TORONTO – Canada 2025: weary of Covid-19 aftermath; land of festivals … to commemorate injustices both real and perceived; country of vast dimensions whose inhabitants cannot seem to agree on “common” projects; geopolitical entity where the “rule of law is the ultimate law”; a commercial juggernaut so dependent on one client’s trade (55% of our GDP, and c.80% of all trade) we risk pneumonia when it sneezes; and, so convinced of [our] one true “religion” we ignore two other major events – the appeal of the Pope to youth and Netanyahu’s determination to cleanse the Levant of Palestinians.
Like other media, we risk casting ourselves in the role of Damocles in Greek Antiquity when we make observations and comment. Nonetheless, to make none would be an abrogation of civic duty – assuming readers agree that participation also implies fulfilment of obligation conducive to public good.
I do not envy our national leaders. Happy for them there is never a shortage of events and people ready to provide some comic relief, as absurd and as frustrating as they appear on the surface. In Ontario, Toronto to be specific, a judge found a way to side with the pro-bike lane lobby ‘s efforts to prevent the dismantling of said lanes along some city streets. Cannot be done said the judge. To do so would offend the constitutional [human] rights of cyclists! Premier Ford, who is not a jurist, says that the Province will appeal. Good luck!
Someone who has “great appeal” is the recently elected Pope – Leo XIV. Spoke to a live assembled mass of an estimated one million young people in what used to be the Circus Maximus adjacent to the famed Imperial Forum of Rome. Aside from the message, that is the equivalent of thirteen sold-out stadia for a Super Bowl championship (Ps. Pope Leo was born in Chicago, which last won a championship in 1986). In exhorting his audience, Pope Leo encouraged them to look among themselves and accept the challenge of leading the world to an ideal goal one free of the evils that afflict it today: war and oppression in all its forms.
It will not be an easy task. That same day, Bibi Netanyahu removed all pretence of the various “Goals” the international community might wish for “the Strip”. He announced an all-out invasion of Gaza, apparently with the consent, if not also the full support, of Donald Trump and the USA.
It sounded much like an “up your nose with a rubber hose” expression made famous by an actor in a 1970s TV series Welcome Back Kotter. France, England and, more recently, Canada have been encouraging a different approach to lasting peace.