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I never met my maternal Grandfather, but during the 2023 Ontario Law Society Bencher Election, a story about him told to me by my mother came to mind.
I read the tweets below, two Ontario lawyers discussing their disbelief that citizens of Ontario would have any interest in the recent LSO Bencher Election.
@QuinnMRoss - "Not just some randos, in this election, a proxy entity tor FullStop. Now we have SuperPACs and false flags being used by FullStop. Super fun times."
In response, @joethorneYYT said, "Yes, the subtext of their messaging is pretty clear. As we know, the average Ontarian is deeply concerned with the administrative scope of lawyers' self regulation. A real kitchen table issue."
They were referring to the group, Citizens for Justice, accusing us of being lawyers trying to sway the election away from their side, away from being overrun by identity politics and the illiberal policies produced by them.
When I read the line, “A real kitchen table issue”, an image popped into my head of the hoosier table that belonged to my grandfather and has followed us in every move. The story I was told about the table was a memory from my mother’s childhood, during World War II. Her father had handdrawn a map of Europe in pencil on the table top and would sit in the evening with the radio on to hear the updates about battles. Then, he would plot them on his tabletop map, erasing old positions and drawing in new ones.
When I read the tweets above and looked up the phrase, “kitchen table issue”, here is what I found.
Kitchen Table Issue is defined as an issue or problem that directly affects individual people and their families on a daily basis. Used primarily in relation to politics."
So, is the lawyer’s tweet correct? Was the Bencher election something that the people of Ontario should not be thinking or worrying about? Are the results of the election really something that don’t affect citizens of Ontario on a daily basis?
I disagree with him wholeheartedly. Around many kitchen tables, cancel culture, free speech and censorship ARE topics of discussion. Many Canadians are becoming wise to authoritarian governance in areas like psychology, medicine and education. And now, the legal system has a new team of leaders eager to bring in their Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives.
Identity politics ALREADY affect us every day. Our education systems attempt to indoctrinate our children with race and gender ideology, our workplaces favour tokenism over merit and our speech is censored to protect anyone from being “triggered”.
We believe that the present state of things in Ontario IS a kitchen table issue. And so, we are calling citizens of Canada to join us at our kitchen table.
Inspired by the tweets, we are beginning a series of “Kitchen Table Issues”, designed to generate discussion and help all of us understand the present situation, look at historical situations that may shed light into how we got here and where we might end up, look at different aspects of the present situation in Canada and make a plan together to stand up for the kind of place in which we want to live.
Watch for our first “Kitchen Table Issue”. Oh, and bring your pencil. We’ve got some planning to do. I’m sure Grandpa won’t mind if we write on the table.
“They don’t want an educated populace capable of critical thought sitting around the kitchen table realizing how badly they’re getting fucked!" - George Carlin
