Cheers & Jeers
Cheers: to what we already knew — that St. John’s is awash with excellent eating establishments. Food writer Chris Johns suspected that when he decided to cross the country and test his theory that coastal Canada offers better cuisine than inland regions. Sure enough, in a Globe and Mail article Friday, he saved top praise for Tofino, B.C., and St. John’s. Here are a couple of his comments on specific restaurants here. Raymonds: “Chef Jeremy Charles and sommelier Jeremy Bonia’s exquisite jewel box of a restaurant might just be the best restaurant this country has ever produced”; Mallard Cottage: “The utterly charming Quidi Vidi Village is home to chef Todd Perrin’s rollicking nightly kitchen party in a renovated 18th-century fisherman’s cottage.”
Jeers: to bizarre lifestyles. Following is a list of items seized from a house on McKay Street in St. John’s late last week: 628 prescription pills including of Ritalin, Zopiclone, Oxycodone and Percocets; 10 Fentanyl patches; small quantity of marijuana; $10,000 cash; brass knuckles; crossbows (one still in its package); three bottles of bear spray; numerous knives; baseball bats; metal bars; and a black replica handgun pellet gun. Sounds like quite the party. A 45-year-old man and 43-year-old woman were arrested, slapped with various charges and released.
Jeers: to the niqab-apalooza. Even as his party and prime minister take every opportunity to condemn the wearing of a face veil at citizenship ceremonies, Defence Minister Jason Kenney decided last week they’re not the ones politicizing the issue. He was responding to Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s earlier comment to radio host Evan Solomon that the Conservatives are playing a “dangerous,” politically-motived game that is wasting taxpayers’ money. “If anything’s dangerous, it would be legitimizing a medieval tribal custom that treats women as property rather than people,” Kenney retorted to Postmedia News. “It seems to me that it’s the mayor and people like him who are politicizing it.” Here’s the problem. Two-thirds of Canadians support a ban on niqabs at swearing-in ceremonies, even though the federal court has already struck it down. So who exactly benefits from publicly condemning the practice ad nauseam? You guessed it.
Cheers: to doubling down on the niqab bet. Let’s not stop at the veil. Let’s just crush those horrible foreign customs altogether. “The Hon. Chris Alexander and the Hon. Kellie Leitch Announce Measures to Stop Barbaric Cultural Practices Against Women and Girls,” a Conservative news release announced Friday. At first it refers to abuse in war-torn regions. Then there’s this: “An RCMP tip line will be established that citizens and victims can call with information about incidents of barbaric cultural practices in Canada or to notify authorities that a child or woman is at risk of being victimized.” Excellent idea — except it’s redundant. There already are agencies in the country called “police forces” who encourage people to call about what are commonly known as “crimes.” Unless by “barbaric cultural practices,” they’re including Screech-ins. Don’t laugh. They can be barbaric.