How did we get to this point?

How do we get back to a society based on common sense?

I have been taking graduate university courses for the past few years - an Advanced Valuation certificate at New York University; a graduate diploma in Mining Law, Finance and Sustainability at Western University and (currently) a Master’s Degree in Securities Law at Osgoode Hall Law School. The experience has allowed me to listen to and occasionally speak with brilliant younger minds who are advancing their own educations presumably to advance their careers and economic prospects. It has been an enlightening and valuable interlude in the life of this old man.

In my application forms for more than one of these programs, I am required to choose my “pronouns”. WTF? The Canadian census just completed identified that .33% of Canadian “identify” as transgender or non-binary, whatever “identify” or “non-binary” means. When did we come to believe it was necessary to compel the speech of 99.67% of society to make 0.33% of our citizens feel special? How did we get to the point where “gender” is something subjective? Were the delivery room physicians and medical staff part of a grand conspiracy to coerce us to believe we are something we are not?

How did we get to the point where our Prime Minister believes we need to bridle free speech on the internet? When did we need a Cabinet Minister whose job it is to stifle freedom of speech?

How did we arrive at the point where if you are born a Caucasian man you are labeled a racist or white supremacist? Was there some grand conspiracy that made us “oppressors” and everyone else “oppressed”? What force of nature endowed us with “white privilege” and denied everyone not “white” any opportunity in life? When did we reach the point where we had to accept as “fact” a statement of someone else’s ideology? When did the fact of our birth make us vile, odious creatures bent on suppressing the economic success of anyone else? Are white men “oppressors” endowed with “white privilege” in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt or China?

The great insight I received from my several years of recent graduate studies is that the classes are filled with people who are men, women, black, brown, Asian, and from all countries of the globe who were kind enough to keep their sexual orientation to themselves. Looking at the eager faces of young people engaged in advanced education I had to ask myself which of these people were “oppressed” by my mere existence?

When did it start to make sense to make talented young women compete in sports against biological males as if those males enjoyed no biological advantage in terms of strength and speed?

When did “diversity” come to mean differences we cannot change instead of ideas we can exchange and debate? When did “inclusion” come to mean pretending criminals were victims of their circumstances and not driven by any evil intent? When did law enforcement come to mean letting murderers, rapists, thieves and bullies run free on our streets after their arrests by eliminating cash bail and letting suspects free on their own recognizance? When did “freedom” come to mean looting a CVS drug store while a policeman was present who ignored the theft since theft of less than $1,000 was a non-prosecutable misdemeanour in Los Angeles?

What happened to our society which used to value its citizens based on their character and contribution rather than the colour of their skin, their race or religion or how and with whom they preferred to engage sexually? When did we decide it was essential to ask first grade children to study a version of history that distorts the slavery that existed 400 years ago pretty well everywhere on Earth as a uniquely North American phenomenon and when did we decide we needed taxpayers today to compensate First Nations or Black citizens today for wrongs allegedly inflicted on their ancestors hundreds of years ago by people unrelated to us? Have any of the left wing activists spouting this nonsense done enough research to know that there are more slaves today than at any time in the 1600’s, most of them in parts of Africa?

When did we conclude First Nations people relegated to the squalor and poverty of a reserve system we created to keep them from success had a special ability to protect our environment when in the condition we put them they aren’t even able to protect themselves from drug abuse, domestic violence or disease? When did we conclude the hereditary leaders of corrupt First Nations who steal from their own communities are capable of “self governance”?

When did we reach the point in Canada where the mayor of our largest city thinks it makes sense to rename Dundas Street at a cost of $6 million and accuse Henry Dundas of promoting slavery when he was the first member of the United Kingdom establishment to work to end it? When did it make sense to vilify the fathers of Confederation or rename parks, schools and universities to eliminate our history based on flawed views that our ancestors were evil?

Canada needs to wake up and put an end to “woke”. We can start by throwing the left wing politicians who promote this nonsense out of Ottawa and start rebuilding a Canada we can be proud of. We are a long way from that today.