Politicians are lying. Neither the lockdown nor the closing down of national economies constitute a solution to the public health crisis (if there ever was one!).
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PHOTOS
Joseph Dunphy, p. 59 OR ON BACK COVER
New Zealand lifts all Covid restrictions, declaring the nation virus-free
Whoever controls the past controls the future. Whoever controls the present controls the past.
8 June 2020: www.bbc.com/news/world-asia52961539 New Zealand has lifted almost all of its coronavirus restrictions after reporting no active cases in the country. At midnight local time (12:00 GMT), all of New Zealand moved to level one, the lowest of a four-tier alert system. Under new rules, social distancing is not required and there are no limits on public gatherings, but borders remain closed to foreigners. ♣
– George Orwell
Quoted in Kevin Annett article, p.?
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www.dialogue.ca
Welcome to the Summer 2020 issue
dialogue is...
Dedicated to the memory of Maurice J. King, 1927~2019 Dear Reader, As you will see in this issue, many people are trying – from varied perspectives – to make sense of the world and the machinations of the “powers that be.” With all the fear-mongering that has been going on in the mainstream media/TV for months (or years), Maurice, Janet wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say, “Don’t worry & Penny (2019) folks, there’s really nothing to be afraid of!” Chronic fear is not good for our immune systems! Many writers in this issue point out that what the MSM wants us to fear – a deadly epidemic – is not really what we should be most concerned about. There are many other candidates for that role! Writers in this issue share their ideas, not to scare you, but to raise your awareness – so that perhaps together we can find viable solutions and a healthier future for the planet. Perhaps one of the most worrisome of challenges facing humanity is the roll-out of 5G satellites (p.11+): dramatically increasing the harm to life. And then there is “The Big Picture” – but that takes much research and serious effort to bring into focus… In one of the many interesting exchanges, Wes Buch and Mike Spencer (p.23) tackle the question: “How shall we form sound and helpful convictions that fuel the cause of just, respectful and democratic communities?” especially in the light of internet misinformation, social media distortions, fake & false news, etc. – & the pressure to ‘conform.’ There is an important health article by Dr. Lonsdale (p.49). And, starting in the Autumn issue, we will be serializing his book, A Nutritional Approach to a Revised Model for Medicine. (More on p.52) And this issue is especially rich in stories and poetry and has lots of suggestions for books and documentaries to discover. Gabriel Communications, the not-for-profit that Maurice created, continues as the publisher of Dialogue. We have established a Legacy Fund in Maurice’s memory, to ensure that Dialogue continues well into the future. Thank you for your generous help. We are very grateful for any donation you are able to contribute at this time. (Please see enclosed letter) And please say a prayer for Penny--at 17yrs. And Thank You for continuing to be part of this venture of dedicated writers, poets, artists and readers who are pursuing their dreams of a better world. Janet , volunteer editor …and Penny & Lucky! IMPORTANT: If you wish to continue receiving the magazine, please ensure your subscription is up-to-date! PLEASE LOOK AT YOUR ADDRESS LABEL on this issue to find your RENEWAL DATE. If your subscription is due, please use the renewal slip enclosed inside the back cover of the print magazine. THANK YOU! Please note that our Thrifty Foods Smile Card Fundraiser has been renewed, so the card you may have on hand will be working again (see p.58). www.dialogue.ca
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…an independent, Canadian volunteer-produced, not-for-profit quarterly, written and supported by its readers – empowering their voices and the sharing of ideas. Now in its 33rd year, dialogue provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and an antidote to political correctness. We encourage readers to share with others the ideas and insights gleaned from these pages.
If you would like to share your ideas and become a writer/artist in our magazine, please consider this your personal invitation to participate! We also need your support as a subscriber, to help us continue (See P. 58 for details) Your donations and Gift Subscriptions are also vital to keeping the magazine going! We receive NO government funding and no advertising revenue. We rely totally on the generous support of our readers & subscribers. Thank You!
dialogue
was founded in 1987 and is now published quarterly. Maurice J. King, Publisher-In-Memoriam Janet K. Hicks, Volunteer Editor
Date of Issue: 21 June, 2020 Also available at www.dialogue.ca Annual subscription: $20.00 [including GST, # 89355-1739] Canada Post Agreement No. 40069647 Registration No. 08915 ISSN: 1184-7042, Legal Deposit: National Library of Canada (409731)
The views expressed in this publication are those of their individual authors. Reprints of published articles are included for their educational value.
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“Prévoyance”
House of Commons Petition re CPP Investments LINK: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-2615 Erik Andersen, Gabriola Island, BC
At last! The link above is your doorway to reading and signing our petition asking the Canadian parliamentarians to put some restraints on the Canada Pension Plan Board. We hope you will see the merits of our requests and recognise we make these requests to help secure your personal financial future. It will be of no use if parliamentarians use your pension money to help others recover what they have lost in the value of their own assets. Lenard Cohen and his singer partner, Sharon Robinson, might provide a way of thinking with their song "Anthem". "Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in."
It is time to believe in democracy. Regards from Cliff, Erik and Catherine Sent: June 7, 2020. Please share widely. From: ERIK ANDERSEN twolabradors@shaw.ca
PETITION: e-2615 (Economy & finance) KEYWORDS:
Canada Pension Plan Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Fossil fuels / Investment Pensions and pensioners
E-petition Initiated by F Brian Fisher from Nanaimo, British Columbia SHORT LINK TO SIGN THE PETITION: https://tinyurl.com/Petition-e-2615
Petition to the Government of Canada Whereas: • The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) manages $400 billion of Canadians’ pension savings; • Following the financial challenges of 2008-09 and when governments rescued commercial banks from bankruptcy by “bailout,” using the credit worthiness of each country, central bankers have been searching for an alternative to taxpayer “bailout”; and • Current global conditions suggest there will be a growing desire to “bailout” the fossil fuel industry, dependent economies and lenders to that industry. We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to direct the CPPIB to: 1. Divest of all fossil fuel investments and to no longer entertain any new fossil fuel investment opportunity; 2. Hire a qualified, independent consultant to examine the total Canada Pension Plan Fund portfolio of investments for the purpose of completing a “value at risk” analysis in 2020 and every four year thereafter, which will also be publicly reported; 3. Refrain from making private equity investments and to progressively divest the Fund of these investments; 4. Discontinue the use of borrowed money. History: Open for signature June 5, 2020 Closes for signature October 3, 2020, at 9:56 a.m.(EDT) Member of Parliament: Paul Manly, Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Green Party, BC ♣
LATE ADDITION – FROM THE CDN. CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES (CCPA):
Standing Committee on Finance: Panel with Senior Economists, 18 June 2020 Report from Erika Shaker, CCPA-Ottawa, outreach@policyalternatives.ca [SUMMARY/LINKS] Senior economists from 6 banks and the CCPA took part in a virtual panel at the Standing Committee on Finance [ONLINE: https://tinyurl.com/ccpa-scof-18-june-2020] on “The government’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic.” David Macdonald (Sr. Economist, CCPA) advocated on behalf of Canadians affected by the pandemic. In his presentation, David called for restrictions that would "suspend bank dividends and executive bonuses for the period of extraordinary government interventions… The protected nature of the Canadian banking sector has led to extraordinary profits to its shareholders and tremendous bonuses being paid to its executives. However, in a time of great need for many Canadians, it is time for more to be asked of this sector – not only for the good of Canadians but also the good of our economy." You can read David Macdonald's comments on Behind the Numbers [LINK: https://tinyurl.com/David-Macdonald ] and watch his presentation (link above or) on the CCPA YouTube channel [LINK: https://tinyurl.com/ccpa-yt-dm ]. ♣
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Joe Oliver: “CPPIB CEO gets a pay bump in the middle of a pandemic — and returns decreased” in The Financial Post (29 May 2020) [From Larry Kazdan, comment follows] JOE OLIVER: “Call me naive, but I thought there was
supposed to be a relationship between executive compensation and corporate performance. If corporate profits soar, so could the CEO’s bonus. But if returns plummet by 65 per cent, that is not the time for payouts to increase — not even modestly, particularly at a
Crown corporation like the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which manages $410 billion for Canadian pensioners. At the very least, a modicum of empathetic restraint would be appropriate during a pandemic, with three million jobs lost in the past two months and many companies going bankrupt. […]” LINK : https://tinyurl.com/FP-cppib-ceo
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Larry Kazdan, Vancouver: COMMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE ARTICLE When we increase Canada Pension Plan premiums, business interests complain that that we remove money from the economy and decrease employment. If so, then why are CPP investments not also creating jobs to replace those lost? Is it possible that these retirement funds are distorting capital markets and causing asset bubbles rather than real economic activity? CPP investments should be making the economic pie larger by funding more research and development, accelerated infrastructure renewal and a better educated and trained workforce. Canada's ability to afford guaranteed retirement benefits depends on improving the country's productivity. Why do we let CPP investment managers make "boom-and-bust" speculative investments in foreign cruise lines, lottery operators, and luxury retailers, even as they extract fees, commissions and executive bonuses that reduce our savings? [Footnotes, right] lkazdan@gmail.com; http://mmtincanada.jimdo.com/
Footnote: 1. “Pension Funds Are So Big They'll Create A Bubble In Any Market” www.businessinsider.com/pension-fundbubble-creators-2010-9 "To conclude, pension funds are so large that they will bubble-up any financial market they are allowed to enter—and what goes up must come down. The problem really is that what Hyman Minsky called managed money (including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, money market funds, etc.), taken as a whole, is simply too large to be supported by the nation's ability to produce output and income necessary to provide a foundation for the financial assets and debts that exist." LINK: http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/hili_109a.pdf "....we argue that the current approach to managing pension funds leads to excessive cost and risk, both for covered individuals and for society as a whole. We advocate a different approach, one that would rely more heavily on government support for retirement through the expansion of Social Security. […] All we need is a strengthened Social Security program with a government guarantee behind the promised benefits." ♣
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Bill 10: Any single AB politician can now write, create, implement & enforce any new law, without approval or consultation Forwarded by Patricia White pwhite.red@gmail.com, FROM The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (www.jccf.ca): The passing of Bill 10 –
PUBLIC HEALTH (EMERGENCY POWERS) AMENDMENT ACT, April 2, 2020 – means that, in addition to
the already existing powers under the Alberta Public Health Act, any single politician can now also write, create, implement and enforce any new law, without approval or consultation. CALGARY: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf.ca) expressed concerns today about unconstitutional legislation that was rushed through the Alberta Legislature on April 2, 2020. Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party used its majority to pass Bill 10, the Alberta Public Health www.dialogue.ca
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(Emergency Powers) Amendment Act, 2020, introduced on March 31 and approved on April 2. Hastily pushed through the Legislative Assembly in less than 48 hours, with only 21 out of 87 elected MLAs present and voting on the final reading, Bill 10 provides sweeping and extraordinary powers to any government minister at the stroke of a pen. (The bill on Alberta government website: https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_30/session_2/20200225_bill-010.pdf )
The passing of Bill 10 last week means that, in addition to the already existing powers, one single politician can now also write, create, implement and enforce any new law, simply through ministerial order, without the new law being discussed, scrutinized, debated or …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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approved by the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. A cabinet minister can now decide unilaterally, without consultation, to impose additional laws on the citizens of Alberta, if she or he is personally of the view that doing so is in the public interest. Further, the new law can be made retroactive to the time when the public health emergency was declared. This includes the right of government to create new offenses, again without oversight from the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Bill 10 also increases the maximum penalty for contravening the Public Health Act from $2,000 to $100,000 (first offence) and from $5,000 to $500,000 (subsequent offence). With many courts currently
closed or highly restricted to criminal law and some family law matters, the usual checks and balances to ensure a democratic balance in our system are limited or non-existent. LINK : https://www.jccf.ca/alberta-government-gives-
itself-sweeping-new-powers-to-create-new-lawswithout-legislative-assembly-approval/ ♣
Comment by Herb Spencer spsi99@telus.net This illustrates that the Covid PANIC was invented to
introduce Health Fascism, building on the near universal FEAR of DEATH. This is why politicians & MDs love it. [More Comments & Links from Herb on P.24] ♣
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News Stories / Links from June Ross From June Ross, Nanaimo, BC - jross12@telus.net
menace to First Nations is also being resurrected. […]
1) Russian report (1977): internal organs harmed by milliwaves
READ AT: LINK: https://tinyurl.com/tyee-TPIRA
From: Sharon Noble, June 6, 2020
In 2012 the US govt. released a Russian report written in 1977 about biological effects in humans and animals exposed to milliwaves. Studies are referenced that were done as long ago as 1969 as showing biological effects to many organisms in the body including the liver, kidneys, adrenal glands, DNA. Why has this information been kept from the public? Does Health Canada not have access to this? Why is this not sufficient to call milliwave radiation dangerous? 2) Trudeau’s ‘Zombie Policies’ Threaten Indigenous Rights - in thetyee.ca From: Gene McGuckin, 9 May 2020
Amidst the pandemic, a flawed negotiation approach quietly aims at assimilation, not reconciliation. - Russ Diabo [Mohawk policy analyst and regular commentator on CBC, CTV and APTN. In 2018 he ran for the position of National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.]
When measures to combat Covid-19 went into full effect in Canada, it was on the heels of cross-country protests in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs blocking a gas pipeline. With economic activity grinding to a halt, one might have thought Indigenous peoples would be getting a breather from those kinds of pressures and attacks. Instead the federal and provincial governments deemed resource extraction “essential,” meaning construction of several fiercely contested projects is moving ahead, including the Site C dam, the TransMountain expansion and the Coastal GasLink pipeline that provoked blockades through February. Away from the public spotlight, another 6 dialogue
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3) Alberta Joins Trump in Attacking Right to Protest: “Protests Matter: A Charter Critique of Alberta’s Bill 1” – From: Gene McGuckin, June 10 2020 LINK : https://ablawg.ca/2020/06/09/protests-mattera-charter-critique-of-albertas-bill-1/
Bill 1, the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, 30th Legislature, 2nd Session (2020) The last few weeks have emphasized the crucial role of public protests. The Alberta Energy Minister’s statement about the Covid-19 pandemic being a great time to build pipelines without protestors went viral (and not in a good way), and demonstrations in the United States and Canada are stark reminders that direct and systemic racism and colonialism are present in Canadian society today. In the midst of these events, the Alberta government passed Bill 1, the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act. Bill 1 was initially tabled in February 2020 during the blockades of rail lines in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. Only five sections long, it contains a number of prohibitions and offences relating to activities involving “essential infrastructure.” This post reviews Bill 1’s compliance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, concluding that it is an unjustifiable violation of at least 5 different fundamental rights and freedoms. A second post will examine how Bill 1 also treads on the federal government’s criminal law powers under The Constitution Act, 1867 and Aboriginal rights under section 35 of The Constitution Act, 1982. Kim Siever News has an excellent summary of Bill 1 https://kimsiever.ca/2020/05/30/the-ucp-governmentpassed-bill-1-is-protest-illegal/ ♣ DIGITAL EDITION
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Carol Off and “As It Happens In The USA” On the ZERO coverage of the 22 Canadians murdered in Nova Scotia in April… Robin Mathews, Vancouver, 9 June 2020
Carol Off is the mouthpiece of “As It Happens In The USA” … the joyous and happy mouthpiece – as I see them – of ardent Colonials in the CBC (the Colonial Broadcasting Corporation). As with many other Canadians … my wife listens to “As It Happens In The USA” when we are having dinner … and so … I listen too … observing, as I judge, the Hyper-Colonial Mindedness of Ms. Off and her whole team…. Notice: when “As It Happens In The USA” reaches into its archives for interesting and witty former broadcasts … around 70% (from casual observation) are NOT from Canada, of course, or from around the world of course … but, of course, from the U.S.A. Of Course. The “dip” into the Archives may just be a way to try to hook the not $$ contributing but the most important listeners (to the “As It Happens In The USA” team) … the possible US audience. Remember… as I have pointed out before… though people in the USA pay no broadcasting tax in Canada, CBC’ers know that there is a possibility of getting a HUGE U.S. audience (the IMPERIAL audience) (to many CBC’ers, one must assume, the most important possible audience). And so, one may speculate, many, many, many CBC broadcasters WANT U.S. listeners/ viewers… and - as the saying goes “play to them”. Notice: In April of this year, 22 people were murdered in Nova Scotia by an obsessed gunman. (They, of course, didn’t really matter … because they were Canadians.) The RCMP failed to activate the Provincial Alarm. The RCMP apparently failed to inform (by any means) the population that the murderer was driving a convincingly faked RCMP vehicle UNTIL 12 HOURS AFTER THEY LEARNED THAT FACT. Many people, apparently were hurt apart from those murdered. CBC generally … and “As It Happens In The USA” as an example … does NOTHING on the aftermath of the Canadian story. NOTHING. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. CBC (and obsessively “As It Happens In The USA”)
visits, visits, revisits the George Floyd murder in Minnesota… and DOES NOTHING ON THE EVENTS OR THE AFTERMATH OF 22 CANADIANS MURDERED IN APRIL IN NOVA SCOTIA. www.dialogue.ca
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(Who cares about Canadians. Get Real!!) What matters is what happens in the USA... “As It Happens In The USA” knows that, even if Canadians don’t. One US person murdered is infinitely more important than 22 Canadians murdered. Of course. WORSE? Matters relating to that story may even be WORSE! Think …. Could CBC have been told by SOMEONE to “forget” the Nova Scotia murders….? Could the influence of the RCMP be felt at the heart of “AS IT HAPPENS IN THE USA”? I suggest that is a very strong likelihood. The RCMP were thought by very many to have murdered a Polish Immigrant in Vancouver International Airport in 2007 … but nobody was charged with murder. The RCMP (confirmed by a BC Supreme Court Judge and upheld unanimously by a three-judge BC Appeals Court ruling) entrapped, misused, charged, jailed, etc. etc. and dropped back into the street two socially challenged Canadians in order to FAKE an Islamic Terrorist Event at the B.C. Legislature grounds on July 1, 2013. NO ACTION ON BEHALF OF THE ENTRAPPED COUPLE HAS EVER BEEN TAKEN …. NOTHING has been done to examine, to expose, and to deal in law with the complex/many RCMP personnel, CRIMINAL undertaking….
“As It Happens In The USA” of course would not be vaguely interested in those events. If they had happened in the U.S.A. … it would be a different story. And for “As It Happens In The USA” it would be “a BIG story”. But since the two entrapped and mistreated people are Canadian … and since the event happened in a Canadian place … and since certain people in Power might not like “As It Happens In The USA” to report fairly on the RCMP-FAKED, CRIMINAL, ISLAMIC TERRORIST EVENT in B.C. … Who in their right minds could care?? NOT, it would seem, the team that produces “As It Happens In The USA” And… then … remember, there were other Faked Islamic Events and deaths … but … but … we shouldn’t expect The Colonial Broadcasting Corporation or programs like “As It Happens In The USA” to notice them, should we. Should we? R. Mathews, rmathews@telus.net ♣ More: on the NS SHOOTING, P.12; the RCMP on P.13 VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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Growing Local Food in Canada? How A Closed-Down Economy Impacted A Market Gardener NO OFF-FARM WORK = NO INPUTS = NO PLANTING = NO FOOD Susan Woollam, Duncan BC
I am a market gardener and I’ve lost my off-farm work. The logical thing for me to do is increase the size of land I am planting to help off-set food shortages we might experience given our reliance on imported food and imported labour. I attempted to access funds for inputs - seeds, row covers etc. and I was shocked at what I found. The only program available to farmers is through the FCC (Farm Credit Canada). I emailed as soon as the agricultural subsidy was announced but I was told I would be contacted when they had time. When I did not receive an email, I called. I found out I can “borrow” money at 4.45% but that I need to begin repayment immediately and the loan is a short term loan of 2 years. They also said that if I applied online, the loan would not be processed in time for planting. And if I were able to get the loan, how can I possibly make a payment this month when the crop is not even planted yet? How can I make a payment in December when I have no off-farm income? This is in strong contrast to money that is available to businesses - readily available and interest free until 2022 with a forgivable portion. Farms do not meet the criteria to apply for business funding as they cannot show an income drop from one month to another. Farms do not have income for more than a few months of the year period. I heavily subsidize my farm with off-farm income. I pay for my seeds, my greenhouse buildings, my utilities, etc. from off-farm income and then I sell my bedding plants and vegetable priced to compete with big box stores. The truth is, I supply people with food and plants that are heavily subsidized by my free labour but also by my own off-farm income. I thought my situation was likely unique to small farmers, but when I went and did the research, the numbers of farmers who rely on off-farm income are staggering and ever increasing. Depending on 8 dialogue
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the province, I found numbers as high as 85%. This is also true in the US. Farmers use their own money for inputs. We’ve lost our off-farm income. We are not being offered easily available and inexpensive money to pay for inputs. We are expected to take expensive loans that will literally be impossible to repay without off-farm income. No off-farm income = no money for inputs. No inputs = no planting. No planting = no food. Has this issue just been overlooked by our government? Does the government actually think farmers have money for seeds, fertilizers, etc.? Is the government aware the FCC is actually saying don’t apply for input money online because it won’t be processed in time? IT IS PLANTING SEASON NOW! In China, they made getting money to farmers a priority. Does the government have a secret store of stockpiled food? Or are they thinking that farmers should just take the risk, go further into debt in order to supply Canadians with food? I could grow 10 acres of vegetables and deliver boxes to people weekly. I have the experience, the land, the knowledge – but I don’t have my off-farm income for inputs. Canadians are about to wake up to the reality that farmers have not only been working their farms to grow food for Canadians, but they have been working off their farms to pay for the privilege of growing Canadians their food. Apparently, despite all of the statistics gathered on agriculture in Canada, the government has not connected the dots on this either. Must my fields remain barren this year? Susan Woollam, April 12, 2020 C/O 3225 Hillwood Rd., Duncan, BC V9L 6P6 Tel. 250-746-0290 From: Bill Woollam templelife@hotmail.com ♣ DIGITAL EDITION
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Foreign Affairs in the Trudeau Government Open Letter to PM Trudeau signed by 50 former Canadian Diplomats urging him to speak out opposing Israel’s annexation plans Calling on the PM to issue a statement reaffirming Canada’s commitment to upholding International Law regarding the prohibition against unilateral annexation of territory (as Israel is proposing in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank) LINK: https://tinyurl.com/ctip-open-letter From Canada Talks Israel Palestine (CTIP) told CBC’s Evan Dyer. [Text of the Open letter follows.] Over 50 retired Canadian diplomats, including many Open Letter To The Right Honourable ambassadors and three former Liberal ministers, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Ottawa, June 1, 2020 Trudeau, urging him to defend Canada’s historical Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, commitment to multilateral institutions and internaWe are writing to you as retired Canadian diplotional law by clearly indicating Canada’s opposition mats, proud of Canada’s historical commitment to to Israel’s proposed ‘annexation’ of significant parts multilateral institutions and its reputation for of the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. supporting the rule of law. When Prime Minister Trudeau spoke to Benjamin As you know, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin NetNetanyahu on April 12, he offered his congratulations anyahu has announced publicly his intention to “anon forming the new government and wished him well. nex” in the coming weeks a significant amount of land that Canada, and the international community, recogThis is normal practice among heads of government. nize as occupied Palestinian Territory. Trudeau also said he “looked forward to working closely with the new Israeli government, and underThe unilateral annexation of territory is strictly lined the two countries’ long history as close friends prohibited under international law. This is a and steadfast allies” and spoke of the “underlying centrepiece of the Charter of the United Nations, democratic values shared by both countries”. San Francisco, 26 June 1945, and has been consolidated by treaties and resolutions, judicial But his short, celebratory conversation with Prime rulings and scholarly writings ever since. Minister Netanyahu was remarkable for what he did NOT say. Nowhere did the Prime Minister Indeed, this prohibition has acquired the status of a mention Netanyahu’s highly publicized plans to take jus cogens norm in international law, meaning that over even more Palestinian land through “annexation” it is accepted as a fundamental principle of law by of parts of the Occupied West Bank in defiance of the international community. UN resolutions and international law. Territorial conquest and annexation are notorious Trudeau’s reluctance to stand up for human rights and for contributing to fateful results: war, political international law by clearly stating Canadian opposition instability, economic ruin, systematic discrimination to the project has annoyed many Canadians (see letter and human suffering. from leading Canadian churches ) and even drawn criti- Speaking specifically to the five-decade-long Israeli cism from some Jewish Canadian organizations. occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the UN SecuNow, a number of highly respected retired Canadian rity Council has affirmed, on eight occasions since diplomats – including many with experience in the 1967, the principle of “the inadmissibility of the acMiddle East – have written a highly unusual open letter quisition of territory” by war or force. This principle to the Prime Minister also urging him to change tack. was cited by the council to condemn as unlawful Israel’s two prior annexations of East Jerusalem, in “The difference between the Trudeau government’s 1980, and the Syrian Golan Heights in 1981. reaction to the proposed annexation of the Jordan Valley and its reaction to Russia’s annexation of We would like to urge you to publicly acknowledge Crimea is a sad reality we have to deplore”, former Canada’s commitment to multilateralism and the Canadian Ambassador to Egypt Ferry de Kerkhove rule of law by issuing a statement that Canada …/ www.dialogue.ca
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reaffirms its position in support of all relevant UN resolutions, including UNSC resolution 2334, which was adopted on 23 December 2016. As you are no doubt aware, many of our allies have already spoken out opposing the Israeli proposal. Significant Canadian civil society organizations, including some Christian churches and Jewish organizations, have also urged Canada to take a similar stand. As former Canadian diplomats, we urge you to pro-
tect Canada’s good name in the international community by speaking loudly and clearly on this issue. For the list of 50+ signatories, visit: LINK : https://tinyurl.com/ctip-open-letter Canada Talks Israel Palestine (CTIP) is a weekly newsletter edited by Peter Larson, Chair of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/ Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion in Canada about the emotional and complex Israel/Palestine issue. To learn more about what we do, go to: www.ottawaforumip.org Or contact us at: ofip.chair@gmail.com ♣
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B’nai Brith attacks 50 former Canadian diplomats as “hypocritical, prejudiced and biased” against Israel From Canada Talks Israel Palestine:
A pro-Israel lobby group has launched a fierce attack on the reputations of over 50 respected Canadian former diplomats accusing them of being “hypocritical, prejudiced and biased” against Israel. B’nai Brith Canada was reacting sharply to an open letter (above) sent by the diplomats to Prime Minister Trudeau urging him to stand by international law and oppose Israel’s stated plans to take over more Occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank. The diplomats’ letter was noticed in several quarters. CBC’s Evan Dyer noted that the signatories included Canadian Ambassadors to Israel under both Chretien and Harper governments. An editorial signed by the whole Toronto Star editorial board cited the letter and urged the PM to “speak louder against Israel’s dangerous plan”. The attention caused by the letter seems to have had some effect on the Prime Minister who, in his press conference of June 2, spoke publicly for the first time of his opposition to the Israeli project. All of this prompted B’nai Brith Canada, which appears to be politically aligned with Mr. Netanyahu’s right wing Likud party (although virtually all Israeli political parties support annexation of parts of the West Bank) to launch a counter attack against the letter signers. “We are disgusted with the blatant hypocrisy and double standards of the international community constantly directed against Israel. This letter is just the latest example of it,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. The sharp tone of B’nai Brith’s attack is all the more
surprising given the reputations of those who signed, which includes two former Canadian ambassadors to Israel, (one of whom is Jewish) and four former Cabinet ministers. In support of his allegations, Mr. Mostyn went on to make a dubious legal argument. “The status of the territories in question is a subject of major debate in international law, and Israel’s claims are no less legitimate than anyone else’s,” he claimed.
No “international debate” – UN official But according to Professor Michael Lynk, Professor of Law at Western University and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, there is no such “debate” in international law. Reached by telephone, Professor Lynk told CTIP “The Palestinian territory is occupied by Israel. This is one of the most well-accepted legal facts in the modern world. A territory that comes under the control of another country through war is considered to be occupied, whether the conflict was a defensive war or a war of aggression. The United Nations Security Council has repeatedly reaffirmed this, most recently in December 2016 (UNSC Resolution 2334).” In the past, Bnai Brith has frequently attacked pro-Palestinian human rights activists in the Green Party and the NDP as “anti-Semitic”. Bnai Brith did not quite use that language in attacking the diplomats. But accusing them of “hypocrisy,” “double standards,” “bias,” and “prejudice” against Israel is tantamount to the same thing. […] Canada Talks Israel Palestine, ofip.chair@gmail.com ♣
The Land of No-One – a play by Kevin Annett Twice shut down during its attempted production in Canada, The Land of No-One is about the dark underbelly of the “nice” nation to the North (of the US). The play’s protagonist is a happy family man and a pillar of the community who also has the blood of the innocent on his hands. […] Playwright, Kevin Annett is an award-winning documentary
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filmmaker, writer, and human rights consultant. He has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize and, in 2016, received the coveted Prague Peace Award. LINK : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08977QM4J Paperback: $10 (US), Kindle: $3. Order at the link above. Contact the author at hiddenfromhistory1@gmail.com ♣ DIGITAL EDITION
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Speak/Write to your Local or Regional Government! A Letter To Local/Regional Governments in Canada regarding COVID-19, EMF Radiation and 5G and the Role of Health Authorities By Jerry Flynn, Bowser, BC, jerryjgf@shaw.ca LATE UPDATE: Sent: June 21, 2020 7:40 PM To: justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca; ljbresolin@hotmail.com; Jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca; premier@gov.bc.ca; wssr@concordia.ca; Gord.Johns@parl.gc.ca; Cc: Regional District Directors
Subject: The Collapse of Covid-19 - The Greatest Swindle in the History of Humanity! Dear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, You, like all Canadians, are being – and have been – swindled by Covid-19. Please watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUQoxwdxKo (preferred site, or, if it is removed) https://www.corbettreport.com/mp3/2020-0615_James_Corbett.mp3 Listen to Gary Null, PhD, interview Jim Corbett re Covid-19. You will never hear any of this on mainstream news media! How the ‘controlled’ news media classifies COVID-19 a global pandemic, when experts say that it is no more than a normal flu and is not a risk to a normal, healthy person – especially if people take Vitamin C, D and Zinc regularly. Hear Gary Null’s comments re Anthony Fauci (at minute 39:00), and how it is connected to COVID; Bill Gates (at minute 41:49) and his mandatory vaccinations (New York State and California). Hear them discuss how Bill Gates has assumed the influence in global health, as he had tried to do in the PC industry. Hear about the ‘new’ markets he is developing, the eugenics, his vaccines in Africa! Bill Gates and Eugenics. Absolutely scary! His interest in reducing the World’s Population. Unbelievable! This is 2nd only to the dangers to society of EMFs and 5G technology. Sincerely, J.G. Flynn, Captain (Retired), Bowser, B.C., Author: “Hidden Dangers – 5G” --------------------------
Letter sent to my regional government: hopefully, others will see fit to send it, or their own comments, to their local/reg. gov't. – JF, 1 June 2020 Definition. In this context, electro-magnetic field (EMF) radiation is present in anything in which electrical current flows. EMFs can have thermal effects (which the body can detect) and non-thermal effects (which the human body cannot detect) i.e., they are invisible, silent, odorless and tasteless – but hazardous to people, regardless of frequency.
Knowing the above, the public needs to wake up and realize that we are all being deliberately lied to about the known, very real dangers of the: 1) highly-profitable non-thermal power line frequency (50/60 Hz) EMF radiation that is emitted in every home, by every electrical appliance, by every power tool and electricallyrun machinery, by every electrical vehicle, etc. in every occupied building in every industrialized www.dialogue.ca
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community on earth; and, 2) the equally profitable but even more dangerous wireless pulsed microwave nonthermal EMF radiation that is emitted by all wireless radio frequency (RF) products. Informed people understand that today’s US M-I-C controlled governments have concocted the Covid-19 pandemic as a means to distract the public’s attention from the “5G” (Fifth Generation) technology now being rolled out quietly (at night even) in countries around the world. … Watch Dr. Judy, A. Mikovits, PhD., American biochemist, www.bitchute.com/video/W1Hc2Anx3g7S/ or where she discusses inflated mortality rates and doctors being pressured to sign death certificates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-fyyzn2gg8
Dr. Judy A. Mikovits wrote the book: Plague of Corruption, Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science, forward by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Or PhD. Dolores Cahill, who independently is equally upset and outspoken about Covid-19, the WHO, Dr. Fauci and “Big Pharma.” https://www.bitchute.com/video/EjorK715n6nW/
Or Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, PhD., who says: “Fire Fauci and end the shutdown.” https://www.straight.com/news/republican-senatehopeful-shiva-ayyadurai-calls-for-firing-of-us-pandemic-control-czar-dr Dr. Ayyadurai claims that a nor-
mal, healthy person’s immune system will protect most people, and says that the manufactured death toll of Covid-19 cannot compare to the 600,000 people who die every year from heart disease, or the almost 580,000 who die from cancer, or the 440,000 people who die from medical errors, etc. Wuhan laboratory, China. Funding for the reckless germ war experiments in Wuhan have included more than $3.7 million from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) https://www.instagram.com/p/B--PXQKHxhs/
Then one needs to know about the REAL Bill Gates, as depicted in the Corbett Report. 1) How He Monopolized Global Health https://www.bitchute.com/video/wQSYdAX_9JY/ 2) Vaccine For The World – https://www.bitchute.com/video/o7A_cMpKm6w/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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3) Population Control – https://www.bitchute.com/video/igx86PoU7v8/ 4) Meet Bill Gates – https://www.bitchute.com/video/DSvhPnUgyz8/
The Tragedy of the 5G roll-out If Health Canada, the WHO and ICNIRP were to post, say, highway speed limits at 1,000 MPH, it would be virtually impossible for any person to break the law. This is exactly what has happened in the case of the amount of EMFs they now allow – for 50/60 Hz and RF EMFs. Because 50/60 Hz (which were adopted in 1891) have never been tested for safety and have today become the bedrock on which all modern societies are built, and because the ‘safe’ RF EMF exposure standards were/are based on the U.S. Navy’s 1953 standard (that recognize ONLY the thermal effects of RF EMFs and allows the navy to still operate its most powerful radars), this corruption makes it possible for today’s telecom companies to not only saturate the earth with cell phone towers, cell phones, Wi-Fi routers, cordless phones, desktop, laptop and tablet computers, Bluetooth devices, security systems etc. – but also to roll-out its much-hyped “5G” technology, in spite of the protests from countries around the world. It is incomprehensible that, given the above, not one health authority in Canada – not Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, not a single cabinet minister in the Government of Canada, not anyone in any provincial or territorial government, not a single person in any provincial Centre for Disease Control, and not a single Provincial Health Officer has any credible expertise in or knowledge of: 1) non-thermal EMFs, 2) pulsed nonLATE ADDITION: 21 June 2020
thermal RF EMFs, 3) “Dirty Electricity”; or, 4) electrohypersensitivity (EHS) – even though these ‘nevermentioned’ topics have for decades increasingly been ravaging every country on earth and cause most of today’s disease epidemics. As if that weren’t bad enough, no health authority in Canada knows a thing about the invisible non-thermal effects of “5G” technology now being rolled out in countries around the world (from some 42,000 satellites and tens of millions of microcell and/or macrocell towers that Industry says will be required), the incalculable amount of EMF of which will simply be added to the already monumental – but invisible – cloud of EMFs already polluting our environment from the previous 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, which scientists warn threatens all life on earth. The health and safety of every person in Canada, including those health authorities who are paid to protect us, are at the sole mercy of those notoriously corrupt scientists in Health Canada’s Radiation Protection Bureau and their colleagues elsewhere. If this is not the perfect crime, what is? Had Canada a true, free press, today’s tragedy could not be happening. Sincerely, J.G. Flynn, Captain (retired), Bowser, BC, Author Hidden Dangers-5G available at Amazon ♣ P.S. Also sent to my elected Regional District Directors: This is easily, the most frightening info on 5G, digital currency and de-population that I have ever read! Can anyone disprove any of it? VITAL INFORMATION: VIDEO Spiro Skouras: The Great Reset Plan Revealed New World Order Ushered In: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1-pZgDNr4c ♣
Was Canadian Mass Shooting That Led to Instant Gun Control Laws a False Flag? The N.S. shooter case has hallmarks of an undercover operation
Police sources say the killer’s withdrawal of $475,000 was highly irregular, and is how an RCMP ‘agent’ would get money. LINK : https://tinyurl.com/ap-dan-dicks-shooting
June 21, 2020 By Dan Dicks, http://pressfortruth.ca/ The withdrawal of $475,000 in cash by the man who killed 22 Nova Scotians in April matches the method the RCMP uses to send money to confidential informants and agents, sources say. Gabriel Wortman, who is responsible for the largest mass killing in Canadian history, withdrew the money from a Brink’s depot in Dartmouth, N.S., on March 30, stashing a carryall filled with hundred-dollar bills in the trunk of his car. About 3 weeks later he was 12 dialogue
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killed by police after carrying out the largest mass shooting in Canadian history. In this video, Dan Dicks of Press For Truth breaks down the claims being made by Maclean’s about the shooter’s involvement with the RCMP, while showing some past examples of how the RCMP have been caught red handed doing these things before which suggests the very real possibility that the Nova Scotia shooting was a false flag operation designed to enforce strict gun control laws. View video at: LINK : https://tinyurl.com/ap-dan-dicks-shooting
Visit Dan Dicks at PressForTruth.ca. Subscribe to his channel on YouTube and Bitchute. Follow Dan on Twitter and support him on Paypal or GoGetFunding. ♣ DIGITAL EDITION
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Robin Mathews Uncut
THE RCMP … IN DEEP AGAIN – A MARI USQUE AD MARE – THAT IS TO SAY: ‘FROM SEA TO SEA’ By Robin Mathews, Vancouver, May 2020
In British Columbia, as Gary Mason points out in the May 16 Globe and Mail (A16), David Butcher QC, heading an RCMP investigation into fraudulent (BC) election donations (taking three years to do it!), (yawned, apparently, and) said the sums were too small to bother with court action. ‘Screw the Rule of Law’… so to speak (speaking for himself and the RCMP). At the other end of the country, in Nova Scotia, more than 30 academics in the Dalhousie University Law School are calling upon the premier of the province to create an “independent public Inquiry into the shooting rampage that took 22 lives last month”. (Globe and Mail, May 18, 2020, A21). “They say in the letter the inquiry’s terms must allow for a critical review of the procedures and decisions employed by the police during the April 18 and 19 shootings….” --“The police” were of course the RCMP … who did not, apparently, sound the necessary, appropriate Public Alarm. Had the Force done so, most on the ground believe a number of lives would have been spared. Why, one might ask, did the RCMP not only fail to sound that alarm … but failed to do so even when it was suggested to them? The Dalhousie request seems to suggest the petitioners want the long-term relation between the RCMP and the gunman examined. The RCMP produces disaster after disaster … and NOTHING ever happens… (to them). I will make a prediction. (Pandemicists apparently predicted the present Coronavirus pandemic at least five years ago… and were ignored….) The RCMP, which has a growing list of astonishingly ugly actions, will, I predict, (in the next five years or so) commit ‘The Really Big One’ – so big it can’t be ignored, and the public will demand a full-scale, wide-open Public Inquiry into the criminal actions and the structure of the RCMP … finally. Those who remember know that Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was murdered in Vancouver International Airport in 2007 when four RCMP officers answered a call to that location. Those who remember know the “official” story was false … and proved to be so by the accidental appearance of a filming of the www.dialogue.ca
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event by an arriving flight passenger. They know that no charge of murder was ever laid. And they probably know that the RCMP officers involved went through processes that cost taxpayers an enormous sum of money …. One of the officers was even convicted of perjury (perjury??) eight years later. Those who remember probably don’t know that infighting in the RCMP produced court cases connected to the Dziekanski affair for the next twelve years!! They don’t know that because the Mainstream Press and Media – seemingly – didn’t think the court cases would be of interest to … anybody. (About Nova Scotia: apparently the Mainstream Press and Media are already dropping from ‘coverage’ the failure by the RCMP to effect the appropriate public alarm…. THAT may have sparked the Law School petition to the premier.) People forget what I call ‘The Big One’ … the faked Islamic Terrorist Event at the B.C. Legislature grounds on July 1, 2013 – staged completely by the RCMP and involving a large complement of actors. That was the conclusion of a B.C. Supreme Court judge …. Her finding was appealed by the Crown (the RCMP) … and in 2018 the finding of the BC Supreme Court judge was upheld by the unanimous judgement of three B.C. Appeal Court judges. I call it ‘The Big One’ because I suspect it was “ordered” or “set up” or “encouraged” from the PMO of Stephen Harper. At that time Right Forces in the world were deep into “the clash of civilizations” and Islam was the whipping boy in “the West”, even – perhaps – more than it is now. The July 1, 2013 event involved the entrapment (by the RCMP) of two innocent, socially-troubled people, converts to Islam. It involved their improper counselling by the RCMP, their improper arrest, trial, and incarceration – the last, I believe, more than once. ALL was ‘about’ a faked operation to make it look like ‘nutcase Muslims’ were (one more time, of course) attacking the innocent, peace-loving Christian West. (There are – but we won’t get into it here – those who insist – in the same kind of pattern – that Muslims accused of toppling the Trade Towers in New York …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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in 2001 (called “9/11”) were nowhere near the event … that Muslims, as in the non-event at the BC Legislature grounds in 2013, were set up to look like the bad actors). The two Canadian victims were finally released onto the street after having lost everything they possessed. Neither the RCMP nor the Canadian government ever paid the two victims a cent of compensation or issued a single sentence of public apology! In that faked Islamic Terrorist Event, apparently, a very large number of RCMP officers/employees were involved … a network. And so, one might conclude, the RCMP will do ANYTHING… (usually with the support of … or encouragement by the Cabinet in Ottawa). When the Justin Trudeau Cabinet was addressed on the matter of the proved Major, Fake July 1 Event staged by the RCMP (happening before the Justin Trudeau Cabinet came to power) … the Trudeau Cabinet would do nothing whatever …not even to set things right for the abused pair entrapped! And so the RCMP is set up to think it can do anything … and I’m saying it will … within the next five years or so. Pride, they say, goeth before a fall. And, as we know,
the RCMP is a Proud, Honourable, Truth-Seeking body existing with one purpose only: to serve the Canadian people and to uphold the law. My prediction is it will make one criminal move too many and it will be nailed by the Canadian people – a mari usque ad mare. Robin Mathews, rmathews@telus.net ♣ ***********************************
Comment from: Anthony James antoniusjameshall@gmail.com
Robin's excellent new article is online at: https://ahtribune.com/world/americas/canada/4174from-sea-to-sea.html I notice in the new emergency measures being introduced in Newfoundland and Labrador there is a provision that the RCMP and other officers of the state can't be sued. I'm not aware of any precedent for this. Is there? Is this twist part of the new normal, a sign of things to come in the further expansion of our police state? LINK: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-
labrador/house-of-assembly-reopening-may-51.5555541 ♣
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A Conversation prompted by Robin Mathew’s essay re the RCMP Herb Spencer & Patricia White On 20 May 2020 – Re The RCMP's Ongoing Crime Spree my attention by an Indigenous Teaching assistant, I Herb Spencer spsi99@telus.net wrote: took it to the principal who told me I could be fired People forget that RCMP were originally part of the for not bringing it up with the Socials Studies teacher Canadian/British ARMY. They are still soaked in first. When I went to that teacher, he sincerely told the militaristic ethos, where masculine values are me it was true – Indians are lazy. What nobody paramount, especially the preference for Violence. seemed to realize is that personal freedom is the basis The number of complaints of Rape and Threats by of Indigenous Spiritual, Cultural, Societal structures. female RCMPs is further evidence. Enslavement was not an option, until enough of them Patricia White pwhite.red@gmail.com wrote: became colonized and are now enslaved by this slave Weren’t the RCMP originally put in place to system we call ‘democracy’. control Natives? I home-schooled my son in Grade 5, and was shocked My conversations with Herb regarding Matriarchal structure are about this personal freedom from top to read in his text book that the Indians in Canada down hierarchies: the pyramid of patriarchy which is were so happy to see the RCMP come to help them find a way to be ‘civilized’ and not ‘savage’ anymore! so ‘normal’ that it is practically impossible for most people to imagine anything different. That was in the 80’s. When I was teaching in the For instance: Imagine a blade of grass being entitled 90’s, the Socials Studies textbook explained that blacks had to be brought over to be slaves because the to the same respect as you. Here, again, are the Seven Laws common to all Indigenous Societies; not necesIndians were too lazy. 1/3 of our students in Pembersarily using the same exact words but the concepts are ton were Indigenous kids from Mt. Currie and the same: Humility, Respect, Honesty, Sharing, Anderson Lake. When this paragraph was brought to 14 dialogue
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Thankfulness, Thoughtfulness, Helpfulness. These are the laws. They are taught from childhood. They are taught through story telling which warns children what could happen if they break a law. The happiness, peace, trust of the whole community is maintained through upholding these laws. There are no police or jails. But those who cause harm are either banished or killed. And everyone knows it. There were over 100 million Natives living according to these laws prior to colonization in the USA, so the argument that it only works in tiny communities is incorrect. People keep saying we need to replace this corrupt system. Has anyone come up with anything other or better than Matriarchal, Matrilineal structure? From: Herb Spencer spsi99@telus.net
Thanks, Patricia: For reminding us of the feminine values that motivate indigenous societies. We in the West have been cursed with masculine, warrior values. The statement that "Natives are lazy” was the universal excuse for bringing slaves from Africa, first to work the sugar plantations in the Caribbean and
then cotton in the southern US states and South America. What a disgusting culture we have inherited. I fear for the survival of humanity. – Herb From: Patricia White pwhite.red@gmail.com
I’m thinking that rather than ‘feminine’ values they are actually ‘common sense survival’ values based on observing Nature. Maybe this is feminine... not sure. But for sure there was no domination of anyone by anyone else. Or domination of Nature or anything for that matter. Man is not ‘superior’ in this paradigm, what is called ‘matriarchy’. It seems that idea of domination and control, divide and conquer didn’t arrive until the Abrahamic religions appeared around 5 thousand years ago in the European nations. I don’t have a clue what happened in China to make it such a patriarchal nation. Maybe some other ET race landed there. Several parts of the Old Testament read exactly like a user’s guide for invading and taking over Earth. … ♣
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Justin Trudeau and the Vanishing Murder Weapon, Act Two: Tragedy becomes Farce in Canada’s Classrooms Kevin D. Annett Bone identified as that of a young girl, from a mass grave at the Anglican Mohawk Indian residential school, Brantford, Ontario, October 2011
Like any country caught in genocide but with a particularly odious self-exculpation, Canada has consistently buried the truth of its crime, constructed a false narrative of its past, and silenced witnesses and survivors of its murderous Indian residential school system. Its churches have been no less duplicitous and bear the same criminal responsibility for the planned killing of tens of thousands of children … For Canada to teach a false version of its domestic war crimes to its next generation of citizens is to ensure that the crime will continue. – Judge Baltasar Garzon, chief judicial advisor to The International Common Law Court of Justice, quoted in the final verdict of the Court in its prosecution of Canada, the Vatican and the British Crown for Crimes against Humanity, Feb. 25, 2013 www.dialogue.ca
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Whoever controls the past controls the future. Whoever controls the present controls the past. – George Orwell
With as much coincidence as a serial killer buying a shovel, what passes for the government announced this week that a “history” of the Indian residential schools will finally be included in the curriculum of Canadian high schools. After decades of fudging, cover-up, document-shredding, and media censorship, an officially varnished version of our homegrown genocide by Church and State will fog another generation of unsuspecting students. Last week, before the story hit the press, one of my sources slipped details of the plan to me. I almost gagged when I read it. Search as you will, you will not find a single mention of the documented medical experiments, sterilizations, or ritual killings of children in the “residential schools curriculum guide” being farmed out to teachers. Nor is the average fifty percent death rate in the “schools” referred to in the guide, even though it was first mentioned on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen on November 15, 1907. …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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Instead, educators are being fed the usual tripe and tepid descriptions of children being “misplaced” from their homes and native culture not being “appreciated”. That’s like claiming that the problem with Auschwitz and Treblinka was that the Nazis weren’t sensitive enough to the inmates and so consequently “abused” them. Well, what else is new, Kev? I can hear you thinking. This is the land of Justin T., the pretend leader who admits to genocide and then evades any responsibility for it. The same criminal hypocrisy was embodied in Canada’s expensive and misnamed “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” (TRC) – established by the guilty churches and government themselves – that actually prohibited the recording of any statement or evidence related to the death or killing of a residential school student. The entire TRC was an enormous obstruction of justice, causing the memory of over sixty thousand children to be as effectively wiped out as were their lives. And so it continues again, this past week, here in the Great White North. Of all people, I am the one who is least surprised by this latest fiasco. For I’ve witnessed the same official whitewash as early as June of 1998, when the documented proof of murder, torture and mass graves that we made public at Canada’s first and only open Tribunal into residential schools was uniformly censored by the national media. Or later, in the fall of 2011, when not one press outlet reported our historic, first opening of a mass grave of children at Canada’s oldest residential school in Brantford, Ontario. No, it wasn’t surprise as much as “ah-ha!” that struck me when I read of the planned curriculum whitewash, occurring as it has amid the unfolding police state around us. For the truth of the atrocities committed by Canadians in residential schools and their partner Indian hospitals illuminates the plans and the methods of the present global elites to turn humanity into a mindless herd of slaves. Indians have always been Canada’s first test subjects. Mandatory vaccinations are nothing new to any reservation Indian or residential school survivor. But the specific techniques of mass mind control and social engineering now being deployed against all of us were pioneered and perfected in the Canadian death camps whose details nobody wants to talk about. And that fact is not something that the corporate criminals who engineered the Canadian Holocaust want to see 16 dialogue
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surfaced: especially nowadays, when all the managed sheeple are to be kept quarantined and distanced. In truth, Canadians have ignored and buried the truth of the Indian residential school holocaust to our own peril. We are all reaping the tyranny bred of our own complicity in crime and coverup. And now the same mental Night and Fog that has bred our current police state will continue to shroud our own children in their Orwellian, 5G-dominated school system, as they are taught that genocide in Canada was not really genocide at all. We do not have to take any of this crap lying down, of course. I know I’m not. In 2012 and 2014 I nearly succeeded in having teachers’ unions and school boards include the evidence of genocide in high school curricula in Vancouver and Toronto, but on both occasions the effort was scuttled from on high. Many teachers are crying out for such authentic teaching material. It is to them individually that we must provide the uncensored voices and evidence of the Canadian Holocaust that is recorded for posterity at LINK : www.murderbydecree.com . During the upcoming fall months, whether schools and campuses reopen or not, our movement will be bringing out the truth more widely through public teach-ins, workshops and broadcasts on the real story of genocide in Canada. Now that free thought and assembly are under direct assault, we need to reopen the minds and classrooms of our nation through a Free University that teaches our true history. How else can we begin to overcome our blood-soaked past and present except by teaching our children the unvarnished truth of the land they occupy at other peoples’ expense? I have learned personally how difficult a thing it is to take on your own culture and its powerful, entrenched lies. To do so costs us everything and leaves us an exile in our own land, even while our example brings hope and life to those who have none. Malcolm X once said that the only white man he ever trusted was the abolitionist John Brown, because he took up arms against his own people and died for those who were in bondage. John Brown’s self-sacrifice sparked the civil war that ended slavery in America. We are today kindling a similar fire in Canada because we know from the truth of our home-grown genocide that we can no longer live under a regime with the blood of so many children on
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its hands. The same public health agencies that sterilized and murdered countless Indian kids are now ordering Canadian parents to have their children vaccinated. How much longer will we suffer these butchers and allow them to brainwash and kill our children? In the words of a resistance leader in Nazi Germany, Lore Wolf, “My first defiance of the Nazis came when I withdrew my daughter Hanne from school after they made her and her classmates recite a pledge of loyalty to Hitler and read his filthy propaganda. After that my life changed and there was nothing for me to do but fight the system because I had drawn a line and claimed my child back from the State. I knew that we had no hope as a people and no right to claim a future for ourselves if we cooperated in any way with a vile dictatorship. And the more I resisted it, the more I learned the truth about the society that I thought I knew.” Our own dictatorship is upon us. We must reclaim the
minds of our own children from the lies being foisted on them by those who are concealing the crimes of our past to allow those crimes to continue. And so we must act. But if not now, when? And if not you, then who? Kevin Annett is an award winning author, whistleblower and international human rights figure. He has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. His website is www.murderbydecree.com and he can be contacted at thecommonland@gmail.com . From: Kevin Annett, Nanaimo BC Listen to Kevin live every Sunday at 6 pm eastern at www.bbsradio.com/herewestand . See the evidence of genocide in Canada and globally at www.murderbydecree.com and See an interview with Kevin at: https://tinyurl.com/KA-interview2019 (58-min.) Some of Kevin's books can be ordered here: “Murder by Decree - The Crime of Genocide in Canada”: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1530145619 Kevin's award winning documentary film “Unrepentant” can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/rCRrEqeWoOM ♣
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An essay on Covid Chaos from Citizens for Direct Democracy Steve Clarke, and I, have been deeply troubled by the official Covid-19 narrative. We agree with some in the UK press who say that the public has been duped… The Dialogue continues to be a herald of truth in a devious world. Thank you! Peter Weygang, Bobcaygeon ON, May 21, 2020
Covid Chaos By Stephen Clarke & Peter Weygang, Ont.
Never before has so little statistics been used by so many, so badly. A statistical data point must, at least for serious discussion, have two characteristics. It must be valid, and it must be reliable. Death rates, infection rates, recovery rates, have all been measured in widely different sample spaces, by different methodologies, and with significant experimenter ‘error’; often driven by political forces. Unfortunately, cooked books are not uncommon in clinical trials in which pharmaceutical profits are involved. We have absurd data in which, at one time, Argentina had 0.4 deaths per million, while Belgium had 735! We have results that show that the European countries have, as a cluster, the highest mortality rates. The Asian countries have the lowest by a factor of twenty! Do you believe that? I have produced a video that goes into some detail www.dialogue.ca
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regarding the data. In short the data is completely worthless. [www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OeM4hiTVmQ ] The WHO continues its path of massively expensive bureaucratic ineptitude. It issued no criteria for acceptable data management. Each country went its own way with science, guesswork, pseudoscience, and downright lies. The Oxford group, in the middle of March, pointed out two fundamental issues that have, until recently, been ignored. The first issue is that when the first positive case is identified, the virus has already been busy in the population for several weeks. This immediately pours doubt on the value of R0, which is unknowable, and on any consequent deductions. The second point is that the most valuable data is the growth of herd immunity. This can be obtained, to a useful accuracy, by taking random stratified samples. Herd immunity, whether obtained by recovery from the infection, or by vaccine, is the only way of dealing with a pandemic. There has been no mention of the fact that we have an extremely good natural immune system that kicks in when we are attacked by a pathogen. That is how the human race survived millennia of pandemics. The data shows that most people, over 80%, have either no symptoms, or very mild ones. Yet the authorities have still put the whole nation …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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under house arrest. I am re-reading 1984 - it is all there, even including a biological weapon! It is common sense to assume that people with strong immune systems brush off infections, pathogens, and other health risks. No official body has suggested that strengthening everyone’s immune system is of any importance. Are supplements such as vitamin C, and D, plus zinc, beneficial? If they, or other supplements, are helpful, then why are they not being urged on the public, and given to the poor? Public health is clearly not the path chosen by the dark powers who advise government, and preach daily from our TVs. There is no money to be made from a naturally healthy population. Our own immune systems are being sanitized out of existence. Our immune systems are kept strong by fighting. Picking up germs from other people is, strangely enough, the only way to keep our immune system fighting fit. I lived through the polio pandemic. The spike coincided with massive improvements in sanitation, and personal hygiene. Antibodies to a host of pathogens were no longer passed from mother to child. The young were left almost defenseless, thus the nickname infantile paralysis. The official line is that we are already totally helpless. We are given the impression that this virus is so deadly, so contagious, so virulent, that we will all die a nasty death connected to a ventilator. Most people have kowtowed to our leaders who have spread fear, panic, pandemonium, and chaos, while also creating a global economic disaster in the process; a process that will no doubt cause more pain, and more deaths, than the virus. In Canada we have a population that is very well protected against influenza, because we have free flu jabs every year. We have no similar vaccine for corona-virus. Yet the number of flu deaths is higher than the corona-virus deaths! To me the deduction is obvious; Covid is less virulent than influenza I have been appalled at the terrible mathematics that has been cited in order to get the public to agree to the destruction of the economy; lost jobs, bankrupt business, increased crime rates, more suicides, broken families, shattered dreams. It is a disgrace. The Imperial College model, which painted such a dreadful scenario, has been found to be completely flawed. The computer code is full of errors. No government checked that computer code until events 18 dialogue
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showed that something must be wrong. The lead scientist Prof. Neil Ferguson has resigned. This model was largely responsible for the lock down strategy used by most countries, except Sweden. Ferguson also broke his own quarantine rules, rules he inflicted on the UK. All the pundits said that Sweden was on the wrong path, that it would get its comeuppance, and thus prove the mainstream narrative. But Sweden is right there in the pack with the other European countries, and better than many. As of May 21, they were seventh in the European rankings, well behind death rates for Belgium, Spain, Italy, and the UK. If the Swedish epidemiologist was wrong, then it would have been a medical catastrophe that would have stuck out like a sore thumb. It did not, and is not. The theory, and premise, for lockdown has been disproved. Meanwhile life, and the economy, in Sweden, carries on much the same as usual. Normal, sane, intelligent people have been paralyzed with fright. They have completely abandoned common sense, and rational thought. They need to look at the background of some of the lead voices in this evil charade. Fauci, the main voice in the USA, has a patent on a possible vaccine. Tedros Ghebreyesus, the head of WHO, has been criticized for his performance during the cholera epidemic in Ethiopia. He renamed cholera as Acute Watery Diarrhoea in order to divert attention from the chaotic management failure. Gates pays for research, and he who pays the piper calls the tune. There is a lot of stable manure that needs the pitchfork. Dialogue readers are well aware that the dark powers control the internet and remove all YouTube videos that are critical of the mainstream propaganda narrative. This, in my opinion, is more sinister, and dangerous to humanity than the virus and economic shock combined. Popular culture has removed the concept of evil, however, the evidence is clear. Evil is alive, well, and growing. Good and Evil are facets of humanity that do not rest on a deity. At the moment, Evil has the upper hand. As always, money is the root of all evil. It is time for action. Stephen Clarke, clarke_404@hotmail.com Chair: Citizens for Direct Democracy; Peter Weygang M.A. (Oxon);D.I.C.; M.Ed, Sec. Citizens for Direct Democracy; peterweygang@gmail.com ♣ DIGITAL EDITION
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Edward Curtin ~ Behind the Curtain The Shallow Deep-State Goes Deeper as It Moves Toward Martial Law By Edward Curtin, In Global Research, June 05, 2020 Region: USA
I am not trying to be cute and play with words. That title is meant to convey what it says, so let me explain. The people who own the United States and their allies around the world have a plan. It is so simple that it is extremely devious. Their plan has been in operation for many years. It has most people bamboozled because it is Janus-faced by design, overt one day, covert the next, but both faces operate under one controlling head. Some call this head the Deep-State. Even the Deep-State calls itself the Deep-State in a double fake. It is meant to make people schizoid, which it has. The so called Deep-State has been given many names over the years. I will not bore you with them, except to say that it was once called the power elite. They are the upper classes, the super wealthy who control the financial institutions, Wall Street, the intelligence agencies, the corporate media, the internet, the military, and the politicians. They are multinational. They are the wealthy nihilists who care not one jot for the rest of the world. They operate in secret, yet also run above-ground organizations such as the World Bank (WB), the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), etc. Their bloodstream runs on war, the preparations for war, and economic exploitation of the world. All wealthy people are not party to their machinations, but they are almost always complicit in profiting from their crimes, unless they are very stupid. Or play stupid. Since I am talking about a great confidence game, that is quite common. Other people, all other classes, the poor, middle-classes, even a portion of the upper middle classes mean nothing to the power elite unless they can serve their interests. They are always waging class warfare to maintain their domination and control. Their recent version of this class war is underway in the United States and in many other countries. As of today, they are using race fears to create chaos and outrage to disguise their class warfare that is leading to the www.dialogue.ca
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imposition of martial law. Soon they will shift back to the coronavirus fraud. Back and forth, in and out, now you see it, now you don’t. By shutting down the world’s economy, they have destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people and are creating poverty on a vast scale. Much famine and death will follow. In the United States alone, 40-45 million people have applied for unemployment insurance and job loss is the greatest since the Great Depression. The reason: a massive propaganda campaign created around Covid-19 fear porn. This class war is not new, but it is conducted today at warp speed since these people control the technology that has allowed them vastly increased power. In the U.S.A., it is conducted as usual under the guise of Republicans versus Democrats, the two representative political factions that are the faces of the controlled “opposition,” who are actually allies in the larger confidence game. Keeping “hope” alive is central to their strategy. Mind control is what they do. Speed is their greatest ally. Race is central to their game plan. They always say they are protecting us. It is all a lie. A show. Nothing but a spectacle for the gullible. A shadow play. The current president, Donald Trump, is the choice of one faction of these psychopaths. This year, Joseph Biden, is the shaky presumptive choice of the other. Both are deranged puppets. Regular people fight over who is better or worse because they are living inside what Jim Garrison, the former District Attorney of New Orleans and the only person to ever bring a trial in the assassination of President Kennedy, long ago called “the doll’s house.” [LINK : https://tinyurl.com/EC-Inside-Dolls-House ]
It is a place where illusions and delusions replace reality. It is 24/7 propaganda. It keeps people engaged. It gives them something to argue about, one team to root for. It’s a sport. It is similar to Plato’s Cave. Fire has been replaced with electronic lighting and screens, but little has changed. The sick system of exploitation is oiled and greased with the tantalizing bait of hope dangled for the masses. Shit slogans like “We are all in this together.” But there is no hope for this system. But when the propaganda is so slick that it creates …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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a double-bind, people grasp at any neurotic “solution” out of frustration. As I write, huge angry crowds are out in the streets protesting the sick murder of a black man, George Floyd, by a white cop. Police infiltrators have started violent looting. Chaos reigns, as planned. Such killings are routine, but someone turned a switch for this one when just yesterday operation corona lockdown with its fear and fake statistics had everyone cowering behind masks at home as the economic lives of vast numbers were destroyed in a flash. For today, the masquerade is in the streets. Many good people are caught up in it. In a few days the scene will shift and we can expect another “bombshell.” These surprises will keep happening one after another for the foreseeable future. Shock and Awe for the home crowd. The war come home. The controllers know you can’t wage war against the rest of the world unless you do so at home as well. When one group within the deep-state won the internecine battle in 2016 and “shocked” the country with the election of the comical Trump, the other deep-state group called the Democrats, immediately set in motion a plan to try to oust him or to make it seem as if they were trying to do so. The naïve thought this may happen, and their deluded yearning has been stretched until the 2020 presidential election, although some probably think Trump might go before then. He won’t. So many people have destroyed their minds and relationships because they can’t see through the fraud. Early in 2017, as the outgoing front man for the CIA/warfare/Wall St. state, Barack Obama, left his time bombs for the future. The pink pussy hats were sent out marching to open the show. Russia-gate was launched; eventually impeachment was tried. The Democrats, with their media allies, went on a non-stop attack. It was all so obvious, so shallow in its intent, as it was meant to be. But millions who were in the doll house were outraged, obsessed, frantic with rage. They bought the con-game. Both those who hate Trump and those that love him have spent almost four years foaming at the mouth, breathless. Trump was cast as the personification of evil. A relentless attack on Trump began and has continued all
this time. It is pure theater. Trump remains at the helm, as planned, holding the Bible aloft in a style reminiscent of a Bible thumping Klansman from The Birth of a Nation. Only the ignorant thought it might have been different. He knows how to perform his role. He is a fine actor. He outrages, spews idiocies, as he is supposed to do. That Mussolini style stance, that absurd hair, the pout. Just perfect for an arch-villain. It’s so obvious that it isn’t. Herein lies the trick. And who profits from his policies? The super-rich, of course, the power-elite. Who just stole 6-10 trillion dollars of public money under the hilariously named Cares Act? The super-rich, of course, the deep-state. It was a bi-partisan bank robbery from the public treasury carried out under the shadow of Covid-19, whose phony hyped up numbers were used to frighten the populace into lockdown mode as the Republican and Democratic bank robbers smiled in unison and announced forcefully, “We care!” We are here to protect you. Remember how Barack Obama “saved” us by bailing out Wall St. and the big banks to the tune of trillions in early 2009. Then waged unending wars. Left black Americans bereft. He cared, too, didn’t he. Our leaders always care. Obama was the black guy in the white hat. Trump is the white guy in the black hat. Hollywood on the Potomac, as Gary Wills called it when Ronald Reagan was the acting-president. Now Obama’s war-loving side-kick, the pale-faced, twisted talking Biden is seriously offered as an alternative to the Elvis impersonator in the White House. This is the false left/right dichotomy that has the residents of the doll’s house in its grip. If you can’t see what’s coming, you might want to break out of the house, take off your mask, go for a walk, and take some deep breaths. The walls are closing in. Knees will be on everyone’s necks in the months ahead. Distinguished author and sociologist Edward Curtin is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization, Montreal. Visit the author’s website: LINK : http://edwardcurtin.com
Copyright © Edward Curtin, Global Research, 2020 Reprinted with the permission of the author. ♣
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Your “right to say something” does not mean you have a “right to be heard” From Inge Hanle, Vancouver hanle@telus.net Inge’s comment: It doesn’t get any dirtier than this! (link follows) Health Ranger Report: Covid -19 is not accidental
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or coincidental. It is central to a comprehensive AGENDA. Healing Coronavirus is becoming “illegal” and “criminal”, according to the FDA, DoJ and Big Pharma. …/ DIGITAL EDITION
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FDA running covert “Quack Hack” program to harass and intimidate nutrition-oriented small businesses across America. Be sure to watch this interview. The Gov/Big Pharma Attack against Natural Healing to destroy the Nutrition Industry. LINK : https://tinyurl.com/quack-hack
“Freedom of speech” does not mean “Freedom of reach” – i.e. “Your right to say something” does not mean that “You have a right to be heard.” [From Inge Hanle]
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“Have Computer Will Write” ~ Jeremy Arney Covid-19…
Jeremy Arney, Sydney BC
I have been watching what is happening and has been happening all round the globe and particularly in North America – well Canada and the USA anyway… A nasty form of “flu” pandemic, named the Covid-19* by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been circulating everywhere. Resulting, especially here in Canada and the USA, in a suspension of a normal life of unsustainable economic growth based on credit. There will be some who will argue that it is not the usual flu and of course the same could be said for all of the so called “pandemic” outbreaks since the Spanish flu back in the early 1900s. There will be some, and have been many, who claim a lot of it is due to the advent of radio and the microwave effect, since that invention, upon the basic electric beings known as humans. Cell phones have accelerated that particular problem although generally is it not acknowledged by those who profit greatly from them. Is it not indisputable that there are humans who are sensitive to those microwaves and now with the impending 5G that sensitivity will be accelerated immensely? There will be those who claim that poisonous foods such as Coca Cola, and the proliferation of fast food outlets which provide very little, if any, nutritious value in their offerings but do cause excessive obesity along with diabetes; the vast increase in the consumption of a treated bovine growth hormone (milk); the poisoning of our land, food etc., by very toxic pesticides previously used to deforest vast swathes in Vietnam, causing, amongst other things, the reduction of the very insects we need to pollinate our food plants; this naturally all helps to diminish immune systems leaving us in a weakened state to fight of even the ordinary colds and flu, never mind this Covid-19. Vitamin D, essential to the immune system comes free with the sun and yet we are asked www.dialogue.ca
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to slather ourselves in ointments that stop that happening every time the sun shines to give us that help. What a mess! So now here we are – Covid-19, the latest and current pandemic, is upon us and we are not prepared or able to fight it. The wonderful people who have bought us all this corporate nonsense by allowing all this to happen over the years are saying: don’t work, don’t earn money, stay away from those who support your mental health and we will look after you if your governments will look after us!!! Yes, that has happened in the form of handouts to (some) workers instructed to move into isolation, poverty and perhaps quite a bit of panic. Yes, it must be great to have government support you a bit after they have made sure that the “big boys” are taken care of. Small mom and pop businesses are being ruined and may never recover, entrepreneurs are in a bind and need help to start entrepreneuring again as they have been. Yes there was and has been and will be inventive ways to keep doors open and some money coming in – i.e.: sidewalk pickups and home deliveries, a semblance of postal services, and an increase in the use of the internet (not much help to the seniors who don’t have an internet connection, never mind a computer) and yet there is a general non-governmental rally around those who need help because that is the way most of us are. I was happy to see that after 46 years of basic inactivity the Bank of Canada finally came to the assistance of a province and agreed to purchase their bonds, but this was completely offset by the fact that they are also going to buy corporate bonds. The mandate for the Bank of Canada was established in 1939 and that was to look after Canada and the Canadian peoples’ needs at a vastly better rate of interest which, after deduction of operating expenses, resulted in a yearly dividend to the Minister of Finance to use to pay some of the Canadian government bills. It was not created to give handouts to big business …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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at the taxpayers’ expense, with lower rates of interest that were and are commercially available to them (“for private profit” supplying “for private profit”). Commerce feeds on itself and supports itself. The poor, elderly, sick and war-wounded taxpayers were supposed to be the recipients of the Bank of Canada’s ability to finance Canada’s needs not wealthy “for huge profit” corporations. So in amongst all this, I found myself wondering about the very simple question we should all be asking ourselves and that is: WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS MESS? Is it you and I? No, I think not. Is it the big boys like Gates whose wet dream of euthanizing the whole world with toxic vaccinations and microchips may well come true, along with his big pharma and global elitist friends who want to be very well paid to vaccinate us and implant in us a chip to track our every move and maybe even gauge our moods? I watched a pastor Rev Danny Jones of Northlake Baptist Church in the USA speak from the pulpit about his parishioners being told to stay away from his church, and I was somewhat amazed and delighted by his talk, LINK: www.brasscheck.com/video/sanity-from-the-pulpit/
Compare what he said with the utterings of one fired reality show host who doesn’t social distance, refuses to wear a mask (although I am actually OK with that) and will not go into a 14-day self-isolation even though his valet has the covid19. In fact, the White House seems to be developing its own hot spot… and I am not referring to remarks made to journalists attending his never-ending self-congratulatory lies and excuses while blaming others for his own shortcomings. As a direct result, many journalists just trying to do their jobs are being harassed and sworn at and called unpatriotic traitors by gun-toting republican pea heads. A new civil war brewing down there maybe? But I still come back to the question “Who benefits?” Clearly here in Canada, we have gone much further into debt amidst conflicting remarks from the official opposition who want more help (mostly for Alberta and corporations known as the free market) and yet less debt! And, the fact remains that we the Canadian taxpayers will have to foot the bill as there are not only tax breaks for those wealthy ones who can afford offshore tax havens, but the pipers in the form of the 22 dialogue
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IMF and BIS and other international investors whose
sole aim is to make a profit from our situation and will indeed be merciless in collecting their pound of flesh. Here in BC, we have been treated with a calm provincial health officer who was, I suspect, just doing what she was told, but in a way that appealed to us all to do what she asked, and we did until the sun came out and the beaches got busy again. At the time of writing this, I understand there are only 3 cases on Vancouver Island, in spite of the fact we are served by enclosed ferries from the mainland. Amazing. Time and again I hear talking heads saying” we will never go back to normal again,” and that is a good thing. We live in a world where modern-day “lynchings” are praised as conducted by heroes and very fine people, where bazookas are carried into a sandwich store, and wartime weapons are openly displayed at “peaceful” demonstrations by people with pea brains, and political partisan showmanship is rampant by all who will feed at the public trough for the next four years. So far, that is to the south of us but who knows – as we have our share of bigotry and racial hatred up here in the frozen north too. Is that to be our new normal? Meanwhile, the finger-pointing goes on – and it’s just the flu season folks. Just my meandering thoughts and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but at the very least it is an open invitation to think outside the closing box again… Who does benefit? * The more accurate name would be SARS-CoV-2, i.e. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), first identified (sic) in 2003.]
Jeremy Arney, iamjema@gmail.com Letters at: https://jeremyarneysblog.com/ And at: iamjemaletters.wordpress.com ♣ From: Connie Fogal, Vancouver - conniefogal@telus.net
HighWire - Blowing the Whistle on Covid-19 Connie: The April 9 2020 program on the Highwire is one that you don't want to miss. Doctors and scientists are speaking up. Below is a link. Doctors are asking a very salient question: "Are we treating the right disease - the real symptoms - or are we just following a prescribed "protocol" - that is counterproductive: https://namelyliberty.com/blowing-the-whistle-on-covid-19/ And: Dr. Len Horowitz's Feb. 10th Letter to the White House: https://medicalveritas.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Letter-to-White-House-Officials-Feb10-2020-w-Exhibits.pdf ♣ DIGITAL EDITION
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Social Discourse & Epistemology… RE: “Is social media killing intellectual humility?” From Wesley Buch, Surrey BC wbuch@telus.net
Given my day job in clinical psychology, it will not surprise anyone that I have become fascinated by conspiracy thinking during this time of Covid and now the return of race riots. Here is a relevant article (link below) -- by Nicole Yeatman, 09 March, 2020, at https://BigThink.com – that I thought was a good attempt to discuss the role of social media in fostering online echo chamber communities, tribalism and epistemic arrogance. LINK : https://tinyurl.com/big-think-humility
So how then shall we form sound and helpful convictions that fuel the cause of just, respectful and democratic communities? One solution was offered by a former member of this group, Patrick Conroy who suggested a triangulation of opposite points of view as the first step in such a
process. There is Herb Spencer’s appeal to personal experience, an idea that is very much aligned with Romanticism and also the cynical subjectivity of postmodern thought. There is, of course, the gift of science which comes with its own problems of what counts as reliable data (evidence) and also the limits of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Something to think about for a very thoughtful group. – Wes Buch READ Nicole Yeatman’s essay in full at BIG THINK, LINK : https://tinyurl.com/big-think-humility
A quote from the article: "One way the internet distorts our picture of ourselves is by feeding the human tendency to overestimate our knowledge of how the world works," writes philosophy professor Michael Patrick Lynch. ♣
A RESPONSE FROM MICHAEL SPENCER TO THE ABOVE COMMENT BY WES BUCH–
How can an average person discern validity? Michael Spencer (‘Canada~UK~US~Uganda’)
Thanks Wes. Indeed this is something to think about. (“Intellectual humility” - above) How can an average person possibly discern validity in a world of fake news, digitally altered images and video, crisis actors, corporate sponsored academic studies, corrupt politicians, captured government agencies, media sensationalism, social media echo chambers, identity politics, secret societies, anonymous PACs, think tanks and lobbyists, not to mention the staggering wealth/power inequality behind it all? Is it any wonder that average people take solace in the ego-stroking comfort of their personal and tribal information bubbles? This at least provides an illusion of control over an otherwise completely bewildering "reality." Mainstream media ridicules so-called conspiracy theorists but I think we might learn something from this community of talented truth seekers about how best to discern validity in the face of the maelstrom of misinformation described above. Since the late 1960s, serious conspiracy researchers such as Peter Dale Scott, David Ray Griffin, Lisa Pease, James DiEugenio, Anthony Sutton, David Talbot, Len Colodny, Russ Baker, John Pilger and www.dialogue.ca
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many others have been filing freedom-of-information requests, studying declassified government materials, interviewing witnesses, and analyzing photographs, videos, medical reports, autopsy reports, police reports and just about every other source of information available, trying to reconstruct an evidence-based understanding of what most plausibly occurred for some of the most mysterious events in modern US history. These mysterious events include, among others, Pearl Harbor, the CIA-led coups of the 1950s, the assassinations of the 1960s, Watergate, Iran-Contra, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing. These researchers are highly intelligent and educated critical thinkers that have dedicated their lives to exposing "the truth" of these many unexplained historical events. They are absolutely NOT crazy people. The information world in which these experts work is all shades of grey, filled with false information, propaganda, cover-up, fake news and fake "experts" writing intentionally false history – false history that appears in our children's school text books, our Hollywood movies, our nightly news and just about everywhere else. …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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How do these researchers operate? They operate like professional investigators and lawyers. They start by sourcing high quality evidence that can stand up in a court of law. They cross-reference this evidence as much as possible against multiple sources that have each been vetted by other trusted researchers in the community. They draw on personal knowledge and experience to form hypothesis and they test their hypothesis against the available evidence. Granted much of the evidence in this information world is circumstantial, but when the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming, a reasonable person must accept the con-
clusion – at least until new evidence emerges to contradict it. The work is painstaking and time consuming and this is why it often takes decades for truth to surface. It took nearly 50 years for JFK's assassination to be largely understood. It took 15 years for 9/11. I wonder how long it will take for Covid-19. In summary, I agree that a combination of science, experience and triangulation is the ONLY way to discern validity when available information is so unreliable. But who has the time? Michael Spencer, June 13, 2020 michaelhspencer@gmail.com ♣
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Comments & Links From Herb Spencer Herb Spencer, Surrey BC, spsi99@telus.net
We are drowning in lies. The media have been manipulating the public since the invention of mass newspapers. Radio multiplied this thousands of times; finally TV then added mass hypnosis for the millions. – Herb, 31 May, 2020 Re the essay on the previous page… Hi Mike: A fine defence of The Skeptics; few will invest this time to check and even more cannot accept the thought that their “Shepherds” are really Wolves, while they believe they live in a Democracy. I blame Mass Media – especially TV, as most believe what they see; even when CGI can readily fake images today. But TV is designed to distract – even make many soporific, as they relax on their couch, living second-hand lives enjoying Sports “Victories.” Re: the riots that began after the televised take-down of George Floyd How convenient for the Rulers. I am studying the history of the British Empire for my next essay. Already, the pattern can be seen: imperialists are ALWAYS racists as there needs to be a justification for the large underclass. This happened in ALL the plantation colonies of England and recurred in South Africa. Conspiracies are far more effective than people see. Re: The Great Reset Plan I agree with Spiro Skouras’ analysis & forecasts (link & quote follow). The ruling "One-Hundred Families" always want to retain their privileges and control of the world. I believe they are behind all the major actions of the last 100 years. This will continue until their Ownership of Productive Assets is taken from them. 24 dialogue
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Unfortunately, the Merger of Digital and Death Fears make them even more powerful. Luckily, ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is a delusion: there is far more intelligence in one ant than our largest computers. Biological complexity is far too difficult to master. [Skouras link/quote follows] 22-min video presentation by Spiro Skouras: The Great Reset Plan Revealed - How Covid-19 Ushers In The New World Order (6 June 2020) [QUOTE] “For months we have seen our way of life
change dramatically. We have been told time and time again things will never be the same and we must accept the new normal. Now the social engineers have revealed their hand and officially launched their solution to this crisis. The proposed solution is The Great Reset. In this report we examine what exactly is The Great Reset and who is involved. We also explore what the Great Reset means for humanity as we face unprecedented times. […] “ LINK: https://tinyurl.com/yt-Spiro-Skouras-6june
Re: Destroying the World Economy On Jun 9, 2020, Herb Spencer wrote:
The Financial ‘Experts’ (link below) are admitting that the reaction to Covid-19 has introduced a Depression UNIQUE in world history. All prior depressions were from poor capital allocations that could be remedied in a few years. This time, we have NO precedence, so we have NO real idea how to fix the Depression. Ignore the Stock Market. HEAVEN HELP US. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/tech-collapse ♣
See also ED CURTIN: ON THE FEAR OF DEATH & COVID, LINK: https://tinyurl.com/EC-Death-punch ♣ DIGITAL EDITION
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“Hard & Soft Edges”
Relationships make us human By Jim Taylor, Okanagan, Sunday June 14, 2020
As a song says, what a difference a day makes! On the last Sunday in May, my daughter called after church, to say that she might have found me a dog. She worries about me living alone since my wife died. Especially when Covid-19 isolation restricts me from visiting others, or having them visit me. By 3:00 that afternoon, I had a dog named Pippin. After three months of isolation, I feel like a February groundhog emerging into the brightness of a new day. I am no longer alone. I have someone who needs me. What a difference a dog makes. Yearning for community The experience of the last two weeks confirms my conviction that we humans are social beings. Deprived of social relationships, we become a little less human. That’s why nations all around the world have condemned solitary confinement as “cruel and inhumane punishment”– even if some of them still practice it. Because being solitary runs counter to our basic human nature. We humans were never solitary creatures. Even in our hunter-gatherer beginnings, we formed clusters. Communities. A solitary biped hunter couldn’t run down a rabbit, let alone a deer. Couldn’t drive off an elephant. But together, humans could. Nothing wrong with solitude. I need it too, sometimes. But I would go so far as to argue that a truly solitary person is human only in the sense of having a human body. When we can’t associate with other humans, we build relationships with animals. Even with plants. Remember Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves? A lonely man and a lonely animal needed each other. Now, I won’t suggest that I was as isolated as Costner’s character in the movie -- alone, at an abandoned fort, where no one even knew he was there. I don’t take kindly to authority – social, medical, or theological-- so while I honoured the principle of Covid19 separation, I did an occasional end run around the www.dialogue.ca
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details. I stayed safe. But I didn’t always stay home. I went for walks. I chatted with anyone I met, at a safe distance. I did a lot of talking on the telephone. And like everyone else, I stared at postage-stampsized faces on Zoom screens. Zoom is better than no contact at all, but it’s no substitute for meeting in person. On Zoom, I can’t touch a hand. Cry on someone’s shoulder. Feel the warmth of a hug. And I doubt if anyone will ever fall in love via Zoom. Somebody, or not Isolation was a two-edged sword. It saved lives; it destroyed lives. Two stories surface for me. A friend’s father once managed the CNR line across northern Ontario. After he retired, a new bank teller requested identification. As he handed it over, he commented, “I used to be somebody, once.” The other story appeared in the New York Times, about B.C.’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry. At a clinic she ran in San Diego, an armed man burst in, distraught, waving a gun, demanding to speak to somebody. Dr. Henry quietly stepped out. “I’m somebody,” she said. “Let’s talk.” They did. And they resolved his problem. Conversation is the foundation of being somebody. Transcending individuality We all search for intimacy. At least I do – although I’m sure some people are afraid of intimacy, and want to keep every conversation on a safely superficial level. Intimacy usually gets treated as sexual intimacy. For men, entering someone else’s body; for women, I guess, allowing someone else inside your body. But there’s more to intimacy than sex. Intimacy involves letting someone else into thoughts, your emotions, your experiences. When – if only for a few seconds – two become one. Indeed, to get philosophical about this subject, it seems to me that intimacy is the way in which we attempt to transcend the limitations of being individuals. Arthur Koestler coined the term “holon;” Ken Wilber popularized it. Both describe it as a universal pattern. …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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An electron is part of a molecule, is part of an atom, is part of an element, is part of a chemical compound… A cell is part of a body, is part of a species, is part of a phylum… A planet is part of a solar system, is part of a galaxy… Everything is part of something bigger. Sentient beings, uniquely, want to be, need to be, part of something bigger. That’s why we need relationships. Why we need to belong. To something. Or to someone.
Relationships make us what we are, and what we can be. And I now have a relationship with a dog named Pippin. Indeed, what a difference a day makes! ~~~~~~ Copyright © 2020 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved. To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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It's time to end profit-making in seniors’ care Shannon Daub, CCPA-BC, info@ccpabc.ca
The coronavirus pandemic has shone a light on serious problems in seniors care across Canada and after the crisis BC’s provincial government should begin to transition away from its reliance on contracting with forprofit companies. That’s the key recommendation from a report we published earlier this week by CCPA-BC research associates Andrew Longhurst and Kendra Strauss. We have been raising concerns about the role of forprofit companies in seniors care and the impact on the quality of care since the early 2000s, when the government began changing how these services are delivered in BC. It has been heartbreaking to see those very concerns “being graphically highlighted” during the pandemic, as the Premier said at a news conference this week when responding to reporters’ questions about the CCPA-BC report. In their report, Andrew and Kendra analyze the policies
that brought us to this point and make clear recommendations for how government can change course, building on some very positive initial actions that have already been taken. Early in the pandemic, the province issued a “singlesite order” to contain the spread of the virus — requiring that all staff in long-term care and assisted living facilities work at one facility only, and guaranteeing them full-time work and unionized industry standard wage rates. Andrew Longhurst notes that, “In mere weeks, the BC government is trying to fix workforce instabilities brought about over years of labour policy deregulation and business practices intended to drive profits. These policy decisions were championed by care companies and corporate chains. And once the current crisis is over, we simply cannot return to the status quo.” – CCPA-BC, info@ccpabc.ca Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives♣
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Important Discussion to Be Had! “Planet of the Humans” – Stimulus for change Mike Nickerson, Lanark ON
If the clash of differing opinions brings forth the light of truth, Michael Moore’s new film, Planet of the Humans, will trigger revelations. There has been a clash! The film implies that the fossil energy required to build solar and wind generating equipment is greater than the amount of “clean” energy that those installations provide; that we would produce less carbon emissions by just using the fossil fuels. A shocking assertion for those working to minimize climate change by switching to renewable energy. The argument would have been more compelling if 26 dialogue
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the information on renewables wasn’t ten years old. Making electricity by burning trees has lost support. The efficiency and durability of solar and wind equipment has increased greatly, and the energy needed to make it has diminished along with the price. Renewable electricity is now less expensive to bring on-line than fossil fuel generation. That said, renewable energy only takes care of a portion of increasing energy demand. Fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions have continued to rise. This is a failure of society, not of renewable energy. As long as the goal of society is to continuously expand, the consumption and waste of natural resources DIGITAL EDITION
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will increase. We need to reassess what our purpose is as a civilization. This key point of the film (at minute 51) is easy to miss following the intense attack on renewable energy efforts. It is more clearly stated in an interview (17 min.) with Michael Moore and his associates at: LINK: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bop8x24G_o0
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Planet of the Humans doesn't say which way to go, but the direction is stated again and again by others concerned with our dilemma. We need a value shift toward a less materialistic civilization, one where well-being is sought for ongoing generations within planetary limits. Sustaining our industrial growth system is impossible. Planet of the Humans clearly illustrates how human expansion2 was very slow for tens of thousands of years. Then, when fossil energy was harnessed, our impacts multiplied 100 fold in less than 200 years. We were no longer restrained by the limited day-byday flow of sunshine through living things. To see how dependent we have become on oil, one need look no further than modern agriculture. And that is only one dependency. While renewable energy provides places for capital to grow, the goal itself is mistaken. Growth has gone from being a tremendous boon for humankind, to becoming a medium of our destruction. [See “The Rise and (eventual) Fall of Capital: http://www.sustainwellbeing.net/Capital.html ]
Perpetual growth never was viable, but when humankind adopted that goal, our impact was minuscule and planetary limits were far out of sight. We started touching planetary limits in the 1970s and are now plunging destructively past them. Growth for growth’s sake has become suicidal. Planet of the Humans shows how capitalism aims to continue expanding our energy intense life-styles. More than once, the exposé of industrial momentum brought to mind the dramatic final image from the film Thelma and Louise. Fasten our seat-belts – or not – push the pedal to the metal and drive with unwavering faith over the cliff of cultural extinction. Hmmm. Is there an alternative? The industrial vision of ‘renewable energy’ aims to perpetuate the growth ideology. The alternative is the goal of setting families and communities up with local energy supplies. Rather than growinguntil-we-drop, the new ‘alternative’ renewable www.dialogue.ca
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energy vision looks toward domestic security. Everyone I have met who is on a renewable energy system has become deeply aware of their energy consumption and minimizes it accordingly. This is a huge step away from the take-as-much-as-you-want opportunity encouraged by conventional energy utilities. These differing values are embodied in responses to Covid-19. Some decisions intend to get the money flows of production and consumption going again. Others are made to serve the needs of people. The excuse given for the production and consumption model is always that it serves the people, but proponents tend to lose interest if the necessary steps don’t make money for somebody. When our perspective is to serve people directly, action is taken as needed, relying on the people themselves to apply their creativity to fulfill the needs. It is difficult for many in the West to grasp the necessary change. We have spent decades within the ideology that “there is no such thing as society” – that the economy is only individuals pursuing their self-interest. Domestic renewable energy can provide all the nighttime lighting we could ever want, power for our computers as well as Internet information and communication. On sunny or windy days it could assist with laborious tasks. Ultimately, if such strategies are to succeed at offering the grandchildren and their children a secure future, we have to adopt a culture based on what we can do with life, rather than on transforming natural resources into consumer products that are soon thrown away. More Fun, Less Stuff is a drum beat for transformation toward a sustainable culture. “Fun”, represents in a single syllable, all the satisfaction that we can get from living. [LINK: http://www.sustainwellbeing.net/MFLS.html ]
It is possible to live well on a small fraction of the energy that is currently thought to be normal. While Planet of the Humans has initiated discussion, it is up to us to visualize what is possible. Take up the drum beat. We need a culture based on living, rather than on having. That said, Thelma and Louise rule and their billions of passengers need to see that there is an alternative to the virtual reality remnant of our once great industrial civilization. It is a question of direction. Grow-until-we-drop, or provide for human needs within the limits of our planet. [LINK: www.sustainwellbeing.net/question.html ] VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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Perhaps, if the population was aware of this choice, we might head resolutely toward a sustainable world. Otherwise, hold onto your hats, gather what knowledge and tools you feel will serve you, and hope that we can endure the fireworks as industrial society piles up on the canyon floor. The most successful way for countries to resolve excess population is to enable their people to provide each other with sufficient food, shelter, education (particularly of women) and health care. ~~~~~~~~~~
LINK : http://www.sustainwellbeing.net/Planet-of-the-
Humans.html From: Mike Nickerson, Author of Life, Money & Illusions; Sustain5@web.ca May 30, 2020
Footnotes 1. From the Intro by interview hosts of “Rising” – Krystal and Saagar: “The only thing worse than knowing the planet is on the brink of extinction is discovering we’ve put our hope for survival in illusions.”
So what exactly are those illusions? Planet of the Humans pulls back this curtain of corporate interests controlling the mainstream environmental movement. Specifically the film says that green technology, like solar and wind, preserve a way of life but do not preserve the planet. LINK: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bop8x24G_o0 Interview with: Ozzie Zehner, producer, Planet of the Humans, author of Green Illusions; Jeff Gibbs, Director, Planet of the Humans; Michael Moore, Academy Awardwinning filmmaker. Jeff Gibbs: “This is so much bigger than climate change. 80-90% of the fish in the ocean and half the wildlife has disappeared in the last 40 years, primarily because of expanding logging and agriculture. Fossil fuels is tragic but there is a lot more to our damaging the planet than just climate change. So I want to spark a holistic discussion about all the things we humans are doing and about whether these “green” technologies are even going to solve climate change, let alone all the things that are happening around the planet.” 2. Human impacts = population X level of consumption. [LINK: www.sustainwellbeing.net/population.html ] ♣
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A needed shift of perspective… From: Christina Stafford, Nanaimo BC
cm.stafford@shaw.ca This is a really good example of the practice of unity consciousness and the awareness of the sacred in the midst of the ordinary that I’ve seen anywhere…. And it’s also a good example of full and honest expression of feelings… within an understanding of wholeness that leaves nothing out…. XOXO, Christina
To-Do List by Caitlin Johnstone, Australia
Laundry Vacuum Roar at sky Get cat food Get Pentagon de-funded Win imaginary argument with God Lose actual argument with God Write some blog or something Call parents Find way to ruin Mike Pompeo's day Do dishes Burn motherfucker to ground Discover new ways I've been fooling myself Discover new ways I've been limiting myself Discover new ways I haven't been loving myself 28 dialogue
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Vomit up primordial delusion-based conditioning Become big pimpin' billionaire poet Get rid of this annoying film over my perception which prohibits my ability to fully see things as the thunderously beautiful miracles I know they are in each and every moment and be constantly floored by pleasure and gratitude Clean bathroom Kill patriarchy Create healthy world for my kids Sweep Cry Let in pleasure Create culture Sing loudly Listen deeply Love bravely Be impaled by presence Be electrified by ordinariness Be immolated by aliveness Do something about fly screen Mop ___________________ ___________________ Thanks for reading! To see the stuff I publish, subscribe to the mailing list: https://caitlinjohnstone.com LINK: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/05/22/to-do-list/ ♣ DIGITAL EDITION
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That’s My Take On It… This is my opinion of what is going on in the world, and in particular in Canada John Shadbolt, Acton ON
This is impossible to believe. But at 90-plus years old I have seen a lot and learnt a lot. Things do not happen by accident. We all know some elites want to a) destroy or b) take over control of humanity. This has been planned for MANY, MANY years. So when I see it all coming together I am kind of glad I will not be around to see the results – OR not, if humanity wakes up, and divests itself of the elite pests of this world. Monsanto could probably do a good job of this, if it was not a pest to be removed itself. Consider the 1) virus, 2) 5G, 3) Billy Gates and co, 4) Monsanto, 5) EMF pollution, 6) drug side effects. These are all unrelated. OR are they? They may be, or not. Step 1: The timing of the downfall of humanity has been planned for decades. So what could be better than to make humans a little bit sicker before the big event? I give you doctor-prescribed drugs, plus Monsanto and water fluoridation. Water fluoridation and some drug side-effects have been ongoing for a long time, but drug side-effects have been mounting recently. If you do not feel well you will not pay attention, or fight. Most of these drugs are GOOD for you, right? That is what we are told. Step 2: Monsanto, supported by our gov`t of course, kills and corrupts everything it touches. Really good pesticides that humans have to eat because the pesticides cannot be washed off. That took a LOT of planning. It was the start of the FINAL overture. Step3: Make EVERYONE afraid of even going outside by saying there is a virus that kills people, and of course automatically leads to Billy Gates, and his population control. He has stated that, if it works, out a 10%-15% reduction would be a place to start. How to do this www.dialogue.ca
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– vaccines of course. They have done this on a small scale in India and Africa, killing a few thousand. Practice makes perfect. Step 4: In Canada, Trudeau is desperate to get on the UN, as he knows that if things keep going the same he will then rule the world, and be in a position to plunder it. So what better time to introduce (not debated) gun control (the kind of thing Hitler did). It takes your attention away from other problems. That is the idea – take your attention away from 5G, the culmination of the destruction/domination of humanity. Coincidentally the UN wants all guns banned, except for theirs of course. Step 5: EMF pollution has been ongoing for years, in Canada take a look at Health Canada`s record put together by Jerry Flynn. It is NOT pretty. It takes a great deal of planning to lie to the people, and put laws in to place to harm us all. Step 6: 5G will kill all of mankind, the birds, the bees, all living things. I could write a lot, but Jerry Flynn does a better job than I do. I have not figured out how that will be of benefit to Trudeau, Billy Gates yet, but no doubt they have planned for it, and have solutions. It is also a control mechanism. So folks, times are the worst they have ever been. You know and can research everything I have said. The question is – are you going to get the virus vaccine, or refuse it at all costs? And FIGHT 5G? If not, how will you explain your kids’ slavery to them? That is, assuming they are alive to ask. I hope you will read this, and at least think this whole thing through, even if you think I am a crazy old man. On the other hand I might be a smart old fart. John Shadbolt, shadbolt617@gmail.com ♣ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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The Voice of Reason Eva Lyman, West Vancouver, 1 June 2020
My late dad used to say: “The world’s gone crazy.” He died in 1992, and I wonder what he would be saying now! He had a remarkable degree of common sense, and his faculty colleagues called him “the Voice of Reason.” If I might indulge in a flight of logical fancy for the moment, along his lines, I would have to see several things he would have noted, related or not. For example: Since dad’s death, ‘nationalism’ and ‘patriotism’ have become dirty words. We are to think globally, become global citizens, whatever that really means. Does it mean “ignore what’s happening at home?” Some things do seem to be global. Weather modification for example. The long white trails emitted by planes daily worldwide (or so I believe, certainly over North America), which do not disappear as real contrails do. Vapor contrails disappear very fast, but these lines morph into ever widening misty clouds that cover the sky, turning into clouds of varying thickness. I see it today: at 8 am we had a bright blue sky but with a few persistent, long, widening white lines. Now at 9 am the entire sky is covered with a white “haze” of whatever. I won’t dwell on the topic. Much more can be gleaned from “aircrap.org” as to the content of these new, man-made clouds. This raises questions like “could it be that climate change is due to these initiatives, & not due to us driving too much? By the way those ever-present planes laying down these lines also burn fossil fuels, and much more so than my little Toyota! Where’s the logic? Which brings us to another logical question. Some folks want to eliminate all CO2. They promote a Green New Deal. Sounds like a good plan, if your basic education isn’t very good. Without CO2 all green plants that need it to live would die. And we’d be dead right along with them. All oxygen breathing creatures, extinct, kaput! There’s that little matter of photosynthesis. Without CO2 we’d have no green plants and no photosynthesis, hence there would be no oxygen for us to breathe. Exeunt! All of us! Well some folks, like one of the Rockefellers, is famously on record saying that there are 2 billion useless eaters on earth. There are other influential men of like mind: Mr. Gates, for example, is also said to be keen on reducing the population -- via vaccines perhaps? 30 dialogue
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I don’t disagree with the issue that we are probably increasing population numbers beyond the earth’ s carrying capacity for any decent civilized way of life, but I am a believer in using the carrot rather than the stick. It has been said that in some nations the large families are an old age security measure. Could we not offer incentives like guaranteed pensions, and housing for the elderly in return for small families? A house for a vasectomy, secure pension for a tubal ligation? Successful propaganda would be required to change minds, but it’s being done all the time. The only people who seem to have done some research on the carrying capacity of the earth are Bill Rees and Mathis Wackernagel in their book, Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth (1996). They concluded that we are already living as if we had 2.5 planets at our disposal. And this was a number of years ago. Then, following in dad’s logical thinking footsteps, I have to ask myself about the breakneck proliferation of wireless technology -- again globally. This military technology, while sickening and killing people, is sold to us as necessary and convenient. But precisely those with huge families are hardly likely to have internet access. They don’t have the money. It’s the more educated, and possibly intelligent people who spend a lot of time close to their radiating devices. So what is the real story here? Genocide of the world’s intelligentsia? Why? There seems to be no logic in this roll out. Could it be simple greed? So much money to be made that “the devil take the hindmost?” Or is there another underlying reason? There always is some purpose for everything, such as “follow the money”. And yes, there is a lot of money to be made from selling ever faster and “more convenient” wireless, regardless of dire health effects. But it also allows for better and better Big Brother control of everyone. Why would we need that? Who benefits? Well, let’s try to see some logical reasons here. Suppose that the Global Power Elites fear people are beginning to see their plan for more power, or total global control, whatever their megalomanic vision is. And they fear people will not go for it. So now they need to be able to quickly find out who is aware of what’s going on, who disagrees, where they are, and
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how best to eliminate them. And 5G is the ideal toy! Thousands of space satellites will be able to do the trick from the air. And on land -- one cell every 50 feet! Besides so many people will be too ill from the radiation to protest against anything. Now total control will be child’s play! However, maybe the plan is even better! I bet the thinking goes something like this: In case there is any chance of people rising up before all this is set up globally, roll out a nice little virus. Create a huge panic, even though there has to be some cure or else the elites might get sick, and that wouldn’t do. So there is a cure. But you have to discredit it for public consumption. “There is no cure, be very afraid. Wait for the vaccine, and in the meantime stay at home, don’t go out.” While everyone is indoors, the 5G gets rolled out fast. That seems to be happening. And just in case people aren’t scared enough, we’re told a worse virus is just around the corner. Maybe there is: something to keep wearing down our desire for freedom, till we all fall down, dead or just sick and tired! Professor Robert Hare, who used to lecture on psychiatric criminology at UBC, wrote a book called Without Conscience (2011) that has come to mind a lot of late. He describes a certain psychopathic personality that
cannot see the final, ultimate results of their actions. They are nevertheless very bright, and ambitious. When born into an upper class family they end up in leading positions in government or corporate finance. If they are born poor they tend to end up in jail. There seem to be a lot of people in the former category in leadership roles these days. I’m sort of glad dad died back in 1992. He said one time “You know old people don’t die because they’re old. They die because they are pissed off at what’s going on in the world”. I’m sort of glad I’m old myself. But then, there are challenges in every generation. My parents lived through World War 2, never knowing what bomb might hit, or when the Gestapo might call, and I often wonder how they stayed sane through that. So I do feel humanity will survive, but it will be one hell of a fight to save a decent form of civilization! When I feel less positive, I reflect that these days there is a difference from WW2 days. The difference today is the level of technology, which is being used for the wrong purpose. It’s in effect a global war against life, and we are all in it. That’s what real Globalization is all about! From Eva Lyman, evalyman@gmail.com
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Memories...
By Bonna Rouse, Owen Sound, Ontario
"I remember" — often the signal for younger family members to roll their eyes and mutter, "Here she goes again!" Things we remember can come in many forms — visual, dreams, sensuous, sounds, people, events, — a trigger that suddenly brings to mind something from the past. I remember sights — a baby's face — sunrise on the lake — a surprise visit from a long-ago friend — lightening over the water... I remember sensual things — smells: the scent of the white roses I picked from my father's garden the morning of my wedding — the smell of smoke in the bush as we made maple syrup — the cat's fur, thymescented when she came in from the cold I remember events, happy and sad — trips across Georgian Bay — scary winter trips from Northern Ontario — the excitement of the Christmas concert www.dialogue.ca
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at the little schoolhouse — a run-away with a team of horses — happy times around a laden dinner table with friends and family — the thrill of building a house. I remember sounds — the cry of the loon — the whistle of the steam engine on an old locomotive or threshing machine — a baby's laughter — the mew of a baby kitten... I remember people — those who impacted my life in some way, neighbourhood characters — a chance meeting... I remember sorrows — standing at the bedside of a dying loved one, having to leave a beloved location, even the loss of a pet... Our memories become a part of the fabric of our lives, good and bad, happy and sorrowful. As we age, thankfulness for memories must be given. I would rather lose recalling what happened yesterday. ♣ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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HEROES
Ramblings
Randy Vancourt, Toronto ON
We hear the term “hero” a lot lately, and with good cause. Recent events have revealed that a great number of undetected heroes have been quietly living amongst us for a long time. We have always used that word to describe people we greatly admire, whether famous sports figures, rock stars or especially our brave men and women in uniform. But now we have learned the word can be equally applied to many other job descriptions. First and foremost no doubt are the amazing people in the medical profession. Of course historically they have always been heroes, but unfortunately often taken for granted. Banting and Best, Jonas Salk, Pierre and Marie Curie, and thousands more like them have made our lives better, safer and healthier in countless ways. Now we see these brave and brilliant individuals once again risking their own lives to benefit, and no doubt save, ours. Of course all the usual frontline workers are included amongst our heroes: police, fire and ambulance workers have always deserved veneration, never more so than now. For me the most amazing addition to our list of heroes has been the more mundane jobs, the sort one doesn’t normally associate with danger. We have all become much more aware of grocery store employees, farmers and workers in food processing plants, which just proves how fortunate we have all been for so long. We are in unchartered territory now. Suddenly we are faced with food shortages like we haven’t seen since the last World War, combined with the economic downturn and job losses of the Depression and a potentially fatal, virulent illness not unlike the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Any one of these problems would be difficult enough to overcome but dealing with all of them at once is changing our way of life forever. Every time I venture inside a grocery store now I marvel at the people stocking the shelves or ringing up my groceries. I have always been the sort who talks to clerks and employees anyway, but now I make a point of saying thank you, and letting them know how much I appreciate their effort and risk. The past few months have underlined just how 32 dialogue
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fortunate we are to live in this country. Watching our political leaders work together in spite of their differences has been inspiring, more so because we get daily evidence of the country to our south imploding under the weight of its federal government’s unbelievable, historic incompetence. If ever we needed a reminder of the apocryphal lesson of King Canute and the rising tide, we are watching it unfold in real time there. My own industry is feeling the ground shifting beneath it as well. Every day my Facebook feed is full of my friends - actors, musicians, writers, technicians, designers, comedians, and so many others - all trying to deal with the sudden disappearance of their jobs now and for the foreseeable future. Many of them have turned to online performances and videos that are meant to brighten our cloistered lives, as well as allow them to continue creating. I have comedian friends who share their meal preparation as a daily live feed, and musicians who perform nightly online concerts to entertain anyone who is watching. One musician friend was wondering if what he was doing really mattered, then recently received a message from someone in Buenos Aires that said, “I’m a nurse on guard for these days. Thanks for your music.” Another note from Chile read, “I wait for your concert daily, it has been your music that helps me to cope with the quarantine.” He now has over 25,000 people watching his nightly performance, which is just him sitting at his home piano, playing and singing. Mister Rogers famously used to tell the story about a lesson he learned from his mother. When he was a boy and saw scary things in the news, she would tell him, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” Conversely of course, we will also see the ones who are doing the exact opposite, whether protesting against their own safety and interests, or actively working to harm us all. The uniquely human ability to self-destruct has rarely been more clearly on display than in recent weeks. Right now the best thing we can all do is to keep looking for the helpers wherever we may find them, the ones who are actively making life better for us all, and Website: www.randyvancourt.com ♣ say thanks.
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The Word…
Taking a Breath as the Wild Creatures Return By Susan McCaslin with interviewer and fellow poet Lesley-Anne Evans This interview and poem first appeared on Lesley-Anne Evan’s blog for poetry month, April 2020 https://buddybreathing.wordpress.com/2020/04/26/napomo-poetry-party-25/
Lesley-Anne: Welcome, Susan. Interestingly, a forest is what first drew me to you, through your poetic activism “Han Shan Project” in which you put out a call to poets to assist in saving the greater part of what was then called McLellan Forest East and is now the Blaauw Eco Forest in Langley from development. And it worked! Over a two-week period, you received over 250 poems from across Canada (mine included), and then you, your husband and other invested souls gently tied the poems in the trees, raising awareness that led to a private donor stepping forward with the funding needed to save this unique ecosystem. What power poetry carries within. We often say we wish we had more time for certain things. Are you spending your time differently in view of our current world challenges? If so, how? Susan: The current pandemic in its strange and deadly way has forced me to reflect on time. What is it? How does it relate to what I was taught as a child about eternity, which by definition is timeless? Isn’t it hazardous to ourselves and our planet to live out a dualism that separates time and eternity? How many of the details of our lives do we retain as we move through the cycles of planetary life, and how much do we eventually shed like a flaked-off skin when we die? What aspects of our consciousness, if any, survive death? What, for that matter, is death, and how are death and rebirth bound together in the cosmic scheme of things? We are certainly more than our ego envelope, the small self, the outer shell. Yet aren’t these temporal, idiosyncratic aspects of ourselves, even our masks and socially constructed selves, important too? I have an intuition that the part of us that lives in and though love will continue to evolve in mysterious ways. I am an introvert who needs interconnection. I have developed a capacity to distance from the world around me when the going gets tough, to escape “elsewhere,” sometimes into worlds of thought and imagination. Yet for me, thinking, dreaming, feeling, and being present in my body are not separate, but an interplay of vital faculties. So, I affirm and embrace embodiment, incarnation. Yet I must confess that, like most people at this time, I’m www.dialogue.ca
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experiencing fear and flitting from one unfinished project to another. So, to return to your question, “How do I spend my time differently during the pandemic?” I find myself pausing from our collective ride on the “ progress machine” by taking long walks. The Anna’s hummingbird sipping from our feeder holds me spellbound. I am transfixed by flocks of Canada geese and the elegant curved necks of great blue herons nesting nearby. I walk each day with Rosie, my canine companion. Like so many others, I try to reach out to friends and neighbours who might need a hand or a “check in.” Because I’ve been “retired” from teaching English Lit. since 2007 and have turned 73, being alone a good part of the time, writing, reading, thinking, have constituted much of life. Therefore, my days aren’t as drastically changed as they are for many others. For the opportunity to reflect, I feel privileged and enormously grateful. Lesley-Anne: Why is poetry/art important? Susan: Poetry and art aren’t frills or embellishments to ordinary life. They aren’t an elitist endeavor intended only for a few, but essential to our common psychological health and spiritual survival. Poetry and art have been present from the beginnings of human life on earth. The Paleolithic drawings and imprints on the walls of caves in Lascaux and other places in the world suggest our early ancestors opened themselves to vaster worlds, the earthy, planetary and cosmological realms where trees, deer, and our fellow creatures are deeply interconnected. Women, men, and children cooperated to imprint art in the depths of caves, participating in a mysterious cosmic ritual, a visual enactment of the interplay of things. My sense is that everyone has within them this potential to engage a vaster, more inclusive sphere of being, and that poetry, because of its oral/aural origins, is akin to …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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music, enacting a dance between the known and the unknown, speech and silence. Lesley-Anne: What is one surprising thing that happened today? Susan: A dear friend of mind and fellow poet, Antoinette Voûte Roeder, contacted me by email to remind me of a book I had read several years ago by the poet Stanley Kunitz (in cooperation with Genine Lentine), The Wild Braid, in which he discusses the relation of gardening and poetry: “The poem is not just language; it is in itself an incarnation …. When I’m reading Hopkins aloud, I feel I am actually occupying his selfhood and speaking out of it, not simply reciting the words, but somehow merging into his bloodstream and nervous system.” During my daily walks during the pandemic, I some-
times reflect on how reading a poem invites union with the consciousness of the poet who wrote it, and also becomes for the co-creator, the reader or hearer, a re-enactment of the presences and processes that inspired the poem. A poem so received can become a reservoir of healing and regeneration. It lives. This is what makes poetry at its best what my friend Antoinette calls “a sacred art.” Lesley-Anne: We are in for a very special treat today in the form of your newly completed poem “Corona Corona.” You describe it as “a crown or corona of sonnets in which the last line of each poem becomes the first line of the next, and the last line of the last sonnet is the same or similar to the first line of the sequence. I have kept the 14-lines but am using free verse rather than the traditional rhyme and metre.” What a delight, thank you so much. ♣
Corona Corona By Susan McCaslin What kind of crown bears death? What kind of queen hefts quarantine? You’re not even alive, just a spikey shell unaware of the damage wreaked. Our economies forged dark streams, pathways for your kind of havoc. We check our devices listen to the newscasts watch our Netflicks flicker hunker in the void co-avoiding physical contact, incarnate and encapsulated dreaming new modes of being. Dreaming new modes of being I wonder why I’m addressing you. You’re just one of many sub-streams – Sars, Spanish flu, Bubonic Plague. We sit with storytellers, re-configure Boccacio’s Decameron, clutch Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love, ponder Dicken’s “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” 34 dialogue
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self-isolate with Camus’ Plague, knowing nothing’s new under the sun. Stranded in para-doxology, we give thanks for this contemplative pause from compulsory progress, Gaia’s chance to take a breath as the wild creatures return. Taking a breath as the wild creatures return, we peer through the global membrane, ears cupped to a hermit thrush’s spiraling song held in the arc of a great blue heron’s flight. When poems interweave with light and dark they sing, stranded between lament and praise thanksgiving and trembling, our vast unknowing graced by love, small acts of compassion, heartwork of the justice imagination, prayers for collective transfiguration. Can we uncrown ourselves as lords of creation, since heavy crowns bear death, not regeneration? Susan, www.susanmccaslin.ca Check out my latest book with J.S. Porter: Superabundantly Alive - from Wood Lake Books DIGITAL EDITION
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Poems for Pandemic from Penn Kemp “Poetry really can console and articulate our emotions in the pandemonium of pandemic.” These poems continue a celebration of the arts on https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/belanger-its-time-to-embracelondons-poet-laureate-penn-kemp-and-all-artists/. Penn Kemp is delighted to continue this conversation in Dialogue (see issues online at: www.dialogue.ca). She is a poet and playwright from London ON. See updates: www.pennkemp.weebly.com.
The Big Ask Penn Kemp
We can gather in the power of dandelion greens. Warmer weather is not another postponed elective.
In times of crises we count on the arts for respite, relief, relaxation and articulation of our response and reaction to a compounded new normal. As if
Even though last night, lightning and hail the size of loonies lit up the sky at the pink full moon, no frogs are raining and forsythia has not forsaken us.
unknowns have not always been nearby, hovering at edge of sight, beyond reach but closing in now, still unknown. All our questions rise without reply.
Toads are peeping, myrtle is purpling and the sun, sweet sun, is warming our faces as forget-me-nots pop their determined way up through damp earth.
How long.
What is essential, what urgent when baselines shift? Spontaneous dance parties and web performance lighten fatigue, the philosopher’s moral dilemma.
The difference is now we know for once what we did not know, can’t know, don’t want to face, hid under cover. But special masks hand-sewn as if to protect let us feel we are doing our bit, let us act in dispelling disconnect, overwhelm of circumstance. Art helps us stitch together disparity or discontent. This poem will not reveal statistics, won’t describe missing medical gear, what remains undelivered, how many gravesites prepared, how much suffering— how many gone. We have aps for that, as numbers grow beyond belief but not beyond hope nor help. Frontline workers, be praised. May all you need be yours now. May salaries be raised. May you rest till the rest is easy. May your harvest be in health not death, not calculated statistics of raised risk. Do care for yourselves just as you care for others. We wait, sequestered, connected, isolated, missing touch, missing what we used to call normal, what we used to do long ago just last month. We wait for the weight to lift, to remember we are safe at home, not stuck. We also serve who stay indoors and wait. May home be our haven. May we shelter in place, in peace of mind. Confinement’s just fine for now, home stead, home stayed and schooled in the new. Mind the gap, the gulf between then and now as broadcasts sweep over: they are not forever. Turn off the hourly news. Tune in to spring joys instead. www.dialogue.ca
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The consolation of poetry is the resilience of words given to comfort or challenge, compare and contrast. What is grief but love unexpressed? What is love but expression? Giving, not in, not out, but forth, giving over to you. The game’s a match. Love won. Love all. Penn Kemp
What We’ll Remember How first scylla sky shimmers against the tundra swan’s flight west and north, north north west. How many are leaving the planet and yet are with us, still and still forever. How they linger, the lost, the bewildered, the wild ones! Though tears come easily these days, we too hover over the greening land as spring springs brighter than ever since stacks are stilled and the pipe lines piping down. When the peace pipe is lit and sweetgrass replaces smog— when the fog of pollution lifts and channels clear— Earth take a long breath and stretches over aeons to come and aeons past. Penn Kemp VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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No Reruns, No Returns
Believe…
for les revenants – by Penn Kemp Those who died once from influenza a century ago, who now are pulled to
In the space of a year she has learned to sit, to stand, to walk, to totter forward in a run. She has seen one full round of the seasons. She wraps her family round her little finger.
a hell realm of eternal return—are you repeating, reliving the hex of time as if
Now just before dusk we stroll hand in hand to witness the evening ritual of geese return.
doomed to replicate the old story you already lived through? Once is enough.
Gliding along the Thames in formation, they skim overhead, flapping slow time in synch.
No need to hover. You have suffered plenty. You’ve loved and lost all there
She studies their procedure, dropping my hand to edge forward, neck outstretched, arms aero-
is to lose. You have won. You’re one with all that is. Retreat now to your own
dynamically angled. She flaps and flaps along the bank, following their flight, ready for that
abode. Return home, spirits. You’re no longer needed here. You are no longer. Although we honour you and thank you and remember you each and all,
sudden lift. Again, again, till the last goose has flown. Dragging her heels home, disconcerted,
all those who’ve been called back, called up from dimensions we can only guess at—
she braces her body against the rising breeze, bewildered that she too can’t take off to sky
caught in the Great War and carried away or carried off in the aftermath of influenza—
but game to try again tomorrow, convinced the birds’ secret will soon belong to her.
by this spell, we tell you to go back to your own time, out of time. Just in time.
Penn Kemp, from River Revery, Insomniac Press, London 2019; https://riverrevery.ca/animation/ with Mary McDonald
May you depart. We don’t know, how can we tell? where your home is. It’s not here.
“Believe” is a postcard and in the Booklet for The League of Canadian Poets’ Poem in Your Pocket Day. As part of National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day took place this year on April 30: http://poets.ca/programs/pocketpoem/.
Know this virus is not yours. Know this war is not yours. You are here in our era by error, by slippage, a rip. You’ve mistaken the signage, the spelling in wrong turns. Now return, by this charm, retreat. You are dispelled, dismissed, dismantled,
Penn Kemp’s latest book is P.S., a collaboration with BC poet Sharon Thesen, is forthcoming from Kalamalka Press in 2020.
released to soar free from the trance of time. May you travel well. May you fly free.
Updates at: www.pennkemp.weebly.com ♣
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“Doomsday meets Unbridled Optimism” From: Christina Stafford, cm.stafford@shaw.ca RECOMMENDED LINK:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3aOQ0N74PI
Christina’s comment: If you start at 1:37:45, you’ll hear what the interviewer (Rich Roll) called the best monologue he’s ever heard in his life…. (Dr.) Zach Bush is a brilliant doctor/scientist/life explorer…. I agree, and it’s a revelation grounded in experience about the potential for what humanity 36 dialogue
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was designed for [QUOTE - From his experience with patients resuscitated after death: (~1:54 min.) – They all said the same first sentence: “Why did you bring me back? … white light experience… I felt completely accepted for the first time in my life.” … Dr. ZB: “The Universe wants us to be here… the keys to our path = Humility + Gratitude + Love.” [VIDEO: “SOIL HEALTH AND FOOD INDEPENDENCE”] ♣
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Ideas from David Foster, Port Perry ON
AFTERMATH
David Muir Foster, Port Perry, Ontario
After Covid-19, we can’t ‘go back’ and ‘re-open.’ Nature’s Laws demand far deeper observance of what comes next. We were consuming four times what the world can sustain without dreadful, irreparable damage. ‘Corporatism’ of any sort is neither ‘natural nor ‘normal’. Open ended ‘Civilization’ has been expanding human and cattle numbers for 300+ years at the expense of Nature. That exploitation is a major source of global warming. Warming leads to increased demand on fresh water that gets more and more scarce, a signal we are too many using too much. Sex among humans age 13 to 35 leads to rapid population increase and total focus on making life ‘easiest’ for the mothers and children, (a 30 year commitment). Thus run-away ‘Consumerism’. Making life easiest for the ‘nuclear family’. For-Profit exploiters arise in this as ‘Business Corporations’ whose prime loyalty is to themselves. They hide behind Logos and ‘Brands’. (As if the logo is to blame and not another human). Attempts at ‘governing’ in a culture of constant innovation, lead to cycles and crashes. Governments are a different form of ‘corporation,’ competing with each other. Don’t let it happen again. Escape the urban model. If you have an agriculture or forestry region nearby, perhaps do as the Amish do... go by a cart pulled by a farting pony that needs no petroleum product. It can feed from roadside grasses. Try staying awhile in each season, and study every detail. Do the chores by hand. Write ‘Notes’ on real paper. Wean yourselves from Apple Corporation’s deliberately addictive cell phone technology, and society’s dependency on electricity. Soon you’ll see what oldsters over 70 learned 60+ years ago before those technologies were invented. ‘On Walden Pond’ sort of thing, of wisdom, work, practices and benefits. That is the root of sustainable Ethics and Morality. Realize any kind of ‘money’ has limits in telling the whole story. www.dialogue.ca
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What is a sunny day in Spring ‘worth’? According to whose value system? Re-define what is ‘worth’? Think about that... get off your butt and do something durably ‘good’ without doing harm. Learn the million kinds of ‘harm’ the former ‘system’ caused. Make your life make sense, for yourself and others. Are you a sufferer of the Dunning–Kruger effect of overestimating your own abilities? Get real, or the ‘system’ will kill you. Fast or slow... your choice. DMF May 3, 2020
La Triviata... pumpkins with a touch of dill. ‘Howard Dill was an apple farmer in a temperate part of Nova Scotia, (the Annapolis Valley). An innovative sort, he sprayed his trees in the 1940s with some sulphur based fog to control the bugs, funguses and blight. But then he wondered about the space under the trees. Building up spray damage? Or was there more opportunity? He asked the local Canada Agricultural travelling Advisor for advice. In those days the Canada Department of Agriculture rep was a very well educated consultant/advisor who functioned as the jungle telegraph on whose farm was up for sale, and who was looking for what kind of machinery. There was no modern Real Estate Industry... The Advisor was also a sort of junior Veterinarian on animal health, Ailments he knew about on land and in livestock. All welcomed his visits. So Howard asked for his advice. ‘Well, sure... Why not grow squash or something under the trees? ... Different harvest’. Howard chose to raise pumpkins right under the apple trees. He was very careful to note which tree did well, and from last year’s seeds, which pumpkin did best. He kept organized notes, and ever so gradually, he developed pumpkins of many sorts, shapes, shades and sizes. After 20 years, his were the largest pumpkins grown anywhere in the world. Monsters you could cut the tops off, climb inside (and after cleaning the pips out, if you had a mind to), see if it would float. And if it floated, could a person climb in with a short paddle use it like a Welsh coracle in a pond? …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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To this day, local Nova Scotians race their giant pumpkins across a quiet pond most Octobers near the town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, and cameras record it. Howard grew tiny pumpkins too, little fellers to sell by mail to Japanese balcony gardeners. Chance favoured Howard when the durable American TV program ’60 minutes’ got to hear of him, and sent a well-known commentator to do an interview. It was a time when America’s future looked especially bleak. Americans loved the simple ‘down home story’ at a time their own political future looked dark. Pumpkin orange, and a happy Autumn festival just might cheer people up... After the ’60 Minutes’ broadcast, people all over began to ask for Dill’s Pumpkin seeds. Soon the seed income far exceeded the income from Howard’s orchard, yet the orchard gave shape and nourishment from wind-fall apples rotting. The Ag Rep had said ‘It doesn’t matter what you raise as a farmer, from calves to human babies, hay to orchard apples, it all needs the same sort of protection and care, and food at the right time. And water.’ Lots of fresh rain water that the Annapolis Valley with its Atlantic rain clouds bring in abundance at the right time. And so Howard Dill prospered from pumpkins and rain. Howard’s apples and my grandfather ‘Laffy’ (short form for the name ‘Lafayette’) had an unlikely partnership. Laffy too was a Nova Scotian, a wartime Major General, retired early from the military after WW1. Became a trader in apples in the Annapolis Valley. Each year the local Hants County Fair (going since 1760) held contests for which farmer had the best crops and apples. And for the farm wives, contests for who made the best pies, apple cider, home handicrafts. When apples in storage went soft, bruised or bad,
Granpa Laffy threw them into a barrel to make cider. He rarely won. Until one year the judges raised their eyebrows and awarded him the coveted prize. Amazing improvement and full bodied taste! And every year thereafter, Laffy won. What was his secret? Well, he had been a Medical Doctor in WW1 and knew something of what apples rotting do in producing acids. The first year he won, he found in the bottom of the cider barrel the skeletons of two dead rats. Thereafter, he kept a better screen over the barrel top and simply threw in 2 pounds of meat. The cider fermenting bio-chemistry bugs loved it! Full bodied Nova Scotian Cider. Howard Dill’s secret on orchards and ‘companion growing’, and my granddad Laffy kept the family’s secret for 50 years. Me? I am a blabber mouth. After all, it was wisdom from the 1930s, (90 years ago). Howard and my Grandad Laffy are both long dead. But the public can still buy Dill’s Pumpkin seeds, small or large. Windsor, Nova Scotia. Every October on a nearby pond, the biggest pumpkins are hollowed out to become coracles in races across the pond. People still buy pumpkin seeds by mail from Howard Dill’s grandchildren. It is a family corporation now with world-wide sales. David Muir Foster Port Perry, May 21, 2020 david.foster2@powergate.ca ♣ *Howard Dill (1934 - May 20, 2008) THE DILL FARM: www.howarddill.com Please call 1-902-798-2728 or email howarddill@yahoo.ca with any questions on seed. ♣
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Laughter & ‘Lightenment
From Susanne Lawson & John Shadbolt
About growing older… Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it. The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved. You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks. One of the things no one tells you about aging is that it's such a nice change from being young. One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been. 38 dialogue
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Myth Makers and Mystery
From Leo Purcell, Antigonish NS
I have been receiving your magazine for the last few years, my subscription a Christmas gift from my friend Franklin O'Connor who lives in Nanaimo. While I find I have little interest in items on politics, both provincial and federal, I do enjoy other items especially those with a bit of humour. One hears often that senior citizens should be treasured and consulted for the wisdom they have acquired over the years. I don't know about the wisdom part but I do qualify as a senior, finishing up my 88th, and I have found in my readings, especially in the areas of religion and national policies, that most of the doctrines and ideologies that shape the lives of all nations fall into the category of myth. It is this mythic nature that gives them that power. I do have one criterion that I use to judge those who differ: do no harm. Understanding myth has liberated me from having to spend time determining who is right/ wrong. It has brought me peace and tolerance. - Leo [The photo was taken in 2011. purcell.leo@gmail.com ]
Myth Makers Leo Purcell, Antigonish NS Myth has been given a bad rap. It is in fact a way to organize a certain kind of story. We make myths and we live by them throughout our lives. We live in a space-time world. We are not equipped with neurons to receive communication outside these limits. We were born, live, and will die within the limits of time and space. All our learning takes place within these parameters. Our magnificent brains transform information that comes to us through our senses into what we know. But these senses have limitations. We see only a small band of electromagnetic radiation frequencies, those within the range of red at one end and violet at the other. Some nocturnal hunters see infra-red frequencies. We don’t see them but feel them as heat. Some insects can detect ultra-violet radiation coming from certain plants. Our ears hear molecular vibration (sound) waves within a definite www.dialogue.ca
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range. Dogs and other animals can detect sound waves above our range, elephants can detect those below. Bats have echo-location in their bag of survival skills. Outside of a certain temperature range we feel both hot and cold as pain. Why state the obvious? Because it sets the stage for the question: do we have the necessary equipment to receive messages beyond time and space? We read about all kinds of parapsychological phenomena, but even these have some sensory implications. They deal with unexpected sounds, unexplained light or feelings. Leaders of all persuasions claim their authority comes from God. They are spreading God’s word. But why does God have such a variety of messages, sometimes contradictory? Is it possible that the message is of human origin? God is one name for the mystery that has no human solution. We cannot declare God as mystery on the one hand and then turn around and write books on who he is and what he wants us to do. So we come to the role of myth. Myths have their source in answers to three simple questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here? and Where am I going? The questions are simple; however humans’ attempts to answer them have filled the libraries of the world, and are now pouring into databases. And the answers to these three questions throw light on the fourth: Who am I? How is myth defined by scholars? It belongs with the other forms of stories; novel, poem, biography, fable, legend, history, parable. While the word in Greek is often translated simply as story, in our language it has a special meaning. Marcea Eliade, in Myth and Reality (1963), says: Myth is … a vital ingredient of human civilization: it is not an idle tale, but a hard-worked active force; it is not an intellectual explanation, or an artistic imagery, but a pragmatic charter of primitive faith and moral wisdom. (p.20) Later on: Directly or indirectly, myth “elevates” man. (p.145) It transcends and discards some of its earlier expressions, outmoded by history, and adapts itself to the new social conditions, and new cultural fashions – but resists extirpation. (p. 176) …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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Rolo May, in his Cry for Myth (1991), says: It (myth) carries the values of society; the individual finds his sense of identity; it unites the antinomies of life, these formed into a narration which is passed down from age to age; it refers to the quintessence of human experience, the meaning and significance of human life. Let us look at the first of the three basic questions posed above: where did I come from. It is evident that in the western world most people find themselves in one of two camps: either the world was created, or the world evolved. Not all but many myths deal with beginnings. The three dominant western religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam adhere to the creation story. They proclaim a certain knowledge of an all knowing, all loving, all powerful Creator. In Genesis we have God creating man who is endowed with certain powers and properties. He has instant knowledge of how to survive in the garden, doesn’t have to earn a living, won’t suffer death. And God saw his greatest creation and found it good. But man blew it. He ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and by this disobedience lost God’s favor. As punishment for this disobedience: To the woman He (Yahweh) said ‘I will multiply your pains in childbearing, you shall give birth to your children in pain. Your yearning shall be for your husband, yet he will lord it over you.’ To the man he said, ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, ‘Accursed be the soil because of you With suffering shall you get your food from it every day of your life. It shall yield you brambles and thistles, and you shall eat wild plants. With the sweat of your brow shall you eat your bread, until you shall return to the soil as you were taken from it. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.’ (The Jerusalem Bible) The Jews regained God’s favor by entering into a covenant with him, agreeing to obey his law (Torah). The Muslim would be in God’s favor by obeying the 40 dialogue
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path of life as set down in the Koran, given to them by Muhammad. The Christians were to regain God’s favor by being redeemed from the stain of original sin. This was brought about by The Word becoming flesh and sacrificing himself on the cross. We have here a series of stories that qualify as myths. They are stories that still have great influence in the lives of millions. A few Christianity myths that find their origin in this Adamic myth: Mary’s Immaculation Conception: Since the mother of the redeemer was to be the mother of the Son of God, Mary had to be without the stain of original sin. Her conception had to come about without a human father. The Annunciation. The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of the Redeemer brought about by the Holy Ghost. The Virgin Birth of Jesus. Since Mary was without stain she was not liable for the punishment of giving birth with great pain (Genesis). Her delivery was not by the ordinary passage of the child. (Note: In the light of above some other dogmas need work, viz, Incarnation, Redemption, Resurrection, Assumption of Mary) What does evolution have to say about the origin of human life? It has this in its favour: it took place and is taking place within our limits of time and space. Through the study of artifacts uncovered by anthropologists, paleontologists, and the study of mitochondrial DNA we know that today’s humans appeared first in Africa: homo erectus, homo habilis, homo sapiens evolving over thousands of years. Evolution’s answer to the first question “Who am I?” tells me who I am, that I’m the product of millennia evolving from an earlier form of primates. This brings us to the second and third questions: “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?” How we answered the first question puts us on the road for answering the second and third. As to the second question, the direction indicated to us by organized religion points to finding out why our creator put us here. And they all have “their” answer. Somehow the creator got to the original founder and told him why He created us. And they tell us. But the answers differ. Evolution, on the other hand, has no clear road
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mapped out for us but does indicate what members of any species, whether animal or vegetable, tend to be occupied with: protecting the species, and making it stronger. And for us humans, that points to protecting all humans, and bringing new ones into existence to keep the species strong. As for the “Where am I going?” question, those who espouse the creation story have to say: I don’t know. There is a variety of answers from the religious leaders, but these leaders don’t know either. They call on faith, not knowledge, to support their various claims. The evolutionists simply say that the question is outside their area of competence. They deal with facts only. What an understanding of myth has done for me: it has changed the criteria by which I judge life styles, religious ideas and practices, and by which I evaluate my own beliefs. To protect my species I must first identify it – homo sapiens. This includes every human being on this planet earth, “my kind” must be “mankind”. Seeing a particular religious belief system as the only way to give its members their identity builds walls; to see it as one among many puts it in the category of myth and so opens the door to help me see “my kind” as “mankind”. Other walls come down when we take a good look at political allegiance, color differences, economic standing, sexual orientation, etc. We see the power of myth when we spend some time looking at the institution of marriage. Both the man and woman come to it with already formed myths: the man with: what is a man, a husband, a woman, a wife; the woman with these same four, but often with very different meanings. If the couple can reconcile these differences before marriage, then they start off with a good chance of forming a strong relationship. If not,
then tension between them will build almost immediately and counseling is needed, which might save the union. Would divorce be less frequent if both parties were encouraged to openly discuss these myths prior to marriage and settle on compromises where necessary? Understanding myth gives me serenity and freedom. Without proclaiming objective truth, myth allows me to move forward without worrying about whether or not I’m meeting someone else’s expectations, which often amounts to abiding by their myths. But the one objective I adhere to is: do no harm. So love your neighbor. Authors quoted: Eliade, Mircea, Myth and Reality, paperback edition, 1975. May, Rolo, Cry for Myth, 1991 Further reading: Frye, Northrop, The Great Code: The Bible & Literature, Penguin Books, 1990
Verbum – Λογοσ (Word of God) Fashioning all images, Processing all truths, Defining the human. Ever creating, ever destroying, Genome and genocide, Nuclear medicine, nuclear holocaust. Emerging from silence, Forming I and Thou Confirming the in-between. Preserving the past, Imagining the future, Creating the present. God is word Leo Purcell, Antigonish, NS, purcell.leo@gmail.com ♣
Unmasking the Truth: Studies Show Masks Weaken You and Don’t Protect You LINK: https://thefreedomarticles.com/unmasking-therespiratory droplets). Scientifically speaking, they don’t truth-masks-weaken-dont-protect-you/ stop healthy people from getting infected! Below is a By Makia Freeman, May 20, 2020 link to evidence showing this. This will leave you with [EXTRACT] Mandatory mask-wearing orders occurring in the inescapable conclusion that these masks are not many regions worldwide have no scientific or medical about protecting health – but rather about control, basis in reality. Masks lower your immunity and do not dehumanization and the destruction of health… Dr. protect you from viruses or disease… Masks weaken Russell Blaylock highlights how wearing a mask is you by causing hypercapnia (increased carbon dioxide) actually putting you at more risk of infection, because and hypoxia (decreased oxygen). They are designed for you are lowering your overall health, strength and surgeons (so they don’t accidentally transmit bodily immunity by under-oxygenation: fluids like saliva into a patient they are operating upon) LINK: https://technocracy.news/blaylock-face-masksor for sick people (so they don’t infect others via large pose-serious-risks-to-the-healthy ♣ www.dialogue.ca
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J S Porter – On Intimate Poems Featured: https://thenancyduffyshow.com/2020/05/01/intimate-poems/ By J.S. Porter, May 1, 2020 for Susan McCaslin
One of the most intimate poems with which I’m familiar is by the American poet William Carlos Williams. A husband addresses a wife: I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold To be intimate with a poem you need to learn it by heart. Ingest it. Metabolize it as you would with any other food. Say it to yourself over and over. My poetfriend Susan McCaslin says, “In an age when we are inundated with masses of information, taking time to memorize words we love can become a kind of spiritual practice. It takes work and patience to allow words to penetrate and rest in the heart.” Susan says, “A poet’s words are like little perfumeries that release their essence as you re-enact the process of their making. Being with the poem in this way can be a form of communion. In memorizing, there’s a sense of co-creating, a joining of your voice to the poet’s and to the voices of all those who have read the poem aloud or silently since its conception.” * Williams’ wife left him a note one day and he turned the note into a poem. We know this because Williams’ wife Florence wrote her own poem, and published it, about what she really put on her husband’s list. Plums – what to do with them or not-to do with them—were not part of her list. In any case, the plum poem is intimate because of its everydayness, its attention to small details, the gentle 42 dialogue
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humour and the mock-heroic diction of “forgive me.” Weighty language to lay upon a small act of household thievery. The poem celebrates an endearing act of a wife –the writing of a personal note, intended for a reader-of-one—and an equally endearing act of a husband disobeying orders. The poet reveals himself, lets himself out. He’s not afraid of making a private thing public. This kind of intimacy can be rare in love poetry, which too easily slips into idealization or romanticizing. The poem celebrates “old” love, not young love, seasoned love rather than idealized love. P.S. Williams must have liked plums. He wrote another plum poem called “To a Poor Old Woman” in which the woman munches on plums because “they taste good to her.” The phrase is repeated four times. My daughter and I used to be able to recite a halfdozen poems together, short pieces by William Blake, Robert Frost and W.B. Yeats. I think I’m down to one now: Yeats’ “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” the poem my mother committed to her heart at age eight and is still a part of her memory and Irish heritage at age ninety-nine. I’d like to learn the Williams’ poem by heart as well. In poetry, someone speaks. A voice sounds. I read for that voice, for intimate sounds in my ear. A writer who has enhanced the music of my inner voice is Dennis Lee, the former Poet Laureate of Toronto. He claps with both hands, the hand of a child, and the hand of an adult. Astonishingly over six decades, Lee has held “the slaughterhouse world” and “the luminous presence” in equipoise. The world-weary man is always open to reconstruction and rejuvenation by the child. Dennis Lee puts joy on the page. And the line between poem and prayer often blurs, as in “A Song of Ookpik” DIGITAL EDITION
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from Nicholas Knock and Other People. The poem begins, Ookpik, Ookpik Dance with Us, Till our Lives Go Luminous. and ends, Ookpik, Ookpik By your Grace Help us
Ookpik, which means “snowy owl” or “Arctic owl” in Inuktitut, is associated with wisdom, which, in turn, is associated with the feminine. Why does this poem feel intimate? Because it sounds to me as if Dennis is knocking on the universe’s door, asking for companionship and guidance. It’s a deep cry from the heart masked in playfulness. Dennis Lee writes songs of innocence and songs of experience, songs of summer and winter, and songs in-between. I want to pull a Holden Caulfield, a trick by that cheeky narrator in J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, and phone Lee up one day and say, “Hey, Dennis, it’s John. I want you to meet my youngest grandson. His name is Blake. His mother is a reader and writer of poetry. With a name like Blake, how could he not love your work?” To steal a phrase from Hemingway, “a moveable feast” is what reading is, what books are, what poetry is. Wherever you go, you can hold what you love in your hands, or recite it in your mind. * Susan McCaslin, “Perfumeries of Words: My
Live in
Memorization Practice,” Dialogue Magazine. Ed. Janet Hicks King. Summer 2017. Vol. 30, No.4, 40-42.
Our own
J.S. Porter, www.spiritbookword.net/ ♣
Space.
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“The Fifth Columnist”
Black Day in July
Michael Neilly, Dunrobin ON
Black Day in July Black day in July Motor city madness has touched the countryside And through the smoke and cinders You can hear it far and wide The doors are quickly bolted And the children locked inside These are the words written by Canada’s Gordon Lightfoot in 1968. It’s hard to believe that this song was written over 50 years ago. Still equality eludes us. Fear still pervades the land and stalks our future. The riots of late May 2020 are a cruel echo of America’s noble words about tolerance, equality and justice for all. Our thoughts and prayers are cold comfort. Never mind the idiot sitting in the White House, who is a fascist lout, who is the embodiment of every www.dialogue.ca
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negative personality trait you could possibly imagine in a leader, who is supposed to lead, inspire and unify, but instead divides his country with his bizarre pronouncements over Twitter, over the coming days and weeks (I’d say months given the fascist’s access to his smart phone and Twitter account), this will only get worse. Foreign powers will take advantage of the chaos and sow the seeds of injustice throughout the internet. Political pundits will continue to offer solutions, or rub salt in the wound, take your pick. Some will say that it is the fear we all have of the Other, the very heart of fascism, the need for justice that spawns the violence. Others will point to the media and particularly movies and television, redolent with the theme …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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of payback as the cause for the violence. I confess that I’ve been influenced by Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now. By living in the Now, we can see that we are safe, that disaster isn’t imminent, and something that happened a day ago or 50 years ago can’t really touch us, that what may happen to us in the future is the creation of a rabid mind. In the now, justice—codified vengeance—doesn’t exist. The voice that hectors us to take action, to be a man, our cultural shame engine, that says that we (our tribe) is entitled to take action and strip others of their rights and lives, that voice is recognized for what it is—a fabrication. Me, I’ve come to believe that we are nothing but animated star dust, a gift from our parents, and that we have been given a soul, a gift from God and the Universe. The interloper, the mediator, the hater in this equation is the ego. It’s the ego that brandishes the sword, that cries for justice. It’s the ego that longs to associate with the tribe, the enabler for our hateful passions, the fascists marching in the night with torches, the lover of burning things, books, cars, buildings and people. How to quash the ego, and enable the Soul. This is the question of our age. If humanity is to rise above the pile of bloody bodies that we all climb to howl at the moon, the understanding of the ego must be our top priority. Another way of saying this is that it isn’t what happens to you, it’s how you react to what happens to you. And here the ego has your ear! Eckhart Tolle says that we have to listen to it as an impartial observer. We have to become the Watcher. Easy to say, our concept of freedom has been perverted to the point where some believe that they have no obligation to others, to humanity. It’s a case of “Your right to liberty ends just where the other man’s nose begins.” A licence for depraved indifference. Case in point, the face mask. How many people refuse to wear one? Wearing a mask is a gesture of respect for others during a pandemic but some have politicized it as a yoke imposed by liberal elites. Is it so hard to believe that your breath can kill? It’s our culture and this truculent belief in a freedom where you can do what you want, without social responsibilities, that absolves us of our greater responsibility. Our culture and in particular one Donald J. Trump panders to the fears of Americans, the longing to Make America 44 dialogue
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Great Again, and you can read between the lines how this would be accomplished. There’s a line in the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo delivered by Christopher Plummer that always springs to mind, “Isn’t it interesting how fascists always steal the word ‘freedom’?” 50 years and nothing has changed, 50 years where the petulant ego has fanned our fears, but we still cannot see it, grinning maniacally in the shadows. How can you defeat the ego, a mere ghost in the machine, our minds? You can start by listening to it when it pricks you to act. And teach that in every school and church in the land. Black Day in July. It doesn’t have to be this way. There’s another song “Get together” by the Youngbloods that seems fitting. Love is but a song to sing Fear's the way we die You can make the mountains ring Or make the angels cry Though the bird is on the wing And you may not know why Come on people now Smile on your brother Everybody get together Try to love one another Right now Some may come and some may go We shall surely pass When the one that left us here Returns for us at last We are but a moment's sunlight Fading in the grass Come on people now Smile on your brother Everybody get together Try to love one another Right now Mike Neilly, michael.neilly@bell.net
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Magical Moon Lake – How it all started…
Over the years, Dialogue has featured several of Karl Backhaus’ stories about his home, Moon Lake (Holland Centre, ON) – as featured in his book, Magical Moon Lake… This story about how it all began is continued from the Spring issue.
Karl Backhaus, February 2006
Meet the animals, insects, trees and stones of Moon Lake, my home –and make unusual and unexpected discoveries along the way. With complementary insights. Written for my nieces and nephews and their children and anyone interested in the magic of life. In Episode 1: How It All Began – and Arriving in Canada We arrived in Montreal by freighter from Hamburg… Our adventure continued when we took the night train to Toronto. Episode 2:
Arriving in Toronto We arrived there early in the morning and had no idea what to expect. Unemployment was very high, but fortunately we had enough money to go back to Germany at any time. After perusing a map of Toronto we found the area around High Park appealing. Here we walked a number of streets to find a room. We noticed many "room for rent" signs in private homes and it was not difficult to settle for an inexpensive furnished room in a three-story home. Our room happened to be on the third floor under a roof without insulation. It was a very hot summer in 1962 and we arrived in June. By July temperatures were hitting close to 40 degrees Celsius, which transformed our room at night into an oven. Fortunately there was a small backyard to cool down in. The cold and snowy winter was to come later. Within less than two weeks I had found a job as parts clerk for a Volkswagen dealer. Here in the beginning it was challenging for me to make out people’s language on the phone when they ordered parts with ten digit numbers. One digit wrong could mean a wrong part. But soon this job became routine. During my first few weeks of working at the shop one of the mechanics lost his driver’s license due to drinking too much. His 1949 metallic green Ford Mercury came up for sale. The car had a few dents, was a bit rusted but seven out of eight cylinders were still working well. Wally, the owner, said that the car was running well and the quart of oil it used at every fill-up www.dialogue.ca
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did not cost much. We made a deal and I bought the car for 80 dollars, "Forty dollars now and another forty dollars with the next pay cheque". This car was an opportunity for us to get around. It was solid as a tank and actually ran quite well. On weekends we could explore the countryside and learn a little about the Province of Ontario. After four months I quit my job so we could travel further, especially to New York where my cousin Gerhard and his family had settled. I had always wanted to go to this famous city. The skyscrapers, the traffic and the various cultures were new and exciting for us. After our visit we headed for Montreal. The hilly countryside with the striking autumn colours of the trees at their peak made this a memorable journey. Montreal also fascinated us with its different flair. In late October we returned to Toronto. Here it was still noticeably warmer than in Montreal, so Toronto was a good choice for us, but what to do next with winter on the horizon? While looking through the Toronto Star to get some ideas, Elke noticed an advertisement for a job as Real Estate Salesman. This job offered 100 dollars per week, a much higher wage than the 60 dollars per week I had been earning. This was tempting, but first I had to find out what "Real Estate" meant. It meant selling houses. I decided I would try my luck with this to bridge the winter. I applied for the job and was accepted. But the job involved taking some study courses …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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first. I saw this as an opportunity to improve my language skills. The legal terminology was a bit alien for me, but I learned the crucial questions and answers for the test by heart. I passed and now I could sell houses, something I had never done before. Only at this point did I become aware that the advertised 100 dollars per week wages had something in fine print that said "on draw". I had no idea what this meant. It meant that I had to sell a house first before I could "draw" my wages. I had invested too much time to quit now, so I stuck with the job. The only chance to make some money now was to get really busy and see how this new venture worked. I was probably the only salesman who started the job with an 80-dollar car to take people around with. But this was the land of opportunity. Six months after we had landed in Canada I was a real estate salesman. After the previous summer in the hot third floor room we decided to take a room in the basement of the bungalow of a Rabbi. The room, with privileges of a backyard, was 10 dollars per week and was not far from my new real estate office. This was a busy office with twenty Jewish salesmen where I was the only German. This was seventeen years after the war and Germans and Jews had a tragic history. Actually we got along fine and I was taught quite a bit about the real estate profession. It was amazing how many different clients I encountered, from Germans, Italians, Ukrainians and Jews to the full range of nationalities. Without my car I could not have pursued the job, but during the first winter the car did not always co-operate when it came to starting it on very cold mornings. Often the car needed a push from some passerby. I do not know if clients bought from me out of pity to get me a better car, or if it was my persistence, but I sold quite a few houses and earned more money than anticipated. I never had to go "on draw" and in time I was able to buy a more reliable used car. The following year, after meeting a German Real Estate salesman from a German Company in Toronto, I switched to his office. Occasionally I advertised a listed house for sale in a German newspaper. One day I received a surprise telephone call responding to my ad. The caller was my long lost cousin Leni who I knew lived somewhere in Canada. I had tried before 46 dialogue
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to trace her and her brother Karl but without success. Leni had seen my ad and wondered who the person was with the same name as her brother Karl. Leni’s call resulted in a happy re-union with both cousins on Karl’s 240 acre farm in Grey County, a two-hour’s drive from Toronto. This scenic country property had access to the large secluded Bell’s lake. Here on many weekends thereafter we had wonderful times together. Eventually these visits triggered the desire to buy our own property nearby. One day we became aware of a 60-acre property for sale five miles away from my cousin. There was a nice half-acre spring-fed pond with trout, and a mostly bare hill and land with patches of shrub-like cedars, nine mature trees and a totally unfinished makeshift cabin. The down payment of 1500 dollars was affordable, and for us it was a start with some potential to make this a nice place. Garbage was scattered almost everywhere. After cleaning up and making the cabin livable, this became our weekend retreat. The land was almost bare so I ordered over ten thousand trees of various species to be planted at 4 cents apiece, the price of a stamp. The trees grew and we came to be fond of this place. We did not want to return to Germany where we would not be able to afford so much land. Selling Real Estate was my new profession now and, after working hard for eight years in the metropolis of Toronto we decided to live a simple life on our land. We gave up our Toronto apartment and before we settled on the land we took an extended trip through several countries in Europe and through Morocco that lasted for almost nine months. We had stored all our belongings in the cabin so we had a place to stay when we returned. For some income I could sell real estate in the country. During the summer it was pleasant to live on the land in the cabin but the winter was something else. For water we had a hand pump while a free-standing fireplace heated the house. Usually the fire went out by 3 a.m. so it was pretty cold in the morning when we got up. Our distant woodshed was also our outhouse with a frozen toilet seat. Sometimes there was blowing snow to go through to get there. During nicer days birds visited us through the open door. For more than a year we experienced Canadian pioneer life first-hand. Karl Backhaus, Ont. STORY CONTINUES THE NEXT ISSUE, WITH “THE CABIN.” ♣ www.dialogue.ca
Tales from Fruitvale…
Pandemic Spring with Malachi… Paul Bowles, Fruitvale BC
Can you imagine being asked, “What is spring?” by a child who is trying to fill in the blanks. I was Skyping with Henri who is 3 ½ years old. It was the 2nd week of March and outside was a clear blue sky with brilliant sun. I took the computer out on the deck. The deep snow coated field had exposed a swath of bright green grass close to the house. I could not help exclaiming, “Oh look, spring is here...see?” That was when he asked me, “What is spring Granddad?” When does one ever find the perfect response out of the blue to a question so profound? He probably already knows what spring is in French but not yet in English. It is like being asked, “What is God.” How easy to mess it up, to confuse a pure enquiring mind, to be not alert enough to be clear and simple on the spot. Instead, in my euphoria, I blurted out, “You can’t see spring; you can only see what it does, it melts the snow and brings heat to warm the earth and help the flowers grow.” By then I knew that I had said enough, or too much. How I wish I had said, “Spring is energy or spring brings new life or spring is change or spring makes things grow. Casting aside on-line conversations and hindsight meanderings, my actual current physical reality is person to person with our grandson Malachi, now a nine year old, active, talkative, fun-loving boy. Malachi is spending two weeks with us ancient grand folks in Fruitvale, B.C. Unfortunately for him our conveniently close library with its book and video characters, tempting, for him to select for amusement, are now behind locked doors. The pandemic has struck, the streets outside are silent, news is grim, the swimming pool and playground at the park is closed and life seems unpredictably cursed. Here at home with us in Fruitvale, Malachi cannot access his own favourite video games, so each day is a spontaneous affair. Suggestions come and go about how to spend time together and on this occasion he picked up a book, The Wind in the Willows and tried to read aloud to me, “....Spring was moving in the air www.dialogue.ca
above and the earth below, penetrating the house of mole with its divine discontent and longing.” At this point Malachi was stumped, not surprisingly, and took off to ride his bike around the deserted side roads. I could not help thinking that he just unconsciously answered the call... Since Malachi has been here hunkered down and searching for diversion from having to read French with his grandmother or have math imposed upon him, he spotted a board game amid a pile of them in the corner of the recreation room, he read it out loud, ‘The Hobbit.’ He wanted to know about it but neither of us had played it before, which prompted hours of research, dedicated by grandmother, into how this game was even physically put together with its numerous interlocking boards. There are many characters involved in the game, all matched with the actors of the movie. The game was played but before long, the movie was unavoidable and was obtained on-line. The ferocious battles with the gruesome Orks were difficult to manage sitting with an impressionable little boy (and from time to time were fast forwarded) but the benefits of more sublime aspects of the adventure were surprising. Suppertime became interspersed with riddles, challenging to the adults, half remembered and half made up on the spot by Malachi. For example, “What stands up and has three holes in a line?” Neither my wife nor I realised that it was the salt shaker. His younger cousins in Montreal were not exempt when Skyping. They were expected to respond to all manner of mind warping analysis. Malachi is fond of talking; he just keeps going, thinking aloud, and spontaneously blending logic with imagination. Games fill the day in our lives, now that school is delayed for the near future: ‘Labyrinth,’ is good for seeing ways to the goal through moving passageways, ‘Yahtzee’ is helpful with counting numbers, ‘Mousetrap’ is fascinating to construct, and to watch the metal ball run its crazy course and dump the figure into the bathtub. At Malachi’s request we even rummaged out from storage the vintage Crokinole board. This game required physically flipping wooden tokens with finger and thumb, targeting opponent’s pieces and …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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sticks that produce fire he asked where did I get them? trying to score in the centre hole for points. With the help of his grandmother, there was some sci- I said, “My dad would send them from different countries that he visited and also sometimes they would entific application: with the building of a light box come from other people.” that produced illusions; and a battery powered ‘Robo I continued with a story of travelling with my dad one Spider’ constructed from the Smithsonian creative day on a train in England when I was about his age. projects series. There was some problem with the There was another man sitting opposite us who asked Spider and it was set aside, however, most recently me if I had any hobbies. I told him that I collected arrived in the mail from Malachi’s parents, was a facmatchbox labels and he promised to send me some tory made robot on wheels which he had to code in from America which was where he lived and worked. order to make it move in different directions. Malachi’s reading skills are improving and sometimes Weeks later, a large parcel, addressed to me and full of matchbox labels arrived in the mail, I was overare surprising and amusing. We were out walking through the village and he noticed ahead of us the sign joyed. Although I am not actively collecting any more, I still have my labels 60 odd years later, but one of the Liquor Store. He read it with no faltering, in particular is memorable, it is a matchbook which which I found interesting because I thought that he promoted ‘Kennedy for President.’ would be challenged by the reading or spelling of that word which we never use. I asked him how he knew Later that day Malachi asked to see my collection. On to read the name of that store, to which he replied, “I the labels we saw: people, places, animals, flowers, arknow about licorice, it’s the licorice store. chitecture, cathedrals, Stonehenge, the Pentagon, pyramids, palaces, national ethnic costumes, the armless Malachi asked if he could see the train, so we walked statue of Venus, William Tell with one arm around his up the tracks to where it was parked at the Fruitvale son and a cross bow in the other,... etc., too many to exwood processing plant. After due examination of this pound upon, & still fascinating to see them again. Incihuge iron beast at rest on the rails, and a visual survey dentally and for me intriguing, was the fact that I posof the wood yard accompanied by questions such as, “What do they do with the sawdust?” – we chose to re- sessed a statuette of the famous armless Venus, which I showed Malachi & not only that, he later produced a turn home. Along the way he searched for stones that book which was the story of William Tell, who was caught his eye. His interest reminded me of a book given the challenge to shoot the apple off of his son’s which his grandmother read to him recently which had head. a book cover depicting stone people walking with bags and trappings. I adopted the style, picking up small The field of learning for Malachi, while he is here stones that had the shape of body features such as with us is both formal and informal. Regular studies round head, bulky torso, arms and legs with optional are taking place with his grandmother in the absence feet. These shapes I would put together with Malachi of physical school attendance, and surprising things at home on the front deck and when we were satisfied are picked up from his day to day free time in obserhe would call his grandma to see what we had made. vations and conversations. Of course she was delighted. Apart from Stones used Paul Bowles, Spring 2020, scribepoet@hotmail.com ♣ as art they became a subject for further discussion at home; both his grandmother and I have From Derek Skinner: Laughter & ‘Lightenment small collections which later came out for inspection. The subject of collections in general was broached and we talked about my boyhood hobby of collecting matchbox labels, which prompted the question from him, “What is that?” After informing him about labels on boxes of small 48 dialogue
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Survival
“Your Health Matters”
Dr. Derrick Lonsdale, Strongsville OH
Animals, including Homo Sapiens, survive in an essentially toxic environment, surrounded by microorganisms, potential poisons, the risk of trauma and adverse weather conditions. Evolutionary development has equipped us with complex machinery that provides defensive mechanisms when any one of these factors has to be faced. Before the discovery of microorganisms, medical treatment had no rhyme or reason, but killing the microorganisms became the methodology. Research concentrated on ways and means of "killing the enemy", the bacteria, the virus, the cancer cell. The discovery of penicillin reinforced this approach. We are now facing a period of potential impotence because of bacterial resistance, failure of attempts to kill viruses and the resistance to chemotherapeutic agents in cancer. Louis Pasteur is purported to have said on his deathbed, "I was wrong, it is the terrain that matters", meaning body defenses. Hans Selye, whose research into how animals defend themselves when attacked by any form of stress, led to his description of the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). He recognized the necessity of energy in initiating the GAS and its failure in an animal that succumbed to stress. He labeled human disease as "the diseases of adaptation". In Selye's time, there was little information about energy metabolism but today, its details are fairly well-known. The suggestion of a new approach depends on the fact that our defenses are metabolic in character and require an increase in energy production over and above that required for homeostasis. If the GAS applies to human physiology and that we are facing the "diseases of adaptation", it is hypothesized that research should be applied to methods by which energy metabolism can be stimulated and mobilized to meet the stress. Introduction There is evidence that energy deficiency applies to each of the diseases described here. It may be the unrecognized cause of defective immunity in Covid19 disease. Although in coronavirus disease the clinical manifestations are mainly respiratory, major www.dialogue.ca
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cardiac complications are being reported involving hypoxia, hypotension, enhanced inflammatory status and arrhythmic events that are not uncommon.(1) Past pandemics have demonstrated that diverse types of neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as encephalopathy, mood changes, psychosis, neuromuscular dysfunction, or demyelinating processes may accompany acute viral infections or may follow infection by weeks, months or longer in viral recovered patients.(2) Electrocardiographic changes have been reported in Covid-19 patients. The authors suggest that it may be attributed to hypoxia as one possibility.(3) Because the total body stores of thiamine are low, acute metabolic stress can initiate deficiency.(4) Thiamine deficiency has a clinical expression similar to that observed in hypoxic stress and the authors referred to it as pseudo-hypoxia.(5) It is therefore not surprising that defective energy metabolism can express itself clinically in many different ways. The present medical model regards each disease as having a separate cause, but the large variety of symptoms induced by thiamine deficiency suggest the ubiquitous nature of energy deficiency as a cause in common.(6) Obesity, a reflection of high calorie malnutrition, has been published as a risk factor for patients admitted to intensive care with Covid-19.(7) Thiamine deficiency was reported in 15.5-29% of obese patients seeking bariatric surgery.(8) Hannah Ferenchick M.D., an emergency room physician, commented on line that many of her patients with Covid-19 had what she called "silent hypoxemia". These patients had an arterial oxygen saturation of only 85% but "looked comfortable" and their chest x-rays "looked more like edema” It has long been known that patients with beriberi had a low arterial oxygen and a high venous oxygen saturation. All that would be needed to support the hypothesis of thiamine deficiency in some Covid victims would be finding a high venous oxygen saturation at the same time as a low arterial saturation. Also, edema is a very important sign of beriberi and thiamine deficiency has been noted in critical illness.(4) Dysautonomia There have been many articles in medical …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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journals describing dysautonomia, mysteriously in association with a named disease, but with no suggestion that the dysautonomia is part of that disease. More recently there is increasing evidence that dysautonomia is a feature of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), manifested primarily as disordered regulation of cardiovascular responses to stress. Manipulating the ANS may be effective in the treatment of CFS.(9) Dysautonomia is also a characteristic of thiamine deficiency.(6) Patients with Parkinson's disease begin to lose weight several years before diagnosis and a study was undertaken to investigate this association with the ANS.(10) Costantini and associates have shown that high dose thiamine treatment improves the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, although the plasma thiamine concentration was normal.(11) They have also shown that high dose thiamine treatment decreases fatigue in inflammatory bowel disease, Hashimoto's disease, after stroke and in multiple sclerosis.(12-15) As already noted, it is also an important consideration in critically ill patients.(4) Multiple System Atrophy is a devastating and fatal neurodegenerative disorder. The clinical presentation is highly variable and autonomic failure is one of its most common problems.(16) Dysautonomia was found to be a clinical entity in Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a musculoskeletal disease(17) and this syndrome frequently coexists with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS),(18) a disease that is included in the group of diseases under the heading of dysautonomia. Some cases of POTS have been reported to be thiamine deficient.(19) This common condition often involves chronic unexplained symptoms such as inappropriate fast heart rate, chronic fatigue, dizziness or unexplained "spells" in otherwise healthy young individuals. Many of these patients have gastrointestinal or bladder disorders, chronic headache, fibromyalgia and sleep disturbances. Anxiety and depression are relatively common.(20) Not surprisingly the many symptoms are often unrecognized for what they represent and the patient may have a diagnosis of psychosomatic disease. Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases (IMIDs) is a descriptive term coined for a group of conditions that share common inflammatory pathways and for which there is no definite etiology. These diseases affect the elderly most severely with 50 dialogue
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many of the patients having two or more IMIDs. They include type I diabetes, obesity, hypertension, chronic pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and multiple sclerosis.(21) The recent recognition of small fiber neuropathy in a large subgroup of fibromyalgia patients reinforces the dysautonomia-neuropathic hypothesis and validates fibromyalgia pain. These new findings support the disease as a primary neurological entity.(22) The energy requirement of pregnancy Irwin emphasized the energy requirements of pregnancy in which the maternal diet and genetics have to be capable of producing energy for both mother and fetus. He found that preventive megadose thiamine, started at the third trimester, completely prevented all the common complications of pregnancy.(23) Hyperemesis gravidarum is the most common cause of hospitalization during the first half of pregnancy and is second only to preterm labor for hospitalization in pregnancy overall.(24) This disease has been associated with Wernicke's encephalopathy, well known to be due to brain thiamine deficiency.(25) The traditional explanation is that vomiting is the cause, but since vomiting is a symptom of thiamine deficiency, it could just as easily be the cause rather than the effect. In spite of the fact that migraines are one of the major problems seen by primary care physicians, many patients do not obtain appropriate diagnosis or treatment. Migraine occur in about 18% of women and is often aggravated by hormonal shifts. A complex neurological disorder involving multiple brain areas that regulate autonomic, affective, cognitive, and sensory functions, it occurs also in pregnancy.(26) Features of the migraine attack that are indicative of altered autonomic function include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, polyuria, eyelid edema, conjunctival injection, lacrimation, nasal congestion and ptosis.(27) The Proteopathies (disorders involving critical enzymes) The earliest and perhaps best example of an interaction between nutrition and dementia is related to thiamine. Multiple similarities exist between classical thiamine deficiency and Alzheimer's disease (AD), in that both are associated with cognitive deficits and reductions in brain glucose metabolism. ThiamineDIGITAL EDITION
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dependent enzymes are critical components of gluDiscussion cose metabolism that are reduced in the brains of AD A hypothesis has been presented that the overlap of (28) patients. Senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles symptoms in different disease conditions represents are the principal histopathological marks of AD and cellular energy failure, particularly in the brain. If other proteopathies. The essential constituents of this should prove to be true, the present medical model would become outdated. An attack by bactethese lesions are structurally abnormal variants of norria, viruses or an oncogene might be referred to as mally generated proteins (enzymes).(29) The crucial "the enemy". The defensive action, organized and event in the development of transmissible spongiform controlled by the brain, may be thought of as "a decencephalopathies is the conformational change of a laration of war" and the illness that follows the evihost-encoded membrane protein into a disease associdence that "a war is being fought". This concept is ated, fibril forming isoform.(30) A huge number of completely compatible with the research reported by proteins that occur in the body have to be folded into Selye. It underlines his concept that human diseases a specific shape in order to become functional. are "the diseases of adaptation", dependent on enWhen this folding process is inhibited, the respective ergy for a successful outcome in a "war" between an protein is referred to as being mis-folded, nonfuncattacking agent and the complex defensive actions of tional, and causatively related to a disease process. the body. Killing the enemy is a valid approach to These diseases are termed proteopathies and there are treatment if it can be done safely. Unfortunately, the at least 50 different conditions in which the mechaside effects of most medications sometimes makes nism is importantly related to a mis-folded protein. things worse and that is offensive to the Hippocratic Energy is required for this folding process. Because Oath. We badly need to create an approach to reof their reported relationship with thiamine, it has search that explores ways and means of supporting been hypothesized that misfolding might be related to (31) and stimulating the normal mechanisms of defense. its deficiency on an energy deficiency basis. References 1. Kochi AN, Taglian AP, Forleo GB, et al. Cardiac and arrhythmic complications in patients with COVID-19. J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol 2020; Apr 9.doi: 10. 1111/jce. 14479. Online ahead of print. 2. Troyer EA, Kohn JN, Hong S. Are we facing a crashing wave of neuropsychiatric sequelae of CO VID-19? Neuropsychiatric symptoms and potential immunologic mechanisms. Brain Behav Immun 2020 April 13; 50889-1591 (20) 30489-X. 3. He J, Wu B, Chen Y, et al. Characteristic electrocardiographic manifestations in patients with CO VID-19. Can J Cardiol 2020 March 29; 50828-282X (20) 303 01-9. 4. Attaluri P, Castillo A, Edriss H, Nugent K. Thiamine deficiency: an important consideration in critically ill patients. Am J Med Sci 2018; 356(4): 82-90. 5. Sweet RL, Zastre JA. HIF1-Îą-mediated gene expression induced by vitamin B1 deficiency. Int J Vitam Nutr Res 2013;83(3) 88-97. 6. Lonsdale D. Thiamin. Adv Food Nutr Res 2018; 823:1-56 7. Lighter J, Phillips M, Hochman S et al. Obesity in patients younger than 60 years is a risk factor for Covid19 hospital admission. Clin Infect Dis. 2020; ciaa 415.doi 10. 1093/cid/ciaa415. 8. Kerns JC, Arundel C, Chawla LS. Thiamin deficiency in people with obesity. Adv Nutr 2015 13; 6 (2): 147-53. 9. Naschitz J, Yeshurun D, Rosner I. Dysautonomia in chronic fatigue syndrome: facts, hypotheses, implications. Med Hypotheses 2004; 62 (2): 203-6. www.dialogue.ca
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10.Umehara T, Nakahara A, Matsurio H, et al. Body weight and dysautonomia in the early Parkinson's disease. Acta Neurol Scand 2017; 135 (5): 560-7 11. Costatini A, Pala M I, Compagnoni L, et al. High-dose thiamine as initial treatment for Parkinson's disease. BMJ Case Report 2013 Aug 28:2013:bcr 2013009-289. 12.Costatini A, Pala MI. Thiamine and fatigue in inflammatory bowel diseases: an open-label pilot study. J Altern Complement Med 2013; 19 (8): 704-8 13.Costatini A, Pala MI. Thiamine and Hashimoto's thyroiditis: a report of three cases. J Altern Complement Med 2014; 20 (3): 208-11. 14.Costatini A, Pala MI, Catalano ML et al. High-does thiamine improves fatigue after stroke: a report of three cases J Altern Complement Med 2014; 20(9)683-5. 15.Costatini A, Nappo A,Pala MI, et al. High dose thiamine improves fatigue in multiple sclerosis. BMJ Case Rep 2013Jul 16:2013:bcr 201-300-9144.doi: 10. 1136/BCR-2013-009144. 16.Krismer F, Wenning GK. Multiple System Atrophy: insights into a rare and debilitating movement disorder. Nat Rev Neurol 2017; 13 (4): 2324-43. 17.Wandele I De, Rombaut L, Laybaert L, et al. Dysautonomia and its underlying mechanisms in the hypermobility type of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Semin Arthritis Rheum 2014; 44 (1): 93-100. 18.Santos RB, Kanamori KY, Bianchi PG, et al. Association of postural tachycardia syndrome and EhlersDanlos syndrome with mast cell activation disorders. Immun Allergy Clin North Am 2018; 38(3):497-504. ‌/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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19.Blitshteyn S. Vitamin B1 deficiency in patients with postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Neurol Res 2017; 39 (8) 685-88. 20.Benarroch E. Postural tachycardia syndrome: a heterogeneous and multifactorial disorder. Mayo Clin Proc 2012; 827 (12): 1214-25. 21.Bellinger DL, Lorton D. Sympathetic nerve hyperactivity in the spleen: causal for nonpathogenic-driven chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMI 19 Ds)0 Int J Mol Sci 2018; 19 (4):1188 doi: 10. 3390/ijms19041188. 22.Martinez-Lavin M. Fibromyalgia and small fiber neuropathy: the plot thickens! Clin Rheumatol 2018; 37 (12): 3167-71. 23. Irwin J. How to have a trouble-free pregnancy: the thiamine connection. 2011: Aslan Publishing Fairfield, Ct. 24.London V, Grube S, Serer DM, et al. Hyperemesis gravidarum: a review of recent literature. Pharmacology 2017; 100 (3-4):171:doi: 10. 1159/000477853. 25.Oudman E, Wijnia JW, Oey M. Wernicke's encephalopathy in hyperemesis gravidarum: a systematic review. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 2019 May; 236:84-93doi: 10. 1016/J. ejogrb.2019.03.006. 26. Ehi Y, Sahin L Mutlu MF. Migraine management in pregnancy. Clin Exp Obstet Gynecol 2016; 43 (5) 661-5. 27.Gazerani P, Calms BE. Dysautonomia in the pathogenesis of migraine. Expert Rev Neurother 2018; 18 (2): 153-65. 28.Gibson GE, Hirsch JA, Fonzetti P, et al. vitamin B1 (thiamine) and dementia. Ann NY Acad Sci 2016; 1367 (1): 21-30.
29.Walker LC. Prion-like mechanisms in Alzheimer disease. Handb Clin Neurol 2018; 153:30319.doi:10.1016/8978-0-444-63945-500016-7. 30.Kupfer L, Hinrichs W,Groschup MH. Prion protein misfolding. Curr Mol Med 2009; nine (7): 826-35. 31.Lonsdale D. Thiamin and protein folding. Med Hypotheses 2019 Aug; 129:109252.doi: 10. 1016/j,mehy 2019. 109252..
– Derrick Lonsdale, M.D. “Everything is connected to everything else.” Dr. Lonsdale retired in 2012 at the age of 88 years; he is a retired Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and a Certified Nutrition Specialist. Website: www.prevmed.com/ Blog: http://o2thesparkoflife.blogspot.com/
Dr. Lonsdale is author of: A Nutritional Approach to a Revised Model for Medicine – Is Modern Medicine Helping You? and also Why I Left Orthodox Medicine. His 2017 book: Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition, explores thiamine and how its deficiency affects the functions of the brainstem and autonomic nervous system by way of metabolic changes at the level of the mitochondria… This book represents the life work of the senior author, Dr. Derrick Lonsdale, and a recent collaboration with his co-author Dr. Chandler Marrs. ISBN: 0128103876 / ♣
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Dialogue is very pleased to announce… Beginning in the next issue of Dialogue, we will be featuring a serialization of Dr. Lonsdale’s book, A Nutritional Approach to a Revised Model for Medicine [ISBN: 978-1-61897-092-3], with the blessings of the author and publisher, Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency (www.SBPRA.net ). From the Publisher:
Can a simple change in diet make all the difference? Could the obesity, diabetes, and a host of other diseases be the result of eating too much sugar? Is alternative medicine the answer? These questions and more are answered in the illuminating book by longtime physician, Dr. Derrick Lonsdale, M.D., who draws attention to the dangers of excessive sugar ingestion that is so widespread today. His book A Nutritional Approach to a Revised Model for Medicine: Is Modern Medicine Helping You? cites case reports to illustrate these dangers and explains which symptoms may be stemmed in the early stages. But if symptoms are left unrecognized and behavior is unmodified, these symptoms become less 52 dialogue
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treatable, giving rise to chronic diseases and serious health problems. As Dr. Lonsdale writes in his book: “The doctor does not heal anyone. It is the body that heals itself and the doctor must teach the patient how to retrieve his or her own health and that is what the New Medicine is all about. We must conclude that it is the ratio of calories to the vitamin/mineral nutrients required to process the calories like the analogy of the choked internal combustion engine.” His 5-Star Amazon reviews include: “Dr. Derrick Lonsdale has been well recognized by his colleagues as having significant expertise in helping children and even adults with autism spectrum disorders. With over 60 years of clinical experience including 20 as a pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic, he has now written a highly relevant book on a covert and very common underlying cause of numerous frustrating and expensive illnesses that increasingly plague western civilizations. More importantly, he also shows the simple remedial solutions.” – Michael Godfrey Video book trailer at: https://youtu.be/-f5ObdoA8ys DIGITAL EDITION
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The Feudal Fiefdoms of Saskatchewan :
PART FOUR
In the Regional Parks of SK, people own their homes, on land leased from management Boards that operate at a frightening level of autonomy, enabled by political interference and wilful blindness from municipal and provincial government. Five seniors are representing themselves in Court of Queen’s Bench against a Board-initiated Writ of Possession application. This is Installment Three of the story from Norm Zigarlick and friends on the idylls of park life and their search for ‘justice’.
Norm Zigarlick, SK, normzig56@gmail.com
SUMMER? AGAIN? Changes Things have changed since the Spring issue of Dialogue. The major change of course is the world stopped. We were all told to practice something called social distancing because it could save lives, especially those in my demographic. First, we were told wearing a mask wouldn’t make a difference in preventing the inhalation of this nasty virus. Then we were told we should wear masks because it would at least keep us from exhaling virus all over folk less than six feet away from us. Like thousands of others, I found myself at a bank with a bunch of masked people slowly shuffling forward. At any other time, masked strangers in a bank would be a cause for great concern, guys doing analysis of security camera footage must be freaking out. So, what’s that got to do with this update on the Regional Park Fiefdoms of Saskatchewan? Saving My Life Well for one, there is an outside chance the Regional Park Authority saved my life. Long before health experts mandated it, these guys did everything in their power to have me as socially distant as possible. Throw in the fact that I was in a semi-isolated Park and not supposed to travel without www.dialogue.ca
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good reason (Saskatchewan Government directive); it turned out I was pretty much protected from the infectious world by the very people who would be happy to see me leave it. Dismissed Secondly, QB 231 of 2019 (the court action filed against Lisa Wildman and I by Suffern Lake Regional Park Authority in an attempt to exercise a Writ of Possession on Lisa’s retirement home) was DISMISSED. Four days shy of the eight-month anniversary of our appearance in Battleford Queen’s Bench court, Madam Justice Goebel, provided a 23-page decision on May 15th in which the Summary action was dismissed citing evidence provided in SLRPA’s own support affidavits. They actually proved that they had subjected us to inequitable treatment regarding the termination of Lisa’s lease for unpaid taxes. I would be lying if I said we agreed with all of Justice Goebel’s written points so I’ll just say we don’t. And Dismissed QB 230 of 2019 (John Danilak and Joanna Ritchot) and QB 232 of 2019 (Jim Duffee) received decisions on their eight-month anniversary, May 26th. Different judge, different rationales, but also DISMISSED. Jim’s decision includes this comment from Judge Zuk: "The Park is not entitled to rely on its own wrongful actions in denying Mr. Duffee a renewed lease as a basis upon which to found an application for a writ of possession." Keep in mind, Jim has been sued FOUR times by SLRPA, Lisa and I twice, John and Joanna twice. So far, not a single decision has landed in favour of the Park Authority. For clarity, all of us were also bundled into one action that was subsequently thrown out on procedural grounds. Lucky Jim! He got to meet or greet way more judges than the rest of us. He’s been sued two other times, one was withdrawn by the plaintiff; the other is a Provincial Court Action that will soon celebrate its second birthday. All of these cases involved appearances at Case …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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Management hearings, Primary hearings and, because of adjournments, more hearings; then starting over with another round of hearings. It’s a good thing people administering public money take care to not abuse their authority or waste the Courts’ time. Otherwise this could be quite disappointing for anyone harbouring the sad misconceptions that ‘democracy guarantees fairness’ and ‘justice is a given’ in our legal system. I actually expect to get sued again for something by somebody involved in this Saskatchewan saga. If not sued, at least threatened to be sued. Life just wouldn’t be the same around here without a professional bully flinging intimidation at me. Who’s Paying the Bills Word in the Park is SLRPA has amassed in excess of $100,000 in legal fees trying to de-home my friends. Money, I am certain, even in the glaring absence of financial statements, this park does NOT have. To date, cabin owners have only seen a draft copy of 2018 financial statements that are now two years overdue; nor have the 2019 ones, that are over two months overdue, been issued. Apparently Covid19 has led to the restricted travel of financial documents. The Waiting Game We didn’t sit idle in the eight stressful months awaiting judges’ decisions. The additional information we have accumulated could not be submitted or considered by the courts even though it clearly impacts some of the statements in the judgements. We reached out to the provincial Privacy Commissioner Ron Kruzeniski, Q.C. We requested a Jurisdictional Review regarding the freedom of information obligations of Saskatchewan’s Regional Park Authorities. While not quick in producing a determination, Commissioner Kruzeniski and his team were thorough. The Commissioner’s recommendation is that LA FOIP be amended to include regional parks as local authorities. Legislation and regulations will require revision to meet this new standard. That has to be good news for all the Regional Parks in the Province with cabin communities. The Commissioner lived up to the trust that citizens place in regulatory bodies. The Commissioner advised that, going forward, the RMs should maintain records of all RM business regarding the regional park. They have accepted his direction and will now hold Park 54 dialogue
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Authority minutes, financials and require WRITTEN (not verbal and unrecorded) monthly reports from their appointed SLRPA representatives. Other Avenues After the court hearing, I initiated communications with senior management at Saskatchewan Assets Management Agency (SAMA oversees property assessments throughout the province). I can confidently say that, through intention or incompetence, there are serious issues with property assessments at Suffern Lake Regional Park. Some people have benefited from that. Others, not. SAMA has acknowledged that we have identified a gap in their information collecting protocols and is taking steps to correct it, including dialogue with involved Ministries to change legislation/regulations and a commitment to provide local reassessment. Good news for most Suffern Lake cabin owners and the Regional Parks system. Outcomes John, Lisa and Jim, assisted by Joanna and I, used our own time, money and energies – to fight a slew of bureaucrats, politicians and self-appointed authoritarians supported by the legal profession using public funds – have initiated long-term, meaningful, positive change across an entire province. Do I need to say, while staying circumspect about our plans, we aren’t done initiating change? Again, thanks to those who have taken the time to support these efforts. There is a strange comfort in knowing there are other people (we’ve heard from residents of BC, Ontario, Alberta) that have been exposed to equally bewildering behaviour from governments and their agencies. Saskatchewan’s government must, sooner or later, address the facts and realities, regardless of their penchant for turning their blind eye of disregard to relegate, delegate and deny their responsibility and oversight role. Unless social distancing fails and Covid-19 or one of its friends wins, I should have a pretty interesting article for the fall issue of DIALOGUE. By then we will have digested these recent decisions and any further actions, by either side, should be determined. (I’ll ask Janet to include an anti-depressant with every copy!) October: Saskatchewan will hold a Provincial election; yay!??? ♣
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“Observations from Lithuania”
Ken Russell Slade, Vilnius
Changing for Ageing: (Part 4a: ‘Addendum -- Notes, Fautes, and Quotes’) by KR Slade Continued from Autumn edition: [Editor's note: Part 1 -- ''Changing for Ageing, ‘Into the Third-Age’" (about the author's feelings of reaching seventy years-of-age), was published in the Autumn 2018 issue; Part 2 -- ‘Some of the Micro Considerations’ began in the Winter 2018-2019 issue, was continued in the Spring 2019 issue, and was completed in the Summer 2019 issue; Part 3 -- 'Some of the Macro Considerations' was published in the Autumn 2019 issue; Part 4 – ‘Addendum – Notes, Fautes, and Quotes’ began in the Winer 20192020 issue. There was not article in the Spring 2020 issue.]
Sleep Feeling tired or fatigued is a common experience. Yet, health-care providers often dismiss complaints about tiredness -- both because the symptom is universal, and because the issue can be challenging to evaluate medically. Sleepiness is a need for sleep that makes staying awake difficult. Fatigue is an inability, either physical or mental, to do what you want to do. Somewhere in the middle of the sleepiness and fatigue spectrum is tiredness. Fatigue and/or lack of sleep can be a health issue https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12294093 .
The common experience is low-quality and lowquantity of sleep. In a 2014 survey by the not-forprofit National Sleep Foundation, 45% of adults said that they had been affected by poor sleep, or not enough sleep, in the previous week. As many as 20% of people report excessive sleepiness on a regular basis. And, a National Safety Council survey reported in 2017 that 76% of people felt tired at work. The global sleep-tracking market topped $1 billion in 2016. This market is expected to increase by another 18 percent by 2024. Newest soon-to-be-available sleep gadgets; anyone can order now and make other idiots jealous (!): https://www.techrepublic.com/pictures/photos-top-10sleep-tech-products-at-ces-2020/ .
The Internet, and especially news websites, is replete with sleep advice. For example: sleeping better, in less time: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20191122-howto-sleep-better ;
too much concern about sleeping can be detremental to your sleeping: https://www.wired.com/story/stop-obsessing-oversleepyour-brain-will-thank-you/ .
Not so much attention is devoted to the quality of the bed (i.e., ‘Poor Bed’ versus ‘Rich Bed’). Most people spend more money on the bed-frame, rather www.dialogue.ca
than the mattress; the bed-frame may last for generations; the mattress has a limited life -- perhaps only a decade. There is also the issue of ‘covertable’ beds, which are not comfortable either as a bed, or as a sofa / couch. Often, the bed is too small. Bed sizes are: Twin: 38” x 75” (96.5 x 190.5 cm); Twin XL: 38” x 80” (96.5 x 203 cm); Full (i.e., ‘Double’): 53” x 75” (134.5 X 190.5 cm); Queen: 60” x 80” (152.5 x 203 cm); King: 76” x 80” (193 X 203 cm); California King: 72” x 84” (183 x 213 cm);
waterbeds of similar designations may be of different dimensions. A standard ‘twin bed’ is too-narrow for anyone who is past the age of puberty; a twin-bed is only slightly-wider than a coffin, and (as also with a Full/Double bed) is too-short for anyone who is 6 foot (~183 centimetres) tall. The head must not be touching the headboard; the feet must be able to hang-off the bottom of the mattress. Worse still, is the insistence to use footboards that extend above the surface of the foot of the mattress. The conclusion is: every individual (of ~six feet height) should have (at least) a Queen-sized bed. Society insists on twin beds because: children’s bedrooms are small, and often require more than one bed -- due to sharing the room; dormitories want to ‘save space’’ and to discourage sex-partners in beds; twin beds are cheaper than larger beds; hotels can be smaller, and control number of room occupants; and other reasons, all of which have nothing to do with good sleeping. Furthermore, a ‘berth’ on a train, plane, boat, RV, camper, etc. is even smaller than a twin-size bed. The fact is: relative to body size, a baby in a crib has a larger bed than most adults!! Noise is counterproductive to good sleep. Beds are best placed not against common walls of other bedrooms, or against a wall of an adjoining room that has the rear of speakers of any sound-system or TV. Noise from an above floor can be lessened by raising any speakers that lie directly on the floor. Window glass can be noise-reducing when not single- …/ VOL. 33, NO. 4, SUMMER 2020
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thickness of glass. Doors can be noise-reducing when solid and thick, rather than having thin-panels. ‘White noise’ -- to cancel other noise -- can be achieved by operating a bedroom fan at low speed, and also by inbedroom music at very-low volume. Noise is reduced with a rug on the floor; noise from above is reduced with a rug on the floor above.
All Rights Reserved: 2018 kenmunications@gmail.com [Editor’s note: This two-year+ series on ‘Changing for Ageing’ continues in the Autumn, with further discussion of sleep.] Ken Russell Slade, Vilnius, Lithuania All Rights Reserved: 2019 kenmunications@gmail.com
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“The Vagabond Writer” Wayne Allen Russell
Clearwater BC BAPTISM OF THE WEEDS Mom was a dear old doll; she loved us all and proved it every day. One day both girls and three of we boys were running in the front door and out the back, just being kids and having a noisy ball. The youngest, Weasel, was too small to join us. As usual, he wouldn’t keep his diapers on so Mom always had a mop handy for when he peed. As I was saying, we were having a great time; Mom had told us to stop at least thirty times. Finally she had enough and came up with a solution. She waited behind the front door and as we ran through, she smacked us in the puss with that pissy mop. One at a time she slowly eliminated us; once in the face with that mop was enough. Now would you believe the timing? She had shut down about half of us when the Baptist minister stuck his head through the door. Yep! He got that old mop smack in the face. He had his mouth open as he was about to yell, “Anyone home?” He got out, “Any waaa,” when the mop got him. He was gagging and spitting for a while, then came a lot of “oohs and ahs,“ “so sorry,” “It’s okay,” all those things. The minister told Mom he had come visiting for the same reason as always, to see if he could get this bunch of heathens baptized. Mom was born a Catholic, Pop a Protestant. She gave this up when she married Pop, but thought it a good idea to get us baptized so we’d at least have a chance of getting into heaven. June would be leaving home soon, then the others as they reached adult status. So Pop agreed as long as the minister would stop bothering the family after the baptism. “Go ahead, get it done and behind us,” he sighed, “but don’t expect me to be there!” 56 dialogue
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Next Sunday, only because Pop ordered us, we cleaned behind our ears, donned our best clothes and set off down the road to church. Sam and Bobby was at our place as usual so Mom made them and Marian come along with us. It was sure something, Mom in the lead carrying Weasel, George piggybacking me, the rest following along, one behind the other in order of age, most barefoot, all with clean shirts and pants, the girls looking the best as always. We could hear the congregation in the church singing, “Onward Christian Soooldiers, marching off to warrrr.” Mom started to march to the tune of the song and we kids followed her lead. I fussed with George until he let me down so I could get to the end of the line so I could march as well. Now we were all marching and humming the tune. That old church was packed to overflowing. The preacher had spread the word. There was standing room only. Not just Baptists, people of different faiths were there, the whole community. No one was going to miss this great event. Not every day would you see the good Weed family being baptized. The two big front doors were wide open because of the heat from the day and all these people. They left a path for us through to the altar. The preacher gave a good long sermon about sin and such. This was his greatest hour, so many people and an opportunity to show everybody his stuff. All he managed was to make us restless and edgy. We were lined up in order of age. The preacher baptized June first, then Marian. I said, “Me next.” The preacher ignored me and baptized Pat. I went up to the preacher and demanded, “Hey Mister! I’m next.” The preacher told me to get back in line and be quiet. George, Ben, and Sam were baptized. “Hey bud! My turn.” Bob and Bobby were baptized. Finally it was my turn. The preacher told me, “Okay mister man, now! It’s your turn.” So I said, “Heck
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with you, you old fart, I ain’t gonna do it now.” Well old Jake, Our neighbour who lived straight back behind our farm and owned the dairy cattle, he, like us never went to church much but wouldn’t have missed this for anything. He started to laugh. The preacher stared straight at him with an obvious frown and Jake’s wife hit him in the ribs with her elbow, making him laugh louder. The preacher was wrestling with me now and old Jake was roaring. The preacher stared at him again and said, “There’s a little boy in all of us.” This set another man into laughter and since laughing is contagious, soon about everybody in the church was laughing. I stood there looking at all this laughter knowing it was my doing. Getting this attention was great! I stuck out my chest, pointed my finger at the preacher, and stuck out my tongue. The minister half pushed, half-dragged me to the end of the line and said, “Well young man, now. You are last!” He
baptized Tom and it was finally my turn. Now you won’t believe this, but before the minister could even approach me, Bob yelled, “Hey you guys! There goes the damn old cow in heat again, looking for the bull, Pops gonna kill us.” Ben said, “Let’s get the old bugger a’for Pop finds out.” So out the door charged nine kids lickity-split, down the steps and along the road after old Daisy, leaving Mom with the chore of getting the youngest home. Those girls could run like the wind, but Marian held pace with me, as always thinking of someone else. We could hear the laughter a half-mile down the road. And know what? I never got baptized. Know something else? The preacher had always stopped to pick Mom and we kids up when we walked to town, but from that day forward he passed us by, leaving us choking on his dust without even a side glance at us. Wayne Russell (slyolfart@gmail.com) ♣
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From Derek Skinner
Laughter & ‘Lightenment
“What gender is a computer?” A professor was teaching a class on computer science. He decided to give them a test. He divided the class into men and women on each side of the room and said, What gender is a computer? You have 10 minutes. O.K. Time’s up. Men first, what is your conclusion and what are your reasons.
3. They are supposed to solve problems but they don’t realise that they are the problem. 4. As soon as you commit to one you realise that if you had waited a little longer you could have got a better model. ♣ From Herb Spencer & Peggy Hall…
The men responded unanimously that a computer had to be female. 1. Because only its Creator knows the logic under which it operates. 2. When computers talk to each other they communicate in code which nobody else can understand. 3. Every mistake you have ever made is recorded on their hard-drive for later use. 4. As soon as you commit to one you have to spend half your paycheck on accessorising it.
The women responded unanimously that a compute had to be male. 1. Because in order to get their attention you have to turn them on. 2. They have a lot of data but can’t use it without help. www.dialogue.ca
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Contributors in Andersen, Erik, BC…..............04 Annett, Kevin D., BC…….10, 15 Arney, Jeremy, BC………21-22 Backhaus, Karl, ON……….…45 Bowles, Paul, BC…………….47 B’nai Brith (Quote)..………….10 Buch, Wesley………………...23 Corbett Report (Japan)……...59 CCPA- Erika Shaker, ON…...04 CCPA-BC, Shannon Daub …26 Cda. Talks Israel-Palestine….09 Curtin, Ed, US………………..19 Dill, Howard (about)……..37, 38 Dunphy, Joseph, ON……..2, 59
dialogue, Vol. 33 No. 4 ~ Summer 2020
Fitts, Catherine Austin (link)…59 Flynn, Jerry, BC……….....11, 29 Fogal, Connie, BC…………...22 Foster, David Muir, ON…..37-38 Global Research……...…..9, 20 Goddard, Dean (Project).…...59 Hanle, Inge, BC……………...20 JCCF.ca………………….…..05 Johnstone, Caitlin, Australia 28 Kemp, Penn, ON………...35-36 Kazdan, Larry, BC……...……05 Laugh & ‘Lightenment 38,48,57 Lawson, S., BC.……..…1, 2, 60 Lonsdale, Derrick, M.D.,US…49
Lyman, Eva, BC…… ………..30 Mathews, Robin, BC……...7, 13 McCaslin, Susan, BC 33-34,42 Neilly, Michael, ON…………..43 Nickerson, Mike, ON………...26 Noble, Sharon (from)…..……06 Porter, J.S., ON………….34, 42 Rouse, Bonna, ON………….31 Ross, June, BC (from)………06 Russell, Wayne, BC…………56 Shadbolt, John, ON……...29,38 Skinner, Derek, BC (from)…..57 Skouras, Spiro (links)…….12,24 Slade, Ken, Lithuania………..55
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P.59 Battle For the Arctic Heats Up corbettreport (73) in #arctic • 14 hours ago by James Corbett, corbettreport.com, June 13, 2020 “An incredible event took place this week: A Russian tanker docked at the Port of Jiangsu on China's eastcentral coast, offloading its cargo of liquefied natural gas from the Yamal LNG plant in Russia's north. […] (unusual because the ice class tanker, together with an ice-breaker, made the “summer” trip two months earlier than normal, starting in May) The latest sign that the Arctic is the next up-and-coming geopolitical hotspot comes from the chambers of the Arctic Council. While "the Arctic Council" sounds like the fictional body overseeing Santa's North Pole operations, it is in fact a very real intergovernmental forum that brings together eight Arctic states (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the US) to discuss regional issues. Although the council's website likes to highlight the group's work in "enhancing cooperation in the circumpolar North," it has increasingly become a place for the US and Russia to ramp up their Cold War 2.0 rhetoric. READ IN FULL: https://steemit.com/arctic/@corbettreport/battle-for-the-arctic-heats-up
From James Corbett – at The Corbett Report:
Who Is Bill Gates? James Corbett, Japan, 05/01/2020 LINK : https://www.corbettreport.com/gates/
VIDEOS, MP4 & TRANSCRIPT:
•
Part One: How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health • Part Two: Bill Gates’ Plan to Vaccinate the World • Part Three: Bill Gates and the Population Control Grid • Part Four: Meet Bill Gates Who is Bill Gates? A software developer? A businessman? A philanthropist? A global health expert? This question, once merely academic, is becoming a very real question for those who are beginning to realize that Gates’ unimaginable wealth has been used to gain control over every corner of the fields of public health, medical research and vaccine development. And now that we are presented with the very problem that Gates has been talking about for years, we will soon find that this software developer with no medical training is going to leverage that wealth into control over the fates of billions of people. Bill Gates is no public health expert. He is not a doctor, an epidemiologist or an infectious disease researcher. Yet somehow he has become a central figure in the lives of billions of people, presuming to dictate the medical actions that will be required for the world to go “back to normal.” The transformation of Bill Gates from computer kingpin to global health czar is as remarkable as it is instructive, and it tells us a great deal about where we are heading as the world plunges into a crisis the likes of which we have not seen before. This is the story of How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health. The Corbett Report - www.corbettreport.com Posts/editorials by subscription & also free via mind.com or steemit.com/ ♣ www.dialogue.ca
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ZACH BUSH, MD - PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALTH “LIFESTYLE CORNERSTONES Here is my rundown on lifestyle cornerstones for health during our respiratory risk seasons: Get great sleep: Can you average 8 hours of sleep at least 5 days a week? An early bedtime no later than 10pm is a critical cornerstone of good sleep. Get as much outdoor activity and exercise as you can: Find a few minutes every day to be outside in the freshest air and sunlight you can find. #breatheyourbiome Stay well hydrated: View our Hydration Series to learn more about how our bodies interact with water. Don’t watch the news: A morning glance at the headlines will be enough to keep you abreast of the hysteria, and perhaps some real facts once in a while. Eat real food with good company: Choose foods that nourish you. Grow your own whenever possible and choose food that is regeneratively grown. Remember, the most important element of any meal is who is sitting at your table, not what is on it. Avoid or reduce alcohol to one glass daily: Be fully present in the moment and reduce inputs that degrade your immune system. Pursue a creative outlet for at least 10 minutes a day: Find joy in the opportunity to create. Avoid processed foods and sugar: Replace processed and sugary options with freshly grown immunity boosting fruit and vegetables. Laugh often: Challenge yourself to be a kid again and feel the joy in your daily experience.” LINK: https://zachbushmd.com/coronavirus-statement/
P.59-60 Building A Community ‘In Touch With Nature’ – from the Ground Up… Dean Goddard’s vision is for the creation of a sustainable, multi-generational communal property, co-owned by individuals/couples/families that share a common desire to live in harmony with nature and with each other, sharing the tasks of growing their food and participating in the responsibilities associated with managing and maintaining their home and caring for their more vulnerable members - elders and children. Dean has, over many years, been studying how best to set-up and operate such a venture; and he is close to finding the ideal property on Vancouver Island, with multiple dwellings to accommodate residents. With several people already interested in investing to purchase their retirement residence, the project is closer to becoming a reality – offering a unique opportunity for anyone seeking an “active retirement” in which they will be able to use their own distinctive talents to enjoy a rewarding ‘sustainable’ and holistic community lifestyle. Watch for Dean’s To find out more, email Dean Goddard at: randean@protonmail.com
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