Week 122.
It is like living in the disorganized wardrobe department of a Hallowe’en remake of The Cat in the Hat. Elder Advice really needs to find out which company manufactures those orange and black striped construction barrels. And invest heavily in it. After all, every highway, byway, laneway, pathway - pretty much anyway - in this country is littered with them. Even if the work they warn of never seems to be underway.
As Gilly and I walked to the river yesterday to consider what elder advice to offer this week, I suggested that the scene above - which has greeted us each time we have stepped out the front door for the past 18 months - is a perfect metaphor for the state of things. Even if not broken, much is plainly not working as intended and no one in authority seems to have either the will or a way to repair it. The only solution seems to be to ring it with those TC 54 traffic barrels to keep the public away, hope the problem will solve itself, and then go back to leaning on the shovels.
This past week, a number of Afghans who worked with the Canadian embassy in Kabul and who are still trapped in Afghanistan, hiding from the Taliban, commenced legal action against the federal government. They allege, with enormous justification, that Ottawa has been dragging its feet on their immigration claims. The action is a painful reminder of our ignominious departure from that country which, among other things, showed that the entire machinery of the Canadian government is incapable of fulfilling the most basic of tasks.
As Elder Advice said at the time1, there was more than sufficient opportunity for any competent western government to make and implement the necessary plans to ensure the timely, safe and orderly exit of its citizens and all those Afghans at risk because of their service. Afghans who helped us prosecute a twenty-year war in their country. Who were promised protection but, instead, were provided with paperwork. Who were promised extrication for themselves and their families but, instead, were left directly in harm’s way. And the ignoble amnesia about our obligations to them, already in evidence in August 2021, continues almost two years later. As Ottawa leans on its shovel.
But that lawsuit is not the source of Elder Advice’s apoplexy this week. A client of mine is a federal government employee who recently got a ticket for parking in a disabled space. He complained bitterly: “Why is erectile dysfunction insufficient?” Anyway, when news of the Afghans’ lawsuit broke, he sent Elder Advice a copy of a 2022 Global Affairs Canada memorandum approving the inexcusable expenditure of taxpayer money on a plaque commemorating those responsible for shuttering the Canadian embassy in Afghanistan and evacuating its staff. The plaque will apparently read, in relevant part: "This plaque pays tribute to all the government of Canada employees who contributed to this heroic effort." Elder Advice does not know where this delusional, self-congratulatory obscenity will be displayed, but you may safely assume he will be there the following day with a hammer and chisel, to make some needed revisions, say: “This plaque pays tribute to the people of Afghanistan. We apologize to you, unreservedly. The chaotic, incompetent and cowardly way the government of Canada abandoned, in particular, those of you who helped us, was shameful and inexcusable. We could and should have done better. We have no excuse. We are trying to do better in Ukraine. But time will tell whether we make a pathetic shambles of that as well.”
If there ever was a place plainly not working as intended and deserving of a perpetual ring of traffic barrels, surely it is Ottawa.
Elder Advice had barely finished that rant when he began a tirade about this week’s deplorable, paternalistic report of the not-so-special rapporteur on China’s blatant interference in Canada’s democratic institutions. But rather than risk an aneurysm. he decided to save it for another day. And anyway, Gilly was showing signs of concern at all the yelling. I really need to adopt her canine philosophy: More Wag, Less Bark … and, of course, no mention of high-hatted cats.
Elder Advice 73
I drive by the ‘construction’ site at the intersection of your street and Bloor every day and haven’t seen anyone working. That explains the lack of progress. The only possibility is that they are attempting to link the as yet unopened Eglington subway (under ‘construction’ for 15 years) to your street. We wait with bated breath.