Canada | Straightspeak

“Houston, we’ve got another problem”

By DHughes|2025-03-20T16:54:19-04:00March 20th, 2025|Categories: business, community, politics, social, trumpwatch|Tags: Apollo 13, Brandy Lee, Canada, chainsaw, corruption, democracy, Edward Deming, Eliott Jaques, Jim Collins, Jim Lovell, John Gardner, Michael Lewis, Musk, tariffs, The Fifth Risk, Trump, Ukraine|

The near-catastrophe aboard Apollo 13 was nothing compared to what Captain Space-X and his orange crew chief are now launching in America (11 min read) "Houston, we've had a problem." Jim Lovell, American astronaut, April 1970 Like the problem (explosion) on Apollo 13, the current firestorm raging from the White House could blow up if we don’t throw off our Read more...

photo:groundzero

America got it right … well, a quarter of America got it half right

By DHughes|2017-03-23T14:37:17-04:00November 10th, 2016|Categories: politics, social, trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Tags: Abraham Lincoln, American democracy, Canada, Donald Trump, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Hillary Clinton, Kahlil Gibran|

24% got it right and voted for change but is it the right change or Russian roulette? Four things you might not know Only 24% of Americans elected Donald Trump as President of the United States. The other 76% didn't want him or didn't bother to vote. Half the people not voting is a problem. But maybe it's Read more...

Canada’s opportunity to buy US

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:47-05:00July 28th, 2011|Categories: business, politics|Tags: Boehner, Canada, China, Obamam|

For centuries Canada has lived with the fear of being overtaken or annexed by the United States - since before the War of 1812. How the tables have turned. Now, in the next few days Canada has an opportunity to "buy" the United States. If - and it's still an if - Obama and Boehner screw it up and let Read more...

My personal history is the stuff they write books about. And that's what I am doing. The working title, "Chains of My Father: Marry White."

"The ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds." - Barack Obama

This perspicacious line from the Prologue of Barack Obama's "Dream from My Father" wrenched my aspiration into action. I started writing, furiously. Unlike Obama's perspective, my pain had been for the opposite reason: I was not seen by whites as a "tragic mulatto," rather I lived every day of my childhood hoping whites were not "searching my eyes for some telltale sign" that I WAS mulatto. This is my story.

It's historical fiction because I cannot find enough records to substantiate all facets of the story. I've combed the genealogy, traveled to my father and grandmothers' birthplace, walked the graveyards, searched the churches and ... well, all the facts aren't there. I have written three books based on the genealogy of other families but my ancestors emerged from a journey that left too few records – slavery.

My paternal, great grandmother was a "freed slave." My grandmother, Amelia, was born to a mixed race slave named Mary (we do not know her last name) and a white, French plantation owner, the Count de Poullain, in Grenada, West Indies. Amelia was raised in the "Big House" and in adulthood, in an attempt to escape her black heritage disowned her mother, telling her, "Get out and never come back." Amelia, as a mother of twelve children, enshrined into the family commandments, "Marry white." Many did, including my father. My mother was a lovely, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant born in England. They met in Canada where my dad studied and became a doctor.

It has taken five generations for the descendants of Mary to free themselves from the stigma of their black heritage but today my children embrace it. Unfortunately, the past 250 years have been a wasteland of bigotry, racism and bullying. But, on closer look, we see not only the brutality, fear, violence, and murder but also the self-respect, dignity, love, kindness, perseverance and indomitable spirit.

As of the spring of 2025, the depth of historic perspective and the sweeping inspiration of oppressed people has created a two-volume duology of which I have only arrived at the middle of the 19th century. 1840 is the year my great grandfather was born, the beginning of Volume II, and he's pushing me to make sure our story is published by the summer of 2026.

“Houston, we’ve got another problem”

America got it right … well, a quarter of America got it half right

Canada in talks with US on using Bill C-428 to stem illegal immigration problem

Canada’s opportunity to buy US