In recent years the number of people suffering from mental illness has skyrocketed. A recent study at Harvard Medical School suggests that 1 of every 2 people, or 50% of the population will experience some form of mental illness in their lifetime. It is both impossible and impractical to treat that many people with the current system, without change many people will needlessly suffer.
The most effective way to deal with this problem is by adding Mental Health throughout the elementary and high school curriculums. Teaching students about how they may feel at different points in their life along with common cognitive therapies to deal with it would save unmeasurable amounts of suffering and money. Just knowing they are not the only ones who may be feeling the way they do can be a comfort in itself. Of course, this won’t be enough for everyone so knowing when to get professional help and how to spot someone else in crisis would also be part of the curriculum.
I can’t think of any subject taught in school that’s more important than a student’s health. Squeezing in time to teach mental health is not only imperative but critical for the changing needs of future generations.
Push button start, has to be the dumbest thing by far that car makers have come up with. The idea makes so little sense, I can’t help considering that car thieves are designing our cars now.
Most cars now come with a push-button start, a system that uses a bulky fob to emit a radio frequency that unlocks the doors and starts the engine. For even the basic car thief, this signal can easily be copied with a modified computer. You might as well leave your doors unlocked and the engine running when you go to bed at night.
Bulky fobs are not easy to carry in a pocket meaning most people leave them in a convenient place by the front door making it easy for thieves to copy the signal from outside, right through the wall, The signal can also be copied when you drop your car off for repair or anywhere out in public when someone is within 6 feet of the fob.
So far, despite the obvious, how to stop car thefts of push-button start vehicles has baffled car makers, government task forces, and police, all while auto insurance rates go through the roof. The best advice they can offer car owners is to keep their fob in a faraday pouch, offering all the convenience of needing to take your fob in and out of the pouch every time you use the car. The other solution is to put a locking steel bar on the steering wheel every time you stop the car. It seems car thieves can’t get past the $80.00 key lock on these steel bars. I find storing a snow brush bad enough let alone a steel bar on top of that.
Here’s a thought, How about going back to a F#@KING KEY!!!! Put today’s technology into designing a physical key.
The problems with push-button start far outweigh any benefit, for me, there is no benefit, just problems. At the very least, if carmakers insist on continuing to build push-button start cars, add a key-locking steering column. That way there is a good chance your car will still be where you left it.
It is now, 3 months into the 2023 war between Israel and Hamas. Israel has made it clear, they are not going to stop until Hamas is defeated. The longer this takes, the greater the amount of suffering and lives lost. Palestinian civilians are not helpless, they have the power to quickly end the war.
If the Palestine civilians united with Israel against Hamas by providing intel to Israel, the inevitable defeat of Hamas would be quick and the war would be over. Civilians providing Israel with Hamas’s exact locations and other intel would enable Israel to pinpoint targeting away from innocent people, some may even know where the hostages are being held. This collaboration would show Israel that the majority of Palestinians do not support Hamas’s barbaric and violent ways, a critical factor in future post-war relations and solving the issues between the Palestinians and Israelis.
If Vietnam, Korea, and Afghanistan have taught us one thing, it’s that foreign interference does not help in the evolution of cultures. It’s up to “all” the people in that culture to make changes on issues with which they don’t agree. Throughout the world, civilians in non-democratic nations and cultures need to take more responsibility for their governments, otherwise, they will have no choice but to not only deal with the suppression by their government but also the wrath of other nations from the actions of that government.
Despite construction everywhere you look, Canada is facing one of the biggest housing shortages in its history. The problem is so bad that even with interest rates over 5%, it has barely made a dent in slowing the rising price of real estate. Rental market prices, already unaffordable for many, continue to soar with no end in sight. The demand for housing is disproportionately inflating prices to the point of irreversible damage to our economy and way of life. No one will be spared from the effect as the increasing need and costs of government-subsidized housing are passed on in the way of taxes. Long periods of high inflation caused by higher wages are inevitable just to allow people to afford basic shelter.
The most obvious solution is to limit immigration to Canada until the housing supply can be built back up, but while unable to house the current number of Canadians, the federal government has set a goal of accepting 500,000 new immigrants in 2024. This will have an immense impact in driving housing and rental prices higher, bringing Canadian closer to an economic disaster.
Building more affordable units is the next obvious solution but the definition of more affordable needs to change as we currently know it. Micro units, engineered for space utilization ranging from as low as 250 square feet would enable more units to be built quicker, in less space, and at a lower cost.
This current ad for an RV shows that it is possible to build a new 2-bedroom unit of less than 400 square feet for under $60,000.00 CDN. This concept could easily be adapted to new condos and detached homes.
RVs LIKE THE ONE SHOWN ABOVE COULD ALSO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION
Government incentives in some areas currently allow property owners to not only build small rental units on their property but will pay them $30,000 toward the cost. If municipalities allowed a tenant-owned RV to be kept on the property instead of constructing a permanent small rental unit, all an approved property owner would be responsible for, would be running a sewage line, cold water supply, and as little as a 30 amp hydro connection to the area the RV is to be set up (assuming the RV is set up for propane heating and cooking). The RV tenant would be responsible for the purchase of their RV and all the maintenance to it.
A government incentive of only $10,000 over 10 years would cover most if not all of the basic costs of the property owner to “T” off the underground sewage pipe outside their house, and run the water and electricity from their house to the RV site. This income-generating improvement would also add value to the property when the owner sells.
In order to address some of the obvious concerns, the RV site would have to be approved by the municipality, many downtown urban properties would not qualify because of the layout or space. Also, RV tenants would not have the same rights as other tenants. They would have a minimum of a 1-year lease at which point, unless the property owner allows them to stay, it is assumed that they will leave and have no rights to remain past the term of the lease. This important stipulation would provide an incentive for the RV tenants to treat the property owner and neighbors with proper respect.
Assuming the property owner charged $800.00 to $1,000.00 a month to the RV tenant, interest on the RV as shown above (60,000.00 x 5%) equals $250.00 a month. This new 2 bedroom warrantied rental unit would cost an RV tenant $1,050.00 to $1,250.00 a month, putting it in the price range of a single person working full-time at minimum wage. Of course, the RV tenant would also have to pay down some of the principal on the RV cost every month, but this builds equity and does not represent the lost costs of renting.
The $10,000.00 tax-free government grant would pay the property owner $10,000.00 per year for each of the next 10 years the property is rented out. The property owner would have to declare the profit portion of the $800.00 to $1,000.00 a month ($9,600-$12,000 a year) rent as taxable income each year to receive the grant. In many cases, this would end up with the government collecting more in income taxes than it pays out for the grant and could continue to remain a source of tax revenue well after the 10-year grant period ends.
If municipalities took a further step and allowed an RV to be placed on an empty building lot, set up with only sewage, water, and hydro, it would complete an affordable tiered system for Canadians to achieve traditional home ownership. RV tenants need to only save up enough to purchase their own serviced building lot at which point they would move their RV there and save the cost of renting an RV tenant spot. Once the lot was paid off they could save to have a house built on the same lot or sell the lot and the RV and buy a house somewhere else.
Newly built subsidized government housing is also necessary, building micro units would make them more economical to build and they would use less energy. They also need to be more durable to address the current challenges of subsidized housing maintenance so RVs would not be a suitable choice. Every subsidized unit built becomes an expense to the government (taxpayers) forever, so subsidized units should be comfortable but not take away a person’s motivation to do better.
If interest rates remain high, every day for the next 4 years, more current homeowners, that locked in their mortgages at low rates will be faced with paying 5% or more on the balance they owe. An example is $500,000 @ 1.5% = $625 a month interest / $500,000 @ 5% = $2,083 a month interest. With demand continuing to push up prices, making affordability increasingly impossible, the chances of a catastrophic economic fallout become more likely.
Every day in Toronto, there is another incident involving either an unprovoked attack by someone in a mental crisis or a swarming of someone by teenagers. Sympathetic treatment toward mental illness involving violence and the “Young Offender’s Act” are the root cause of this growing problem.
In Oct 2022 RCMP officer Shaelyn Yang was attacked by a homeless man with a knife. She managed to shoot him during the altercation, the homeless man survived, but officer Yang did not. Yang was not only trained as a police officer but trained in dealing with mental health and was part of a homeless outreach program, but despite that, she not only could not help the homeless man but was murdered by him. As tragic as this was, it boggles my mind, that in today’s society, it was necessary to have an investigation afterward to determine if her shooting him was justified. She’s dead! It’s obvious the shooting was not only justified but she should have done more.
There has never been more empathy and acceptance toward mental illness than there is today. As positive as this is, acceptance of the behavior associated with it has enabled a small number to escalate their actions to violence, leading to serious injury and death of innocent people on a daily basis. While some of these attacks are unpredictable, the ones done by people with a history of violence are totally preventable. Lack of a deterrent at the onset of violence because someone has mental issues reduces their need to control themselves and enables their behavior to escalate.
Not unlike violence by the mentally ill, the amount of crime done by young offenders is enabled by the current “The Young Offenders Act”. Of course, everything possible needs to be done to keep youth on the right path and rehabilitate the ones that stray off it but current laws don’t do that. Although “The Young Offenders Act” works for the majority of youth for first or second offenses, it provides little deterrent to repeat offenders, enabling them to commit more serious crimes and reducing their chances of rehabilitation. Any young offender convicted of a second violent offense or a third criminal act should face the full wrath of the adult punishment for that offense.
Most crimes are totally preventable as people can control their actions when they need to. No one would put their hand on a hot stove if they were told not to. (NO I AM NOT SUGGESTING THAT BE DONE TO ANYONE!!!!) I am just saying most people that commit crimes have the ability to control their actions and would think twice before committing a crime if there was enough of a deterrent. Also, current deterrents do not work well because waiting months or years for a trial causes a disassociation between actions and punishment.
It would be nice if everyone could be helped with a hug and a long talk, but with the increase of money and programs toward this solution over the past years, problems are getting worse, not better. You have to be pretty naive to believe that acceptance, defunding the police, and throwing money into programs will help everyone. For a small but significant number, it becomes an enabler. We need to do everything possible to help people before things get out of hand but can not ignore or tolerate violence or repetitive criminal acts because of the age or mental state of the person.
When an armed, specially trained police officer can be killed, what chance do you and your loved ones have? We all have the right to be safe. The rights of the mentally ill and young offenders should not be above everyone else.
