I lucked into this story on the CBC today. That RCMP officer with the big-hearted smile made my day, and then some. Talk about renewing one’s faith in humanity, and our “better angels.”

I think it’s entirely possible that photo could become a classic, a fortunate and powerful expression of compassion and hope that helped get the world through a dangerous, hateful time.

There are a lot of good-hearted people in the U.S. who don’t agree with the direction their great country is taking. Of that I have no doubt. They are “the people” too, and I daresay they’re in the majority. I trust they can see past fear and hate, and through unscrupulous demagogues who exploit it.

I hope they continue  to make their voices heard, individually and collectively. Now is not the time to be silent, or beaten down. And that includes the free press: they are not “the enemies of the people.” That’s what tyrants, or would-be tyrants say: they don’t want the people to find out the truth about them.

Canada is not perfect. We have fear and the hate it engenders in our midst too, as recent events have shown. But we are heading in the right direction, with a generous spirit that wants to celebrate, welcome, and nourish the capacity of human beings to live together in peace and mutual benefit. We affirm humanity.

In that respect I think it’s fair to say Canada is a timely example to the world.

That RCMP officer made me proud, again, to be Canadian.

But finally, above all, he made me proud and hopeful again to be part of the human family and a citizen of what the great Canadian philosopher Marshal McLuhan years ago called “the global village.”

 

This post was also partly inspired by the daily prompt word for the day, blur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The extraction of massive amounts of stone from the bedrock of southern Ontario for use in construction, landscaping, and road-building is expected to increase as the province’s population continues to grow.

The Bruce Peninsula has long been a source of stone for those uses and continues to reflect a continuing and anticipated growing demand as existing quarries expand and new ones are licensed or proposed. For example, a 143- hectare (315-acre) quarry just north of the long-established former Angelstone, now Adair, quarry in the Hope Bay area was approved this past summer over the concerns of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation.

The Peninsula is part of the traditional territory of the two local First Nations that comprise the SON. The Supreme Court of Canada  has ruled non-Aboriginal governments have a duty to consult First Nations regarding development in their traditional territories. Continue reading →

“Don’t think twice it’s alright,” Bob Dylan says in the lyrics of the first song of his I ever heard, way back when we were both much older. We’re younger than that now, aren’t we Bob? Continue reading →

The size of the crowd spoke volumes about how much people on the Bruce Peninsula are concerned about the future of area tourism:

Well before the meeting, organized by the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group, began this past Wednesday evening the venerable old Rotary Hall was already close to standing-room only attendance. BPEG chair Megan Myles told me it was about twice the number of people she was expecting.

That posed some problems keeping the well-organized agenda on schedule, and members of the group now have their own challenge, with their hands and heads full of sticky-note “issues and challenges” and plenty of ideas to help chart a new course for the future of local tourism.

One could say, and I will, that the present state of tourism on the peninsula represents an abundance of problems, the people who worked so hard for years to promote local tourism might wish they could have had. Continue reading →

Millions of readers out there in the blogosphere may have wondered where the once-prolific Finding Hope Ness blogger had vanished for so long since his last post.

It’s all about the weight of unfinished business, too many things piling up as winter approaches, and – sniff – too many things gone wrong in my “little piece of Heaven.” Continue reading →