Ryerson non-University

Ryerson here in Toronto has surely reached a new low in higher-education in it's handling of the granting of an honorary degree to Dr. Margaret Somerville - a reknowned ethicist as McGill University.

The National Post's Lorne Gunter captures it correctly - Ryerson's awards committee has been "spineless and rude".

Mr. Gunther writes further:

In a news release, they pointedly scoffed that "several things have become abundantly clear ... One is that the Committee was unaware of some positions for which she has advocated in the press and before Parliament -- positions that would have given Committee members serious pause before approving the award.

I think what is abundantly clear is that serious pause should have been taken before granting Ryerson status as a university.

Ducharme's resignation

I've always though that Rick Ducharme - soon to be former Chief General Manager of the TTC - was little more that master of buffoonery Howard Moscoe's stooge. I was a little surprised when I heard of his resignation. I guess there is only so much c++p that a professional can take.

John Barber wrote in the Globe today that it Mr. Ducharme who 'lost the game'. The sad fact is that running the transit services in a city isn't a game. However, for Howard Moscoe - it's all a game, one that's played with other people's money. More and more money is being pumped into the system - but every penny is going straight into the union trough. That's the great sucking sound you hear in the city.

Ducharme had finally worked up the gumption to save a few dollars that might have actually been used to run more service - and now he's gone.

The message from the union is clearly 'You ought to know us by know' - similar to the macabre warning issued by the jewel thief in the movie 'Shoot to kill;. In this case the innocent victims are average Torontonians. Until we have a council that puts the interests of 2.5 million citizens before those of 8,500 transit workers, we'll continue to be so.

My musical take on the transit strike

To the tune of ... hmmm I shouldn't need to explain:

Once in David Miller’s City
Grew a transit wildcat strike
Where his union-loving minions
Payed them dearly for their votes
Toronto was that poor city
The A.T.U. its spo-i-led child

He came down from Ha-ar-vard Yard
Full of leftist clo-op-trop
And his castle was City Ha-all
And our money his to waste
Yet with all this insane spending
Labour relations still need mending.

Plotters amongst us

It's extremely worrying - but in no way surprising to find treasonous plotters amongst us. Some might ask how first generation born and bred Canadians might come to identify with a cause such as radical Islamism than their own country. However, a more relevant question is as follows:

"Given what young first generation Canadians are and are not exposed to - be it in the education system and in the media - how could we expect any of them to think of themselves as Canadian first?"

In my opinion, to be strongly rooted to one's country requires a deep appreciation of its history. In our schools, "history" doesn't exist as a separate subject. In the public schools at least, it has been rolled into 'Social Studies". The teaching of own history is further waterered down by an agenda-driven 'ethnocentric' balancing.

I'm convinced the average high-school graduate in Ontario has no idea that the real history of Canada and our democracy began in England. The English people's long and desultory journey from serfdom to being free men and women is the fundamental pillar of our own history. Without an understanding of this foundation, what is a young person's understanding of Canada? How can they appreciate our democratic institutions and rights?

In its place, Canadian youth are exposed to ideas from the frivolous to the plain noxious. The most noxious of all is the wide-spread self-hatred of Western ideals and institutions.

Without a knowledge and appreciation of how Canada came to exist - and bombarded with messages of self-denigration, it's no surprise that some young men have decided not to be Canadian - and to treasonously pliot against us.