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A response to the response

I’m getting pretty tired of not being able to read the news without an urgent need to write a letter to at least one if not several levels of government regarding the wrongheadedness of their pursuits. 

Today, at least, I got a little encouragement. PM Carney’s office replied to me regarding *one* of my messages, assuring me it had been read. Of course, it was the one where I thanked them for deciding to recognize Palestine and stayed mostly in the realm of positivity. 

So *I* replied:

Thank you, Mr Carney, for your attention to this letter. 

Please also note all the other letters I have sent regarding the illegal occupation and gross criminal violation of human rights situation Israel is creation, where I have demanded a real arms embargo (as you have promised we had, knowing it was a flat out lie) and a real refugee evacuation program that is possible to participate in (not full of impossible-to-comply-with procedures).

Please also note that Canadians voted for “elbows up.” Even (most) Conservatives support an “elbows up” approach to the Americans at this moment. Yet all we see from you is roll over and beg. 

Canada absolutely should not join any USA defense programs (the “golden dome” would be a ridiculous concept even if it weren't proposed by Donald Trump and is even worse when it is). 

Canada should not spend another cent on the fighter jet boondoogle (again, especially when it makes our national defense vulnerable to American intervention). If you like planes so much, please purchase waterbombers instead. Those are actually useful for building up not merely causing wanton destruction. 

Canada should not double down on fossil fuel extraction. Aren’t you “the green banker”? Weren’t you making a case for the urgent need for investment in green energies and pulling back from the fossil fuels that are literally destroying the world as we know it? Manitoba has experienced a summer out of hell, driven inside for multiple days in a row due to unbreatheable air on account of forest fires from worsening climate change (and that’s just Winnipeg – to say nothing of the folks wasting time and money being evacuated from their homes for weeks on end). It’s not just ridiculous, it’s downright offensive to talk about military defense and fossil fuel extraction at a time like this.

You *promised* to govern for all Canadians in your victory speech on election night. But all I see so far is governing for short-term growth of capital. This needs to change now. 

Show us those “values” you wrote about in your memoir: humility, honesty, compassion.

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