Where ya bin? you ask. In the modern vernacuar, we reply: Later, dude. The Black Rod was jolted back into action by the televised news conference last week with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin "Buckwheat" Trudeau. Trudeau had been jaunting around the world, basking in accolades, while mobs barricaded railroads across Canada, slowly strangling the economy and forcing layoffs and shortgages of essential goods. Finally, shamed by the Opposition Conservatives in Parliament for ignoring the crisis, he reluctantly cancelled the next destination of his winter world tour---sunny Barbados---and returned to Ottawa. Less than a week of non-action later, he stood in front of television cameras to make an announcement: he had no idea what to do. Yep, that was it. The leader of a country of 35 million people formally announced to the world that the protestors had won. He had nothing. He had tried his best, i.e. begging the "hereditary chiefs" of na
The origin of the Usher of the Black Rod goes back to early fourteenth century England . Today, with no royal duties to perform, the Usher knocks on the doors of the House of Commons with the Black Rod at the start of Parliament to summon the members. The rod is a symbol for the authority of debate in the upper house. We of The Black Rod adopted the symbol to knock some sense and the right questions into the heads of Legislators, pundits, and other opinion makers.