It’s been a while since I’ve gone shopping at a gun store, but I found myself in one last week.

A target shooter was having trouble finding ammunition and asked me to check a gun store near my place. A clerk at that store said he had some of the shells I was looking for, but not all. 

“How about some .410 shotgun shells?” I inquired.

He looked at me and laughed. Then he said the store had got in 380 boxes of those shells and sold them out in 48 hours.

Four-ten-gauge shotgun shells are commonly used for small game hunting – like rabbits and partridge. But the small game season is long past in most places so why the run on the ammunition?

“Hoarding.” The clerk answered. “People are buying ammunition by the case.”

A bit of research confirms the clerk’s statement. Canadian and American gun enthusiasts say they are experiencing “the great ammo” shortage that worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The shortages had been developing for several reasons, including more ammo production directed to the war in Ukraine and fear of even more firearms restrictions in Canada and the U.S. 

The pandemic disrupted production and delivery of materials used in making ammunition. Ammunition imports to the U.S. fell 34 per cent during the pandemic.

But a key factor in ammunition shortages is fear. People are worried about what’s happening in their world. Will growing tensions between superpowers lead to world war? Will Covid worsen or be followed by a more severe virus? Will increasing violence cause governments to impose even more firearms restrictions? What’s happening with the world economy?

These fears have been driving up U.S. gun production and sales, which have doubled in the last two decades.

Panic buying is not limited to toilet paper and cough and cold meds during a pandemic. Runs on other items are common in times of uncertainty.

Hoarding ammo makes sense to a lot of people. It is relatively easy. As easy as stockpiling canned goods. Ammo doesn’t go bad and eases the mind of anyone worried about some catastrophic event.

Yes, stockpiled ammo might help save your life during a catastrophe. It also could save avid shooters a lot of money during shortages when prices go through the roof.

There is good reason for concern – outright fear for some – of government seriously restricting the ownership and use of firearms. Politicians in Canada and the U.S. are being screamed at to do something to stop rising gun violence.

Gun-related crime in Canada has increased by 42 per cent in the last 10 years, mainly because of gang crime in Toronto. Already this year there have been 9,000 gun deaths in the U.S., including about 120 mass murders.

Some Canadians say more firearms restrictions, or even bans, are needed to stop the violence. Canadians seem to prefer tackling tough problems with restrictions, bans and punishments. That’s not the approach needed to solve problems related to guns.

Violence is a manifestation of social unrest, which is being seen increasingly in mass demonstrations, attacks on police and other nasty civil disorders. We won’t stop violence of any kind until we clearly identify all the reasons behind social unrest and begin to fix them.

And, will never see effective fixing until we begin to produce effective leadership. We just do not have that at the federal or provincial levels.

We have a lot of nice people in politics. People tied to their own brands of politics, parties and interests. We don’t have the dynamic, independent leaders we desperately need today.

We need new leaders willing to listen to many voices. Willing to shape their leadership from what they hear and see, and have the ability to pull people together into collective leadership.

That type of leadership once existed here – long before Europeans arrived. Most Indigenous groups had collective leadership systems that focused on community and common good rather than individual desires and needs.

This is the type of leadership we need today. If we can find it, perhaps we will stop hoarding out of fear for our futures. And my target shooting friends will be able to find the ammunition they need.

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 I’ve always been in love with the RCAF – the Royal Canadian Air Force.

My love affair began young when I set out to become an RCAF fighter pilot. Fate intervened and I ended up flying typewriters instead of fighter jets.

My love swelled this week when I read the RCAF is cutting back expensive snacks and other amenities it serves its privileged passengers.

The RCAF flies big wigs like the governor general, prime minister, various politicians and bureaucrats on official business in Canada and abroad. Those privileged passengers get in-flight drinks, meals on glass dishes, newspaper and magazines and other amenities, such as flower arrangements, to ensure their comfort.

Defence department overlords have decided to reduce amenities and have their privileged passengers travel more like the rest of us. 

If they follow through, the saving of taxpayer funds should be substantial. For instance, the governor general’s trip to Dubai last March cost taxpayers $1.3 million, which included $100,000 in-flight catering for 30 people – roughly $3,300 a person.

Those folks had a choice of beef Wellington, chicken scaloppini or beef carpaccio for each leg of the trip. Government records show costs of $552 for ice, $526 for limes and lemons, $110 for four litres of apple juice and $1,000 for water.

The aircraft was restocked during the Dubai trip. Replenishing the supply of potato chips, cashews, yogurt and granola cost several thousand dollars, according to government figures.

The RCAF has ordered that in-flight snacks no longer will be bought at foreign stops. All snack items will be purchased in Trenton where the transport aircraft are based.

Also, all non-alcoholic drinks, such as mineral water, will be sourced in Canada and  

Newspapers, magazines and flowers no longer will be available on flights.

Meal choices will be more closely scrutinized and all passengers will be served the same standard choices. No more wide-ranging menus.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) seems happy with the changes. Franco Terrazzano, the federation’s national director says, however, more needs to be done to reduce extravagance and improve transparency.

“Taxpayers expect bureaucrats to be capable of exercising restraint and using common sense,” he was quoted in the media. “That means not enjoying beef Wellington on an airplane when Canadians can’t afford hamburgers.”

He added that taxpayers should be given more detailed information on travel spending, For instance, receipts could be posted online. even posting receipts online. Getting basic information now is like pulling teeth, he said.

Cutting in-flight extravagances should help the RCAF to escape being nominated for one of the CTF’s annual Teddy Waste Awards. The awards, pig-shaped trophies, are given each year to the worst garment waste offenders. They are named for Ted Weatherill, the federal bureaucrat fired from his job as Canada Labour Relations Board head for reckless spending, including a $700 lunch for two in Paris.

Travel and food are big ticket items in federal spending. Global Affairs Canada has won a Teddy for spending $11.2 million to fly chefs around the world (first-class) to cook at various embassies. This was part of some government program called the Mission Cultural Fund.

The federal Liberal government also has picked up a Teddy lifetime achievement award for sending 276 delegates to the 2021 climate change conference in the UK. The huge cost of that jaunt included $3,000 for a luxury limo service to take Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland from Edinburg to Glasgow, where the conference was being held.

It’s unclear why Freeland stayed in Edinburg, roughly 90 kilometres from Glasgow. Her room in Edinburg’s Hotel Indigo cost roughly $750 Canadian a night.

Ottawa’s food bills should become a bit smaller when Prime Minister Trudeau spends time at his Harrington Lake cottage this summer. He won’t have to order in. He will be able to cook for himself in the new $700,000 to $1 million kitchen his government has installed at the cottage.

The federal government spent another $2.5 million to replace a “backup” cottage at Harrington Lake. The backup was considered necessary temporary accommodation while the main cottage was being renovated. It is to be used by security details and other officials when the main cottage renovations have been completed.

 The world’s problems are becoming so complex that it appears politicians are turning to elves for help.

It’s happening in Mexico. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently posted on Twitter a photo of what he said was an alux, an elf-like creature that lives in the woods.

Some Maya peoples believe these are knee-high sprites, usually invisible but who sometimes assume a physical form to communicate with humans.

Obrador posted the photo of a little figure with glowing eyes crouched in a tree at night.

“Everything is mystical,” he wrote.

He made the Twitter post the same weekend as tens of thousands of Mexicans protested his electoral law changes they say threaten the country’s democracy. Some saw the alux post as a way of diverting attention from the electoral reform protests.

Lopez Obrador is not the first politician to have a relationship with elves.

Some years back Arni Johnsen, a member of the Icelandic parliament, said he was saved by a family of “hidden people” when his car left the road, flipped and rolled down a cliff. A family of elves, who lived inside a large boulder near the crash site, saved his life, Johnsen said.

An expert on elves told Johnsen he could thank the family by moving their home to a better location. So Johnsen had their 30-ton boulder home moved to his property where it was placed on a spot with a fine ocean view, and plenty of grass on which they could raise their invisible sheep.

Elves are very popular in Iceland. Road construction projects there have been delayed to allow elves living in the area to find other homes.

Meanwhile, elves have become active in combatting Russian disinformation campaigns against Ukraine and western democracies.

These “elves” are real people – anonymous volunteers who are part of a growing movement fighting Russian lies through cyber activism. They call themselves “The Elves” because, like elves, they want their identities to be invisible.

Cyber activism, also called digital activism, uses the Internet and digital media as platforms for mass mobilization and political action.

This elf movement began in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine to annex the Crimea peninsula. Some volunteers in the former Soviet state of Lithuania decided to counteract Moscow’s disinformation machine and formed “The Elves”, named for the little people who work unseen and anonymously behind the scenes.

The movement has expanded to an estimated 4,000 volunteers in 13 European countries. They have a co-operation agreement, which includes an annual Elves Academy at which 100 volunteers learn from leading elves new skills to help make them more effective at their work.

A main target of “The Elves” are Russian efforts to manipulate public opinion and build support for the invasion of Ukraine. Troll farms, sponsored by the Russian government, regularly fill social media with disinformation about the war in Ukraine.

For instance, the trolls have spread Russian defense ministry claims that bodies of civilians lying dead in Ukraine streets are fake. Eyewitness accounts, satellite images and other photos all support Ukrainian claims that Russian soldiers brutally murder civilians in the streets and commit rape and other atrocities.

Mass graves of civilians, plus torture chambers, have been uncovered in Russian invaded areas since liberated by Ukrainian fighters. Also, television networks every day show video clips of civilian apartment buildings blown apart by Russian missiles.

When “The Elves” see Russian disinformation on a social media site they report it en masse, generating hundreds, even thousands, of complaints and requests to have it removed. In addition to getting fake accounts shut down and fake news blocked, “The Elves” try to counter disinformation by publishing facts.

“The Elves” have been considering expanding their work to include countering disinformation from China. They are working with people in Taiwan to establish the first Asian chapter of “The Elves”.

So maybe critics shouldn’t be so quick to call President Obrador a nutbar for seeing an alux and considering it mystical.

If not mystical, the work of “The Elves” in Europe certainly is worthwhile and appreciated.

Disinformation is becoming a global pandemic, and the more elves fighting it the better.

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 Canadian politicians have been working diligently to complete a new long-term agreement on how health care will operate in this country.

Sounds nice, but they are neglecting something that will help us all better understand the health threats of the future and how to survive them. They have yet to appoint a strong, fully independent inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic.

An independent federal inquiry into COVID-19 is not needed to assess wrongdoing and assign blame. It is needed to detail how our governments, and society in general, handled the pandemic. What was done right, what mistakes were made and how to avoid them in future.

Officially there have been 757 million COVID-19 cases worldwide since the outbreak was reported in China three years ago. The World Health Organization (WHO) says those cases have resulted in 6.8 million deaths.

Canada has reported 4.6 million cases and 51,300 deaths. The number of cases is hugely underestimated because we all know people who have had Covid but have isolated and treated themselves without reporting it.

Without question the Covid pandemic is the most serious health threat of modern times and it is not over. WHO says that roughly 80,000 new cases still are being reported every 24 hours.

Many health experts say Covid will be a longstanding health threat and that other viral threats will continue to develop.

The federal government needs to appoint a top-level judge with strong legal and research teams to probe deeply how the COVID-19 outbreak was managed. 

The inquiry also is needed to investigate the pandemic’s shocking side effects that have changed our world. Covid has helped to push us into a fully-blown mental health crisis that has seen increased crime, violence and other social problems. 

Research commissioned by WHO indicates that during the pandemic, depression and anxiety increased by more than 25 per cent.

Covid has been devastating for some parts of the economy and has created serious setbacks in the education system. It is important that we develop ways to avoid, or better manage, serious side effects in future.

Most important for an inquiry is to ensure that lessons learned from Covid-19 are never forgotten and recommendations are followed. We don’t need yet another commission of inquiry report that sits in the dark collecting dust.

Twenty years ago, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) arrived from China, infecting 400 Canadians, killing 44. The Ontario government established the SARS Commission, headed by Mr. Justice Archie Campbell, to investigate where the virus came from, how it spread and how the outbreak was managed.

Justice Campbell’s key recommendation was that the precautionary principle be a main guide post in any infectious disease outbreak. 

The precautionary principle states that when there is reasonable evidence of a public health threat we should not wait for scientific certainty before taking action to avert the threat. In another words, err on the side of caution to protect the public and health care workers.

That principle was not followed during the COVID-19 pandemic. If it had been, the outbreak would have been less devastating.

A Covid inquiry also needs to look into the serious consequences of mixing politics with science. We allowed politics to distort the clear thinking so vital in any health crisis.

Politics entered Covid debates early and heavily. The amount of misinformation, and outright disinformation, during Covid has been shocking and damaging to medical efforts to manage the crisis.

Most of us now have Covid information overload, with much information not supported by provable facts. 

Now is the time for an independent commission to begin gathering all the provable facts about COVID-19, and all the lessons to learn from it. Mr. Justice Campbell wrote in his SARS report that lessons learned can help redeem our failures. 

He added:  

“If we do not learn the lessons to be taken from SARS, however, and if we do not make present governments fix the problems that remain, we will pay a terrible price in the face of future outbreaks of virulent disease.”

We have paid a terrible price from Covid. We should be doing everything possible now to avoid paying a terrible price from the next one.

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 I’m eating my cereal and staring out the kitchen window when M arrives at the bird bath, now filled with seed for feathered friends not gone south.

M is Marnie, a cute and friendly pine martin who regularly stops by to check the bird feeders and to sniff out any snacks spilled at the compose bin.

Usually, I am pleased to see her. She is an endearing critter with silky fur – mostly brownish black, but grey-tan on a face featuring soft dark eyes that give her a loveable look.

 I’m not so pleased to see her today. She has arrived as I am reading some alarming news.

The morning newspapers are reporting that the H5N1 virus – commonly called a bird flu – is galloping out of control. It is killing millions of chickens worldwide, and now is infecting more and more wild birds, especially waterfowl and shorebirds.

The virus led to the deaths of 52 million birds in the United States last year. 

More alarming is the news that a mutant H5N1 strain is infecting mink, which continue to be raised by the millions on fur farms. 

Mink are excellent virus mixing vessels. They harbour both human and avian viruses and can produce mutant strains transmissible to humans. They carried the COVID-19 virus and are believed to have generated two new Covid variants that spread to humans.

Mink belong to the weasel family and so does my pine marten friend Marnie. So, there is concern that if H5N1 goes unchecked in mink farms it could spread to similar animals like pine marten and other mammals such as we humans.

H5N1 has been around for two or three decades but rarely is found in humans. That’s a good thing because the virus is deadly. There have been fewer that 900 human cases worldwide in the past 20 years, but 53 percent of those have been fatal.

Medical researchers are worried that H5N1 strains produced by mink will spread like wildfire through wild birds, small mammals and into human populations. They warn of an H5N1 pandemic that could take tens of millions of human lives.

One way to help curtail H5N1 spread is to stop fur farming. Animal rights groups say more than 100 million animals a year are raised and killed for their fur. Most are mink and fox. They cite abuse as one reason for ending fur farming.

Mink are crowded into small cages until they are ready to be killed through gassing or electrocution. Some are fed food containing poultry, which can contain avian flu viruses.

Their skins are used to make coats. winter boots and mittens that keep people warm. Mink fur is dense with thousands of hairs per square centimeter, making it one of the densest and softest furs available.

The fur also is used to decorate purses, hats and even keychains.

However, pressure from animal rights groups, plus more evidence of zoonotic diseases have been hitting fur farming hard. Production of fur in the European Union fell from 38 million animal skins in 2018 to about 11 million in 2021. 

Technology has given us alternatives to animal fur, and more people are accepting them. Revenue from the global faux fur market was estimated at 24.7 billion dollars U.S. last year. It is forecast to grow at 4.8 per cent annually, reaching $28.4 million by 2025.

Roughly two dozen countries now have banned fur farming. Fears over new virus strains coming from fur farms are expected to lead to more bans.

Canada still has fur farming but it is a business in steep decline. In 2011 there were 347 Canadian fur farming operations. Last year the number had dwindled to 97.

Meanwhile, the chances of avian influenza appearing in backyard bird baths or feeders is considered low. The federal government, however, recommends precautions such as removing feeders that are open to poultry or waterfowl.

Also, feeders should be cleaned every two weeks and disinfected with a solution of one part household bleach to nine parts water. They should be rinsed well and thoroughly dried before being reused.

Regular cleaning and disinfecting hopefully will keep all our feathered visitors, and  Marnie the pine marten, H5N1 free. 

 It’s been an unsettling week. 

My two oldest children were born on Valentine’s Day, two years apart. So, I had to consider whether to cancel their birthday celebrations.

Cancelling Valentine’s Day has become a major issue. Some Ontario schools have banned Valentine’s Day celebrations, saying they are not inclusive.

A handful of schools in other parts of Canada and the U.S. also have banned or restricted Valentine’s Day activities. So have some countries, including Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Valentine’s Day has been considered a Christian celebratory day not accepted by many people of non-Christian faiths. Buddhism doesn’t directly discourage Valentine’s Day but emphasizes other ways other cultivating love and happiness.

Some school principals say we live in a diverse society with schoolrooms composed of students of different races, religions and cultures. If they come from families that do not accept Valentine’s Day, they feel excluded at school when other students are exchanging cards and sweets.

Their answer to avoid exclusion is quick and simplistic: Cancel Valentine’s Day so no one feels excluded.

That’s the wrong answer. Cancelling things not socially acceptable to all is wrong-headed, and harmful.

If we cancel Valentine’s Day because some don’t accept it or believe in it, perhaps we should also cancel Hallowe’en, Christmas, Easter and other events that might make someone feel excluded. Some people don’t accept Pride parades, so should Pride events be banned?

Banning and cancelling have become a favoured approach by people professing to help create a more inclusive and equitable society. In most cases their intentions are good but their actions are negative and create conflicts.

For instance, families for whom Valentine’s Day celebrations have been a tradition might feel angry at being deprived by a minority that does not share their views. 

Backlash from such situations has created toxic anger – even hatred – against some minorities and immigration. It has fed extreme right-wing theories that foreigners are taking over the country.

Right-wing anti-immigration attitudes have been moving into general populations, especially in the United States. A Gallup Poll last summer found that almost one-quarter of Americans surveyed believe that immigration is a bad thing. 

We don’t need that kind of negative nonsense here in Canada. Thankfully, we don’t have a whole lot of it. Yet.

An Environics survey last fall found that seven of 10 Canadians support current immigration levels, which now stand at roughly 400,000 newcomers a year. That is the largest majority recorded on Environics surveys in 45 years.

That support will be eroded, however, if we continue to restrict or ban things that some groups do not support. We all need to promote ways to help us to learn about and understand each other’s culture and beliefs. Especially people working with our children in our schools.

The most misguided thinking on Valentine’s Day bans comes from the belief that it is a western religious celebration.  There have been several Saint Valentines throughout ancient history but their stories are confusing and clouded by unproven embellishments.

The Catholic church has removed Saint Valentine’s Day from its general Roman calendar, a liturgical calendar that indicates dates to celebrate saints. The church said the day was removed because aside from his name, nothing much is known about Saint Valentine.

The day became associated with romantic love back in the 14th or 15th century. In the 18th century the English began the tradition of expressing love with flowers, candies and cards.

And that’s where we are today. Valentine’s Day is a major commercial celebration that generates tens of millions of dollars in spending each year. Any religious connections have faded into the mists of ancient history.

There are few provable facts about Valentine’s Day but here are a couple of interesting Fun Facts for Kids from the We Are Teachers website:

More than one billion cards are exchanged for Valentine’s Day every year.  Teachers are the No. 1 recipients. 

And, 20 percent of pet owners give Valentine’s Day gifts to their pets.

So let’s get positive and see the day as it really is today: A day about love and kindness. 

We live in a world that could use all the love and kindness that it can get.

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It’s February, and as the singer-songwriter Don McLean wrote in his 1971 smash hit American Pie: February makes you shiver.

It isn’t February cold that makes McLean shiver. For him, February is the month in which “the music died.”

McLean wrote American Pie as a tribute to rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (J. P. Richardson Jr.) who died in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959. 

American Pie (‘American as apple pie’) has been described as one of the most successful and debated songs of the 20th century. Its nostalgic, ambiguous lyrics tell not just of the plane crash as the death of early rock and roll, but American society nosediving toward its own crash.

It is a masterpiece lamenting the loss of innocence and idyllic life to a darkening mood changing America.  

 lyrics are prophetic. Although written more than 50 years ago, they can be applied to today’s United States, a country staggering under the weight of gun violence, international tensions and destructive climate change.Listen to the song’s chorusSo bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee
But the levee was dry

When he wrote those words McLean is said to have been referring to The Levy, a hometown bar where he went to get a drink but missed last call. Therefore, The Levy was dry.

It’s easy to relate those lyrics to a dry levee today when we see global warming turning the Colorado River system, which provides water to 40 million people, into a trickle.

The song’s lyrics can be applied to other dangers facing today’s world.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candlestick refers to U.S. President John Kennedy facing the threat of nuclear war during the 1960 Cuban missile crisis. Substitute Joe Biden for Jack Kennedy and Cuba’s Fidel Castro with Russia’s Vlad Putin and his threats or nuclear war over U.S. interference in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Or, how about the lyrics in one of the song’s last stanzas – And in the streets, the children screamed . . . . 

They have reason to scream in the streets today. Already this year American gun violence has killed 169 children ages zero to 17 and wounded 400.

Total gun deaths since New Year’s Day are approaching 4,500. Mass shootings since Jan. 1 now total 60 – nearly two a day.

And, of course, the lyrics “A generation lost in space” are easily related to today’s American drug crisis. More than 1,500 people a week die from opioid-related overdoses while millions more are suffering with opioid addiction.

American overdose deaths have been rising since the 1990s with tracking agencies reporting more than one million drug deaths since 2000.

Versions of American Pie have been sung tens of thousands of times by performers in the past 64 years. Madonna released a version of it in 2000.

A new version, recorded recently in Ukraine promises to touch the hearts of millions of people disgusted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its deliberate killing of civilians.

It is called Ukrainian Pie and is a tribute to the courage and fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people, plus a tribute to what the recording company calls the magical music and lyrics of “the greatest American popular song of all time.”

The new version was composed by American lawyer–lyricist Hal Pollock and is sung by Ukrainian Alex Kozar. It was recorded in Kyiv, presumably when Russian bombs were not exploding.

Here’s a taste of the lyrics:  

If the Ruskies think they stand a chance

They better wear their big boy pants

No squatting for a Hopak dance

When we make ‘em eat Ukrainian pie

Hey Zelensky

Fly high Ukrainian guy

Let them eat their borscht

With our Ukrainian pie

While Putin drinks his vodka

And his generals die

Tell the Ruskie soldiers bye-bye

Make ‘em eat Ukrainian pie

A video of Ukrainian Pie is making the rounds on social media, notably You Tube. It also is being sold, with the profits to be distributed by the Ukrainian government for humanitarian causes in Ukraine.