Opinion
How bad does it have to be, before city-hall stops growing?
Red Deer is shrinking. There are 1,000 fewer residents living in Red Deer now than there were a year ago. Jobless rate just went up a half a percentage point. The majority of Red Deer residents are having to do with less, but not our city hall. They are expanding again.
When times are tough, like they are now, people adjust, they multi-task, they adapt and they get it done.
In business, every crew, every department, every division, and every employee believes they are indispensable, they need a full or expanded team, and yet they survive cut-backs, lay-offs and down sizing. But not our city hall, it continues to grow.
An employer once told me he would not hire a former public service employee, because of the culture. A lawyer once told me that there is a certain culture down at city hall that defies logic and common sense. When I hear about how the bickering and internal conflict between employees has increased 1,275% in 6 years, down at city hall, I start to grasp the “culture”, reference. Do the employees, check reality at the door, when they go to work?
The city will be hiring another full time human resource staff. Councillors Tanya Handley, Lawrence Lee, Buck Buchanan and Mayor Veer voted against the hire. Interesting is the fact that our Mayor who spends the most time, of all elected officials, at city hall, and deals with more issues directly, voted against the hire.
Some of the rationale for voting in favour of the hire, seemed almost protectionist and counter to the reason for them being able to vote in the first place. The councillors were elected to protect the residents, needs and taxes, not to act as a union representative for the employees. It comes back to the idea of a culture, almost like a cult, within city hall.
“Familiarity breeds contempt” An odd expression, but appropriate. Perhaps the turnover of councillors is so low that the employees as a whole have contempt for the councillors? One on one, maybe less than obvious, but as a whole, the employees control the council.
Perhaps it is time to seek out councillors who had to be fiscally responsible, had to be accountable for profit and losses other than on a balance sheet. Councillors who have had to tighten their belts, make the tough decisions, and face shareholders and investors?
Perhaps on October 16 we should do a zero based audit on our incumbents and decide whether to renew their contracts. If there ever was need for a slate of fiscal-hawks, perhaps this election is the time?
If there ever was a time in recent history for a council with some backbone, it is now. If the conflict between workers is so high, then perhaps we should re-examine our hiring criteria and practices.
An oil company can lay off 25% of it’s staff, during tough times and still produce oil, I am sure our city can cut back and still run our city. After all there are fewer builds, fewer permits, fewer inspections……….
Peter Doocy asked directly, “What happened to the Epstein client list that the Attorney General said she had on her desk?” Here’s how Leavitt tried to explain it.
The Epstein client list was supposed to be SITTING on Pam Bondi’s desk for review.
But months later, the DOJ says no such list even exists.
Karoline Leavitt was just asked why there was such a reversal in so little time.
Her responses today are raising eyebrows.
On February 21st, Pam Bondi told the world the Epstein client list was “sitting on [her] desk right now to review,” explaining it was part of a directive ordered by President Trump.
Shortly afterward, she and Kash Patel pledged to end the Epstein cover-up, promising to fully disclose the Epstein files to the public, hold accountable any government officials who withheld key evidence, and investigate why critical documents had been hidden in the first place.
But ever since late February, it seems the cover-up wasn’t exposed but buried even deeper by those who promised transparency.
First, they handed out the so-called “Epstein files” to influencers like golden Willy Wanka tickets, only for everyone to discover that almost all of the contents inside were already public and contained no new revelations.
Fast-forward to May, and suddenly Kash Patel and Dan Bongino are declaring firmly that Epstein killed himself.
“I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself,” Bongino stated bluntly to Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo.
Today, the Trump-appointed DOJ and FBI released a new report that’s turning heads and raising plenty of questions.
They concluded that Epstein had no clients, didn’t blackmail anyone, and definitely killed himself.
FBI Concludes Epstein Had No Clients, Didn’t Blackmail Anyone, and Definitely Killed Himself
This article originally appeared on Infowars and was republished with permission.
They also released surveillance footage and claimed it showed no one entered Epstein’s cell area, supporting the suicide ruling.
But people aren’t convinced. Some allege the video cuts off, with a minute of footage missing between 11:59 PM and midnight.
Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to questions about the Epstein client list in light of these new DOJ and FBI statements.
A reporter asked, “Karoline, the DOJ and FBI have now concluded there was no Jeffrey Epstein client list. What do you tell MAGA supporters who say they want anyone involved in Epstein’s alleged crimes held accountable?”
Leavitt replied, “This administration wants anyone who has ever committed a crime to be accountable, and I would argue this administration has done more to lock up bad guys than certainly the previous administration.”
She continued, “The Trump administration is committed to truth and transparency. That’s why the Attorney General and the FBI Director pledged, at the president’s direction, to do an exhaustive review of all the files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and his death. They put out a memo in conclusion of that review.”
“There was material they did not release because frankly it was incredibly graphic and contained child pornography, which is not something that is appropriate for public consumption,” she added.
“But they committed to an exhaustive investigation. That’s what they did and they provided the results of that.”
“That’s transparency,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt was also pressed about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comments in February when she claimed she had the Epstein list “on [her] desk.”
Peter Doocy asked, “Okay, so the FBI looks at the circumstances surrounding the death of Jeffrey Epstein. According to the report, this systematic review revealed no incriminating client list. So what happened to the Epstein client list that the Attorney General said she had on her desk?”
Leavitt responded, “I think if you go back and look at what the Attorney General said in that interview, which was on your network, on Fox News—”
Doocy pushed back, “I have the quote. John Roberts said: ‘DOJ may release the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients, will that really happen?’ And she said, ‘It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.’”
Leavitt explained, “Yes. She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, that’s what the Attorney General was referring to. And I will let her speak for that.”
“But when it comes to the FBI and the Department of Justice, they are more than committed to ensuring that bad people are put behind bars.”
So, after months of patiently waiting, the American people get a nothing burger that simply repeats the same old claims we heard under Bill Barr.
Even worse, it’s purported that this is what “transparency” and “accountability” look like.
The story went from saying the Epstein client list was “on my desk” to “actually, there is no client list.”
And the newly released video footage raises questions and, in the age of AI, proves nothing.
If there’s really nothing to hide, why does it still feel like they’re hiding everything?
And most importantly—who’s still being protected?
Thanks for reading to the end. I hope you found this timeline of events and recap helpful.
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This past week has seen (some) Canadians celebrating their heritage— now that Mike Myers has officially reinterpreted Canadian culture as a hockey sweater and Mr. Dressup. This quick-change was so popular that Canadian voters even forgot an entire decade of Justin Trudeau.
In the United States, the people who elected Donald Trump– and not Andrew Coyne– to run their nation celebrated Independence Day with stirring renditions off The Star Spangled Banner, although few could surpass the brilliant performance of the song by the late Whitney Houston at the 1991 Super Bowl.
The CDN equivalent is some flavour of the month changing the words to O Canada at the Grey Cup game. Canada’s national anthem has always been open to interpretation by people who may or may not have Canada in their hearts. At the 2023 NBA All Star Game Canadian chanteuse Jully Black became the latest singer to attempt a manicure to the English lyrics of O Canada, penned for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony ( Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which words were written by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The English lyrics have “evolved” over the years, just like the dress code for the CDN PM..)
Black amended the first line from “our home and native land” to our home ON native land”. Because something-something. But this creative license is nothing new. Unlike Chris Stapleton, Marvin Gaye or Whitney Houston with the Star Spangled Banner, interpreters of O Canada have seen fit to amend the lyrics to their sensibilities. Roger Doucet, famed anthem singer of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970-80s, tried to add the words “we stand on guard for truth and liberty” in place of the first “we stand on guard for thee”.
In 1990, having nothing better to do, Toronto City Council voted 12 to 7 in favour of recommending that the phrase “our home and native land” be changed to “our home and cherished land” and that “in all thy sons command” be partly reverted to “in all of us command”. (The latter was officially adapted.)
While those attempts had mixed outcomes it appears it’s just a matter of time till Ms. Black’s class-conscious culling of the words is accepted. Being generous we here at IDLM thought we’d short-circuit piecemeal attempts to create a throughly Woke version of the anthem that would last till the latest fad come along. Herewith our 2023 definitive O Canada that even— maybe only— Justin Trudeau could love:
“O Canada” (Ignores the French fact in our culture) Change to “Eau Canada”
“Our home on native land” (ignores indigenous land claims) Change to “Get off our land, settlers”
“True patriot love in all of us commands” (Only true patriot love? There were officially 78 kinds of relationships in Trudeaupia. And commanding love?) Change to “Love the one you’re with”.
“With glowing hearts we see thee rise” (rise suggests triumph of white triumphalist dogma) Change to “Non judgementally we oppose the crushing impacts of Euro-based autocracy”
“The true north strong and free” (How can anyone be strong or free when we support America’s killing fields?) Change to “Heteronormative thinking must be stamped out at our borders. If we even have borders anymore.”
“From far and wide” (Body shaming) Change to “Obesity is a disease that is not helped by putting it in the national anthem.”
“O Canada” (biased against A, B, AB blood types) change to “Science Must Be Believed”
“We stand on guard for thee” (Spreads hate against the non ableist community) Change to “Please remain seated.”
“God keep our land” (God? God? What is this, the Reformation) “Change to “It’s your thing”
”Glorious and free” (Glorious harkens to the bourgeois subjugation of Indigenous thought processes by white Christian priests) Change to “A genocidal state if there ever was one”.
“O Canada we stand on guard for thee/
O Canada we stand on guard for thee” The denial of trans rights is used twice here to emphasize the intolerable burdens faced by people of the LGBTQ2R community as they seek respect and compensation for the evils of the founding oppressors.) Change to “Eau Canada, after 6.5 hours of intensive lectures on the gender, race and dissociative application of class war on your citizens you may someday come to understand that this song is a manifestation of your bigotry and exploitation of minorities— and why rhyming lines like “thee and free” is the work of the devil or J.K. Rowling, whomever comes to mind first.”
There. That wasn’t so tough, was it? Flows trippingly off the tongue like Mark Carney refusing a special inquiry into China buying the electoral process. Or perhaps we should simply accept a literal translation of the original French lyrics:
“O Canada!
Land of our ancestors
Glorious deeds circle your brow
For your arm knows how to wield the sword
Your arm knows how to carry the cross;
Your history is an epic
Of brilliant deeds
And your valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights.”
Yikes. That’s downright fascistic. But it’s Quebec, and we have to allow them their peccadilloes. So circle your brow with glorious deeds, grab a cross and a sword and valour steeped in faith. And remember we must be adaptable in the new era.
Unless it’s Alberta using the adapting to fuel its CO2-belching machines. In which case it’s man the battlements and follow Mike Myers into the fight.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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