Civility

Is it even possible in politics? The new game is, “Be as nasty as possible toward the OTHER”. As I watch our American neighbour I am struck by how it always has to have something or someone to be against to affirm its own identity. When that stopped being Russia, it turned inward and was against gays and then moved on to trans-sexuals. But now it is anyone in the other party. And politicians say it is ok for a presidential nominee to denounce the military just because the other party is equally nasty. Has it really come to this?

As observers of events in other parts of the world, some Canadians perhaps are less judgmental but we have not the same history as many others who live here. That’s why I would highly recommend a book I came across recently with the title The Wall Between, What Jews and Palestinians don’t Want to Know About Each Other. The authors, who represent both faiths turned their own conversations into a useful book that details history that most of us have neither lived through nor understood. What they have tried to share is a principle of justice. We’re at a very early stage of awareness let alone judgement. It’s a place to start.

Portraits

Yesterday I went to the funeral of a distinguished Canadian whose life was celebrated in an historical cathedral. He was a former primate of the Anglican Church of Canada (in the US called a Presiding Bishop in the American Episcopal Church). Among those attending were two of his successors in that role, the national indigenous bishop, other archbishops, bishops and clergy, and a great many family and friends. I knew Michael when I was an undergraduate student studying English literature and he was finishing a degree in theology at the University of Toronto in the late 1950s. Some years later I was a guest at his wedding in Ottawa. Earlier he had trained as a translator and decades later as primate, he was able to address a Russian Orthodox assembly in Moscow, delighting them by speaking to them in their own language.

His family members spoke of a loving father; one of his associates remembers a wise and thoughtful leader and one of his successors, a man who befriended a small and isolated national church in Cuba. Beneath the record of achievements, not the least of which was an early public apology to Canada’s First Nations of our treatment of their people in residential schools - was the underlying sadness of the last five years of Michael’s life with Alzeheime’s disease and the strength of the daily and loving support of his wife, family members and friends.

On the service leaflet is a picture of Michael in his prime. He once joked about a letter confusing primates of the human kind with those of animal kin - but you would never confuse this image with an intelligent, thoughtful and welcoming gaze, as he poses dressed in the robes of his office. I guess it is a form of mugshot. Later in the day we saw another. It’s one that the poser - pun intended this time - is said to be trying to look powerful and menacingly toughly and defiant. It’s an image of the grade school bully that masks other feelings and realities, not the least of which is fear. How will his followers interpret it? So many currently see and fear power that they see behind it and bow or kowtow to that. How scared are Americans when they are are told he is a stand-in for them as victims? A couple of supporters outside the jail expressed how much they love him? But is this a face that loves back? Will it be the one on a funeral leaflet some day?

Dining with Senators

Not everyone gets to do this too often - if ever. But I had some interesting experience this weekend that is, in some ways, a truly Canadian story.

By a fortunate accident of fate, I acquired a nephew via marriage on my late husband’s side of the family. Though our lives have changed, we keep in touch for family events and these recent events were pleasant ones - watching his daughter conduct a master class with the Toronto Symphony and later conduct a world premiere of a new opera with triple affiliations to Tapestry, Soundstreams, and Luminato - all long part of the Toronto contemporary music scene. We were able to have dinner together in advance of the second event. The nephew is a Canadian senator - and he had invited one of his retired colleagues and his wife to join us for dinner. We met still another recently senator and his wife at the performance.

There was a bond shared by all three. They were all appointed in 2016 as independent senators and I was privileged then to also have an invitation to their initial seating, though I knew only one of them at the time. Working together through the years has created bonds of friendship for the three men that extends well beyond their official duties. But it is their individual histories that make their stories even more interesting.

One has served in all three branches of parliamentary democracy - executive, judicial and legislative. He also worked as a senior public servant in both the Ontario provincial and federal governments and as a federal court judge. His family fled Poland and came to Canada after spending time in Uzbekistan and relocated to a displaced person’s camp in Germany where he was born. They were eventually able to settle in Sydney, Nova Scotia when he was two years old.

Another earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Calcutta, a Masters in economics from University of Delhi and MBA (Finance) from UCLA Los Angeles. He has had a distinguished career in banking and prior to his senate appointment was Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Office of Scotiabank. He has made a contribution to the cultural life of Canada serving on the boards of major hospitals and arts organizations as well as being a founding member of the Sikh Foundation of Canada.

The third has worked on public policy issues related to Canada’s relations with Asian countries for more than 30 years. He is a former President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and currently a joint chair of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations and a member of the following Senate Standing Committees: Foreign Affairs and International Trade; Banking, Trade and Commerce; and Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament. On June 23 he will be present for the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the Chinese Exclusion Act. something most of us know nothing about and could learn more here.

He was born in Malaysia and his family moved to Singapore shortly afterwards. After early education in and Anglo-Chinese school, he attended the Canadian United World College, Lester B. Pearson, in Victoria, which provided the Canadian connection before further studies at Cambridge and the University of London and later settlement in Newfoundland.

Three interesting Canadians - serving the country and enjoying personal friendships beyond their careers from such diverse starting positions. How grateful we all need to be for our own country and all those who settle here and work hard - both to heal our past and contribute to our future.

Very High Confidence

“There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence).”

Very high confidence that we are headed toward disaster, What does it say about us as human beings in 2023?

It is a message from hundreds of scholars studying the climate emergency and approved by 195 countries. It points to the disaster caused by the continuing use of fossil fuels. Those of us in the west - focused on bank failures and interest rates and whining. while we enjoy the prosperity and other parts of the world suffer much more. The UN Secretary is right to see us as sitting on a time bomb.

Despair is not the answer. Any action is better than none. These are the strategies that the studies propose:

• Expand solar and wind power

• Improve energy efficiency.

• Make cities more friendly for walkers and cyclists.

• Reduce nitrogen pollution from agriculture.

• Eat better.

• Reduce food waste.

Every one of these have implications for individual actions. All of them have a relationship with fossil fuels. Every one is related to what we value. It is a reminder that the most powerful countries are the largest promoters of fossil fuels - and we are not far behind. Nature shows considerable power to answer to our treating it as a communal gas station. Will we continue to ignore what we are doing at our peril?

We are members of many communities - neighborhoods, the arts, faith groups, political parties, social action groups. Voices used to be only top down but now they can be raised from the smallest and most surprising places. Let’s use them.

Gatherings

Gatherings

Historians may one day examine many institutions under the categories of pre-pandemic and post pandemic. Quick development of vaccines created a very different trajectory from earlier plagues.  Many of us, pre-pandemic might have encountered webinars in the business world, or tried new learning on Coursera.  Most of us never heard of live-streaming before the pandemic hit – and suddenly education, performing arts and churches entered a new world.

The kind of streaming we experienced was described technically as OTT – “over the top” was not a comment on the quality of the experience, but instead the ability to receive it from any device with internet access. Suddenly the selection and choices were huge.  We paid less attention to the reality that the performance might be hampered by receiving it via a digital medium.

There were all kinds of advantages initially. Social distancing cannot be accomplished in rows of close seating. We could join in from anywhere and visit places we had not frequented in years. We could reach out to people who were ill or house-bound. Rather than leaving home and having to drive or take public transit with several transfers, we could join in an instant with the pressing of a key or button. If we didn’t want to participate at the assigned time, we could even choose one of our own to go to church or attend a concert. Convenience rules

But what was perceived as a short term solution has become a permanent one for many. At the moment we perceive a need to operate in two worlds even though the online one is shrinking considerably while the in-person one may not be growing. Those eager to help us enhance our life streaming presence are now educating us in “online marketing” for church and concert lands. People like to worship or listen to music alone, they tell us. “Going” is a hassle, when it’s so much more comfortable to stay put. More and more people prefer to “watch” online. You can even do it from the coffee shop or at brunch - and on your mobile phone. Video is replacing text anyway – even on FaceBook.

But what about the disadvantages? Is the kind of community experienced when sitting among others a different one?  Is a physical sense of place – school, concert hall, place of worship - important to a community as a living entity rather than a shuttered place - or one with many unfilled speaces? Is moving our bodies out of doors important to maintain our physical, emotional and spiritual health? Are fixed rituals in place and time necessary to experience life fully? Is “watching” the best way to maintain a civil society? What will be the outcome? Will more of us end up sick and shut-in?