Gruending On Rinks

Because I haven't been writing much lately, yet still like to keep a hand in, here's Dennis Gruending with a nice piece on subsidizing sports teams:

The National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators want to abandon the club’s 20-year-old arena in the suburb of Kanata and rebuild near the city's downtown. Although the team says that fans don’t want to travel to the edge of town to watch their team, the arena actually draws an average of 96 percent of its capacity for home games. Still, the club's president, Cyril Leeder, says that the Senators would need support from the city before proceeding with their plan. Almost certainly, that's coded language foreshadowing a request for tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in public money to build an arena. There, millionaire players employed by multi-millionaire owners would play before people who can afford to pay $7,700 for a season’s ticket in a good seat. 

Indeed.

The Book On Pope Francis

Dennis Gruending judges.  The result: Pope F is pretty good when it comes to gays, the poor, and the Climate (very good there, actually, IMHO).  Not so good when it comes to wymen.  Also hasn't done much to roust out the Church Pedos.  But better than the last guy, who was 100% a dick. 

Gruending On John A. & Clearing The Plains

Since James Daschuk's Clearing The Plains came out last year Canadian's have been forced to reassess  John A. MacDonald's place in the pantheon of Canadian heros.  Among a fair bit of back-and-forth on the subject, Dennis Gruending's short piece stands out.  My favorite bit from it:

In Macdonald’s case, his attitude about the inferiority of indigenous people was commonplace at the time, but the scope of his actions presents a problem for his defenders. Did he use starvation and near starvation as a weapon against indigenous people in Western Canada whose communities had been decimated by loss of the bison? Daschuk says he did and that the deliberate withholding of food to hungry people led to hundreds of deaths by starvation, and also created the conditions for a tuberculosis epidemic in indigenous communities.

I have heard no worthy refutation of Daschuk’s claim.  In fact, he has been awarded the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize for a Canadian book of history judged to have made the most significant contribution to an understanding of our past.  This is highly ironic but it also means that Daschuk has written a good book.

Incidentally, on the whole notion of  presentism; all we have to do to refute that charge in this case is to find a few folk back in John A.'s day who might have voiced moral objections to his policy.  And indeed we do find them, among the Canadian People themselves.  Apparently, MacDonald stopped just short of starving the native population to death due to worries this might cause a scandal in Eastern Canada.  From this we can conclude that at least some people back in the 1880s had qualms about refusing to provide readily available food to whole populations.  If they were allowed their doubts about John A.'s policy, so too can we be.

Gruending On The CRA Audits

From his latest:

The government, however, has sent unmistakable signals that it wants a crackdown. Recent federal budgets have provided the CRA with an additional $13 million in special funding to undertake such audits at a time when the government was slashing the CRA’s budget by $250 million over three years, forcing the layoff of hundreds of auditors. Jim Flaherty, the former finance minister, issued a warning to charities in 2013. “If I were an environmental charity using federal money, tax-receipted money for political purposes, I would be cautious.” Others went considerably farther in their criticism and warnings. Joe Oliver, the natural resources minister, warned about the “radical agenda” of environmental groups, and former minister Peter Kent said the groups were “laundering” offshore funds to promote foreign interests.

As a side-note, a number folks including me got on Matt Guerney of The National Post for an error in one of his recent columns.  Matt claimed that several environmental groups had already been found guilty of abusing their charitable status but, if you note the last line, he was later driven to admit that this is not the case.  Of course, even when shown that he make a bugger-up on the facts, Matt's opinion of the issue (which might best be summarized as: Go CRA!  Kick them hippies!) remained unchanged.  As I noted below:

@Bigcitylib2 Life's funny sometimes.
— Matt Gurney (@mattgurney) August 13, 2014

Things That Have Gone Wrong With The Arab Spring

Dennis Gruending covers a talk by Nahlah Ayed, London-based foreign correspondent for CBC Television.  These things that have gone wrong are many, and not terribly surprising if you were paying a attention.  A couple of them, as teasers:

Absence of political choices

No matter what upheavals occur, the same old regimes that come back as new ones. For example, when President Hosni Mubarak was forced out of office in Egypt, the only well-organized political opposition was the Muslim Brotherhood, which had existed for many years but had been suppressed by the regime. The Brotherhood had experience as an opposition but not in governing and things went badly once they were elected. The army then deposed the elected president Mohamed Morsi and is in control once again. Ayed said that in Egypt there “was no third way” that would represent the young people who had been instrumental in the protests that deposed Mubarak.

And:

Continued exclusion of women

Even in Middle Eastern countries where women are well represented in the workforce, Ayed said, they are not allowed to “step up” politically. Women were active in some of the Arab Spring protests, but there appears to be no place for them in the structured political systems of government or opposition.

There are a few positive signs as well, which you can read about through the link.

The Ukrainian Far Right: Gruending On Ukraine

Dennis Gruending has a piece on some of the propaganda being employed by both sides in the standoff over Ukraine.  I found this bit particularly interesting:

... the Russians suspect, with some justification, that demonstrations in Ukraine were partly the work of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists assisted by the West. This claim strikes a deep chord among Russians because of the great sacrifices that were made fighting fascists in the Second World War. And if the West indeed orchestrated the ouster of an elected president based on his own corruption, it is certainly on thin ice. After all, it has supported its fair share of corrupt dictators in the past. 

This is rather too nice to the Russians, I think.  There is indeed a far-right element involved in the Ukrainian protests.  The Globe's Doug Saunders has written about them here, and others have written about them elsewhere.  But for the Russians to single out these people as a reason for their intervention is a bit rich. Russia has its own far-right, just as ugly as the Ukranian version.  If they are demonizing Pravy Sektor  it is certainly not over the contents of that group's beliefs, because that same kind of stuff flies OK back home.

Gruending: Our Prime Minister Is A Christian Zionist

Dennis Gruending discusses the PM's trip to Israel, with an account of some of the folks in his entourage that contains information I was not aware of.  A brief flavor:

Finally, there was the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem — Canada, which is not really an embassy at all but a conservative Christian group whose main reason for being is to provide support for Israel.

Take it away, Dennis.

Gruending On The Quebec Charter Of Values

Nothing you haven't heard before, but nicely written as always:

And so, we are left with the odd spectacle of the Parti Quebecois, which has always claimed to be progressive and socially democratic, promoting policies resembling those of Canada’s Right.

Indeed, though to its credit a good portion of Canada't Right has grown beyond this kind of blatant immigrant bashing and decried the charter.

Gruending On Liberal Christians In Canada

What about Canada? The historical influence of liberal Protestantism is undeniable. The social gospel movement drove political change from the 1930s to at least the 1960s. People such as J. S. Woodsworth, Tommy Douglas and Stanley Knowles – all of them Protestant ministers — moved Canada in a humane and social democratic direction. But that flame has been burning less brightly in recent decades and a more right wing religious presence now prevails in the halls of power. A well-connected minister of my acquaintance says that the Prime Minister has yet to meet with United Church leaders since he was first elected in 2006. But religionists of a more conservative persuasion appear to have widespread access to Parliament Hill.

The complaint about Liberal Christians is that their faith is a "thin gruel".  But I don't know why that has to be.  Throughout history, Liberals have known how to kick ass.   Liberal Christians can learn that trick again.  We Liberal atheists would be happy to show them.

The Canadian Catholic Church, Then And Now

From Dennis Gruending on the 30th anniversary of the Canada’s Catholic bishops' report Ethical Reflections on the Economic Crisis:

“We are losing the tension between the church and the state in Canada. The government has seduced the hierarchy to provide a blessing for their policies. The leadership has been silenced and refuses to challenge the established order.”

This is in reference to stuff like this.

Gruending On The New Pope

How deep was he in with the Argentine generals?  Actually, its kind of hard to say.  But he hates communists, that's for damn sure.

Gruending On The Manning Center Confab

Preston Manning and his wife Sandra created the Manning Centre in 2005 to act as a training ground for conservative politicos and a think tank and advocacy arm for conservative causes. Each year Manning holds what he calls a networking conference in Ottawa. Often the guest speakers are those such as Ron Paul, who for the most part have narrowly missed prominence, and others who have now left prominence behind them. A speaker in the latter category this year is former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

A run-down of the speakers, the media presence, and who's connected to who.  For some reason, Tom Flanagan isn't attending this year.

Gruending On John Baird's Office of Religious Freedom

In fact, the plan is modeled on the Office of International Religious Freedom which was created by the Clinton administration in the United States in 1998. A common criticism is that the American office was focused almost entirely on the persecution of Christians abroad, and that it was used to create space for American evangelical Christians to proselytize in other countries. Madeline Albright, then the secretary of state, was opposed saying that the office in focusing only on religious persecution created a “hierarchy of human rights” — privileging persecution based upon religion over other that of race or gender, for example.

Another good piece by Dennis Gruending.  Probably nothing in it that's too surprising to anyone paying attention, but thorough.

Catholic Bishops Cave To Tories!

A couple of posts by Gruending give the best run-down of a story I've been following out of the corner of my eye for awhile now: the suspension of Development's And Peace's fall post card campaign after it was judged "too political" by the  Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB).  The upshot seems to be that the Bishops value their relationship with the current federal government over the good works their church has historically been associated with.  Its like what happened with Canadian Mennonite Magazine, except the Bishops skipped that part where they are threatened by an agent of the Harper Torys and went straight to self-abasement.  Thank God--as it were--that a few members of the D&P youth wing are kicking up a fuss.

Gruending sums up as follows:


The same newspaper article suggests that the bishops are concerned that D and P’s fall campaign might interfere with the CCCB’s relationship with the government. Ronald Breau, president of D and P’s national council, which acceded to the bishops’ request to pull the postcard campaign, says this: “The bishops are concerned that ongoing dialogue between the Catholic church and the government of Canada on some important, timely and sensitive issues might be compromised by our [D and P] approach at this time.”

One is left to wonder what those sensitive issues might be. It is clear that the Harper government wants to embed conservative Catholics, along with certain evangelicals and Jewish people into its permanent electoral coalition. Hence the overtures to the CCCB. It is less clear how the bishops and the church will benefit from this dalliance with the Conservatives. That is an issue worth our continuing scrutiny.

What's the bishops' payoff look like, in other words.

PS.  Apparently,  Flanders of all people has something to do with this.  That unholy rascal!  I thought he'd retired.

Gruending On Remembrance Day

One might be tempted to consign T.T. Shields and his demagoguery to the past but it is not so different from a recent program that I saw on CTS Television. Preacher Jack Van Impe was fulminating about Iran and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, describing them as evil and calling Ahmadinejad “a Hitler.” Van Impe talked almost longingly about war with Iran and of how it would fulfill a prophecy about End Times.

What is it with these people, always trying to trigger the end times?  Like kids on a roller coaster screaming that they want off.

Dennis Gruending On The Oppression Of Canadian Mennonite Magazine

Quite a bit more detail here than in the CBC piece.  The most interesting bit, though, is not even about the magazine per se.  Its about the financial costs associated with running afoul of the CRA:

[David] Suzuki...said that his foundation had been audited three times prior to 2012. “It’s very demoralizing,” he said in a media interview. “The last time we were audited I think it cost over $100,000 of our money to do that, so it’s a very expensive, punitive thing that can be done.

In news that is related when you think about it, our department of fisheries is now at the service of Enbridge in the cause of ramming Northern Gateway through.

Gruending On Chaplains In Prisons

If the changes introduced by Minister Toews are not really about cutting costs, then what is going on? The best analysis that I have seen is from Stephen Maher for Postmedia News. “Toew’s decision,” he wrote, “fits the pattern of this government regarding groups of people whom devout elements of their electoral base dislike.”

[...]

Mr. Harper’s problem is that if he gives too much to his socially and religiously conservative base, he will alienate many other Canadian voters who want nothing to do with this agenda. In this context, dropping the part-time chaplaincy for inmates is  an easy and painless way to provide crumbs to that base, even as the government withholds the loaf.

Best explanation I've heard.

Dennis Gruending On The Sale Of The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool

Farmers fought long and hard to create the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in 1924, but 88 years later the company, now known as Viterra, is being sold to a Swiss-based multinational called Glencore for $6.1 billion. This is a sad story, a kind of morality tale about the gradual destruction of self-help, local initiative, community control and co-operation. With a few exceptions, there has been virtually no critical media analysis of this event that looks at it from the bottom up. So, as someone who grew up in a small prairie village where the Wheat Pool elevator and the local Pool committee were fixtures, let me offer some observations. I’ll begin with an anecdote.

A slightly less militantly Capitalist view.

Harper Brings Down The Hammer On Another Faith-Based Group

From Gruending:

The hammer that had earlier landed on faith-based organizations such as KAIROS and the Mennonite Central Committee has now fallen on the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P). Michael Casey, D&P’s executive director, has just written an emergency letter to the organization’s local volunteer leaders in Catholic dioceses throughout the country. He informs them that D&P has just heard from CIDA on a funding proposal made back in July 2010. “We have finally received the government’s response,” Casey writes. “It is not exactly what we were hoping for.” That is a considerable understatement. Casey writes that CIDA, which had provided D&P with $44.6 million in the years 2006-11, has chopped that amount by two-thirds, to a total of $14.5 million over the next five years.

From my perspective, the most interesting bit from the article is this:

Some of the church’s more conservative members in the pew have never accepted D&P’s preference for justice over charity. They also accuse the organization of supporting international development partners who do not always adhere to the church’s line on family planning.

The folks behind Lifesite News have been conducting a vendetta against D&P re this latter issue for ages.  It wouldn't surprise me if they haven't been whispering into Jason Kenney's ear, and this is the result.

Harper Defunds Mennonite Church Group

 Dennis Gruending predicted it in his last outing:

CIDA will soon abandon a number of its long-standing development partners among Canadian NGOs, including a number of church-based organizations. Reliable sources say that a number of those groups will see their funding ended or curtailed this year.

And indeed the axe has begun to fall:

The Conservative government’s shoe is dropping on some long established foreign aid groups while it privileges others. Mennonite Central Committee Canada reports on its website that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has turned down MCC’s proposal of $2.9 million for each of the next three years to provide food, water and income generation assistance for people in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Haiti, Bolivia, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

In this case, too, the MCC is left wondering what its crime might have been.  Alleged anti-semitism? Criticizing the tar sands?  No.  In this case it looks the the MCC referred to Canadian mining companies as a "mixed blessing".  And boom!  they're outta here!