Centerpiece

Society has to work to ensure that people in these situations remain a small minority in the bigger picture. The human race needs family to survive and thrive. That's why it's so frustrating to watch Toronto's (mainly) Baby Mom culture go unchallenged. It's not poverty and it's not racism. It's cultural and it HAS to change. There are plenty of income-challenged Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese and other people of colour who don't throw their fatherless kids in the street to fend for themselves. Poor parenting within First Nations - I think we've beaten that one to death in other topics. We just let things fester in the name of hand-wringing political correctness - AKA cowardice. Agreed.

I posted my thoughts on the fact that technology and society's apathy have enabled self-cocooning - it's a serious issue that's getting worse, not better. I have a more positive outlook on our future but it depends on decades of leadership. You don't need religion to live a contributing and charitable life. There's a lot to be said for the equivalent of the Ten Commandments and rules of life from other religions. Remove the Icons and teach the Rules of Life. Strength and focus for society HAS to be found in family - it's common sense - survival. Rules of Life and Family - that's our ongoing saviour. Now - over to Trudeau and the various flavours of globalism. Again - common sense says that if we can survive, in 100, 200, 500 or 1000 years the human race will be largely homogenous. Nothing can stop the natural evolution to a completely mixed-race society. What frustrates me is that we have powerful forces trying to shoe-horn social engineering homogenization onto a public that is nowhere near ready to accept it. We have countries that are less that a century old. We have millions, if not billions of people that are only recently removed from tribal life. Heck, our Canadian media now looks down its nose on the US - supposedly the best of friends. Too many countries and peoples need to embrace democracy and build confidence in their collective ability to move forward. It takes time, patience and a little grease in the gears. With the acceleration of technology, it is going to be harder and harder to keep people steeped in ignorance. Yes - Trudeau. I really doubt he has the brains to understand any issue at a depth that's any more than superficial......but his handlers are indeed over-reaching - shoving stuff down our throats. I totally agree with your assessment that he is greatly damaging our image, confidence and our country with his negative, shaming claptrap. We've got our faults and Canadians can be overly polite (oh, I'm sorry).....but we were moving forward as well as any country until the Straw Man and Wizard came along to create divisions with his "identity politics" and endless apologies and shaming. Never has a Prime Minister been so completely inept. I'd better stop before I suffer a stroke.

There's that Left/Right again. Mental Illness has no political leaning. More and more, we are living in a cocoon-enabling society. You can do pretty well everything with a phone and enhance it with a TV. Makes it easy to live in the basement or by yourself and if you are at all introverted, you can get on the isolation treadmill very easily. And if you're at risk of mental illness, chances are the risk is increased. With Social media, these isolationists can join like-minded groups. Listening and preaching to their own choir - they can get all juiced up with hatred of any group or issue that turns their sometimes misguided cranks........all without seeing the light of day or actually interacting with a real person. Continuous exposure to "bad stuff" has a cumulative effect on people who are looking for something to latch onto - an outlet for their frustrations or parnoia. Technology and our own apathy have ENABLED introverts to wallow in their social ineptness and in some cases, descend into a miserable, bitter existence that can manifest itself in violence. Possibly like Alek Minassian.

That comment does nothing to advance the discussion.......or are you an advocate of basically doing nothing - which by the way, is always an option....sometimes even a good one. It's a tough subject because of the "Law of unintended consequences". To that point, we are continuing to pay the price for closing all the institutions and just dumping people on the street. That's why I suggested some pilot tests - which would take at least 5 years to get some evaluative baseline as to whether a program is working.

So do nothing?

But you've just said that public attitudes are Medeival - so how will "society" deal with them? I would suggest a multi-pronged treatment - that starts with mandatory treatment for those deemed "at risk". (having the potential for harming themselves or others). For now, let's put aside the issue of how we determine that. The treatment should involve living in an institutional setting with the ability to integrate in the community as treatment progresses. Contrary to what you're implying, I think we've learned enough to now have more informed aspirations to help those who clearly can't help themselves. A couple of pilot programs could help evaluate/validate various programs. Sure seems more humane than letting them fend for themselves out in the cruel world.

Here's a National Post article that echos this post. How quickly we jump to blacken our own eyes by teaching our children mis-guided fiction. http://nationalpost.com/opinion/guilt-over-aboriginals-can-lead-to-teaching-children-untruths-its-happening-in-canada

They call it relativism and you are right....it's back-door racism. Indians and Pakistanis are dark of skin - yet you don't see THEM in the "disproportional" pool. If the media and this judge had a backbone, they'd start addressing the problems in the Black community that are so well known, all you can do is roll your eyes.

Just got back from Barbados so might have missed a few things.........but remember all the hubbub about the last Forum Poll that showed the Liberals narrowing the gap? The Star got quite a bit of mileage out of that one. Well, the latest Forum poll came out on April 19th and not only did it prove the last one was an outlier - but this one once again projects that Liberals would lose Party status. I couldn't find the poll anywhere in the Star but maybe I just missed it....... Link: http://poll.forumresearch.com/post/2838/ontario-horserace-april-2018

That's mostly true but in addition, Jamaica is about a third the size of the GTA....maybe even smaller - yet they have about 1000 murders a year and the place is rife with guns and drugs. With lax immigration, "family unification" and overall visitors from Jamaica, you're bound to have a bunch of bad guys getting in. Of course Black Lives Matter doesn't care when blacks are killing each other.

Are you saying that a disproportionate number of blacks are in street gangs? Surely, that must also be part of our institutional systemic racism!

I was talking about top newspapers - but you still have a good point - as can be seen from the link below. That said, the Post and Times always come to mind as pretty well the most influential. Here in Canada, even The Star has strayed from its Liberal cheer leading when they had to. As for the rest of the article. I didn't really care. Link of all newspaper endorsements since 1980: https://noahveltman.com/endorsements/

I knew that American newspapers were mostly Democratic shills.....but this excerpt drove it home: Link: http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/elder-its-rich-to-tell-an-ex-clinton-aide-that-trumps-morally-unfit#comments

Really a shameful chapter in Canadian politics. It's never really been a battle of the Right to Life versus the Right to Choose - euphemisms for the two extremes. The majority of Canadians sit somewhere in the middle - a respectful compromise addressing both concerns. Virtually every Western country have put the issue to bed with rational discussions and mild legislation that make a statement on behalf of their society - that choices are not to be trivialized - they should be informed, timely and respectful. Drowned out by the shrill cries of the Left, Canada has never been permitted to have that open and honest discussion - aided and abetted by a pliant media who refuse to do their job as journalists. When was the last time anyone saw an article that compared our non-legislation to that of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, The Netherlands, etc?

Both are required - especially with an authoritarian/autocratic government like China's. To delve a little deeper, you have to understand the culture that is bred inside a system like China's or the former USSR. When the aspiration of government is to in simple terms, make everyone equal......the innate human desire for personal growth and family betterment is suppressed. That leads to "gaming" the system - cheating and corruption. It becomes natural to cheat and circumvent the system. The biggest cheaters are those who can influence others - ie, government. It goes much deeper and more insidious but hopefully, you get my drift. That's what Canada is dealing with in China - they don't play fair - it's their culture. If you fail to take advantage of someone, you're just cheating yourself out of opportunity. If you expect that if we're nice, they'll be nice - forget it. Russia is somewhat in the same boat - they still have the residual black market/cheating mentality that allowed some people to just survive, but others to gain power. Harper favoured the carrot and the stick - which when applied in the correct dosage, has helped families raise children for millenia.

With Harper, that's true only to a small extent. He spent his first 4 or 5 years making it clear to China and the world what he thought of their Human Rights record.....so much so that the media was continually on his case to warm the relationship. He did so - but more on his terms. Never did he sit back and pretend that all was good with China. In defense of Trudeau on all matters of substance, he doesn't have the intellect to go beyond provided talking points. In matters of political nuance, well.......I doubt he understands what the word means...probably confuses it, er, uh....with nuisance.

I'm having trouble understanding this whole topic. There's more than enough substantial issues to rail against Trudeau but this one is not one of them - in my opinion. Speaking in any country's Parliament is about respect for that particular institution - not political correctness back home. If another leader addressed OUR Parliament, they would do it in English - not double up with Egyptian or Yemeni or German. If they were capable of speaking in French AND English, they may decide to do it in both languages out of respect for our official bilingualism. If Harper was still PM, I'm sure he would do it only in French. OUTSIDE of Parliament - at news scrums and the like, there very well may be opportunities to use both languages.

As I said - tragic or not, he had his chance and he blew it. As for The Star - it's a head-scratcher if you haven't caught on that they detest anything Conservative. They don't save their criticisms for the editorial pages - every article is steeped in either anti-Conservative or pro-Liberal editorializing. Doug Ford has never been convicted of anything. He might get HIS chance - but it won't be with any help from The Star. I've said my piece. You've said yours. Let's see what the people say.

You certainly are entitled to your opinion but I don't see the need to call mine "pathetic". If you read the Star every day, you would have remembered that their coverage went far beyond reporting the facts. They perpetrated a daily flogging of his character and his policies from Day 1 - and to their regret, those attacks drove up his popularity. They had plenty of ammunition without getting so viciously personal. I've never seen the like of it. A good example was his Don Bosco football coaching. He donated $20,000 to equip the team and started the Rob Ford Foundation to raise money for other schools in underprivileged areas. He was alleged to have had a physical confrontation with a player in his past......the Star milked that unproven allegation for weeks. He later solicited donations to help the foundation - the Star made hay of the fact that some letters went out on his Mayoralty stationary. THAT story was regurgitated ad-nauseum as leftist councillors tried to pillory him on ethical charges. Imagine - trying to raise funds for under-privileged kids to play football and stay out of trouble. What hypocrits. Day after day - it never stopped. Rob Ford has his opportunity to be a good mayor - and he blew it. He did not need The Star to drag him through the gutter. As I said - Rob Ford was a tragic figure - whose heart was in the right place. Ironically, the Star's choice for mayor was George Smitherman - a person with his own drug demons who presided over the eHealth and Green Energy Act debacles.

Rob Ford was a tragic character. Anyone with a clue to who the man actually was - knows that he spent most of his waking hours answering calls and working for the "little guys". He had a heart as big as anyone's. The tragedy was in his inner demons - an introverted soul whose escape led him to drugs. The Star - hating what Ford's politics stood for - seized on every opportunity to bring the man down.....from his initial campaign all the way through his mayorship. The Star embodied the ruthlessness of the Left - and is not veering from that course as they continue to try to drag THIS Ford down and buoy support for Wynne.

They call it "the tyranny of the minority". Very apt for much of what we see in Canada today......and it's shameful that our media let them get away with it. In all seriousness, an example is Global Warming/Climate Change. Any informed, rational person understands that there is an underlying skepticism to the alarmist cries that 100% of the warming of the last century is caused by humans. We know that computer models have grossly over-estimated warming. We know that North America had the longest "drought" of hurricanes ever - lasting 12 years until the last one in Texas whose name eludes me. We know that as recently as 1920 and in some places later than that, there were little or no temperature records in most of the world outside the UK and North America, not to mention accuracy - yet we somehow know the Global temperature dating back before 1900. As I posted previously, there have been NO heat records set in any one state since 1994 - and most were set in the 30's. Does any of this give pause to the proposal that perhaps humans are NOT 100% responsible?Are we really that arrogant that we think we are more powerful than Mother Nature. All this and much, much more - without even getting into the politics and self-serving culture of the UN/IPCC and the characters that infest its partners - yet the media refuses to create a narrative that fosters a true dialogue. Call the skeptics a minority if you will - but the media - in this case - will not permit the "tyranny of the minority". Elitism - Father knows best.....at its worst.

The babbling Left use this argument. Conveniently though, they neglect to say how high the tax must be - and what they would actually do with the money. Until you quantify and PROVE how these two items will change habits, your claim is in fact - ridiculous. What habits would you change? Who would be affected. How would it affect peoples' lives? If you were honest enough to lay out a blueprint to tell Canadians the sacrifices they would have to make - in the face of the United States, China and India doing next to nothing - I'd venture to say there might be a teeny bit of opposition? Just another example of the elite knowing what's best for the unwashed masses.

Here's a very uncomfortable fact of ISIS that has always bothered me. Regardless of how much people might detest their beliefs, I never understood the level of violence, terror and sheer evil that they leave in their wake. Their stated goal is to have their own country/territory - but killing and maiming everyone in their path is insane. What if their goal is/was actually to create these waves of refugees, effectively creating Trojan Horses to infiltrate the West? A couple of supporting facts: first, extremists have always prescribed to the notion of world domination - even if it takes a thousand years - they play the "long game". Second, Pew Research showed that throughout the Muslim world, favourable support for ISIS exists, although minimal - anywhere from 1% up to 14% depending on the country. Canada has evaded most of the European wave through geography but we've still taken in at least 25,000 Syrians. Even at the tiniest level of 1%, there could be 250 people in our own Trojan Horse who would foster and cultivate beliefs that are totally contrary to democracy. Just a theory of course - do you think it holds any water at all? Link: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/17/in-nations-with-significant-muslim-populations-much-disdain-for-isis/

You're entitled to your opinion. I still like the guy. And she WAS really good looking!

Do you think there is any chance of an honest discussion in the media? If it was honest - it would focus on TWO terms - Climate Change and Global Warming. Global warming should be defined as the human contribution to Climate Change. Activists and a pliant, naive media have bastardized the term "Climate Change". To follow THEIR logic, if humans disappeared from the planet, the Climate would stop warming and never change - because THEY say that humans are responsible for 100% of the warming in the last century. That statement alone should give pause to any rational person that we are being duped - played for suckers. Fun Fact 1: There have been NO "hottest temperature" records set in ANY US State since 1994 (two tied previous records). Most records were set in the 1930's. Fun Fact 2: There are a fair number of "coldest temperature" records set in the 60's, 70's and 80's - remember the Global Cooling scare? Observation: Seems like it was hot, then cooled a bit, and it's getting a bit warmer now......unless of course, you look at the "adjusted" temperature graphs. It's enlightening to see source data and draw your own conclusions.......my opinion of course. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_temperature_extremes Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_temperature_extremes