Is this who we are? Apparently.

By Pepper Parr

July 21st, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

As people we seem to have problems discussing and facing issues that we find uncomfortable.

There are four that I want to put in front of you –

The Mounties
Intimate Personal Violence
The women who are believed to be buried in a garbage dump
The refugees sleeping on the streets of downtown Toronto.

Nothing pretty about any of them.

In Easter Canada we applaud the RCMP when they perform their musical ride and show up in the thousands when watch the Sunset Ceremony; The time-honoured tradition features an impressive flag lowering ceremony at sunset, and a participatory singing of the national anthem.

RCMP Musical Ride on its way to Parliament Hill.

The 32 member cavalry perform the Music Ride at events across the country.

In western Canada where the RCMP serve as the provincial police the picture is very different. The municipality of Surrey, BC is planning on creating its own police service and dumping the Mounties. And far too many female RCMP officers report sexual assaults and harassment that involved officers from the highest ranks of the RCMP, including the GET THIS

Halton Regional Deputy Chief Wilkie told a city Council meeting that every time he mentions Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)his social media the readership drops off. No one wants to talk about the women who get punched in the face by their husbands. Those women have in the past not gone to the police – fearing that nothing will happen – and they will end up getting punched in the face again.

Polite society doesn’t want to talk about stuff like this. Premier Ford chose not to declare an IPV Emergency and do something.

Toronto’s new Mayor Olivia Chow chose to be very public and talked about the violence her father rained down on her mother that didn’t come to an end until Chow was able to move her mother into the basement apartment she had.

Men have to begin talking to men who are violent and push them into therapy where they can come to terms with their violent behaviour.

The sign is a crying out – while governments squabble over who will pick up the cost.

Did your heart not cry out when you heard family members say publicly she didn’t think children should have to stand at the edge of a garbage dump to visit and pay their respects to their mothers.

The Premier of Manitoba said digging through those dumps to see if there are bodies buried there was too expensive.

So much for the Truth and Reconciliation deal we have with the Indigenous people – we aren’t prepared to help them respectfully bury their dead.

When Air India Flight 182 crashed into the Atlantic in 1985 with 268 Canadians aboard $130 million was spent on investigations and prosecutions that lasted almost twenty years. It was the most expensive trial in Canadian history,

Why are the Indigenous people not getting the same level of care, concern and understanding?

They came to Canada looking for a better life – we need them to fill the jobs that will be created as we build a million and a half new homes – it hasn’t been a particularly warm welcome.

Lastly, do you remember the pictures of the Prime Minister greeting refugees from Syria that Canada accepted? There was the Prime Minister with toys and winter coats and hugs for all of them. It made for a great photo op.

Those refugees camped out in downtown Toronto with nothing but green garbage bags to protect them from the rain didn’t get much in the way of help until it became public.

Is this who we are?

Apparently.