It’s the new year. Time to make wishes for better times. If you disagree with my ideas – send me yours. Let’s have a debate. Here’s a hodge podge of my thoughts.

I wish that those militant anti-vaxxers demanding “It’s my Body, My Choice” contribute time and money to help the women seeking Freedom of Choice for their bodies.

They could also offer to off-set the cost to heart, cancer and other patients having to go to the back of the line to provide space for the more serious consequences to those unvaccinated catching Covid.
I wish the “Right to Life” people identify their support for those who want to abolish the “Death Penalty”.

As well, they can campaign for increased funding for child care. If the
state commands the women to bear the child for the child’s protection rather than a moral punishment for the woman then hasn’t the state an obligation to share in the child’s support.

I wish that those politicians who demand fixed jail terms as a show of toughness, also tell the public how much it will cost them in taxes to build the extra jails, care for the prisoners, finance the Court Systems, manage increased caseloads; pay for more Crown Attorneys, Judges and
Police Officers that will result from the new law.

They should also produce the data to illustrate its effectiveness compared to other resolutions (I am not talking about violent crime here). They ought to tell the voter from where the money will come – education, health, social assistance or more taxes I wish we dealt with drug-use (not illegal sales) like Portugal. They consider it a medical issue rather than criminal. They use health regulations to promote treatment.

We can also define housing for street folk as a health problem. Remember it was the government that closed the psychiatric facilities and promised to provide supervised homes in the public domain (A good
thought) for some of them.

Where are these supervised homes and the help for opioid
self-medication. If we re-frame the problems as a health and safety issue; rather than criminal, we might start finding solutions. Saskatchewan found the cost of building reasonable facilities were covered by the savings from policing, medical care and crime reduction when the savings were considered over several years, as compared to the one-time capital cost of a building.

I wish we stopped complaining about taxes and higher costs going to fair pay for teachers, public servants, medical staff, and those serving the public. We need more help and respect for them. They have saved our lives and sanity during COVID-19. Can you imagine being a teacher with 30 children to control and teach, half by video through a tiny lens and the other half in person, simultaneously. It requires different techniques.

Ask, any nurse how they feel treating the onslaught of unvaccinated patients while having to triage the cancer, heart and other people needing help. Ask any mother of two who has been at home with children during COVID how they have remained sane.

I wish politicians stop name calling, attacking the person, spinning the truth and answer question directly.  It’s our duty to tell them to follow their Mom’s advice, ”Treat people with dignity, Name-calling isn’t nice.” I know it’s difficult to discipline them when we watch parents at rallies screaming like idiots and threatening violence.

Remember your parent training classes that you teach more by role modeling than telling. When was the last time you swore at some
guy who cut you off with the kids in the back seat.

I wish that we remembered a democracy can only survive with compromise and transparency. Its rule by majority while respecting the minority. One side cannot have it all otherwise you have revolution. Remember that in the next election.

Lastly, I wish more of us looked at newcomers not with fear but understanding, with an effort to include them. I remember several years ago while walking through Sherway Gardens Mall.

I saw this family, a father, mother, three girls and two boys dressed Mid-East style speaking Farsi (Iranian or Persian) watching The World Hockey playoffs was on a store TV.  They were jumping, yelling, shouting something I didn’t understand except I remember the distinct words,
“Go Canada”. Canada had just scored a ‘go-ahead’ goal.

They came, like my dad, not to change the country but to change their lives. They add to our mosaic.

Judge Lloyd Budzinski retired after 28 years and was a former Crown
Attorney, Defence Counsel and Ontario’s Assistant Deputy Minister of
Criminal Law. He was Chief Prosecutor in the trial of ex-RCMP officer Patrick Michael Kelly, found guilty of murder for throwing his wife from a 17th floor balcony in March 1981. He can be reached at lbudzinski@talkjustice.info