Covid Journal, Jan 17, 2022 (What the Truck Edition)

US President Joe Biden announced in December 2021 that all truckers would have to be double vaccinated in order to enter the US.

More than a dozen Senate Republicans are calling on President Biden to lift the vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the Canadian border, contending the policy will disrupt trade between the U.S. and Canada.

The Biden administration announced in November that it would require all essential foreign travelers in the U.S. to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 22.

The story should end there.

This is a MADE IN THE US PROBLEM that Canada is being forced to adapt to.

This is the story that our journalists, politicians and editors across Canada should be telling Canadians.

Of course, the Cons are surfing waves of stupidity revolving around this story and are dangerously associating themselves with potential terrorists and white nationalists.

They are foolishly pretending to balance individual liberties with anti-vaxx obliviousness.

Canada’s Con media companies are failing to actually present the story in a productive light. Are they helping to fuel a Canadian version of January 6, 2021 in the US? It could be argued that Canada’s right-wing media publications – by constantly promoting the Go Fund Me pages of the small minority of protesting truckers and even pushing the story – are putting out Prime Minister in harm’s way.

And then there are other folks (a VERY small minority) who want the press and Canadians to believe that supply chain issues that are originating in the US, UK and elsewhere are the fault of Justin Trudeau.

UK reported the highest inflation rate in 30 years.

The US reports the highest inflation rate in 40 years.

Let’s make sure we keep things in perspective, please.

It’s no wonder the Cons are falling apart.

Want Some Good News?

France Has Banned ALL pesticides that contribute to bee colony collapse.

The move follows the European Union’s ban of  the three worst offenders — clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam — in crop fields starting last month.

France has banned these three along with thiacloprid and acetamiprid, not only outdoors but in greenhouses too.

Studies have shown that neonicotinoids cut bees’ sperm count and scramble their memory and homing skills. The latest research suggests  bees can develop a dangerous addiction to the insecticides, much like smokers for nicotine.

The ban is celebrated by beekeepers and environmentalists, but cereal and sugar beet farmers warn it could leave them defenseless in protecting their crops against harmful insects,  The Telegraph reports.

Introduced in the mid-1990s, synthetic neonicotinoids share the chemical structure of nicotine and attack the central nervous system of insects.

The United Nations warned last year that 40 percent of pollinators – particularly bees and butterflies – risk global extinction.

YAY France.

Please Canada – be next to take action.