If you were to listen to New Brunswick Provincial Justice Minister, Stephen Horsman, one would be led to believe that there is some disorder in our courts – specifically regarding the amount of money provincial court judges are making. A provincial court judge in New Brunswick currently makes a salary of $204,000 a year – certainly nothing to sneeze at – but it is the lowest pay for the position in the country. For sake of comparison, their colleagues in Ontario are making a whopping $280,000 a year; only $20,000 less than a Federal court judge hauls in.
Our New Brunswick magistrates are having a hard time keeping up with the Ontario Joneses with the pennies we’re paying them, it would appear. I could only hope that someone would pass the collection plate for these poor, unfortunate souls who are being forced to live on such a meager sum of money. That extra $80,000 a year would mean so much to these folks who are just scraping by in these rough times. I feel like we should start some sort of telethon, at the very least.
Have no fear, downtrodden residents of New Brunswick, Mr. Horsman has a plan! The Honorable Minister has recommended that the province increase the salaries of the 33 Provincial court judges by a whopping $36,000 to $43,000 a year – and guess where that money is going to come from! The public coffers funded by Mr. John and Jane New Brunswick, of course – who will throw all cares to the wind to ensure that our judges have the finest robes and gavels in the land.
As media personality Dennis Miller used to say, “I don’t want to go off on a rant here”, but I feel one coming on.
In a province that is absolutely swimming in debt, to the extent that the government is proclaiming that anywhere from $400 million to $600 million in cutbacks need to be made, why are any of our elected officials even entertaining the idea of paying out an additional $1.4 million a year on judge’s salaries? There is no word to be used for this other than obscene. The median household income in this province sits at a paltry $66,000 and we’re looking at giving some folks in politically appointed positions almost two thirds of that amount as a raise to their already generous salary. That is madness, folks.
These bureaucrats are the same bunch who want to go scorched earth when there are talks of wage increases for police, teachers or healthcare workers of one or two per cent. They’re the same group that is cutting funding to our schools and hospitals, and proclaiming that in order to solve this province’s deficit crisis we need to have an “all hands on deck” mentality – when what they really mean is all their hands in our pockets.
In New Brunswick where the minimum wage is a slight $10.30 an hour, an employee working 40 hours a week would gross less than $22,000 a year – about half of this proposed increase for our gavel banging friends behind the bench. That minimum wage rate just increased, by the way, and one would think it was going to lead to total economic apocalypse the way hands were being publicly wrung about it.
What I want to know is what happened to all this fiscal restraint our new Premier, Brian Gallant was talking about right before the last election? What about the promises of no more waste? Oh, there are restraints alright, the figurative ones that will be used to hold us peons down while we bear the brunt of all these forthcoming governmental economic slashes and cutbacks. The rich keep getting richer and the poor… well, we just keep taking it.
This province is broke, folks – on the verge of real bankruptcy, even. The mere thought of such an exorbitant increase to these judges’ salaries shouldn’t even be entertained, let alone carried out. I have seen some pretty outrageous acts by government in my lifetime, but this one may very well take the oft-referenced cake.
In one of my favorite movies of all time, 1976’s ‘Network’, the character Howard Beale makes an impassioned plea to viewers of his news program:
"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job… We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be."
He then continues with his suggestion to start turning the tide:
"All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING… My life has VALUE!’ I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
That’s how I feel right now, and this is how all residents of New Brunswick should feel.
The problem is that we’d likely end up in front of a judge if we took Howard’s advice.
How ironic.
I
originally planned on writing this week’s column about a New Brunswick satire
site that many folks are mistaking for real news through the site’s prolific
posts on social media. Although this would be a fun piece to discuss the merits
of headlines such as “New dating app matches unemployed NBers with
wealthy Albertans”, the
subject of satire I planned on discussing took an unexpectedly dark turn.
Last week, French satire magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’ had its Paris offices stormed
by masked gunmen who opened fire on the staff. As of this writing, twelve
members of the staff were pronounced dead and the apparent cause of the
shooting is that the magazine posted a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
that Islamic fundamentalists found offensive. This isn’t the first time that
‘Charlie Hebdo’ has come under fire, either. Back in 2011, their offices were firebombed
when they published an issue with another cartoon of the prophet Muhammad, and
listed him as a guest editor-in-chief.
Reactions to the attack have been those of outrage, as one would expect, and
large demonstrations erupted all over the country in support of the publication
and its slain workers. What concerns me, though, is the number of people who
have stated that the publication was “playing with fire” and never should have
published the cartoons to begin with.
These are very dangerous times we’re living in, folks. I talked about it a couple of weeks ago when
Sony Pictures pulled the movie ‘The Interview’ from theatres under a threat
from entities thought to be associated with North Korea. Threats were made to
people’s lives because of a stupid stoner comedy, and here we have a dozen
people dead because of a newspaper cartoon. The very fabric of our right to
free speech is being threatened by those who don’t like what we have to say,
and it’s scary to see how many people are willing to acquiesce to the demands
of others who believe their right to be offended trumps our right to freedom of
expression.
It’s time to be concerned.
As someone who shares my opinions in this publication on a weekly basis, I
should feel somewhat secure in my ability to speak my mind on any topic I
choose. Although I continue to speak openly and honestly, there’s always a
niggling voice at the back of my head that always asks if I should be censoring
myself from time to time – and what I say isn’t even that controversial most
weeks. What if I do say something that offends someone? Do we live in a culture
now where someone could perpetrate or threaten an act of violence against me
and there would be a segment of the population who would think that I “got what
was coming to me” because I touched on a taboo topic? Could my views subject my
loved ones to harm because someone disagrees with them so vehemently? I’m not
sure of the answer to that question anymore.
We should be at the height of civilization right now, but we’re not. We’re a society of weak and scared people who
have forgotten how to stand up for our rights and freedoms. We are a population
of the willingly oppressed and politically ignorant who sit back and allow our
way of life to be stripped away from us in the name of political correctness
and an overwhelming hesitation to rock the boat of status quo. In a world where satire is needed simply to
cope with the overwhelming amount of garbage that’s pushed down on us from
above, a dozen people responsible for shining a harsh light on the sacred cows
and the ridiculous conventions of our social order are dead – and some people
think it’s okay because they “pushed the wrong buttons” with some people.
That’s all kinds of messed up.
In a culture where we’re constantly bombarded with media that tells us how we
should live every aspect of our daily lives, I refuse to be told what I can
think and what I can say because of the possibility of offending someone. Knowing that there are people condemning the
Charlie Hebdo attack on one side of their face while insinuating that it may
have been deserved on the other side sickens me, and I am ashamed to share this
planet with them.
The Charlie Hebdo massacre should serve as a wakeup call to people about the
importance of speaking loud and speaking often about issues that are important
to them. This tragedy should increase satire by one hundred fold toward the
elements of our society that are wrongly viewed as ‘off-limits’ to show that we
will not be threatened by those who do not agree with what we say. We should savor now, more than ever, our
inalienable right to speak our minds no matter the topic, and know that we will
be safe in doing so.
As I type this, I find out that news sources all over the world are pixelating
the cartoons out when reporting on the massacre to avoid further upset.
That sound you hear is our collective spine withering away.
If
you were one of the unfortunate souls who spent any amount of time out
Christmas shopping these last few weeks, you would think that Canada’s brick
and mortar retail business was booming. Elbow to elbow shoppers at local
shopping meccas and seemingly endless sales would lead one to believe that
everything is hunky dory in the land of your neighborhood merchants.
That’s not quite the case.
Aside from the Black Friday and Boxing Day madness that has happened the last
few years, the reality of the current retail situation in Canada is that a
large number of businesses are hurting, and we’re seeing the way in which
Canadians spend their money changing right before our eyes.
Working as a sales manager of a retail establishment, I have begun to see
firsthand how many people have begun to move away from actually leaving their
homes to do their shopping. With many purchases only a click of a mouse away
online, what incentive do most shoppers have to leave the comfort of their
couch anymore?
If you need evidence of how poorly some sections of the retail sector are doing
in this country right now, look no further than Target Canada. It was just over
a year ago that the US giant made its way north with the promise of great
products at low prices – with serious talk being thrown around that they would
unseat the king of the retail mountain, Wal-Mart in no time. After losing an
estimated $1.5 billion since they opened their first store in this country,
their plans for northern domination have turned into a great white gaffe.
Sears Canada, a staple of this country for longer than any of us have been
around, is bleeding money right now with layoffs in the thousands and store
closures seemingly every time you turn around. The Chicago based headquarters
for Sears has seriously considered selling off the Canadian retailer to
interested parties, but there are none. Save that yearly Christmas Wish Book
because it may soon be a collector’s item.
Best Buy Canada, Reitman’s, Chapters and many more businesses are on the list
of other Canadian retailers that are in danger as 2015 begins. These are stores
that have been part of the retail landscape of this country for longer than I
can remember, but dwindling sales are leading to more and more speculation
about their futures. Is the abandoned mall that is cropping up with increasing
frequency all over the United States destined to creep north into Canada? It
seems like it very well may be.
So why is this happening? Surely lower prices and convenience are factors, but
I don’t think they’re the biggest ones. I think a big part of the problem is
that many organizations need to start focusing on the skill of customer service
again because it is truly a dying art with many companies. I can count the
number of times I have had exceptional service from a retailer on one hand in
the last year, and I don’t hold out a lot of hope for 2015. Mediocrity has
almost become exceptional in today’s marketplace because bad service is so
commonplace. ?
I come from an old school mentality of a consumer who would gladly pay a few
dollars more for an item in a brick and mortar store if it’s backed by top
notch customer service delivered by an expert selling me the product. Is it any wonder, though, that many people
would prefer to shop online rather than deal with disinterested employees who
often times know nothing about the products they expect you to buy from them?
A perfect example of this is the fact that I ended up ordering my wife’s
Christmas gift online this year after three local merchants that sold the
product (that I knew nothing about) all
gave me a response along the lines of “I haven’t the slightest clue” when I
asked them to guide me in a purchasing decision. Their suggestion was that I do
my research online. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy of extinction!
I, for one, don’t want a future where I can’t go into a store and hold a
product in my hands before spending my hard earned money on it. By the same
token, I’d like to know that I’m valued as a customer when I do purchase something
from you. It’s not rocket science, but I’m amazed by how many companies just
don’t seem to get it.
Maybe the change is inevitable. Perhaps we’re destined to move toward a
predominately online marketplace where the human element is all but eliminated
and people become even less social than we are now. There’s the distinct
possibility that I’m just an old fogey who is digging my heels into the ground
as I fight against a tide that is sweeping in with or without me.
Either way, you have to wonder where people are going to get the money to
patronize these online monolithic companies when, faster that you can double
click, we’re eliminating the jobs of the people who used to sell us these
things.
Put that in your cart and ponder it.
