Check It Out: Obstacles or opportunities?
By Joan Janzen
The story I heard was about Ned and Jed, who were seeking their fortune hunting wolves. There was a $5,000 bounty for wolves captured alive. The exhausted men fell asleep. A few hours later, Ned awoke to see them surrounded by 40 snarling wolves. Nudging Jed, he whispered, “Wake up, Jed! We’re rich!”
People like Jed see obstacles as opportunities. That may explain why there were more millionaires created during the Great Depression than at any other time.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has been busy unearthing obstacles. They discovered that $190 million in bonuses was handed out to bureaucrats in 2020-2021, CBC handed out $51 million in pay raises in that time period, and the Bank of Canada handed out $45 million in pay raises. They obtained the information through access to information requests.
They also acquired receipts proving the Governor General and her guests spent nearly six figures on food during a weekend flight to the Middle East. Now those bureaucrats are being held accountable. “That’s a big victory!” Franco Terrazzano from CTF, said. “It means you have a real opportunity to end this abuse of your money.”
On September 28, 2022, the Minister of Addictions and Mental Health proposed a “Safe Supply” drug policy, allowing government to provide free, non-prescription drugs for addicts. The government has funded several Safe Supply pilot projects, yet addicts continue to purchase drugs from street traffickers and in some cases, sell the free drugs. The free drugs often increase consumption and are paid for with taxpayer dollars. It’s an opportunity to contact Carolyn Bennet (carolyn.bennett@parl.gc.ca) and voice your concerns.
MP Melissa Lantsman often poses straightforward questions during Question Period. “Asking questions is important, and Canadians are waking up to the fact that they’re getting no answers,” she said. If you’ve ever listened to Question Period, you will recognize the truth in those words. Some of those questions are directed at Chrystia Freeland.
An article in the National Post by Rupa Subramanya informed readers that Freeland, who serves on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) board of trustees, was once a journalist. In 2012 she authored a book entitled “Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.”
In her book, she said, “Some farsighted plutocrats try to use their money, not merely to buy public office for themselves, but to redirect the reigning ideology of a nation, a region, or even the world.”
Canadians may be asking if her words from 2012 would be classified as disinformation today? This is an opportune time to ask how a journalist holding those views in 2012 serves on the WEF’s board of trustees a decade later.
Meanwhile, an inquiry into the use of the Emergency Act is underway. Stephen LeDrew said, “People should be paying attention to this inquiry, because it is going to define the limits of government, the ability of government to curb your freedom to protest, to give different views, to do what you need to do to be sure the government is paying attention. It’s going to determine the limits of what government can do in Canada in the future.”
Canadians with a common vision for a free and prosperous country need to take advantage of every opportunity to remind their representatives of obstacles that the CTF and others are revealing.