Ontario Super Pac

Ontario Super Pac

Clearly Premier Ford and his Conservative Party does not favour the Liberal Carbon Credit System and has launched a vigorous 30 Million dollar ad campaign against the Liberal government, its leader and its Carbon Credit and Tax system in order to protect Ontario.  Typically, one party’s ideology pitted against the others... Canadian  politics in action.

The issue at stake here is not carbon credits, or tax but the fact that Premier Ford is using public tax dollars to do battle against another party and its leader.  The real purpose is not to protect, but to knock down a rival and enhance his own image and that  of his party as both savior and protector.  He is doing this quite effectively with public tax payer’s money.

We, the tax payers are the new Super PAC.  It doesn’t matter the issue, nor the party.  When is it ethical to campaign and, on such a large scale or any scale with public dollars.  That’s just wrong.  If he wants to campaign then he should use party funds.

I don’t feel protected.  I feel used by Premier Ford!  I don’t need governments of any kind to spend tax dollars to do attack ads.  I want solid policy that stands on its own merits.

If we aren’t careful next thing Ford will be campaigning on our behalf for the virtues of larger class sizes in order to build student coping skills for university...oops...too late.

Marty Rempel

Woodstock Art Gallery

At the Woodstock Art Gallery

 Ballet as Art

A Certain Legacy

A Certain Legacy 

Long  before I thought of my own death
we had a service for my grandfather.
He was an immigrant and a photographer
from Russia,
lived through the Revolution, the Depression and a War,
lost his wife to typhus, gave up photography
was buried in a grave marked with a stone
carved with the letters C-9

When my father died after a simple but complex life
I was away, coming back for the funeral
We grieved in our own ways.
After, we drove in the country-side sharing stories
of life and living.
Now he lies next to mother several rows over from grandfather.
We never stop and visit.
I think of him on birthdays and some holidays.
He’s 114 today.

After cancer, stroke and general wear and tear I
think of my own death.
I see a pattern here.

Marty

Ban cell phones in Ontario

To the Editor,

For once I am in complete agreement with an initiative from the Ford Government and that is to put a ban on cell phone use in public schools. I have been an educator for 40 years and never have I seen such an insidious invasion into the classroom as the uncontrolled use of cell phones as students text, e-mail, stream and use any number of social media sites during class time.

 I totally support technology in the classroom just not this technology.  There are those who say we should embrace and integrate the use of personal electronic devices into classroom instruction and in theory that sounds plausible, but over-all unachievable because students do not just use the devices in the proper way as they are most frequently addicted to these same  devices and their many applications.  I have been physically attacked in a school while foolishly attempting to separate a student from his Smart phone during class time.

For students who say it is their right to have their cells in class I would simply say they are lucky to have the right to an education.  How this is enforced could be problematic and what the punishments for breaking the law will be on the classroom level should also prove interesting.  However, the rewards once the withdrawal period is over and their little opposable thumbs have stop twitching after going cold turkey will be a better focus on education.  Students after class will have the whole evening to text through dinner, then their parents can deal with it.

Marty

THIS IS HOW IT APPEARED IN THE KW RECORD ON WEDNESDAY MARCH 20. 2019

Ford was right to ban cellphone use in classrooms
I support technology in the classroom, just not this technology, writes Marty Rempel of Waterloo.
OPINION Mar 18, 2019 Waterloo Region Record

Students can't use cellphones in class starting this fall — March 13


For once I am in complete agreement with an initiative from the Ford government, and that is to put a ban on cellphone use in public schools. I have been an educator for 40 years and never have I seen such an insidious invasion into the classroom as the uncontrolled use of cellphones, as students text, email, stream and use any number of social media sites during class time.

I support technology in the classroom, just not this technology. There are those who say we should embrace and integrate the use of personal electronic devices into classroom instruction. In theory, that sounds plausible, but it is unachievable because students do not just use the devices in the proper way, as they are most frequently addicted to these devices and their many applications. I have been physically attacked in a school while foolishly attempting to separate a student from his smartphone during class time.

How this ban is enforced could be problematic and what the punishments will be at the classroom level should also prove interesting. However, the reward will be a better focus on education. After school is over, students will have the whole evening to text through dinner. Then, their parents can deal with it.


Marty Rempel

Waterloo

The Day the Magic Died

The Day the Magic Died

On a dark and blustery day my granddaughter

asked

“Grandpa where is the car parked?”

“I think in a distant galaxy far far away.”

“That’s just silly, where is it really?”


I think the day the magic died was

the day silliness was in question,

no more monsters in the closet,

no more night lights,

soon no more bedtime stories.

Tentatively I asked,

“When you

are a teenager will you have time for me?”

“Don’t be silly grandpa, that depends on what my

friends are doing.”

Constant War

In Body Bags with Severed Legs

We never learn from history.
Young men romanticize their lust for war,
the common threads and constant mistakes
are endless themes which
politicians use to blaze a path and show the way
with greed and craft
“On to victory they say.
“We’ll be home before Christmas.”
The mothers and wives weep and wait
while the foolish men
thrill to some patriotic rush.

Empires may rise and fall yet
we still choose another Dieppe, Somme
Kuwait, or Iraq to raise the banner where
the brash young men go for glory, their torn
bodies returning home in black body bags, or
the lucky ones live their discontented lives
with severed legs
and broken dreams.
Allowing the next generation to pick up our quarrel
with our foes only to do it all over again.