
And so far, the Media Party
is playing along nicely.
DO U AGREE WITH CARBON TAX?
Poll
Do you agree with the tax?
Yes
5%
No 94%
comment:
Carbon tax is a tax benefit
for those who can afford to change. It is an additional tax for those people
who cannot afford to change. It cannot reduce pollution if companies are
allowed to sell or buy carbon tax credits. And it will definitely increase
costs for all.
comment:
A carbon tax should not even
be considered in Canada. Some of the biggest polluters on the planet make most
of the goods that we North Americans just gobble up (China, India, Pakistan,
Ect) These countries have almost non-existent rules regarding emissions.
If any difference is to be
made a "carbon tariff" needs to be applied against imported goods
from these countries based on the level of emissions they produce. For far too
long these countries have been producing goods with no regard for the
environment. They should be the people to pay for the mess, not us.
-------------
U also mean Canada's Human Rights Act from the 60s as well
right? Seriously... 4 millions of us
Canadians ... this is where it started... actual freedom and basic human
dignity... right here with this Bill- especially 4 women and children and
people of colour....
Charter and universal health care unite Canadians:
poll respondents
06/30/2014
02:18 PM Benjamin Shingler, The Canadian Press
·
The
Canadian flag flies near the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb.
15, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Two
items often held up as cornerstones of Canadian values — the Charter of Rights
and Freedoms and universal health care — are tops among things that help unite
the country, according to respondents to a new poll.
In
the online survey, conducted ahead of Canada Day by Leger Marketing for the
Association for Canadian Studies, respondents were asked to rank 11 items in
terms of whether they help unite Canadians.
The
charter and health care placed well ahead other options, obtaining 25 per cent
and 22 per cent of the first-place votes, respectively.
Hockey
and the country’s “shared history” placed a distant third and fourth, with 12
per cent and 11 per cent of the first-place votes, respectively.
Jack
Jedwab, executive vice-president of the Association for Canadian Studies, said
the findings present a portrait of a country that has gradually shifted over
the last half-century.
“It’s
a different way to looking at Canada than, say, 50 years ago, prior to the
existence of the charter,” Jedwab said.
“And
universal health care, since the 60s, has been a powerfully attractive element
of what it keeps Canada united.”
Fears
about the threat of Americanization and Canada’s ties to the monarchy were
given little significance — each chosen first by only two per cent of
respondents.
The
findings are based on a survey of 1,509 respondents between June 24 and June
26.
The
polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence
Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they
are not a random sample and therefore are not necessarily representative of the
whole population.
Sam
Roper, a 31-year-old Montrealer, said he wasn’t surprised by the results.
For
his part, “health care” was the first thing that came to mind when asked about
what helps unite Canada. He added that hockey, his favourite sport, is also
something that can be shared with people across the country.
“It
seems like you can compare it to soccer in Brazil — it’s something you do from
a very young age,” he said.
“It’s
just part of daily Canadian life.”
Some
more detail on the poll:
Respondents
were asked: “What keeps Canada united?”
They
had 11 options to choose from. Here they are along with the percentage of first
place votes:
Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms (25 per cent)
Universal
health care (22 per cent)
Hockey
(12 per cent)
A
shared history (11 per cent)
Multiculturalism
(9 per cent)
Respect
for provincial jurisdiction (6 per cent)
Official
languages law/bilingualism (4 per cent)
Equalization
transfer payments (4 per cent)
National
transportation network (3 per cent)
The
threat of Americanization (2 per cent)
The
monarchy (2 per cent)
The
organization the poll was conducted for, the Association for Canadian Studies,
says on its website that it “initiates and supports activities in the areas of
research, teaching, communications, and the training of students in the field of
Canadian Studies.” It also says it strives to raise public awareness of
Canadian issues.
--------------
Standing Strong & True
(For Tomorrow) Official Music Video (HD)
------------------
Canadian Armed Forces -
Canadian Anthem - O Canada- Canada soldier Matthew Worth-thx darlin
---------------
Worked with Canada Immigration
in the 80s and 90s.... and what a sweet, sweet glorious triumph and joy 2 new
immigrants who become Canadian Citizens... this is wonderful.
Swearing-in ceremony
‘significant milestone’ in journey as newcomers
About 50 people are expected to become
Canadian citizens Tuesday during the Canada Day swearing-in ceremony at the
Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff /
File)
You can see it in their
expressive eyes and their sincere smiles.
You can sense the strong
feelings of relief, accomplishment, pride and rebirth.
For anyone who’s attended a
citizenship ceremony on Canada Day, or during another time of year, observing
newcomers’ reactions to earning the rights and responsibilities of Canadian
citizenship is a life-affirming moment.
It’s a celebration, after
all — a marriage between a country and new citizens — and such events are
always joyful, perhaps more so on Canada’s birthday.
The trip taken to this vast
nation from an immigrant’s country of origin can be uneventful, challenging,
traumatic or even death-defying. But once they arrive safely in Canada, and
participate in Ottawa’s enduring exercise in citizenship-seeking, newcomers end
up sharing the same experience at their swearing-in event.
An oath is taken alongside
other soon-to-be new Canadians, the national anthem is sung, hugs are given and
received — and there’s a prairie-sized cake.
Last year, a federal
Citizenship and Immigration spokesman told The Chronicle Herald that 632 people
wrote the Canadian citizenship exam in Nova Scotia in 2012. In the past, in the
Halifax region, new Canadians taking part in citizenship ceremonies were from
such countries as Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Ethiopia and Russia.
On Tuesday, in the Canadian
Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, in Halifax, all are welcome to attend a
ceremony that’s to start at 9:30 a.m. Organizers have said around 50 newcomers
will become Canadians at the Canada Day event.
They all studied a federal government
guide covering such topics as Canadian history, culture, geography, the justice
system and the economy. Pier 21 provides free citizenship test-preparation
courses for people hoping to become new Canadians.
“While the story and
experience of each immigrant is unique, for many individuals obtaining Canadian
citizenship is a significant milestone in their journey as newcomers to
Canada,” the museum’s website says.
Many born-and-raised-here
Canucks, it’s often been said, sometimes take their peaceful and much-admired
country for granted.
By any measure, what
previous citizenship ceremonies have shown, is that almost all new Canadians
don’t.
---------------
CANADA MILITARY
NEWS- Getcha Canada On folks- check out incredible map of WWI Canada folks –
BLOGS- God bless our Canada and the people who keep our freedoms free
----------------
Their Excellencies
to Take Part in Clara's Big Ride During Visit to Arnprior -June 30th
OTTAWA, ONTARIO --
(Marketwired) -- 06/27/14 -- Their Excellencies the Right Honourable David
Johnston, Governor General of Canada, and Mrs. Sharon Johnston will be in
Arnprior, Ontario, on June 30, 2014, to show their support for Clara Hughes'
efforts to raise awareness of mental health issues.
Their Excellencies
will first meet with His Worship David Reid, Mayor of Arnprior. Her Excellency
will then stop at Community Living Renfrew County South while the Governor
General visits Arnprior Aerospace Inc. Finally, Their Excellencies will hop on
their bicycles and join Olympic medallist Clara Hughes, O.C., O.M., when she
arrives in the city for Clara's Big Ride for Bell Let's Talk.
"Sharon and I
are looking forward to discovering the Town of Arnprior and to cycling
alongside Clara as she approaches the end of her incredible journey across the
country," said the Governor General. "Like her, we believe it is
essential to better understand mental illness and to fight its associated
prejudices. Too many people still suffer in silence."
Here is Their Excellencies'
detailed itinerary:
5:30 p.m.
Clara's Big Ride for
Bell Let's Talk
Their Excellencies
will cycle approximately 1.2 km with Clara Hughes from
Elgin Street to
Robert Simpson Park. Once they have arrived at the park, the
Governor General
will take part in a special presentation to recognize Ms.
Hughes for her
exceptional accomplishments.
On July 1, Canada's
six-time cycling and speed-skating Olympic medallist
Clara Hughes will
conclude her 110-day cycling journey across Canada in
support of local mental
health initiatives by community groups, schools and
other local
organizations. Ms. Hughes has visited every province and
territory in Canada
to help raise national awareness of mental health and
end the stigma
surrounding mental illness. Clara's Big Ride began on March
14, 2014, in
Toronto, and will conclude on Canada Day, in Ottawa. For more
information, visit www.clarasbigride.bell.ca.
Robert Simpson Park,
Arnprior
OPEN TO MEDIA
------------------
Celebrate Canada's history of courage and hard
work
By Monte Solberg ,QMI Agency
First posted:
Sunday, June 29, 2014 03:00 PM EDT
Pierre-radisson
Pierre-Esprit Radisson. (Wikicommons)
In 1651, a teenager
named Pierre-Esprit Radisson came to New France from stodgy and peevish old
France. The teenage years are difficult for everyone, and young Radisson was no
exception.
Not long after
arriving in what would become Quebec, he was kidnapped by Mohawk warriors while
out duck hunting, and was then adopted by a Mohawk family. Later, according to
one account, while hunting with three Mohawk captors, he and an Algonquin
captive killed the three Mohawks, and escaped.
Soon after a Mohawk
search party caught up with them. They killed the Algonquin, and Radisson was
brutally tortured. While history doesn’t record his reaction to this, at least
not in Wikipedia, it’s safe to say Radisson was disappointed with his
introduction to New France. Like I say, adolescence is not an easy time.
But true to his
name, young Radisson never lost his spirit. Eventually his Mohawk family
rescued him from all that unpleasant torturing. A couple of years later he
escaped to Fort Orange in present day New York State. Later he would locate his
half-sister in Trois Rivieres and would strike up a friendship and a business
partnership with her husband, Medard des Groseilliers.
Radisson would go on
to have many extraordinary wilderness and business adventures, chart great
swaths of North America (he and Groseilliers were the first Europeans to see
Minnesota which, no joking, was quite a deal at the time), help establish the
Hudson's Bay Company, and as much as anyone laid the foundation of a nation.
Why am I telling you
this? Because, as we approach Canada Day, it’s worth remembering that a
country’s identity flows from its history, and our history didn’t begin with
Tommy Douglas, Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau and medicare. Radisson, and the
thousands of others who wandered off to find their fortunes, were models of
self-reliance. They were people of faith. They were merchants. They sought
profit. They were soldiers. Oh no, they sound like conservatives, which might be
why we don’t hear much about them.
So, yes, Radisson
was a hero long before he was a hotel, and self-reliance defined Canada long
before we succumbed to dependence on debt, human rights commissions’
victimhood, and social program entitlement. Even today there is everything to
be said for rugged individualism as a lifestyle, as opposed to, say, pot and EI
as a lifestyle.
If Radisson were
around today there’s every chance he would have first been captured by social
workers, neutered by income support programs, and “empowered” by human rights
commissions on his way to spending his days at the community drop-in centre
fighting for peace, social justice and a national housing strategy. He would be
a big proponent of the local food movement. When all else failed, he would
occasionally look for a job.
In the shadow of
Canada Day, let’s spare a thought for people like Pierre-Esprit Radisson, and
the millions of Canadians who follow in his footsteps. Wrong-headed government
interventions aside, Canada is still a place where courage, ingenuity, hard
work and esprit is rewarded. That’s the history of Canada and, if we’re smart,
it will be the future too.
-----------------
Artist's mural
honours Canada's soldiers killed in Afghanistan
By Chris Doucette ,Toronto Sun
Dave Sopha Artist
Dave Sopha has spent six years painting his massive mural, Portraits of Honour,
which pays tribute to the 158 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. (Chris
Doucette/Toronto Sun)
TORONTO - Dave Sopha
has spent six years of his life painting a massive mural honouring the 158
Canadian soldiers who died in Afghanistan — a tribute he hopes will “last
forever.”
Now, the Cambridge
man wants to take his work of art, Portrait of Heroes, on a cross-country tour
to share it with Canada.
“My goal isn’t to
promote war, it’s to honour and celebrate our fallen heroes,” Sopha said
recently at the Toronto International Centre, where his mural was on display at
the Canadian Motorsports Expo.
An airbrush artist
for more than 40 years, he took his artwork on the road in 2011 with help from
Kin Canada and visited the hometowns of all 158 fallen heroes.
That tour raised
$200,000 for the Military Families Fund.
With the last of our
troops pulling out of Afghanistan next month, Sopha would love to hit the road
again this year.
“But this time it
would be more about education,” he said, explaining he wants Canadians to learn
about the soldiers who have been killed and what they died for.
Sopha was moved to
paint the mural after waking up Dec. 6, 2008, to the news Warrant Officer
Robert Wilson, Cpl. Mark McLaren and Pte. Demetrios Diplaros had all been
killed.
The three deaths
brought the total dead in Afghanistan to 100 and many outlets, including The
Sun, ran photos of all the fallen.
“Looking into their
eyes, I decided I had to do something for them; something special,” Sopha
recalled.
So, he purchased a
specially made 10-foot by 50-foot canvass and got started.
“It was my first
ever oil painting,” Sopha said. “And the Canadian government ended up declaring
it a national treasure.”
The mural includes a
dove of peace surrounded by portraits of the 158 soldiers killed in
Afghanistan.
Sopha later decided
to fill the space between the portraits with poppy petals, one for each of the
114,485 Canadians who have fallen since the First World War. He has finished
85,653 poppy petals and continues to add to the painting every day.
More recently, Sopha
painted stone tablets at opposite ends of the mural and began adding the 158
names of the soldiers memorialized in portraits.
“I don’t know if
it’ll ever be finished,” he said, chuckling. “But I would like to maybe see it
in a museum one day.”
Sopha said there are
“a million stories” in his mural and he’s had the privilege of hearing many of
those anecdotes from family, friends and even fellow soldiers who served with
the 158 he painted, including some who participated in ramp ceremonies when
fallen brothers or sisters were repatriated.
Some of the most
moving moments of his life have come from watching mothers burst into tears as
they looked into their son’s eyes in his painting. There is one woman in
particular he will never forget.
She handed him her
loved one’s military dog tags and insisted Sopha keep them, saying “you spend
every day with my son.”
Sopha is in the
midst of applying for charitable status and hoping some generous corporations
will get on board with his project because it is an expensive — albeit
tremendously worthwhile — endeavour.
“The insurance alone
costs me $1,500 a day every time I take the mural out of my studio,” he
explained.
For more information
on the mural and how to help make Sopha’s cross-Canada tour a reality, visit
portraitsofhonour.ca.
Here are Canada’s
fallen heroes:
Sgt. Marc Leger, 29, Lancaster, Ont.
Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, 24, Toronto, Ont.
Pte. Richard Green, 21, Hubbards, N.S.
Pte. Nathan Smith, 26, Porters Lake, N.S.
Sgt. Robert Short, 42, Fredericton, N.B.
Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger, 29, Ottawa, Ont.
Cpl. Jamie Murphy, 26, Conception Harbour,
Nfld.
Pte. Braun Woodfield, 24 , Eastern Passage,
N.S.
Glyn Berry, 59, British-born Canadian
diplomat.
Cpl. Paul Davis, 28, Bridgewater, N.S.
Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson, 30, Grande
Prairie, Alta.
Pte. Robert Costall, 22, Thunder Bay, Ont.
Cpl. Matthew Dinning, 23, Richmond Hill,
Ont.
Cpl. Randy Payne, 32, Gananoque, Ont.
Bombardier Myles Mansell 25, Victoria, B.C.
Lieut. William Turner, 44, Toronto, Ont.
Capt. Nichola Goddard, 26, Calgary, Alta.
(Canada’s first female soldier killed in combat)
Cpl. Anthony Boneca, 21, reservist, Thunder
Bay, Ont.
Cpl. Francisco Gomez, 44, Edmonton, Alta.
Cpl. Jason Warren, 29, Montreal, Que.
Cpl. Christopher Reid, 34, Truro, N.S.
Sgt. Vaughn Ingram, 35, Burgeo, Nfld.
Cpl. Bryce Keller, 27, Regina, Sask.
Pte. Kevin Dallaire, 22, Calgary, Alta.
Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt, 31, Edmonton,
Alta.
Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh, 33, Regina,
Sask.
Cpl. Andrew Eykelenboom, 23, Edmonton,
Alta.
Cpl. David Braun, 27, Raymore, Sask.
Sgt. Shane Stachnik, 30, Waskatenau, Alta.
Warrant Officer Frank Mellish, 38, Truro,
N.S.
Pte. William Cushley, 21, Port Lambton,
Ont.
Warrant Officer Richard Nolan, 39, Mount
Pearl, Nfld.
Pte. Mark Graham, 33, Hamilton, Ont.
Pte. David Byers, 22, Espanola, Ont.
Cpl. Shane Keating, 30, Dalmeny, Sask.
Cpl. Keith Morley, 30, Winnipeg, Man.
Cpl. Glen Arnold, 32, McKerrow, Ont.
Pte. Josh Klukie, 23, Thunder Bay, Ont.
Sgt. Craig Gillam, 40, South Branch, Nfld.
Cpl. Robert Mitchell, 30, Owen Sound, Ont.
Trooper Mark Wilson, 39, London, Ont.
Sgt. Darcy Tedford , 32, Earltown, N.S.
Pte. Blake Williamson, 23, Ottawa, Ont.
Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Girouard, 46,
Bathurst, N.B.
Cpl. Albert Storm, 36, Fort Erie, Ont.
Cpl. Kevin Megeney, 25, New Glasgow, N.S.
Pte. Kevin Kennedy, 20, St. John’s, Nfld.
Sgt. Donald Lucas, 31, of St. John’s, Nfld.
Cpl. Aaron Williams, 23, Perth-Andover,
N.B.
Pte. David Greenslade, 20, Saint John, N.B.
Cpl. Brent Poland, 37, Sarnia, Ont.
Cpl. Christopher Stannix, 24, Dartmouth,
N.S.
Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 31, Newcastle,
N.B.
Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23, Geary,
N.B.
Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer, 25,
Listowel, Ont.
Cpl. Matthew McCully, 25, Orangeville, Ont.
Master Cpl. Darrell Jason Priede, 30,
Burlington, Ont.
Trooper Darryl Caswell, 25, Bowmanville,
Ont.
Sgt. Christos Karigiannis, 31, Montreal,
Que.
Cpl. Stephen Frederick Bouzane, 26,
Toronto, Ont.
Pte. Joel Vincent Wiebe, 22, Edmonton,
Alta.
Cpl. Cole Bartsch, 23, Whitecourt, Alta.
Capt. Matthew Johnathan Dawe, 27, Kingston,
Ont.
Pte. Lane Watkins, 20, Edmonton, Alta.
Cpl. Jordan Anderson, 25, Iqaluit, Nunavut
Master Cpl. Colin Bason, 28, New
Westminster, B.C.
Capt. Jefferson Francis, 36, Halifax, N.S.
Pte. Simon Longtin, 23, Longueuil, Que.
Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier, 43,
Weedon, Que.
Master Cpl. Christian Duchesne, 34,
Montreal, Que.
Maj. Raymond Ruckpaul, 42, Hamilton, Ont.
Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, 24, Calgary, Alta.
Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28,
Valcartier, Que.
Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, Valcartier Que.
Gunner Jonathan Dion, 27, Val-d’Or, Que.
Warrant Officer Hani Massouh, 41,
Valcartier, Que.
Cpl. Eric Labbe, 31, Rimouski, Que.
Trooper Richard Renaud, 26, Alma, Que.
Sapper Etienne Gonthier, 21, St. Georges,
Que.
Trooper Michael Yuki Hayakaze, 25,
Edmonton, Alta.
Bombardier Jeremie Ouellet, 22, Matane,
Que.
Sgt. Jason Boyes, 32, Napanee, Ont.
Pte. Terry John Street, 24, Hull, Que.
Cpl. Michael Starker, 36, Calgary, Alta.
Capt. Richard Steven Leary, 32, Brantford,
Ont.
Capt. Jonathan Sutherland Snyder, 26,
Penticton, B.C.
Cpl. Brendan Anthony Downey, 37, Dundurn,
Sask.
Pte. Colin William Wilmot, 24, Fredericton,
N.B.
Cpl. James Hayward Arnal, 25, Winnipeg,
Man.
Master Cpl. Josh Roberts, 29, Prince
Albert, Sask.
Master Cpl. Erin Doyle, 32, Edmonton, Alta.
Sgt. Shawn Eades, 33, Hamilton, Ont.
Sapper Stephan Stock, 25, Campbell River,
B.C.
Cpl. Dustin Wasden, 20, Spiritwood, Sask.
Pte. Chad Horn, 21, Calgary, Alta.
Cpl. Michael Seggie, 21, Winnipeg. Man.
Cpl. Andrew Grenon, 23, Windsor, Ont.
Cpl. Mark Robert McLaren, 23, Peterborough,
Ont.
Pte. Demetrios “Dip” Diplaros, 24, Toronto,
Ont.
Warrant Officer Robert John Wilson, 38,
Keswick, Ont.
Cpl. Thomas James Hamilton, 26, Truro, N.S.
Pte. John Michael Roy Curwin, 26, Mount
Uniacke, N.S.
Pte. Justin Peter Jones, 21, Baie Verte,
Nlfd.
Pte. Michael Freeman, 28, Peterborough,
Ont.
Warrant Officer Gaétan Roberge, 45, Hanmer,
Ont.
Sgt. Gregory John Kruse, 40, Campbelltown,
N.B.
Trooper Brian Richard Good, 42, Ottawa,
Ont.
Sapper Sean David Greenfield, 25, Pinawa,
Man.
Warrant Officer Denis Raymond Brown, 38,
St. Catharines, Ont.
Cpl. Dany Olivier Fortin, 29, Baie-Comeau,
Que.
Cpl. Kenneth Chad O’Quinn, 25, Happy
Valley-Goose Bay, Nfld.
Trooper Marc Diab, 22, Mississauga, Ont.
Master Cpl. Scott Vernelli, 28, Sault Ste.
Marie, Ont.
Cpl. Tyler Crooks, 24, Port Colborne, Ont.
Trooper Jack Bouthillier, 20, Hearst, Ont.
Trooper Corey Joseph Hayes, 22, Ripples,
N.B.
Trooper Karine Blais, 21, Les Méchins, Que.
Maj. Michelle Mendes, 30, Wicklow, Ont.
Pte. Alexandre Peloquin, 20, Brownsburg,
Que.
Cpl. Martin Dube, 35, Quebec City, Que.
Cpl. Nicholas Bulger, 30, Peterborough,
Ont.
Master Cpl. Charles-Philippe Michaud, 28,
Edmundston, N.B.
Master Cpl. Pat Audet, 38, Montreal, Que.
Cpl. Martin Joannette, 25, Saint-Calixte,
Que.
Pte. Sebastien Courcy, 26, Saint-Hyacinthe,
Que.
Cpl. Christian Bobbitt, 23, Sept-Iles, Que.
Sapper Matthieu Allard, 21, Val d’Or, Que.
Cpl. Jean-François Drouin, 21, Beauport,
Que.
Maj. Yannick Pepin, 38, Warwick, Que.
Pte. Patrick Lormand, 21, Chute-a-Blondeau,
Ont.
Pte Jonathan Couturier, 23, Loretteville,
Que.
Lt. Justin Garrett Boyes, 26, Saskatoon,
Sask.
Sapper Steven Marshall, 24, Calgary, Alta.
Lt. Andrew Richard Nuttall, 30, Victoria,
B.C.
Pte.
Garrett William Chidley, 21, Cambridge, Ont.
Cpl. Zachery McCormack, 21, Edmonton, Alta.
Sgt. Kirk Taylor, 28, Yarmouth, N.S.
Sgt. George Miok, 28, Edmonton, Alta.
Sgt. John Faught, 44, Sault Ste. Marie,
Ont.
Cpl. Joshua Baker, 24, Edmonton, Alta.
Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick, 21, Prince George,
B.C.
Pte. Tyler William Todd, 26, Kitchener,
Ont.
Petty Officer Douglas Craig Blake, 37,
Simcoe, Ont.
Pte. Kevin Thomas McKay, 24, Richmond Hill,
Ont.
Col. Geoff Parker, 42, Oakville, Ont.
Trooper Larry John Zuidema Rudd, 26,
Brantford, Ont.
Sgt. Martin Goudreault, 35, Sudbury, Ont.
Sgt. James MacNeil, 28, Glace Bay, N.S.
Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht, 34,
Wallaceburg, Ont.
Pte. Andrew Miller, 21, Sudbury, Ont.
Sapper Brian Collier, 24, Bradford, Ont.
Cpl. Brian Pinksen, 22, Corner Brook, Nfld.
Cpl. Steve Martin, 24,
Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Que.
Cpl. Yannick Scherrer, 24, Montreal, Que.
Bombardier Karl Manning, 31, Chicoutimi,
Que.
Master Cpl. Byron Greff, 26, Lacombe, Alta.
------------------
Afghans observe fast
as Ramadan month begins
English.news.cn 2014-06-29 15:32:19
KABUL, June 29
(Xinhua) -- The people of Afghanistan welcomed the month of Ramadan or fasting
month falling on Sunday and began observing fast.
Throughout the month
of Ramadan those who observe fast do not eat from dawn to dusk.
However, children,
patients, elderly people and those physically weak are not obliged to observe
fast.
The first day of
Ramadan is a holiday and the Afghan radio and televisions air and broadcast
mostly religious programs throughout the month of Ramadan.
Ramadan lasts 28, 29
or 30 days depending on the Islamic calendar.
------------
From China... now
this is democracy in action in Afghanistan- they will NOT cheat Dr. Abdullah
Abdullah this time around- Abdullah
stayed with Afghans throughout the war in Afghanistan- his opponent slithered 2
USA and even took out American citizenship... seriously- Karzai/Obama and UN-
shame on u 4 interferring....in 2nd round... Afghans deserve and want their
freedoms and basic decency... and they will get it..imho.
Supporters of Afghan
presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah attend a protest against alleged
election irregularities and fraud in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 27, 2014.
Thousands of supporters of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah staged a
peaceful demonstration near Arg or Afghan presidential palace on Friday.
(Xinhua/Ahmad Massoud)
----------
Canadian Armed
Forces - Canadian Anthem - O Canada -Trooper Matthew Worth
---------
Top 10 reasons why
Canada is awesome
By Adam Frisk Global News
As we celebrate
Canada's 147 birthday, Global News takes a look at the Top 10 reasons why our
country is so awesome.
As we celebrate
Canada's 147 birthday, Global News takes a look at the Top 10 reasons why our
country is so awesome.
Frank Gunn/The
Canadian Press
TORONTO – As we
celebrate Canada’s 147 birthday, Global News takes a look at the Top 10 reasons
why our country is so awesome (not that you needed a list).
We suggest you stand
up, remove your hat and hum the national anthem while reading this post.
10. Our balls are
bigger
Football in Canada
is much different than any other country. Our field is longer and wider than
American football fields. We play with a larger ball. Fewer downs to try to
score. Oh, and we also use our hands, unlike the European version of football
where players kick a round ball down a grass field.
Bombers maul Argos 45-21
to open CFL season
9. We invented
basketball
Thanks to James
Naismith, a McGill University phys-ed teacher, Canada can lay claim to
inventing the sport of basketball. Naismith invented the sport in 1891 while
working at a U.S. college. Although Canada is best known for producing some of
the world’s best hockey players, our country has been showcasing our home-grown
talent in the NBA. For the second consecutive year, a Canadian was selected
first overall in the NBA draft — Anthony Bennett in 2013 and Andrew Wiggins in
2014.
NBA Commissioner
Adam Silver, left, congratulates Andrew Wiggins who was selected by the
Cleveland Cavaliers as the number one pick in the 2014 NBA draft, Thursday,
June 26, 2014, in New York.
NBA Commissioner
Adam Silver, left, congratulates Andrew Wiggins who was selected by the Cleveland
Cavaliers as the number one pick in the 2014 NBA draft, Thursday, June 26,
2014, in New York.
AP Photo/Jason
DeCrow
8. We legalized
same-sex marriage ages ago
Canada legalized
same-sex marriage almost nine years ago while many countries were still
debating the issue. The Canadian government legalized same-sex marriage on July
20, 2005, becoming the fourth country to do so.
Jen Chang, left, and
Inae Lee pose for photos before joining over 100 gay couples in a mass wedding
during World Pride 2014 at Casa Loma in Toronto, on Thursday, June 26, 2014.
Jen Chang, left, and
Inae Lee pose for photos before joining over 100 gay couples in a mass wedding
during World Pride 2014 at Casa Loma in Toronto, on Thursday, June 26, 2014.
THE CANADIAN
PRESS/Darren Calabrese
7. Poutine
Many Canadians enjoy
the savoury taste of French fries, gravy and cheese curds all piled together in
a heaping platter of goodness. Enough said.
Bourbon Street Baron
of Beef Poutine.
Bourbon Street Baron
of Beef Poutine.
Supplied, K-Days
6. We are patriotic
From sewing flags on
our backpacks and putting a beaver on our nickels to belting out the national
anthem for a free beer, we Canadians are very patriotic. According to a 2008
survey, Canada is the sixth most patriotic country in the world.
5. We are funny!
Canada has produced
some very well-known comedians: Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Eugene Levy, Martin
Short, Seth Rogan and Will Arnett. Just to name a few.
'Kick-Ass 2'
director responds to Jim Carrey
4. Canada is big and
beautiful
All 9.98 million
square kilometres of it. As the second largest country in the world, Canada
boasts endless lakes and rivers. We have access to three oceans, and we boast
one of the few places in the world you can ski and surf (outside) in the same
day.
Banff National Park
Banff, Alberta,
Canada
THE CANADIAN PRESS
3. Music
Canadians make music
that’s heard all over the world. From Paul Anka to Justin Bieber, this country
knows how to make music that sells. We’re well represented by such diverse
artists as Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, David Foster,
Bryan Adams, Deadmau5, Michael Buble, k.d. lang, Gordon Lightfoot, Avril
Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Drake and Anne Murray.
Canadian singer and
host of the 2013 Juno Awards Michael Buble speaks to the media before the 2013
Juno Awards in Regina on Saturday, April 20, 2013.
Canadian singer and
host of the 2013 Juno Awards Michael Buble speaks to the media before the 2013
Juno Awards in Regina on Saturday, April 20, 2013.
Nathan Denette / The
Canadian Press
2. Attractive cities
In a recent survey
Toronto was named the fourth most attractive city in the world. It was the only
Canadian city to make the list. The annual survey from PwC ranked 30
destinations worldwide for several factors including education and technology,
quality of life, ease of doing business,
health and safety, economic clout, and transport. Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary,
Quebec City and Montreal have consistently ranked high in past world surveys.
Toronto, Ontario
1. There’s no one
reason why Canada is awesome
But this pretty much
sums it up.
Happy birthday,
Canada!
-with files from
John R. Kennedy and Irene Ogrodnik
-------------
Canadians Are Polite
?! Molson Canadian Commercial
Peter MacKay is a great Canadian imho.... this is
from an old liberal warrior product of tory families and ndp
acknowledgement.... DEFENCE MINISTER MACKAY- JUSTICE MINISTER AND ATTORNEY
GENERAL OF CANDA...
Somehow, once again it seems, it falls on Canada
2 deal with woman's rights sheeet. And
by God many of us are angry. Us oldies
fought so damm hard since the 60s 4 women's basic rights- with all the scars
and sores and wounds 2 prove it.
The bottom line WAS knowing when women are truly
equal 2 men under the law of Canada ...so it will be 4 children, disabled,
creeds, colour, religion, race and age.
In Canada on this day... women equal men... and by God's grace ..it
matters.
Our worst enemy political wise back in our
days... was our very own precious and loved liberal party (just ask Scott
Brison the famous liberal now who was famous and brave as a diehard tory- who
believed in women and our equality and stood in the house whilst the NDP and
Liberals slithered under their desks) liberal party- they broke our collective
hearts.
This old Trudeaumaniac (my family who had
Diefenbaker's picture on their prayer table in Lunenburg County like most of
the day- loved me anyway- cause that's how it is with family) ..with roses
batik ed on my T-dresses and pained on my face - how we loved Trudeau in the
early days.
THE LIBERALS AND PAY EQUITY IN CANADA??? Lord, we paid so dearly fighting the fight 4
basic equal rights... equal pay... health care...abortion rights...safe work
place... childcare and sick care... maternity rights...disability rights...seat
belt laws... non-smoking in the workplace...education
equality...racism...religious...creed...child abuse...abuse of women...chasing F**king
PAEDOPHILES, fighting polygamy, fighting
women having 2 sell their bodies on the street 4 perfect white men, voting
right 4 our First Nations sisters and on and on and on... God we paid dear
prices... and we won... much more finally...-
PAY EQUITY CAME FEDERAL 2 CANADA IN SPITE OF ALL THE LIBERAL BULLSHI*T
IN THE MID-90s (we started this in the 80s).
GLOBAL WOMEN'S ISSUES:
QUOTE- The Redeemer- Jo Nesbo:
Salvation Army-
SALVATION ARMY FOUNDER WILLIAM BOOTH said his best men were women. "Nevertheless, we are like the rest of
society." "Stupid,
self-assured men ruling over smart women who are afraid of heights."
Salvation Army is 2/3 women and the best of
humanity's donators on the planet... Sally Ann my mom and family said saved
them all during the wars with their
selfless time abroad and at home- colour
blind, gender illiterate and each and every human being matters.
-Boys/Men who want 2 be officers in Salvation
Army must find a girl within the Salvation Army.
2 Day, Canada's bizarre media pounces on Canada's
former Defence Minister (who was voted the most trusted and best liked and
respected by the actual Nato troops on the ground- they knew he had their
backs...( like Hillier, Vance and Walt and always Romeo Dallaire (the saviour of
Rwanda). How can Politicians and sneaky
97% liberal owned voting media , who will cut the political throat of the ndp
as quick as the tories and bloc and green (well they just don't matter do they)
dare 2 be so disgusting in their behaviour.
You go in2 MacKay's emails and differentiate affectionate notes 2 moms
on Mother's day versus Dad's.... seriously???
u comment viciously with glee... about 'women in the workplace and their
value and lack of high positions???
SERIOUSLY???
Do u realize on this day 2014- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DOES NOT CONSIDER
WOMEN EQUAL 2 MEN...
Do u realize on this day 2014- UNITED NATIONS
REFUSES 2 MAKE WOMEN EQUAL 2 MEN... AND CHILDREN DO NOT MATTER??? UN refuses 2 recognize women equal 2 men with
the $$$$trillions of our tax dollars spewing in2 the potholes of their souls
without humanity???
One Billion Rising baby.
Well... on this day- will take all the Peter
MacKay's Canada has 2 offer( who loves and respect his momma , grandma,
sisters, wife, kids and family without fear).
In Canada we could NOT find one damm politician
who gave a sheeet about our Canadian or Nato troops back in the early and
mid-2000s ... from Taliban Jack party, 2 the Chretien and Martin government
sending our kids 2 war in Afghanistan in t-shirts and green sunsuits without
kits or tanks.. 2 the never ending- me,
me, me French Only Bloc 2 the Greenies (all talk and no organizing or actual
work)... 2 the ho hum tories.
Canada has come so far.... and each and every
bite of freedom and democracy and basic human right - some Canadian paid very
dearly 4.
We adore our Idle No More First Peoples of 10,000
years along with our Metis and Non-Status Aboriginals as well....... AND LOOK AROUND THE WORLD FOLKS.... look how
our world has treated the First Peoples -Aboriginal nations - God's chosen
caregivers of our planet..... AT LEAST
CANADA IS DOING SOMETHING.... loud and
clear.
The main point is... us youngbloods in the 60s
and 70s who are women fit in 3 categories... secretary, nurse, teacher- and
always housewife... PERIOD.... Looking back... God ... we changed the world 4
the better. 2da I watch with horror the
tv, net etc. and am so ashamed of the absolute disgrace of the degrading of
girls and women sexualized so thoroughly and severely... in all media
forms. All that work... pain ...
suffering... and change... would I do it all again living with a body worn be4
it's time... simply... yes.
This is my blog... my opinions and my blood... if
u don't like it... kiss my Grade A 'made in Canada' arse. that's my story on this day... and I'm
sticking 2 it.
----------------------
BLOGGED
CANADA'S YORK UNIVERSITY- SHAME- SHAME ON U-
WOMEN EQUAL MEN IN OUR CANADA- SHAME ON U-- ONE BILLION RISING- NO MORE
EXCUSES- AS MINISTER PETER MACKAY SAY..IT'S WHY OUR TROOPS GO 2 WAR - 2 PROTECT
LITTLE GIRLS AND RIGHTS OF WOMEN- SHAME CANADA'S YORK UNIVERSITY
------------------
ONE BILLION RISING....2014
-----------------
Nova Scotia shared Military Minds Inc.'s photo.
It's not about the war... it's about our Canadian
Warriors- our heroes- u actually gave a sheeet about the poor everyday women,
children and folks in the hard part of the world ..that even women and children
rights groups walk on by..... our troops did NOT... and 2 many died.... because
u see, troops on the ground day in and day out since 2001- these Muslim women
and kids matter. u define our nation. thank u- love u
PHOTO-
MILITARYMINDS.CA
As the Afghanistan mission officially comes to an
end today for Canada, let us not ask if it was worth it, but instead let's
honor those who have sacrificed mind limb and life for that country. Let us not
forget about the thousands of family members who are deeply affected by this
war. Let us never forget the bravery of the soldiers who stepped foot into the
unknown and faced head on what most fear and can not fathom. They did it with
honour and integrity, all the while carrying what it is to be Canadian. They
represented OUR Canada like nobody else can.
Please, do not question whether it was worth it
or not, but remember those who represented you for those 12 long years in the
worlds harshest environment.
Pro Patria
---------------
Afghanistan Repatriation Memorial Unveiling
Ceremony, November
--------------
2012-12-05
· Why Are So Many Professional Millennial Women ... Men allowed
women ... will tell you that real men dont want millenial women.
we just want real girls ...
---------------
Discrimination
against girls and women in the developing ... Why is it
still so bad and what ... The Global Campaign for Education also
states that a primary ...
------------------
BREAK THE CHAIN -ONE BILLION
RISING- no more excuses- no more abuses against girls and women of this world.
---------------
O Canada
SCARY STUDY BY UK.... - IF
ADULTS FIND THIS NEWAGE MEDIA OFFENSIVE 2 SENSIBILITIES... WHAT ABOUT OUR
KIDS???
Why is newage media allowed
2 sexually play on little girls, tweens and teens even sponsors?
Facts and TV Statistics
"It's Just Harmless
Entertainment" Oh really?
A new survey conducted by
the Pew Research Center showed that 75% of the 1,505 adults polled from March
17-21 would like to see tighter enforcement of government rules on broadcast
content, particularly when children are most likely to be watching; 60% want
broadcast TV indecency standards extended to cable TV; and 69% want higher
fines for media companies.
In a recent (03.20.05) Time
Magazine Poll 53 percent of respondents said that they think the FCC should
place stricter controls on broadcast-channel shows depicting sex and violence.
68 percent believe the entertainment industry has lost touch with viewers'
moral standards. 66 percent said there is too much violence on open-air TV, 58
percent said too much cursing and 50 percent said there is too much sexual
content on TV. 49 percent say FCC regulation should be extended to cover basic
cable.
ABC's Desperate Housewives
is the most popular broadcast-network television show with kids aged 9-12
according to Nielsen stats. It airs at 10/9. (Jan. 05)
According to Nielsen the top
TV shows for 12-17 year old girls were: American Idol, The O.C., Will &
Grace, and One Tree Hill. The top TV shows for 12-17 year old boys were: The
Simpsons, Malcolm, and The O.C.
2004 Super Bowl: Nielsen estimates
that 6.6 million kids 2-11 were watching at about the time that CBS's little
halftime fiasco developed when Justin Timberlake ripped off a piece of
Jackson's bodice, exposing her right breast to the nationwide audience. Another
7.3 million teens 12-17 were tuned in at that time as well.
On December 10th, 2003, Fox
failed to bleep the f-word and the s-word during the Billboard Music Awards.
# of 2-11 yr olds Watching =
Over 1 million
# of 12-17 yr olds Watching
= Over 1 Million
These two groups comprised
more than 20% of the total viewing audience.
Estimated number of TV
homes: 109.6 million
Average time kids spend
watching TV each day: 4 Hours
Children spend more time
watching television than in any other activity except sleep. - Huston and
Wright, University of Kansas.
"Television and Socialization of Young Children."
54% of kids have a TV in
their bedroom. - Ibid
44% of kids say they watch something
different when they're alone than with their parents (25% choose MTV)
66% of children (ages 10 to
16) surveyed say that their peers are influenced by TV shows
62% say that sex on TV shows
and movies influences kids to have sex when they are too young
77% say there is too much
sex before marriage on television
65% say that shows like The
Simpsons and Married… With Children encourage kids to disrespect parents.
Witnessing repeated violent
acts can lead to desensitization and a lack of empathy for human suffering
Television alone is
responsible for 10% of youth violence. - Leonard Eron, Senior Research
Scientist at the University of Michigan
According to the American
Psychiatric Association, "The debate is over… For the last three decades,
the one predominant finding in research on the mass media is that exposure to
media portrayals of violence increases aggressive behavior in children."
A majority of parents say
they are "very" concerned about the amount of sex (60%) and violence
(53%) their children are exposed to on TV. After being read arguments on both
sides of the issue, nearly two-thirds of parents (63%) say they favor new
regulations to limit the amount of sex and violence in TV shows during the
early evening hours, when children are most likely to be watching (35% are
opposed). - Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/23/04.
A majority (55%) of parents
say ratings should be displayed more prominently and 57% say they'd rather keep
the current rating systems than switch to a single rating for TV, movies, video
games, and music (34% favor the single rating). - Kaiser Family Foundation,
9/23/04.
About half (52%) of all
parents say most TV shows are rated accurately, while about four in ten (39%)
say most are not. - Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/23/04.
Many parents don't
understand what the various ratings guidelines mean. For example, 28% of
parents of young children (2-6 years old) know what the rating TV-Y7 means
(directed to children age 7 and older) while 13% think it means the opposite
(directed to children under 7); and only 12% know that the rating FV
("fantasy violence") is related to violent content, while 8% think it
means "family viewing." - Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/23/04.
Fifteen percent of all
parents have used the V-Chip, which was required to be included in all TV sets
over 13 inches after January 2000; one in four (26%) haven't bought a new TV
since then, 39% have bought a new TV, but don't think it includes a V-Chip, and
20% know they have a V-Chip, but haven't used it. Among those who have a V-Chip
and know it, 42% have used it. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of parents who have used
the V-Chip say they found it "very" useful. - Kaiser Family
Foundation, 9/23/04.
When read the competing
arguments for subjecting cable TV to the same content standards as
broadcasters, half of all parents (52%) say that cable should be treated the
same, while 43% say it should not. - Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/23/04.
A study of 1792 adolescents
ages 12-17 showed that watching sex on TV influences teens to have sex. Youths
who watched more sexual content where more likely to initiate intercourse and
progress to more advanced noncoital sexual activities in the year following the
beginning of the study. Youths in the 90th percentile of TV sex viewing had a
predicted probability of intercourse initiation that was approximately double
that of youths in the 10th percentile. Basically, kids with higher exposure to
sex on TV were almost twice as likely than kids with lower exposure to initiate
sexual intercourse. - Study Conducted by RAND and published in the September
2004 issue of Pediatrics.
46% of high school students
in the United States have had sexual intercourse. Although sex is common, most
sexually active teens wish they had waited longer to have sex, which suggest
that sex is occurring before youths are prepared for its consequences. 1 case
of an STD is diagnosed for every 4 sexually active teens.
In a sample of programming
from the 2001-2002 TV season, sexual content appeared in 64% of all TV
programs. Those programs with sexually related material had an average of 4.4
scenes per hour. Talk of sex is more frequent (61%) vs. overt portrayals (32%).
1 out of every 7 programs includes a portrayal of sexual intercourse.
Portrayals that included
sexual risks (stds or becoming pregnant), abstinence or need for sexual safety
was depicted in 15% of the shows with sexual content. Hence, sexual content on
TV is more likely to promote sexual activity among US adolescents that it is to
discourage it.
Factors positively
associated with initiation of intercourse among virgins are: Watching Sex on
TV, having older friends, getting low grades, engaging in deviant behavior.
Positive factors for virgins to abstain are: parental monitoring, parent
education, living with both parents, having parents who would disprove of
adolescent sex, being religious, and having good mental health.
"In a recent national
survey conducted by Nielsen (4/29/04), 78% of American families who had
recently been part of the Nielsen 'People Meter' panel wanted more shows
'without profanity or swear words.'
"In a national opinion
poll conducted for TV Guide (8/2/03), 57% of TV viewers said they 'noticed an
increase in offensive material on television lately.'"
"In a national opinion
poll conducted for Common Sense Media ("New Attempt to Monitor Media
Content," NY Times, 5/21/03), 64% of parents with at least one child
between the ages of 2 and 17 believed media products in general were
inappropriate for their families. Only
one in five parents 'fully trusted' the industry-controlled rating systems.
"In a national survey
by Public Agenda ("Parents feel they're failing to teach values," USA
TODAY, 10/30/02), 'about 90% [of parents] say TV programs are getting worse
every year because of bad language and adult themes in shows that air from 8 to
10 p.m.'
Over 1000 studies -
including a Surgeon General's special report in 1972 and a National Institute
of Mental Health report 10 years later - attest to a causal connection between
media violence and aggressive behavior in some children. Studies show that the
more "real-life" the violence portrayed, the greater the likelihood
that it will be "learned." - American Academy of Pediatrics Policy
Statement, Volume 95, Number 6 - June 1995
By age 18, a U.S. youth will
have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence. - American
Psychiatric Association
The average youth living in
the U.S. watches television 25 hours a week and plays computer games an
additional seven hours. - National Institute on Media and the Family, 1998
study
Media violence may cause
aggressive and antisocial behavior, desensitize viewers to future violence and
increase perceptions that they are living "in a mean and dangerous
world." - American Academy of Pediatrics
Children younger than 8
"cannot uniformly discriminate between real life and
fantasy/entertainment… They quickly learn that violence is an acceptable
solution to resolving even complex problems, particularly if the aggressor is
the hero." - ibid
"Violence is like the
nicotine in cigarettes. The reason why
the media has to pump ever more violence into us is because we've built up a
tolerance. In order to get the same
high, we need ever-higher levels… The television industry has gained its market
share through an addictive and toxic ingredient." - Lt. Col. David
Grossman quoted in The Arizona Republic, May 27, 1999 by Tim Madigan, Fort
Worth Star-Telegram, A18.
Two overviews of existing
studies conducted by the Surgeon General's office in 1972 and 1982 called
television violence "a contributing factor to increases in violent crime
and antisocial behavior." - May 9, 1999.
The New York Times. Lawrie
Mifflin. "Many Researchers Say Link is Already Clear on Media and Youth
Violence."
"Not every child who
watches a lot of violence or plays a lot of violent games will grow up to be
violent. Other forces must converge, as
they did recently in Colorado. But just
as every cigarette increases the chance that someday you will get lung cancer,
every exposure to violence increases the chances that some day a child will
behave more violently than they otherwise would." - Ibid Attributed to L. Rowell Huesmann of the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
"A steady diet of
violent content over time creates a culture that tells kids that violence is
the accepted way we solve our problems." - Ibid - Attributed to Kathryn C.
Montgomery, President of the Center for Media Education.
Television violence can lead
to imitation
The cumulative impact of
violence-laden imagery can lead to a "mean-world" perspective, in
which viewers have an unrealistically dark view of life. - The Christian Science
Monitor, November 18, 1996
Television reaches children
at a younger age and for more time than any other socializing institution
except the family. - Ibid
Research has shown that
"mindless" television or video games may idle and impoverish the
development of the pre-frontal cortex, or that portion of the brain that is
responsible for planning, organizing and sequencing behavior for self-control,
moral judgment and attention. - American Academy of Pediatrics - Understanding
TV's effects on the developing brain, Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. (From May 1998 AAP News)
Children often behave
differently after they've been watching violent programs on television. Children who watched violent shows were more
likely to strike out at playmates, argue, disobey authority and were less
willing to wait for things that children who watched nonviolent programs. -
American Psychological Association, Family and Relationships -Get the Facts:
Children and Television Violence
Reducing the amount of time
grade-school children spend watching television games and watching television
can make them less aggressive toward their peers. - Stanford Report, January
14, 2001 -Limiting TV viewing reduces aggression in children, study says by
Krista Conger
In considering decisions
about contraceptives, STDs and sexual health choices, teens are almost as
likely to get their information from TV (60%) as from a health care provider
(62%). - Kaiser Family Foundation, 5/23/01
86% of Britons feel their
government should step in to regulate sexually explicit television and magazine
images aimed at children, according to a BBC poll of more than 1,000 people.
While the strongest support came from 55- to 64-year-olds (92%), a surprising
78% of 18- to 24-year-olds also believe tougher restrictions are necessary to
discourage adolescent sex. Britain is currently experiencing a surge in STDs
(up 57 percent from 1995) and HIV cases (up 20 percent from last year), along
with a rising rate of teenage pregnancies.
--------------------
“Don’t Dress Your Girls Like
Tramps”
April 19, 2011 32 Comments
WOWZA.
The man knows how to write a
headline, huh?
I saw the link to this
opinion piece on CNN shared by one of my Facebook friends early Tuesday
morning. By Tuesday afternoon I’d seen it at least 10 times. And by the time I
got home from work, I was fired up enough to craft this LONG response.
Before I share my thoughts,
a disclaimer.
I am NOT a parent. My basic
philosophy when it comes to making plans for future parenting is that I don’t
know what I don’t know. And it’s crazy to try and make rules for what I will
and won’t do until I’m there, with the little eyes looking up at me.
Having said that…
The writer’s thesis is an
interesting one. He muses on an airport experience, in which he saw an
8-year-old wearing sexy designer clothes, makeup and jewelry and generally
showing off her body.
“Her beautiful, long blond hair was braided
back a la Bo Derek in the movie “10″ (or for the younger set, Christina
Aguilera during her “Xtina” phase). Her lips were pink and shiny from the
gloss, and her earrings dangled playfully from her lobes.
You can tell she had been vacationing
somewhere warm, because you could see her deep tan around her midriff thanks to
the halter top and the tight sweatpants that rested just a little low on her
waist. The icing on the cake? The word “Juicy” was written on her backside.”
Yeah, that 8-year-old girl was something to
see alright. … I hope her parents are proud. Their daughter was the sexiest
girl in the terminal, and she’s not even in middle school yet.”
His claim is that parents
need to buckle down and set rules, even when it makes kids angry. That moms and
dads need to let kids know about propriety, the importance of being protective
of sexuality and facing down peer pressure. And behave accordingly themselves,
too.
I agree. And, I don’t.
When I was a kid, I had a
pretty progressive series of female role models. My mom worked full time,
splitting chores and financial decisions with my father. I played sports, took
part in theater, had boy and girl buddies and believed I could do anything I
wanted to do in life. I wore jeans and sometimes skirts. Sometimes curled my
hair and sometimes chopped it short.
p_g10aexbrkth0376
Me at 8
I was taught that it’s OK to
look your best. I was also taught about sex, how to have it safely, how to make
it special and why my body is about much more than attracting people.
(Hello — when I would
complain about my big hips, I was told that they’d be good for having babies,
NOT that they’d look hot in miniskirts while dancing on the bar)
I know that my experience is
not the one that all young girls had or currently have. Between Jersey Shore,
Toddlers & Tiaras, The Real Housewives and even Teen Mom, I see examples of
women being taught to trade on their bodies every day. While I enjoy watching
those shows, I feel confident enough in myself to believe that WHO I am is much
more important than HOW I dress. And I take the Hollywood portrayals for what
they are. Portrayals. Not goals to meet.
p_g10aexbrkth0188
Me at 21
And yet, I’m the same
self-confident woman behind posts like “Get Your Sexy On,” “Why Pole Dancing is
like Social Media” and “Au Natural is Au-Verrated.” The same girl who knows
that a short skirt and sexy smile can get you good service at the bar. And the
same girl who has no problem standing out in the crowd by wearing hot pink high
heels. I dressed like a sexy schoolgirl for Halloween in college (ahem. see
above) and also once attended a Pimps and Hos party in full costume.
And I turned out OK. It was
an experiment — part of figuring out what sexuality and feminism means to ME.
photo
So, while I agree that in
many cases, we’re teaching girls sexuality at a much-too-young age, I also
worry that we’re sexualizing something that just doesn’t need to be. Kids in
bikinis don’t necessarily wear them to look sexy — they just want to splash
around with friends. Little girls who dress up in mom’s clothes and carry
lipstick around in their tiny purses aren’t trying to attract attention —
they’re trying to be like mommy.
And when girls do start to
play around with clothes, makeup and more, can’t we let them do it in a way
that doesn’t cause them to judge themselves or question their own morals?
I have talked myself in and
out of this opinion all day, and I felt so torn about this issue that I turned
to Twitter and Facebook for their opinions, and really enjoyed reading through
them:
@kwidrick I like that it's
from a father's perspective. We're too busy sugar coating things - he get's
straight to the point.
April 19, 2011 3:53 pm via
TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
@MealsAndMiles
Meghann Anderson
@kwidrick Those parents are
the same ones that end up on reality shows. They are looking for attention.
April 19, 2011 3:54 pm via
TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
@tblanchfield
Theodora Blanchfield
@kwidrick He's dead on.
Girls are dressing far too scandalous and that's a direct reflection of the
parenting. Something has to change.
April 19, 2011 3:58 pm via
TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
@grmindyjean
Mindy
@kwidrick are you for or
against the piece? I agree girls are dressing too young, but I think the issue
is deeper than "just tell them no."
April 19, 2011 3:59 pm via
webReplyRetweetFavorite
@LMurphyDC
Laura Murphy
@kwidrick I appreciated
hearing this from the perspective of a father. I also think he puts the onus on
the right people - parents.
April 19, 2011 4:00 pm via
webReplyRetweetFavorite
@JuliaJogging
Julia
@kwidrick This topic was on
NPR earlier this month http://goo.gl/H6j5y
Seems like he's rewritten Jennifer Moses' original story.
April 19, 2011 4:00 pm via
webReplyRetweetFavorite
@tiger_eye339
Kristen Riley aka
@kwidrick I pretty much
agree with the article! It kills me how YOUNG all the "being hot"
craziness seems to start these days!
April 19, 2011 4:23 pm via
webReplyRetweetFavorite
@getalivingsense
Jamie
@kwidrick I agree with a lot
of that! And I'm a college student. Little girls are dressing more and more
risqué. Enough is enough!
April 19, 2011 4:24 pm via
EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite
@Cori315caesar
Corin Castro
Agree with the article... I
was never allowed to wear pants with anything written on the ass. RT @kwidrick http://bit.ly/h5u1I3
Tweet me!
April 19, 2011 4:26 pm via
webReplyRetweetFavorite
@jaclynlet
Jaclyn Letizia
@kwidrick I really
appreciated how he mentioned the burden for dressing kids goes to the parents,
not the companies that sell the clothes.
April 19, 2011 4:34 pm via
webReplyRetweetFavorite
@carlyrachael
Carly D.
My final thoughts:
As a future parent, I want my kids to know
that however they dress, I love them. That it’s OK to play with clothes and
makeup. And that it’s OK to experiment with all kinds of personalities while on
the journey to discovering themselves.
As a future parent, I want to instill
safety and security with my kids while giving them the self-esteem and
confidence to know that sex and sex appear are sacred things. And that for
better or for worse, we do judge people on what they wear and how they act.
As a future parent, I want to not only give
MY kids the benefits of that journey, but be a part of helping young girls and
boys across the world the confidence to safely experiment with their look.
Now I’d like to know how you
feel. Do parents need to take a stand, or is this out of proportion?
About Katy
Katy Widrick is a television
producer by day, and trains for triathlons at night. She writes about healthy
living in a hectic world -- a balance between fitness and friendships, all
built through social media. Subscribe to the feed for updates and follow
@kwidrick on Twitter!
Comments
Why are we, as a society, in such a hurry
to have our children grow up so fast? There’s plenty of time for them to be
adults! There are many sites that sell age appropriate clothing for girls. This
is one of our favorites. Cheers. http://www.twirlygirlshop.com/girls-maxi-dress
------------------
mediasmarts.ca/.../marketing-and-consumerism-special-issues-tweens-and-teens - Cached - SimilarKids, Alcohol and Advertising - Lesson 2:
Young Drinkers ... No longer little
children, and not yet teens, tweens are starting to develop their sense ... And
marketers are discovering there's lots of money to be made by treating tweens
like teenagers. ... vulnerable to potentially unhealthy messages about body
image, sexuality, ...
children, and not yet teens, tweens are starting to develop their sense ... And
marketers are discovering there's lots of money to be made by treating tweens
like teenagers. ... vulnerable to potentially unhealthy messages about body
image, sexuality, ...
---------
3 age-appropriate ways to
talk to kids and teens about media portrayals of sexual assault
By: Randen Pederson – CC BY
2.0
On August 11th 2012, in
Steubenville Ohio, a very inebriated 16-year-old girl was raped by two of her
peers while others watched, recorded, and encouraged the brutality. The crime,
perpetrated by two 16-year-old boys, was brutal and public. In the days that
followed, the rapists and other students shared the grotesque details of the assault
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. They minimized the crime, blamed
and shamed the victim, and generally behaved in ways that make us question
human decency.
On March 17th 2013 Ma'lik
Richmond and Trent Mays were found guilty of rape and sentenced as juveniles to
be incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility until they turn 21. During the
trial the prosecutor asked one of the onlookers, Evan Westlake, why he didn't
stop the rape and his response was "well, it wasn't violent. I didn't know
what rape was. I always pictured it as forcing yourself on someone."
Last week I stood in line at
the grocery store behind two female friends with pre-teen children in tow. They
were discussing the Steubenville trial and complaining about the fallout. As
the parents of teenage girls they were happy to see the perpetrators punished
but they expressed sympathy over the public nature of their consequences.
And then they spent the rest
of the time discussing how unfair the entire ordeal is to them. Because the
word rape was being discussed so openly they now had to have conversations with
their daughters about what that means. Which, clearly, is the real shame in
this whole mess.
At that point the pre-teens
bounced over to their mothers giggling and whispering to each other. And that
was when I noticed the button on one of their backpacks picturing Damon and
Elena from The Vampire Diaries in a close embrace.
A Pi Day bonus: one
teacher's thoughts on why math matters
"You'll need it to
balance your checkbook" or "What if you wanted to re-paint a room of
your house?" are phrases that we would often... [more]
And then my head exploded.
I have this super awesome
talent for thinking of the perfect thing to say hours later. A talent which is
not in any way useful — unless you have a blog. In which case you can blog
about it and get it all out. So here are three possible, age-appropriate, conversations
you can have with your children about rape that I came up with:
Sleeping Beauty and the 7
year old
Parent: And there she lay, so beautiful
that he could not turn his eyes away, and he stooped down and gave her a kiss.
Child: And she woke-up?
Parent: She did wake-up. But do you think
what the prince did was right?
Child: Well if he didn't kiss her she would
be asleep forever.
Parent: But how would you feel if someone
kissed you when you didn't say it was OK?
Child: Gross. That's not very nice.
Parent: Can you think of another way that
he could have woken her up without kissing her?
Child: Well maybe if they had a dog they
could make the dog bark really loud?
Parent: That's a smart idea! What else?
Child: I know! A bunch of people could get
pots and wooden spoons and they could bang them really really loud!
Parent: What a good idea! Why don't we draw
a picture of that and we can put a new ending in this book?
Child: Yeah!
The Vampire Diaries and the 13-year-old
Parent: So, on this show, the vampires
compel people to do things?
Child: uh-huh (said without looking up from
computer)
Parent: Like what kinds of things?
Child: Whatever they want.
Parent: Do they ever compel girls or boys
to kiss them?
Child: Yeah, Damon does.
Parent: So the girls don't say that they
want to kiss him.
Child: Mom everyone wants to kiss him.
Parent: But how would you feel if someone
you didn't want to kiss made you do it? Or would you ever feel OK kissing
somebody who didn't want to be kissed by you?
Child: *eye roll* No mom.
Parent: What would you do if you were at a
party and saw a vampire compelling someone to kiss them?
You might not get a lot of
conversation out of a thirteen-year-old but the lines of communication can be
opened up and your child can have a better understanding of consent. Vampire
compulsion is portrayed as a sexy version of the date rape drug. And teens are
getting the idea that an overwhelming obsession to be with someone, regardless
of that person's consent, is the ideal form of love.
In our current culture of
slut-shaming, teen girls are attracted to this compulsion aspect. They get to
have sex but the fault is removed from them. We need to understand why these
plot lines are compelling to our daughters. And we need to talk to them about
it.
[Editor's note: we
acknowledge that this example may not work for everyone — some families may
choose to be more overt with their discussion of rape with 13 year olds. If you
would phrase it differently, what would you say?]
Awards shows and the
18-year-old
Parent: Did Seth McFarlane really just sing
a song about seeing women's boobs on film and reference four rape scenes?
Child: Those actors are old. I don't even
know any of those movies.
Parent: Jodie Foster in The Accused,
Charlize Theron in Monster, Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry and Jessica Chastain
in Lawless. Those are all rape scenes.
Child: What a douche. It's just like my
prof in Feminist Perspectives of Modern Media says. The flesh of women's bodies
becomes disambiguated from their personhood and they act as a vehicle for
sexual stimulation, degradation, and voyeurism on film and in society more
broadly. Women can't have both sexuality and sexual agency. In our patriarchal,
colonialist, rape-culture society, women's bodies exist to be exploited and
perverted.
Parent: Right. I was totally going to say
that. Fucking disambiguated, patriarch-y-ichal, rape-culture. Not cool.
Moral of the story: It's
never too early to start the conversation. Our children are watching and
listening. In this multi-media generation turning off the TV and censoring
content isn't the answer. Talking is. The fact that teenage Evan Westlake could
witness a rape and not be able to identify it as a rape means that we are
failing in teaching the realities of consent and assault to the next
generation. And if they are our future we need to make some big changes.
------------
Why is newage media allowed
2 tramp up little girls, tweens and young women?
---------
Too hot for tweens: Why some
parents dread back-to-school shopping
By Kelly Wallace, CNN
updated 10:14 AM EDT, Tue
August 13, 2013
Parents say too many
fashions for young girls are too sexy, too short, and definitely not age-appropriate.
Do you agree? Click through to see some of the outfits that have moms and dads
most concerned and get tips on how to get your girl to dress her age. Parents
say too many fashions for young girls are too sexy, too short, and definitely
not age-appropriate. Do you agree? Click through to see some of the outfits
that have moms and dads most concerned and get tips on how to get your girl to
dress her age.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Parents across the country say tween
fashions for girls are too skimpy, short, sexy
Study: Sexualization of clothes and media
can lead to self-esteem problems in girls
Tween girls' fashion is a multibillion
dollar industry
Parents urge other parents to call out
"obscene" brands in social media
Editor's note: Kelly Wallace
is CNN's digital correspondent and editor-at-large covering family, career and
life. She's a mom of two girls and lives in Manhattan. Read her other columns
and follow her reports at CNN Parents and on Twitter.
(CNN) -- When Fred Goodall
went shopping recently in Houston with his 12-year-old daughter, finding a
dress took a "long time" because most were too low cut, and some even
offered the bare midriff look.
"Wow, this is not
clothing for children, this is clothing for older adults," Goodall, a
freelance writer, Babble.com contributor and father of three, recalled thinking
at the time.
In interviews with moms and
dads from across the country, I heard his complaint echoed again and again: The
current fashion choices for tween and young teen girls are too sexy, too
skimpy, too short.
A mom of three who goes by
the name "Miss Lori" online says what she calls the "Shorty
McShort Shorts" in the stores are a problem.
"Because all the styles
are this way ... you run up against that wall as a parent, 'But Mom, everybody
else is wearing that, why are you so uptight?' " said the kids television
host and social media specialist.
Mike Adamick, a stay-at-home
dad in San Francisco, pointed to the swimsuit choices he and his 7-year-old
daughter encountered recently.
"There was a lot of
string and barely any material," the blogger and author of the book
"Dad's Book of Awesome Projects" said.
Study: Sexy dolls marketed
to kids
Abercrombie criticized for
selling push-up tops to little girls
Pageant kids: Too sexy, too
soon?
There are plenty of
examples, according to these moms and dads: Victoria's Secret recently coming
under fire for its younger "PINK" lingerie line, Halloween costume
choices for girls such as a "sexy vampire" and shorts that moms say
they wouldn't even wear when they were in their 20s. (To be fair, Victoria's
Secret says its PINK line is marketed to college-age women and not young girls.
But those candy-colored underwear are undeniably intriguing to the younger
set.)
Can I say right here how
worried I am about this looming issue for my own family, with girls ages 5 and
7?
Monica Vignier, an attorney
in Northern Virginia, shares my concerns. She has two sons and a daughter,
who's about to turn 4.
"I just think,
particularly with younger girls, there is this sort of over-sexualization ...
making little girls look like adults," Vignier said.
Parents should be
"monumentally concerned" about this, says Adamick, who referred to
research done by the American Psychological Association in 2010, which found
that sexualization of girls in clothing and media can have a negative impact on
a girl's self-esteem and can also increase the risk of depression and eating
disorders.
Opinion: Parents, don't
dress your girls like tramps
"So anybody that's
concerned about the emotional well-being of their daughters should be really
concerned about these types of clothes or messages for their girls," he
said.
"It's all about the
almighty dollar and our children are being pimped for our dollar," said
"Miss Lori," who's also a Babble.com contributor, referring to the
multibillion dollar fashion industry targeting tweens. "We have to say no
as adults, we have to say no."
Parents can do that, she and
the other moms and dads I interviewed said, by taking their outrage to social
media, calling out brands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
"As parents, we need to
let them know, 'Hey, the clothing you're selling is inappropriate,' " said
Goodall, who recently wrote a post on his blog, Mocha Dad, about how to find
age-appropriate clothing for tween girls.
Parents can refuse to buy
the "too sexy" options and buy alternatives that are more suited for
a tween, he added. They should also have regular conversations with their kids
about what's appropriate and what's not.
Avoiding sexy costumes for
kids
"Miss Lori" has
had some painfully honest talks with her 12-year-old, telling her that wearing
clothes that are too sexy can lead to unwanted and inappropriate responses from
men -- something grown women have to deal with too, even though it shouldn't be
that way.
"It's really allowed my
daughter to have a few 'aha' moments about why I am saying the things that I'm
saying," she said. "It makes a difference."
Making school uniforms your
own
Stephanie O'Dea, a mom of
three girls and blogger whose been part of the BlogHer publishing network since
2008, says she has a "constant dialogue" with her kids about what's
appropriate and what isn't.
Her kids' fashions also have
to pass a certain test, said the author of the book "Totally Together:
Short Cues to an Organized Life."
"So you put the shirt
on, both hands go up and if you don't see skin, then it's fine," she said,
describing how she makes sure shirts are not too skimpy. "And then for
shorts, you have to have your hands straight down and they have to be at your
fingertips or longer." (How clever is that!)
Adult-inspired lingerie
marketed for young girls
Fred Goodall has other good
advice for any concerned moms and dads: shop with your children and have them
try on their fashion choices.
"That's also a big
thing because actually sometimes the things I think are too skimpy, when she
tries it on, it's not," he said.
Mike Adamick says sometimes
the biggest stumbling block may actually be other parents.
"The hard part is
pushing back other parents who say, 'Oh come on, it's just one T-shirt,' "
he said. "I wish parents would wake up ... clothes that put little girls
out there as objects should be severely frowned upon."
"Miss Lori" says
our tweens and teens are already facing tough times, entering puberty at
earlier and earlier ages than we did growing up. Now they also have to face
sexualization of their clothing, television shows, and video games, she said.
Stay in touch!
Don't miss out on the
conversation we're having at CNN Living. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for
the latest stories and tell us what's influencing your life.
"I know that having all
that stimulation, having all that titillation affects these children who are
already battling hormones like 'Pacman' -- and it's not fair," she said.
"It's almost like I
want to do a marketing campaign on childhood, saving childhood so children have
the room to be able to grow and explore as they need to," she said.
Amen, I say. Amen.
Follow Kelly Wallace on
Twitter and like CNN Living on Facebook.
------------------
Boys won't stop calling girls tramps and treating
them like whores in 2014- why not? What happened in the NewAgeMedia - why is
the consumerism allowed 2 debase girls in the world of 2014 Canada?
Why is global media allowed 2 debase girls and
women so badly?
aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/11/AdolescentSexualActivity/NewMediaLitRev/index...
...
though about half of older girls play. ... adolescents are
strongly involved with new media, (2) ... How and why
minor teens are sending sexually suggestive nude ...
and..
...
as 14 / 15 years of age. Even the use of drugs ... of why
the media is allowed by the government ... even though the
media is always telling girls, ...
Professor
M. Gigi Durham discusses the corporate media's sexual
objectification of girls and ... new. Girls have ... media
targeted to teens and even to tweens, ...
...
an STD is diagnosed for every 4 sexually active teens. ... Common
Sense Media ("New Attempt to ... the ages of 2 and 17
believed media products in ...
...
safe space for tweens and teens to develop ... toward kids who
are tweens or older; it can be a little tricky to ... media
picks for your kid’s age.
-------------
God bless our Canada, our troops, our precious
children, our disabled, our homeless, aged, forgotten and having a hard
time.... for all of it... Canada is
still the best country on this old planet...and am proud 2 be born Canadian
with my family here since 1632.
The Beer Fridge - O
Canada | Molson Canadian- 6 days ago 987,686
----------------------
She nails it....
just nails it...
MacKay's words on
moms not an outrage
Licia Corbella,
Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday,
June 28, 2014
It was late on
Tuesday when I finally got around to watching a recording of CBC's The National.
One of my 17-year-old sons flopped down next to me on the couch to take in the
top of the news before continuing studying for his nextday exam.
The lead story of
the night? The contents of two innocuous celebratory emails by federal Justice
Minister Peter MacKay sent out to staff to celebrate Mother's Day on May 11 and
Father's Day on June 15.
My son - who gets
straight As - watched the three-minute-long segment about this non story and
said: "Is this the top of the news?" When I assured him it was, he
said: "Must be a slow news day. I think I'll just keep studying." And
with that, he left. Smart kid.
Here's how the story
unfolded: "Fresh offpublic criticism of comments he made about judges and
mothers and their children, Justice Minister Peter MacKay is facing new
accusations of sexism tonight after someone leaked a pair of emails," said
CBC host Peter Mansbridge. "MacKay sent them out on Mother's Day and
Father's Day, but they contain two very different messages."
MacKay's Mother's
Day message said that mothers have "two fulltime jobs: as hardworking
Department of Justice employees during business hours, and as dedicated moms
and caregivers around the clock," the email said.
"By the time
many of you have arrived at the office in the morning, you've already changed
diapers, packed lunches, run after school buses, dropped kids offat daycare,
taken care of an aging loved one and maybe even thought about dinner."
Most moms will
recognize themselves somewhere in the above sentence.
It was a
well-meaning message, but was not intended to be comprehensive of the entire
scope of a mother's role. That would take an encyclopedia-length tome. The
Mother's Day message, however, got compared to what was written for Father's
Day more than one month later. Who among us is relieved that our friends don't
compare the messages we write in their birthday cards? We might hold both in
equal esteem, but be more inspired in one card over another.
In any event, people
are now up in arms because MacKay didn't mention any "domestic
chores" for the fathers and ascribed more lofty contributions to the lives
of children by fathers than by mothers by writing that fathers are
"shaping the minds and futures of the next generation of leaders."
People are assuming
MacKay doesn't think mothers shape the minds of their children because he
focused on something different in the email. Sheesh. What a minefield gender
politics still is in this country.
Those who are
outraged make it sound like changing diapers, making lunches and running around
with our kids is a role us moms hate, that somehow it's demeaning work that is
beneath us.
But it's not. While
mothers (and fathers) change their child's diapers, they use the time to smile
and chat with them. When we pack their lunches, we do so with the main
ingredient being love - mindful that we are not only nourishing their bodies,
but making it possible for their minds to learn and grow. As we rush them to
bus stops or school, we use the time to talk about the day ahead, share a funny
anecdote, or sometimes discuss big ideas or give advice.
It's not menial.
Each task can be imbued with meaning and opportunity for imparting wisdom and
love into our children's lives. Why, I wonder, are the tasks of parenting and
yes, motherhood, still so derided as insignificant? Why are so many women
outraged when these important tasks they do are pointed out?
In future, MacKay
will likely remain mum on Mother's and Father's Day. Who could blame him? He
also claims his comments about why there are not more female judges in Canada
were taken out of context. But it's important to point out that on The Law
Society of Upper Canada website, under the heading "Retention of
Women," the society states: "Women have been entering private
practice in record numbers for over two decades. However, they have also been
leaving in great numbers, largely because private practice has not adapted to
their realities, such as childbirth and taking on a significant portion of
family responsibilities."
Sounds remarkably
similar to what MacKay is accused of saying.
Yes, we need more
women judges and must find out why more women lawyers don't apply for the job,
and then try to remove barriers. But let's stop pretending that being a judge
is more important than being a mom.
Licia Corbell a is a
columnist and the editorial page editor.
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BLOGGED:
Fm CANADA WITH LOVE- Animals, Children and Watermelon Wine... troops- OUR
NATION'S FLAG HISTORY http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/03/from-canada-with-love-animals-children.html
-----------
BLOGGED:
WELCOME
2 CANADA-Come2Canada Irish youth- EU Youth and work -study- we'd love 2 have u-
a land of immigrants- 36million people 2nd largest country on planet- come work
here or/and study- GET UR CANADA ON -Come on Asians, Europeans, Africans,
Middle East, Balkins- get ur education- get good jobs -Get ur Canada on..and a
bit o history of the Maritimes 2 -come on -we'd love 2 have ya/updates April
2014-
--------------
The Serenity Prayer-
am a friend of bill w. Peace of Christ and love brothers and Sisters. Been
there, done that... and somehow survived 2 tell the tale- God helps His
tattered and tarnished angels... and holds His arms out waitin on us 2 wander
the heavens in joy, and love and redemption and renewal's sweet sounds....
Peace of Christ everyone... and u that have no religion... Peace of Christ
anyway...
God grant me the
serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I
can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one
moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He
did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will
make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably
happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.
SUNDAY MORNING
COMING DOWN
-----------------
CANADA
MILITARY NEWS- Getcha Canada On folks- check out incredible map of WWI Canada
folks – BLOGS- God bless our Canada and the people who keep our freedoms free-
THX RUSSIA 4 UR HELP WITH WWI AND WWII- or we'd all be Germans and Austrians
with only white and pure- Catholics,
Jews, Coloured, Homos and people of colour- NEED NOT APPLY- we gets it... and older Canadians ...remember
the suffering and poverty that came with the victories...we used 2 ask Uncle
Harold- are u sure we won the war? Are u sure Canada won?
--------------
A
Little Good News- Anne Murray- 1980s
--------
TELUS
COMMERCIAL- CANADA STYLE- wept in pride
TELUS
surprises a customer in a big way #ActsOfCaring
-------------
STILL
MY VERY FAVOURITE... fill up with pride every time.
Bell
Commercial- student thanks his grandpa
WWII
--------------
BEST
BLOG: CLARA'S BIG RIDE- Mental Health Matters 2014
Students
and youth are stepping up Canada- Fighting Mental Illness in the light- let's
git r done - COME AND JOIN US CANADA- MENTAL ILLNESS LIVES IN ALL OUR HOMES
-----------------------------
BLOGGED:
ABORTION
AND CANADA- it's the law - Women equal Men in Canada...Women do NOT equal men
in USA and UNITED NATIONS- and folks Religion matters 2 global nations -
ensuring women and girls have decent prenatal care and children have health
care is PARAMONT 2 BASIC HEALTH OF GIRLS N WOMEN- that must matter first...in
2da's world - come on be realistic June 2014- Justin attending Muslim
Convention with ur stand on Abortion and men having no say in life choice 2
have a child? Seriously?
---------
BLOGGED:
CANADA
MILITARY NEWS: Gloria Steinem and Marlo Thomas called Canada's Women and girls
the bravest in the world back in our days of 60s, 70s and 80s- and we raised
our sons 2 treat women and children better- Please don't let us down- March 8-
International Women's Day is everyday- no more excuses students- no more
excuses- Loretta Saunders 4 u/Rita MacNeil Warrior Woman/BLOGS /DAILY UPDATES
--------------
GETCHA
CANADA ON- CHECK OUT THE INCREDIBLE MAP FOLKS- we will always thank Russia- our
Canada because without them- Germany and Austria would be ruling the world
instead of JUST THE EUROPEAN UNION ON THIS DAY.... 2 WORLD WARS... THAT COST CANADA
SO MUCH BLOODSHED AND POVERTY ...IN VICTORY....
Commemorating WWI- we will never
4get
Graphic:
Canada and the Great War
National
Post Staff | June 28, 2014 12:28 PM ET
On
June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a young Bosnian Serb, assassinated the heir to
the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Ferdinand. It set off a chain
of events that 37 days later would cause The Great Powers to start a four-year
bloody conflict called the First World War. It was a war in which Canada forged
itself as a nation, but at a terrible cost. Almost 420,000 men were sent
overseas — 60,000 died and 172,000 were wounded. And from the first to the
last, Canada found itself in the thick of the action.
Below
are the major battles fought by Canadians and the number of casualties suffered
by them.
CLICK
HERE OR ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
----------
Stan
Rogers- The Queen of The Grand Banks Schooners-
Bluenose II
----------
For
all the sheeeet we can't change.... and the little bit we can.... here's 2
animals, and kids... and watermelon wine....
...2
all those waiting.... we'll see ya soon.... and Rita MacNeil ... looking 4ward
2 some kitchen music with Johnny, Waylon, Keith Whitley and the boys.... and
Stomping Tom... behave yourself... just cause u can outdrink God don't mean u
got to...
...
and 2 all the soldiers, friends, tramps and thieves and families.... which
includes most of ya.... 2 day we are holding our soldiers of suicide real close
and hugging our wounded and loving our children a whole lot...
have a
great week.... have been blogging and writing since 2001 because of September
11, 2001- and am still here.... now our
brave hearts are almost home.... and we are thankful.... it's time 2 build up
our Canada and make her strong and educate our children and fix our own....
imho... have a great week...
... an
old song my Uncle - that old war dog used 2 love especially when he was in his
cups....
OLD
DOGS AND CHILDREN AND ... WATERMELON WINE
----------------
blogged:
Canada’s
most iconic – Lobster- Come Visit Nova Scotia – go fishing with r fishers-church
suppers- Canada’s Ocean Playground- recipies- Maritime Lobster Panel Report-
Canada’s Atlantic Nova Scotia has the most frigid waters 4 Lobster – why their
shells are perfect all year round- Largest lobsters ev-a photos/fisher videos…
-----------
KITCHEN PARTIES
Rita
MacNeil- She's Called Nova Scotia
----------
BLOGGED
CANADA
MILITARY NEWS: Jan 2014- Commemorating 100th Anniversary of WWI – The Great
War- Canada
Malvern
Collegiate Instit. 2007- Proud Canadian Soldier
-----------------
Canada's
History- our wars... our peace- our cultures- our Languages
------------
THE WOLVES- save the
environment- save our world 4 the future generations- IDLE NO MORE CANADA
---------------
We Are Canadian
Soldiers
Supporting Our
Canadian Troops !!!
Lyrics:
It's time to strap
out boots on,
This is a perfect day
to die,
Wipe the blood out
of our eyes.
In this life there's
no surrender,
There's nothing left
for us to do,
Find the strength to
see this through.
We are the ones who
will never be broken
With our final
breath, we'll fight to the death
We Are Soldiers! We
Are Soldiers!
Whoa, Who-oh-oh-oa,
Who-oh-ohhhhhhh-oh-oa
WE ARE SOLDIERS!
I stand here right
beside you,
Tonight we're
fighting for ours lives,
Let me hear your
battlecry. Your Battlecry!
We are the ones who
will never be broken
With our final
breath, we'll fight to the death
We Are Soldiers! We
Are Soldiers!
We are the ones who
will not go unspoken(unspoken)
No we will not
sleep, we are not sheep
We Are Soldiers! We
Are Soldiers! Yeah!
We stand shoulder to
shoulder
We stand shoulder to
shoulder
We stand shoulder to
shoulder
You can't erase us,
you'll just have to face us!
We stand shoulder to
shoulder!
We stand shoulder to
shoulder!
We stand shoulder to
shoulder!
You can't erase us,
you'll just have to face us!
We are the ones who
will never be broken
With our final
breath, we'll fight to the death
We Are Soldiers! We
Are Soldiers!
We are the ones who
will not go unspoken(unspoken)
No we will not
sleep, we are not sheep
We Are Soldiers! We
Are Soldiers! Yeah!
Whoa! Who-oh-oh-oa!
Who-oh-ohhhhhhh-oh-oa!
We Are Soldiers!
Whoa! Who-oh-oh-oa!
Who-oh-ohhhhhhh-oh-oa!
We Are Soldiers!
Whoa! Who-oh-oh-oa!
Who-oh-ohhhhhhh-oh-oa!
We Are Soldiers!
COMMENT FROM THE
INCREDIBLE CANADIAN WHO PUT THIS VIDEO TO2GETHER... WOW
Paul Carson
7 months ago
Was forwarded this
link and was surprised to see its the video that I put together a few months
back on your page. Im guessing you
downloaded and posted it onto your YouTube page. I dont care..... looks like 20 000 has seen
it and thats great. Have more on my YouTube page as well paramedicpaul have a peak feel free to share other Military
and Paramedic Videos that I did up.
comment:
Original video is
from here:
WE ARE SOLDIERS
Canadian Forces Version let's at least give the credit to the original uploader
as well
Lest we forget
comment:
As and Englishman I
have nothing but respect pride and gratitude for all you have done over the
years standing shoulder to shoulder with
us without even being asked . god bless you all , we owe you a debt that we could
never repay .
----------
The Serenity Prayer-
am a friend of bill w. Peace of Christ and love brothers and Sisters. Been
there, done that... and somehow survived 2 tell the tale- God helps His
tattered and tarnished angels... and holds His arms out waitin on us 2 wander
the heavens in joy, and love and redemption and renewal's sweet sounds....
Peace of Christ everyone... and u that have no religion... Peace of Christ
anyway...
God grant me the
serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I
can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one
moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He
did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will
make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably
happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.
SUNDAY MORNING
COMING DOWN
-------------
blogged:
CANADA MILITARY
NEWS: Nova Scotia Domestic Violence Shelters/BULLYCIDE-BULLY HELP
SITES/Homeless Shelters/UK /Australia/Canada- u matter- MARCH 8- INTERNATIONAL
WOMEN'S DAY.... One Billion rising- breaking the chains- no more excuses- Nova
Scotia honours Warrior Woman Rita MacNeil March 8th concert of remembrance
-------------------
blogged:
STOP A BULLY CANADA-
STATISTICS- r kids matter/ PAEDOPHILE HUNTING- good news world- Nova Scotia
Home 4 Coloured Children gets their inquiry/HUNTING PAEDOPHILE UPDATES-
---------
BLOGGED:
IDLE NO MORE CANADA-
MI'KMAQ MONTH IN NOVA SCOTIA- 11,000 years- We mourn Albino Moose murdered-
must learn Mi'kmaq nature's way pls./Some fall fun Annapolis Valley/Good
Books/Mi'kmaq traditions, history and videos
-------------
BLOGGED:
CANADA MILITARY
NEWS: Sep 12- Canada's stepping up - no more abuses or excuses of rape, abuse
of children and women/photos/videos/ wake up Canada- One Billion Rising/St.
Mary's steps up/UBC steps up/ Canada
------------
BLOGGED:
CANADA- 2 BILLION
RISING-breaking the chains/Classified is a hero 2 child victims-bullied-abused
WTF???/St Mary's Canada Students stepping up tackle rape, abuse of women,
kids/IDLE NO MORE CANADA FIRST PEOPLES- 10,000
years/SHANIA/CLASSIFIED/ABUSED/VIDEOS/M.A.D.D.
---------------
blogged:
IDLE NO MORE
CANADA-USA-MEXICO-AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND- Suicides- Residential (boarding)
School Assimilation- 1800s- 1900s- here's the facts- our First People Matter,
10,000 years
-----------------
BLOGGED:
IDLE NO MORE CANADA-
One Billion Rising- Breaking the Chains- Global abuse of Aboriginals First
Peoples- Canada/USA/Australia/New Zealand/Latin America - UNITED NATIONS SHAME-
all politicans have betrayed Canadians 10,000 year peoples
----------------------
blogged:
CANADA MILITARY
NEWS: Pg3Jul 22- PAEDOPHILE HUNTING SUCCESS/Mackay new Minister of Justice
4Canada/Human Trafficking -26 Million women and kids years -united nations
looks the other way- the nightmare 4 kids in 2013- SHAME ON US ALL- one billion
rising- one billion rising
------------
Nature Trust aims to
protect 100 islands off Nova Scotia coast
Natash-Pace By Natasha Pace Reporter
HALIFAX - The Nova
Scotia Nature Trust is working on a once-in-a-lifetime conservation opportunity
to protect more than 100 ecologically rich islands off the province’s Eastern
Shore known as the “Bay of Islands”.
It has already
raised $4 million toward its goal, but still needs at least $3 million more.
An anonymous donor,
whose $1.5-million dollar gift is part of the funds already raised, has
promised to match any further fundraising toward the goal dollar for dollar —
that means the Nature Trust still needs another $1.5 million from the public to
preserve the natural wonder.
“Wilderness like
this, on this scale is really rare globally,” said Bonnie Sutherland, the
organization’s executive director. “There are few places left where we could
protect something this significant and pristine.”
The islands support
diverse wildlife and feature everything from sandy beaches to lagoons.
“Nova Scotia’s coast
is made up of a whole range of different habitat types,” said Peter Green, also
with the organization. “You’ve got everything from wetlands, bogs, forest,
beaches, rocky headlands…you find everything out here.”
He said in addition
to the varied environment, there is also plenty of wildlife.
“We’ve done a lot of
bird surveys out here and we’ve come across about 120 species of sea-birds and
songbirds using these islands,” he said.
Many of the
archipelago’s islands have gone undisturbed for more than 10,000 years, which
makes the area an ideal spot for scientists.
“If you want to
study long term ecological change, you need systems that aren’t going to be
interfered with by somebody chopping down the trees or developing the island,”
said Martin Willison, a retired professor of environmental studies at Dalhousie
University.
“The assurance that
these islands will not in the future be changed makes them, in the scientific
view, very valuable.”
The Bay of Islands
coastal wilderness area spans 7,000 acres and is comprised of both provincial
and private lands.
Local land owners
are working closely with the Nature Trust.
“They’ve always used
them, they’ve always cherished them and I think to be able to go out to them. I
think a lot of people didn’t want to see them privatize and developed and have
no trespassin signs put up” says Green.
Brian Murphy, who
has lived in the area his entire life and makes a living from taking tourists
to an island campground, said he sees the project as a boon for the region.
“I think this is
going to be a great thing for the residents [and] for tourism,” he said.
Sutherland said it’s
important because it will be “a place where people can experience nature”.
----------------
IEC Rejects Abdullah's
Demands
Sunday, 29 June 2014 18:20
Last Updated on Sunday, 29 June 2014 18:50 Written by Sayed Tareq Majidi
The Independent Election
Commission (IEC) has rejected all 13 demands of presidential candidate Abdullah
Abdullah through a written letter on Saturday evening.
Dr. Abdullah's electoral
campaign team, in reaction, has ended all relations with the election
commissions. His team adds that through supporting documents and evidence that
was presented to the IEC, they declared that there will be no re-election in
the areas where "widespread" fraud occurred.
"We received a letter
from the IEC last night, in which they rejected all of our demands and gave a negative
response," head of Dr. Abdullah's campaign team, Nasrullah Barayalai
Arsalai, said. "In response, from now on, we will not accept the actions
of the IEC and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), and their work will
not be legitimate for us."
Dr. Abdullah's campaign team
asserted that the election commissions are a part of the frauds and holds
President Hamid Karzai responsible for the response the team received.
"From today onward,
none of their actions will be acceptable to us, and any consequences of this
issue will be the responsibility of the IEC as well as President Hamid
Karzai," Arsalai exclaimed.
Arsalai adds that upon
request of the United Nations (UN) Dr. Abdullah entered negotiations with the
IEC in hopes that their demands will be met. But in reaction to the rejection,
Dr. Abdullah's team made clear that they will not accept the decisions of the
election commission.
------------
Russia
demands investigation into claims chemical weapons were used in Ukraine amid
frantic efforts to secure fresh ceasefire/news/article-2675422/Russia-demands-investigation-claims-chemical-weapons-used-Ukraine-amid-frantic-efforts-secure-fresh-ceasefire.html
The
accusations follows claims of 'phosphorous fire bombs' being dropped on
villages in southeastern Ukraine earlier this month
--------------
Take down flags or else — Could French World Cup ban
happen here?
By
Staff Global News
Could
it happen here?
Such
a ban isn’t likely to ever happen in a Canadian city, according to experts.
“I
think it’s the political make-up of the country. We’re inherently melting
pot-oriented,” says Cheri Bradish, an associate sports marketing professor at
the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.
“It
is such a wonderful thing we’re in a country where people are first- and
second-generation that can express their stories,” she said, something the
World Cup allows them to do.
“It’s
representing your country and instills great pride and it’s a means to
demonstrate that,” Bradish said.
-------------
Afghan election impasse
revives suspicions about Karzai's role
-
The everyday people of
Afghanistan love Dr. Abdullah Abdullah who stayed on Afghan soil and did not
run and hike in the USA like his opponent.... KARZAI, OBAMA AND UN NEED 2 BE
ASHAMED.... Dr. Abdullah is the rightful winner of the Afghanistan Presidential
election- and Afghan love this loyal good man... youth, kids, women and elders
adore him... they will NOT give up until Dr. Abdullah- the most honest man in
Afghanistan becomes the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.... he
won the first round by over 45%... come on... the world knows he's won...
Afghans march in support of
presidential candidate facing fraud allegations
The source added that in the
midst of a power transition in war-torn Afghanistan, Karzai is also being
accused of engineering a massive vote fraud. “However, just to catch media
attention, the Afghan president is busy levelling baseless accusations against
Pakistan over border violations,” the source said, adding that Karzai wanted to
visit Islamabad in order to gain political mileage.
see... we told u... even
PAKISTAN IS STEPPING AWAY FROM KARZAI AND HIS MESS.... PAKISTAN KNOWS THAT DR.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH IS THE ACTUAL VICTOR
Pakistan snubs Karzai,
declines visit offer
from New Zealand- Afghan Military and cops make ISAF Nato
Troops so damm proud
29 Jun 2014 - 3:57am
Afghan army claims victory
against Taliban
Afghan security forces have
fought against the Taliban, hindering their plans to gain territory and capture
districts, an interior ministry spokesman says
-------------------
see... we told u... even
PAKISTAN IS STEPPING AWAY FROM KARZAI AND HIS MESS.... PAKISTAN KNOWS THAT DR.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH IS THE ACTUAL VICTOR.... and Pakistan respect the fact that
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah stayed in Afghanistan during the war years side by side
with everyday Afghans... whilst his opponent slithered off 2 USA and even took
American citizenship- UN /OBama/Karazi-
shame on the lot of u...
The source added that in the
midst of a power transition in war-torn Afghanistan, Karzai is also being accused
of engineering a massive vote fraud. “However, just to catch media attention,
the Afghan president is busy levelling baseless accusations against Pakistan
over border violations,” the source said, adding that Karzai wanted to visit
Islamabad in order to gain political mileage.
Pakistan snubs Karzai,
declines visit offer
God bless our Negro-
Black Soldiers who fought and fight 4 our Canada- u honour us... and we love u
very much...
War of 1812:
Contribution of Black Soldiers in the Fight for Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCH4cbORsZo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCH4cbORsZo
PROUD OF CANADA- AND CANADIANS... we refuse 2 let any
political party hijack our troops and determined our troops mental health
issues and well being and retraining and any needs are done... PERIOD. Canada's election in 2015 will mark all the
scorecards- and all political parties in Canada FAIL.... BITCHING AND DOING
NOTHING - useless /IGNORING ur Canada public- revenge coming/ our troops
matter period. This report should be
good. Please support #ClarasBigRide she's doing this 4 all Canadians ... and we
love her 4 it.
JUNE 28 2014 HALIFAX
CHRONICLE HERALD- CANADA MILITARY- COMMONS COMMITTEE
Canada one of finest in
combat injuries in the field of Nato- but needs serious strides in Mental
Health Issues.
Military health changes sought
THE CANADIAN PRESS
O T TAWA — The Canadian
Forces have made great strides in dealing with combat injuries, but must do
more to help soldiers and their families deal with mental health issu es, a
Commons committee reported Friday.
The all-par ty defence
committee said the military shou ld conduct rigorous mental health screening
of recruits and train soldiers to assess their own mental health .
It also said more should be
done to educate military families about mental health issues before soldiers deploy,
and should get more training about so-called operational stress injuries before
they are sent into the field.
“Although resiliency and
readiness training may not prevent every member from developing an OSI, the
committee believes the programs are of benefit particularly in de-stigmatizing
the subject o f mental health and encouraging members needing treatment to
self-identify and seek treatment early," the report said.
Military medicine deals well
with combat injuries, witness es told the committee. In Afghanistan , a
wounded s oldier who still had vital signs on arrival at the mu ltinational
hospital in Kandahar had a 97 per cent chance of survival.
Hans Jung, a former surgeon general
to the Canadian Forces, told the committee it’s the highest survival rate in
the history of warfare.
However, more emphasis must
b e placed on mental health and to help ex-soldiers make the shift to civilian
life, said the report, which includes 32 recommendations.
--------------
AFGHANISTAN- this book must
have- excerpt- Dauphin never discovered what had happened until he returned
home and a colleague sent him a video of the “lapidation” of the woman. For
whatever reason, such as showing her face to a non-related male or adultery
(even if it were rape), the woman had been stoned. But first “a bunch of stupid
yahoos venting some frustration” gathered round her and kicked her in the head,
filming the scene with their cellphones. And the stone in this case was a
cement block, dropped on her head from about four feet above it. Once he
received the video, it took Dauphin “about three days to get up enough courage
to watch” it.
MD’s account riveting read
JOHN BOILEAU
Last Updated June 27, 2014 -
7:00pm
John Boileau is the author
of Half-Hearted Enemies: Nova Scotia, New England and the War of 1812.
Anyone who watched the
Afghanistan-based TV series Combat Hospital, which aired on Global between June
and September 2011, will be familiar with the subject matter of Combat Doctor.
In fact, the role of the hospital’s commanding officer, Col. Xavier Marks
(played by Elias Koteas), was based on the author of this book, Maj. Marc
Dauphin.
Dauphin, an experienced ER
physician and member of the army reserves, was called up at age 54 to be the
last Canadian commanding officer of the Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit in
Kandahar from April to October 2009, the last of seven “rotos, ” or rotations,
for which Canada was responsible.
Under his direction, the
hospital’s ER team attained and maintained an astonishing survival rate of 97
per cent — a record unequalled in any hospital anywhere at any time — whether
in a war zone or not. On many occasions, the Canadian hospital was the world’s
busiest trauma centre.
And it was largely Canadians
who achieved this amazing statistic, although medical professionals from
several other nations were also part of the team. Yet, as Dauphin notes, on a
day-to-day basis, “there were no nationalities, just a bunch of professionals
from many different countries, pulling together for the good of our brothers-
and sisters-in-arms.”
Many patients received at
the Kandahar hospital would have died in previous wars. Medical team members
liked to believe that if a soldier were alive when he made it to the hospital,
then he would survive. The same was not always true for the many Afghan
civilians the hospital treated, due to a lack of immediate first aid and the
frequent delay between injury and treatment.
One of the best sections is
Chapter 6, which describes a “typical” busy day at the hospital, with several
injured soldiers and civilians arriving with a wide range of injuries requiring
immediate and sometimes novel treatment. As patients come and go, Dauphin’s
role is not unlike that of an orchestra conductor, but a conductor who is
prepared to step in at any moment and play an instrument when needed.
He is not afraid to let his
emotions and humanity show throughout the book, whether treating stoic soldiers
or terrified children, many of them with the most horrific injuries possible.
And Dauphin is unwavering in his damning opinion of the Taliban who inflict
these injuries, especially on their fellow citizens.
One particularly disturbing
case he describes involved an unconscious Afghan woman who was transferred from
a civilian hospital for a CT scan after having been “hit by rock on head” by
her 12-year old son — or so the story went. The scan revealed that not one of
the bones in her head or face were intact. She had been hit repeatedly on her
head from all directions and was beyond all hope of recovery.
Dauphin never discovered
what had happened until he returned home and a colleague sent him a video of
the “lapidation” of the woman. For whatever reason, such as showing her face to
a non-related male or adultery (even if it were rape), the woman had been
stoned. But first “a bunch of stupid yahoos venting some frustration” gathered
round her and kicked her in the head, filming the scene with their cellphones.
And the stone in this case was a cement block, dropped on her head from about
four feet above it. Once he received the video, it took Dauphin “about three
days to get up enough courage to watch” it.
His experiences in Kandahar
caused him to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder after his return to
Canada and his description of its impact on him is riveting. Although he still
has PTSD, he is working through it with professional help.
Combat Doctor Life- Marc
Dauphin Afghanistan -Canadian Author
Combat Doctor is a well-told
tale of another side of the long war in Afghanistan, a side little known to
most Canadians, but one in which Canadians played a prominent and leading part.
--------------------
Prime
Minister Robert Borden led Canada through World War I, eventually committing
500,000 troops to the war effort. Robert Borden formed a Union Government of
Liberals and Conservatives to implement conscription, but the conscription
issue split the country bitterly - with the English supporting sending troops
to help Britain and the French adamantly opposed.
Prime
Minister Sir Robert Borden
Borden
Increased Canada's Independence From Britain
By
Susan Munroe
Sir
Robert Borden, Prime Minister of Canada
Robert
Borden also led in achieving Dominion status for Canada and was instrumental in
the transition from the British Empire to the British Commonwealth of Nations.
At the end of World War I, Canada ratified the Treaty of Versailles and joined
the League of Nations as an independent nation.
Prime
Minister of Canada
1911-20
Highlights
as Prime Minister
Emergency
War Measures Act of 1914
Wartime
Business Profits Tax of 1917 and the "temporary" Income Tax, the
first direct taxation by the Canadian federal government
Veterans
benefits
Nationalization
of bankrupt railways
Introduction
of a professional public service
Birth
June
26, 1854 in Grand Pré, Nova Scotia
Death
June
10, 1937 in Ottawa, Ontario
Professional
Career
Teacher
1868-74
Lawyer
in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Chancellor,
Queen's University 1924-30
President,
Crown Life Insurance 1928
President,
Barclay's Bank Canada 1929
President,
Canadian Historical Association 1930
Political
Affiliation
Conservative
Unionist
1917-20
Ridings
(Electoral Districts)
Halifax
1896-1904, 1908-17
Carleton
1905-08
King's
County 1917-20
Political
Career
Robert
Borden was first elected to the House of Commons in 1896.
He was
elected Leader of the Conservative Party in 1901, and was Leader of the
Opposition from 1901 to 1911.
Robert
Borden led the Conservatives to victory in the 1911 general election on a platform
against reciprocity or free trade with the United States, defeating Sir Wilfrid
Laurier and the Liberals.
Robert
Borden was sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada in 1911.
He
also served as President of the Privy Council from 1911 to 1917, and as Secretary
of State for External Affairs from 1912 to 1920.
In
order to implement conscription, Robert Borden formed a coalition Union
government with many Liberals. The Union government won the 1917 election, but
had only three Quebec members.
Robert
Borden retired as Prime Minister of Canada in 1920. Arthur Meighen became the
next Prime Minister of Canada.
AND.... BRITISH PRIME
MINISTER WWI
Reproduced
below is the text of the speech given to the British Parliament by Prime
Minister Herbert Asquith. PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN WWI
Given
on 6 August 1914 - two days after Britain entered the war against Germany in
defence of Belgium - Asquith recounted the background to the outbreak of
general war in Europe in July/August 1914, placing great emphasis on the
efforts of the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, to secure continued
peace in the face of German aggression.
Asquith
finished his speech by stating that Britain would throw her entire Empire's
resources into the struggle against Germany in order to ensure victory.
British
Prime Minister Herbert Asquith's Address to Parliament, 6 August 1914
With
the utmost reluctance and with infinite regret, His Majesty's Government have
been compelled to put this country in a state of war with what for many years
and indeed generations past has been a friendly Power.
The
Papers which have since been presented to Parliament will, I think, show how
strenuous, how unremitting, how persistent, even when the last glimmer of hope
seemed to have faded away, were the efforts of my right hon. Friend the Foreign
Secretary (note: Sir Edward Grey) to secure for Europe an honourable and a lasting
peace.
Every
one knows in the great crisis which occurred last year in the East of Europe,
it was largely, if not mainly, by the acknowledgment of all Europe, due to the
steps taken by my right hon. Friend that the area of the conflict was limited,
and that so far as the great Powers are concerned, peace was maintained.
If his
efforts upon this occasion have, unhappily, been less successful, I am certain
that this House and the country - and I will add posterity and history - will
accord to him what is, after all, the best tribute that can be paid to any
statesman: that, never derogating for an instant or by an inch from the honour
and interests of his own country, he has striven, as few men have striven, to
maintain and preserve the greatest interest of all countries - universal peace.
The
Papers, which are now in the hands of hon. Members, show something more than
that.
They
show what were the terms which were offered to us in exchange for our
neutrality. I trust that not only the
Members of this House, but all our fellow-subjects everywhere will read the
communications - will read, learn and mark the communications which passed only
a week ago to-day between Berlin and London in this matter.
The
terms by which it was sought to buy our neutrality are contained in the
communication made by the German Chancellor to Sir Edward Goschen on the 29th
July. I think I must refer to them for a
moment. After alluding to the state of
things as between Austria and Russia, Sir Edward Goschen goes on:
"He
[the German Chancellor] then proceeded to make the following strong bid for
British neutrality. He said that it was
clear, so far as he was able to judge the main principle which governed British
policy, that Great Britain would never stand by and allow France to be crushed
in any conflict there might be.
That,
however, was not the object at which Germany aimed. Provided that neutrality of Great Britain
were certain, every assurance would be given to the British Government that the
Imperial Government"
Let
the Committee observe these words:
"aimed
at no territorial acquisition at the expense of France should they prove
victorious in any war that might ensue."
Sir
Edward Goschen proceeded to put a very pertinent question:- "I questioned
His Excellency about the French colonies".
What
are the French colonies? They mean every
part of the dominions and possessions of France outside the geographical area
of Europe - "and he said that he was unable to give a similar undertaking
in that respect."
Let me
cone to what, in my mind, personally has always been the crucial and almost the
governing consideration, namely, the position of the small States:
"As
regards Holland, however, His Excellency said that so long as Germany's
adversaries respected the integrity and neutrality of the Netherlands, Germany
was ready to give His Majesty's Government an assurance that she would do
likewise."
Then
we come to Belgium:-
"It
depended upon the action of France what operations Germany might he forced to
enter upon in Belgium, but, when the war was over, Belgian integrity would be
respected if she had not sided against Germany."
Let
the Committee observe the distinction between those two cases. In regard to Holland it was not only
independence and integrity, but also neutrality; but in regard to Belgium,
there was no mention of neutrality at all, nothing but an assurance that after
the war came to an end the integrity of Belgium would be respected.
Then
His Excellency added: "Ever since he had been Chancellor the object of his
policy had been to bring about an understanding with England. He trusted that
these assurances" - the assurances I have read out to the House -
"might form the basis of that understanding which he so much
desired."
What
does that amount to? Let me just ask the
Committee. I do so, not with the object
of inflaming passion, certainly not with the object of exciting feeling against
Germany, but I do so to vindicate and make clear the position of the British
Government in this matter.
What did
that proposal amount to? In the first
place, it meant this: That behind the back of France - they were not made a
party to these communications - we should have given, if we had assented to
that, a free license to Germany to annex, in the event of a successful war, the
whole of the extra European dominions and possessions of France.
What
did it mean as regards Belgium? When she
addressed, as she has addressed in these last few days, her moving appeal to us
to fulfil our solemn guarantee of her neutrality, what reply should we have
given? What reply should we have given
to that Belgian appeal?
We
should have been obliged to say that, without her knowledge, we had bartered
away to the Power threatening her our obligation to keep our plighted word.
The
House has read, and the country has read, of course, in the last few hours, the
most pathetic appeal addressed by the King of Belgium, and I do not envy the
man who can read that appeal with an unmoved heart. Belgians are fighting and losing their lives. What would have been the position of Great
Britain to-day, in the face of that spectacle, if we had assented to this
infamous proposal?
Yes,
and what are we to get in return for the betrayal of our friends and the
dishonour of our obligations? What are
we to get in return? A promise - nothing
more; a promise as to what Germany would do in certain eventualities; a
promise, be it observed - I am sorry to have to say it, but it must be put upon
record - given by a Power which was at that very moment announcing its
intention to violate its own treaty and inviting us to do the same.
I can
only say, if we had dallied or temporized, we, as a Government, should have
covered ourselves with dishonour, and we should have betrayed the interests of
this country, of which we are trustees.
I am
glad, and I think the country will be glad, to turn to the reply which my right
hon. Friend made, and of which I will read to the Committee two of the more
salient passages. This document, No. 101
of the Papers, puts on record a week ago the attitude of the British
Government, and, as I believe, of the British people.
My
right hon. Friend says:
"His
Majesty's Government cannot for a moment entertain the Chancellor's proposal
that they should bind themselves to neutrality on such terms. What he asks us in effect is to engage to
stand by while French Colonies are taken if France is beaten, so long as
Germany does not take French territory as distinct from the Colonies. From the material point of view -"
My
right lion. Friend, as he always does, used very temperate language:
"-
Such a proposal is unacceptable, for France, without further territory in
Europe being taken from her, could be so crushed as to lose her position as a
Great Power, and become subordinate to German policy."
That
is the material aspect. But he
proceeded:-
"Altogether,
apart from that, it would be a disgrace for us to make this bargain with
Germany at the expense of France, a disgrace from which the good name of this
country would never recover. The
Chancellor also in effect asks us to bargain away whatever obligation or
interest we have as regards the neutrality of Belgium. We could not entertain that bargain
either."
He
then says:- "We must preserve our full freedom to act, as circumstances
may seem to us to require."
And he
added, I think in sentences which the Committee must appreciate:-
"You
should... add most earnestly that the one way of maintaining the good relations
between England and Germany is that they should continue to work together to
preserve the peace of Europe... For that object this Government will work in
that way with all sincerity and goodwill.
"If
the peace of Europe can be preserved and the present crisis safely passed, my
own endeavour will be to promote some arrangement to which Germany could be a
party, by which she could be assured that no aggressive or hostile policy would
be pursued against her or her allies by France, Russia, and ourselves, jointly
or separately.
"I
have desired this and worked for it" - the statement was never more true -
"as far as I could, through the last Balkan crisis, and Germany having a
corresponding object, our relations sensibly improved.
"The
idea has hitherto been too Utopian to form the subject of definite proposals,
but if this present crisis, so much more acute than any that Europe has gone
through for generations, be safely passed, I am hopeful that the relief and
reaction which will follow may make possible some more definite rapprochement
between the Powers than has been possible hitherto."
That
document, in my opinion, states clearly, in temperate and convincing language,
the attitude of this Government.
Can
any one who reads it fail to appreciate the tone of obvious sincerity and
earnestness which underlies it; can any one honestly doubt that the Government
of this country in spite of great provocation - and I regard the proposals made
to us as proposals which we might have thrown aside without consideration and
almost without answer can any one doubt that in spite of great provocation the
right hon. Gentleman, who had already earned the title and no one ever more
deserved it - of "Peace Maker of Europe," persisted to the very last
moment of the last hour in that beneficent but unhappily frustrated purpose?
I am
entitled to say, and I do so on behalf of this country - I speak not for a
party, I speak for the country as a whole - that we made every effort any
Government could possibly make for peace.
But
this war has been forced upon us. What
is it we are fighting for? Every one
knows, and no one knows better than the Government, the terrible, incalculable
suffering, economic, social, personal and political, which war, and especially
a war between the Great Powers of the world, must entail.
There
is no man amongst us sitting upon this bench in these trying days - more trying
perhaps than any body of statesmen for a hundred years have had to pass through
- there is not a man amongst us who has not, during the whole of that time, had
clearly before his vision the almost unequalled suffering which war, even in a
just cause, must bring about, not only to the people who are for the moment
living in this country and in the other countries of the world, but to
posterity and to the whole prospects of European civilization.
Every
step we took we took with that vision before our eyes, and with a sense of
responsibility which it is impossible to describe.
Unhappily,
if in spite of all our efforts to keep the peace, and with that full and
overpowering consciousness of the result, if the issue be decided in favour of
war, we have, nevertheless, thought it to be the duty as well as the interest
of this country to go to war, the House may be well assured it was because we
believe, and I am certain the country will believe, that we are unsheathing our
sword in a just cause.
If I
am asked what we are fighting for I reply in two sentences: In the first place,
to fulfil a solemn international obligation, an obligation which, if it had
been entered into between private persons in the ordinary concerns of life,
would have been regarded as an obligation not only of law but of honour, which
no self-respecting man could possibly have repudiated.
I say,
secondly, we are fighting to vindicate the principle which, in these days when
force, material force, sometimes seems to be the dominant influence and factor
in the development of mankind, we are fighting to vindicate the principle that
small nationalities are not to be crushed, in defiance of international good
faith, by the arbitrary will of a strong and overmastering Power.
I do
not believe any nation ever entered into a great controversy - and this is one
of the greatest history will ever know - with a clearer conscience and a
stronger conviction that it is fighting, not for aggression, not for the
maintenance even of its own selfish interest, but that it is fighting in
defence of principles the maintenance of which is vital to the civilization of
the world.
With a
full conviction, not only of the wisdom and justice, but of the obligations
which lay upon us to challenge this great issue, we are entering into the
struggle. Let us now make sure that all
the resources, not only of this United Kingdom, but of the vast Empire of which
it is the centre, shall be thrown into the scale.
Source:
Source Records of the Great War, Vol. I, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni
1923
from the days of Ireland and
Lebanon...Canada's Anne Murray's
historic A LITTLE GOOD NEWS- let's get our Canada on... let's get humanity back
in our Canada and USA... we matter
A Little Good News -1983
Afghan Presidential
Candidate Claims Victory amid Fraud Allegations
In Afghanistan,
Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister and World Bank official, says he has
won the presidential election. The claim comes despite allegations by his
opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, that Ghani colluded with Afghan officials to steal
the vote. Some 10,000 Abdullah supporters marched against the alleged fraud in
Kabul today.
Senior Taliban
leaders among 260 killed in Sangin clashes
By Ghanizada - Fri
Jun 27 2014, 3:02 pm
At least 260 Taliban
militants including senior commanders and shadow district governor were killed
during clashes in Helmand province.
Interior ministry
spokesman, Sediqi Sediq, said Friday that the Sangin district was cleared of
Taliban militants following the clearing operation.
Sediqi further added
that the Taliban militants suffered heavy casualties during the operations.
He said around 260
Taliban militants including Taliban’s shadow district governor of Sangin were
killed during the clearing operation.
Sediqi also added
that the Helmand battle has proved that the Taliban militants can nothold
ground in Afghanistan.
Around 800 Taliban
militants launched attack in Sangin district around seven days ago which
resulted into spread of clashes into three other districts including Kajaki,
Mosa Qala and Nawzad.
Dozens of civilians
and Afghan security forces were also killed during the clashes and several
others were injured.
------------
Kabul citizens plant
trees to make city green
Photo Gallery8
PhotosBy Khushnood Nabizada - Tue Apr 10 2012, 9:16 pm
Kabul, a city with a
population of less than a million had been one of the beautiful and civilized
cities during 1950 and 1960s. It was green, flourishing and owner of absolute
and developed infrastructural resources.
This beautiful city
lost everything including its greenish and flourishing plants during several
decades of wars. The trees were cut off and illegally exported to neighboring
countries for business purposes.
After the fall of
Taliban regime, the country took a fresh breath. The new government with the
support of civil society and international organizations initiated rebuilding
of the ruined Kabul and other cities.
Ministry of
Agriculture and Kabul Municipality has put mutual efforts to make the city
green, the way it was back in old times. Tree planting programs are held every
year where members of civil society and humanitarian organizations are
requested to take part voluntary.
Kabul is better now;
it is the result of continuous works in the past 10 years. Plants and trees can
be seen around the highways and streets.
The planting program
is running this year as well by the Ministry of Agriculture and Kabul
Municipality. Many streets and lanes including Badambagh (Almond Orchard) have
been covered by this program this year.
Badambagh (Almond
Orchard) is a large and wide location in North West of Kabul city. It contains
many agricultural research farms which are mainly used for agricultural
exhibitions and farmer festival (Jashn-e-Dehqan) each year.
Afghans lend a hand
with Ministry of Agriculture in planting trees in the city. Newly planted trees
can be seen in front of each residential house this year.
Farkhunda Zahra
Naderi, Afghan Parliamentarian and executive director for HNKB Cultural Center
who had participated in a planting program with 60 cultural members in
Badambagh said, “3 decades of wars have had a highly negative effects on
Afghans minds; they need a green environment to recover and therefore we need
to cooperate with government to keep this area green and the citizens must take
responsibility of taking care of the plants, she said.”
She further added
that if Badambagh is covered by planting programs professionally, it will be a
convenient place for the citizens to come and enjoy the green environment.
Officials at
Ministry of Agriculture said, “Miss Naderi and her 60 cultural members have
planted over 2,500 trees today which have been a great help and cooperation to
this program.”
Continuous
cooperation of public members and individuals with government organizations can
extremely assist in changing the face of the city.
--------------------
Awesome- her daddy was in
the military-
Amy Adams Gives Up Her First
Class Flight Seat To Soldier
---------------
COMMENT: Have been a huge supporter of Canada's troops
all my life as a WWII baby it was ingrained in2 our souls like the Bible,
family, community, education and respect- Peter Mackay was voted the most
respected and trusted Nato leader in Afghanistan of all the countries...
because he backed our troops in parliament when u could not find a politician
who cared..... and women.... his ingrained respect of women is part of what
makes him real and true. As an old union
shop steward 4 over 26 years, human rights and community volunteer at the
grassroots... we paid dearly 4 women's rights and equality that Canada brags
about.... and we paid a dear price. And
us old warrior tarnished and tattered angels can sniff a pretender a mile
away. ON THIS DAY LIKE PAST YEARS OF
AFGHANISTAN... u can take it 2 the bank- Peter Mackay would actually give his
life 2 save a woman and/or child.... and
has brought more awareness 2 the ugly that a billion of us fight globally-
PAEDOPHILE HUNTING/CHILD ABUSE/WOMEN ABUSE AND SEX TRAFFICKING- face it-
prostitution is raw abuse of women and we all know it. imho..... thank u Peter MacKay u honour
Canada, u honour women- and u remind us all - that our troops fight and die 4
basic human dignity and rights of women and children in hard parts of the world
that most don't give a sheeet about. thank u.... God bless u Peter MacKay and
proud of the woman proud 2 be your wife and mother of your children and great
sparkle - for women's rights in her own way.
Happy Canada Day... God bless our troops.. thank u 4 our freedoms. Peace
of Christ.
Afshin-Jam defends
husband Peter MacKay over comments about female judges
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Last Updated June
27, 2014 - 10:06am
--------------
Minister of National
Defence at Canada Army Run
-----------------
comment:
This is truly awesome
and so heartfelt.... Canada- we are so lucky... young, fresh, beautiful, savvy,
smart new country called Canada. Peace Canadian brother Khan- thanks 4 the
beautiful tribute 2 our Canada. Our nation has black on black hate in our
precious cities with guns they should not have instead of books, music,
education art and literature and culture- religion on religion- child abuse-
robberies etc... and many stains that come with democracy... BUT... on this day
in our Canada- women equal men... Canadian children matter... our Canadian
Olympian Clara Hughes is riding across our Canada 2 bring mental health 2 the
forefront.... and the humanity of Canada is far more righteous and good and
heartwarming ... than the few cruelties that affect us all.... Moncton still
leaves Canada's heart broken... and our troops raise us up... God bless u all
on Canada Day... let's get our Canada on and wear our Canada, our cultures and
all that Canada is proudly darlings.... how do u like the photos brother
Khan... aren't they perfectly Canadian... hugs from old momma Nova in Nova
Scotia Canada baby!
How very beautiful-
thank u Canadian brother.... Peace - this is truly beautiful 2 share. God bless
our Canada
Allah’s blessings in
the holy month
Last updated:
Thursday, June 26, 2014 3:24 PM
Mohammed Azhar Ali
Khan
In our troubled
world horrifying tales of brutality and of the killing of innocent people in
Muslim and non-Muslim countries shock us every day. Random killings are common
even in the United States. In serene Canada, they are rarer. But they do occur
and several took place recently, reminding Canadians that they are not immune
from evil and barbarism.
As they await the
blessed month of Ramadan, Canadian Muslims will thank Allah for His many
blessings, among them that they are lucky to live in a country that, despite
its imperfections, offers them freedom of religion, peace, security, dignity,
basic rights, rule of law, economic amenities - and hope. Here’s a sample of
what’s happening.
Toronto’s Muslims
just presented a check for one million dollars to the Brampton Civic Hospital
through Imam Hamid Slimi of Sayeda Khadija Center and president, Faith of Life
Network.
In Ottawa, the South
Nepean Muslim Community is struggling to complete its mosque. So a church
offered its hall to Muslims for taraweeh (special Ramadan night prayers)
throughout the holy month.
Reverend Maggie
Melansom of the Barrhaven United Church credited Imam Zijad Delic for the
excellent relations between her church and Muslims. “We’re all people of faith
and it’s when we come together that great things happen,” she declared.
Imam Samy Metwally
of the Ottawa Muslim Association (OMA) warned Muslims not to disturb neighbors,
be considerate, not block driveways by careless parking and not talk noisily
following taraweeh prayers.
The Muslim
Coordinating Council of the National Capital Region seeks to uplift the Muslim
community and make it a respected component of the Canadian family. So it
arranged an information session on the provincial election to enable Muslims to
hear the candidates of different parties.
More non-Muslims
attended than Muslims. Only one imam, Imam Metwally of OMA, and only one
president of a Muslim organization, Dr. Mohammed Mustafa of Darussunah Islamic
Center, turned up. All candidates thanked MCC for arranging an excellent
session to help citizens understand provincial issues.
MCC is arranging a
family picnic on July 1 to bring Muslim families closer together and to enable
them to celebrate Canada Day with fellow Canadians of other faiths. This year
the day comes during Ramadan. So MCC is arranging a Canada Day iftar.
Every year Ayan
Dualeh arranges a harmony iftar and invites mostly Canadians of other faiths to
share food and knowledge with their Muslim neighbors. It has become a popular
tradition.
The Abo-Ther
Ghaffari mosque invites Muslim leaders to iftar every Ramadan. This year the
Islamic Society of Cumberland has already sent out invitations to the community
for an iftar.
For the
Anjuman-e-Muslimeen (Omar mosque) this year is special - they will offer
taraweeh in their new mosque which is nearing completion. It’s the best planned
mosque in Ottawa, with a prayer hall, school, gymnasium and a future retirement
home for seniors. The Ahlul Bayt Center complex, when built, will also include
a swimming pool to attract youth and the entire community.
Human Concern
International is arranging an iftar to raise funds for victims in Syria and
Bosnia.
This year the
National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) has endorsed a campaign started by
Toronto Muslim lawyer Ziyaad Mia three years ago. His Give-30 drive asks
Muslims to donate the money they save by not having coffee or lunch during
Ramadan to their local food bank. In its first two years, $130,000 was raised.
Now cities in five provinces have joined. Mia has asked people who are not
fasting and Canadians of other faiths to join too. He says: “Hunger knows no
race, religion, ethnicity or creed and that’s why it’s important for everyone
to join Give-30.” The campaign will run till Sept. 5.
The Muslim
Association of Canada is focusing meanwhile on bringing Muslim families closer
through informal dinner get-togethers, fostering better understanding with
Canadians of other faiths and encouraging youth to attain excellence.
When the Ottawa
Muslim Association opens its doors under the City of Ottawa project to enable
Ottawans to visit prominent institutions, it asks MAC to guide visitors and
inform them about Islam. MAC has done this for years.
This year MAC brought
its Educational Muslim Achievement Awards Night to Ottawa to salute 31 students
graduating from high school and to give awards and scholarships worth $6,000 in
seven categories to grades 9-12 students. It was a memorable dinner
get-together for the students, their parents and others.
MAC started EMAAN in
Edmonton in 2002 to encourage youth to seek knowledge and pride in their
identity, contribute to society and achieve excellence in academics, leadership
and faith. That year 32 high school graduates were honored. On its tenth
anniversary some 300 students received awards. Now the program includes
Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Windsor, London and Hamilton.
The function in
Ottawa was inspirational and one of the few Muslim functions I have attended
that focused exclusively on youth and encouraged them to become better Muslims,
productive citizens and a source of pride to their parents and their community.
An inspiring keynote speech, good dinner, beaming students and proud parents
made it a great event - a great way to welcome Ramadan.
— Mohammed Azhar Ali
Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.
------------------
comment: Sadaa-e man
means: My voice
The song says: My
voice, your voice, the voice of Afghanistan
We are on our own to
destiny, we are on our way to peace.
KABUL DREAMS- GOOD
MORNING FREEDOM
Layin’ down beats in
Kabul
ELISSA BARNARD ARTS
REPORTER
Published June 26,
2014 - 5:45pm
Halifax filmmaker
profiles Afghanistan’s first female rapper
Afghanistan’s first
female rapper Paradise Sorouri sits with her bandmate and boyfriend Diverse
Marwi. Sorouri is the subject of Hip Hop Kabul by Halifax-based writer-director
Fazila Amiri, who has an indiegogo campaign to complete shooting of the documentary
in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s first
female rapper Paradise Sorouri sits with her bandmate and boyfriend Diverse
Marwi. Sorouri is the subject of Hip Hop Kabul by Halifax-based writer-director
Fazila Amiri, who has an indiegogo campaign to complete shooting of the
documentary in Afghanistan.
Fazila Amiri has
good reason to make a documentary about Afghanistan’s first female rapper.
“She is amazing,”
says the Halifax filmmaker and actor.
When Amiri met
Paradise Sorouri in Kabul, she wanted her first feature-length documentary to
be about her.
“Someone has to make
a documentary about her!”
The NSCAD University
film graduate is still looking for funding with Toronto producer Paul Lee to
finish shooting the film, Hip Hop Kabul, in her native Afghanistan.
As the film’s writer
and director, she has already shot scenes of Paradise with her boyfriend in
Kabul, the two of them perched on top of an old Russian tank where Amiri played
as a child.
The trailer for the
movie includes a shattering scene of Paradise visiting a cousin, a 13-year-old
girl who was burned with her sister, who died, in a pact to spare themselves
forced marriage to older men.
“Paradise made her
debut song about their plight, Cry of a Woman. It is all about women committing
suicide and burning themselves and being affected by domestic violence.”
Paradise was a
refugee in Iran, then, after the fall of the Taliban, went back to Afghanistan
to go to university in Herat. There she met her boyfriend, Diverse Marwi, a
computer scientist, and formed a band with him in 2008.
“Paradise’s family
is very supportive of her. Diverse’s family has basically abandoned him because
he sings with a woman onstage. It is a question of honour for Afghans, but he
is very liberal and very happy.”
Paradise is fearless.
“She gets death
threats from the Taliban,” says Amiri during an interview at the Lion and
Bright cafe in Halifax.
“It’s normally
really dangerous for a woman to sing in Afghanistan because the Taliban banned
music in 1996. After 2001, after the collapse of the Taliban, music again was
played by musicians, though there are not many female singers.”
Hip Hop Kabul is “an
intimate portrait of her life and journey and her values and dreams and
ambitions, her family life and the line between the traditions of her family
and her dreams,” says Amiri.
“I wanted to make a
film about a woman who is creative and knows her rights.”
Amiri has been
returning to Afghanistan since 2009.
“I’ve been meeting a
lot of creative women who work in TV and film. I think the portrayal of Afghan
women as dependent and muffled voices under a burka in the media doesn’t help.”
It’s safe for her to
be a director in Kabul, she says.
“In Kabul, a lot of
women work and you don’t face problems.”
Shooting on location
outside the city “gets problematic.” She wears a veil whenever she’s outdoors.
“When you’re in
public, you can get killed if you’re not wearing the veil.”
Amiri created her
own company, Kabuli Camera Productions, in Kabul last year to make the movie
with Lee, who specializes in producing films for first-time filmmakers and in
women’s, Asian, LGBT and human rights films.
They are running an
indiegogo fundraising campaign, were awarded the Wouter Barendrecht Film
Foundation Award at the 2014 Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum and recently
pitched the film in Moscow at the Moscow Business Square event.
“We’re currently
looking for a potential co-producion partner to present it and release it
worldwide and in Canada,” says Amiri, who hopes to finish the film by the fall
of 2015.
Amiri, whose sister
is painter Hangama Amiri, was born in Kabul in 1988 and fled Afghanistan with
her family in 1996. As a teenager in Tajikistan, she watched pirated DVDs of
Hollywood movies.
“The first film I
really loved was Titanic, and it was by a Canadian director,” says Amiri.
“I always loved
watching movies. I always dreamed of becoming an actress.”
Amiri, who also
acts, loves the process of filmmaking and is working on her first dramatic
feature, about an Afghan girl, to be shot in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. She
and Lee are also working on a project on LGBT rights in Canada.
“I am very focused
on making films about youth and the energy of the youth and the creative powers
of Afghan women and other women,” she says.
“I’m a storyteller.
I don’t link myself to a certain culture. I call myself a Canadian filmmaker.
It’s great to be international.”
-----------------
First World War (WWI)
The First World War of 1914–1918 was the bloodiest
conflict in Canadian history, taking the lives of more than 60,000 Canadians.
World War I, Map
Soldiers wounded at Vimy Ridge
Canadian soldiers bringing back the wounded at Vimy
Ridge in France. April, 1917. Image: the Canadian Department of National
Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-001042.
Laying mats at Battle of Passchendaele
Laying trench mats over the mud during the Battle of
Passchendaele, November, 1917. Image courtesy of William Rider-Rider/Canadian
Department of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-002156.
Wounded at the Battle of Passchendaele
Canadian soldiers wounded during the Battle of
Passchendaele, November, 1917. Image courtesy of the Canadian Department of
National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-002089.
Anti-conscription rally in Montreal, 1917.
Anti-conscription rally in Victoria Square, Montréal,
Quebec on May 24th, 1917. Image: Library and Archives Canada/C-006859.
Union Government Poster
Union Government campaign poster, 1914-1918. Image
courtesy of Library and Archives Canada, 1983-28-726.
Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden. Image courtesy of Library and
Archives Canada/C-00170.
Halifax Explosion-aftermath
The aftermath of the Halifax Explosion, December 6th,
1917. Image courtesy of Canadian Patent and Copyright Office/Library and
Archives Canada/C-001832.
Cdn soliders at Vimy in German wire entanglements
Canadians soliders advancing through German wire
entanglements at Vimy Ridge. April, 1917. Image: Canadian Department of
National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-001087.
Cdn. soldiers returning from Vimy Ridge
Canadian soldiers returning from Vimy Ridge in France,
May, 1917. Image courtesy of W.I. Castle/ Canadian Department of National
Defence/Library and Archives Canada/ PA-001332.
Howitzer-Battle of Somme
A Canadian heavy howitzer during the Battle of Somme,
France. November, 1916. Image courtesy of Canadian Department of National
Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-000917.
Sam Hughes
General Sir Sam Hughes, Canadian Minister of Militia
and Defence, 1914-1919. Image: Canadian
Department of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/C-020240.
W.A. Bishop
WWI Captain W.A. Bishop, V.C., Royal Flying Corps in
France, August, 1917. Image courtesy of William Rider-Rider/Library and
Archives Canada/PA-001654.
School of Aviation, 1917
School of Aviation, Royal Flying Corps Canada,
University of Toronto, 1917. Image: Canadian Department of National
Defence/Library and Archives Canada.C-020396.
Henri Bourassa
Henri Bourassa, 1917. Image: Library and Archives
Canada/C-009092.
WWI recruitment poster
WWI recruitment poster for French Canadians,
1914-1918. Image: Library and Archives Canada/1983-28-794.
Cdn. Patriotic Fund
Canadian Patriotic Fund Poster, 1917. Image: Library
and Archives Canada/1983-28-581.
WWI Victory Bond poster
Victory Bond poster on College Street in Toronto,
Ontario, 1917. Image: John Boyd/Library and Archives Canada/PA-071302.
Sam Hughes
General Sir Sam Hughes talking to wounded Canadians at
Red Cross Special Hospital in Buxton, England, 1914-1918. Image: Canadian
Department of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-022662.
WWI Navy Recruitment poster
Recruitment poster for the Royal Naval Canadian
Volunteer Reserve, 1914-1918. Image: Library and Archives Canada/1983-28-839.
WWI recruitment poster for women
WWI recruitment poster for women, 1914-1918. Image:
Library and Archives Canada/1983-28-1504.
Cdn. solider-Battle of Somme
Canadian soldiers returning from the Battle of the
Somme in France. November, 1916. Image: W.I. Castle/Library and Archives
Canada/PA-000832.
Battle for the Hindenburg Line
Canadian advance east of Arras, France: Cambrai on
fire, October 1918 (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/PA-3420).
Vimy Ridge
Canadian machine gunners dig themselves into shell
holes on Vimy Ridge, France, April 1917 (courtesy Library and Archives
Canada/PA-1017).
Trenches, Vimy Ridge
The preserved WWI trenches at Vimy Ridge, France
(photo by Jacqueline Hucker).
The First World War of 1914–1918 was the bloodiest
conflict in Canadian history, taking the lives of more than 60,000 Canadians.
It erased romantic notions of war, introducing slaughter on a massive scale,
and instilled a fear of foreign military involvement that would last until the
Second World War. The great achievements of Canadian soldiers on battlefields
such as Ypres, Vimy and Passchendaele, however, ignited a sense of national
pride and a confidence that Canada could stand on its own, apart from the
British Empire, on the world stage. The war also deepened the divide between
French and English Canada, and marked the beginning of widespread state
intervention in society and the economy.
Going to War
The Canadian Parliament didn't choose to go to war in
1914. The country's foreign affairs were guided in London. So when Britain's
ultimatum to Germany to withdraw its army from Belgium expired on 4 August,
1914, the British Empire, including Canada, was at war, allied with Serbia,
Russia, and France against the German and Austro-Hungarian empires.
The war united Canadians at first. The Liberal
opposition urged Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden’s Conservative government to
take sweeping powers under the new War Measures Act. Minister of Militia Sam
Hughes summoned 25,000 volunteers to train at a new camp at Valcartier near
Québec; some 33,000 appeared. On 3 October the first contingent sailed for
England. Much of Canada's war effort was launched by volunteers. The Canadian
Patriotic Fund collected money to support soldiers' families. A Military
Hospitals Commission cared for the sick and wounded. Churches, charities,
women's organizations, and the Red Cross found ways to "do their bit"
for the war effort. In patriotic fervour, Canadians demanded that Germans and
Austrians be dismissed from their jobs and interned (see Internment), and
pressured Berlin, Ont, to rename itself Kitchener.
A Canadian perspective, from the Legion's Legacies.
War and the Economy
At first the war hurt a troubled economy, increasing
unemployment and making it hard for Canada's new, debt-ridden transcontinental
railways, the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk Pacific, to find credit. By
1915, however, military spending equalled the entire government expenditure of
1913. Minister of Finance Thomas White opposed raising taxes. Since Britain
could not afford to lend to Canada, White turned to the US.
Also, despite the belief that Canadians would never
lend to their own government, White had to take the risk. In 1915 he asked for
$50 million; he got $100 million. In 1917 the government's Victory Loan
campaign began raising huge sums from ordinary citizens for the first time.
Canada's war effort was financed mainly by borrowing. Between 1913 and 1918 the
national debt rose from $463 million to $2.46 billion.
Canada's economic burden would have been unbearable
without huge exports of wheat, timber and munitions. A prewar crop failure had
been a warning to prairie farmers of future droughts, but a bumper crop in 1915
and soaring prices banished caution. Since many farm labourers had joined the
army, farmers began to complain of a labour shortage. It was hoped that
factories shut down by the recession would profit from the war. Manufacturers
formed a Shell Committee, got contracts to make British artillery ammunition,
and created a brand new industry. It was not easy. By summer 1915 the committee
had orders worth $170 million but had delivered only $5.5 million in shells.
The British government insisted on reorganization. The resulting Imperial
Munitions Board was a British agency in Canada, though headed by a talented,
hard-driving Canadian, Joseph Flavelle. By 1917 Flavelle had made the IMB
Canada's biggest business, with 250,000 workers. When the British stopped
buying in Canada in 1917, Flavelle negotiated huge new contracts with the
Americans.
Recruitment at Home
Unemployed workers flocked to enlist in 1914–15.
Recruiting, handled by prewar militia regiments and by civic organizations,
cost the government nothing. By the end of 1914 the target for the Canadian
Expeditionary Force (CEF) was 50,000; by summer 1915 it was 150,000. During a
visit to England that summer, Prime Minister Borden was shocked with the
magnitude of the struggle. To demonstrate Canadian commitment to the war
effort, Borden used his 1916 New Year's message to pledge 500,000 soldiers from
a Canadian population of barely 8-million. By then volunteering had virtually
run dry. Early contingents had been filled by recent British immigrants;
enlistments in 1915 had taken most of the Canadian-born who were willing to go.
The total, 330,000, was impressive but insufficient.
Recruiting methods became fervid and divisive. Clergy
preached Christian duty; women wore badges proclaiming "Knit or
Fight"; more and more English Canadians complained that French Canada was
not doing its share. This was not surprising: few French Canadians felt deep
loyalty to France or Britain. Those few in Borden's government had won election
in 1911 by opposing imperialism. Henri Bourassa, leader and spokesman of Québec's
nationalists, initially approved of the war but soon insisted that French
Canada's real enemies were not Germans but "English-Canadian anglicisers,
the Ontario intriguers, or Irish priests" who were busy ending
French-language education in the English-speaking provinces. In Québec and
across Canada, unemployment gave way to high wages and a manpower shortage.
There were good economic reasons to stay home.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force
Canadians in the CEF became part of the British army.
As minister of militia, Hughes insisted on choosing the officers and on
retaining the Canadian-made Ross rifle. Since the rifle jammed easily and since
some of Hughes's choices were incompetent cronies, the Canadian military had
serious deficiencies. A recruiting system based on forming hundreds of new
battalions meant that most of them arrived in England only to be broken up,
leaving a large residue of unhappy senior officers. Hughes believed that Canadians
would be natural soldiers; in practice they had many costly lessons to learn.
They did so with courage and self-sacrifice.
At the second Battle of Ypres, April 1915, a raw 1st
Canadian Division suffered 6,036 casualties, and the Princess Patricia's Canadian
Light Infantry a further 678. The troops also shed their defective Ross rifles.
At the St Eloi craters in 1916, the 2nd Division suffered a painful setback
because its senior commanders failed to locate their men. In June, the 3rd
Division was shattered at Mont Sorrel though the position was recovered by the
now battle-hardened 1st Division. The test of battle eliminated inept officers
and showed survivors that careful staff work, preparation, and discipline were
vital.
Canadians were spared the early battles of the Somme
in the summer of 1916, though a separate Newfoundland force, 1st Newfoundland
Regiment, was annihilated at Beaumont Hamel on the disastrous first day, 1
July. When Canadians entered the battle on 30 August, their experience helped toward
limited gains, though at high cost. By the end of the battle the Canadian Corps
had reached its full strength of four divisions.
The embarrassing confusion of Canadian administration
in England, and Hughes's reluctance to displace his cronies, forced Borden's
government to establish a separate Ministry of Overseas Military Forces based
in London to control the CEF overseas. Bereft of much power, Hughes resigned in
November 1916. The Act creating the new ministry established that the CEF was
now a Canadian military organization, though its day-to-day relations with the
British army did not change immediately. Two ministers, Sir George Perley and
then Sir Edward Kemp, gradually reformed overseas administration and expanded
effective Canadian control over the CEF.
Other Canadian Efforts
While most Canadians served with the Canadian Corps or
with a separate Canadian cavalry brigade on the Western Front, Canadians could
be found almost everywhere in the Allied war effort. Young Canadians had
trained (initially at their own expense) to become pilots in the British flying
services. In 1917 the Royal Flying Corps opened schools in Canada, and by war's
end almost a quarter of the pilots in the Royal Air Force were Canadians. Three
of them, Maj William A.Bishop, Maj Raymond Collishaw, and Col. William Barker,
ranked among the top air aces of the war. An independent Canadian air force was
authorized in the last months of the war. Canadians also served with the Royal
Navy, and Canada's own tiny naval service organized a coastal submarine patrol.
Thousands of Canadians cut down forests in Scotland
and France, and built and operated most of the railways behind the British
front. Others ran steamers on the Tigris River, cared for the wounded at
Salonika (Thessaloniki), Greece, and fought Bolsheviks at Archangel and Baku
(see Canadian Intervention in Russian Civil War).
Vimy and Passchendaele
British and French strategists deplored diversions
from the main effort against the bulk the German forces on the European Western
Front. It was there, they said, that war must be waged. A battle-hardened
Canadian Corps was a major instrument in this war of attrition. Its skill and
training were tested on Easter weekend, 1917, when all four divisions were sent
forward to capture a seemingly impregnable Vimy Ridge. Weeks of rehearsals,
stockpiling, and bombardment paid off. In five days the ridge was taken.
The able British commander of the corps, Lt-Gen Sir
Julian Byng, was promoted; his successor was a Canadian, Lt-Gen Sir Arthur
Currie, who followed Byng's methods and improved on them. Instead of attacking
Lens in the summer of 1917, Currie captured the nearby Hill 70 and used
artillery to destroy wave after wave of German counterattacks. As an
increasingly independent subordinate, Currie questioned orders, but he could
not refuse them. When ordered to finish the disastrous British offensive at
Passchendaele in October 1917, Currie warned that it would cost 16,000 of his
120,000 men. Though he insisted on time to prepare, the Canadian victory on the
dismal and water-logged battlefield left a toll of 15,654 dead and wounded.
Borden and the Conscription Issue
A year before, even the patriotic leagues had
confessed the failure of voluntary recruiting. Business leaders, Protestants, and
English-speaking Catholics such as Bishop Michael Fallon grew critical of
French Canada. Faced with a growing demand for conscription, the Borden
government compromised in August 1916 with a program of national registration.
A prominent Montréal manufacturer, Arthur Mignault, was put in charge of Québec
recruiting and, for the first time, public funds were provided. A final attempt
to raise a French Canadian battalion—the 14th for Quebec and the 258th overall
for Canada—utterly failed in 1917.
Until 1917 Borden had no more news of the war or
Allied strategy than he read in newspapers. He was concerned about British war
leadership but he devoted 1916 to improving Canadian military administration
and munitions production. In December 1916 David Lloyd George became head of a
new British coalition government pledged wholeheartedly to winning the war. An
expatriate Canadian, Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, helped engineer the change.
Faced by suspicious officials and a failing war effort, Lloyd George summoned leaders
of the Dominions to London. They would see for themselves that the Allies
needed more men. On 2 March, when Borden and his fellow premiers met, Russia
was collapsing, the French army was close to mutiny, and German submarines had
almost cut off supplies to Britain.
Borden was a leader in establishing a voice for the
Dominions in policymaking and in gaining a more independent status for them in
the postwar world. Visits to Canadian camps and hospitals also persuaded him
that the CEF needed more men. The triumph of Vimy Ridge during his visit gave
all Canadians pride but it cost 10,602 casualties, 3,598 of them fatal. Borden
returned to Canada committed to conscription. On 18 May 1917 he told Canadians
of his government's new policy. The 1914 promise of an all-volunteer contingent
had been superseded by events.
Many in English-speaking Canada—farmers, trade union
leaders, pacifists—opposed conscription, but they had few outlets for their
views. French Canada's opposition was almost unanimous under Henri Bourassa,
who argued that Canada had done enough, that Canada's interests were not served
by the European conflict, and that men were more needed to grow food and make
munitions.
Borden felt such arguments were cold and
materialistic. Canada owed its support to its young soldiers. The Allied
struggle against Prussian militarism was a crusade for freedom. There was no
bridging the rival points of view. To win conscription, Borden offered Sir
Wilfrid Laurier a coalition. The Liberal leader refused, sure that his party
could now defeat the Conservatives. He also feared that if he joined Borden,
Bourassa's nationalism would sweep Québec. Laurier misjudged his support.
Many English-speaking Liberals agreed that the war was
a crusade. A mood of reform and sacrifice had led many provinces to grant votes
to women and to prohibit the sale or use of liquor (see Temperence). Although
they disliked the Conservatives, many reform Liberals like Ontario's Newton
Rowell believed that Borden was in earnest about the war and Laurier was not.
Borden also gave himself two political weapons: on 20 September 1917 Parliament
gave the franchise to all soldiers, including those overseas; it also gave
votes to soldiers' wives, mothers and sisters, as well as to women serving in
the armed forces, and took it away from Canadians of enemy origin who had
become citizens since 1902. This added many votes for conscription and removed
certain Liberal voters from the lists. On 6 October Parliament was dissolved.
Five days later, Borden announced a coalition Union government pledged to
conscription, an end to political patronage, and full Women's Suffrage.
Eight of Canada's nine provinces endorsed the new
government, but Laurier could dominate Québec, and many Liberals across Canada
would not forget their allegiance. Borden and his ministers had to promise many
exemptions to make conscription acceptable. On 17 December, Unionists won 153
seats to Laurier's 82, but without the soldiers' vote, only 100,000 votes
separated the parties. Conscription was not applied until 1 January 1918. The
Military Service Act had so many opportunities for exemption and appeal, that
of more than 400,000 called, 380,510 appealed. The manpower problem continued.
The Final Phase
In March 1918 disaster fell upon the Allies. German
armies, moved from the Eastern to the Western Front after Russia's collapse in
1917, smashed through British lines. The Fifth British Army was destroyed. In
Canada, anti-conscription riots in Québec on the Easter weekend left four dead.
Borden's new government cancelled all exemptions. Many who had voted Unionist
in the belief that their sons would be exempted felt betrayed.
The war had entered a bitter final phase. On 6
December 1917 the Halifax Explosion killed over 1,600, and it was followed by
the worst snowstorm in years. Across Canada, the heavy borrowing of Sir Thomas
White (federal minister of finance) finally led to runaway inflation. Workers joined
unions and struck for higher wages. Food and fuel controllers now preached
conservation, sought increased production and sent agents to prosecute
hoarders. Public pressure to "conscript wealth" forced a reluctant
White in April 1917 to impose a Business Profits Tax and a War Income Tax. An
"anti-loafing" law threatened jail for any man not gainfully
employed. Federal police forces were ordered to hunt for sedition. Socialist
parties and radical unions were banned. So were newspapers published in the "enemy"
languages. Canadians learned to live with unprecedented government controls and
involvement in their daily lives. Food and fuel shortages led to "Meatless
Fridays" and "Fuelless Sundays."
In other warring countries, exhaustion and despair
went far deeper. Defeat now faced the western Allies, but the Canadian Corps
escaped the succession of German offensives. Sir Arthur Currie insisted that it
be kept together. A 5th Canadian division, held in England since 1916, was
finally broken up to provide reinforcements.
The United States entered the war in the spring of
1917, sending reinforcements and supplies that would eventually turn the tide
against Germany. To help restore the Allied line, Canadians and Australians
attacked near Amiens on 8 August 1918 (see Battle of Amiens). Shock
tactics—using airplanes, tanks, and infantry—shattered the German line. In
September and early October the Canadians attacked again and again, suffering
heavy casualties but making advances thought unimaginable. The Germans fought
with skill and courage all the way to Mons, the little Belgian town where
fighting ended for the Canadians at 11 AM (Greenwich time), 11 November 1918.
More officially, the war ended with the Treaty of Versailles, signed 28 June
1919.
Canada alone lost 60,661 war dead. Many more returned
from the conflict mutilated in mind or body. The survivors found that almost
every facet of Canadian life, from the length of skirts to the value of money,
had been transformed by the war years. Governments had assumed responsibilities
they would never abandon. The income tax would survive the war. So would
government departments later to become the Department of Veterans Affairs and
the Department of Pensions and National Health.
Overseas, Canada's soldiers had struggled to achieve,
and had won, a considerable degree of autonomy from British control. Canada's
direct reward for her sacrifices was a modest presence at the Versailles
conference and a seat in the new League of Nations. However, the deep national
divisions between French and English created by the war, and especially by the
conscription crisis of 1917, made postwar Canada fearful of international
responsibilities. Canadians had done great things in the war but they had not
done them together.
WWI
Passchendaele
Treaty of
Versailles
First World
War
Borden
Vimy
World War I
1914
Conscription
Suggested Reading
E.
Armstrong, The Crisis of Quebec, 1914-1918 (1974 reprint); Pierre Berton, Vimy
(1986); W.R. Bird, Ghosts Have Warm Hands (1968); M. Bliss, A Canadian
Millionaire (1978); R.C. Brown, Robert Laird Borden, vol II (1980); D.G.
Dancocks, Legacy of Valour (1986) and Spearhead to Victory: Canada and the
Great War (1987); W.A.B. Douglas, The Creation of the National Air Force
(1986); D.J. Goodspeed, The Road Past Vimy (1967); J.L. Granatstein and J.M.
Hitsman, Broken Promises (1977); Desmond Morton, A Peculiar Kind of Politics
(1982), and Canada and War (1981); G.W.L. Nicholson, Canadian Expeditionary
Force 1914-1919 (1964); J.A. Swettenham, To Seize the Victory (1965); J.
Thompson, The Harvests of War (1978); B. Wilson, Ontario and the First World
War, 1914-1918 (1977); S.F. Wise, Canadian Airmen and the First World War
(1980).
Links to other sites
Battle of
PasschendaeleA detailed educational guide about the 1917 Battle of
Passchendaele, a defining event in Canadian history. Associated with the major
Canadian feature film "Passchendaele." From Historica Canada.
Canadian War
MuseumWebsite for the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Offers the latest
information about museum exhibits and programs. Click on “Exhibitions” to
access the many online features about various military conflicts.
The
Newfoundland Regiment and Great WarAn informative multimedia exhibit on
Newfoundland and Labrador's role in the First World War. From the website for
The Rooms, a major cultural facility located in St. John’s.
At The Sharp End: Canadians Fighting The
Great War 1914-1916Check out Tim Cook’s captivating and well-illustrated book
about Canadian military action in the harrowing early years of the First World
War at the Indigo website.
------------
World War 1: Facts and Information
Posted
on May 29, 2013 by James
Here
are some facts about World War 1
·
World
War 1 began on July 28, 1914 and lasted until November 11, 1918. Differences in
foreign policies were to blame, although the immediate cause was the
assassination of Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand.
·
The
two main sides were the Allies, which included France, Great Britain and
Russia; and Germany and Austria-Hungary. In total, 30 countries were involved
in the conflict. Italy, once part of the Triple Alliance with Germany and
Austria-Hungary, fought on the side of the Allies.
·
Soldiers
fought largely in trenches during the war, and thousands suffered from stress,
known as shell-shock. The British and French trenches were often squalid,
whereas the German trenches were almost luxurious in comparison, with bunks and
decent cooking facilities. (Click here to learn more about life in the
trenches)
·
By
the end of WW1, over 9 million soldiers had been killed, and another 21 million
wounded. Over a million soldiers were killed in the infamous Battle of the Somme alone, including about 30,000
in just one day.
·
Around
11 percent of the population of France was killed or wounded during the war.
About 116,000 Americans were killed, even though the US was only in the war for
about 7 months.
---------------------
The
Purpose (Get Up Weary Soldier)
---------------------
Facebook
Responds to Negative Reactions to Its Experiment on Users
------------
seriously...
did Edward Snowden NOT teach the world businesses and govt. about privacy
rights?.. google... facebook...come on..
Supreme
Court declines to hear Google's request in Street View lawsuit PC World
PCWorld
25
minutes agoWritten byGrant Gross
The
U.S. Supreme Court declined to throw out a class-action lawsuit against Google
for sniffing Wi-Fi networks with its Street View cars.
-----------------
Data Roaming Charges Cut By
More Than Half
Under a new cap, a gigabyte
of data downloaded abroad in EU countries costs £42 - while the cost of texts
and calls is also cut.
--------------
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