Snowfall Tally for Ottawa Airport – Up to Winter 2009-2010

Highway of Heroes

In Ontario, when a Canadian soldier dies for his country in Afghanistan they touch Canadian soil at Canadian Forces Base Trenton. From there, a funeral procession leaves the base and heads to Toronto, Ontario taking our departed heroes to the Centre for Forensic Sciences. Along the 172km path of Highway 401 people fill the overpasses to show their support, waving Canadian flags and signs, in a sort of paying their respects to the fallen and their families.

The Ontario “Highway of Heroes” Petition to Ontario Ministry of Transportation was created by members of Milnet.ca and written by James Forbes (forcerecon85@hotmail.com).

On August 24, 2007 it was announced that Ontario’s provincial government consulted the federal government, municipalities along the highway and the Royal Canadian Legion and on September 7, 2007 it was official, a stretch of the 401 would be renamed ‘Highway of Heroes’. The highway will not lose its official designation as the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway, but signs would be erected designating the route as the Highway of Heroes.

The Song ‘Highway of Heroes’ was recorded as an extension of the emotion expressed when thousands of Canadians voiced their desired to honour our fallen soldiers by having a part of the 401 renamed. Hopefully, when the song is heard, it will remind everyone to take a moment and reflect on what is truly important in their lives.

Here’s a suggestion for Canadians

The Liberals seem hell bent on forcing an election.  They’ve done this a number of times in the past few years.  If they force an election when Parliament returns – we will have spent over $1.2 billion on elections that haven’t changed things subtantively.  In other words, we will have wasted $1.2 billion in taxpayers money to soothe the egos of the parliamentarians.

I understand the concept of Her Majesties Loyal Opposition but we have opposition parties who have voted down everything that the government has proposed even if it was good for the country and was something they would propose.  The NDP has voted against the government over 72 times in this period just because they can, they know that the bill will pass and their constituents will benefit anyhow.  I do not call that being a responsible representative of the people.

The Bloc is Quebec centric and couldn’t give a hoot about Canada so they are taking money for doing nothing good for the country.  Soon a large number of NDP and Bloc members will be vested in their generous pension plan – but they need to be MP’s until around July 2010 – whoops, they seem to have screwed up.

It would be entirely appropriate to work with the governing party cooperatively, now they won’t get everything they want but there would be pressure on the government to respond to this cooperation otherwise the people would let them know they are jerks. 

My solution and suggestion is that we send a bill to each MP for $1 million to be paid out of their personal funds so that we can fund this next election and not waste tax dollars to get the same results.  We are getting tired of living crisis to crisis when it’s just for the vanity of the political leaders.

If they do force an election  over nothing we should punish the opposition parties severely and throw those bums out on their respective asses.

Doctor Who – Waters of Mars

The following are previews of this episode which aired November 15th, 2009.

From Wikipedia:  “The story is set on Mars^[10] and the Doctor will be joined by a new companion named Adelaide, played by Lindsay Duncan, who is head of the Mars base.^[3] Producer Nikki Wilson described the character as “the Doctor’s cleverest and most strong-minded companion yet.”^[6] The most recent trailer shows a massive Terrarium of life on the planet’s surface, and a mysterious alien which infects its victims using a water compound it creates.

In the BBC trailer, the Doctor says that the events ongoing on Mars are a fixed point in time and must not be changed.

This promises to be a darker episode.

Torchwood – Season 3

For once, Torchwood episodes will be shown in North America at the same time as in Great Britain.  Season 3 (5 episodes) start on Monday July 20 and run for 5 nights.  That’s all we get, hopefully there will be more Torchwood soon.

Children of Earth

Day One An ordinary day becomes one of terror, as every single child in the world stops and delivers a message to all the governments of Earth: “We are coming.” As a trap closes around Captain Jack, the sins of the past are returning and long-forgotten events threaten to reveal an awful truth. Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto are helpless as events escalate to such a degree that mankind faces the end of civilization itself.

Day Two As the new Torchwood adventure continues, members of the team are hunted down, Britain risks becoming a rogue state, and only one person holds the key to Torchwood’s salvation.

Day Three The eyes of the world turn to Britain and members of Torchwood must battle to protect their own families, as the fight gets personal.

Day Four The eyes of the world turn to Britain and members of Torchwood must battle to protect their own families, as the fight gets personal.

Day Five As violence erupts and anarchy reigns, an ordinary housing estate becomes a battleground where the future will be decided. Torchwood is defenseless – can Gwen Cooper save the day?

The Torchwood Team

Gwen

Jack and Gwen try to find out what is causing the children to behave as they are.

Like other families with children, Ianto’s sister and her family are powerless in the face of the 456.

Every single child on Earth stops and unbeknownst to them, become messengers for an alien race.

Why I hate BELL Mobility

I have been having issues with Bell over the years with poor to non-existent customer service.  I moved my home phone about a year and half ago and have not regretted it at all.  I had a contract with Bell Mobility that terminated April 30, 2009.  I couldn’t wait to get away from them.  On April 1, I moved to another service provider.  I needed only to pay my last months/final bill which was on pre-authorized credit card.

Bell Mobilty’s solution was to charge me $100 plus GST and PST for terminating my contract, as for the outstanding service amount I can’t say exactly because their pay ahead system is a bit confusing.  I thought that I had paid up to my service date which was around the 22nd of each month and only owed the remaining 8 days.

They proceeded to bill my credit card for the excess amount.  As soon as I was notified of the penalty I was on their case and they said it was a mistake.  I have been trying since then to get my money back.  Their billing system only work once a month.  So this month I get a bill that says that I have a credit of $1113 coming and that it’s pre-authorized but nothing happened.  I called and they said I should get my credit next month – July/August.  This is a reason why I despise this company.  They have now promised to send me a cheque in a couple of weeks, we’ll see.

Since I left Bell for my home phone I have received monthly addressed junk mail from Bell trying to entice me back.  Annoying and a waste of money for them.  When I moved to a new cell provider, I received 3 calls from Bell (I know their number) but no one was there – dead calls.  They deserve to fail.  They have no idea how to take care of their customers.  I could talk about my wasted adventure trying out ISDN from Bell but suffice to say they couldn’t get it to work and didn’t bother telling me while I was waiting for a service response.  Losers!  Then there was the issue of a wiring problem in the house and they wanted an exorbitant fee to even come and address it – found a cheaper and better solution.

My new service supplier isn’t perfect, there was always going to be service issues but it’s how they handle them and to date they have surpassed Bell by a very wide margin.

Bell Sucks.

Intolerance

It is very discouraging to see the growing levels of intolerance in the world.  The latest incident in our country was at the Fete National when people tried to shout down two english acts (presenting bilingual sets) at a concert in Quebec.  Several sponsors of the event also withdrew their support when the acts were announced.  I sense this is an example of what a separate Quebec would be like, intolerance for anything other than french language.  It’s not like these groups were the major component of the entertainment package.  Even now, the language police harass businesses about signs that have multiple languages if the french is not bigger by a certain factor.  There’s protecting a language and then there’s intolerance towards anyone or anything that isn’t french.  If a business chose to have all of it’s signage in chinese, it’s indicating that  it is catering to a specific group and not the population as a whole and really what is wrong with that?

In Iran, we have a deadly form of intolerance.  I heard that in one situation there were 3 million more votes than there were voters, if this was close to the truth then the results of that election can be questioned.  The hard liners are using extreme methods to suppress any opposition because the will not tolerate any change of the status quo.  Iran is a country that was the cradle of civilization and should be a major player in the middle east.  Unfortunately, they could be  a force for good of the world but they seem to be bent on being a force for radical and intolerant views and their actions are destabilizing the area.

Back in Canada, Human Rights commissions were created to protect the rights of the minorities.  They have taken that to an extreme and now they are infringing on our basic freedoms such as free speech and ideas.  This is political correctness taken to the extreme.  It appears that some have found ways of milking this system for profit by filing and wining questionable cases.  The actions put a chill on free speech because it ends up costing the speaker a lot of money defending themselves.

In the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along”.

Winter 2008-2009 Snowfall for Ottawa, Ont.

Here is a table Showing the past 3 winters by month, using  Environment Canada data for the Ottawa Airport.  There hasn’t been measurable amounts of snow in June in the past 20 years of data.  Data revised as per EC Climate Data Online Monthly Observation Data -June 24, 2009.

Source: Environment Canada Climate Data Online. 

	Snowfall by Month plus YTD Current
		08-09/06-07		08/09-07/08
		Snowfall in mm
	2006-2007	+/-	2007-2008	+/-	2008-2009
Jul	0.0		0.0		0.0
Aug	0.0		0.0		0.0
Sep	0.0		0.0		0.0
Oct	0.2	11.0	0.0	11.2	11.2
Nov	0.6	24.6	59.8	(34.0)	25.8
Dec	27.6	57.6	121.0	(35.8)	85.2
Jan	31.4	49.0	42.4	38.4	80.8
Feb	30.6	(15.8)	89.9	(74.5)	15.4
Mar	31.6	(28.4)	113.4	(110.2)	3.2
Apr	28.4	(24.0)	6.2	(1.8)	4.4
May	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Jun	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Total	150.4	282.3	432.7	(206.7)	226.0

We surrender.

Since 9/11 people in the western world are obsessed with security and in some cases have an irrational fear of terrorist acts.  In the total scheme of things, we tend to get very excited about incidents that are not always that significant.  That is not to say that we don’t need to be on alert but it’s how far should we go and what should we give up to attain that security.

1. Most important was to protect the front line health workers and wash your hands frequently.
2. It’s all done in the name of security so we just let it go.

Crossing the border is also getting harder all the time and the customs authorities have extra ordinary powers that they exercise as well.  There are a lot of stories about abuse here as well.  It’s because of security so anything they do is ok even if there was not just cause for their actions.  Give people absolute power and they will abuse it because they can.

The police are starting to show signs of being above the law since they are part of the administration of the “law”.  We seem to be seeing more and more instance where police are involved with excessive force and are not being held accountable.  It seems that they are able to break laws but they don’t have to face the consequences.  They, in many cases, can’t even be removed from the job.  Their union fights any sort of discipline even when the evidence is overwhelming that they should be dismissed and charged.  They can be violent and just flash they id and badge and they are driven home by a responding officer while they accuse the victim of causing the problem in the first place.  It’s the concept of power corrupting individual and institutions.  They are trampling on individual rights in the name of “National Security”.  Yes they have a tough job but taking away our rights in the name of security is not the answer.

It won’t be long before we will have to face the facts that we live in a police state with no real personal freedoms and we surrendered them without a wimper because we were afraid of something that really wasn’t as bad as the solution.

NHL needs to shake their collective heads.

Gary Bettman, NHL boss, hates Canada.  At least you think that it just might be true.  The league did little to protect the Winnipeg and Quebec fanchises from moving to the U.S. yet they  seem to be fighting every possible move of a bankrupt U.S. team back to Canada.  What are we in Canada supposed to make of this?

How is it that New York can have 3 franchises while southern Ontario cannot have more than one.  This fascination with U.S. cities that have no history nor experience with Hockey having NHL teams while viable markets in Canada are ignored.  The NHL U.S. Strategy hasn’t, doesn’t and will not work.  Bowling on TV will outdraw hockey in most US markets.   It’s barely a niche sport in the US.  Hockey is an important component in many countries in the world besides Canada, for instance Russia and Sweden come to mind.

The league seems to not want to deal with a Canadian who has the money yet it has dealt with a large number of questionable owners in the U.S.

I find it discouraging that the league rolls its eyes if there is a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup playoffs since they can’t sell the TV rights in the States even though there wasn’t any interest in the first place.  Heaven forbid that there is a final between 2 Canadian teams, they might have to outlaw that possibility.  It’s like we are second class in the leagues eyes.

It might give us a complex or maybe we should learn to love bowling and invest our entertainment dollars in that sport instead of Hockey.  The league won’t miss the Canadian fans at all.

Doctor Who – Planet of the Dead

The Easter Special of Doctor Who was a hoot.  If you want to view a synopsis of the story you can go here.  I think these specials are meant to be fun and keep us involved in the Doctor Who franchise.  It’s got a few good lines like “you look human” and the Doctor responds “you look time lord”.    Malcolm was a good bumbling genius sort of what you expect for someone who must think outside the box.  The U.N.I.T. Captain seemed a bit extreme but she did her job.  Lady Christina was a good foil for the Doctor and demonstrated brains and beauty.  Some of the more serious viewers were disapointed by the story but to me it was more interesting than the Christmas special.

 

If you want to follow some Torchwood news you can go here:  http://torchwoodtv.blogspot.com/

Highway of Heroes in Pictures

From a powerpoint presentation making the rounds.

Arrival of first Soldier

Honour Guard claiming the body

Procession Leaves Trenton for Toronto

Trenton pays its respects

Firemen honouring the procession

Police Stop to Honour Heroes

One of 50 Overpasses where people gather to salute Heroes

Greetiing our Heroes

Another overpass, another tribute

Not just on overpasses do people show respect

Oshawa greets the procession

Durham Police honour procession

Ajax says thank you

An individual shows his respect.

The Final Salute in Toronto before arriving at the coroners office.

Highway of Heroes-The people say Thank You!

I recently received a great powerpoint presentation showing how we as Canadians have made the Highway of Heroes an important element in our honouring and paying tribute to our fallen soldiers.  The average Canadian was not fully aware of the sacrifices that our military have made until Afghanistan.  The governments of the day had no use for a military but time and circumstances proved this neglect to be horribly wrong.  I served in the RCHA in the early 70’s and it was a joke, we had a regimental strength of around 176 men when it should have been over 1,100 yet we had the same roles and responsibilities of a full regiment.  We were part of the A.C.E. Mobile Force for Norway and also member of the C.A.S.T. Combat Group which was responsible for re-enforcing ACE.  In other words, we were supposedly replacing ourselves which would have been  a bit difficult since we’d have been dead or wounded to require re-enforcement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afghanistan has brought respectability for the Canadian Military and a sense of pride for the people of Canada.  It was public pressure that brought about the designation of the stretch of Highway 401 from Trenton to Toronto to be known as the Highway of Heroes.  For it is along that path that our fallen are repatriated to Canada and transported to the Ontario Coroner prior to being returning the remains to the families.  The people have spoken and speak everytime we lose a combatant.  As of today we have lost 116 service personnel both men and women.  We honour their ultimate sacrifice and pay tribute to the family members who have lost their loved ones.

Members of Fire Station 44 in Barrhaven salute returning fallen soldier Cpl. Kenneth Chad O'Quinn on the Fallowfield-Strandherd Bridge just outside of Barrhaven, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Viewer photo submitted by: Kellie Jennifer Adams

Ottawa is home to the National Military Cemetery at Beechwood and many families are choosing to bury their fallen loved ones there.  It is a beautiful place for a cemetery.  Now the Ottawa Fire Department has chosen to follow the lead of the Highway of Heroes and they provide firefighters and police officers along 12 overpasses of  Highway 416 and 417 on the route to Beechwood where the soldier will be interred.  District Chief Dave Capstick said firefighters will make the effort to show the respect and solidarity they deserve. 

The U.S. has adopted a similar policy to Canada’s on repatriation and finally make it possible to show the flag draped coffins if the families allow it.  That gives the ordinary people the opportunity to sit up, take notice and show their apprciation and sorry for the fallen.  A recent movie on HBO called “Taking Chance” is based upon  A personal narrative by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl (you can read his story here). 

The Highway of Heroes and the actions encountered by LCol Strobl show that the people understand and want to honour the fallen who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Lest We Forget

I am a soldier far away from home.

My 15 year old grandson Josh wrote this poem:

I am a soldier far away from home.

I wonder if I will live to see tomorrow.

I hear gunfire and explosions.

I see my friends die in front of me.

I want to see my family and live happily.

I am a soldier far away from home.

I pretend that someday peace will come.

I feel horrible because of all of the lives I have taken.

I touch my guns trigger without hesitation.

I worry about my family and how they are doing.

I cry every night from what I’ve seen the previous day.

I am a soldier far away from home.

I understand that what I am doing is for the greater good.

I say what I’m doing is for justice.

I dream of a world where everything is peaceful.

I try to enforce justice and make peace come.

I hope one day peace will prevail. 

I am a soldier far away from home.

Canada’s Contribution To the World

***Revised post!!***

As we closer to remembrance day, I received a version of this story in an Email and thought it was relevant.  It still is but as one comment came in it goes back to the friendly fire incident when we lost the 4 soldiers from the Pats.  So I did as suggested and found the original article.  We’ve been supporting the Afghan mission for almost 7 years pulling more than our weight in NATO – why is it that some countries won’t let their soldiers out of their bases lest they be in harms way.

The country the world forgot – again

By Kevin Myers

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 21/04/2002

UNTIL the deaths last week of four Canadian soldiers accidentally killed by a US warplane in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops were deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will now bury its dead, just as the rest of the world as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.

It seems that Canada’s historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price which Canada pays for sharing the North American Continent with the US, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: it seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.

Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10 per cent of Canada’s entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.

Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular memory as somehow or other the work of the “British”. The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third largest navy and the fourth largest air force in the world.

The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign which the US had clearly not participated – a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.

So it is a general rule that actors and film-makers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality – unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer British. It is as if in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakeably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.

Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves – and are unheard by anyone else – that 1 per cent of the world’s population has provided 10 per cent of the world’s peace-keeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peace-keepers on earth – in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peace-keeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.

Yet the only foreign engagement which has entered the popular non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace – a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the US knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost.

This weekend four shrouds, red with blood and maple leaf, head homewards; and four more grieving Canadian families know that cost all too tragically well.

Canada

Lest we forget.