Muse
Alexandra Marie
2005 clay sculpture 

I AM CANADIAN

The following is a copy of comments graciously provided to my by my brother-in-law, Neil Osborne, who many of you will know as the lead singer of 54-40, a truly Canadian band.

It is a call to arms in a sense.I fully support Neil's views on the issue he writes about here, although I am far more of a cynic: my comments back to Neil follow his well-thought-out essay.

The links inserted are mine.
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My name is Neil Osborne . I am Canadian. Maybe I’m “the” Canadian. You see I am the singer and chief writer for the veteran Canadian rock group 54.40. I have crisscrossed Canada dozens of times from Gander to Campbell River.

I have sung to thousands on every Canada Day since 1986. I have been interviewed by Peter Gzowski, Ron Mclean, Much Music and every major daily and radio station. My songs have been heard on commuters’ car radios for over 2 decades. I have sung to and partied with Canadian troops at CFB in Kingston numerous times.

I have lived in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. I know the fabric of the quilt that is Canada. I’ve camped on it. I have traveled the world and come to know the unique respect and trust folks from other nations give to Canadian level-headedness and our progressive, “nice people “attitude.

This is my country. It does not lack identity or need redefining. On several occasions Europeans have asked my forgiveness for thinking I was from the United States for they too recognize that my culture is a distinct one.

But I love Americans. They (most) are just so utterly misguided. The American-led attack on Afghanistan was meant (I thought) to bring that Saudi criminal named bin Laden to justice. Regardless of motive, by UN standards the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan -- a sovereign nation -- is not only illegal but devastating to the country and its people.

Americans then took Iraq. Previous to these invasions, only the dictatorships of Stalin and Hitler ever invaded and occupied two or more countries. My father, an RCAF WWII vet, was among those who signed up to liberate the people and countries under Nazi domination -- a just and noble cause.

But now I am sad. My heart is heavy. Anthony Boneca (Cpl) was killed July 9 2006 in Afghanistan. He was in a war that wasn’t his or his Canada’s. A very bad dream turned to a real nightmare. Although I’ve never met him, I know this kid. Were I to have run into him anywhere in the world we surely would have bonded and talked hockey, Tim Horton’s, beer and Canadian rock music.

“Strong, healthy, helpful and considerate” according to his uncle, Anthony had vowed he would not return to Afghanistan again and was looking forward to his homecoming in Thunder Bay. Now Anthony will never see his home. And a family is left with its grief. Death leaves a black hole in many hearts.

With false pride seeded in denial, PM Harper and minister Mackay seem eager to bandy about Churchill-like phrases about ‘these difficult times’ and ‘safety of citizens’ in Canada and Afghanistan. Are the citizens of Thunder Bay any safer now? Is anyone really concerned about an Afghan terrorist attack in Thunder Bay? Is this ambiguous ‘security threat’ of greater importance than the environment, health & education, crystal meth, crime, taxes, employment, the price of real estate, and who might win the Stanley Cup?

Perhaps now it is. Only the threat is not from terrorists but rather our own government and its willingness to send good Canadian kids to be killed for some vain notion that Canada should be a ‘player’ in a distorted version of ‘What the World Needs Now’. This is sickening to me. Our Canadian identity, morals and values have been hijacked without so much as the debate democracy requires.

Lester Pearson’s crowning achievement (and one of Canada’s) was winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his creation of the United Nations peacekeeping force during the 1956 Suez Crisis. We Canadians were the peacekeepers, with a strong bent towards neutrality. We were the new Swiss, only we cared about everybody, not just ourselves.

We used to look at each global situation on its own merit and address the need from a positive perspective. In that spirit, Canada developed and worked to maintain a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts for many years serving in over 50 missions, including every UN effort until 1989. We now have just 59 military personnel devoted to UN missions.

Canada, which virtually invented peacekeeping and once ranked among the top 10 contributors to UN missions in terms of military personnel, is now ranked 50th. Still, I was unbelievably proud we refused to participate in the invasion and occupation of Iraq

Now, however, our government is commanding our young people to actively kill human beings in Afghanistan. Now it seems to me that it was the fact that the 9/11 attacks killed so many innocent civilians that made it an abhorrent terrorist act yet somehow, killing thousands of Afghan civilians in an effort to force the once US-empowered Taliban to change its policies has become a moral imperative.

We’re told that if we don’t kill certain Afghan nationals we risk the bombing of our cities and murder of our citizens here in Canada. With that kind of logic it’s a wonder the British back in 1812 didn’t do a seal hunt on Canada’s French population.

There is an assumption that the present day Taliban is a breeding ground for terrorists. I would dispute that on lack of any evidence. They are simply fighting a civil war and foreign invaders as they have always done. We (Canada) simply have no legal or moral grounds to be involved as invaders on one side of a civil war, especially one that has at its roots a long history of foreign interference in the region. Clearly, this “war” (occupation) is not of our creation. We should stick to our role as peacekeepers.

A true Canadian will sacrifice anything in aid of a friend in need, as evidenced in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. But when we discover we’ve been deceived and lied to, we Canadians will stand apart and say enough is enough. There is the saying that ‘nice guys finish last’. Not true. Nice guys finish nice guys. And someone who finishes nice is someone you can trust. I am Canadian. You can trust me. I say enough is enough. I am standing apart and am commanding my government to stop this insanity and bring our young people home and have them do work that all Canadians can be proud of.

Regards,
Neil Osborne

P.S. I have added some perspective in the form of quotes for those convinced of a moral imperative to now kill in Afghanistan.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

-- Helen Keller

"Afghanistan's complexity and lethal tribal politics have been marketed to the public by government and media as a selfless crusade to defeat the `terrorist' Taliban, implant democracy, and liberate Afghan women. Afghanistan is part of the `world-wide struggle against terrorism,' we are told. "None of this is true. In 1989, at the end of the Soviet occupation, Afghanistan fell into anarchy and civil war. An epidemic of banditry and rape ensued. A village prayer leader, Mullah Omar, who lost an eye in the anti-Soviet jihad, armed a group of `talibs' (religious students), and set about defending women from rape. Aided by Pakistan, Taliban stopped the epidemic of rape and drug dealing that had engulfed Afghanistan, and imposed order based on harsh tribal and Sharia religious law.--
- Eric Margolis

“The US poured millions into the Taliban regime until about four months before 9/11. It was only cut off when the regime refused to sign a contract with US oil giant Unocal to build a pipeline south from the Caspian Basin to Pakistan. Much was made of the fact that the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden to the US. But Bin Laden was a national hero wounded six times in the anti-Soviet struggle -- which the US financed. When the Taliban offered to turn him over to an international tribunal upon seeing evidence of his guilt in 9/11, the US refused. And then invaded. This was by any international legal standard a totally illegal war, which could only have been justified if Afghanistan threatened the US. It is also an illegal occupation.”

- Murray Dobbin
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This is mine....

As for the various conflicts ongoing internationally, I don't know what it will take to make people in this country open their eyes to our slow decent into the black hole that is US politics, but if you can make something happen on whatever level, then good. Whatever it takes. You have a voice, a presence, and a brilliant philosophical mind.

I don't see and end to any of the current slough of wars, regardless of public opinion and pressure. Those conflicts are not only supported and enflamed by the US administration and whatever nefarious goals it has, but ingrained on the participants on a cellular level. I mean that literally. Hundreds of years of conflict have caused a situation where the participants have no real idea why they're fighting, or what the original 'sin' was. They just know that's the way it is. Same in Ireland where people on both 'sides' tell their kids that "those people eat their babies."

The greatest sin there ever has been and ever will be is to teach a child to hate, and that indeterminate, groundless hate is the basis for all these wars and unrest. Add that hate to bizarre and self-serving interpretations of old manuscripts disseminated by possible psychopaths (some studies say that as much as 20% of the human population is, or borders on, psychopathic) and you have a very effective recipe for unending continuation of said conflicts.

The US involvement, and the clown that poses as a President in that country, have created such a profound distrust of "The West" that, despite all the good intentions we might have, I don't believe that we can effect any change at all unless we have peaceful anarchy.

The media does not help: Its subtle slander of any non-white, other-than-Christian, or non-conforming person promotes hatred and distrust of those same non-conformers. Take for example the media's interpretation of so-called riots that burned Paris last summer. Those conflicts were much localised and were not the national catastrophe the media would have had us believe, nor was the ethnic community in full revolt. A small group of rightfully disgruntled, under- or unemployed young males did what young males often do when they are prevented from attaining their goals - or getting enough money to feed themselves: they do stupid, dangerous things.

Having said all that, I fully support any effort on the part of Joe everybody to take a stand and make an issue of political stupidity. Regardless of the electoral system in this country, which supposedly allows us to elect people to speak for us (so how did we get Stephen Harper, who lives in GWB's pants and who is truly a puppet?), they don't and we are - or choose to be -- largely voiceless while our elected officials allow the abduction of this country's people into the US way of thinking and acting, internationally.

My dad said, some years ago, that in 10 years, Canada would be using US currency. I thought he was wrong but I'm not so sure now.

What is up with the city newspaper distribution system?

Over the last two years, I have called our local paper’s circulation department probably a hundred times regarding our carrier’s inability to place my paper in the newspaper rack below my mailbox.

Yes, it sounds like small potatoes, but here’s the detail: at least three times a week, the carrier tosses the paper from the sidewalk towards the house, a distance of some 30 feet, hitting either the aluminium door or the railing, which wakes us up and causes our dog to bark at 3 a.m. I’m old, I work full time and I need my sleep! I am sure my neighbours don’t appreciate my dog barking at that time either (he’s inside).

The paper then rebounds down our front steps, where more times than not, it is soaked by rain or snow. Two weeks ago, I found it in my garden – again- wet, and covered with leaves and dirt.

Occasionally, the carrier experiences some weakness, only managing to toss the paper about half-way up the walkway, into the adjacent grass which thankfully, doesn’t wake me or the dog, but which causes the paper to be damp and often leaves sections unreadable.

At the very least, that my paper isn’t in the rack causes me to be down the stairs in my bathrobe, a sight my neighbours are now used to seeing but to which they should never have had to become accustomed. Following this, I make yet another call and a request for a second paper – which rarely arrives. I’m old and grumpy and I need my daily dose of the Middle East same-old-same-old to keep an even keel.

I have been promised at every call to circulation that I will hear from a supervisor and that the supervisor will warn the carrier – again – and that my paper will be placed in the rack “from now on.” Given my regular calls over the last two years, I’m not sure when “from now on” is supposed to start….

On one recent call, I was advised that the problems with the carriers were not related to the city paper nor were they something they can fix. I was also advised – by a circulation department manager (female) that I could change papers (To the competitor? Heaven forbid!), but that the carrier would be the same guy, so it wouldn’t change anything and that I should perhaps “Just deal with it.” Said ‘manager’ also noted that because I hadn’t called once in the preceding month, that it looked like mine was a new complaint so there wasn’t much priority for my issue.

In the last two years, I have only once heard from the supervisor. That supervisor chose to burden me with woes about his employees, none of which problems I could fix for him. He didn’t respond to my request that his carrier just put the paper in the rack. No solution was offered to me, nor was any compensation provided.

This morning, I placed what seems like the millionth call to the city paper’s circulation department, due to a paper that had been tossed on my stairs and then soaked-through by rain. I got the same platitudes and empty promises that the situation will be dealt with and a supervisor will call and bla de bla de bla. The promised replacement paper (“Yes, we can see that it is there within a half hour.”) has not arrived (I called today at 8:10 a.m. approximately and it is now 10:30 a.m.); no call from the supervisor has ensued and frankly, I’m doubtful it will.

The call centre indicated they were very busy today due to wet papers, most of which will have to be redelivered. I cannot imagine the cost of redelivering papers to a city of 1 million – according to the paper this week, that’s how many we are….

Well, here’s how you fix this problem:

• Insist that carriers place papers in the newspaper racks, or at least in a location that is sure to remain dry, at EACH home, no exceptions.
• Advise the carriers that their pay will be docked for each paper that must be redelivered on their route, and that they will pay the reprinting cost of each redelivered paper, the cost of having another driver deployed for the time it takes to redeliver papers on that carrier’s route, and a cost for gas.
  

I guarantee if these carriers start to see some tangible punishment for their carelessness and dishonourable job performance, it will end pretty quickly.

Delivering papers in the dark early morning is not a job many will take on and yes, I understand that the system has some staffing issues – just like everyone else in this city. However, I am positive that the costs of adequate compensation for carriers who will do a good, consistent job are far less than the costs of reprinting and redelivering papers every day. It cannot be good business to be backtracking every day in a city of one million.

On that note, is the cost of redelivery perhaps the reason that, with two notable exceptions, Val Fortney and Naomi Lacritz, the quality of reporting and the spelling and grammatical abilities of the staff writers are so poor? Can the city paper not afford to hire good, skilled, language-able writers to produce information?

Hmm... makes a person wonder.