Are Cost of Living Subsidies for Northern Canada Too Expensive?

Do Canadian First Nations people in the north of Canada really have too high a cost of living?  Do we need to keep subsidizing them? I want to help answer this question.  Here is a comment to start us off.

Mike Zwarich Yesterday 11:00

You have to wonder whether it would help, just a bit, if they moved to a part of Canada where it didn't cost ridiculous amounts of money to ship things to them.
When it costs $20 for a jug of milk, you know you're not going to have the standard of living that we enjoy in most of Canada.

https://plus.google.com/+NationalPost/posts

(I cannot continue without addressing the Freudian slip calling the southern part of Canada "most of Canada".  It's not most of Canada.  Now I can go on.)

In answer not only to Mike Zwarich, but to everyone I know who is at a loss about why Indians and Eskimos (or First Nations people) continue to live in that part of Canada where milk is expensive, it is not because Canadians are a stupid people.  The answer is partly in the subject of  sovereignty. I may have to explain "sovereignty" later, in the meantime you could Google it if you didn't learn it in high school history.
Now, here is a quote from a government of Canada website about our sovereignty.

http://www.northernstrategy.gc.ca/sov/index-eng.asp

With 40% of our landmass in the territories, 162,000 kilometres of Arctic coastline and 25% of the global Arctic – Canada is undeniably an Arctic nation. The Government is firmly exercising our sovereignty over our Arctic lands and waters – sovereignty that is long-standing, well-established and based on historic title, international law and the presence of Inuit and other Aboriginal peoples for thousands of years.
At the same time, international interest in the Arctic region is growing, in part as a result of possibilities for resource development, climate change and new or longer access to transportation routes. Canada is demonstrating effective stewardship and leadership internationally, to promote a stable, rules-based Arctic region where the rights of sovereign states are respected in accordance with international law and diplomacy.

I think there are two problems some Canadians have in understanding the north of Canada.  First is, most Canadians do not live there, have never even visited there, never would want to visit there even if it was an all expenses paid trip.  Most Canadians are huddled close to the US border, and spend more time wishing they could get into the US than wondering about what goes on in 90% of Canada's land territory.  Second, never take "sovereignty" for granted, no matter how uninhabitable the land is, somebody always wants it.  See how Canada is already fighting Denmark over possession of some island nobody even knew existed?  We have fought most wars over sovereignty, believe it or not.

Yes, Canada is the second largest country in the world.  Most Canadians are aware of that fact, although they do not really understand it.  We often call the 49th parallel the border between Canada and the USA, and yet most Canadian cities are on the American (or southern) side of that imaginary line called the 49th parallel.  Feel free to look that one up on a map.  I will concede Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver are north.  Victoria BC is south of the line, so is Toronto, Montreal, Fredericton NB, Halifax NS,  St. John's NL, and Punkeydoodles Crns., ON.  And (I'm guessing) 80% of the population of the country, along with 3 entire provinces.

Canadians think they understand that Canada is really big, yet they do not understand how much of it they have not seen, how much is almost a wilderness.  That is a problem, when you remember that most Canadians do not really understand why Canada, with a population of only 35 million (now, it used to be less) has sovereignty over this huge land mass, larger than the entire United States of America.

One way to exercise sovereignty is to buy military equipment and train a large army, navy and air force. Canada with only 35 million people, does not actually have the economic ability to do that, and still maintain a high standard of living for it's masses huddled along the border. Russia can hold its territory with a population of 144 million and 17 million square km. (8.4 people/sq km) Canada's 35 million people claim 10 million sq. km. (3.5 people/sq km).  For the Russians, claiming all that territory involved shipping millions of prisoners in chains to Siberia, raising a huge army and keeping everyone's standard of living quite low.  Canada has had a relatively easy time of it, for various reasons that I don't really know right now, but I'm sure it'll come to me.  But part of our equation would have to be our hospitals, schools, airports, harbours, the extensive maps, and the Canadians who live in the far north, and most of them are still First Nations people.

In the end, it is much cheaper and more effective to claim land by treating the First Nations people as part of Canada than to bring them south to live in squalor in Saskatoon and spending a hundred times as much money on new jet fighters.  A ten dollar litre of milk doesn't seem so expensive now, does it?

Picture: From http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/battle-for-the-arctic-heats-up-1.796010

Were Humans Used in Nutritional Experiments in the1940's?

On the CBC news this morning, I heard a newscaster make some disturbing allegations.  Apparently, nutritional researchers withheld food from hungry aboriginal children in residential schools in Canada, in order to study the effects of malnutrition.

I had already heard about the previous scandal, an experiment where researchers apparently gave vitamin and mineral supplements to some, but not all aboriginal schoolchildren.  To me, that did not seem as bad as withholding food from starving children.

I am not trying to make excuses for things that were done a long time ago.  I understand there was a lot more racism back then, in fact there is still a lot today, but at least it is not as overt.  There was also a different attitude towards corporal punishment of children.  We don't have the death penalty in Canada today, but we did then.  Experiments used to be performed on human beings, not just aboriginals either.  Check out Donald Ewen Cameron on Wikipedia, doing experiments with shock therapy and drugs, resulting in death of human test subjects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ewen_Cameron

So it seems the ethical aspect of human experiments has come a long way since the fifties, in that we are much more careful about obtaining "Consent" of the subjects, and when we finally do the experiments, it is done with proper procedures and documentation, ensuring that we actually get some scientific benefit from the experiment.

Here is what the "Idle No More" (an Aboriginal activist) website posted about the situation, as quoted from the Canadian Press, under the title "HUNGRY ABORIGINAL PEOPLE USED IN BUREAUCRATS' EXPERIMENTS".  This title appears also on the CBC website, and many others.

http://www.idlenomore.ca/hungry_aboriginal_people_used_in_bureaucrats_experiments

If they withheld food from half of a group of starving children do see if they would die faster than a control group that got the regular rations, then that was evil by any standard.

If they gave minerals and vitamin supplements unknowingly to half the group, to see if there were any benefits to their health or mental states, without cutting back in any way on the food they were getting already, then the bureacrats and researchers were not evil, they were simply not acting according to modern standards on human research.

From the article above:

"The first experiment began in 1942 on 300 Norway House Cree. Of that group, 125 were selected to receive vitamin supplements which were withheld from the rest.
At the time, researchers calculated the local people were living on less than 1,500 calories a day. Normal, healthy adults generally require at least 2,000."

According to this, all the natives in some communities were basically going hungry, not just the children in residential schools. Instead of providing more food to the communities, the researchers gave selected people vitamin supplements.  If all the natives were hungry, that brings up many other questions about how they were fed, who was responsible for feeding them, and why were they not hunting/fishing/gathering berries, or otherwise using traditional sources of food?  None of that was mentioned in the article, although it seems familiar, just from Canadian and US history, and movies.

Here is another quote:

"One school deliberately held milk rations for two years to less than half the recommended amount to get a 'baseline' reading for when the allowance was increased."

If true, it would surely be a criminal act, even by the loose standards of 1947. But, I notice it does not say the rations were "cut", only "held".  Does that mean it was already normal practice to give half the recommended amount of milk?  Why?  Who set the recommended amount in the first place?

"At another, children were divided into one group that received vitamin, iron and iodine supplements and one that didn't."

Sounds reasonable for 1947.

"One school depressed levels of vitamin B1 to create another baseline before levels were boosted."

Did people know what vitamin B1 was in 1947?  If so how was the level depressed, by withholding food?  Was it in pill form?

"A special enriched flour that couldn't legally be sold elsewhere in Canada under food adulteration laws was used on children at another school."

This actually doesn't sound too evil, as I think we now basically use enriched flour everywhere and think nothing of it. It is your basic white  "Wonder Bread".  Of course if the illegal enriched flour had proven fatal, that would have been a bad thing.

"Many dental services were withdrawn from participating schools during that time. Gum health was an important measuring tool for scientists and they didn't want treatments on children's teeth distorting results."

If true, that is a crime, unless the treatments that were being withheld were also experimental.  In which case it's the opposite of a crime.  The actual treatments that were withheld are not specified.

"They knew from the beginning that the real problem and the cause of malnutrition was underfunding. That was established before the studies even started and when the studies were completed that was still the problem."

Studies in nutrition are not simple, because even when people have enough money and access to food, they can still be malnourished.  You need to have a healthy balanced diet, and not all people understand what a healthy diet is, or want to eat it.  You can be obese and still  suffer from nutritional deficiencies.  You cannot drink Coke and eat potato chips your whole life without serious side effects, not that I am suggesting anyone in 1947 would do that.  But you also cannot easily force people to eat a healthy diet.

Towards a Garbage-Free MacLean's Magazine

MacLean's magazine has a new article by Cynthia Reynolds titled "Why are schools brainwashing our children?"

http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/10/31/why-are-schools-brainwashing-our-children/

In this article Cynthia gives examples of situations where children in Canadian schools are being brainwashed into being tolerant and caring for the environment.

Let me take one example.

  "In Laval, Que., a six-year-old boy was disqualified from a teddy-bear contest because a Ziploc was found in his lunch".

Now if I may clarify this a little: It was not a Teddy Bear contest, it was a draw for a teddy bear in a garbage free lunch contest. Yes, the difference is important. What is a garbage free lunch?  It is a lunch that has no garbage in it.  What is garbage? Any throw-away one-use container.  Now, let's go into this a little bit more.  A drink box has garbage (the box and the straw.) An apple core is not counted as garbage.  A candy bar has garbage. (The wrapper).  Any garbage in your lunch means you don't have a garbage-free lunch. A tupperware container is not garbage because it can be re-used.  But if you throw the tupperware container away, it should count as garbage.  If you remove the wrapper from the candy bar at home and put the naked bar in a Tupperware container, the teacher has to make a call one way or the other.  A Ziplock bag is not necessarily garbage.  It can be taken home, cleaned and re-used.  But if it is thrown out after one use, it is garbage.  A fair teacher would accept the ziplock bag as long as it is taken home and re-used, but of course it's impossible to know the truth.  Obviously, garbage free lunch games are not that simple.

Now to explain a little bit about teaching. Teachers generally reward students learning with scores and marks, rarely with material goods.  That's because the school budget does not allow for it.  So who paid for the Teddy Bear prize?  I couldn't find out, but it might have been an old item that the teacher needed to get rid of, and if so, the teacher had found a good way to divert one more bit of garbage from the landfill. Very unlikely to be the taxpayers footing the Teddy Bear expense.

Now what about the ziplock bag scandal? I think a case could have been made for the ziplock bag in a garbage free lunch, but first you have to understand what is going on.  Sometimes six year old kids make mistakes. That's why we have teachers.

Now why do Conservatives (and their propaganda machines like MacLean's Magazine) hate it when children learn about garbage?  Probably the same reason they hate children to learn about tolerance.  Conservative propaganda has two main pillars: support for corporate profits, and hatred for "others".  It suits the conservative agenda to keep people as ignorant and easily-led consumers of throw-away trash.  The last thing conservatives want is for children to learn about the environment, because that might affect corporate profits.

Why would MacLean's sensationalize this simple story?  And does MacLean's do the same kind of one-sided misrepresentation when they are stirring up hate against minority groups?  The answer is yes.

MacLean's is a conservative, bigoted magazine.  I think the more appropriate question would be "Why is MacLean's Magazine Brainwashing Canadians", but I think we all know the answer. Because it pleases their rich owners, and stirring up hatred is the best way to brainwash people.

Next, the goal for MacLean's: Let's try to put out a garbage free newsmagazine.

Picture: Left garbage lunch, right garbage free.  from this website

  http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin406.shtml

Destination Port Dover: Apple Fritters and Tall Ships

I finally got to the Fritter Place in Port Dover for my first half dozen fresh apple fritters of the year. Mary Ann didn't come because I was stopping a couple of times on the way to Port Dover, first for a motorcycle gang meeting at Tim Horton's and next to take a peek at the last day of the Paris Vintage Motorcycle Rally, 2010. Neither of those interest her.

We all showed up at Tim Horton's on time as usual. We are a punctual gang, if nothing else. The main item on the agenda today was verbally bashing Bob's Intruder 1400. As we were getting into it, a Harley rider parked next to us and remarked that we seemed to be picking on Bob, and one of our members (The V.P in Charge of Motorcycle Judging) took the time to point out that our actual favourite object of verbal bashing was the 150 cc Kymco scooter, but that we have grown bored with 6 weeks of steady abuse of the scooter.

After the meeting adjourned, I headed for the Paris rally, but there were only three tents left and they were all being taken down. So I took the opportunity of riding my motorcycle through the show grounds, in order to introduce my Kawasaki Vulcan to the tire tracks of legendary motorcycles such as the Rudge, as featured on the T-shirt commemorating the 38th Annual Paris National Rally of 2010, and the 100th anniversary of Rudge. Check out the top photo on this page of my motorcycle website, with my mother and all her brothers and sisters in 1939 with both my uncles on Rudge motorcycles. (Click it to enlarge)

A quick lap of the rally site, and back on the road this time to Port Dover. Because of the nice Sunday weather it was packed with beachgoers and motorcyclists. I parked my bike near Tim Horton's along with maybe fifty other bikes, and walked over to the Fritter Place. This year the Fritter people are only going to open three days a week in the summer, and they have a new cashier to help out, and a bigger machine for peeling the apples. After looking at this machine in operation, I asked exactly how new is this machine, and I don't remember the exact date, but it was a four digit number and the first two were 18. I commented that Tim Horton's apple fritters were probably being made on a much more modern machine, but then realized that the apples in Tim Horton's "apple fritters" would not need to be peeled, as they were mostly imaginary apples. (That is not a type of apple, it is when you think there is an apple but there is no apple)

Tied up at the dock near the door of the Fritter Place was the "St. Lawrence II", a training ship with square sails. Beautiful to look at. Scary to change the sails.

So to summarize the ingredients of a perfect day: A motorcycle club meeting where my motorcycle is not on the agenda, a ride across the field of motorcycle dreams, a new Rudge T-shirt, a half dozen real apple fritters (I only ate three, three for Mary Ann), a square sailed tall masted ship, 25 degrees C and sunny weather.

Picture: The Dock in Pt Dover, I took this picture today at 3:00 PM.

Bikers Guide to Floradale, Ontario

Floradale is about a 15 minute drive north of Waterloo, and is such a low-key place that I have never even driven through there, and I've lived here for thirty years.

So Mary Ann decided we would ride there for breakfast this morning. She heard that was a small cafe called Bonnie Lou's now opened in the old general store. We took her scooter for a ride to Bonnie Lou's, which was easy to find, even though it is not on Google Maps, it was smack in the middle of town. Just where you might expect an old general store to be located. And the town has a population of only about 500, but looks very well established. We circled around to the back to park, and found there was an outdoor patio and an entrance at the rear.

The waitress was wearing Mennonite dress. Well, maybe I should qualify that. I'm not sure it was Mennonite, because maybe everybody in town dresses that way. And she wasn't really a waitress because you ordered your food at the counter. But she did come over to our table to ask us if we were new and if we had come in on the scooter, which she saw come down the main street then drive to the back of the building. A good guess, I thought, as we left our helmets on the scooter. But in a town this small, and non-touristy, it is very hard to remain incognito. Floradale is in Mennonite country, and many old order Mennonites use horse and buggy to get around, instead of a car. And during breakfast Mary Ann was musing on how she probably wouldn't mind being a Mennonite, and I think she's got that just about right.

Anyhow to get back to our waitress, she told us that we needed to go to the counter to order, which we did. We both got a 2-egg breakfast with bacon and toast. Then I got a coffee and rhubarb torte for dessert. The food all seemed home made and very fresh, and later on I found out why. After breakfast, Mary Ann wanted to take a walk over to the dam, because there is a trail called the Lion's Trail around the dam and reservoir. But just when we got our jackets and helmets locked up, Mary Ann remembered that she needed to ask what day they were open for dinner. Usually they are breakfast and lunch only, but it turns out Friday they have dinner too, which they call supper. On the way back inside, she met a Mennonite looking lady coming out, and as Mary Ann is wont to do they struck up a conversation which led to the Mennonite Lady, who I will simply call ML, leading us through the back yards of Floradale back to her house to show Mary Ann her vegetable garden, which is of huge interest to Mary Ann. Also of some interest to me, as many of the sticks used to tie the row strings are old brushes, spatulas, and even old steel wrenches! As ML said, they don't throw anything out.

I was more interested in ML's garage, where there was a buggy parked, and behind that was a horse. ML also does repairs to soft topped buggies and she took us in to show us her workshop which included a commercial electric sewing machine, and lots of Naugahyde and velour, and what looked like leather. Also she had a buggy body in for restoration, and was showing me the work she had done so far and it was fantastic with the velour cloth inner liner finished already. I got a chance to really appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into the buggies, which rivals that of bikes found at custom bike shows (in some cases). From a distance the buggies all look kind of similar but apparently there are huge differences close up.

ML also showed me several diaper bags she was making out of Naugahyde, and honestly they looked as good or better than any commercial motorcycle luggage, including the standard saddlebags on my Vulcan 900 LT. She also sells those at the market. I would be tempted to buy them to use as motorcycle saddlebags but they were a bit small.

We also looked at the horse, and I was told that this was a new horse they purchased just two years ago, as the other horse was a bit small for this buggy. The way she talked it was almost like listening to a Harley rider discussing why he swapped the motor in his 883 Sportster for a 1200 cc V-twin. She also explained that the bigger horses were very much sought after by the younger men, because they "like to go faster". I guess people are the same everywhere.

Then she gave us a lettuce head from her garden, took us upstairs to see a quilt she was finishing for sale at the market, and gave me a review from the Kitchener Record, by Andrew Coppolino, about Bonnie Lou's Cafe. And she told us that the rhubarb for the torte came from her own garden, and that she made pies for Bonnie Lou, and was starting to make butter tarts as well.

We never did see the Lion's Trail, but that fits in with Mary Ann's travel philosophy of "Go with the flow".

Picture: As usual, I didn't have my camera, which was actually a good thing as I'm sure it would have spoiled the experience completely. Anyhoo, this here is a picture of a Mennonite buggy in West Montrose. Except that ML's horse was black, it's about the same.

An International Food Guide

Another chain email arrived. Here it is

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.
4 The Italians drink a lot of red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits and Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you..

I immediately noticed that there may be a better link between our car culture and heart attacks than there is with language. So I googled "International cardiovascular disease statistics". Listed below are just the countries mentioned in the chain email. But I added Russia as it has far and away the highest rate of coronary deaths of any country listed. And I added Canada because I live there.

Russia with 1555 (deaths per 100,000)
Chinese rural with 413
Chinese urban with 389
England/Wales with 301
USA with 289 and
Germans 270
Mexico 235
Italy 218
Canada 212
Japan 170

Then I noticed all the top countries in order were Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, China. I guess you could also make the argument that eating in a Communist restaurant leads to heart attack.

But it is not from lack of trying that America loses out to Communists in heart attacks. Americans don't like to come second.

I took the pictures from a patriotic restaurant that goes by the name "The Heart Attack Grill"

Food Review: The Bauer Kitchen, Waterloo

Here is a new idea for me, as if I don't have enough stuff to write about. How about a restaurant review? Last night Mary Ann and I went out to a new restaurant called The Bauer Kitchen, located in the newly renovated Bauer skate factory. I have no idea where they make skates now. Actually yes, I do.

Mary Ann does not like to go to the food court for our anniversary dinners, and Bauer's obviously had table service, so we decided to try it.

I am lacking in imagination when we go out, and usually order what the restaurant is famous for. At the Fritter Place in Port Dover, I order Apple Fritters. Luckily, because they don't have anything else. At Bobby O'Brien's in Kitchener, I order beer and wings. I like making my decision quickly, the quicker I make up my mind, the quicker I get my food. So last time I was at Knechtel's in Port Dover, I had ordered the perch dinner while walking past the waitress on my way to the table. It helps that I was on my own. Because when Mary Ann is there, as a rule, the waitress will return four or more times, with the question "Are you ready to order yet?" And as I have found out, it is not good to say "Well I am, so just take my order now"

In an unfamiliar restaurant, where I don't even know what they're famous for, I like to order the rib dinner. This is what I ordered at Bauer's. But it was called "Short Ribs with Potato Gnocchi". Unfortunately I didn't have a clue what potato Gnocchi was, and still don't know how to pronounce it. So I ordered "short rib dinner". When it showed up, actually brought by a different waitress, she put it in front of me, and called it "Gnocchi", but I didn't remember or even understand the word, and not only that, but the ribs had already been deboned, so they did not look at all like ribs either. So I guess I said something like "Did I order this?"

One thing you will notice about most restaurants is that the stupider you are, the nicer the wait staff will treat you, so I get a lot of good service usually. Unless I'm at Tim Horton's where the competition is fierce. So the waitress said "Oh I'm sorry, we must have misunderstood, I'll bring you something else if you want." I didn't want to wait any longer as we had already been there some time before deciding. So remembering the Gnocchi potatoes, I said, "maybe it's the pronunciation of that word." The waitress was very understanding, and pleasant about it, meaning this must have been an unusually dumb statement on my part.

Anyway, the food was great,even the gnocchi (tastes like potato perogies), the dessert too. I always order cheesecake, and theirs was about the best, with white chocolate, blueberries, and some other stuff. But cheesecake is always pretty good wherever I go. I didn't get sick afterwards, which to me is an important consideration. I didn't go away hungry, it cost less than our average anniversary night out, and Mary Ann really liked it too. So it's highly recommended.