Blog Dis
Liars, the whole lot of 'em
2026-03-12
A liar is someone who obfuscates the truth with a different version of the truth that is in actuality a twisted version of their so-called truth in their lying mind. Or, perhaps I should start this post differently. A liar is often associated with a politician and as we very well know, politicians can behave like liars, cheats and thieves, when presented to the voting public. Politicians are masters at promising the moon to you with a fence around it, and when finally voted into office, they'll pivot faster than you can say, "on a dime."
It's not enough that politicians will conflate the truth to get into office but they'll also cheat you out of your integrity by playing upon your fears, lying to you about the state of the economy and how it's narrowly hanging on by its finger nails; hence, the reason why politicians want you to elect theme to make the proper changes. I speak in this regard of the ruling leader, the official opposition or for those countries where it applies, multi-party systems. Yes, it is a tangled web and yes from the very first day when you had come of age, and were granted the right to cast a vote, you were pulled into the political web of lies. Your vote essentially becomes your approbation of their lies.
In the City of Ottawa, in 2008, there was a furor over whether taxi drivers should be forced to pay to install cameras in their cars, without the express permission of drivers. The intent of this measure was pushed by our Municipal Council, another layer of governance of elected officials, to enhance the safety of passengers, who themselves would be photographed against their will, all in the name to ensure that the driver wasn't breaking laws. Apparently, the cameras would only periodically take pictures which at some later point in time would be downloaded by another government organization, processed and filed away. At the time of this debate, my reaction was blasé. I accepted the potential new reality because I felt that we each are free to insert whatever opinion was appropriate. However, the notion that pictures taken without your knowledge were going to be treated with privacy was as foolhardy as it gets, to believe the lie that anything being done in your best interest was most assuredly in your best interest. This narrative, at that time, was supported by a provincial politician as well.
Fast forward to 2026, some 18+ years later, and we still have the option to hire taxi cabs but their license-regulated business had long been beleaguered due to the birth of Uber, introduced as UberCab in 2009 but which we all know now is the most often-used form of hiring a driver, to include direct competitors like Lyft, Bolt and Grab. The future will roll out yet again another new variety, autonomous vehicles - driverless cabs. These cabs will surely be equipped with cameras. By this time, however, when autonomous cars replace self-driving cars, cameras in vehicles will long be forgotten, and so will the idea that our privacy is sanctified by virtue of being an independent hirer of drivers.
Modernity takes no prisoners.
Smart glasses are a 21st century reality, equipment with built-in cameras to allow the wearer to film you covertly. I fear these POV glasses (Point of View) will become the newest weapon for YouTube influencers whereby your face, body and privacy will become a thing long lost to the past. Our politicians don't even have this on their radar, to add to the list of campaign promises to protect your privacy rights at all costs. Digital ID is here too, the newest example of political leaders happily adopting this technology, to include full body scans when coming through airports. I am disappointed that politicians are adopting this new technology like some five-dime trick they'd pick up in a dark alley. The whole notion of a digital ID is being pushed by the banking world, to streamline the tracking of individuals, and to regulate their activity. Digital ID facilitates the ease with which this may occur, while also working toward their aim to kill cash.
Technology is the real one and only King, and not the Prime Ministers and Presidents of this world. Cameras invading every element of your life are the standard. Apparently, it's estimated that wherever you walk outside, or enter a building, you are caught on camera a minimum of 12 times. So maybe one day a woman or man will take an Uber or taxi or autonomous vehicle to visit their secret lover and a trail of deceit will be left behind, a video of them being dropped off at their destination. Perhaps, too, someone who looks like you, but isn't you, will commit a crime, get into an Uber and make a getaway. Then your door will get an angry knock and you'll be implicated in something that you had nothing to do with in the first place. The right to privacy, which is an essential freedom, is perhaps one of the most fundamental rights that we all should be fighting to protect, our politicians too. Every time some organization, a political association, a government services office, makes a sweeping decision to benefit the whole public, that's when you've got to take a step back and shake your head.
Whenever someone tells you they're doing something for your own good, know they're lying to you, or are choosing to omit essential pieces of information. Your personal details, your private life, being stored elsewhere on some server... well this kind of behavior is reckless, no different than forcing someone to give a urine sample that'll be used against them in court.
So when I arrive at these junctures where I'm asked to cast my vote, as will happen several times to you in your life, I remind myself that politicians make the best liars. They'll lower your taxes. They'll dole out special credits for the impoverished, the elderly. They'll rescind draconian legislation that previous governments had brought into being. But remind yourself that politicians who came before, and who are currently in office will at some point in time not represent the truth to you, for your own good. This is the nature of their business. And, without doubt, in the beginning, before they're elected, after they're elected, and during their tenure in office, each day will be a variation of a new set of promises... er lies, which may deviate from their campaign promises.
Remember politicians who've been around the longest learn first and foremost to keep their options open.
If I had to single out the biggest lie of them all that originates from within the Government, I'd point the finger at the dismissal of the Auditor General's Report, which is delivered annually to the voting public, citing the departments that have squandered public funds, and in the worst-case scenario, when monies have gone missing without being able to account for how these monies were spent, or to whom they had gone. The Auditor General makes recommendations on how to shut down these errant business practices, and yet every single year the Government fails to observe these recommendations, to continue to observe their own lies of telling the public that we need to raise your taxes, in order to be able to serve you better.
My hope is that Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, will review these spending practices with an aim to clean up frivolous government spending. Oh! You need not worry, however. You'll still be caught on camera, multiple times, hell a horrifying number of times. So perhaps it's time for you to demand for real action, for something in return, to strip away your Government's veil of lies, just like your privacy is being stripped away.
It's not enough that politicians will conflate the truth to get into office but they'll also cheat you out of your integrity by playing upon your fears, lying to you about the state of the economy and how it's narrowly hanging on by its finger nails; hence, the reason why politicians want you to elect theme to make the proper changes. I speak in this regard of the ruling leader, the official opposition or for those countries where it applies, multi-party systems. Yes, it is a tangled web and yes from the very first day when you had come of age, and were granted the right to cast a vote, you were pulled into the political web of lies. Your vote essentially becomes your approbation of their lies.
In the City of Ottawa, in 2008, there was a furor over whether taxi drivers should be forced to pay to install cameras in their cars, without the express permission of drivers. The intent of this measure was pushed by our Municipal Council, another layer of governance of elected officials, to enhance the safety of passengers, who themselves would be photographed against their will, all in the name to ensure that the driver wasn't breaking laws. Apparently, the cameras would only periodically take pictures which at some later point in time would be downloaded by another government organization, processed and filed away. At the time of this debate, my reaction was blasé. I accepted the potential new reality because I felt that we each are free to insert whatever opinion was appropriate. However, the notion that pictures taken without your knowledge were going to be treated with privacy was as foolhardy as it gets, to believe the lie that anything being done in your best interest was most assuredly in your best interest. This narrative, at that time, was supported by a provincial politician as well.
Fast forward to 2026, some 18+ years later, and we still have the option to hire taxi cabs but their license-regulated business had long been beleaguered due to the birth of Uber, introduced as UberCab in 2009 but which we all know now is the most often-used form of hiring a driver, to include direct competitors like Lyft, Bolt and Grab. The future will roll out yet again another new variety, autonomous vehicles - driverless cabs. These cabs will surely be equipped with cameras. By this time, however, when autonomous cars replace self-driving cars, cameras in vehicles will long be forgotten, and so will the idea that our privacy is sanctified by virtue of being an independent hirer of drivers.
Modernity takes no prisoners.
Smart glasses are a 21st century reality, equipment with built-in cameras to allow the wearer to film you covertly. I fear these POV glasses (Point of View) will become the newest weapon for YouTube influencers whereby your face, body and privacy will become a thing long lost to the past. Our politicians don't even have this on their radar, to add to the list of campaign promises to protect your privacy rights at all costs. Digital ID is here too, the newest example of political leaders happily adopting this technology, to include full body scans when coming through airports. I am disappointed that politicians are adopting this new technology like some five-dime trick they'd pick up in a dark alley. The whole notion of a digital ID is being pushed by the banking world, to streamline the tracking of individuals, and to regulate their activity. Digital ID facilitates the ease with which this may occur, while also working toward their aim to kill cash.
Technology is the real one and only King, and not the Prime Ministers and Presidents of this world. Cameras invading every element of your life are the standard. Apparently, it's estimated that wherever you walk outside, or enter a building, you are caught on camera a minimum of 12 times. So maybe one day a woman or man will take an Uber or taxi or autonomous vehicle to visit their secret lover and a trail of deceit will be left behind, a video of them being dropped off at their destination. Perhaps, too, someone who looks like you, but isn't you, will commit a crime, get into an Uber and make a getaway. Then your door will get an angry knock and you'll be implicated in something that you had nothing to do with in the first place. The right to privacy, which is an essential freedom, is perhaps one of the most fundamental rights that we all should be fighting to protect, our politicians too. Every time some organization, a political association, a government services office, makes a sweeping decision to benefit the whole public, that's when you've got to take a step back and shake your head.
Whenever someone tells you they're doing something for your own good, know they're lying to you, or are choosing to omit essential pieces of information. Your personal details, your private life, being stored elsewhere on some server... well this kind of behavior is reckless, no different than forcing someone to give a urine sample that'll be used against them in court.
So when I arrive at these junctures where I'm asked to cast my vote, as will happen several times to you in your life, I remind myself that politicians make the best liars. They'll lower your taxes. They'll dole out special credits for the impoverished, the elderly. They'll rescind draconian legislation that previous governments had brought into being. But remind yourself that politicians who came before, and who are currently in office will at some point in time not represent the truth to you, for your own good. This is the nature of their business. And, without doubt, in the beginning, before they're elected, after they're elected, and during their tenure in office, each day will be a variation of a new set of promises... er lies, which may deviate from their campaign promises.
Remember politicians who've been around the longest learn first and foremost to keep their options open.
If I had to single out the biggest lie of them all that originates from within the Government, I'd point the finger at the dismissal of the Auditor General's Report, which is delivered annually to the voting public, citing the departments that have squandered public funds, and in the worst-case scenario, when monies have gone missing without being able to account for how these monies were spent, or to whom they had gone. The Auditor General makes recommendations on how to shut down these errant business practices, and yet every single year the Government fails to observe these recommendations, to continue to observe their own lies of telling the public that we need to raise your taxes, in order to be able to serve you better.
My hope is that Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, will review these spending practices with an aim to clean up frivolous government spending. Oh! You need not worry, however. You'll still be caught on camera, multiple times, hell a horrifying number of times. So perhaps it's time for you to demand for real action, for something in return, to strip away your Government's veil of lies, just like your privacy is being stripped away.
