One Angry Canadian

Look. In the past few weeks I've seen more crap than I ever thought possible. On Facebook, if you can believe it. Or perhaps that explains it. I'm not sure.

Whatever, I've decided is that in this Information Age, far too many people are completely and perhaps willfully uninformed. Also gullible. Not to mention prejudiced. Maybe bigoted.

I've seen doctored Ontario drivers licenses with a burka-covered person pictured. 

A minute or so wandering around the Interweb revealed the original image on the Ontario Government's website - a John Doe, it seems. Have people never heard of Photoshop?

I've seen claims that refugees are getting tons of cash.

A FederalGovernment website actually mentions those claims and shows exactly what refugees DO get.  An article in The Tyee also covers the "issue".

Some people seem to think that anyone in a niqab can walk into a passport office (drivers licensing office, etc) and get an ID photo taken just the way they are. Every province (I checked 3, just to be sure) has clear requirements about what is acceptable in these photos. And no, you can't wear your ski mask, niqab, goggles, glasses, face scarf.... Honestly. How dumb can some people be?

How many people just believe any crap they see or hear? What happened to skepticism? I mean, 97% of climate scientists say that humans are the main cause of climate change and immediately we have all sorts of doubting Thomases popping up saying: “Nah, they can't be right. They're making it up. I'm just not convinced.” Some of them are actually running as Conservative candidates in this election (Okanagan NorthShuswap).

But you show them a picture of a drivers license with someone wearing a niqab and they're outraged. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN IN CANADA, they say? It's against our traditions and values.

Someone needs to teach these clods about Google.

Canada actually doesn't have a really good record on things like this, you know. We refused entry to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany (one immigration official was quoted as saying “none is too many”). We turned away Sikhs fleeing the Indian sub-continent (the people some a$$holes call “ragheads”). The Conservative government of the day AND the National Citizen's Coalition (an organization Mr Harper belonged to at the time) fought the introduction of the turban in the RCMP a couple of decades ago. They lost that legal battle, just like they're losing now, and yet the sky hasn't fallen and I'll bet none of you have been pulled over by an RCMP member wearing a turban. And so what if you were?

So, that's where we are in 2015. All the important things that we could be discussing like adults. Things that really matter to this country and it's citizens.  Health care, the economy, prisons, Senate reform, electoral change, education, our military, our veterans, child poverty, homelessness.....

And what we're spending our time doing is listening to a vocal number bleat on about “Canadian values and traditions”, the niqab, how they're "fighting against misogyny” blah, blah, blah.

Maybe Canada doesn't really deserve a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Maybe we don’t deserve to live in a pseudo-democracy. Let's see if I'm right on October 19^th.

[This rant approved by one really annoyed Canadian who is really tired of all this Bullsh*t]