The images are apocalyptic, and the torrent of hysterical news stories are enough to make anyone reach for a face mask, or a hazmat suit.
But so far at least the coronavirus cannot even be compared to the far deadlier influenza virus.
And in Canada, with only a few mild cases, this is the biggest threat.
Far right wing extremists may be crawling out of the woodwork all over world including Canada.
They may be racist, anti-semitic, anti-gay, and in many cases ultra violent, but please don't call them Nazis.
They'd rather be called white nationalists, or identitarians, or yellow vested patriots or whatevers.
Which has some progressives wondering when can you call a Nazi a Nazi?
Fraser Anning is an Australian Senator and an avowed bigot.
He has railed against women's rights and gay rights, and other progressive causes. But he saves most of his venom for Muslims.
He has called for Australia to prevent them from entering the country, as part of what he calls the "final solution" to the "immigration problem.
And if that wasn't appalling enough his reaction to the Christchurch massacre was even more depraved.
It was an ugly spectacle, hundreds of trucks rolling into downtown Ottawa, heading for Parliament Hill.
Disrupting traffic, spewing foul fumes in every direction.
And deafening those unlucky enough to be caught in their path.
It's hard to believe that it has been four years already, since the Canadian actress and producer Ellen Page came out at a gay right's conference in Las Vegas. And delivered a powerful anti-bullying message.
Because for people like me who had to fight bullies before I fought Cons, it was such a great moment it seems like yesterday.
So I'm glad to see that Page hasn't lost her fighting spirit, when she appeared on the Late Show last night.
And took aim at these two anti-gay bigots.
I was flipping through the TV channels last night, on my way to watch the CBC News, when I came across a live broadcast of Justin Trudeau's town hall in Regina. And I couldn't stop watching it.
Not just because it was riveting TV. Trudeau in enemy territory, holding off the hostile hordes.
But also because, as much as I tried not to, after all those death threats, I couldn't help worrying about whether somebody would try to kill him.
Two weeks ago I wrote about the bigot bromance between Tommy Robinson and Ezra Levant.
And how Levant got so carried away with his slobbering love for Britain's most notorious hate monger, he triggered an investigation by the British police.
Well at a bigot rally the other day to celebrate his release from jail, Robinson told his supporters how much he appreciated Levant's support.
And the result couldn't have been more disgusting.
If you've read the hate mongering Rebel recently, you might have noticed that it spends most of its time writing about Britain rather than Canada.
With its lizard leader Ezra Levant championing the cause of the notorious British bigot Tommy Robinson.
But now it seems all that cheerleading for Robinson may have landed Levant in trouble.
It's Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and in this crazy screwed up world we do have a lot of things to be thankful for.
We're a big, beautiful, still relatively young country.
At a time when the hard right-wing is on the march, and would be dictators are popping up like mushrooms, we're governed by a leader who, whatever else you might think about him, is decent, polite, and very Canadian.
And most of us can be grateful, that in a world being slowly poisoned by bigotry, or convulsed by xenophobia, we're still celebrating diversity and living together in relative harmony.
But that might be changing, in the worst possible way.
At first glance, you wouldn't think that Rob Ford had anything in common with Andrew Scheer.
Scheer is a sinister religious fanatic and alt-right sympathizer, who despite the creepy smile that he glues to his face every morning, is consumed by his hatred of Justin Trudeau.
While Ford is a brutish political ape, who is so dumb he's dangerous. And only thinks about himself.
But as it turns out, the two Cons do have something in common.
It says something not very flattering about Andrew Scheer, that they still have to write his name in big letters behind him, for the benefit of all those Canadians who still don't know him from a hole in a wall.
But on the other hand that ignorance does allow Scheer to reimagine himself, as he did yesterday during his very long speech to the Con convention.
Where he tried to portray himself as a nice, humble, down to earth Ottawa boy, quietly competent and ready to govern.
Which needless to say didn't quite work.
In my last post I looked at how the Cons had been hit by a series of bozo eruptions, just a couple of weeks before they hold their big convention in Halifax.
And how a lot of people were wondering whether Andrew Scheer had lost control of his party. Or had corrupted it beyond recognition.
So these days it's little more than the Party of Hate, spewing toxic bigotry in every direction.
And now to make matters even more desperate for the floundering Scheer, there has been another bozo eruption.
And it's a big one.
I couldn't understand it. It seemed to make no sense to me. Why in the sweltering summer of the hate crime, were Andrew Scheer and his Cons fanning the flames of racism?
Why were they playing politics with the border issue, at a time when police all over the country were busy busting hate mongers.
Why was this happening In a country called Canada?
And then I saw a new Abacus poll, and it all became horribly clear.
It's the day of the Pride Parade in Toronto, and in just about an hour or so, thousands of members of the rainbow army, and their straight allies, will march down Yonge Street, while about a million people cheer them on.
And it will be what it has always been, a community's celebration of survival in a world full of bigots.
And a chance to send out a message of solidarity to the LGBT people all over that world who are still suffering and dying from the hate that kills.
But this year Pride Month in Canada has also made it only too clear which parties support the human rights of gay Canadians, and which one doesn't.
It's a striking scene, Justin Trudeau celebrating Quebec's Fête nationale in his Montreal riding, being confronted by an angry protester.
And forced to defend his right to call the province his home, and stand his ground.
“You came to speak English to us?” the man asked in French. “Isn’t your party next week?”
The man then suggested Trudeau had come to “bother us at home,” to which Trudeau replied, “I am home.”
“There’s no place for intolerance here,” Trudeau said to the man, who was quickly pulled away by the prime minister’s security team.
Just like his father had to do fifty years ago.
I never watched any episodes of the Roseanne Barr show, not the old series or the new one.
But I knew she was a Trump supporter and a vile racist.
So I thought this was very good news.
It's finally starting to feel like Spring in the place where I live, and after a long hard winter I am reminded again why I love Canada so much.
Soon I'll be out on the lake feeling the fresh wind in my face, far from the madding crowd and all the problems of this troubled world.
And then in a month or so I'll be here.
As you may know, Muslims around the world are preparing to observe Ramadan, a month of fasting and religious reflection.
And it comes at a difficult time.
What with the horror in Gaza.
And the rise of anti-Muslim bigotry everywhere including Canada, where scuzzy hate mongers like Ezra Levant make a living peddling hatred against them.
So to try to counter that blind hatred I thought I'd bring you a humble little story about a young Muslim teenager.
You don't see or hear much from Doug Ford these days. The Team Harper gang who are running his campaign are clearly planning to muzzle their monkey.
And turn his bus into a fortress where the media aren't welcome.
And who can blame them eh?
The last thing they need is the big gorilla trying to answer complicated questions with simplistic slogans he can barely memorize, and looking even more ignorant.
Especially since this point at least, Ford is heading for a massive majority.
But as if this Gong Show, or Kong show, wasn't scary enough, now we find out the Fordzilla and his supporters are channeling another Con ape.
It looked like some kind of low budget religious TV program, with a host and a guest who were made for each other.
Faith Goldy, the monstrous Christian Crusader and white supremacist, and Andrew Scheer, the creepy religious fanatic and alt-right sympathizer who would be Prime Minister.
Sitting in one of Ezra Levant's ratty Rebel studios, all but swapping spit, and talking about all kinds of alt-righty things.
From freedom of speech i.e. freedom to hate, to duck hunting.
