John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY KRISTY KIRKUP IN CBC NEWS

 

“Canada has ‘broad international coalition’ of support on China file, Freeland says”

 

“Trudeau had ‘brief, constructive interactions’ with Chinese President Xi Jinping at G20”

Translation: They said “hello.”

“Canada has ‘broad international coalition’ of support on China file, Freeland says’”

Translation: Washington and some Europeans under its thumb nod their heads at the mention of Canada, but do absolutely nothing.

The truth is, there’s nothing to support.

Chrystia Freeland has totally mishandled the China File from beginning to end. The entire sequence of negative events was avoidable.

In almost everything Freeland has been active in – from the Lima Group, designed to help overthrow a democratic government, to tacit acceptance of Saudi Arabia’s horrors and to making no objections to Trump’s illegal and unwarranted assault on Iran – I do not see the great Liberal Party traditions in international affairs that gave us our reputation in the 20th century.

Not at all. I see Stephen Harper.

 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

“Owning the podium” is a genuinely stupid expression, full of the kind of unthinking arrogance that is the precise opposite of the character-building qualities so often claimed for sports.

Of course, that phrase is the official Olympics jingle of the politician the Globe endorsed in the last election, so politics play a role in your repeating it.

And, please, sports, while they can entertain and sometimes thrill, cannot “inspire” anyone, unless the person being inspired happens to think in the tired clichés of this sad editorial writer.

Pathetic language, but definitely in keeping with the new low standards for Globe editorials.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

 

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY RORY GILFILLAN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAILRory Gilfillan’s words are quite unpleasant and more than a little confused.

First, if you take his basic principle of only celebrating the outstanding, it seems to me that you must logically extend it to all areas of activity.

In schools, in the arts, and in the sciences. And that necessarily implies authorities picking and choosing who should pursue what. In the U.S. they do this with floods of money and privilege, and in China they do this with state authority.

That general attitude results in America, a true social Darwinist society.

Second, while everyone likes being astonished by the fabulously gifted, there are many small pleasures in enjoying the efforts of the less gifted.

Third, I just do not regard sports in general as all that important. For those that do enjoy them, fine, but for society to use many precious resources only to groom and praise those with talented bodies gives you the sense of contemporary China towards sports, a sense not completely different to that which prevailed under the Third Reich.

Yes, it is nice to see gold medals, but really when the Olympics or any other big event is over, two weeks later the beer-fed emotion is forgotten and a hell of a lot of money has been spent on very little of substance. It still all reduces to a modern version of Rome’s “bread and circuses.”

People like Mr. Gilfillan would have us believe there is more to it, but truly there isn’t.

Perhaps almost better the many celebrations of small victories than the big blow-out for a few physically talented people.