Another milestone has passed... unnoticed!

The Canadian government spent millions of dollars to commemorate the War of 1812.  They spent millions more on the 70th anniversary of D-Day.  Did anyone noticed how much effort they put towards the 71st anniversary of Operation Husky?

The government's response is probably the same as yours:   "What the hell is Operation Husky?"

Before answering that question let me make a comment on the strategy of warfare.  Any competent analyst will tell you that one of the the worst strategies in war is to fight on more than one front.  To understand that, let's look at pro-wrestling, which is essentially staged war.  A one-on-one fight is essentially fair, but what happens when two teamed wrestlers get in the ring against one opponent?  The opponent is held by one guy while his partner grabs a chair to brain the opponent.  Fairness goes out the window. What would happen if you had three guys on one?

During the second world war, the Germans made the mistake of trying to defend against the invasion of Europe, through France, by the allies while at the same time fighting the Russians three thousand miles away.  Two on one.  But what if the Germans had to fight on a third front?  Enter Operation Husky.

You will be able to read more on Operation Husky on Mysteriesofcanada.com pretty soon but suffice to say that the allies, including the largest contingent of Canadians, came ashore in Sicily and fought the Italians and Germans all the way north into Italy and on to Rome. The Italians were the first Axis country to fall and when they did the Germans had to move a large number of their forces out of France and into Italy to stop the Allies.  Three on one!

The Italian campaign was a crucial part of the war.  It helped draw German troops away from France and enabled a successful Normandy campaign.  So why is it ignored by our government, our historians and in our literature.

My father always said that he landed in Sicily in 1943 and walked all the way to Holland before coming home in 1945.  He did not talk much about the Italian campaign. It was not a cake walk as described by many historians and I guaranty that I will do everything in my power to make sure that it is not just forgotten at least in Canada.

I am back!

I have been sidelined from this blog for a bit.  I have been working on my Private Investigator licence program and have been heavily involved in a missing persons case (in fact there are six missing teens) from 1995.

I have a bit of advice for the police here in Ontario.  It probably applies across the country but I am working these cases here in Ontario.  The advice is not to go turtle when someone asks a question.  It makes you seem incompetent or complicit in the investigation being carried out.  It is especially galling when your indifference is directed toward the families of the missing persons.

The next time someone asks for your help to gain closure, don't just pile the request in the ignore bin.  Think of it this way: "What if the missing person was your son or brother?"  Then act accordingly.

I also have some advice for the Ontario Coroner.  If you have Unidentified Remains in your fridge, then accept all assistance to clear the case.  Sometime what you think can be altered by new, even circumstantial, evidence.

Thanks for the education, Steve. Now can you look into some drinking water?

The First Nations peoples just got a gift from the government of Canada.  Beginning in 2016 they will receive some $2 billion spread out over 5 years for education.  Great news... thanks Mr. Harper.

Mind you the improved education will probably disproportionally benefit reserves in the south.  In the north, the problem is not primarily education.  IT IS CLEAN WATER!

There are about 75 reserves living with water problems in 2014; some of the advisories are decades old.

This means that thousands of Canadians do not have access to potable water.  So what do we give them?  Education so that they can move off the reserve?

It is also estimated that 60% of water operators are not even certified.  How about education for them?

The problems of First Nations are many.  Chief Atleo is allowing the government to cherry pick which problem they want to address.  And what are they choosing?

The problems that will win them the most votes, of course.

Will Canada replace the Maple Leaf with the Red Ensign?

So what's next?  Will Canada replace the Maple Leaf with the Red Ensign?  Forward to the past.  That appears to be the focus of this government.

They seem to like the old days when Canada was a colony to the Mother Country.  Must be because they are turning our armed forces into a colonial entity again.

Case in point... The Canadian Forces has become the RCAF again, the RN again and the Canadian Army.  I guess they forgot about the army when they did that retro-change.  But don't be afeared my gun-toting friends.   What used to be a private in the army will go back to being called a trooper, bombardier, rifleman, fusilier or a guardsman depending on which unit you are in.  What happened to the Sappers and the Miners, or the Gunners and the Wheelers, my honourable friends.  Did you overlook them?

Even the flags on our ships are being repositioned to mimic the British Royal Navy.

Now the familiar maple leaf rank designations for officers is about to be changed to British pips... you know, those diamond shapes that are more recognizable than the Maple Leaf.

I wonder when the Minister of Finance will be renamed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer?

Trains, Planes and Negligence

Here we go again. I have said it before and I say it again - safety self-regulation by industry will ONLY work if a safety mindset is in place within the industry. 

Safety Management System, which was instituted to off-load the bother of inspections by Transport Canada, has been a massive failure in the train and air travel industries. Just ask Dave Winter what he thinks of SMS.  He quit his job as a federal aviation inspector over the issue.  (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/11/08/airline-safety-system-flights.html)

For those who do not understand SMS, let me offer you a simple explanation.  It is a voluntary program whereby train and aircraft operators do their own safety inspections and then submit paper work to that end to Transport Canada.  As long as you file the paper work, regardless of whether you actually did the inspection or fixed problems, then you are SMS compliant.  It is a bit like asking criminal to turn themselves in rather than having police actually solve crimes.

The most recent interviews I have seen of MP Olivia Chow concerning this have been spot on. Neither the Cons nor the Libs have a clue or the cahones to tell the truth. 

The basics of the disaster in Lac Megantic are to be found in Transport Safety Board reports going back as far as 1994. 

Single hulled tanker cars that have been called defective designs... a decision to allow a 77 car train with multiple engines to be attended (or not) by one engineer... driving trains over tracks that were not designed for the current weight of cars and materials... and on and on.  These are the causes of Lac Megantic.  One does not have to wait 6 months until a formal report is released in order to act on these issues.

How many more Canadians need to be slaughtered before action is taken?

The Unknown Heroes

I write quite a lot about heroes on the my web site.  They include a teenage girl who fought off a cougar to save her brother, a dog that helped save 92 persons in a shipwreck and Canadian Victoria Cross recipients, amongst others  What I do not write often enough about is the persons around the heroes who were heroes in their own right... just not lauded publicly.

Sgt. Navigator James Scott was one such unknown hero.

James Scott was a Canadian navigator/pilot on a Beaufort torpedo bomber flying with the RAF in WW2.  One of the first graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), Scott had been flying since 1940.  In 1941, he was merely 19 years old.


On April 5, 1941, Scott's plane, commanded by Pilot Officer Kenneth Campbell, was ordered into the skies over the the fiords of Norway in search of the German battleship Gneisenau. They found it and attacked with their unguided torpedoes.  In order to ensure the torpedoes ran straight and true, Campbell made his run approximately 50 feet above the fiord.  I am sure that Campbell had a discussion with his crew, including Scott, explaining to them that the attack he proposed could be their last.  Any number of issues could arise that could doom the plane and its crew.  They all agreed that the risk to their lives was outweighed by the benefits to the war effort.  Indeed, to that point, the Gneisenau had sunk thousands of tons of allied merchant and military shipping and caused the death of thousands of allied sailors.

You can read about the fated raid that won Kenneth Campbell the Victoria Cross and put the Gneisenau out of action for a portion of the war, on my web site.  Suffice to say that you will not find the name of nineteen year old James Scott or any of his comrades in the records.  For the record the other crew members were Sgt. William Mulliss and Fl Sgt. Ralph Hillman.

They, unlike Campbell, were the unknown heroes.

It's a local story but it is an example of larger problems.

The Strandherd-Armstrong bridge is being built in suburban Ottawa.  It links the southern neighbourhoods of Barrhaven and Riverside South across the Rideau River.  About four years ago, I sat on a citizens committee that reviewed the bridge designs.  At the end of the session, we were asked which design we preferred.  The choices were a plain-jane six-driving-lane- (plus bike and walking) flat slab or a fancy six-lane (with bike and walking) slab with arches attached to it to make it look good.

The committee was almost unanimous for the fancy arches; only one person dissented... that would be me.

I argued against the arches for two reasons.  In a climate of ice and snow for many months of the year, accumulation on the arches could fall on vehicles or pedestrians, which would not be a good thing.   My second objection was the cost and time it would require to build the arches.

Hate to say I told you so, but the bridge which was to be open in early 2013... then delayed to fall 2013... is now delayed to fall 2014.  Why the latest delay?  Welds on the arches.   The slab is finished... in fact it has been for almost 6 months.  The crossing could be finished by now.  It is the arches that are causing the delay.

Even our exalted local Con MP, Pierre Poilievre, is not talking about the bridge anymore.  He was a big booster of it, going as far as to claim that, without him, the project would have be dead.

When desire triumphs over practicality, whether it be a bridge or a stealth fighter, citizens are not well served.   

When you are a Con you can argue that a tax is not a tax... and actually believe it.

The Harper Government removed special tariff rates for countries such as China and Brazil.  This raised the rates up.  It is the importers that pay the tariff, so they, the importers, raised their prices to distributors to cover their higher costs and the distributors, in turn, raised prices to consumers.   (And don't forget that the higher prices means more GST for the government.)

So where do the increased tariffs paid by the importers go? 
It goes in to the pockets of the Harper government, of course.  To the tune of $335 million per year.

When the Canadian government collects more money from Canadians, in any form, it is a tax.  To call it anything else or deny that it exists is dishonest.

Bicycles, tricycles and wagons; children's toys; cancer-victim's wigs... almost 1,300 products from 72 countries; these are not luxury items afforded by the rich.  These are all-class items purchased by Canadians.

It is a pretty sad day for Canadians.

Hey Susan... they are going to build that pipeline

Warn your friends that the feds are brewing their message to force the Gateway pipeline through.

The latest salvo is that they are blaming the drop in pricing that Canada charges for oil exports on the fact that we sell primarily to the US.  Read here that Canada needs to expand to markets in Asia... thus the Northern Gateway Pipeline must be built.  The reality though is that the price we receive is falling because oil sands bitumen is heavy oil and costs more to ship and refine than does light or medium crude.

Just prior to that, came the message that the economy is slipping based on lower petrochemical royalties.  Unless the royalties go back up (How?  Expanding to the Asian market!  See above.) then the balanced budget promised for 2015 will have to be pushed back again.  The reality is that the structural budget deficit created by the 2% point drop in the GST is what is causing them the problem.  Combine that with the poor stewardship of the economy and the Canadian dollar, and there you go.  So much for the fiscally conservative and wise Cons!

I wrote in an earlier blog entry that the so-called Dutch Disease, where petrodollars currency inflation killed manufacturing in the Netherlands, was not the only issue with so-called Dutch Disease.  Dutch Disease also led the government to focus their effort on the petrochemical industries while ignoring other industries, such as manufacturing.  When was the last time the Cons talked about manufacturing?

The Cons are cagey.  They will eat away at the pipeline debate without ever mentioning it by name.  It is up to Canadians to stay alert, because this government does not seem to want to represent Canadians.

This government is a joke!!!

So the MPs come back to work for a few days and Harper welcomes his caucus with a speech that outlines his priorities for this session.  Law and order... no surprise.  Fiscal prudence... par for the course.  And few minor things.

But what was most important was what was missing from his priority list.  There was no mention, even casually, of aboriginal issues!!!!

The Idle No More movement is ignored.  The blockades and AFN leaders statements are ignored.  Even the commitments made to Chief Atleo are ignored.  After all, thinks Harper, he is just a little man in a funny hat?

The whole of the First Nations issues are swept out of sight!

Shameful!!