Toronto is burning! An historic section of Queen and Bathurst St in old Toronto went up in smoke yesterday; the collapse of the buildings obliterating century-old businesses and peoples’ homes. An area served by Toronto’s Red Rocket Street Car line, in my more night-owl prone days I frequented this neighbourhood often to visit the local theatres. A nearby downtown neighbourhood has been suffering from an infestation of bedbugs; poverty, illness and ignorance serving to aid the spread of this plague. Termites are yet another menace eating away at the fabric of Toronto’s wooden heritage. Fire, insects, and disease may bedevil those in poverty but left untreated they will spread to richer neighbourhoods as well.
I missed making an entry yesterday as a result of a road trip to Whitby to order the Roadtrek RV I plan to make my home for the next couple years. The trip out went smoothly as I encountered only light traffic in making the drive—just as I was about to leave I had the presence of mind to come back to my computer to make sure I knew exactly where I was going. I’ll never pretend to understand dealerships but one way or another the contract is signed and my home is on the way. On the return journey traffic was thicker but it kept moving even when we encountered a sudden snow squall. Why do people insist on bunching up in those kinds of traffic conditions? Keeping a safe distance from the car ahead is an exercise in watching others determined to occupy that space just to get a few metres in front. Being tailgated is a hazard for which there seems to be no cure.
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Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The abuses to which private schools are prone have been in the news since the days of Dickens. The list of orphanages, residential schools, religious institutions, sports venues and communities where mental, physical, and sexual cruelty have been practised seems to just keep growing. Wherever people in authority deal with vulnerable clients; the opportunity for predatory individuals to practise abuse exists. Prisons, refuge camps, and oppressive regimes such as existed in South Africa are institutionalized examples of this phenomenon. Mount Cashel in Newfoundland; Cornwall Ontario; the Catholic, Anglican, and United Church native residential school system; the Butterbox Babies of Nova Scotia; Upper Canada College; Maple Leaf Gardens; A priest at Cape Croker, Ontario…. All have been examples of the malaise and society has not dealt kindly with whistle-blowers. In the case of church-run native schools the government’s objective in obliterating an entire culture was blatant. The fallout has bankrupted many church organizations and traumatized an entire generation of First Nations Peoples. Making restitution for past wrongs in this case has joined the Land Claims process in dragging on interminably. For those involved there are lasting psychological scars; for the rest of us endlessly repeated news reports on the subject just seem to breed ennui.
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