Occasionally Wright

Overreact Much?

Umm... right.

A French-language rights group is demanding an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a controversial poster hanging at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The poster — used to advertise the embassy's Canada Day party — featured a picture of French explorer Samuel de Champlain holding a plate of poutine, Quebec's famous delicacy made with fries, cheese curds and gravy.

And then...

Perreault compared the poutine image to using a hotdog to promote English Canada.

The embassy removed the poutine from the poster as soon as Impératif Français complained, but Perreault said further steps are warranted.

He said Foreign Minister David Emerson should apologize, and Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., should resign.

Really? Would anyone in English Canada be offended if a poster for a party had a picture of Sir John A holding a hot dog? I'd go so far as to wager that there have probably been posters made of him holding a beer.

If the poster had have had Champlain holding a hamburger it would of been seen as trying to anglicize him. If he had have been holding nothing it would have been construed as an attempt to make it look like French Canada doesn't know how to have fun. And let's not even start on the outrage if the poster didn't include a French-Canadian icon.

Somebody just wants to complain about something.

In sum- a special interest group wants an ambassador to resign over a poster of a French guy holding a food item made famous in Quebec.

Education Uproar in New Brunswick

It would seem that the education system in the province of New Brunswick is falling apart. I haven't lived there since the late 90's and I'll probably never live there again, but four of my eight nieces and both of my nephews live there, so it's not as if it has no impact on me.

The crux of the issue is that the government of the only bilingual province in Canada wants to shut down the early immersion program that allows children to become more less fluent before they hit grade five. Everyone that knows anything about second language acquisition will tell you that the younger the child is the easier it is for them to learn a new language. Apparently that doesn't matter in New Brunswick.

To learn more about the fight to keep early immersion in New Brunswick check out this site. The video below includes a snippet of my niece Hannah, who wouldn't have been able to read or write the letter she read in both French and English without early immersion.

Step Away From the Ring...

I've lost track of how many wrestlers have died since I started watching wrestling about a dozen years ago. I do know that a colleague and I were able to take turns rattling them off one after the other as we walked to lunch today, and none of them died of natural causes, unless heart failure due to steroid abuse is natural.

I stopped watching wrestling regularly at least three years ago, but I've gone to a few live events over the last few years and I've casually checked in on the storylines every now and then.

That's the end of that though. As if the events of the last few days that saw a wrestler take the life of his wife and son before ending his own life weren't disgusting enough, I just can't stomach anything produced by a company that can actually release the following statement (emphasis mine):

"In keeping with company policy, and with limited knowledge regarding facts of the case, WWE choose to air a memorial dedicated to the career of Chris Benoit."

It says something about a company when they have a set procedure for what kind of show to air after an employee dies. How many times do they have to invoke the policy before they actually take a serious look at what's causing the deaths of their employees?

Only the Best and Craziest

I was wondering how long it would take for an article like this to come out. If TV and movies have told us anything it's that the screening process involved with becoming an astronaut is incredibly stringent. Maybe they need to take another look at their psych screening.

Burning Through the Taliban, One Weed At A Time

Things I never expected to read on CNN.com:

"Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall."

"In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana."

"Even successful incineration had its drawbacks."

"But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action"

"Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd say 'That damn marijuana'."

Maybe we should just send over the RCMP's BC drug squad to take care of business.

Former Teacher Convicted Again

I don't know what's more disturbing to me. The fact that someone is only getting six months house arrest for their third sexual assault conviction or that their first conviction was three years after I had them as a teacher for grade 10 french. Weird how none of the articles mention that Jean Emile Gallant taught at Bluefield into the mid-90's. They just call him a former Rustico school teacher.

Tying A Few On

According to a CBC PEI headline, drunk driving on PEI is getting worse. According to the actual article, there have been more arrests for drinking and driving so far in 2006 than in all of 2005.

The real question should be whether there is more people drinking and driving or better enforcement leading to more people getting caught for drinking and driving.

Either way it's frightening that so many Islanders don't seem to think twice about getting behind the wheel after a few drinks. Automatic jail time would probably go a long way in changing some attitudes...

Say What?

This just in- tourists are bad for tourism:

"Certain tourists don't like to visit places where the main people they hit on the street are other tourists."

Seal Hunting? Oh Deer

You know, if you're required by law to stay at least thirty feet away from sealing boats, you probably shouldn't complain to the press and officials that sealers threw seal guts on you. I've never thrown seal guts, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they don't fly too well. I wonder how hard it is to fling them thirty feet?

Just like they do every year, the protesters are complaining that they were rammed. Again, I'm happy to say I don't necessarily know what I'm talking about, but if the sealers have a legal right to be on the waters working, don't they have the right of way? And if so, how hard is it for a Zodiac to get out of the way of a big, relatively slow, fishing boat?

Nice to see the authorities reigning the protesters in.I'm all for freedom of speech and movement, but a smear campaign is a smear campaign.

You know what's really funny? The protesters complain about the hunt being the largest 'slaughter' of marine mammals in the world. I don't question that. But why aren't any of them vocally protesting the deer cull in the United States?

The seal hunt allows for the harvest of 325,000 animals in two zones. Meanwhile, 484,000 deer were killed in 2003-04 in Georgia alone. The limit is 12 per hunter per season and the national population is estimated at about 30 million.

On top of the 484,000 taken in Georgia, Minnesota hunters take down about 200,000 per year. Another 214,000 in North Carolina.Throw in another 20 or so states with significant deer populations and I'm pretty sure the number of deer killed pales in comparison to the number of seals. I've never heard of celebrities protesting that though.

Is It Too Obvious?

I'm no engineer, but if there was a big wall of ice blocking a road in front of my house and I didn't want to risk moving it because of potential damage to private property, I do believe I'd consider finding a way to melt that wall of ice. With fire perhaps, or a salt water solution. Sure, it would be on a large scale, but that's the fun of it. Who didn't mess with the ice in the sink from when the fridge freezer was being defrosted when they were a kid? Now try that on a much, much larger scale. Good times.