Saint Casimir died young – as the good are wont to do – entering eternity, after a battle with tuberculosis, on this day, March 4th, 1484, at the tender age of 25. He was a Polish prince and heir apparent, but forewent the glories of the world, devoting his life more to God and His poor, preferring a life of celibacy and chastity. Casimir’s reputation for holiness quickly spread, and he may well have been canonized soon after his death, in 1521, by Leo XIII, but such records were lost in the horrific sack of Rome in 1527. We know for certain that Pope Clement VIII enrolled him in the calendar of saints in 1602, and he is now the patron of Poland and Lithuania.
A deal has apparently been reached with the Wet’suwet’en nation, but they have to decide whether to accept whatever that deal implies over a two-week long ‘feast’. Why Canada should be subject to a separate law system is a mystery to this writer, , especially since a deal had already been reached with all of the band councils involved, and one wonders what businesses will ever do put stakes down in a nation prey to such capriciousness, the very opposite of the rule of law.
And, while on that, the teachers in Ontario are staging another strike tomorrow, and this after the Ford government backed down on its demands on class size (limited to 23 instead of 28) and mandatory on-line courses.
Like our relations with the First Nations – a loaded term with which I have reservation, pardon the pun – the whole system is broken, and, like the latter, one never quite knows what’s going to happen.
The caving and kowtowing to either group will only offer further incentive for further ‘actions’, blockades, strikes, walk-outs, as the centre ceases to hold, and things fall apart.
The one natural hope is that the ballooning deficit under Trudeau and Morneau – which sounds and acts like a comedy act, two muddled and myopic multi-millionaires who seem to know little of real economics, which originally meant the ‘running of a household’ on a limited income – may soon bring the whole house of cards down, as fiscal reality bites, and bites hard. There is an expiry date for how long one may avoid reality.
But, as Saint Casimir reminds us, we are made for heaven, and as a multi-mile-wide asteroid passes not too far from the Earth, we are only one strike away from us all being blown away thither.