Too soon to party, civil service

Now I know we’ve been going through anxious times. And staying home all the time, wearing face masks and listening to endless COVID news has probably slowed circulation to the brain for many.

However there is a difference between slowing circulation and cutting it off altogether.

Or at least there should be. Especially if you are working for the federal government, which used to mean — this was a long, long time ago — working for us.

Us being the people of Canada, all of the people, from Twillingate to Tuktoyaktuk, who do not want a national election during a universal pandemic.

Now back to the federal government and its servants — the ones we call civil.

Environment and Climate Change Canada, which is charged with the two great tasks of saving the planet and staying on good terms with Elizabeth May, will be celebrating Public Service Pride Week in late August by hosting an online Draganza, offering competitors a chance to be “crowned as the Goc’s first-ever drag superstar.” The event will be open to all public servants in all federal government departments.

Could such an event be evidence that maybe the civil service has lost touch with the seriousness of the times we live in? And with so many tasks unfulfilled, so many programs halfway done or not done at all, could its focus be just a little blurred?

For there are other real concerns. Such as why boil-water advisories are still on the agenda. Why senior citizens are facing clawbacks on their meagre old-age assistance. Why old-age homes were so vulnerable during this COVID rage.

Why our Afghan allies, the interpreters, are being left in doubt as to their safety. Note: This latter is a matter of national honour. It is beyond a scandal, it is a crime, if any of the individuals who helped our armed forces are left to the sadistic ministrations of the Taliban. We, meaning all Canadians, have supported and praised, and justly so, our military. I know this: the men and women in our military would feel scorched with shame if we left behind any who helped them in that desperate country.

If Canada was a country of honour there would be no premature election, not until we had a mighty assurance that we would not be abandoning our friends.

We certainly wouldn’t be having civil service-wide parties while people on the other side of the globe waited in trepidation for their lives.

Is it not insensitive, in a time of COVID, manic government overspending, tribulation among small business people, and old people not seeing their offspring, to be having a kind of jubilee in the civil service of our country?

There’s a lot of pain out there. Let us save the partying for a better moment.