For those of you who would like to, you may read over the full report on the scandal of Jean Vanier and Father Thomas Philippe. It is not easy to read, and you may draw what conclusions you may; the material certainly offers any number of intentions for which to pray during Lent.
The Teck mine deal as you have all heard by now is cancelled, a bitter fruit of Canada’s slide into a banana republicanism, the blame landing right on Trudeau’s multi-coloured socked feet. As the inimitable Rex Murphy put it: Rarely, if ever, has folly been granted such total rein, and incompetence a wider playground. More or less, the company, writing off over one billion already spent, warned Canada to get its act together – figure out some way to balance economic development with its climate change agenda. As well, and more to the point, how to control its out-of-control radical left, even now as I write blocking railways and roads with impunity. Roving black-clad bands of masked and armed ‘Mohawks’ bring back shades of 1649 and 1756 – and, if they push things, perhaps ’tis time to finish those wars. As I quoted the other day, si vis pacem, para bellum. And no one wants war, but such, in some way, may be the only path to peace.
Many Indigenous, who would have benefited mightily, their dreams squashed by a few self-proclaimed ‘hereditary chiefs’, are rightly angered and disappointed. But no company – no person – wants to work in a lawless land, and the primary task of government should be the security of property and economic initiative, a large part of which is keeping the railways and roads open and clear, a simple task which Trudeau and is Liberals cannot even manage that. In one bitter hope, perhaps a pandemic of the covid-19 virus will hit the reset button, and restore some level of sanity.