Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Canada's lighthouses, museums and libraries

In psychology, desensitization is defined as "the diminished emotional responsiveness to negative stimulus after repeated exposure to it."
During the year 2012, I experienced feelings of shock and deep sadness because of the following national political pronouncements:
My sister, my niece and I in front of the  Canadian  Museum of  Nature  (The Victoria  Memorial  Museum)  during the summer of 1984.
  1. "The Museum of Nature in Ottawa Goes Disco" - This is totally unbelievable, the impending  desecration of  a Gothic Revival, Scottish Baronial castle, a National Historic Site of Canada. What next? A gambling casino and a strip club? The Canadian House of Commons moved to the Museum of Nature after a 1916 fire that destroyed the Centre Block, on Parliament Hill.  Much of the green space that encircled the building is gone, paved over for parking lots; and the National Capital Commission approved the construction of an underground parkade.  
  2.  The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is selling its Montreal headquarters, and condo developers are building high-rise apartments on the parking lot.
  3. The Postal Museum at the Museum of Civilization has been dismantled, and the collection is being scattered to the winds.
  4. Corrections Canada will close the Kingston Penitentiary and the Leclerc Institution within the next two years. The Isabel McNeil House, opposite KP, has been empty for years. Mark my words, Collins Bay Pen, Dorchester, the Beaver Creek Institution in Muskoka, Ontario, and every other historic federal penitentiary will be declared "surplus"; read the 2007 document "A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety."
  5. Downsview Park will be redeveloped.
  6. Canada's national libraries are being dismantled and closed.
  7. In 2010, Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced the divestiture of 1,000 lighthouses, the entire portfolio. Peggy's Cove Lighthouse in Nova Scotia may be demolished in the year 2013.
  8. A tourist attraction called "The Glacier Discovery Walk"  defaced the side of a mountain in Jasper National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Compare Mount Rushmore in South Dakota to the Glacier Discovery Walk:

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