Flushing out the Rumours

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Every once in a while our toilet system gets clogged. Two heavy duty burrito eating twenty-five year olds in the house may be part of the problem. They claim that their late night consumption of copious amounts of Mexican food and the flush failure is purely coincidental. Nevertheless, when that old toilet backs up it’s a scary moment. You notice the water not going down and you try to flush again. Big Mistake!

Your heart beats faster as the murky water rises to the top of the rim of the toilet bowl. You have grabbed all the towels from the wash, waiting for the dreaded overflow. Afraid not to make a vibration that may cause a ripple over the rim, you tiptoe to the basement corner where the toilet plunger resides. It is a dirty job, no glory here, but the plunger has never failed to get shit done.

The first delicate push, then the second, a more forceful third, and then comes the glorious deep sound of water and paper and composted burritos exiting the toilet bowl down the drain. Another flush and the clean water of renewal swirls back into your life.

So it is with rumours. They clog the channels of intelligent discourse. They fill healthy  social communication with murky speculation, conspiracy theories, and downright mistruths that get repeated in a sociopathic game of broken telephone. Take for example the rumours swirling about Mayor Annette Groves.

Was she still living in Caledon? Had she moved into a home in Brampton? Was she living in Woodbridge or Kleinberg in York Region?

I didn’t know, so I decided to drop by the Mayor’s old house in Bolton to see if she was still there. Nobody was around, so I texted her to let her know I was trying to verify that the Mayor of Caledon was still living in Caledon. That was when the toilet began to back up.

The Mayor responded by telling me that she still had the same residence in Bolton for herself and family, and that I could share that with my readers. She added that I was not to come by her house again or she would call the police. Ouch! I texted back to confirm that I would not come by again.

At 10:30 that night, just after I had gone to sleep, my son responded to a doorbell ring. He came up to my bedroom to tell me that there were three police officers at the door. I smiled. Time to clear the drain. I went downstairs, and sure enough there were three fully loaded OPP officers standing at the door. It was a hot steamy night, so I invited them into the cooler foyer and said, “This is from the Mayor, right?”

Yes, indeed the Mayor, fearing for her life, had called the police. “Yes sir,” the officer replied, “May I see some ID, please. and this is being recorded.” “Oh good,” I replied, “because I want to tell you the full story.” I showed the officers my text, her threat to call the police, my return text saying that I would not visit her neighbourhood again, did not do so… “And yet, here you are,” I noted. The officer explained that Mayor Patrick Brown had been receiving death threats and they had to respond to calls of concern. The toilet was really  plugged.

I replied that I didn’t know anything about Patrick Brown’s troubles. “I was merely trying to verify if the Mayor still resided in Caledon. I don’t know how that could possibly be interpreted as a threat.” First stroke of the plunger. “Am I still being recorded?” The lead officer replied “Yes.” “Oh good, because I want to share the full background on why I needed to clarify her place of residence.”

In a moment of pure bliss, I then delivered my ten minute delegation on the “Swan Lake” issue that was blocked by the Mayor and Clerk and some members of Council on July 8, 2025. The protests were covered on the front page of the July 10, 2025 edition of the Caledon Citizen. My delegation is now available on an OPP video recording available through an FOI request. The plunger stroked down again.

When I finished, the younger officer on the scene told me that the Mayor didn’t want me to communicate with her any more via email, phone, or letter. I stepped closer to him and said, “That is not going to happen. I am a citizen of Caledon and a journalist. If I need to communicate with the Mayor of my town, I will.” The plunger cleared the drain and the sweet waters of renewal filled the foyer.

I thanked the officers for their diligence and professionalism, and we said goodnight. Shortly after that incident, I made a visit to the OPP offices on Innis Lake Road, where I left a compliment to the OPP for their officers’ professionalism that evening, and made a complaint that the Mayor abused her powers by calling in protection from our police over a request for her to verify her residence in Caledon. Remember the little boy who cried wolf? In the end he lost  his flock.

I can assure you Mayor Groves, no threat to your safety will come from me. Now, your tenure as Mayor, that is another matter. That could be up to your next decision on Swan Lake. As I see it.

 

 

A Bold Faced Liar

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On July 28, 2025: Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, was asked about reports of chronic malnutrition and starvation in Gaza. He responded, “What a bold-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”

However, on that same day, Associated Press reported that the UN and the World Health Organization declared on Sunday, July 27, 2025, “There have been 63 malnutrition related deaths in Gaza this month, including 24 children under the age of 5 – up from 11 deaths total the previous six months of the year.” Gaza’s Health Ministry reported 14 deaths over the last 24 hours alone.

The bold-faced liar here is Benny the Butcher, as he is known to Palestinians suffering in Gaza and the West Bank. He continues to lie to the people of Israel and the world. His goal, and the goal of his far-right and ultra-orthodox supporters is not the elimination of Hamas. It is the complete elimination of Palestine and all the Palestinian peoples barely surviving in the open-air prisons of Gaza and the West Bank.

The international Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, “the leading authority of food crises” according to AP, has been warning of famine in Gaza for months, but has been unable to formally declare a famine because Israeli authorities, under orders from Netanyahu, restrict access to the Palestinian Territory.

When issuing arrest warrants for the war crimes charges against Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former Defence Minister, the International Criminal Court stated that “both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024.”

Since October 2023, an estimated over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed. A United Nations committee found Israeli’s methods of warfare in the Gaza Strip to be “consistent with genocide” but the ICC has stopped short of calling Israel out on this front, saying that the court “could not determine that all elements of the crime against humanity of extermination were met.”

Benjamin Netanyahu is dangerously deceiving the people of Israel and spreading bold-faced lies to the rest of the world. He is a war criminal, an intentional accomplice in the murder of thousands of men, women and children, and he will face justice in this world or the next.

I hope the survivors of this conflict find peace and choose not to seek revenge. After all, “the best vengeance is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” We need a lot more shalom. The way I see it.

 

 

 

Gotta Serve Somebody

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In 1979, Bob Dylan released his Slow Train Coming studio album. It won a Gammy Award the next year, One of the songs was “Gotta Serve Somebody” later released as a single. The song was brilliantly covered in 2018 by Jamey Johnson along with Willie Nelson, Chris Stapleton, and Lee Ann Womack. it’s got a unique bluesy, western gospel vibe that just gets you clapping and singing along. Well worth a listen.

My wife heard their version recently, and the lyrics struck her as being just as relevant today as when Dylan first composed it. With apologies to The Crown Prince of Folk, I channelled my inner “Weird Al” Yankovic and updated the lyrics.

***

GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY, 2025 

You may be the President of some mighty state,
You may like to drop bombs, you may like to hate,
You may be the smartest person in your online class,
You may be a hockey player just  prayin’ for a pass,

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You might be a billionaire handing out your bribes
You might post crazy conspiracy diatribes
You may be a CAO or some white-collar crook
They may call you Boss, or they may call you Schnook,

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the People or it may be the Gold
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a city councillor with real civic pride
You may be a mayor taking money on the side
You  may be a big developer with some dirt to spill
You may be someone’s mistress, just  feeling the chill,

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody,
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the People or it may be the Gold
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a farmer, the guardian of your lands
You may be a baker with our next meal in your hands
You may be  one of the homeless just looking for a bed
You may live in a mansion with empty rooms instead,

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody,
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You may call me Mario, You may call me Annie
You may call me Tonio, you may call me Benny
You may call me D.F., you may call me Sam
You may call me anything, but no matter who I am …

(enter the full gospel choir dancers)

I’m gonna have to serve somebody, (serve somebody)
We’re all gonna have to serve somebody. (serve somebody)
Well, it may be the People or it may be the Gold
But we’re gonna have to serve somebody, oh yeah!

Yeah, you’re gonna have to serve somebody, (serve somebody)
You’re gonna have to serve somebody. (serve somebody)
Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, oh yeah!

The way I see it.       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Punishment and Killing of Palestine

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Mordechai Vanunu and Gideon Levy are two Israelis whose courage and humanity should be remembered and honoured.

Mordechai Vanunu blew the whistle in 1986 on Israel’s illegal nuclear enrichment program. In the 1950’s the secret Negev Nuclear Facility was hidden in the desert near Dimona far from the prying eyes of UN inspectors, making Israel the first rogue nuclear state in the Middle East. For his efforts to save the world from nuclear weapons proliferation, Vanunu was declared a traitor, lured out of England and illegally abducted from Italy by Mossad agents, and jailed for 18 years. He is still under house arrest in Israel.

Gideon Levy is a reporter for Haaretz, the longest running daily newspaper in Israel. He is also the author of two non-fiction books, The Punishment of Gaza, 2010, and The Killing of Gaza, Reports on a Catastrophe, 2024. While most of the western press is hobbled by holocaust guilt and the fear that criticizing Israel’s actions in Palestine will lead to charges of antisemitism, Levy bears no such burden. The Israelis and the Palestinians are both Semitic races and Levy is Jewish, “an Israeli dedicated to saving his country’s honour,” as noted by Guardian literary critic Nicholas Lezard.

Levy is also a truth-telling journalist. He had been covering Gaza for many years, and when he left in the 1990’s, he thought that the Israeli occupation had ended. He bid Gaza a loving farewell. But when Israeli forces later returned to Gaza, Levy reported that, “The occupation did not end. On the contrary, it is more cruel, criminal, and inhuman today than ever before. Ten years later, in 2005, when Israel disengaged from Gaza, we were much wiser: this time we knew that the occupation had simply changed form. The jailer pulled out of the jail and was now holding its prisoners captive from without. Yes, Gaza was, and still is, the largest prison on Earth, a gruesome experiment performed on living human beings.”

The Punishment of Gaza is a series of articles beginning June 1, 2006, with a simple report about the IDF’s (Israeli Defense Force) cavalier attitude to collateral damage – blow up one Jihadist, kill an entire family in a nearby vehicle. It is preceded by a story of moral double standards: it’s legitimate for Israel to boycott the Palestinian Authority, but illegitimate for anyone to boycott Israel’s government or institutions.

Then the horror begins – one chapter is titled “Making Monsters of Our Finest Young Men” and describes how young pilots go on indiscriminate bombing run training flights:

“In four days they killed 375 people. They did not, and could not, distinguish between a Hamas official and his children, between a traffic cop and a Qassam launch operator, between a weapons cache and a health clinic, between the first and second floors of a densely populated apartment building with dozens of children inside.”

The book continues every month from June 2006 through to the summer of 2009, with each report being more devastating and horrendous than the one before. He concludes his first book with this reflection:

“The Israelis don’t pay any price for the injustice of the occupation, so the occupation will never end. It will not end a moment before the Israelis understand the connection between the occupation and price they will be forced to pay. They will never shake it off on their own initiative, and why should they?

Even the cruelest terrorist attacks to befall the country haven’t instilled an understanding among the Israelis about the connection between cause and effect, between occupation and terrorism. Thanks to the media and politicians – two of the worst agents for dumbing down and blinding Israeli society – we learned that Arabs were born to kill, the whole world is against us, anti-Semitism determines how Israel is dealt with and there is no connection between our actions and the price we pay.”

Gaza and the West Bank were powder kegs primed to explode since 1948. And then came Saturday, October 7, 2023.

As the sun was rising that morning, Gideon Levy was jogging through a park near his home in northern Tel Aviv. Suddenly the missile alert sirens began wailing. He had been about to release an editorial that morning, recalling the fall of the Berlin Wall and writing hopefully that the walls around the world’s largest ghetto would soon be crumbling before their very eyes. But when he arrived home his editor called him “with the news of horrifying actions being reported from the south, including mass murder and the abduction of hundreds of Israeli citizens to Gaza.”

In response, he wrote the following editorial: “Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance; the idea that we can do whatever we like, that we’ll never pay the price and be punished for it. We’ll carry on undisturbed. We’ll arrest, kill , harass, dispossess, and we’ll protect the settlers busy with their pogroms. We’ll visit Joseph’s Tomb, Othniel’s Tomb, and Joshua’s Altar in the Palestinian territories, and, of course, the Temple Mount – over 5,000 Jews on Sukkot alone.

We’ll fire at innocent people, take out people’s eyes, smash their faces, expel, confiscate, rob, grab people from their beds, carry out ethnic cleansing and of course continue with the unbelievable siege of the Gaza Strip, and everything will be all right.”

Gideon Levy wrote “The Killing of Gaza, Reports on a Catastrophe” in 2024. Part 1 documents the horrors of each year from 2017 to 2022. In Part 2, each chapter documents the vengeful brutality of every month from October 2023 until June 2024. He concluded his novel with a reflection on the Israeli reaction to the news that four hostages had just been rescued.

“Obviously the moving rescue should have been celebrated. Israelis deserve a moment of joy for the hell they’ve been living in for months, which isn’t over yet. But one cannot ignore the price paid by Palestinians, even if there are people who believe that the price was unavoidable or even entirely justified.

A society that ignores so blatantly the price paid by tens of thousands of people, with their lives, bodies, souls and property, for the rescue of four of its hostages and for a moment of joy for its members, is a society that is missing something vital. It is a society that has lost its conscience.”

We are bearing witness to some of the greatest atrocities we have seen since the horrors of World War 2 were revealed to the world. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, deliberate targeting of aid centres, denying aid to the point of starving the survivors of endless missile, drone, tank, and sniper attacks with total disregard for collateral damage to non-combatant  innocent men, women, and children.

In our silence, we are also a society that has lost its conscience. The way I see it.

***

Footnote:

Since Israel’s punishment of Palestine began in 1948, over 65,00 Palestinians and 17,000 Israelis have died, with over 102,000 Palestinians and 30,000 Israelis injured or missing. In the recent conflict since October 7, 2023, an estimated 2000 Israelis and 36,000 Palestinians have died. That is not a biblical “eye for an eye” revenge. That is a kill ratio of 1:18.

*data averaged from: Jewish Virtual Library, Wikipedia, VOX.com, Quora, Britannica

 

What Makes a Moose Tick?

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I promised in my “Fish Rots” blog that I would complete the story of the wolf, moose, moose tick, and Canada Jay connection. Here it is.

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Years ago, after dinner at a winter Outdoor Education Conference in Dorset, Ontario, attendees were invited to a special seminar in the centre’s theatre. The title was “What Makes a Moose Tick?” being presented by one of the Frost Centre’s eminent biologists. It had been a long day setting ski trails, snowshoeing, and tracking wildlife. People were tired, and the theatre was warm, especially the upper balcony. I was just about to nod off, when the presenter arrived on stage.

Everyone sat bolt upright. This long lean man wearing outrageous cargo shorts, sandals with socks, a wild T-shirt, and fake moose antlers on his head took the stage. It was the most engaging session I had been to in a very long time. No one in the audience fell asleep!

Early research suggests winter ticks are killing young moose in New Brunswick | CBC News During one of his wildlife data collection studies, this wildlife biologist had observed a mangy, emaciated male moose rubbing himself furiously against the bark of a tree. Normally a Moose like this would have been taken down by the wolf pack, but the wolves had been culled from the area. This moose actually rubbed himself to death on the tree. When the biologists examined it, they found the moose absolutely covered in ticks. In the absence of wolf, the tick had become predator.

Enter the male Canada JayCanada Jay | Nature Manitoba who uses the moose tick like a starry eyed bachelor uses a Spence diamonds ad. The female Jay can’t resist, and voila, love is in the air, followed by lots of baby Canada Jays

Bug Bytes: Winter Tick And Moose | Montana Public RadioThe pattern here is simple. Remove the primary predator, and the prey population booms. Then a secondary predator population rises quickly, along with everything that uses the new predator as a source for food and avian lust.  The moose were suffering, but the Canada Jays were loving it, literally. Nothing like a fat juicy moose tick to make your feathers fluff up

Fortunately in this case, humans learned their lesson. The bounty on wolves was removed, and the top predators slowly returned to the area. Healthy moose, healthy wolves, fewer ticks, and a lot of highly competitive love starved Canada Jays.

Life in balance. The way I see it.

***

images from CBC, Manitoba Wildlife, Wikipedia