COVID-19 TIPPED THE EX RIGHT OFF THE CLIFF

So, my ex-wife has had anger, depression, and general mental issues her whole life. But this Covid-19 pandemic has tipped her straight into the abyss of self-pity, vitriolic anger, and general despondency.

I present the following series of text messages for twofold reasons: a) I am tired of being her whipping boy since it’s been nearly a decade after our break-up and b) I wanted to present what dealing with this virus has done to people who are already dealing with significant mental issues.

*****WARNING – THE FOLLOWING IS DEEPLY DISTURBING*****

2020-03-23 21:23:07 Received
So please tell me that you’re parents are home safe because I have talked to both kids and neither of them can tell me!

2020-03-23 21:29:24 Sent
They are still away and are just as safe where they are as they would be here.

2020-03-23 21:31:58 Received
Ok well I don’t agree and they better have the best travel insurance in the world right now…and who’s buying their groceries while they shelter in place?! Or they better have figured out how to order online with delivery to their door

2020-03-23 21:33:23 Sent
Well it’s really none of your business is it?

2020-03-23 21:34:20 Sent
This is precisely why I asked about my passport so not sure about the feigned concern

2020-03-23 21:35:09 Received
I still love them and they are my kids grandparents so yes it bloody well is my business!! Goddammit Blair have you bothered to ask how my Mom’s doing?!

2020-03-23 21:37:06 Sent
Considering I had to find out about your Dad by accident I don’t bother prying.

2020-03-23 21:38:52 Received
I sent you a bloody picture you only had to ask and I thought the kids kept you a little more in the loop than they apparently do…and that’s totally your problem and your fault not mine

2020-03-23 21:42:13 Received
And my Mom was an idiot and went on a trip to Toronto two weeks ago and I convinced her to come home early yesterday although I would rather have had her stay there and now she’s on Self-isolation for 14 days

2020-03-23 21:46:09 Received
And now I am symptomatic and got tested today because I have been in the front lines of a hospital checking in every patient in the Valley with fever, cough and needing an X-ray to rule out pneumonia! Thanks so much for making me do this shit job. Bet you hope I die

2020-03-23 21:47:33 Received
If I die it’s all your fault Blair

2020-03-23 21:49:01 Received
Though I really think I will live because it’s early days and they haven’t run out of ventilators yet

2020-03-23 21:49:58 Received
And I want to live just to piss you off you dick

2020-03-23 21:51:31 Received
Now back to reality and my original purpose of contacting you… tell your parents to come home NOW

2020-03-23 21:53:56 Received
The USA is going to turn into something worse than Italy…have you been watching Italy?!

2020-03-23 21:58:09 Received
So anyways I tried. I care. Tell them from me to please PLEASE come home!

2020-03-23 22:02:25 Received
Please don’t die Blair…you’re the asshole who picked a Life Insurance Annuity when you turn 60 and I still want to have FMEP garnish that in 2026

2020-03-23 22:02:51 Received
Cheers

2020-03-23 22:06:37 Received
No reply?! Ok fine with me… I finally get the last work you asshole

2020-03-23 22:07:04 Received
The last word

2020-03-23 22:17:26 Received
Goodnight

2020-03-23 22:18:00 Received
Sweetie dreams Blair

2020-03-23 22:22:47 Received
I sleep with a clear conscious….do you actually sleep at knowing how you have treated me!?! I was a good wife to you and I Dad didn’t deserved the scorn and disrespect you have showed me! I’m a good woman still doing the right thing every day! I deserve respect from you and more importantly I respect myself!!!

2020-03-23 22:25:28 Received
So sleep well Blair.,. I will haunt your integrity forever…you can never look in a mirror again because you screwed me and I bloody well didn’t deserve it!

(I try to keep my interactions with my ex to a minimum as she inevitably blows up my cell phone with her ranting. The only reason I don’t outright block her is on the off chance there’s an emergency with the kids.)

2020-04-03 19:09:11 Sent
So, dead yet? Been 2 weeks and doesn’t look like we’re like Italy yet. Same with the States. But you’re used to being a lying drama Queen.

(Yep, I got snarky here as the situation in Canada didn’t turn into an Italy and I’m tired of her pity parties blaming me for her horrible life.)

2020-05-27 23:36:17 Received
So I guess you don’t need your Passport much anymore 😂

2020-05-27 23:39:24 Received
Going to give me a lump-sum soon and get rid of this FMEP nonsense once and for all or not?!? Your call and don’t blame me for being a bitch if I garnish your Annuity at 60 if you live through Covid-19

2020-05-27 23:39:35 Received
Asshole

2020-05-27 23:43:36 Received
Only 6 years and less than 5 months to go but who’s counting in this purgatory?!? I AM dick-smack

2020-05-27 23:48:45 Received
But logically who’s going to get Covid-19 first? You who lives in Rural MB apparently living off your GF Jackie or me who’s been forced by you to work full-time in the front-line of a hospital???

2020-05-27 23:49:50 Received
If I die first I will send my last text to our kids blaming you for my death Blair Gilmore

2020-05-27 23:50:47 Received
And you can look in the mirror and ask yourself if you did right by me…. I already know the answer

2020-05-27 23:53:38 Received
I loved you Blair and spent the best years of life trying to earn the love and respect that you never gave new. I was not perfect but I stuck with you through thick and thin and you should have a as appreciated me more even if you never meant your vows

2020-05-27 23:54:32 Received
I meant my vows on our wedding day…why did you think you could opt out?

2020-05-28 00:07:25 Received
I leaned on you when I was in labour with both our kids and you were my rock and my everything and gave you magnificent babies!!! And you didn’t appreciate that?!?!?!?!?

2020-05-28 00:13:25 Received
And I raised them through thick and thin and you gave us a lot of thin and yet I protected our kids from most of it…and you still don’t appreciate what I did Blair?!?

2020-05-28 00:19:05 Received
Ran into *Mary Smith* (name redacted by me) recently don’t ask how. It was awkward and neither of us said anything…she deserved better too I think. Maybe *Joan* (name redacted) has low enough expectations or standards and I hope you and her have a “mediocre” relationship… at least you have someone to keep you warm on those cold Manitoba nights. I don’t because I have standards

2020-06-07 20:07:59 Received
So lump sum soon so I can relocate to Saskatchewan?!?

2020-06-07 20:09:14 Sent
Nope

2020-06-07 20:10:57 Received
Do you think I would have left the Prairies if I knew a Pandemic was coming?!?

2020-06-07 20:11:52 Received
Nope because you are a loser and broke or just cause you hate me almost as much as I hate you?

2020-06-07 20:12:36 Received
Come on answer your phone… I feel like playing

2020-06-07 20:13:05 Sent
Blocked

(Occasionally, I get tired of her BS and I block her number for a period of time. You’ll notice she felt like getting into it with her ‘playing’ comment.)

2020-06-16 00:11:27 Received
So now you get to deal with the consequences of treating the Mother of your children like shit all these years because I got blind drunk last Friday evening after a PARTICULARLY trying week that even my Boss admitted to me today was messed up….so I said a bunch of shit I shouldn’t have a that I regret but you can’t see unless you have taken over your Dad’s FB profile which is not that weird considering how smart you are Blair Gilmore

2020-06-16 00:17:37 Received
So now I am in a mess with our kids and I take full ownership of drinking too much and posting too much on FB and you can take me to Court anytime you want but I know for a fact that you survive on the Goodwill of Bar 7 Farms under the table and your current GF Jackie. I really wish you had given us the chance to live life together without the pressures of kids…we were just JUST becoming empty-nesters when you gave up WHY?!?!?

2020-06-16 00:21:05 Received
I was a really high-functioning Military Wife with a life of my own and plans for a heavily subsidized Masters degree in Leadership online from Royal Roads University and dreams of high-level positions in Health-Care Management

2020-06-16 00:25:32 Received
But nope you killed all my dreams and treated me like shit throughout this scorched earth Divorce and somehow expected me to not hit complete utter exhaustion and bitterness and anger and despair because I really know that you don’t give a shit. Except now that I am completely used up and bitter and hopeless you forget or didn’t give a shit about how this wasted life of mine would impact our kids and Grandchildren

2020-06-16 00:27:06 Received
I remember screaming at you late in 2011 after you forced me out of your life that “Just remember I am the Mother of your Children “.

2020-06-16 00:34:23 Received
I take 85% of the responsibility of why I am a train wreck today and I give the other 15% blame to you. Either way it doesn’t matter…just live with the train wreck that you helped create because dammit I tried to make this Divorce reasonable and you just “didn’t feel like dealing with it” in December 2014 and I will go to my grave hating you for not having compassion when I begged you to help me and sort out a resolution. So the resolution in 2020 is now $50,000.00 lump sum and FMEP goes away… FINAL OFFER

2020-06-16 00:42:48 Received
I beg you for one last time give me a chance at a life and I will set you free from FMEP and you can have a chance at a life not in Purgatory too

2020-07-01 00:01:19 Received
What was that quote your friend posted on FB a few years ago? “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. When are you just going to stop being such a dick and start trying to make this divorce better for the sake of our kids and grandchildren?!?

2020-07-01 00:05:05 Received
I would like to be able to be in the same room as you when both our kids eventually get the chance to throw a wedding. Now start trying harder to meet me in the middle and play nice in the sandbox please

2020-07-01 06:59:06 Sent
Oh always the toxic drama queen, nobody including the kids are fooled by your lies anymore.

2020-07-02 03:35:11 Received
Are you really so far gone that you think that I would EVER lie to our children Blair? Especially now since they are adults?!? Stop being so stupid you are smarter and better than this crap…

2020-07-02 03:46:56 Received
Grow up or wake up or have a day of reckoning preferably NOW instead of on your deathbed next Winter in the second wave or if you are lucky enough when you are 85…I just hope that sometime before you die you actually have some insight please deal lord

2020-07-02 03:58:18 Received
You should be thankful that I have not lied to our kids but mostly have cared about them to withhold the truth Blair

2020-07-02 03:59:14 Received
Now leave me alone because apparently you are nuts

2020-07-02 06:53:20 Sent
Have you ever wondered why no one including the kids likes or can even stand to be around you? Everyone sees right through you. I can send one text but you need to send multiple messages because you’re empty inside.

2020-07-05 02:02:24 Received
Stop throwing stones Blair. I loved you and meant my vows to you when we go married. It broke my heart when you ended it on August 20, 2011. My heart almost broke in half when I divorced you on May 20, 2016. We share children and grandchildren so let’s figure out a way to find peace for the sake of our family

2020-07-05 10:20:35 Sent I’ll find peace with you when you call off your dogs. I would even seriously consider giving you a payout.

(So here’s the glimpse of the rational woman who pops out rarely. Rationality quickly gets the boot.)

2020-07-07 17:58:55 Received
Let me know your next move and I will contact my FMEP Case Manager here in BC. I am not allowed to contact Manitoba FMEP directly myself…yeesh

2020-07-07 18:04:47 Sent
Call off your dogs and I will consider a payout. That means ceasing enforcement. You put it on. You take it off.

2020-07-07 18:33:42 Received
You gave me NO CHOICE to put it on Blair. I was gob-smacked that you tried to bully me so hard that you thought I would cave. You would think that after an Interim, Final, Divorce and Garnishment Court Order you would have realized that meant business!! Let’s get the FMEP to do most or ALL of the work for FREE…otherwise we’re both going have to lawyer-up again and my last lawyer was $350.00/hr how about yours? Because doing it you way would make the lump-sum taxable and that’s just plain stupid. Check your ego at the door for once and use your brains Blair!! It’s a big reason why I fell in love with you in the first place! What the hell is wrong with you?!? If you truly wanted to end this scorched-earth divorce which is now scorching our kids and grandchildren you would do it the SMART way….I’m tired of you dangling a lump-sum once and awhile in my face. Because it’s the only trump card you have left isn’t it?!? Well the window of opportunity to play that card is closing fast so your turn is now once and for all…or never. I know that I have tried so many times to find a resolution to this sick game you’re playing. I only have 6 years and less than 3 months before FMEP starts to garnishee your crappy Pension Annuity so from any sane perspective I hold all the cards. You have two weeks to give me a decision. Goodnight

2020-07-07 18:36:42 Sent
Go fuck yourself you crazy bitch, I don’t need 2 weeks for that.

2020-07-07 18:37:33 Sent
Tell you what, that’s a real easy decision to just tell you to fuck off.

2020-07-07 18:38:42 Sent
Have fun with my little GST checks, don’t spend it all at once.

2020-07-07 18:44:35 Received
Well considering that my GST cheque’s are still going to my bankruptcy trustee 18 months after discharge and because of Covid 19 delays I may or may not finally get it in October I most DEFINITELY will enjoy yours 😂

2020-07-07 18:46:31 Received
So should I show this conversation to our kids so that they can figure out who’s reasonable, rational and calm and who’s crazy Blair???

2020-07-07 18:48:42 Received
Tell you what… I will give you until August 20, 2020 to grow a rational brain to give me an adult response Okay?

2020-07-07 18:52:49 Sent
Nope, you can go fuck yourself since you won’t turn off Maintenance. The kids know who the fucked up bitch is so don’t bother with your empty threats

2020-07-07 18:53:39 Sent
Have fun at work bitch!

(The ex knows full well that Family Maintenance isn’t into ‘making deals’. Their purpose is to enforce court orders for the full amount so any sort of side deal she wants to make with me doesn’t matter a bit to them. The significance of the date is when we broke up in 2011.)

2020-07-09 20:22:50 Received
Grow up and grow a pair Blair Gilmore and you get to figure out how both of us get to be in the room when both of our kids eventually have the time and money to have the weddings they want and we couldn’t give them…I’m done trying to bury the hatchet with you and meet in the middle because there seems to be no middle with you

2020-07-09 20:26:19 Received
And you have blinders on like six Court losses doesn’t matter and you still seem to think that you get to call the terms of this Divorce…call me when you hire a lawyer to seriously negotiate a lump-sum settlement with FMEP because I will never contact you again otherwise.

2020-07-09 20:27:50 Received
And do it for our kids and grandchildren you selfish fuck…

2020-07-09 20:29:36 Received
Because I sure as shit have long ago stopped hoping you would do it out of respect for me…about the time I did the paperwork for FMEP in January of 2016

2020-07-09 20:37:29 Received
Call off the hounds?!? You have the power to do that every day so grown a pair and do it yourself. Trust me I don’t even care enough about your opinion to even rub your nose in the dirt. You have Control Mr Gilmore…bad ugly nasty Divorce or mature logical divorce that loves our kids and grandchildren?!? You choose

2020-07-09 20:43:52 Received
I am consciously giving you that power because you seem to demand that in our sad and problematic negotiations…you have all the guts then you get all the glory Blair. You figure it out finally then I will let you be the hero because you always had the ego and I never did

2020-07-09 20:44:13 Received
TRUTH

2020-07-09 20:45:27 Received
Be the hero and saviour of our family Blair…I dare you!!!!!!!!!

2020-07-09 20:45:51 Received
Be a MAN

2020-07-09 20:47:03 Received
An actual grownup MAN who cares for his kids and grandchildren MORE than his own EGO

2020-07-09 20:52:22 Received
Rant over. I am DONE

2020-07-09 21:03:20 Received
And just because I am a wee bit human…can I just say once and for all…FUCK YOU Blair Dwayne Gilmore!!! I gave much MUCH more than I got and if the second wave of Covid 19 kills me your paltry GST credit gives me enough extra money to get a current Will in place so at least our kids don’t get to deal with a Mom who’s Intestate

2020-07-09 21:04:52 Received
Asshole

2020-07-09 21:05:00 Received
Prick

2020-07-09 21:05:43 Received
Dick-smack

2020-07-09 21:08:26 Received
Go punch another cow tomorrow…I get up tomorrow to do a thankless job every day but get thanked by total stranger every day which Goddamit makes me go do my jobs tomorrow

2020-07-09 21:09:57 Received
Because my job actually matters during a Pandemic huh

2020-07-10 07:26:37 Sent
Such a bitter old crone, I hope you live a long long life and stew forever in that crazy head of yours all alone because everyone hates you.

2020-07-15 23:27:21 Received
Oh really EVERYONE??? How about words like “always” and “never”? You had almost 4 years to negotiate with ME including when I gave into all your terms in December 2014 but you “didn’t feel like dealing with this right now”. So then you’re surprised when 4 months later I retained a put-bull lawyer and hauled our Case into BC Supreme Family Court 4 more times and then opened a file with FMEP to enforce the multiple Court Orders?!? What the hell did you think I would do Blair? Go quietly? You should have realized that the shitty life you gave me for 23 years at least toughened me up. So grow a pair if you can at this point and offer a lump-sum settlement to FMEP and if it’s a reasonably good offer FMEP will gladly accept with my approval and happily close the File forever and you might get to have a credit rating and a Passport and even get to keep a Driver’s License and be a big boy again.

2020-07-15 23:30:30 Received
I’m trying to move on from this scorched-earth divorce because it’s starting to scorch our kids and grandchildren so stop being a narcissistic jerk and DO THE RIGHT THING FOR ONCE

2020-07-15 23:55:12 Received
9 years ago I was in Penhold trying to help you from a distance deal with getting unfairly tosses out of Phase 3 of your flight training in Southport. Your Wings were actually on display before I left for Penhold I saw them… you were so damn close to your Dream you could taste it!!! Did I falter or give up on you that summer when you got screwed?!?!? Did I love you any less or stop wanting to be your wife Blair?!? I DID NOT. I LOVED YOU BLAIR FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE and the previous 23 years of our marriage should have made you appreciate that!!! Why did you throw me away then??? Did you think you could find someone better?!? Because you never have…is *Joan* your 4th girlfriend since 2011??? Are you going to put a ring on this one?

2020-07-15 23:59:31 Received
A part of me will ALWAYS love you Blair Gilmore how could it be otherwise?!? We basically grew up together and share two kids together and now two grandchildren

2020-07-16 00:00:24 Received
Make the deal. Bury the hatchet and let’s move on

2020-07-16 00:08:40 Received
So stop being the truly bitter one locked into an untenable position and give FMEP a legitimate offer so you can move forward with your life and offer *Joan* what she deserves if she’s the one you want to end your life with… I wish you both the best

2020-07-16 00:11:25 Received
Reality check Blair…. there’s a Pandemic sweeping the World and so far Canada is doing really good but there’s no guarantees…I personally would like to settle this divorce once and for all before the second wave comes this Fall and Winter

2020-07-16 00:18:23 Received
And if I die before you I want it on record that it’s YOUR FAULT because by now I should have a Masters Degree in Leadership and Adult Education and I should be teaching virtual classes this Fall making double my current salary instead of being a front-line Registration Clerk in Medical Imaging at Comox Valley Hospital and begging you to end this shitshow because I for one am truly exhausted

2020-07-16 00:22:32 Received
I was exhausted in December 2014 but you didn’t give a shit then….so I am not going to hold my breath now waiting for you to change your spots now but yet I still am trying to challenge you to do so…NOT FOR ME BUT FOR OUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS OK?

2020-07-16 00:26:57 Received
Are you remotely capable of seeing the bigger picture EVER Blair?!?!??!????

2020-07-16 00:31:55 Received
When I said that we grew up together I really meant that I grew up and tried to be the best co-dependant wife you worked in peeler bars and biked to work on a bicycle for a year when we only had Betsy to get you to work… you should be ASHAMED OF WHAT YOU MADE YOUR WIFE DO

2020-07-16 00:33:28 Received
And you never ever EVER said thank-you or sorry in the end and I damn well deserved MUCH BETTER THAN I GOT

2020-07-16 00:39:17 Received
I really don’t give a flying fuck is “everyone” in your family hates me I know you really tried and who was the asshole so judge me all you want Blair Gilmore your opinion doesn’t matter to me in the least

2020-07-16 00:39:21 Received
Goodnight

2020-07-16 00:42:07 Received
I really tried not you…you always cared about you before me and before our kids and now if you don’t settle with FMEP you really don’t care about our grandchildren either…

2020-07-16 00:42:40 Received
You have Control

2020-07-16 00:45:07 Received
So be a grown up Man and sort this shitshow out for good

2020-07-16 00:51:45 Received
Nobody on this Planet understands what happened to you you in the summer of 2011 more than me Blair. I forgive you for going slightly nuts but now you get to sort out the mess that you created and give me a lump-sum settlement so I can finally stop being in survival mode and rebuild my life without you and know that I always wanted to live a life with you because I meant my vows “for better or for worse” but that didn’t seem to count with you

2020-07-16 00:57:35 Received
You chased me to Kingston in 1987… I was already having the best summer of my life dating a Captain and an Ocdt an a MCpl at the same time…yet at the end of that Summer I was wearing YOUR ring…tell me now to not be bitter and wonder why I made the wrong choice Blair?!?!?

2020-07-16 01:02:14 Received
Oh and then the Sgt I fucked for a solid week the summer before drove 500 miles out of his way to land at my door when the Captain I was dating was already there and things got really interesting at that point…do you not realize that I had really good men fighting to date me when I met you Blair and I chose YOU???????!!!!!

2020-07-16 01:03:16 Received
Now tell me that I am a bitter old woman and take the blame you dick

2020-07-16 01:06:05 Received
Do I really care if you hate your life? Nope because you ruined any chance of my life being anything other than a fucking front-line Clerk thank

2020-07-16 01:06:15 Received
Thanks Blair

2020-07-16 01:12:33 Received
Now I am NEVER going to text you again after this unless I hear from FMEP that you want to finally settle this Divorce with a lump-sum offer of $70,000.00 because the price just went back up from $50,000.00 because you missed that window of opportunity

2020-07-16 01:14:11 Received
And seriously what do I really care? You are never serious anyways about this so why should I be?!?!?!?

2020-07-16 01:16:55 Received
So I will garnish your Pension in 6 years and 3 months and maybe only have work a part-time position after that

2020-07-16 01:18:05 Received
I can afford to play the long game Blair…can you????

2020-07-16 01:21:49 Received
There’s something really wrong with hoping I die from Covid 19 Blair…because it will cause our kids severe grief and that should matter more than the fact that I won’t garnish you anymore

2020-07-16 01:28:59 Received
I don’t wish you dead Blair I just wish you the best when you finally sort out this divorce once and for all and not on your terms because you fucked that up in December 2014

2020-07-16 01:30:11 Received
When you had the chance and couldn’t be bothered because why?????????!!!!!!?????

2020-07-16 01:44:34 Received
So you have Control and you get to live with the consequences NOW of dealing with this Divorce properly once and for all

2020-07-16 01:46:46 Received
Or not…because I know by now what a narcissistic prick you are and you only ever really care about yourself and that’s what you’re on your 4th girlfriend since we broke up because nobody is stupid enough to marry you like Me

2020-07-16 01:55:56 Received
I’m tired of this shit Blair. Your move. You have Control. Grow up and care about our kids and figure this out and call FMEP with at least a lump sum of $70,000.00 and let’s move on from this shitshow

2020-07-16 01:57:21 Received
FINAL OFFER WITHOUT PREDJUDICE

2020-07-16 07:04:58 Sent
34 texts. You just proved my point bitch. Don’t think anyone would miss you if you were gone.

And, so it goes. Imagine living with this screeching harpy for over two decades who dredges up every misadventure. Covid-19 has just greatly exacerbated her paranoia and general anger. It’s given her more ammunition, in her mind, to hate my guts.

It would be interesting to study the psychology of what’s gone so wrong with her mind and what role dealing with the virus has played.

Blair’s LinkedIn Profile

Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

Canada’s Real National Disgrace

A resident waves from her window at a senior’s long-term care facility in Montreal Quebec [Christinne Muschi/Reuters]
Canada Suffers from Systemic Ageism not Racism

The idea of honoring old age, indeed identifying it with wisdom and closeness to God is in startling contrast to the way we treat aging in America.” From Becoming Fearless by Arianna Huffington

The young used to be taught to respect their elders but from my observations through these turbulent times I will call the ‘Great Pause’, it is my observation that it is much more popular to disrespect your elders. It is even more popular when the vitriol can be directed at an old, white man with whom the liberal, educated elite can heap their scorn upon. To them, these men are nothing more than caricatures of that nasty old Archie Bunker and should all die out as out of touch dinosaurs.

The clearest example of systemic ageism which grips Canada and the rest of the West vice the made up systemic racism which the Black Lives Matter types would have you believe is the scourge du jour is the vapid response regarding the fact that Covid-19 targets the old.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan obviously figured out that the aged and frail needed protecting, hence their low death and case rates. In fact, way back on February 7 in the Manitoba Media Bulletin: Novel Coronavirus Bulletin #2, health officials were sounding the alarm that people self-isolating should be avoiding individuals with chronic conditions, compromised immune systems and senior citizens.

The rest of the provinces must have lost the Thousand Miler with their mimeographed copies of the memorandum reminding them that the elderly were at risk. Instead, grandparents in long-term care facilities were dropping like dominos. The military, of all organizations, had to be called in to take up the slack in Ontario and Quebec.

Thankfully, the CAF members were listened to when they described the horrendous conditions they found in some of the homes they were dispatched to. It was so bad that even Trudeau and the MSM were forced to acknowledge the issue. But typical of the goldfish memory of politicians and the media, the horrid conditions were swept aside by the next shiny ‘news’ item. Who cares about actual issues like the decades long decay of elder care in Canada when you can virtue-signal to the masses and declare to the mob that all Canadians are racist? Hey, they’re just ‘Boomers’ and old, white dinosaurs who should all die and be swept aside so the hip, young, progressives can implement socialism, justice, and end oppression of minorities NOW!

Below is the military report. It makes for harrowing reading and one wonders why conditions like these which have existed in Canada for decades have never been addressed.

Under La Première Trudeau, there would have been calls and a demand for a National Commission on what has gone so horribly wrong with caring for our Canadian elders. Under Le Deuxième Trudeau, no one including the Opposition, even seems to care. They are all tripping over themselves to ‘bend a knee’ before Daenerys Stormborn (whose real life counterpart is Greta Thunberg) burns them down with her dragons aka SJW Antifa and BLM thugs (otherwise known as Brown Shirts back in the day).

Woe to those who even attempt to offer up a counter narrative decrying the SJWs outlandish claims. A national icon, the seventh most ‘popular’ Canadian, Don Cherry, was taken down as a racist for daring to utter the innocuous phrase, ‘You people’. His cohort for decades, Ron MacLean raced to self-castrate himself on national television in order to purify himself before ‘The Woke’ masses.

Rex Murphy, another Canadian treasure, is being harassed by fellow National Post pipsqueak ‘opinion journalists’ over a recent column where he derides our country’s politicians self-flagellation over how ‘institutionally racist’ Canada is. As a young man, Rex had already earned himself a BA in English and was an Oxford Rhodes Scholar before these nasty SJW advocacy harpies had taken their first Womens and Indigenous Studies classes.

Even the positive minority rating scale of being a woman does not spare you from the wrath of the mob. Wendy Mesley, despite decades of high profile CBC journalism, had the temerity to utter The Word Who Shall Not Be Named. The assumption is she accidentally used the word nigger but things are so racially charged, the CBC will not even acknowledge the damning utterance by saying she used the ‘N-word’. Mesley immediately self-prostrated herself and perhaps after sufficient re-education in the dungeon and a Cersei Lannister Walk of Atonement, she may once again be allowed into ‘The Woke’ fold.

The watch word is ‘Silence the Dissenters!’ It will be the rare and usually independant person who will stand up and say NO! under these conditions of SJW rule. My suggestion is to start listening to Joe Rogan’s podcasts which feature Jordan Peterson before the black Sharpie of the censor takes them all down.

Professor of Philosophy, George Santayana, is credited with that old chestnut, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Is it not ironic that earlier this year, younger Canadians were out championing Native Elders, the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. But when it comes to the rest of Canada’s elders (especially the white ones), they are derided, scorned, and outright ignored to the point of death.

In fact, if you read the UN Convention on Genocide, under Article Two, “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” is a condition that qualifies as a genocide.

Canadian youth may be surprised that a quasi-genocide event is taking place right under their noses. They seem to believe that non-existent, non-statistically backed, systemic minority causes are the real Canadian curses to be addressed RIGHT THIS SECOND!!! during a deadly pandemic. Gather in your thousands to protest a statue, or the long forgotten history of the naming of a street, or the supposed epidemic of black transgender discrimination. No need to worry about a spike of Covid-19 cases because ‘Stay Home, Save Lives’ (the lives of the elderly) is so yesterday because if you have the ‘right’ social cause, you get a pass from the virus.

Were the German youth any less ignorant of what was happening while they were cheering and being asked for their fealty?

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WUHAN CORONAVIRUS REALIST

Figure 1. COVID-19 cases (n=17,100) in Canada by date of illness onset as of April 16, 2020, 11 am EDT. So if new Canadian cases started dropping of their own accord as of March 18, why are we still locked up and our economy shuttered? Remember, ‘Social Distancing, Stay Home, Flatten the Curve’ mantras were not in vogue at this point. MB for instance did not have a State of Emergency until March 20.
Post Mortem of Manitoba’s Handling of Coronavirus

UPDATE – Analysis from Israel seems to confirm these Canadian numbers and our experience of declining cases. After looking at world numbers, it appears the virus plays itself out all on its own in about 70 days despite government action or inaction. We might have destroyed our economy for no good reason other than mass hysteria.

Borrowing from my nautical background, there is a document called the Collision Regulations which regulates the safe passage of vessels on the water. In order to prevent collision, ships determine who is the ‘Give Way’ vessel and who is the ‘Stand On’ vessel and then act with due regard to the observance of good seamanship to safely avoid each other.

As an Officer of the Watch on a Navy ship, one of my jobs was to look for possible conflicts with other vessels, work out a plan to avoid them, inform the Captain with my recommendations, follow and execute his orders, monitor the situation until danger of collision was past, then get the ship back on track.

Ideally, you would try to minimize the ship’s detours and time off track as we were always on mission.

Taking another page from my naval career, when lazy leadership wanted to send a message to the sailors, they would enact group punishment. This was particularly detested and unpopular because the many would be unjustly punished for the actions of the few. The reasoning for giving out a general slap across the face was to build unit cohesion and self-policing but the effect was usually just sharp resentment.

Tying these bon mots in with Manitoba’s and indeed most of the World’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in my opinion, governments did too little, too late. Then when they did start to act, it was a shotgun approach vice a targeted strategy which succeeded in only panicking their populations and subsequently devastating their economies.

Canadian governments knee-jerk reacted to dubious reports from China, horror stories from Italy, and worst case epidemiological modeling which projected apocalyptic, Biblical ‘End of Times’. This has led Canada into the worst crackdown and suspension of civil liberties probably in the history of our country.

The Manitoba government has been regularly issuing Covid-19 Media Bulletins since January 30. Bulletin #53, April 16, lists no new cases (cumulative total 250), 8 in hospital, 4 in ICU, 121 recovered, and 5 deaths. 18,349 Covid-19 tests have been completed. For comparison for the Manitoba 2017-18 flu season: In total, 508 influenza cases were hospitalized including 35 admissions to intensive care units (ICU) and 46 individuals died. Of those hospitalized and deceased cases, 65% and 76% were aged 65 years and older.

Just as a quick aside, it’s being reported that greater than 90% of Canadian deaths are those 60 years and older. (Sounds eerily like the flu stats that I just spoke of.) ‘Dr. Theresa Tam says outbreaks in long-term care homes are the most crucial COVID-19 problem. Tam is urging all Canadians to continue to stay home to keep older people, who are most at risk, from dying. Half of the 734 deaths in Canada from COVID-19 had occurred in long-term care homes.‘ Um, here’s maybe an alternative thought. How about we protect the most vulnerable of our population and keep them in lockdown instead of destroying our economy by keeping everyone else at home?

By using the Way-Back machine, here is a review of the major points of the Manitoba Covid-19 timeline starting with the first Bulletin issued on January 30.

  • For the month of February, the risk to Manitobans was rated as LOW and people had no need to wear masks.
  • Early in March, it was recognized that cases were climbing in China and the virus was starting to spread to other countries particularly Iran then Italy. By the end of February, MB had tested 38 people, there were no cases, and Canada had 12 cases.
  • March 10, the Province started looking for more Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE). They also stated that when dealing with patients with the virus, the patients and their caregivers would be wearing masks. (This went against the Health Canada, Dr. Tam, advice that masks would not work.)
  • March 11, MB recorded its first case (travel related), people traveling from China, Iran & Italy were asked to self-isolate, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. The government stated ‘Those at the greatest risk of severe outcomes include those over 65 years of age, those with underlying medical conditions and those with compromised immune systems.’ The oft-repeated phrase, social distancing, was first introduced and recommendations set.
  • On March 15, all international travelers coming back to MB were recommended to self-isolated for 14 days. Only travelers with symptoms were going to be tested.

So at this point, the bold action would have been to test and quarantine those travelers coming in from the hotspots. Social distancing practices are always a good idea even when a bad flu or the chicken pox is going around, so good recommendation there. They already knew who the target group was so early lock downs of the nursing homes and hospitals made sense (but really did not happen).

As reported by MB, it looks like Covid-19 cases peaked around April 1 (34 new cases that day) and are flattening out. This ties in with the curve flattening for new cases experienced by Canada as a whole and also calls into question the effectiveness of ‘Social Distancing’ policies. Graph Source
Factoring in recoveries, there was a big split in early April which suggests MB has peaked regarding the virus. Source – MB Covid News Bulletins 1 – 49
Crunching the numbers for Covid-19 in MB, tentatively the province peaked for Hospitalizations/ICU visits/Deaths around April 8th. The caveat is the numbers are quite low to start with. Source: MB Media Covid-19 Bulletins 1 – 49
  • For the next week, testing for the virus ramped up, schools were slated for early closure (March 23 for 3 weeks), events with 250+ were canceled (soon dropped to 50+), daycares, casinos, care homes, surgeries, adult day programs & courts were slated for shutdown. Border measures for drivers were being considered. The Province had 266 ventilators and the Health Science Center was prepping an extra 30 ICU beds.
  • On March 20, the government hit the panic button by declaring a State of Emergency. Here is the actual legislation. The directives first applied to public areas, not work. Groups of people of 50+ were banned. The phrase, ‘Flatten the Curve’ was first used as was this being termed a ‘Historic Pandemic’. There were 19 cases (all travel related) in the province.
  • On March 23, schools were closed and Manitobans really started into ‘social distancing’ protocols.
  • On March 25, a female in her 60’s was the first hospitalization and ultimate death.
  • On March 27, the government launched a $4.5M program to help combat anxiety related to the virus. Only groups of 10 people were now allowed. Information checkpoints were set up at provincial borders and the two main airports. Domestic travelers coming to MB were also supposed to self-isolate by this point.
  • March 30, the Province moved to really shut things down. No diners in restaurants, no non-essential business, school was cancelled indefinitely, transit was still running but social distancing and flattening the curve were the watchwords. This was when the big push for people to ‘Just Stay Home‘ was used by the Premier. At this point, the province had done 8550 tests, there were 103 cases, 3 in hospital, 2 in ICU and 1 death.
  • April 1, a research program with QC, AB and MB regarding the drug hydroxychloroquine was announced. Also, ‘new screening procedures are being implemented for staff working in acute and long-term care facilities.’ This was odd because the hospitals and nursing homes were supposed to have already been on lockdown. The screening is a little hit and miss because many care staff are not having their temperature taken.
  • April 5, the cost to Manitobans estimated at an extra $10B
  • April 6, Manitobans are told to stay home for Easter, there was a no ‘non-essential’ travel advisory and we still had to flatten the curve.
  • April 8, social distancing was credited with keeping new cases low as they had seemed to have peaked back around April 1 but we were cautioned not to let up. Considering, really hardcore social distancing had not reached the 2 week point, this seems like a dubious claim.
  • On April 9, the government really hammered home the message that Easter weekend should be spent alone in your house. Operation Safe Apart was announced with pre-set fines of $486/person and $2542/business for people who were not social distancing enough. There’s a snitch line to report your neighbors and extra officers have been hired. That curve was not going to flatten itself despite evidence that MB may have peaked in early April. Hospitals and ICUs have never come close to being pushed to capacity up to this point.
  • As of April 16, cases have slowly flattened out to 250 in total with 121 people recovered. 8 people are hospitalized, 4 in ICU and 5 total deaths.

Returning to my Navy examples, our governments saw a potential conflict, started to gather pertinent information, slowly began to react, but instead of acting rationally, they hit the panic button. Then they forgot to monitor the situation so that we could get our country back on track.

To be fair, I can see where confusion would happen as China was lying through their teeth regarding their experience with the virus. (But China always lies so why would anyone take them seriously?) At first, everyone was told human to human transmission wasn’t possible. The risk to Canadians was low (ultimately this is going to be true). But it was the 3.4% mortality rate from China, Italy’s experience, and the influential Imperial College paper model that freaked World governments.

Unfortunately, governments are full of risk adverse bureaucrats and spineless politicians. Instead of targeted approaches to a crisis, it is easier to blanket a situation and punish the masses. Catchy propaganda phrases are designed to cow the population into submission.

Canadian governments should have aggressively quarantined people coming from hot zones immediately instead of belatedly bringing those policies in now. It was identified right from the beginning what age groups were most at risk. So why are there calls at this point to protect the nursing homes? I know for a fact that these homes are not being protected as well as they should be. Monitoring the numbers, it is obvious the virus outbreak peaked, the hospitals were never close to being overwhelmed, and the government’s main weapon, social distancing, appears to have had a limited effect.

So for Manitoba, if this entire episode with the Wuhan virus resolves itself and ultimately ends up being less deadly than a regular flu season, was it worth Manitoba going an extra $10 Billion in debt? Was it worth crippling our economy, throwing thousands out of work and into bankruptcy, and exponentially increasing people’s rates of anxiety, depression and ultimately suicide?

Other World jurisdictions have announced plans to start coming out of this ‘Great Pause’. Will Manitoba come to its senses and restart our economy or will they double down on their policy of keeping us locked down?

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SURVIVOR OF THE GREAT 2020 TP HOARDER PANIC

Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases

Time to Pull back on the Coronavirus Hysteria

February 25 Update: There is some cautious optimism that this virus isn’t as deadly as the prediction models are making it seem. In a nutshell, because the very common coronavirus has been around for years during flu season, people infected don’t realize they’ve contracted the virus. They may have very mild to no symptoms but pass it around anyways.

So when some higher numbers of fatalities out of Wuhan started to appear and a government crackdown happened, the rest of the World took notice. Mortality rates appeared quite high but as explained in the following articles, infection rates are probably massively underestimated. The true mortality rate could be as low as .06% which is lower than the annual flu.

So maybe soon we can all take a deep breath, stop freaking out, and approach this issue a little more rationally. We’ll see how the numbers from all the testing in the States works out when more data comes in.

‘Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?’: Professors claim more data needed to know mortality rate

A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data

If COVID-19 Killed 1.4% of People With Symptoms in Wuhan, the Overall Fatality Rate Is Likely to Be Much Lower Than People Feared

As an aside, does apocalyptic predictions ring a bell with anyone? You know, stuff like, ‘The World is going to end in 12 years’; ‘Ban plastic straws because it’s killing all the sea turtles’; ‘Arctic Ice, snow, polar bears, glaciers are a thing of the past’; ‘Shut down all the pipelines & tar sands because they’re killing the planet!’; ‘Manmade CO2 levels are sending the planet over the tipping point.’

It would seem that the same players, Lefties, Liberals, MSM, that have fallen for and pushed these apocalyptic scenarios bit hard for this latest gambit. They seized down on the worst case predictions, people have panicked, the World shut itself down.

Our populations are primed for Doomsday. Movies, TV, and the media push the worst of scenarios or they aren’t noticed. Keep the people in a constant state of panic and the overlords can do whatever they please. Trudeau almost had absolute control of the country without Parliamentary oversight for two years. Thankfully, the Conservatives stood up to the dictator.

Stand on Guard Canada. It isn’t the coronavirus you should be afraid of, it’s your government.

From the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams), “It is said that despite its many glaring (and occasionally fatal) inaccuracies, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy itself has outsold the Encyclopedia Galactica because it is slightly cheaper, and because it has the words ‘DON’T PANIC’ in large, friendly letters on the cover.”

Carrying on with the Hitchhiker’s theme, the Earth and it’s denizens were originally described as Harmless then later edited to be Mostly Harmless after the alien field researcher, Ford Prefect, spent many years exploring the planet after he was marooned in Britain.

I would like to segue briefly over to how cattle act during calving season since that’s what we have been doing on the farm for several weeks. Normally, these animals are quite placid, cooperative, and act rationally as much as any cow would. But during calving when their hormones are racing, they often act irrationally or even dangerously. Sometimes they come to their wits on their own; occasionally a good, solid two-hander with a stout stick is needed across their forehead; and for one or two, it’s off to the cull pen before someone gets killed. It isn’t the animal’s fault, they’re just reacting to a very stressful time in their lives. But if a firm hand isn’t present to do what needs to be done then someone could end up hurt or dead.

As it is so with the literal hysteria surrounding the virus outbreak. Emotions are running wild and people are starting to act irrationally. Really, if this was ‘THE APOCALYPSE‘, should your first instinct be to go out and hoard toilet paper?

I place firm blame on our supposed political leaders and the media for whipping everyone into such a frenzy over this health issue. Our yellow-belly Prime Minister decided to run and hide after possible exposure to the virus. If anyone should be getting tested immediately it should be essential personnel. They do not have the luxury of self-isolating for two weeks. Trudeau was never cut out to be a leader and Canada is suffering badly from multiple crises that he has not been able to handle.

Another major blame to lay at the feet of the government is the incomprehensible policy of keeping the borders open even to this minute to people arriving from other world hot zones. The vast majority of positive virus cases in Canada were imported from overseas and mostly by air. A firm policy regarding testing and quarantining border crossers needed to be implemented. The Leftie ideals of open borders has screwed over the country.

That was the inaction that has gotten regular Canadians worked up wondering what they should be doing. In the wake of that, many provinces have over-reacted and have essentially enacted martial law through declaring states of emergency.

Poof! Just like that, our civil liberties are gone.

If you are interested, here are the Federal Emergencies Act legislation and the Manitoba Emergency Measures Act. The penalties, which are administered through summary conviction, are steep. Up to a year in jail and/or a $10,000 fine for an individual. Interesting tidbit from the MB Chief Public Health Officer who declared a $50,000 fine limit and $500,000 limits on corporations. I would be clarifying those numbers as it is not in the present legislation. This is precisely why government should not be enacting these powers willy-nilly. Tossing our freedoms aside should not be done lightly and normally the population would have been demanding a damn good reason for these draconian measures.

You have probably noticed on social media that there are reports of people clamouring to literally ‘bring the hammer’ down on people who are not ‘social distancing’ themselves properly. All over FB and Twitter, people are being chastised for the crime of being outside. Every province has enacted their Emergency Acts. Arrests are starting. Do people realize that we are coming dangerously close to Stalinist Russia?

There is a line where government should act with more authority but in general, it should not because of the inevitable abuse of power. In my personal opinion, after studying all of the reports from how this virus has been handled, Canada does not need a mass lockdown using government force.

Here is some of my reasoning. The Federal government reports over 100,000 tests to date. As of the 23rd of March, Canada has about 1500 cases with 21 deaths. I also follow the MB news releases. MB has 20 cases, all travel related with one non-critical hospitalization. The province has done thousands of tests and has testing stations set up in various locations.

This virus has been compared to the Spanish Influenza. It is not. That H1N1 virus vicously attacked young, healthy adults. The coronavirus mainly is fatal to older people with chronic health conditions particularly lung disorders. Here’s the Italian numbers: average age of victims: 79.5 y/o; only 5 victims below 40, all of whom already suffered other illnesses; and only 3 victims in total did not have other contributing illnesses.

Here is an Imperial College of London paper which also concludes that the oldest in our populations would suffer the greatest. 50% of the infected in China were not even considered as cases. It was the 80+ year olds who suffered the highest mortality rates.

***UPDATE on the Imperial College paper that walks back the dire predictions***

Here’s another interesting, optimistic article from a Nobel Prize winning chemist: Nobel Prize winner shares some good news about the coronavirus pandemic

Canada and the rest of the world needs a coordinated strategy that is based on reasoned logic before we all become victims of dictatorial edicts and destroy our economies. Targeted plans to protect those who are most at risk need to be enacted instead of mass government enforced lockdowns.

If people were falling over dead in the streets, that would be one thing. But they’re not. The majority of people catching this virus will have mild to no symptoms. Canadian cases are barely rising when they should be spiking if this bug was as contagious as it is made out to be. All the testing should have bumped the numbers substantially, but it hasn’t. Hardcore ‘social distancing’ only just started in the last few days, so those already infected Canadians should have gotten many more sick but again where are the numbers? We didn’t ‘flatten the curve’ that fast.

Being safe and not sorry only works if the cure isn’t worse than the disease. Ironic that Canada just went through a period of mass protests where civil liberties were sacrosanct even against popular opinion. Now, it appears Canadians are eager for massive government crackdowns despite shaky reasoning.

The MSM doesn’t help. Here’s a good article on how the media has been more useful at spreading panic instead of useful context about the whole issue. Canadians are under siege and constant ‘COVID -19’ bombardment. It’s no wonder many people are freaking out and are almost literally blockading themselves in their homes.

I will finish with these everyday recommendations: practice good hygiene; if you are feeling sick, stay away from others, particularly the old and sickly; turn off social media and the news, especially if you are feeling freaked out; be patient with the frontline workers, they are stressed and doing their best; it is always a good strategy to use extra civility with others, many people are outright panicking during this latest crisis. Start with a kind word before going straight for the two-hander upside the head. Mind your own business about what other people are doing, if they want to lock themselves down, fine, it’s their choice. If they are out for a walk in the park, piss off with the hostile attitude that they’re contributing to the ‘Walking Dead World Apocalypse‘. You do you and I’ll do me.

Despite the MSM’s fervent wishes and the preponderance of popular Hollywood tales promoting ‘End Times‘, this virus is not ending anything. It will be sad that many of the most sick and aged are going to be the bulk of the victims. Locking down old age homes and hospitals hopefully was an early priority. Not to sound cold, but elderly, sick people dying is a part of life.

What is also life, is that with all this social isolation, Canada is going to have a Christmas ‘Covid-19’ Baby Boom. New life always finds a way.

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CANADIAN STANDING AGAINST DOMESTIC TERRORISM

Protesters against building a pipeline through Wet’suwet’en territory. Courtesy: Twitter.com/CBrentPatterson
Stop The Funding of Canadian Domestic Terrorism
Indigenious Youth for the Wet’suwet’en protesting at the Victoria Legislature

April 6 Update: So after a brief hiatus, the war in the woods over the CGL pipeline is starting to pick up.

The Unist’ot’en Camp website has a propaganda video up decrying the fact that CGL ‘Man-camps’ are working on the pipeline during the virus crisis. The general points they try to make is they are abusive to the local women, they aren’t essential services, and they aren’t practicing proper social distancing. CGL has already addressed safety issues connected with the camps and the work being conducted is to do with regulatory deadlines. Besides, it will have been sanctioned by the province’s health network.

Added into the mix is an outfit called Indigenous Youth for Wet’suwet’en. They were responsible for many of the blockading protests at the Victoria Legislature. Of course, they have their own donation site.

Disconcertingly, they have taken it upon themselves to travel to the Witset/Houston area to protest the work going on with the pipeline. A video appeared on Twitter after the young people had been detained by the RCMP for violating a court injunction. Hereditary Chief Smogelgem and Molly Wickham are seen to be welcoming this group’s presence. It appears the group wants to be in the woods for the long haul as they have a laundry list of items they’re asking people to donate regarding their cause.

It’s baffling that in this time of ‘Stay at Home‘ and ‘Don’t travel unnecessarily especially to remote locations‘ that this group decided that it was a good idea to make the trip North. In a delicious twist of irony, one of their Twitter statements is ‘We understand we must protect our elders, knowledge keepers, and communities in order to preserve our languages, and cultures.’ They are directly endangering ‘the elders’ with their precence if they’re carrying the virus.

What is also unconscionable is the warm welcome they’ve received from the fake Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel and long-time activist Molly Wickham. These people don’t care whose health they jeopardize whether it’s the pawns from the South or their own elders.

The Pacific Natural Gas line (1968) has been operating through Wet’suwet’en territory for decades. Should it be ripped from the ground?

March 1 Update: In a reversal of the parable of Muhammad and the Mountain, the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have succeeded in convincing the Mountain (the Federal Government) to come to them. But this is not a Biblical story of David slaying Goliath to win the day. This is more of a Game of Thrones episode full of greed, lust and avarice for power, duplicity, and misogyny.

So what exactly is the endgame for the governments, the gas pipeline companies, and the Hereditary Chiefs? Here’s a few salient points no one, especially the sycophant MSM, is discussing:

  • Are you aware of the Pacific Northern Gas (PNG) Pipeline that has been safely operating through Wet’suwet’en traditional territory since 1968 and in fact heats the Smithers offices of the Hereditary Chiefs? Huh, kind of hypocritical of them to state ‘No Pipelines’.
  • The Coastal GasLink pipeline is not the only NG pipeline proposed for the area. The proposed Pacific Northern Gas Looping Pipeline will mostly be a twinning of the PNG pipeline and will run right through the same disputed area. The Pacific Trails Pipeline will be running along the same route as the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. So what’s going to happen with all of these other projects that have been on the books and for which agreements have been signed?
  • Are you aware of the Hereditary Chief’s resources company called Wet’suwet’en Ventures Ltd.? The Office of the Wet’suwet’en (OW) is involved with forestry, mining, and a resort. Their Ventures Company has been very lucrative over the years according to their financial statements. So if they are willing to cut down trees and mine for profit, why are they so against a pipeline or several going through their land as long as they are properly compensated?
  • Are you aware that three of the HCs stole their titles from a group of three matriarchs? Frank Alec Jr. who is identified as a main Hereditary Chief is a FAKE! So is Warner Naiziel who is not the real Chief Smogelgen. Frank Patrick also stole his title.
  • The stealing of titles points to the real motivation of the HCs which is greed and the lust for power. When they were opposed by the sitting women chiefs, they literally stole their metaphorical thrones and crowned themselves as monarchy. As explained by Gloria George in the Resource Works interviews the men who gave them the boot are not following Wet’suwet’en traditional law. She describes them as products of bad experiences in the residential school system and are seizing power.
  • Consistent with this lust for power, the HCs are attempting to wrest control of the six Wet’suwet’en Nations away from the elected Band Councils who were the ones signing the agreements with the BC government and the pipeline companies. If they can get the governments to recognize that they are the go-betweens for the Wet’suwet’en then the Band Councils get neutered. This is where the traditional purpose of the HCs gets tossed on its head. Their purpose is to promote harmony and consensus within their people and to represent their wishes. By destroying the legitimacy of the ELECTED Band Councils in favour of literal dictators for life who are operating against the wishes of the vast majority, they are acting entirely opposite of traditional Wet’suwet’en law.
  • So where is this headed? The Liberal Trudeau government would like to shut down Canada’s oil and gas sector but it would be difficult to entirely cancel this pipeline, let alone the other proposals, which is the stated goal of the HCs. Today’s announcement from the talks suggests a transfer of land title to the HCs. That would be the first step for them to complete their coup d’état against the Councils. BTW, the agreements signed never gave up any title to land but why quibble about actual facts. The HCs and their minions like Molly Wickham exaggerate and bald-face lie constantly.
  • The routes of the pipelines could be altered but that’s really a non-starter plus there really is no point. Years of effort on the part of the FNs people and company scientists have gone into determining appropriate routes. That kind of delay is what kills these projects.
  • But, as demonstrated, other than some of the hyper-activists like Freda Huson and Molly Wickham who probably honestly want the pipelines to be cancelled, the male HCs are motivated by greed and power. They are going to work towards some nice fat government handouts and funding which will keep the OW running. Coincidentally, their family and friends will keep sharing in the largesse. They will work it so they entirely run the Wet’suwet’en Bands as dictators for life.
  • Unfortunately for the people of those six Bands, they will be disenfranchised and held voiceless by their own people. Also, what hope for good paying jobs, services, and prosperity that would have come from timely completion of these projects is fast evaporating.
  • As for the activist organizations in the background that have been funding the HCs, I think some of that influence has been overstated. According to the OW’s financial records there have been substantial amounts transferred to their organization but they are a drop in the bucket compared to the sizeable yearly government transfers. The big bucks come from government coffers and the HCs have the weak willed Trudeau government by the short and curlies.

So to sum up, this has largely been a power struggle where five men have been attempting to wrest control of their six Band Nation away from the elected Band Councils. It is not about the environment, it is not about reconciliation, it is not about consultation, it is about plain old greed and the lust for money and power.

What is sad is the MSM is complicate in furthering this farce and in the end FNs people are just going to suffer at the hands of the amoral few. The cycle of despair and poverty will just continue.

Screenshot of Molly Wickham GoFundMe dated 28 Feb 2020 – $250,716 raised in two months

February 28 Update: Today’s update is going to deal with activist organization donations to the Office of the Wet’suwet’en (OW) plus the irregular fundraising on the part of the professional protesters. These lucrative fundraising drives are raking in millions particularly now when there is so much attention being directed towards their cause.

Some of the main culprits, regular Unist’ot’en Camp summer residents, and general scallywags are Freda Huson, Molly Wickham (employed as the OW Governance Director and paid $21,300 (2019), $66,600 (2018), $39,000 (2017), etc., and Cody Merriman. Wickham & Merriman are a couple. These three are also getting rich from multiple crowd source fundraisers both directly and indirectly.

Looking through the financial records of the Office of the Wet’suwet’en (OW), over the years there are a few entries for fundraising revenue. $57,000 declared in 2019, $1500 in 2017, $96,000 for 2016 but nothing particularly large considering their budget is in the millions.

So I started hunting down all the extra-curricular fundraising sites and came up with the following list:

  • GoFundMe Wet’suwet’en Access Point on Gidimt’en Territory – 2019 Fundraiser and closed. Organized by Jennifer Wickham (probably a relative of Molly’s) for Cody Thomas Merriman. $239,507 raised
  • GoFundMe Gidimt’en Strong – Started Jan 2020. Organized by France Maybe (Fake Person) for Molly Wickham. $250,606 raised of $300,000 goal
  • The Action Network Unist’ot’en Camp Legal Fund – 2019 Fundraiser and closed. Freda Huson’s name is on this. The amount raised has been erased but my screenshot showed $416,485 raised of $800,000 goal
  • The Action Network Unist’ot’en 2020 Legal Fund – 2020 Fundraiser again with Freda Huson’s name. Claims court costs to date are $400,000 and last year $385,000 raised (short a few thousand). Again the amount raised for this year was erased but a screenshot says $468,471 raised of $800,000 goal
  • GoFundMe Support the Likhts’amisyu spring build – Run by Warner Naziel (Ex of Freda Huson and the FAKE Chief Smogelgem who stole title from Gloria George) and Adam Gagnon (also throws around that he’s a High Chief). Started Apr 2019. $9,200 raised of $50,000 goal
  • Online Store Solidarity Art Space – Merchandise proclaiming solidarity with the Hereditary Chiefs and down with colonial settlers. All proceeds to the The Gitimt’en camp (with their extra fundraisers) and the The Unis’tot’en camp (with their extra fundraisers)
  • GoFundMe Support the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs!Sovereign Likhtsamisyu (aka Warner Naziel & Adam Gagnon) with their multiple options for donations is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Angie Gagnon. Started Feb 2020. $44,779 raised of $50,000 goal
  • GoFundMe TO Solidarity with Unist’ot’en land defenders! – Example of some of the cross country support for the HCs. $4,950 raised of $5,000 goal
  • GoFundMe From Mi’kma’ki to Unist’ot’en Yintah – Example of the fundraising so outside people can come and be a part of the blockades in the woods. $1,675 raised of $2,000 goal
  • GoFundMe Documentary: Protecting Unceded Lands in BC – Example of the propaganda efforts of the movement. They are very active on social media and are working hard to sway the ‘Hearts & Minds’ of Canadians with their lop-sided portrayal of the ‘colonial’ governments and ‘oppressive’ police. $2,165 raised of $20,000 goal
  • GoFundMe Stand with LeluSkeenaWild Conservation Trust is organizing this fundraiser. This professional activist group was financing many FN band Hereditary Chiefs to oppose the CGL pipeline. $19,765 raised of $40,000 goal
  • RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values & Environmental Needs) Stand strong for Wet’suwet’en Yintah Another professional activist group based in Victoria, BC with strong ties to the BC Sierra Club. $135,932 raised of $250,000 goal
  • Swift Foundation – An example of the non-Canadian professional activist trust foundations directly funding the OW. $29,643 donated in 2018 (source, OW financial statements)
  • Bulkley Valley Research Centre, Pacific Salmon Foundation, Skeena Fisheries Commission – Activist environmental organizations whose donations pop up in the OW financial statements.

Adding up the fundraising numbers, it appears that $1.5 million has been raised in donations in the last year. That’s a lot of money which is mostly untraceable and the use of which has little accountability.

Stay tuned for the next update for my guesses on what the endgame of the Hereditary Chiefs is. They say they are adamant about cancelling the Coastal GasLink Pipeline but if the government caves then Canada might as well close up shop wrt our resource industry. My bet right now is the HCs want a bigger part of the pie and will roll over with a sufficiently large bribe from the Feds.

February 26 Update: Today’s update is going to deal with Aboriginal Reconciliation, Consultation, and Funding in relation to the Wet’suwet’en Band Council (elected Chief and Councilors) and the Office of the Wet’suwet’en (the Hereditary Chiefs) .

The Office of the Wet’suwet’en represents the Witset Band (Moricetown) (2050 people); Wet’suwet’en Band (256 people); Burns Lake Band (Ts’il Kaz Koh) (146 people); Nee-Tahi-Buhn Band (152 people); Skin Tyee Band (187 people); & the Hagwilget (798 people). This totals a Federal Registered Population of 3589 on/off Reserve. I’m not sure where the 5000 population figure comes from as described in this recent Vancouver Sun article.

Spoiler: They are not hard done by in regards to funding and despite the lies of the ‘Hereditary’ Chiefs (HCs), there has been plenty of consultation and reconciliation programs.

Here’s another good take on the Office of the Wet’suwet’en and the shady ways of the ‘Hereditary Chiefs’ from Western Standard.

I absolutely love how the governments, companies, and councils are required to archive things like audited financial statements, government policy, consultation meetings, and copies of signed agreements. There is so much useful, verified, incontrovertible proof to throw in the faces of liars. Funny how next to no one has pulled up these reports. I came across one article that referenced the most recent funding for the Wet’suwet’en but you need to delve further into the financials to get the whole picture.

Taking a trip on the Wayback Machine, 20 years ago, the Office of the Wet’suwet’en (OW) ie. The Hereditary Chiefs signed a Political Accord Concerning Land & Resources with the Federal and Provincial governments. The intent of the document was ‘to work together cooperatively and collaboratively in a mutually beneficial way with regard to land and resources, economic initiatives and associated Wet’suwet’en capacity and training needs….‘.

Since then, the elected Band Councils of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have signed numerous economic, forestry, and Natural Gas (NG) agreements. As an example, the actual Wet’suwet’en Band has signed two NG pipeline agreements, Coastal GasLink (2014) and the Pacific Trails Pipeline Economic Participation Agreement 2008 (PTP).

Wait for that PTP project to flair up this year too.

Just for fun, here’s all the BC NG agreements that have been signed with the BC FNs in the last 12 years.

Here’s a couple of key points from the Wet’suwet’en Band Coastal GasLink agreement: The band was given millions for a signing bonus; the band is to receive extra money each year in ongoing benefits; ongoing consultation was written in; the agreement was not taking any land away from the Wet’suwet’en; the Band Council under Chief Karen Ogen signed a resolution that they had the legal authority, had consulted with the band members, and had legal consultation to authorize signing the agreement. Considering there was an election in 2016 of Chief and council who were pro-pipeline, I would say that illustrates general acceptance of the agreement contrary to the lies of the Hereditary Chiefs who say otherwise.

Direct from the contract signed in 2014: Clause 3.6 Ongoing Benefits. The Province will provide Ongoing Benefits of $10,000,000.00 (ten million dollars) per year for the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project to Wet’suwet’en First Nation and other Eligible First Nations in accordance with sections 3.7 (Entitlement to Ongoing Benefits) to 3.11 (Inflation Adjustment).

Going through all the bands listed as signing agreements on the Coastal GasLink pipeling, I count 16, and adding up the official population numbers, it comes out to about an extra $1100/native getting kicked in by the Province per year.

As a slight tangent, one of the main beefs of the HCs and protesters is the lack of consultation and will for reconciliation. Take an hour or so and read through the BC Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation (MARR). The BC government is solidly behind listening and accommodating FN’s people and to say otherwise is a repudiation of plain facts.

As regards to the Coastal GasLink (CGL) project, a report from yesterday sheds some light on the obstinacy of the HC’s. CGL has bent over backwards to consult with the FNs along the pipeline route. They’ve actually changed the route to accommodate concerns. But through the entire process the only people gumming up the process, being non-cooperative, and refusing to even listen were the HCs. Oh, by the way, under a Supreme Court of Canada 2018 decision, the HCs DO NOT have veto power.

From the report’s Closing Statement: ‘The deafening message being portrayed is that we are where we are because of inadequate consultation with Office of the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen. As the record shows, there have been nearly eight years of incredible effort by CGL to consult and mitigate concerns with all communities impacted by the project, including Office of the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen. CGL’s and the EAO’s methods of communication aren’t working for Office of the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen, or maybe Office of the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen just doesn’t want to hear what is being said.

Okay, now we can look at sources of regular funding and audited financial statements for the Wet’suwet’en Band Council (here & here) and the Office of the Wet’suwet’en (here).

Here are some interesting figures gleaned from the audited consolidated financial statements & Schedule for Renumeration and Expenses for the Band Office. Keep in mind, the official census of the Wet’suwet’en is 256 people:

  • Prior to the 2016 election which brought in Chief Vivian Tom, Chief Karen Ogen was taking in a salary of about $85,000/yr plus an expense account of about $25,000/yr. Chief Tom has pulled the numbers back to $50,000 and $13,000
  • Total revenue per year from 2013-18 averaged $3.3 million
  • Total revenue derived from government sources through that time period was $1.3 million/yr
  • CGL paid a total of $2.8 million to the Band Council from 2013-18
  • Pacific Trails Pipeline has paid $1.7 million
  • Chevron, Teck Frontier, and Trans Canada Pipeline have paid them $190,000
  • Pipeline money for this period is $4.7 million. These monies do not include spinoffs due to employment, facility use, Band business ventures, etc.

Now, let’s look at the Office of the Wet’suwet’en’s books:

  • Wages for the 13 HCs are frugal, $9500/yr for the Head Chief, $9250/yr for the rest. Total travel expenses were only $70,000.
  • For the period 2013-2019, total revenue averaged $4.2 million/yr
  • For the period 2013-2019, direct government revenue played a large part in the OW income stream at $2.5 million/yr
  • The Ministry of Children & Family Development kicks in millions to run OW programs like Wet’suwet’en Aboriginal Justice, Culture Camps, Reconnections programs, Child Services, Early Childhood and Family programs, Cultural Planning, etc.
  • Fisheries and Oceans has spent millions helping them run fishery programs
  • The Ministry of Aboriginal Rights and Reconciliation has given them hundreds of thousands of dollars
  • The environmentally sensitive OW HCs have made through their Wet’suwet’en Ventures Ltd. company $2.3 million off of logging since 2014
  • The OW has mining interests through their Ventures Ltd. company
  • The OW has directly taken half a million in a line item called ‘Coastal Gaslink Project Assessment’ to assess the pipeline since 2014. According to the Western Standard this money came from the ‘Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency; although a 2016 issue of Wetsuwet’en Voice references a $30 million provincial LNG Environmental Stewardship Fund.
  • The OW has directly taken over $300,000 from other pipeline companies to assess their impacts
  • The OW regularly takes money from environmental groups like Tides Canada, (here’s a few reasons why Tides Canada should not be funding groups in Canada) Pacific Salmon Foundation, and Skeena Fisheries Commission. Tides Canada has been a regular contributor to the OW and since 2013 has given them $230,000.

Now quickly here’s the financials from the other Nation Band Councils:

  • Witset (Moricetown) – Revenue 2019: $23.2 million
  • Wet’suwet’en Band – Revenue 2018: $1.9 million
  • Burns Lake Band – Revenue 2019: $8.1 million
  • Nee Tahi Buhn Band – Revenue 2018: $1.0 million
  • Skin Tyee Band – Revenue 2019: $3.2 million
  • Hagwilget Band – Revenue 2019: $6 million
  • The Office of the Wet’suwet’en – Revenue 2019: $6 million

So just to wrap up: The various Band offices of the Wet’suwet’en Nation including the OW, receive about $50 million/yr (the bulk of which is direct government monies). That works out to $14,000/registered Wet’suwet’en per year. They run numerous Child & Family Services, their own form of Aboriginal Justice System, money for consultations, treaty negotiation, reconciliation, resource development, proceeds from mineral, logging, and pipeline development. If they go ahead with the two pipelines, CGL & PTP, they will receive even more millions to keep programs and employment going.

What, pray tell, do the Hereditary Chiefs have to bitch about?!?

Next update will deal with the irregular fundraising through GoFundMe, The Action Network, and other forms of fundraising that are not showing up on the OW’s books.

Stay tuned because the MSM ain’t gonna tell you about this!

February 25 Update: So, all through this debacle, it has been described as ‘the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en are opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline proposed to run through their territory‘. The terrorists/protesters who are attempting to cripple Canada’s economy are ‘STANDING IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE HEREDITARY CHIEFS’. The latest calls are for PM Trudeau to meet with these HEREDITARY CHIEFS and magically their dialogue will solve all these issues.

Sure seems like these are important people considering they are the focal point of a national crisis. But inexplicably in all this time, have any of the MSM outlets actually made you aware of who exactly these people are? What’s their background, what’s their beef with gas pipelines, WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEIR FUCKING NAMES FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!!!

A precious few people have shone some light on who these people are. J.L. Seagull with the JLS Report has the most comprehensive compendium of primers, articles and interviews regarding the Wet’suwet’en. Stewart Muir, a veteran journalist, has been tirelessly tracking down the story on the ground in Wet’suwet’en territory. You can find his reports on Twitter and the Resource Works website.

Here is a good article from the National Citizens Alliance which summarizes much of the JLS Report articles regarding these FAKE Hereditary Chiefs.

Between a precious few reporters, my own research, and with zero help from the absolutely pathetic, large networks, here’s the low down on these mysterious Hereditary Chiefs.

Spoilers: THEY ARE FULL OF SHIT!!!

Let’s first back up a little bit with some background context. The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC) has seven member nations which includes the Wet’suwet’en First Nation. About 255 members make up this nation and live on and off Reserve lands. They are served by the Wet’suwet’en First Nation Band Office located at Burns Lake. There is an elected council with a mayor and two councilors.

Confusing the waters, is the addition of the Office of the Wet’suwet’en (OW). This is where the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en work out of providing programs to help their people. Further confusing the waters, is who exactly is a Hereditary Chief and who are the bald-faced liars.

On the OW website, there is a list of their Hereditary Chiefs. On the JLS Report site, there is a somewhat different list:

There are 11 Hereditary Chiefs (at this time) plus two vacant positions.

Four out of Eleven: John Ridsdale (Na’Moks); Jeff Brown (Madeek); Fred Tom (Gisday’wa); Alphonse Gagnon (Kloum Khun)

The remaining Hereditary Chiefs: Chief Smogelgem, Gloria George; Chief Woos, Darlene Glaim; Chief Goohlut, James Namox (representative for vacant); Chief Wah Tah Kwets (Frank Patrick)  designated  house spokes leader Chief Wihaliy’te, Theresa Tait-Day; Chief Knedebeas, Warner William; Chief Samooh, Herb Naziel; Chief Hagwilnegh, Ron Mitchell

Vacant Hereditary Chiefs: Chief Wah Tah K’eght, Henry Alfred (deceased); Chief Kwees, Florence Hall (deceased)

The OW site still lists Henry Alfred as a chief, so my inclination is to go with the info from the JLS Report as the most up to date.

A few days ago, some ‘Hereditary Chiefs’ spoke to the media after their meeting with Mohawk protesters at the Belleville, ON blockade. The main spokesman was identified as Chief Woos, Frank Alec Jr. To his left was the infamous Freda Huson and next to her, ex-husband, fellow long-time activist Chief Smogelgem, Warner Naziel. NONE of these people are legitimate Hereditary Chiefs.

Frank Alec Jr. and Warner Naziel STOLE their titles in a coup involving three matriach chiefs, namely Darlene Glaim, Gloria George, and Theresa Tait-Day. The women’s sin was their support for the pipeline which would help bring an end to the crushing poverty of their people. Click their names to listen to their gut-wrenching stories.

From a CSTC backgrounder: ‘Hereditary Chiefs are chosen at an early age. The Elders and Hereditary Chiefs choose a child that shows leadership and a caring concern for others. The child is then prepared for leadership by being given responsibilities and taught our history and how to govern. When the preceding Hereditary Chief dies or is unable to work, the new leader is given the name in Bahl’ats. Holding this name is a sacred trust; no one can take any name they want and the transfer of a name must always be done in Bahl’ats.

In the interviews and from articles in the JLS Report, it is clear that the dissenting women were muscled out by the ‘Wet’suwet’en Five’ aka ‘the Fab 5’. Many of the other Hereditary Chiefs have been outright bullied in order to prevent dissenting voices.

In addition, many of the trouble makers play fast and loose with who can be called a Hereditary Chief. Freda Huson and Molly Wickham pretend all the time that they are chiefs. Molly Wickham and Cody Merriman tried running a RCMP checkpoint by claiming they were Hereditary Chiefs. Adam Gagnon barged into a Coastal GasLink presentation claiming to speak as a High Chief for the Laksamghu Clan when it was not his place.

Below is a picture, courtesy of the JLS Report of L-R, Rob Alfred (Fake Chief), John Ridsdale (the real Chief Namoks), and Antoinette Gagnon (Fake Chief) leading a protest march in Smithers, BC. Throw on a fancy blanket and you too can be a Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief. Note: official regalia is not for general walking about. The elders are pissed that these people are disrespecting their heritage this way.

This is just the beginning of the mountain of lies from these people. They are hoaxters of the first order. My next update will concern their multitude of funding sources and their lies concerning reconciliation and consultation regarding the pipeline.

Stay tuned because you are not going to get this from the MSM!

February 19 Update: When I watch some of the staged video on the part of the radical activists, I am reminded of surveillance video from Afghanistan. Head leaders of the Taliban would occasionally get together for meetings. They were aware that armed American drones were above them and in order to deter a Hellfire missile strike on their mud hut, they would make a show of placing a small child outside of the door. Radicals have no problem with using women and children as human shields. In fact, they are eager for a death or injury to occur because they will take that footage and splash it through left-leaning MSM outlets in order to sway the hearts and minds of the bleeding heart liberals.

These lessons are not lost on the eco-terrorists who are holding Canada hostage. As I have mentioned, there is an excellent website run by J.L. Seagull (The JLS Report) which is running an excellent counterpoint to the MSM outlets. There is a recent, unedited, protester propaganda video from the Unist’ot’en camp out in the BC woods up on the site. I urge people to take the time to watch so you can fully understand the context of how propaganda is used by these people. They will be using juicy clips for their own purposes and their hope would be that MSM would rebroadcast them thus furthering their ‘Hearts and Minds’ campaign. BTW, their GoFundMe account has raised over $223,000 in the last month.

Here are a few points you should be aware of while watching the video:

  • One of the main activists, Freda Huson (in the fancy blanket) along with Warner Naziel have been disrupting work along that pipeline route since 2010 with the help of other professional protesters bussed in from the South. Part of the background story can be found at The JLS Report plus a Houston Today article from August 15, 2012. Keep in mind, employment and benefits from the pipeline for the Indigenous/BC/Canadian people from the gas fields to Kitimat has been stalled by this small group for a decade. Also, Coastal GasLink has been attempting to consult with these ‘people’ for that long.
  • As you watch the video, you will notice how the protesters are attempting to intersect other causes. It’s a shotgun approach, throwing mud against a wall to see what sticks. Our ‘Drama’ teacher Prime Minister would be proud of the class efforts of this bunch.
  • As the video opens, there is the symbolism of Huson (a woman) beating the drum, putting on war paint, and facing down the ‘evil’ government forces dressed in their tactical gear disembarking a helicopter. It is a classic modern world ‘invaders’ overrunning ancient aboriginal culture metaphor. All they needed was a bulldozer but instead they had to settle for a couple of snowplows later in the video.
  • The video then tries to intersect with the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) movement by showing the red dresses (indicative of Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ and the subsequent TV series). There are also signs warning of a planned ‘450 Man Camp‘ and the lack of funding for MMIWG. The implications are that men are predators and the totalitarian state does not care about Indigenous women.
  • Women are prominently featured, their children and ‘ancient’ ways are invoked, and numerous videographers are present attempting to capture that perfect moment.
  • The full video shows how it backfires on the protesters as the RCMP are incredibly restrained and treat the women with kid gloves.

Here is an excellent question: if the RCMP can peacefully remove protesters from a pipeline right of way without serious incident, what exactly is stopping the OPP from removing the protesters who are holding the country’s economy hostage? Echos of Oka and Ipperwash are floated about by the do-nothing Liberals but if the protesters on the lines are not armed, what is stopping the police? Here is video evidence that people can be removed without serious incident.

IMHO, considering the infiltration of the Prime Minister’s inner cabal with the likes of Gerald Butts (Former Canadian President & CEO of WWF) and Former Tides Canada VP Sarah Goodman, Trudeau is probably playing a higher stakes game. There are wheels within wheels throughout this debacle and it will be the First Nations and the Canadian people holding the bag when the butcher’s bill comes due. Frankly, my prediction is that Trudeau is willing to burn down Canada in order to further his personal ideology regarding our fossil fuel use and development. First it will be another interminable delay of this LNG pipeline, then it will be non-approval of the Frontier Teck mine, then cancelling the TMX pipeline, and so forth. This, along with the foot dragging over the rail line protests, will drive Canada firmly into a recession.

When does this kind of disservice to the country move into the realm of treason?

February 18 Update: Today, I would like to highlight the work of Stewart Muir, the Executive Director of Resource Works. During this national crisis, he and his team have been getting out to the real Wet’sewet’en people, elected band councils, and pro-LNG pipeline Hereditary chiefs to get the other side of the story that the MSM are patently ignoring. You can follow Stewart’s reports via his Twitter handle, @sjmuir.

One of Stewart’s colleagues, Margareta Dovgal, posted a gripping video on Resource Works (@Resource_Works) of Skeena MLA Ellis Bross explaining how outside activist groups constantly interfere and sow division within First Nations in Northwest BC. As he explains, the First Nations get used and then end up worse off when the activists move on. I suggest everyone watch the video and follow the MLA’s thoughts via his Twitter account, @ellisbross.

Resource Works News interview with Skeena MLA Ellis Bross

Resource Works also just posted a video interviewing Bonnie George, a Wet’suwet’en woman of the Witset First Nation. With her lineage from both sides of her family, she could easily lay claim as a Hereditary Chief. In the video, she describes how the obstructionist Wet’suwet’ens do not speak for the majority. Bonnie also gave a good interview on CBC Radio recently describing the situation.

Take the time to look through the articles and videos posted on Resource Works. One juicy article details how a BC government employee ended up at the blockade Unist’ot’en camp and helped create under-handed strategies to derail the pipeline approval process. Also, unbelievably, the BC Government authorised a $400,000 grant for the blockade’s operation!

Stay tuned for more updates that you are not going to get through the Canadian MSM who seems decidedly bent on presenting only one side of the story.

February 16 Update: There is endless coverage in the MSM news cycle about the protests and the protesters. But there is precious little information coming from the actual Wet’suwet’en people who are affected by this Coastal GasLink pipeline.

There is an excellent website called The “JLS” Report which holds a large collection of articles related to the Wet’suwet’en nation. It puts all of these issues with the protesters into perspective. According to the site operator, the site represents the ‘Local Wet’suwet’en and local residents, united against the invasion of the Bulkley Valley. We want the protestors out of our territory. You are no longer welcome here.

The site further states, ‘Are you supporting aboriginal rights that deny other aboriginals of their rights? The Unist’ot’en anarchists & obstructionists would have you believe it’s their land they defend, when the truth is the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council also claim the same land. Are you being duped into sending anarchists support and cash? The anarchists and their Chiefs represent less that 15% of the Wet’suwet’en people. Learn more, read and challenge your knowledge of the facts, or, challenge them to prove their claims, as opposed to taking their word for it.’

The site’s latest article comes from a woman with firsthand knowledge of the damage these renegade Hereditary Chiefs are causing. Entitled ‘Wolves in Fancy Blankets‘, I suggest you read this brave, gripping account.

After I contacted her, she opened up more about her experiences. “Although Caucasian I have been a member of Westbank First Nation since I was 16. I have seen a lot . As you have read in (The) JLS report these 4- 5 chiefs are just bullies. The protesters don’t stop to think that what they are doing to the Nation is worse then any colonizers that they protest. I live in the Okanagan so I’m away from it but everyday I watch the gullible “show up” feeding off the garbage media gives them. The CGL provided informed consent. We lived here in Kelowna and they (flew) my husband to Smithers many times to the meetings. He, like many, opposed pipelines and he was open to listening and through the process, his mind was changed for LNG. The anti-pipers were the only ones ignorant and closed-minded and they still are!”

Wouldn’t it be nice if more people like this brave woman could be heard over the noise of the rabble which doesn’t care about their well-being?

February 15 Update: Although it may appear from the MSM news coverage that there are only a few main protests in the provinces of BC and ON, the following interactive map details the multitude of #shutdowncanada protests and blockades that have occurred from coast to coast to coast. Although some of these acts of civil disobedience would be spontaneous, it defies imagination that all of this has not been organized at some level.

This interactive map showing the multitude of #shutdowncanada protests & blockades illustrates the widespread nature of the movement

Some of that organization and direction is coming from terrorist websites exhorting Wet’suwet’en supporters and terrorists to take up full anarchy and sabotage against Canada in their supposed solidarity with the opposition of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in BC. True North published another one of these websites, this one based in Montreal named Montreal Counter-Information. Again, similar to the other terrorist websites named by True North yesterday, this site contains a ‘How To section’ on sabotage. One of the ‘How To’ sets of instructions is on the method of filling a fire extinguisher with paint for the purposes of vandalism. It seems the protesters are using these methods as Federal Justice Minister David Lametti’s constituency office in Montreal was vandalized in this manner February 7.

Most of these anarchist websites are linked and carrying similar information for general dissemination. It is easy enough to Google pro-Wet’suwet’en protester sites which are carrying open calls for revolt in Canada. Here’s another one from Germany called Enoughisenough14 which has been in operation since 2012. They are featuring mostly news of the Canada wide protests but one of their recent blog submissions, called Reconciliation is Dead – A Call For #Revolt After the Raid from a person who identifies as tawinikay reads as a straight call for open anarchy in Canada. Here is the PDF of her manifesto in case this one gets taken down.

Here’s a lovely quote from the document: It is time to shut everything the fuck down.

So who exactly is this tawiniky, which is an obvious alias which she is using to cover her identity? Well tawiniky authored another paper, ‘Autonomously and with Conviction’ which is described as ‘Transcription of a talk given on October 12, 2018 at the 13th annual Decolonizing Thanksgiving Dinner in Guelph, Ontario on traditional Neutral/Chonnonton, Anishinabec, and Haudenosaunee territory.

Speakers for the event were listed as Carolyn King and Jaydene Lavallie (residence listed as Dish With One Spoon Territory aka Hamilton, ON). Located on the anarchist website From Embers, there is a written transcript from the event. The numerous self descriptions of Jaydene Lavallie and tawiniky clearly indicate that they are the same person.

Jaydene Lavallie, who is associated with the Laurier Students’ Public Interest Research Group (LSPIRG), has a well-documented past connecting her to questionable and illegal activist activities. See here, here, an anarchist speech at McMaster University, etc. or just Google the woman for yourself.

I reached Ms. Lavallie to question her about her activities and writings but she refused to comment. Also, for the record, my attempts to contact Pam Palmater have been ignored.

***UPDATE February 13 – So today, True North broke a story about extremist left wing sites, North Shore and Warrior Up. The Warrior Up site literally has an Arson & Sabotage tab which directs Wet’suwet’en protesters on how to destroy Canada’s infrastructure and to cause civil unrest. After doing some digging, it seems that #warriorup ties in with some well known Wet’suwet’en activists, namely Pam Palmater, Annie Ohana, Anna Gerrard, and a Twitter account stareeflew. In light of True North’s breaking story today, #warriorup might have been used as a call to arms for the coordinated civil unrest gripping most of the Nation. Below are screenshots of these women’s recent tweets.***

It seems that Pam Palmater is calling for people to rise up in an insurrection
Is stareeflow following the dictates of the Warrior Up terrorist site?
Is Anna Gerrard using symbolism to show the beating of a war drum and a call to arms using #WarriorUp?
Sounds like Annie Ohana is sympathetic to #WarriorUp, does she mean the dictates found in the terrorist website?

During this recent Canada wide civil unrest, some might say domestic terrorism, related to the blocking of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, have you wondered how the protesters organize so effectively and manage to fund their efforts?

While here is a little sneak peek at how these activist groups conspire to bring our nation to its knees. I will give you a hint, American interests are interfering with Canadian sovereignty again.

So, despite all the bands and vast majority of First Nations people along the proposed natural gas pipeline route agreeing and supporting the project, the unelected Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters set up an illegal blockade in the BC woods in protest. This blockade has been up for quite some time and it needed a BC Supreme Court injunction served in order to start the process of dismantling it. Here is a question: How was this illegal activity funded?

Well if you want a ‘Call to Action’ and a method of raising funds, you hire a socialist American Public Relations firm to put together a very slick marketing campaign. Here is the home page of the Unis’tot’en Camp. It is a very sophisticated, detailed website which lays out the ‘how to’s‘ of this protest group.

Scroll down to the Site Credits and you will find an Oakland, California company called Design Action Collective proudly taking responsibility for the site. It would be charity to call them left wing liberals as their client page includes the likes of numerous quasi-domestic terrorist organizations such as Black Lives Matter, Greenpeace, Palestine Solidarity Legal Services, etc.

Looking deeper through this very professional, detailed, and expensive Wet’suwet’en protester’s website, you will come across a page for the ‘Wet’suwet’en Supporter Toolkit 2020’. There is no direct call for civil disobedience but when you dig a little deeper you will find some of the methods this group uses to fund their illegal activities.

American crowdfunding sites, GoFundMe and the activist website The Action Network have been used to directly raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from 2019 to now. The first 2019 GoFundMe drive organized by Jennifer Wickham raised $239,507 for the beneficiary, Cody Thomas Merriman. The 2020 GoFundMe drive organized by France Maybe has raised $171,279 YTD for the listed beneficiary, Molly Wickham. Jennifer Wickham is listed as a Wet’suwet’en media coordinator. Cody Merriman and wife, Molly Wickham, have a long history of protesting with the Wet’suwet’en causes. But who is France Maybe? This person does not appear to exist. This should be called fraud and can be reported through the GoFundMe fraud reporting site.

In fact, is GoFundMe in the business of facilitating the financing of fraudulent and illegal activities? The reported actions of the people in that remote camp could loosely be called domestic terrorism and they have definitely committed illegal acts. At the very least, who are their financiers? If a person wanted to launder money or hide the fact that outside American interests were supporting this group, what better way than to anonymously donate to them. 2019’s fundraiser is shut down but the 2020 page shows $25,733 YTD anonymous donations just in the top 11 donors.

$25,733 YTD donations in support of the illegal Wet’suwet’en blockade from the first 11 top donors have been anonymous

Here’s a short list of who else is funding the Wet’suwet’en protesters:

  • A Center for Grassroots Organizing ($3132) – An American group with a mission ‘for helping organize mass social movements’. It is headed by former Black Panther, Black Liberation Army, Zapatista sympathizer, former US robbery convict, anarchist Ashanti Alston.
  • GSA Carleton Ottawa ($1000) – socialist Graduates’ Students Association from Carleton University in Ottawa
  • Victoria Pho ($1000) – hard to pin this down when there are so many Vietamese Pho restaurants in Victoria
  • Aman Thabrkay Dhaliwal ($1000) – Another mystery person with no online presence
  • Lottie “Fuck the RCMP” Blix ($1000) – self proclaimed anarchist living in Calgary
  • Meenakshi Mannoe ( $850) – a manager with the Vancouver Pivot Legal Society
  • VT Solidartiy(sic) ($797) – Looks like an American activist group based in Vermont
  • E.S. Sulakshana ($766) – aka Elana Sulakshana, Energy Finance Campaigner, for the San Francisco based Rainforest Action Network
  • As you scroll through the donors list, you can see where it is likely that non-Canadian funds are being donated. Any uneven amounts listed would be due to the exchange of currency.

The GoFundMe fundraising efforts are a drop in the bucket compared to the funds this protest group has raised through the self-described American progressive movement Action Network. This ‘mission-driven’ organization was set up to organize mass Anti-Trump protests in the States. Publicly, the Wet’suwet’en protesters have been using the site for very lucrative, anonymous fundraising. The 2019 Unist’ot’en Camp Legal Fund campaign raised $416,375 and the Unist’ot’en 2020 Legal Fund is listed at $470,501.02. This may be a cumulative amount or separate as the only information on the site is contributions will go to the Unist’ot’en Camp which is listed as the sponsor and creator of the fundraiser.

***Update on The Action Network fundraising: They have removed the amounts raised. Good thing I took screenshots. Also, from documentation related to their legal costs, it does appear that the 2019 and 2020 figures are separate amounts.***

Again, should the Action Network be facilitating the raising of anonymous monies that are being funneled into illegal activities here in Canada? If Canadians feel that this organization is being used improperly, they can register a complaint through the Action Network support page and use the email address: support@actionnetwork.org.

Another important point with all these fundraising monies is in their own literature, ‘The Unist’ot’en are not a non-profit or NGO, so your donations will not be tax-deductible.’ It would be interesting to see what monies have been declared to the CRA.

Canada is being dismantled by special interest, domestic terrorists who are flaunting the law, barricading and disrupting our lives, and costing the country millions of dollars each day. They are using sophisticated American firms to destroy our society and way of life. They are financing these illegal efforts through dubious, anonymous means.

It is time to fight back, expose, and destroy their fraudulent, fundraising schemes. Hit and empty their wallets before they totally empty ours!

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Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

NOT A FAN OF OMAR KHADR

Omar Khadr – Photo courtesy of Reuters
Legitimizing a convicted terrorist

WHAT A FARCE!!! That’s all I can say about the marshmallow puff questions posed towards Omar Khadr last night. If you would like a minute to minute description of the event, you can go through True North’s Andrew Lawton’s Twitter feed from the event.

Here’s a few points from last night’s session:

  • The moderator came out with the statement that they wanted the ‘hard questions‘ to be asked of Khadr. Immediately, the audience was told that no questions related to the ‘incident’ that occcured in Afghanistan or the government settlement would be taken. Well, For Fuck’s Sake, what was the point of having him there???
  • So instead of tough questions, Khadr got asked about the weather and if he read poetry in Guantanamo. He did volunteer that his dad got the family a pony when he was a kid.
  • During the Twitter rounds afterwards, I pointed out to some bleeding hearts that Khadr was not a child soldier. To begin with, he was not recruited by a regular army and using the term soldier implies legitimacy. Really, he was a young terrorist.
  • Also, under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict , he was a legal adult for the purposes of combat. Here’s the timeline: the Protocol was brought into force by the UN in February 2002; Khadr, who was 15 at the time, was detained by American forces in July 2002; the States did not ratify the Protocol until December 2002. So under the rules of the time, Khadr was an adult combatant with a terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, ergo he could be treated as an adult terrorist. Canada had signed the Protocol back in 2000 but because he was detained by Americans, he fell under their jurisdiction.
  • One statement from Khadr was that he did not believe in borders and it should be an open world. I thought that was interesting since he fought so hard to have his Canadian citizenship recognized so that he could be transferred to a Canadian jail.
  • There was a small protest of Canadian veterans present. I would encourage you to listen to what this veteran has to say on this video.

So for a night where Khadr was supposed to be talking about child soldiering, he did nothing of the sort. It was just another love-in session for Canada’s reformed terrorist and he received a standing ovation from the audience.

DISGUSTING!!!

So tonight is the big night. It’ll be interesting to hear the reports from the event. If I were there, here are the questions I would be asking Mr. Khadr:

  • Does he take any responsibility for the killing of Sgt Speer and the maiming of the other soldier? Does he unequivocally feel remorse for those actions?
  • Does he take any responsibility for the creation of IEDs which were probably targeted at coalition soldiers? Does he unequivocally feel remorse for any persons, military or civilian, who may have been killed or injured by IEDs that he helped build?
  • If he does feel remorse or responsibility for the killing or injuring of anyone, what is he doing to help right that wrong. For example, will he share any of his government payout money with the widow and children of the man he killed?
  • Has Mr. Khadr renounced the activities of the family members and former acquaintances who have been or are still connected to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda? Does he have any contact with those people? Has he supported them with any monies whether directly or through third parties? What groups, if any, does Mr. Khadr support and fund with his payout money?
  • Mr. Khadr mused about becoming a nurse at one point. So why did he buy a strip mall? It seems an odd purchase. Although, he is free to do whatever with his payout money, it seems strange. What else or what other plans does he have with all that money?
  • If able, does Mr. Khadr plan to someday revisit Afghanistan or Pakistan? Who would he go see and what would be his intent while there?

I doubt he would be forthcoming on any of those questions. After watching his interviews, all I see is someone who weasels away from a direct answer. Also, I understand that he will once again be refusing to talk to the media directly. Wouldn’t want to disturb the carefully laid out narrative, would we?

***Latest Update – CBC News responded to my questions in regards to Naylah Ahed moderating the Dalhousie event. “The event you mentioned last is being hosted by the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, in partnership with Dalhousie University’s Open Dialogue series, and while Nahlah Ayed was invited to moderate the event, Ideas has decided to explore this subject at another time in a different way. Given that decision, Nahlah will no longer be moderating. That said, CBC News may cover the event. Thank you.” When I first saw this story, I reached out to Brett Ruskin in Halifax who would be the logical reporter to cover the event. Andrew Lawton from True North News has already indicated that he will be reporting on the event. Reading between the lines, perhaps CBC has decided to distance itself from appearing to be to cozy with Khadr.***

***Update – VoteWexit, The Post Millennial, & True North News are running with this story now. If you feel that Dalhousie University should not be hosting Omar Khadr then True North News has a petition to sign here. National Post & the Postmedia papers have now picked up the article.***

After doing some digging, this is not the first time Omar Khadr has addressed a university crowd with his story. King’s University in Edmonton was graced with his presence back in 2016 when he gave a talk on his experience. The report on the event pushed the narrative that Khadr didn’t throw the grenade that killed Sgt Speers. It was inevitable that King’s University would host the convicted terrorist as members of the university fought hard to have the man released and brought back to Canada.

If there was one face which epitomized the depravity of the present Liberal government headed by Justin Trudeau, it would be that of the smiling Omar Khadr upon receiving his $10.5 million non-contested payout.

Canadians across the country reacted with shock and revulsion when the news of the settlement was announced. The wife of the US Special Forces soldier who was killed by Khadr’s hand grenade is still pursuing a civil lawsuit against the man. The US has him listed as a convicted terrorist.

But up here in Canada, Khadr has become a darling and is starting on the talking circuit aided in part by the CBC. I was filled with crushing disappointment when I saw Khadr’s name listed as a keynote speaker for an upcoming event on February 10 at the Dalhousie University in Halifax. The event is being put on by the Children’s Rights Upfront organization (a group associated with the Dalhousie University) with the proceeds going to the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative. Ret’d LGen Dallaire will be making an appearance. The event will be moderated by CBC reporter Nahlah Ayed.

CBC has already hosted Khadr on the talk show Tout le Monde en Parle. The show garnered criticism for having Khadr and Twitter briefly suspended the show’s account for being a ‘terror apologist’.

News of the proposed event and one of its keynote speakers has already sparked visceral, negative reaction from social media users. People on VoteWexit.com are venting their anger by the hundreds. After about five hours, the admins of the site took the Dalhousie University link down. Too many people were conflating the Wexit site with supporting Khadr and the tone of many of the comments were heated and inflammatory.

On a personal note, I have met Ret’d LGen Dallaire on several occasion through the years and I am disappointed that he would allow one of his causes to be caught up with lending support to this terrorist. I feel that this will result in a stain on Dallaire’s reputation and organizations related to raising awareness of child soldiers being used in warfare.

Sure, Khadr was a child soldier. But no, he should not be given any sort of platform that legitimizes his actions.

Not in my Canada!

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Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

ENERGY REALIST

At the Regional Test Center in Williston, Vermont, researchers are examining how framed (in the background) and frameless (in the foreground) solar photovoltaic modules handle snowy conditions. | Photo Courtesy: Sandia National Laboratories
The Real world inefficiency of wind and solar

Update – Don’t believe me, well listen to an acolyte of the radical Lefties. Better watch Michael Moore’s film, ‘Planet of the Humans‘ before it gets successfully banned.

For Canadians suffering through this bitter winter cold snap, I thought I would crunch some actual numbers to see how some various forms of power generation were performing.

As a preamble, when it comes to generating electricity there are a few terms to understand. For example, just because a wind turbine or a natural gas generating station is rated for ‘X’ amount of Megawatts (MW), that does not mean that it is the constant output. It is a maximum output. In reality, the wind is not constantly blowing, the sun does not shine at night, and power plants get taken offline for repairs and maintenance.

The following chart shows the relative ‘efficiency’ of US power generation facilities. Note that nuclear power far and away is the most efficient power source.

But let’s see how some real world Canadian energy sources stack up against one another.

My analysis for the following graphs comes directly from the Alberta Utilities Commission Annual Electricity Data reports which can be accessed here. I took the last five years of data (2014-18) to determine the efficiencies of each type of power generation.

The first graph lists the percentages of each type of power generation in Alberta over the five year time period. The total installed capacity added up to 80875 MW.

Solar installations totalled 30 MW for 2017 & 2018. The Others category was power from fuel oil, diesel, & waste heat.

The total output of electrical generation over the time period was 415,652 GW and below is the percentages of how the power was produced.

Solar accounted for .1 GW of power generated in 2017 & 22.4 GWs in 2018

For comparison purposes, I produced a graph from just the 2018 energy production statistics.

After crunching the numbers, I came up with the following efficiency factors for Alberta’s energy sources.

Solar efficiency for 2018 increased to 17% with 30 MW of installed capacity

Compared to the US figures, the Alberta numbers are all more or less in the ballpark.

Environmentalists would have you believe that Canada should divest themselves of all fossil fuels and make the switch to renewable, ‘green’ energy such as wind and solar. Well here are some numbers regarding that type of action.

In 2018, Alberta coal and natural gas produced just over 76,000 GWh of power. Alberta has 900 wind turbines with a maximum output of 1500 MW. In order to replace coal and oil using the Alberta efficiency rating of 31.2%, the province would need 17,000 extra turbines. Using numbers obtained from SaskWind, each turbine would have a footprint of about .75 acre/MW which equates to 32 sq miles. Now because of turbulence, landscape, environmental, etc. issues, you can’t just jam all the turbines together so they need to be spread out. SaskWind figures about 87 acres/MW which translates to turbines being scattered out into a 3750 sq mile area.

Working through the same exercise with solar being used to replace coal and natural gas, I used Suncyclopedia’s average of five acres for one solar MW installation. Using the US solar efficiency number of 25%, the land area needed would be 273 sq miles. Using the Alberta efficiency number of 17%, land area is just over 400 sq miles.

So what’s the big deal with switching over? Well there’s many inherent problems with wind and solar that do not seem to justify the incredible amounts of money that have been thrown at the technologies. But they are the darlings which every Western government seems intent on promoting.

The following Alberta energy graphs prepared by Reliable AB Energy for December 2019 illustrate better than words why wind and solar are poor energy alternatives. Follow Reliable AB Energy on Twitter for daily updates on the state of Alberta’s energy sources.

Imagine if you were relying only on electricity from solar from Dec 8 – 16. What about the Dec 11 – 15 time frame for wind? These power sources are too unreliable to be counted upon especially during a brutal cold weather event such as what regularly occurs across Canada at this time of year. The back-up power plants would make the wind and solar systems redundant. So why would we have them in the first place?

Wind and solar energy are expensive boondoggles that will never replace better forms of energy, particularly nuclear or even clean-burning technologies for coal. It is time to stop wasting Canadian’s money on these pipedreams.

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Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

STUDENT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

The land of the Patagonian Indigenous peoples
The Inaccurate Romanticizing of Indigenous Peoples

***Trigger Warning***

The Progressive Woke will call you a racist for reading this article.

As the war in the woods heats up out on the West Coast between the Wet’suweten First Nation, Coastal GasLink, the province, and the RCMP, it reminded me of how Canadian Indigenous peoples have been deliberately romanticized as the mythical ‘Noble Savage’.

There is a fascinating account of the famous ‘wild white man’ called William Buckley who after being transported to an Australian penal colony in 1803, escaped and lived amongst the Aborigines for 30+ years. He had zero contact with white men during that time and his memoirs are an invaluable peek into Aborigine life before their territory started to be seriously encroached upon by Europeans.

The tale of escaped convict, William Buckley, is a compelling tale set in pre-colonized Australia

If the reader is interested, open source accounts of Buckley’s exploits can be accessed here and here.

There were a few points that jumped out to me during my readings:

  • A man’s worth depended not only on his strength and prowess in battle but also in how clever he was. A man could became more popular through fighting or by coming up with novel ways to hunt game. This equated to a greater standing within the tribe and more wives.
  • The Aborigines were strict hunter/gatherers moving from hunting ground to hunting ground with the season, when the hunting turned poor, or by being chased off by a competing tribe.
  • The Aborigines could accurately be described as grifters. Buckley described one instance where his tribe was tricked into turning over all their tomahawks or the deity that looked after the World would falter in his job. When Buckley got back to a white settlement, he was constantly trying to keep the Aborigines from thieving or outright slaughtering the whites. Guns and larger numbers swung the tide towards the colonizers.
  • From Buckley’s observations, women Aborigines were the root cause of the constant warfare between tribes. Grievances seemingly never forgotten and were fueled by spats over who should have married whom, women running off with other men, or blatant attacks to steal another tribe’s women. Tribes would come together under congenial conditions only to end up with a fresh round of revenge murders by the end of the day.
  • The Aborigine women were not shrinking violets. They would just as often fight alongside the men and no quarter was given just because a female was in the mix. But in general, if a raiding party was formed to enact justice for some old slight, the men would go off to fight.
  • The Aborigines were cannibals. Some practiced a ritualistic form after a foe or a loved one perished. But Buckley did describe a couple of tribes who lived off the flesh of man. Everyone steered clear of their territory.

Speaking of cannibalism, did you know that Canada’s West Coast natives indulged in the practice, usually related to a potlatch ceremony where they would kill a slave? Reports of cannibalism involving Vancouver Island natives were as recent as 1904. Also, it is well documented that before the Europeans showed up, the Canadian natives warred constantly whether to exact revenge, gain territory, or to carry off slaves. Sounds very similar to what the Aborigines were up to over on the other side of the world.

Flag of Chile – The star with the blue background represent the big skies of the nation, the white is the snow of the Andes, the red is the Nation’s shame for all the Indio blood spilled

During my sojourn with the Armada de Chile in 2013, I was intrigued to learn of the natives of Patagonia. They were first discovered by Ferdinand Magellan during his voyages. Subsequent visits by Europeans and missionaries eager to convert the ‘heathens’ did not go well. The Natives or Indios were not friendly and did their best to kill Europeans whether they were friendly or not. They kept up a rear guard war against Spanish settlement for about 350 years by taking advantage of the remoteness of their territory. Unfortunately, unlike the Incans who had tried to conquer them, eventually the Chilean colonizers either killed or bred out almost all of the full blooded natives. When there was only a handful left, they relocated them to Puerto Edén which is an extremely remote island location. There was supposedly only one full blooded Native left when I sailed past Puerto Edén and she has probably passed away by now.

Indio Picaros abound in the numerous Artesanal villiages throughout Chile

In stark contrast to the manner in which Canadian First Nations peoples have now become ‘sacred’ so to speak, Chile is slightly less politically correct when it comes to their actual genocide of their native peoples. Yes, they did feel bad about killing off all the Natives and the bottom half of their flag is red representing all of the Indio blood that was spilled. At the world famous Cementerio Municipal Sara Braun in Punta Arenas, there is the revered tomb of the Indio Desconocido (The Unknown Indian). But throughout the country, in every tourist shop, you can pick up in various sizes, a male or female Indio Picaro (Kinky Indian). The big joke is when you slide the body upwards a big erect dick or hairy bush is revealed. Somehow, I doubt that sort of ‘joke’ would go over well here in Canada.

The point of these examples is that man is not particularly special just because they were ‘native’ to an area that was eventually colonized by the Europeans. The ‘white’ man just upped the ante and was able to spread out further as technology related to sailing, exploration, and firepower progressed. The entirety of world history can be summarized as the powerful taking advantage of the weak.

This is the danger of elevating Natives onto a pedestal. Canadian First Nations have severe ongoing issues related to the colonizing of Canada, the Reserve system, the horribly outdated Indian Act, and attempts to assimilate them into Canadian culture. But they are not particularly ‘Green’ or in tune with ‘Mother Earth’ compared to anyone else. It is a mistake to attribute undue weight to their counsel in order to atone for Canada’s collective sins vis-à-vis their past treatment. But special interest groups and virtue signaling politicians are eager to take advantage of their ‘special’ status.

Hopefully the upcoming shenanigans in the woods are dealt with more peacefully compared to the Oka Crisis in 1990. By the way, no one was ever charged in the murder of Sûreté du Québec police officer Corporal Marcel Lemay.

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Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

LIBERTARIAN CANADIAN

Paradoxically, wait times are increasing despite decades of ‘working’ on the problem. WHY?!?
Our Insecurity is Strangling Canadian Prosperity

“We’ve spent all this money, what do we have to show for it?” – Little Mrs. Graham lamenting the state of Canada’s finances many years ago.

These were the sentiments of one of my elementary school teachers some time back when I stopped in for a quick visit. As a note, we had two Mrs. Grahams, one small and one large. But the epitaph is as true today as it was those many years ago, where has all the money gone?

One of the areas of concern starting to rear up again in Canadian social media circles is the issue of waiting times for medical procedures and the general lack of medical availability. People are starting to see their own health, along with their family and friends, suffer due to the chronic inability of the medical system to perform. Have you ever tried to find a new family doctor? We have known for decades that the Boomer generation was going to swamp each sector of society as they moved through. So why the general lack of preparedness despite government assurances that more money is going into the system?

Sure, there was some chattering during last year’s Federal election regarding health care in this country. The Liberals made some vague noise about universal pharmacare and the NDP declared ‘Free for Everyone’ as they are wont to do. Did anyone believe that the Health care debate was getting the attention that a National crisis should normally garner? Even if the panacea of ‘Free Drugs for Everyone’ program is in the offing, it will take forever to work out the details and roll-out. The Liberals still have not fixed the Phoenix system for paying their own employees so the question is how will they not screw this up too?

This is not a swipe at any particular level or brand of government. This incompetence related to getting anything done in Canada crosses the entire political spectrum right down to the municipal level.

But let us get back to a little, old lady’s observation that Canada is bereft of any sort of meaningful accomplishments. The reason for our general lack of paradoxically not being able to get anything done despite mountains of cash being thrown at a problem is our insecurity complex related to being a poor nation.

What? Poor nation you say, that’s not right! Au contraire, we could have been a great nation but ever since WWII, Canada has slid further and further into obsolesce and we are squandering the resources that this country is blessed with.

Here is a pointed example of Canada’s insecurity related to the inconceivably long and expensive process of procuring military equipment, namely the New Shipborne Helicopter. The book, The Politics of Procurement by Aaron Plamondon, goes into exquisite detail over how the venerable Sea King helicopter which was to be replaced in 1975 has still not been fully replaced by the new Cyclone.

Read the book but here is an example of the mission creep which affects all Canadian institutions. The Statement of Requirements (SOR) for the original Sea King was only about four pages. When the military was starting to look for a replacement in 1975, the SOR had already ballooned to four volumes. All that extra time and effort jacks the ultimate cost of anything the military wants to buy. They do not get shiny, new toys very often so they want to get things right. Then because the government waffles over these decisions, it gives new governments time to cancel programmes outright and start their own politically driven agendas. That is how the CAF never gets their equipment. It is also how Canada does not get new pipelines and end up buying foreign oil from dictatorships.

General insecurity stalls out industrious Canadians. There is no point in going into the pipeline debate as those things get hopelessly mired down. But here is an example of something as simple as recovering a log from the bottom of a lake. In BC, when logs are floated across lakes, some become waterlogged and sink. This wood is still incredibly valuable and the diving company I worked for wanted to go after them. We did not bother because you needed an environmental permit to disturb the bottom of the lake, a permit to have the log on the surface, a permit to bring the log to the edge of the lake, a permit to bring a truck down to the edge of the lake, and a permit to take the log away. Now throw in a few more layers of bureaucracy like Indigenous and gender balance, and it is just not worth the effort for a small outfit. Ostensibly, regulations are meant to protect things but in reality, they serve to stifle industry.

All levels of government are bloated with civil servants whose job is to regulate the country to a standstill. Here is an example from what I observed in the military that is just as true of the civil service. An officer would enter a new job. In order to progress and be promoted, they needed to effect ‘change’. They were never in the job for long or had a budget large enough to push through a complex project that would take decades to see through and effect real change. They just fiddled with the system enough to piss off their subordinates. That is where the saying ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’ comes from. Meanwhile, their budgets got spent mostly spinning wheels.

Here is an example from the Coast Guard. The West Coast fleet, back in the day, had a couple of ladies with Rolodexes looking after everyone’s pay and nary an issue. The system was modernized with a new building in downtown Vancouver with 50 employees and it went to shit. You were happy to get any sort of pay cheque and issues would take up to half a year to fix.

Here is one from the Veterans Hospital in Halifax. The building has rats. Nurses can hear them humping in the walls and ceilings. Veterans Affairs representatives told me to my face that they were aware of the problem and were having meetings to discuss solutions. The solution was to call an exterminator and kill the vermin. Instead, admin types endlessly study the issue as they are reticent over spending money to fix obvious problems. Meetings give the appearance of ‘we are on the job’ when actually nothing is being accomplished.

Suffice to say, Canadians could endlessly bring up examples of why stuff does not get done in this country. Heaven forbid if we cross some politically incorrect line. What if those ‘people’ get offended? Is there anyone left to apologize to yet? Have we sufficiently studied this issue to death with regards to how it will effect the Canadian three-toed hemostar, the Indigenous tribe on the other side of the country, the ever popular Canadian content rules, and just for fun, the new ‘gender’ balance rules we are going to have to follow. To be crass, we are a nation of pussies. Sorry, eh?

Venezuela is listed with having the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Their descent into becoming a ‘shit-hole’ country took less than two decades. Don’t worry Canada will be the Northern Venezuela soon enough the way we are going.

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Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

CONCERNED WITH NATIVE VIOLENCE

Image: Cody Mousseau – Manitoba First Nations Police Service
The Violence of Sandy Bay First Nation

*****UPDATE – 30 September 2023*****

Well, there’s still no solving a murder which everyone knows the culprits. It’s the worst kept secret that Cody Mousseau was killed by the Sandy Bay Reserve crime gang. He had gone to retrieve a stolen quad and was getting the upper hand when someone decided to just shoot him. As a side note, his former warden from Stony Mountain Penitentiary didn’t shed too many tears when he heard of Mousseau’s murder. There is no Native ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ until they acknowledge that their Reserves are cesspools of crime, alcohol, and drug abuse which is all of their own making.

*****UPDATE – 13 May 2020****

It seems that members of Mr. Mousseau’s family are incensed with my article and have demanded its removal as they feel it is racist, insensitive, and demeans their murdered relative. If there is something factual which is in error then bring it to my attention. Instead, all I’ve heard is vitriol.

Respectfully, I am sorry for their loss, but the purpose of highlighting this particular tragedy was to speak to the exorbitant levels of violence and drug use at Sandy Bay. In a larger context, these issues are associated with most MB Native communities. The first step in the process of healing is to acknowledge the problem rather than cower from or deny its existence.

Mr. Mousseau was not a saint but he did not deserve to be murdered. From the rumours, he was actually trying to stand up to the extreme criminal elements in his community and was killed for his actions.

Perhaps all of this extra attention will help bring his killers to justice and galvanize the community to action.

*****UPDATE – 13 May 2020*****

If horrific violence associated with First Nations was not so common, the discovery of the body of a Sandy Bay First Nations resident on Christmas Eve would have been more shocking.

The latest Sandy Bay native lost to violent crime, Cody Grayson Mousseau, was found in the RM of Rosedale on December 24. His family had been looking for him as he had been missing from earlier in the month. Now that his body was found, they are calling for justice and asking for people to come forward to police.

Since the mainstream media ‘native’-washes all their stories related to First Nations people, here are some easily googled items you will not find or downplayed in the coverage related to this homicide:

Did Cody Mousseau deserve to be killed and have his body dumped in a remote location? No. Was Cody Mousseau going to end up being killed and have his body dumped in a remote location? Yes.

Sandy Bay First Nation, with an official census count of 2515 (4157 or 6677 if you count the off-reserve natives according to the Dakota Ojibway Police Service), is a rough place. From the DOPS 2016-2017 Annual Report, Sandy Bay had 1862 reported incidents and over 200 assaults for 2016. Interestingly, the report dropped the ‘provided assistance to other Police agencies’ from 2015 which listed another 2427 incidents.

Comparing some of the crime statistics against the StatsCan national average, (being charitable, the 6677 total Sandy Bay population was used) for Sexual assault it is about 6 times higher, Level 1 Assault is 7 times higher, property crime is 2 times higher, but strangely the Drug Offences are only one third the national rate. Considering the Band has repeatedly declared their reserve to be in a ‘Drug Crisis’ since 2017, it does not appear that there has been any headway with dealing with illicit drugs on the reserve.

Here is a small sampling of the violence related to the reserve:

The preceding numbers and incidents are but the tip of the iceberg. Vastly more incidents will have been swept under the rug in the interest of preventing retaliation or retribution.

Members of the reserve and the local police know exactly who the culprits committing these crimes are. There is nowhere to hide in a small community of a few thousand in rural MB. Whatever passes for a law and justice system on this reserve is irreparably broken and this is a community in crisis.

Mousseau’s murder capped off an appalling year of violent crime on the Sandy Bay First Nations Reserve. There appears to be no plan to deter in 2020 what was a lawless 2019.

Blair’s LinkedIn Profile

Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

Offline ! We will start taking orders in

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