…thanks Kevin for another monster on Monday, March 17, 2025
Monster Monday – No Explanation Necessary
2
Category Archives: Politics
Monster Monday – Going Political
…Kevin just had to go there
London – Day 3 – Part One
…one of my favourite days
One of my colleagues from bread making suggested that while we were in London we might want to check out the Highgate Cemetery where numerous famous authors, actors and politicians were laid to rest. It sounded interesting and it was an opportunity to take our first double decker bus ride.
We sat at the front of the bus for the best views of the neighbourhoods as we ascended the uphill climb to Waterlow Park.
It was a short walk through the park along paved pathways and over small footbridges to get to Highgate Cemetery.
Highgate Cemetery is divided into two separate areas: the East Cemetery is open daily to the public for a small entrance fee and one is able to roam through the grounds freely; the West Cemetery is only open to guided tours (unfortunately no tours were available on the day we went).
The eastern part of Highgate is a fascinating place to visit. The tombstones and gravesites along the paved pathways are very well cared for while deeper into the woods many stones are overgrown with ivy and falling over. In some ways the latter sites are the more interesting ones to look at. Many of the inscriptions have been worn away with time but some are still legible and give some insight into the lives of the families buried there.
One of the most famous ‘residents’ of Highgate is Karl Marx and most visitors who go there specifically look for his tombstone. He was originally buried in his wife’s grave on a small side path, but in 1956 a new monument featuring a gigantic bust by the socialist sculptor Laurence Bradshaw was installed in a more prominent location. Funds were raised by the Marx Memorial Fund, set up by the Communist Party in 1955.
It would take me too long to list all the famous people who are buried at Highgate. Many soldiers who died in both world wars are also buried here and the cemetery continues to serve the residents of north London to this day. George Michael, the English singer and songwriter who died in 2016 is buried in the west cemetery at Highgate.
Here are a few more gravesites that you may or may not recognize.
….to be continued.
What Happened in 1917?
….in Canada
1917 is often referred to as the worst year in Canadian history. In that year we saw the highest casualty figures for Canada during WWI. The death toll at Vimy Ridge alone was 3598 with another 7000 injured.
The city of Halifax was destroyed when two ships collided in Halifax Harbour, killing 1900 civilians and injuring 9000 in a town of 50 000. It was the worst man-made destruction of a city until 1945.
The conscription policy divided the country in one of the most bitter elections ever in 1917 but on the upside some women were granted the right to vote if they had a husband, father or brother who served in the war.
It was also the year that the Nation Hockey League (NHL) was established but not until an American team won the Stanley Cup for the first time earlier in the year. Tom Thomson, a famous Canadian artist, also died that year under mysterious circumstances.
Today I went to Montgomery’s Inn to sign up as a volunteer. While I was there I happened upon a wonderful art display of paintings depicting what happened in Canada in 1917.
Daily Post: Three Wishes for Our New Prime Minister
…..today’s Daily Prompt is Generous Genies
Remember those lovely genies who grant wishes? Well, you’re one and you’ve just been emancipated from your restrictive lamp. You can give your three wishes to whomever you want. Who do you give your three wishes to, and why?
My three wishes go to our newly elected Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. Even though he won a majority government he has his critics and many are watching and waiting for him to make a mistake.
Photo courtesy of: http://i.cbc.ca/1.3303991.1446661609!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/trudeau-speaks-from-rideau-hall.jpg
- My first wish is that you keep your promise to bring 25 000 Syrian refugees to Canada. If you can’t keep your promise to have them here by the end of February I’m okay with that as long as they arrive no later than May.
- My second wish is that you stay cool and calm under difficult and stressful situations, because you will face many in your term as Prime Minister, and not make hasty or rash decisions when under pressure.
- My third wish for you is to maintain a normal and loving relationship with your wife and children while you are in office. I know there are times when you will be apart but make the best of the times when you’re together.
Photo courtesy of: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/thumb/msid-49964566,width-640,resizemode-4/canadian-prime-minister-justin-trudeau.jpg
Share Your World 2015 – Week 43
…debating, tea, strongest sense and a title for my autobiography
Four more great questions from Cee. I had to give two of them a bit of extra thought.
If you were on a debate team, what general subject would you relish debating?
Seeing we’ve just come through a very long election campaign, by Canadian standards, I’d have to say that I enjoy debating about politics. I’m actually pretty passionate about it and I find people who make rash statements, quote political ads as facts and make sweeping generalizations very frustrating.
What’s your strongest sense?
No question that my strongest sense is visual. I have good colour sense and I love to explore the smallest detail in my photographs. My husband thinks that I have selective hearing and my sense of smell is very weak. I love the taste of most foods but I’m not sure I could pass a sommelier test.
What would you name the autobiography of your life?
This is probably the question that stumped me the most. Here are a few titles that I might consider:
Learning to Appreciate the Small Things in Life
Being Loved, Giving Love, Loving to Learn
My Life – It’s Not What I Thought it Would Be
Happy Being Ordinary
Always Looking for the Next Adventure
List your favorite flavors or types of tea.
My favourite tea at the moment is a good strong orange pekoe tea from Ireland or Britain. I still enjoy a good cup of spicy Chai and in herbal teas I like anything with ginger and lemon.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I pretty much wrote about what I was grateful for from last week on Sunday so I won’t repeat what I’ve already said but if you missed it you can check it out here. One other thing I am grateful for is being able to work with such wonderful people. As you may or may not know, teachers, here in Ontario, are going through some pretty tough negotiations and we’ve been without a contract for 14 months. Everyone is getting pretty frustrated and even though we’re still in the classroom doing our jobs and still running extra-curricular activities for the kids, the media is relentless and the rumours are frightening. Needless to say tensions are high but for the most part people are supportive and forgiving.
For the rest of this week I’m looking forward to finishing up some of the art assignments in my classrooms so that I can display them in the halls and share them with you. I’m also looking forward to Hallowe’en. I have no idea what I’ll wear this year but I may go with a traditional costume. I’m glad that the 31st is on the Saturday. The weather is suppose to improve by then and I won’t have to rush home from work to carve out the pumpkin.
Here are a few more photos of the Farmers’ Market that I visited on Saturday and photos that I took on our walk.
Daily Prompt: Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Imagine, in great detail, an invention that could help reverse pollution — describe for us how your invention works and how it will help save the planet.
The inventions are already out there and the technology to make them happen also exists. Pollution is reversible. We can see it in our own backyards.
Twenty years ago, one could not swim in Lake Ontario because of the pollution. Today more and more beaches are once again open to the public for safe swimming in the summer. I think the beaches are probably even cleaner now than they were when I was a little girl in the 1950s. I remember the water being brown and filled with algae and seaweed.
Twenty years ago you couldn’t eat the fish from Lake Ontario because of the high mercury levels in the fish. Today fish from the lake is once again edible.
Twenty years ago air pollution from coal burning plants choked many European cities. Today harmful emissions have been greatly reduced and air quality has improved.
Twenty years ago many lakes in northern Ontario and other communities across Canada were suffering the affects of acid rain. Today these same lakes and bodies of water are coming back to life and supporting new growth of plants and fish populations are returning.
Does all of this mean that all is well on this Earth and that no more can be done? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. The good fight needs to continue. Many developing countries in the world continue to produce unacceptable levels of pollution that ultimately affects the entire world. Even the super powers need to do a better job.
So is there an invention that can put a stop to pollution or reverse it significantly? Like I said earlier, the inventions are already there. What we need now is the will and financing to make those changes and implement the technology that already exists. What we need are politicians and bureaucrats that are willing to take a leap of faith and make these things happen. It requires money to get these things off the ground. Fossil fuels are cheap but they won’t last forever and renewable energy is costly to start but once it’s in place and running the benefits will far outweigh the initial cost.
Wind Power-courtesy of Twin Wind Power. com
What we need is a machine that can reverse ‘conservative’ thinking and thinkers. A machine that will make each and everyone of us to see the benefits of reducing carbon emissions into our atmosphere. A machine that convinces our politicians and naysayers that developing renewable energy sources is the way to go to producing a cleaner and healthier world.
In the meantime we can continue to do what we’ve started and build on our individual efforts. Recycle, reuse and reduce. It sounds so simple but it’s a start and it’s something that each and everyone of us can do to make a difference.
One thing that my husband and I do, when possible, is get on our bikes to do our grocery shopping instead of using the car.
This post was inspired by Daily Prompt: Necessity is the Mother of Invention
The Ongoing Saga of Rob Ford
…..every day there’s something else
Courtesy of the Huffington Post
I’m embarrassed to be living in a city that can’t impeach its mayor. I try not to be too political with my blog but the actions and words of Rob Ford are beyond ridiculous. If you’ve been living in a cave for the last six months you may not know what I’m talking about but Toronto has been in the news worldwide ever since The Toronto Star and Gawker released the story that Rob Ford is on a video smoking crack cocaine. Of course the mayor stated that there was no video and that he did not smoke crack cocaine. That was back in May.
In June there was a raid on a housing complex in the west end of Toronto where numerous people were arrested on drug and weapons charges. The raid was called Project Traveller. Two weeks ago the police released some of the findings from the raid and Rob Ford was smack dap in the middle of it. The police chief said the alleged video was found and activities described earlier in the year were on the video.
Last week Rob Ford announced to the world that he had smoked crack cocaine. He apologized profusely but refused to leave the office of the mayor to get help. He said there were no more skeletons in his closet. Almost every day since that announcement new skeletons and more bizarre behaviour with the mayor have been revealed. Late night television hosts, such as Dave Letterman, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Leno have been having a hay day. The monologues are funny but embarrassing at the same time.
So far this is what he’s been caught doing:
– doing illegal drugs and keeping bad company, i.e., prostitutes at city hall, Oxycontin, cocaine, a joint in his desk and employing a driver with a criminal record
– angry outbursts – using racial and homophobic slurs, abusive language, using the ‘f’ bomb over and over again, and violent confrontations with staffers
– heavy drinking in public – incoherent late-night calls, sending his staff to buy him alcohol, guzzling vodka and then driving, appearing intoxicated at official public events
– erratic work habits – drunk at the office, arriving late and leaving early, missing meetings, coaching football instead of being at work, illicit meetings with known criminals and exchanging mysterious packages (contents unknown)
– making death threats while in a drunken stupor (caught on video)
Today the mayor came out of his office and commented to the media, using the most demeaning and vulgar language, about an allegation that came out in the news yesterday regarding a female staffer. My principal was driving to school when she heard the report live and she almost drove off the road. I don’t like to utter the words in public so I’ve posted the news clip for you. Of course later in the day he apologized again.
In council yesterday, 37 out of 42 councillors voted to ask Rob Ford to take a leave of absence. In our municipal system the mayor cannot be fired or impeached unless he is charged and convicted of a crime. Rob Ford refuses to step down, despite the polls. His support from the public diminishes every day and 75% of Torontonians polled want him out of office. Even the organizers of the this weekends Santa Claus Parade have asked the mayor not to attend and take part in the parade.
I think maybe it is time for the provincial government, along with the municipal government to put in place provisions to have the mayor ousted from power.
Drunk on the Danforth Courtesy of Macleans
Bike Culture in T.O.
…. wish we could be more like the Netherlands
Today city council will be discussing the future of the Bixi Bike Share program here in Toronto. It’s managing to cover it’s daily operating costs but can’t manage to pay back the loan. One of the problems here in Toronto is that the program isn’t big enough for a city of this size. We actually need to put more money into it to make it work properly.
My husband came across a great video from the Netherlands…..such a different bike culture. I wish we could be more like the Dutch but I can hear the arguments now….. “we’re too big, winters are too long, why should we subsidize bikes, bikes ’cause congestion'”, etc., etc… Our mayor actually believes that ‘bikes are a pain in the @$$’ and that there is a war against the car. Here’s a video of him when he was a councillor ranting against bike lanes.
My husband and I have used the Bixi bikes in Montreal, where the winters are usually colder and longer than here in Toronto. It’s a great system but I’m always concerned when I see people riding the Bixi bikes where I live in Toronto because there are no stations close by. I wonder if people realize that they’ll be paying more when they don’t return the bikes in the allotted time.
My son lives in the Netherlands and he rides his bike everywhere. As a tourist there’s a bit of a learning curve, especially in the bigger cities, when you’re walking and you have to cross a street. There are lanes for cars, bikes and pedestrians and sometimes special traffic lights for each lane but it works. One of the bonuses is that the citizens in the Netherlands are much healthier than North Americans. Here’s a great video from the Netherlands called King of the World.
Have a great day! Till tomorrow.
Organizing Timetables for Next Year
….it took six of us about five hours to pull it off
It’s been a tough day for me, emotionally. The press was very critical of teachers today. Apparently last Friday over 1600 teachers in the school board next door to the one I work for, called in sick and there weren’t enough supply teachers to cover all the absences. We knew that this might happen when the government took away sick days that teachers had saved over the years and cut back the total number of sick days a year that teachers could use. Any unused days can no longer be carried over to other years so as a result many teachers feel that they have to use them up or lose them.
The problem here is that your colleagues suffer when there aren’t enough supply teachers to cover your absence. Library classes get cancelled, MART teachers are pulled from their class and sometimes teachers lose their prep periods to cover these unsupervised classes. Listening to the radio this morning on the way to school and then again on the drive home left me feeling very depressed. Everyone who hates teachers seems to come out of the woodwork when stories like this are written. These haters paint all of us with the same brush. We were described as greedy, selfish, uncaring, liars and dishonest.
I also spent a great deal of time today dealing with the school that didn’t show up for our soccer game yesterday. The time I suggested yesterday didn’t suit them. At this point I really didn’t feel that I needed to make anymore concessions. They wanted me to play through my lunch hour and they even offered to pay for a supply teacher so that the schools could play in the afternoon. I’ve had to leave work for supply teachers in the past and it’s a great deal of work, especially for art. In the end I told them that there were no more options. They finally agreed to come at the time I had first posted.
After school today a group of us stayed behind at school to organize next year’s timetables. Our principal ordered in chicken and salad for dinner. Even though it took us 5 hours it seemed too easy this year. Either we’ve gotten really good at it or we’ve made a huge mistake that will be discovered in the next day or two. Even if it is correct I know that we won’t please everyone. Each teacher has been given the number of prep periods that they are entitled to but we know that some teachers won’t be happy with how they’ve been distributed. Some want them all in the morning, or all in the afternoon or evenly distributed or only in periods 1 or 5 and some people may not like who is delivering their prep or which subjects are being covered. The funny part is that anyone who wants to participate in organizing the timetables is welcome to join us but it’s always the same people every year who do the work.
Everyone is a bit on edge these days. Report cards are due next week and people are struggling to finish teaching the curriculum or marking tests and projects. We’ve just finished the grade 3 EQAO province wide testing and we we’re still preparing for the spring concert.
The highlight of my day today was teaching puberty to the grade 5 students. I actually volunteered to do this because I love teaching this part of the health curriculum. My principal thinks I’m crazy. I also loved my art class where most of my students were completely engaged in creating their Picasso portraits. I can’t wait to share them with you next week.
Cheers!
Mama Cormier 
