“THERE’S NOTHING ON MY BELT THAT WILL SOLVE ADDICTION / HOMELESSNESS”

In preparation for a piece I did yesterday on local homelessness, I came across a CBC documentary (PROJECT PURPLE) that outlined the effort being made in the Pembroke area to tackle the homelessness / addiction crisis that has made that Ottawa Valley community a hotspot for drug overdose and all the attending problems associated with dealing with the homeless.

Within that documentary was a clip of Inspector Steph Neufeld, Commander, Ontario Provincial Police Pembroke Detachment.  And what he said was like sweet music finally reaching the ears of an audience starved for meaningful and humane action to a crisis that is upon us and may well get worse should we continue to follow the boilerplate responses of the past.

Inspector Neufeld has it completely right on so many points, but what jumped out at me was the profound statement made by a ranking police officer.

“There’s nothing on my belt that will solve addiction.  There’s nothing that will solve homelessness.  But do we have a part to play to support our members?”

And as he continued, it was clear that the answer was “yes,” and further, that it must be a community effort, involving several agencies working in concert, and in a manner that is novel, innovative, inspired, and effective.  In other words, sometimes you have to step beyond the lines, or, if you will, get out of the box.  As in, if it ain’t working, fix it.

And by fixing it, we mean taking new approaches that free us from the straight jacket of prior, and often failed models of response.

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CIVILITY IN PUBLIC DEBATE AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE: CAN WE FIND THAT HERE IN CANADA?

A little over a week ago, two American candidates from bitterly opposed political parties took to the stage and faced one another in vice-presidential debate.  Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz were going to square off, both having made previous statements of “I can’t wait to debate that guy!”

As the American television audience (and Canadian) of some 43 million tuned in, everyone was a little nervous, in that these things in recent years have devolved into a theatre of the absurd, almost exclusively due to the participation of one Donald J. Trump, America’s 21st-century iteration of a snake oil salesman.  To put it mildly, expectations were low for things like propriety, respect, and a constructive, polite discussion of issues and opposing approaches to dealing with them.

And then it happened.

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A QUICK TIMELINE ON THE SO-CALLED CARBON TAX

Do you want facts or slogans?

Facts pay you money. Slogans cost you money. They say “money talks.” Can it speak loudly enough to bust through the wet blanket of misinformation thrown down by Slogan Boy, aka Pierre Poilievre, aka O’l Whiny Pete?

Will people vote with their heads or through their assholes? I’ll have to let you answer that for yourself.

Following is a brief summary of the carbon tax. No, I’m not calling it the “Climate Initiative” like the Liberals would prefer because that just muddies the water. A tax is a tax is a tax, and I’m not afraid of the word. Everything costs money, and we know that. And now it’s the turn of climate change.

Or, you can be a Conservative, which gives you two options: you can lie through your teeth or stick your head in the sand. It’s a really good look for a person with no self-respect.

Anyways, if you want the plain facts, here they are:

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A STARTER KIT FOR SLOGAN BOY’S ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Slogan Boy wants us to have an election while he’s riding high in the polls and before most people actually wake up to what kind of punk he really is.

He says he’s working for you. You know, people with jobs or between jobs. As in the middle class. He’s also the self-styled champion of labour. As in, since when? Never belonged to a union in his life but he knows all about it. Never had a job other than being a politician living on the public dime. Fantastic parliamentary pension, way better than anything you’ve got.

When was the last time you can remember the federal Conservatives doing anything for the poor or the working poor? And he’s among the worst conservatives I’ve ever seen. Good luck being economically disadvantaged. This guy won’t throw you a life vest, he’ll throw you the anchor.

Did you collect CERB during the pandemic? Really? Because CERB cost the federal government quite a bit of money, helping citizens get through that. It had an impact on inflation, you know, what Slogan Boy refers to a Justinflation (a real knee-slapper, that one). Can you ask yourself, what would he have done? Not provide those benefits? Guess we’ll never know, but he’s such a caring guy.

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UKRAINE UTILIZES A LEGACY TALENT IN FIGHT AGAINST RUSSIA

In the salad days of the former Soviet Union, the entity known as Ukraine was not only the breadbasket of the empire in terms of agriculture, but also the arsenal of the empire in terms of weapons production.  That legacy is something that’s beginning to pop up more noticeably on the battlefield and in the enemy’s strategic rear areas.

Much is made of Ukraine’s pleas for additional western weaponry with which to resist Russia.  Or its pleas to use western weaponry already in hand to hit Russian targets deep behind enemy lines.  Those are the items the western public hears most about and rightly so as they’re items of significant importance.  Those entreaties won’t go away and Ukraine will not, can not stop asking.

That said, the Ukrainians have gone ahead and hedged their bets by developing capabilities similar to, and sometimes superior to, western weapons.  It’s these weapons that are now beginning to be really felt.

Continue reading “UKRAINE UTILIZES A LEGACY TALENT IN FIGHT AGAINST RUSSIA” →

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