Palma Violets are gods
In Sunday’s Sun: Diamond Jubilee disgrace
The Queen is no joke. The Diamond Jubilee medals minted to commemorate her 60th year on the throne, however, are.
They’re more than that, in fact: They are a disgrace. And the manner in which they have been handed out is a bona fide scandal, and one deserving of further investigation. Some background, first.
The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, as it is officially known, was “a tangible way for Canada to honour Her Majesty for her service to this country. At the same time, it serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.”
Note the phrase, “significant contributions and achievements.” Nearly 60,000 Canadians would receive the shiny silver medals, the governor general said last year. To do so, one needed to be Canadian, have a pulse, and have made — again, that key requirement — “significant contributions and achievements.”
The distribution of the medals was ultimately determined by the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They won’t say much about what they did to tarnish what should have been a wonderful idea. But tarnish it they did.
For example: A short while ago, the prime minister made certain to give a Diamond Jubilee medal to Jenni Byrne, his party’s campaign manager. (She was in the news again this week, when a Conservative MP stated the buck stopped with Byrne for what he called “deceptive” robocalls recently made in Saskatchewan). What were Byrne’s “significant contributions and achievements,” apart from helping to elect her boss? Hard to say say. No one’s talking.
There’s more. A box of the medals were given to REAL Women of Canada to hand out, like concession stand tokens. Among other things, REAL Women is a group that calls the “homosexual lobby” a “threat” to Canada, and which formerly had a director named Rita Anne Hartmann. As revealed in the Toronto Sun many years ago, Hartmann’s family had extensive involvement with both the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi Heritage Front. REAL Women, meanwhile, has never disavowed their association with Hartmann. Why did they get medals? Again, who knows.
Gary McHale got one, too, in a ceremony earlier this month in Toronto. McHale is an Ontario anti-Native, anti-police activist who has spent time in jail for his misadventures. What’s his “significant contribution” to Canada? No one knows. No one will say.
Out west, a Conservative MP gave medals to a couple of convicted criminals. Out of the 30 medals MP Maurice Vellacott received, one was received by an anti-abortion fanatic, Mary Wagner, who happened to be in jail at the time. Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson, who theoretically oversees the legal system that put Wagner in jail, was asked how such a thing could happen. Ask Vellacott, he said. No one seems to know much, or care.
In London, as the Free Press revealed, a former municipal politician who has been convicted of municipal corruption got a medal, as well. George Avola was honoured this week by Mayor Joe Fontana — who himself is awaiting trial on charges of fraud, uttering forged documents and breach of trust by a public official. How could such a thing happen? Again: No one knows.
It goes on. Separatists. Bankers. Right-wing lobbyists. Murky religious groups aligned with the ruling Conservatives. All have received medals, for no apparent reason. If all of this enrages you, as it does me, take heart. Canada still has leaders like Raye-Anne Briscoe, mayor of Admaston/Bromley, in Renfrew County near Ottawa. A few days ago, Briscoe got a Diamond Jubilee medal from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. She sent it back.
“I am returning this medal,” Briscoe wrote to the federation, “as I am utterly shocked, taken aback and insulted that (you) would make a ‘blanket’ distribution of this honour with a letter that would lead one to believe that they had actually been individually selected.”
It was a “sad and disappointing decision,” Briscoe said. And it was a decision that had “devalued the coinage of the realm.”
Canada needs more Raye-Anne Briscoes.
It doesn’t need the damned Diamond Jubilee medals, however.
UPDATE: on reflection, I have deleted some angry comments I made about Gary McHale which contained cursing. I sincerely apologize to McHale. (I’m going curseless for Lent.) The curse-free question I asked of him I still have, however: why did he not bar the National Alliance and the likes of Paul Fromm from attending his “Freedom” marches? Why won’t he condemn them? He says he is no extremist – and I take him at his word. So why did he not bar extremists when they appeared at his event?
Harper hockey book in captivity: year 9, day 237
Free that book being held hostage! Busby’s on the case.
Boy, I sure wish I could get Roy McGregor to ghostwrite – er, I mean, act as an “editorial consultant” – on my books!
Guess I just have to keep writin’ ’em myself. At a rate of about one every two years or so.
And not just in Windsor, either
Open letter to the winning Team McGuinty folks
Hey, you guys:
…with collective attentions turned to nasty snowstorms, repellent Conservative Senators and depressing job numbers, I know few folks are paying attention, as you pack up your offices this afternoon.
But I am. I am. And I just wanted to say that you folks made up the most successful team in Canadian politics – winning big in 2003, winning bigger in 2007, and winning (when everybody said we wouldn’t) in 2011. It was an honour and a privilege to know you and work with every single one of you. What times we had!
And I want to say something else, too (and you all know it wouldn’t be genuinely me if it wasn’t in some way impolitic). Here it is:
It is dumb that they are letting you all slip away. It is short-sighted. It makes no sense. And they are going to profoundly, profoundly regret it.
I know all of you are going to be a great success in whatever you do next. And I also know that you will all be coming together again, some day soon, to pick up the pieces.
And win again.
The Senate is an anti-democratic abomination. Always has been, always will be.
I don’t give a damn how difficult it is. Abolish it.
And if that proves too difficult, stop appointing Senators to it. I’d vote for a PM who’d promise to do that. Any stripe.
GTHL update: cancelled
Social media works!
Question to GTHL from all of us hockey parents
Every road in the city is a frigging disaster zone. Schools, businesses shut down. Snow isn’t being cleared away, anywhere.
But you guys think it’s safe to send kids out on the roads tonight for a few games? Seriously?
Wake up, GTHL.
(Oh, and don’t forget to check your litigation exposure, on this one. I suspect you’ll need a top-up.)
Ad agency genius: says you are jealous of lawyers, because they’re “smarter than you” (updated)
That’s a quote. Swear to God.
I know I’ve posted on this already. And I recall, too, that I used to be on the Ontario Bar Association executive, and I liked the folks there a lot (Louise Harris, in particular, but she’s now gone). But I have to say: this campaign launch – and letting this ad genius speak on the record – has to be the dumbest thing I have ever seen. It is dumber than a sack of hammers. Dumber than a bag of hair. Dumber than…well, you get the picture.
As a lawyer, and a long-time OBA guy, I cannot believe they’ve done something this idiotic. Therefore, as a public service, I intend to closely follow this “campaign,” which we are told was “two years in the making.” If nothing else, it’s going to be fun.
UPDATE: Looks like I’m not the only lawyer who is pissed off/amazed. Check out the pounding Jordan Furlong gives them, here.