The idea that there is no cavalry first hit me in 2005 when I saw the news reports fromHurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Tens of thousands of people took shelter in the Superdome, and waited…and waited…for help to come. It never did. What came was looting and violence and other trappings ofLord of the Flies. How could this happen? This was America, for heaven’s sake.
It turns out I was right about the country, and wrong about the direction it was headed.
But this social collapse is also happening in Britain where not only is the National Health Service breaking down, but so is garbage pickup and public transit and immigration, and the police. Of course it’s worse in the US where being a white, Christian male can be the only defence against the predations of its government.
It isn’t true in Canada for most of us, and if we live in Toronto, the cavalry will still come. This is one of the few places on earth where, if you fall off your bike and someone calls 911, not only will an ambulance arrive, but so will a fire truck.
Who knows if our patented civility will continue to rule the public square, or whether we’ll fall prey to a playbook whose cover is headed “Dividing Before Falling.”
What I do know for sure is that one group of Canadians don’t have their fair share. Their access to the cavalry is spotty and limited because it always has been despite huge efforts and money to change things.
Ironically, this group of Canadians constitutes the majority of Canadians.
They are, of course, women.
Yes, women have made laudable progress in most every activity, from firefighting to commercial aviation. This year at the University of Toronto, 56% of law students, 54% of medical students, and 37% of engineering students are women. 50 years ago, the numbers were 20% of law students, 22% of med students and 3% of engineering students.
There are more female departmental chiefs in hospitals and more women managing partners at the downtown law firms. By next year, women will own half the financial assets in the country.
So in Canada in the Year 2025, the arc of women’s rights and power is still bending towards equality. True, the number of women Members of Parliament is stuck at less than a third…and most all of the Prime Minister’s senior advisors are men. But generally, women are on the move and are moving up.
Except in one vital, shocking area.
More than a third of Canadian women aged 55 to 64 have no retirement savings at all. Nothing.
This means 6.6 million women (twice the population of Toronto) will….do what exactly when they stop working because of their age? Move in with their adult children? Marry up? Live on the street? Take their lives?
There are many obvious reasons for this. For every dollar a Canadian man earns, a Canadian woman earns 89 cents, and racialized women make only 59 cents compared to a white man’s dollar. Many more women than men tend to work part-time, or in precarious jobs that have no pension plans. Because women have kids and are, for the most part, their primary caregiver, they move in and out of the workforce.
So within this world of women finally getting their fair share, can we please add to the long list of federal infrastructure projects a new human infrastructure project to create more workplace pension plans that will enable these millions of middle-aged women to have more than nothing to retire on? Yes, we all have the Canada Pension Plan, and while it is one of the best anywhere, it still will only get you $1,433 a month (at age 65) at most, which won’t buy much financial safety these days.
Meanwhile…
1. You have no enemies? You haven’t lived. You have no “Here doggy. Nice doggy”? No sense of adventure when you travel?
2. Name your favourite all-male drag ballet troupe. They’re all grown up now. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo began in a Manhattan loft in 1974 and today they’re on a 50th birthday global tour. “Trocks” will be in Toronto on Oct. 18 and 19. And you cansave 15% on tickets via our not-so-secret promo code: TROCKS15
3. Put AI to work for you. Fear not. If mighty dread has seized your troubled breast around AI, just use these ‘targeted prompts’ to make AI your seductive new friend. Andthese too if you need to make an important presentation. And how to talk to AI as if it were a person. Plus, some low-tech hacks for happier homemaking.
Finally, how AI will really hurt us: “It is a mixed blessing. It will generally let you achieve your immediate goal more efficiently and reliably than otherwise. Frequently offloading cognitive work to devices may cause certain “mental muscles” to atrophy. The cost of physical machines is human obesity; the cost of intelligent machines is human stupidity.”
4. Greetings. George Clooney says hello. Elizabeth Gilbert says goodbye. And discussesmarriage. And Robert Redford passes on. Plus animals say “Surprise!” And MacKenzie Scott says: “Take my money and run!”
5. If you think bicycle couriers have it hard in Toronto…try Beijing. And, re Charlie Kirk, this may be hard to hear, but necessary. And ask your lungs if they’re older than you are. Odds are, they are. All you need is a large plastic bottle. And if you think folding fitted sheets is easy, it’s not.
Despite all the hardship, if you’re a man, staying healthy can be easy. As an ER physician said to his staff: “If a male patient over 50 checks in by saying: ‘I just haven’t felt right for the past few days,’ you have, at most, 90 minutes to save his life.”
And speaking of doctors, here’s the youngest ones ever…and some not real ones.
6. Awards are flashing by: Best Drama Emmys, Best Actress Oscars, Best Supporting Actor Oscars, and what movie reinvented the gangster film?
7. They’re up. Are you coming? Three big and intriguing things are coming to Toronto next month.
The first is The Promise of Music, from Oct. 6 to 10. It’s the First World Congress on the social impact of music. It features concerts by artists from around the world, all over Toronto and a “Big Ideas Forum” with the cost of a full-day pass just $10.
On the bill are: Viggo Mortensen, A.R. Rahman, Gabor Maté, Tod Machover, the faculty head of the MIT Media Lab…plus the Afghanistan National Youth Orchestra, theJerusalem Youth Chorus (50% Israeli, 50% Palestinian); The Recycled Orchestra from Paraguay, kids so poor they play instruments made from discarded materials retrieved from the gigantic landfill that is their town’s only business; the all-women’s Firdaus Orchestra from Dubai, The Sunshine Orchestra featuring A.R. Rahman, Bollywood Superstar (with one billion fans) who won the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire; and Canada’s own combined Sistema Toronto and New Brunswick, with host Viggo Mortensen doing the readings from The Wild Symphony, a musical menagerie composed by Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown.
The week is topped off by five film screenings at Hot Docs about the transformative impacts of music.
The second big new thing is David Blackwood: Myth and Legend, which opens October 8 at the Art Gallery of Ontario. This is the second AGO show of his works, and the first since the iconic Newfoundland printmaker died in 2022.
And last but certainly not et cetera, The Toronto International Festival of Authors just announced this year’s lineup, from Oct. 29 through Nov. 2. Speakers include Rachel Maddow and Rebecca Solnit in conversation, plus Booker winner Kiran Desai, Linden MacIntyre and Kotaro Isaka. Information and tickets here.
8. Is there a “grey divorce” in your family? The kind that makes adult children ask: “Was it all smoke and mirrors?”
9. Odd superlatives. Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man, says: “When I walk up the stairs, I get out of breath.” Plus, the world’s narrowest car.
10. Welcome to The Distributed Denial of Secrets…that archives and publishes hacked and leaked documents in the public interest. Like the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, the Israel Ministry of Justice, and the always fascinating Anonymous.