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It's five days until Christmas for environmental activists in the Antarctic Oceans. Most of them have sacrificed annual quality time with their families in their warm, safe homes this year. Instead, they've opted to sail around the southern oceans in wet, stormy, and extremely cold conditions in the hopes of tracking and stopping illegal whaling. A noble cause, many would say, but one that comes with few perks — except for one. The one Christmas present they wanted came early this year. The activists onboard the Sea Shepherd vessel, the M/Y Steve Irwin, found a whaling ship this morning.

Yushin Maru 2, courtesy Australian Customs Service

At 10:15am on Saturday, December 20th, activists onboard the Sea Shepherd's ship spotted an unidentified vessel on radar. They believed that the vessel they spotted was a whaling ship; their aim this winter is to stop illegal whaling in the southern oceans and they had their first opportunity to do just that this morning.

The Steve Irwin aimed to intercept the mystery target but faced a beast of a storm, with 20-foot swells in the ocean, 50 mile per hour winds, blinding hail, and a mine-field of floating ice. Astonishingly, in less than an hour, they found the ship: it was one of the harpoon vessels of the Japanese whaling fleet — the Yushin Maru 2. The same ship that two Sea Shepherd activists had boarded a year previous to give the whalers a letter notifying them that their actions were illegal. An action that kept the activists hostage on the ship for two days, and stirred an international incident.

But this year would be different. The Yushin Maru was prepared for Sea Shepherd. Readying for an interception once Sea Shepherd's ship was visible to them, whalers instantly began deploying a large net across the starboard side of their vessel disabling a second-year boarding from happening.
"[As they readied the net,] they were smiling at us, it was like they know our game and are playing it now," said Amber Paarman, a 24-year old South African activist onboard.

The Sea Shepherds responded by sending out a Zodiac, their small high-speed inflatable, to throw rancid butter onto the decks of the harpoon ship. In an attempt to stink the decks of the Yushin Maru, making it impossible to kill any whales without contamination. The Irwin vessel continued onwards to chase the Yushin. But due to worsening weather conditions, with swells growing to 40 feet high, the Zodiac was called to return and the chase ended.

Heading due north in the direction of the Yushin, Captain Paul Watson called their bluff and is continuing elsewhere in the direction of the whaling fleet.

"They did this to us last year," says Watson. "They send one ship in an entirely different direction of where the whaling fleet is as a decoy hoping to fool us while the fleet heads elsewhere. But not this year. I call their bluff. We're not following their trickery."

Sea Shepherd is continuing to patrol the southern oceans in hopes that they are close to the whaling fleet. They intend to cease illegal whaling in the Antarctic waters using any and all means that do not injure human lives.

The battle for the whales has begun.

Emily Hunter is an environmental journalist. She is currently working on a book about young environmental activism, The Next Eco-Warriors and a documentary on illegal whaling in Antarctica.

More entries on: Polarized

December 23, 2008

ThisAbility 10: Deathly Cold

Posted by Aaron Broverman at 05:17 PM ET | Comments (0)

Forgive me for being so ominous less than two days from Christ's birth. However, as a chill, unseen in years, strands most of the country for long stretches, I don't care about stranded holiday travelers, annoyed, but warm in airports because I'm thinking about this man and woman and how easily they could be me, or any disabled person, under the right set of circumstances...

In fact, early in 2008, mere feet from my front door, on a harrowing night in February, I came dangerously close to sharing their fate...

The scooter was charged. Everything was good and I even drove on the main roads, which were plowed by now. I was going to make it home. I made it all the way to my street, mere feet from my building. I could see it, a beacon of white in the darkness. I'm driving on the road and then a car comes the opposite direction. I go to back up, to let it through, and i'm stuck.

I look over at the crackheads sitting on the stoop across the street who could be helping, but they're laughing and one of them yells to the car, "Hit'em! Hit'em! Run'em over." Neither the car, nor I, are going anywhere, and there's nobody on the street but me, a car, and two crackheads. It's 1 a.m. Finally, one of the men on the stoop pushes me to the sidewalk, figuring he can bum a ride off the car by helping the situation.

The whole time, he's whispering menacingly into my ear, "If this piece of junk dies one shone toward me.more time, i'm leaving you in the middle of the street you little sh--t!" Then he goes back to negotiate with the driver and they leave. I start down the sidewalk alone. the streets are deathly quite and suddenly the scooter hits thick powder and quits again --except this time, there's no one around for miles and I can't feel my fingers or toes.

I try to gut it out, but after two hours, it's clear: I've run out of miracles. I try the cellphone, but I forgot to charge it and my fingers burn with pain. Soon, they're too dead to make anything close to a phone call. There's snow in my boots, on the foot rest, and everything is cold. I am alone.

By hour three, I rub my eyes and icicles are coming off my eyelashes. I'm screaming out the most blood curdling wail. I can see my neighbors looking out their windows, one of them, I swear one looks right at me, but goes back to bed.

By hour four, i'm resigned to the inevitable. No one will find me until morning and by then I'll be dead.

Hour five brings violent shivering and teeth chattering. I can't focus. I try to move my feet and fingers--I can't. My breathing is becoming more labored. I'm getting sleepy. It's tough to keep my eyes open. Periodically, my eyes snap open. I gotta stay awake...

Okay, just when I have you at my narrative mercy, I need to interject...

There are unspoken laws governing every disabled person's ability to survive the winter(some are my responsibility and some are my city's responsibility. I didn't have any of them going for me at the time.)

1. NEVER go OUT WHILE it is currently SNOWING, no matter where you are. (This is a literal life and death decision, as the snow has the power to overtake you and there is a better chance things will get worse before they get better. Here, a potential dinner date and my stubborn independence clouded my judgement.)

2. VIABLE, ACCESSIBLE public transportation is A MUST. (When the buses are down and the subway isn't close, only an accessible taxi will work. In places like Vancouver, you are charged the average metered rate and theTaxi Saver Program means all your rides can be half price. Places like Toronto, charge a $30 flag minimum for any accessible taxi ride, no matter how far you have to go. They also don't have a Taxi Saver Program. Both circumstances force more people with disabilities into life-threatening situations.)

3. AlWAYS CHARGE your CELLPHONE. (Duh.)

Now, to the night's conclusion...

Suddenly, out of the shadows, I hear, "Are you Okay? Do you need help?"

It's two guys from the nearby hotel on the way back home from their shift. They saw me, stopped what they were doing, and effectively saved my life. Now, if that isn't proof of the lord, it'd be hard to know what is. They could've walked away just as easily. They pulled, and tugged, and lifted, and wrenched, my scooter to the door. As soon as the snow-covered behemoth was indoors it worked again. I was so happy, I waved cash at them both, but they wouldn't take the money.

Which brings us to the lesson I want you to take home from all of this (not just during the holiday season, but every season, rain or shine, good day or bad day.) It is the last law that is universal to everyone, but is especially true for all people with disabilities.

4. WITHOUT the KINDNESS OF STRANGERS, WE are NOTHING. (So many people passed by me that night, but the two that stopped to help made all the difference.)

The next time you see someone, anyone, in need don't be glad that's not you and move on. Reach out, even if they refuse, because yours could be the helping hand they never knew they need and the literal gesture that allows them to live another day.

Peace, See you all blessed and refreshed in the new year.
-A
NOTE: Aaron's account of the night originally came from his personal email correspondence.

Aaron is a freelance journalist living in Toronto. His work has appeared in Financial Post Business, Investment Executive Newspaper, and TV Week Magazine, along with Askmen.com. He is a regular contributor to Abilities Magazine and is currently plotting a weekly web comic called GIMP, with artist Jon Duguay, about a handicap school bus driver who wakes up after a crash to find he's the last able-bodied person on earth — and he's being hunted.

More entries on: ThisAbility

December 22, 2008

Polarized #3: Welcome to the seafaring life

Posted by Emily Hunter at 01:31 PM ET | Comments (0)

She beats a heavy heart that is her engine. She seemingly jumps up to the sky and crashes down into her own wake in the open ocean, only to repeat it again and again. She is as cold as death. Yet there is a quickening to her pace as she heads toward history-making. She is a vessel headed for Antarctica.

M/Y Steve Irwin

I'm on a vessel that left Hobart, Australia (where I boarded her) five days ago. A vessel with a man's name, the 'M/Y Steve Irwin,' she is the flagship of Sea Shepherd, a radical marine conservation group. A vessel that intercepts whalers in the southern oceans and attempts to stop the 'illegal' killing of whales by Japan. A vessel that is to be the boundaries of my life over the next several months as I reside here to document the whale-saving campaigns by Sea Shepherd.

Life at sea is not for the weak, timid, or sensitive. It's not even for people who have any kind of car-sickness — people like me. That is why for the past five days life has been more of a coma-like state than a life at all. Hugging my mattress and pressing my body against a corner in my bed so as not to fall across the room has become my usual routine. With force 8 to 9 gales and 40-foot waves, at times it seems like I am asking for death by being here. Not keeping any food down has also become a trend, to the point where what hurts more is the emptiness inside my body than the actual process of being sick. The face staring back at me in the mirror has become ghostly and the storm outside my porthole is only going to get worse.

Life at sea is a world of its own beyond the heave of the ocean. On a ship, privacy is non-existent when one shares a cabin with at least one to two strangers in a room that barely fits one person's luggage. Spending six to 12 weeks on a 180-foot vessel, co-existing with 45 crew of varying egos, really teaches you who you are. Toilets are as hygienic as a gas station. You learn strange skills, like how to shower and shave in a moving vessel without killing yourself.

Life onboard an environmental protest ship is even more colourful. For the conservation of water and fuel (in order to make the campaign last as long as possible) we restrict our water intake and energy use. This translates to three-minute showers every three days and freezing cabins. To practice what we preach, we eat three square vegan meals a day, meaning no meat or dairy in our diet, but instead tofu and vegetables. And to get the word out, cameras and media have access to everyone on the ship and everything that happens, giving it an air of and episode of 'Big Brother.'

The crew on an activist ship is probably the most unusual at sea. An all-volunteer crew come from as far as Japan, South Africa, Holland, Canada and the United States. Ages include rookies just out of high school to balding 60's. The crew's background ranges over what I call the "professionals, panthers and players": Professionals being the helicopter pilot, doctor and engineers; Panthers include ex-navy officers and cops readying for attack; the Players are those who occupy legitimate positions on the ship, such as quartermaster or deckhand, but who are really amateurs at best.

The Steve Irwin herself is probably the strangest out of all of this. It is an entirely black ship at the end of the world in the southern oceans. A black dot in the midst of great glacials patrolling vast seas for the six dots that are the whaling fleet sent by Japan. A fleet that is faster, larger and more technologically advanced than Sea Shepherd's single vessel.

This mission really is like finding a needle in a haystack. But for the last 4 years running, Sea Shepherd has found the whaling fleet and interfered with their operation. Over the last two years alone, over a thousand whales have been saved.

But this year, this black dot of the Sea Shepherd is not only opposing whaling but is pitting themselves against a great government, Japan. Sea Shepherd has cost the commerce of the whaling industry in Japan a great deal over the years and "defence" strategies by the government of Japan are going to be used this year. Air bombs, gun shootings, gases and a possible boarding are all tactics that could be used against Sea Shepherd this year.

What used to be banners and peace signs is a full scale war today in the open oceans. Life at sea is about to become a whole lot more wild as a true war for the whales is close to breaking out.

Soon my car-sickness will be the least of my worries.

Emily Hunter is an environmental journalist. She is currently working on a book about young environmental activism, The Next Eco-Warriors and a documentary on illegal whaling in Antarctica.

More entries on: Polarized

December 19, 2008

The airing of the grievances

Posted by Melissa Wilson at 11:29 AM ET | Comments (0)

Happy Holidays, bloggers.

It's less than a week until Christmas and Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah is coming even sooner, which means it's just about time for me to start proselytizing about how much I despise the term, "Happy Holidays." I have a couple reasons for this, and none of them stem from how my love for gingerbread, apple cider and reindeer.

First, when people say, "Happy Holidays," what they're really saying is, "I am wishing you a Merry Christmas, but cheapening the term so as not to offend you, in case you don't enjoy Santa and pine trees as much as I do."

No one ever says, "Happy Hanukk--oops! I mean, Happy Holidays."

Don't believe me? Why are red-and-green Fruit Loops called "Holiday Fruit Loops" when they are obviously for Christmas? The same goes for Rice Krispies. Why is it that the CBC's "Holiday" programming schedule consists of a few hockey games, an episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie (one that features a group of Muslims humourously trying to include Christmas festivities in their Eid celebration--on tonight!) and over thirty Christmas movies? Thirty!

Why even bother with the PC terminology when even the CBC hasn't included any non-Santa programming? And then there's the fact that the all-encompassing nature of the phrase (that is plastered across every over-crowded mall in the country) implies that all December holidays have sold out to the evils of capitalism and consumerism when, last time I checked, Christmas is the only one to make that deal.

I understand that the nature of the term is meant to keep from isolating and alienating those who do not celebrate Christmas (undoubtedly the majority holiday in Canada), and inclusive language should always be a consideration in the "cultural mosaic" that is supposed to be Canada. However, I'm arguing that if that's the case for "Happy Holidays," then the buzzword is not doing its job.

Secondly, and more importantly, I feel that the term promotes a sense of homogeny within our society. Instead of recognizing each other's differences, we are ignoring them. Instead of celebrating the notion that there are different traditions and religions, we are lumping all winter holidays into one neat, red package and pretending that we are all the same. We are not all the same, and this will never be acknowledged as long as "Happy Holidays" is the greeting of choice.

Why can't we learn about each other's differences instead of whitewashing them? Why can't wishing someone a Merry Whatever be considered an act of sharing, instead of an ignorant slight? In a perfect world, I would love to see this exchange happen:

Tom: Happy Hanukkah, sir!
Harry: Oh, thank you very much, but actually, I celebrate the winter solstice.
Tom: Oh, really? Wonderful! What have you got planned for that?
Harry: Well, we...
[Conversation to follow about the pair's differing holiday traditions]

However, I recognize that this is not a perfect world, so if you don't think you can wish people a Happy [Your Holiday Here], I propose we ditch "Happy Holidays" altogether and rest back on the laurels of Canadian politeness: "Hope you have a wonderful evening."

And finally, so everyone's on the same page, the dates of all the December holidays this year (my apologies if I have forgotten any):

Eid al-Adha: December 8 - 11
Winter solstice: December 21
Hanukkah: Sunset December 21 - Sunset December 29
Christmas: December 25
Kwanzaa: December 26 - 31

And for the rest of us, Festivus is celebrated on December 23.

More entries on: Cultural industries

December 18, 2008

Queerly Canadian #2: Escape Claus(e)

Posted by Cate Simpson at 12:32 PM ET | Comments (0)

I am writing this on a crowded flight from my adopted home of Toronto to my former home of Edinburgh, where I am trying to ignore the brainwashing effect of Fred Claus on ten tiny screens in front of me.

wrapped gift Like countless others, I am heading home for Christmas. So far though, I'm having a hard time getting into the spirit of the holiday — mainly because, for our third Christmas in a row, my partner and I are going to be on inconveniently opposite sides of the Atlantic.

I'm not the only one complaining about Christmas this year. Friends who have been hit by the recession face Christmas shopping with dread; those who still have their jobs are too busy to shop. It's got me thinking about the reasons queers have in particular for succumbing to bouts of Grinchiness as the time for turkey comas and bad television rolls around.

For some, it's that they simply can't go home — either because they were shown the door after their first adolescent fumblings were met with more than the usual amount of horror, or because they've fled their small towns for urban centres and can't afford the trip back.

For others, it's that they themselves are still welcome at the family dinner table, but evidence of their "alternative" lifestyles must be toned down for everyone else's comfort levels. For many queers, this means enduring questions about the dates they're supposedly going on with members of the opposite sex, while questions about their true spouses are conspicuously absent.

Some resort to bringing their partners to Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving dinner as their "roommate" or "best friend", even though everyone is painfully aware they've been "roommates" for five years and both parties continue to report suspiciously empty datebooks. Others settle for surreptitiously texting them between courses.

Whether you're queer or not, family events can be rife with things not said and tensions that bubble to the surface after one too many drinks with dinner. For the black sheep among them, this kind of bickering can strike particularly close to the bone.

It's for this reason that queers have been leading pioneers of the alternative family Christmas. But increasingly, they're far from the only ones doing it. So, if you're dreading your own family Christmas, here's a bold proposition: play hooky.

Use rising fuel costs, snowstorms and the recession as an excuse. Grab some similarly truanting friends, Google turkey recipes, rent DVDs instead of watching whichever Vince Vaughn or Tim Allen nightmare is on every channel, skip the Governor General's speech, and give inappropriate gifts you'd normally hold off on in case they get unwrapped in front of Auntie Marge.

Of course, since I'm having this epiphany somewhere over Greenland it's too late for me to take my own advice. In fact, I'm actually gaining tentative enthusiasm for mince pies and The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Go on without me — I'm a lost cause.

Cate Simpson is a freelance journalist and the web editor for Shameless magazine. She lives in Toronto.

More entries on: Queerly Canadian

December 17, 2008

Some parents just don't understand

Posted by Melissa Wilson at 02:41 PM ET | Comments (5)

I frequently bemoan the fact that my mom gave me a name that is both incredibly common for my age group, as well as (apparently) impossible to spell. As of this moment, however, I will cease complaining and be grateful that she did not name me Adolf Hitler.

Little Adolf Hitler Campbell ran into trouble last week when a grocery store in his native Pennsylvania refused to print "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler!" on a cake for his third birthday. His sister JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell will likely face similar disappointment on her birthday.

His dad said he chose the name because he liked it and "no one else in the world would have the name."

Well, almost no one. I hope little Adolf doesn't discover Google and Wikipedia too quickly, or he may quickly be petitioning the court to allow him to change his name, as did a nine-year-old girl from New Zealand whose parents gave her the unfortunate name, Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii.

Both are considerably worse than Melissa Wilson.

However, I'm almost inclined to side with the Campbells on this one. Adolf Hitler is, after all, only a name, and it contains no profanity (though requesting a swastika on the cake is certainly crossing a line).

What do you think?

Are all the Jessicas and Jennifers of my generation thanking their lucky stars right now?

More entries on: Generally Interesting

Polarized #2: Whale Wars - The Next Generation

Posted by Emily Hunter at 12:13 PM ET | Comments (1)

They are both Canadian, in their mid-20's, female and with long brunette hair. One women is on a high-speed inflatable boat called a Zodiac in the Pacific Ocean. The other, on the bridge of an entirely black 59-metre Scottish patrol vessel in the Antarctic Ocean. The woman in the Zodiac steers her inflatable in front of a Russian whaling ship. She places herself between a harpoon and a whale. On the black ship, the other girl steers the vessel through packs of ice setting a course that is headed to intercept a six-ship Japanese whaling fleet. The woman in the Pacific is Bobbi Hunter — she was the first woman to save a whale. The woman in the Antarctic is me, Emily Hunter, in the present day. Bobbi Hunter is my mother and this is a second-generation fight for whales.

Bobbi Hunter

Pelagic (industrial) whaling started in the mid-1800's and within a century nearly wipped out the once-abundant giants of the oceans. Today, population levels are unknown. Many are endangered, including the fin, humpback, sperm and right whale (right whales are estimated to be as low as 300-400 in population). With the loss of so much life on this planet in our industrial awakening, the dawn of a new age arose as the 1970s ecology movement began.

My father, Robert Hunter, the first president of Greenpeace, very much set the path for the whale-saving cause in the ecological movement. He changed course of the organization in the mid-70s from an anti-nuclear testing group to a whale-saving one, prompting the ecological movement to also become a consciousness-changing movement — a change from a human-focused consciousness to an eco-inclusive one. Saving whales for the whales' sake, and an ecological sake, even if the plight of the whales does not directly affect us.

The whale-saving campaigns have come a long way since then. Not only has Russian whaling been ceased (whom the first anti-whaling campaigns opposed), but the last whaling station in the English-speaking world (in Albany, Australia) was shut down in 1977. In 1986, the International Whaling Commission's member states signed a moratorium on commercial whaling in order to allow population levels to replenish after a century of uncontrolled exploitation. Today, there are numerous organizations around the globe that fight for whales, including Greenpeace International and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (the only two groups that set sail to the open oceans to protest whaling head-on). Whale-saving has gone so far as to now have its own reality TV show called Whale Wars on Animal Planet Channel, showcasing Sea Shepherd's radical initiatives in the Antarctic waters to stop whaling by the government of Japan (currently, Animal Planet is filming the second season of Whale Wars on the Sea Shepherd campaign I'm travelling with).

With over 35 years of this battle come and gone and over two generations fighting it, one has to wonder — are we getting any closer to the end of this 'war'? In many ways we are, and in other ways we are not. It used to be that there was a long list of whaling nations, and now there are only three: Norway, Iceland and Japan. Whaling has been strongly curtailed since the moratorium was established. There are not only activists, but lobbyists, politicians, lawyers, scientists, and outraged citizens across the world who fight for whales. And the whaling issue has more eyes and ears paying attention to it now than it ever did.

But whether it be Russia or Japan, there is still aggressive whaling in the world (Japan, since 2001, has been targeting a thousand whales annually in the southern oceans). There are bodies that back whaling just as aggressively, for cultural, scientific, legal, political or economic ends. Tensions and divides are rising between peoples and countries (a scenario that was not the case 35 years ago). Australia and Japan, for example, have become pitted against one another over whaling, causing racist backlashes and name-calling.

Maybe our ecological-political issues are beginning to influence the rhetoric, and becoming a serious factor in our national and international decision-making. This opens up new possibilities, but also a whole new set of problems. Fractures are emerging in our global mosaic, with governments opposing each other over ecological policies.
Will we work through the new decision-making that needs to be made in the 21st century? Will my father's dream of a global ecological consciousness take shape? Or will this fight for the whales and the planet last to my children's generation with an even more diminished earth, and a bleak future?

We need to mediate these political fissures, both for our own sake, and for that of our sparkling blue planet.

Emily Hunter is an environmental journalist. She is currently working on a book about young environmental activism, The Next Eco-Warriors and a documentary on illegal whaling in Antarctica.

More entries on: Polarized

December 16, 2008

Global plane traffic graph: like bugs devouring a corpse

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 12:20 PM ET | Comments (0)

This video, compiled by Swiss scientists, shows 24 hours of global aircraft travel in 72 seconds. I think the fact that it resembles a petri dish swarming with disease is only partly coincidental: Airplane travel is one of the largest and most damaging carbon-emitting actitivies on the planet.

[spotted on Wired, via Worldchanging]

More entries on: Planet Earth

December 15, 2008

ThisAbility 9: Accessible or Accessi-bull?

Posted by Aaron Broverman at 11:28 PM ET | Comments (0)

This week I'm coming to you live from Morinville, Alberta snuggled around the fire with the aunts and uncles. It's not as frosty as liquid nitrogen here, but at -30°C my body might as well be experiencing the final round of a Japanese game show.

At least we have each other, right?

While my body keeps warm in Morinville, my mind is still on Toronto and this new initiative that has been slowly cropping up around town...

It's called Accessible Toronto and businesses, restraunts, clubs and pubs have just began sporting their "Accessible Toronto Certified!" stickers on their doors. Basically, it's a website and online community whose administration and membership have started rating places around the city on accessibility.

Now you can look up business and check out the "Wheelcool" rating. It's the lamest name, but the higher the rating, the more accessible the location. The site also centralizes other info any disabled person should need (like the process and contact number for booking Wheeltrans). The site claims to be the first of its kind in Canada and was started by an enterprising Torontonian named Chris Karatsoreos It's a typical story: Guy acquires a disability and finds there is a woeful lack of accessibility information in his city, but this guy actually decided to do something about it (I know, right?). He even has designs on taking his little project national.

This thing just started (yet another disability initiative in its infancy, hopefully it gets past the starting gate), but there's one promising glimmer — it's set to at least make money through advertising and sponsors people with disabilities would be interested in. There aren't a lot of real locations (or advertisers for that matter) and their forum membership includes five people, including the administrator, but at least this dude has chutzpah and isn't just starting his sentences with, "Wouldn't it be cool if..."

So check it out and phone them with more business to audit because we already know the city won't do it.

More entries on: ThisAbility

December 10, 2008

International Human Rights Day!

Posted by Daniel Tseghay at 04:31 PM ET | Comments (0)

Today is the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights. On December 10th, 1948, 48 states voted in its favour. Although not one state voted against it, eight abstained: including the former Soviet Union, taking issue with the inclusion of individual property rights; apartheid-era South Africa, saying that "human dignity would be impaired if a person were told he could not reside in a particular area"; and Saudi Arabia, saying that the Declaration was too Western-centric and did not reflect the values of everybody.

The history of human rights, as we all no doubt are aware, has been rocky. There have been countless abuses, unjust imprisonments, unresolved disagreements over how human rights should be understood, and whether legal prosecutions should be the fate of its violaters. For instance, today's Globe and Mail featured an opinion piece by Erna Paris in which she praises the International Criminal Court's first trial next month. In place to prosecute war criminals, the ICC has an obvious appeal. Nevertheless, there has been some understandable criticism of this prosecutorial body. Namely that it doesn't reflect the varying ways in which people around the world settle their disputes. Prosecutions are, in more places than we might expect, unpracticed - while reconciliation is the norm.

People also differ over the weight they should give to the different kinds of rights. The Declaration is composed of civil and political rights; as well as economic, social and cultural rights. The former consists of things like the right to a fair trial, the right to free movement, religion, conscience, and the like. The latter is made up of rights to food, clothing, medical care, education, clean water, etc. Now, it appears the fault lines of disagreement lie between the developed and the developing world. The former emphasize civil and political rights, while the latter (a majority, in this economically disproportioned world) emphasize economic, social, and cultural rights, or what some call "freedom from want."

In light of the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, where more than 500 people have died since August because of a poor sanitation system and a contaminated water supply, I think we in the West must come around to the developing world's emphasis on freedom from want. To make human rights exclusively synonymous with political freedoms would be to condemn many people to certain death.

Update: The cholera numbers are now 775 deaths, with 16,141 cases.

More entries on: Human rights

December 09, 2008

The Daily Show on Canada

Posted by Daniel Tseghay at 03:30 PM ET | Comments (0)

Last night, Jon Stewart once again lampooned Canadian politics with a look at our prorogued Parliament.

Watch here.

More entries on: On the Hill

Polarized #1: Life and Death at the End of the World

Posted by Emily Hunter at 01:47 PM ET | Comments (5)

[Editor's note: today we introduce "Polarized," Emily Hunter's dispatches from Antarctica, where she is documenting Sea Shepherd's 2008-2009 anti-whaling campaign aboard the Steve Irwin. The campaign lasts until the spring, and Emily will periodically post her writing, photos, and video on BLOG THIS.]

Whaling ship and icebergs

Sitting in a grey room that feels as cold and stale as a morgue, I think of death. Little can be done about this room or feeling, it is five in the morning in the mostly vacant Toronto Pearson Airport. I am about to get on a flight. But this sense of doom is more than the winter pastime in Canada, more than this place and more than being up too early in the morning with not enough caffeine. Instead, this dark cloud that hangs over me is the end of the world &mdash Antarctica.

Antarctica is no stranger to death. The extreme cold averages -30° C and monstrous storms that have little sympathy for its inhabitants are not unusual in the ice-packed summer time in the southern oceans. What is unusual is that the largest mammal species, the migratory whales, are being killed by the thousands in their annual visit. Being chased by harpoon gun boats and electric shock treatment. Antarctica now faces the cold and its largest tourist faces extinction.

Not only are humpback and fin whales (both endangered mammals) targeted in a whaling campaign by Japan, but also over nine hundred minke whales. The hunt in the southern oceans is argued to be "scientific," but many environmentalists and politicians alike claim that this is a facade for commercialism in order to make this campaign appear legal. Legal or not, few countries have been willing to pit themselves against a strong economic and political power on behalf of whales that do not pay taxes or vote. This has left many civilians angry and frustrated about environmental enforcement and our future perils. Some choosing to be labelled as "eco-terrorists" by joining groups like Sea Shepherd, than be passive observers of what they consider "planetary injustice."

Sea Shepherd, a radical marine conservation group, is notorious for using questionable tactics in the seas to stop what they consider are illegal killings of the ocean's marine life. Ramming vessels at sea and sinking in port are not unusal for the group. Fatalities — of people whom they oppose or of their crew — are unusual, however.

Some see groups like Sea Shepherd as a necessary response to the unchallenged destructive giants of our times: governments, corporations and the propaganda machines for both that keep us ill-educated and passive. Others see groups like Sea Shepherd as militant organizations that go too far. In the environmental circles, Sea Shepherd is more of an ugly step-brother. Groups like Greenpeace believe that Sea Shepherd is both ineffective, and a detractor to conservation initiatives.

Very much alone, Sea Shepherd's single ship, the M/Y Steve Irwin, is heading to the high seas of Antarctica in December in its fifth campaign to oppose the whaling fleet. This year’s campaign has been called the most dangerous and challenging campign yet for the group. With $8 million used for defence this year by whaling vessels and Japan establishing a new law where arrests can be made at sea for interference, it will not be a walk in the park. It's more like a game of Russian roulette.

Feeling cynical this morning as I am about to board an airplane, I ask myself a question: Do I get on this plane bound for a risky expedition, or go back home where it's safe and where I know what faces me?

I board the plane. Not for death, but for life.

Emily Hunter is an environmental journalist. She is currently working on a book about young environmental activism, The Next Eco-Warriors and a documentary on illegal whaling in Antarctica.

More entries on: Polarized

ThisAbility #8: Condo Conundrum

Posted by Aaron Broverman at 12:48 PM ET | Comments (0)

Hey loyal readership, (here's to hoping there are at least a few of you)

I am in the midst of moving from my bed-bug-invested-cesspool-complete-with-ineffectual-management bachelor apartment into my first condo. (What? Disabled people can afford condos? With some subsidy, my friends — like Obama — YES WE CAN!) and the first question is always, "Where can we put the scooter?" (See: Human Frogger for more on issues related to this lovely little device.)

Condo I can't park it in the hall next to my suite door because, as I was so eloquently reminded by my up-on-current-events neighbour, "It's a fire hazard!" If you know someone who would've been able to flee a burning building if not for the granny scooter parked flush against the wall in a two-lane hallway, then please let me know where they're buried so I may pay my respects.

Most people would say, "Just park it in the suite, you safety-obstructor of pure evil." However, that is where you are wrong, my friends. The door to my suite is not automatic, so I may scratch its Brazilian teak finish and have to pay for the damage. Not to mention the water from the slush outside being tracked in onto my carpet.

What is a man to do?

In this case, my building and strata council are being ever so accommodating and "allowing" me to park in the Bike Room. There's just that little matter of the waiver saying they're not responsible for any damage to my scooter (negligent biking residents or not).

I am grateful, don't get me wrong, but if you're going to open your building to residents with disabilities, why does the idea of accommodating a scooter sound like touching a porcupine to most people (complete with the necessary precautions)?

People really do fear what they do not understand.

More entries on: ThisAbility

December 08, 2008

The New Yorker on Naomi Klein (and This Magazine)

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 03:51 PM ET | Comments (0)

December 2008 New Yorker cover Have you heard of this little publication, The New Yorker? Well, in the tradition of all Canadians unexpectedly name-checked by larger and — let's face it — more profitable and widely read American peers, we're a little twitterpated that This Magazine gets a mention in a profile of Naomi Klein, former This editor and author of The Shock Doctrine. Not just any mention, either: they call us "the Canadian equivalent of The Nation. Quick, someone get us the smelling salts!

More entries on: THIS matters

Dion, we'll miss your antics

Posted by Daniel Tseghay at 02:01 PM ET | Comments (0)

Stephane Dion's personal rollercoaster ride to the Liberal party's leadership has finally ended.

More entries on:

December 06, 2008

CITIZENShift is looking for podcasts

Posted by Lindsay Kneteman at 11:23 AM ET | Comments (0)

So there you sit, frustrated with Canada's current political situation and wondering how you can show the country what you think of this whole mess. Sure, there's rallies you can attend, Facebook groups you can join or letters to the editor you could write but for you, none of those things are quite right. Well then, why not express your feelings and ideas via a podcast?

CitizenShift, the National Film Board of Canada's "participatory Web platform exploring today's crucial issues through films, photography, articles, blogs and podcasts" is currently looking for podcast proposals on almost any topic.

The podcasts are being coordinated by This Magazine contributor Tim McSorley (watch for his profile on Quebec's Socially Acceptable Acts of Terrorism in our January/February issue) and he's interested in both new ideas as well already completed pieces.

For more details, including how to get in touch with Tim, check out the call for submissions below.

**** CITIZENShift Podcast: Call for submissions ****

Do you have a piece of audio or visual journalism or documentary that you want to share? Would you like CITIZENShift to help you get it heard or seen? Perhaps you have a recording that highlights an issue you care about or an interview with a media-maker you think deserves more attention.

CITIZENShift is looking for exciting and dynamic audio or video pieces to distribute through our podcast. Rough or slick, long or short - as long as the content is engaging and fresh, we want to hear it.

We accept both proposals for original content, as well as already finished pieces.

Podcast Proposals:

Proposals should be short and to the point - no more than 300 words. Please include information on the subject; why it is relevant to CITIZENShift's mission; voices, sounds and/or images you plan to include; how long the piece will be; and any previous experience you have in audio/video (experience isn't necessary though!)

Also make sure to include your full name, e-mail and daytime phone number.

Finished podcasts:

If you have an already completed audio or video piece you think would be of interest to the CITIZENShift podcast, you can upload it to our site; just attach a note in the "Short description" field saying you would like it considered for the podcast.

Also make sure to include your full name, e-mail and daytime phone number.

Content:

We're looking for socially engaged audio and video pieces (documentaries, interviews, discussions, experimental) of varying lengths that reflect the goals outlined in our mission statement. If you haven't already, please explore our site at http://citizen.nfb.ca, to get a sense of what we do, have a listen to our previous podcast episodes and take a look at our editorial policy.

How to submit:

Please send your proposals to citizen@nfb.ca or call us at 514-283-9513

WHY SUBMIT TO CITIZENShift?

* Visibility, access and community with other mediamakers
* Interaction with other multimedia content
* Free outreach on your behalf
* Feedback and statistics on who is accessing your work
* Possible stipends (for original pieces only, upon completion) and short-term equipment loans

--
Tim McSorley
Podcast Coordinator/Online Communications Officer
NFB/ONF
CITIZENShift
(514) 283-9513
http://citizen.nfb.ca

More entries on: Cultural industries

December 05, 2008

Pirates

Posted by Daniel Tseghay at 04:29 PM ET | Comments (0)

Piracy off the coast of Somali has become an issue since the hijacking of the Saudi Arabian oil-tanker, the Sirius Star, on November 15. Carrying a $110-million cargo of crude oil (enough to supply the New England region of the U.S. with fuel for 10 days), this is the most recent event in a string of destabalizing developments. Western states are justifiably worried about the spectre of piracy: the increased risks to oil tankers are raising insurance premiums; and the resultant rerouting and transport delays are increasing commodity prices. All this in a time of global economic recession.

The solution? According to John S. Burnett, author of Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas, in today's New York Times, we must bring back the Islamic Courts Union, a collection of courts that once controlled much of Somalia with Shariah law, maintained loose links to Al Qaeda and consisted mostly of warlords. Since the ICU was replaced in 2006, Somalia has degenerated into lawlessness and rampant piracy. The ICU's restoration, Burnett argues, is the only hope the West has of returning safe routes to oil-tankers.

"If there is movement to talk to the Taliban in Afghanistan, then there should be some effort to talk to the fundamentalists in Somalia. If the Islamists were permitted to form a viable, functioning and effective government, this shattered land might be able to return to the community of nations - and supertankers will be able to deliver oil to the United States without fear of getting hijacked."

Now, I can't help but read this as being extremely Western-centric. Burnett seems to care only about the safety of oil-tankers and the efficient delivery of goods to the United States. What about the proper governance of Somalia? Is the best option really giving Somalia to the ICU in return for cheap oil?

More entries on: Terrorism (not the state-sponsored kind)

Guest Blogger: What Mumbai means

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 11:47 AM ET | Comments (2)

[Editor's Note: from time to time we feature guest bloggers on important issues. Email editor at thismagazine dot ca to enquire about contributing.]

BY MITU SENGUPTA

In India, the Mumbai attacks have been interpreted as a strike against the country — as "India's 911." The image is one of instant clarity. This was an external operation, orchestrated by an Islamist organization, and was at least partially funded by Jihadist factions inside Pakistan's perennially fractured government. In India, none of this is particularly surprising. Neither is the government's dithering response to the attacks. For most Indians, the rumour of governmental ineptitude is almost as strong as that of Pakistan-sponsored Islamic militancy. The depiction of the events in Mumbai as a sinister foreign plot that unfolded with chilling ease in the face of a corrupt, bungling government is probably not without merit. It is nonetheless an oversimplification, and not just for Indians. The core targets of the attack were two luxurious five-star hotels that cater to international business travellers and India's well-heeled. This serves as reminder that the Mumbai attacks are, at root, an assault on a new, globalizing India, which sees itself, and is perceived by much of the West, as the greatest and perhaps only rational power in that politically chaotic region.

But while the Mumbai attacks certainly speak to the vulnerability of this new, prosperous India, they also speak to its profound lack of awareness of its own vulnerability. It is revealing that the targeted hotels were outrageously short of security, even though they, like other five-star hotels, are conspicuous oases of opulence in an otherwise desperately poor and troubled city. The gunmen seemed to know the hotels' floor-plans, and possibly rented rooms where they stored ammunition. They probably mingled with guests, greeted staff, and strutted in and out of the front lobby. It is not terribly surprising that no-one noticed. Heady with self-esteem and optimism, India's globalizing elites — along with their foreign friends — have a habit of looking the other way when confronted by the ugliness of the politics around them; an almost deliberate obliviousness that is as much to blame as the usual suspects of government incompetence and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

India's achievements are many. Its vibrant, fast-growing economy has generated a 250-million strong middle class. India's democratic credentials are by all means impressive. It boasts an independent judiciary, regular elections with healthy voter turnouts, and an active media that is consistently tough on government. Democracy also appears to have softened the edge of much erstwhile disaffection. It has turned the country's once-formidable Communist Left into market-friendly social democrats. Groups persecuted under India's notorious caste system have organized themselves into influential political parties, which have gone on to form the government in some of India's most politically important states. Not all religious minorities seem unhappy. Many Muslims affirm their patriotism and liberal values with as much zeal as they condemn Islamist extremism.

Beneath this buoyant picture of conciliation, however, is a very different reality. A tragic war has raged on in Kashmir for almost twenty years. While Pakistan has probably stoked the conflict by arming militants, Indian forces stand accused of egregious human rights violations against Kashmir's predominantly Muslim population. Poverty is another scourge. Last year, a controversial report suggested that some 77 percent of the country's population live in extreme poverty, on less than 50 cents a day. A disproportionate number of the abject poor are Muslim, and many poor Muslims live in Mumbai. In fact, Mumbai has often served as an unwitting theatre of action for the country's long history of interfaith violence. In 1993, some 250 Mumbaikers died in bomb blasts, ostensibly by Muslims seeking revenge for the demolition of a revered mosque at Ayodhya by Hindu extremists. In 2006, another 180 were killed in an audacious strike on the city's railway stations by groups linked to Kashmiri militants. When put together with the two thousand or more Muslims slaughtered by Hindu fanatics in the neighbouring state of Gujarat in 2002, this seems a disturbed region indeed. There is no doubt that millions in India are deeply angry, and that this passion is most easily inflamed in big, congested cities like Mumbai, where the aggrieved cannot always avoid each other.

Such anger, however, is rarely noticed by the country's upwardly mobile, who blithely identify with their fellow consumers in the West rather with than the discontented in their own country. Nowhere is this more palpable than in Mumbai, where the rich live like minor kings, and even the middle-level executive can have it all: the warmth of the seaside, resort-like accommodations, a chauffeur-driven car, and a retinue of cooks, maids and nannies, most of who will conveniently disappear at dusk into the squalid slums at the periphery of the city. The affluent can never fully shut out the misery around them. It takes only a short roll-down of one's car window to come nose-to-nose with the sweaty faces of the heaving multitudes who clearly do not consider Mumbai their paradise. But one can look away, as most do, to burrow into some files, a Blackberry, or a sandwich. This is almost a studied obtuseness.

The most recent carnage in Mumbai will probably lead to greater acknowledgement, by India's confident elites, of their profound vulnerability to the stormy politics around them, and of the unnerving proximity of those who are angry as well as willing to act. One will probably see more armed security guards, metal detectors, and bans on shady organizations. It is unlikely, however, that such measures will ever be enough to subdue the violence that seems endemic to that beleaguered region and city. While they may temporarily separate the satiated from the disgruntled, they are no more than a physical expression of the act of looking a way. In the long term, they are likely to damage India's cherished reputation as a beacon of democracy. Although poverty and alienation are never justification for terrorism, they feed its anger and nihilism. It is imperative that the new India, along with its allies in the West, squarely confronts the deep discontentment that bubbles beneath its newfound prosperity and looming great power status.

Mitu Sengupta is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University. She has also worked as a consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and as an editorial writer in New Delhi, India.

More entries on: War and peace

All I want for Christmas is an effective government

Posted by Melissa Wilson at 10:56 AM ET | Comments (0)

Almost every year that I was in high school, I had to write an exam on my birthday. Two years ago, the Robert Pickton trial started on my birthday. Last year, Heath Ledger died (not too bad until you start receiving phone calls along the lines of "Guess what I just heard!" instead of "Happy Birthday"). This year, the week of my birthday will be marred with an unfrozen Parliament — slated for January 26, 2009 — and Harper's last-ditch attempt to wipe the imagined horns from his forehead in the form of a new federal budget before a confidence vote decides his fate.

So let me get this straight: We Canadians have spent the last three years (almost) watching Harper's condescending smile siphon money from worthy causes. Then, we spent five weeks and $300 million on an election that left us right where we were before (except for poor Dion, who took a serious tumble) and now we've got to spent the next seven weeks enduring further political propaganda while a handful of suits play tug of war with Sussex Drive.

What an excellent use of resources. Enough, boys. You've got bigger fish to fry. While the kiddies are bickering and the newspapers are plastered with to-the-minute updates on who's got the biggest guns, thousands of workers will, for the first time, be buying their Christmas dinners with food stamps. Canada lost a record 70,600 jobs last month, the vast majority of which were slashed from Ontario's already-struggling economy. This is the worst it's been in a generation, according to the Toronto Star.

And, to put the cherry on the top of a terrific week, according to a poll commissioned by the Globe and Mail, nearly half of Canadians feel that Stephen Harper can no longer be trusted to run our country. Fifty-five percent said they feel that Canada is on the "wrong track."

As I get older and wiser, I am quickly becoming more cynical and jaded. How is it that I live in a country where a near-majority of residents don't trust the elected leader? I thought that was an American affliction. Perhaps North America can only have one trustworthy leader. Regardless, it's time for change, and I don't care who enacts it. Someone has got to stop the in-fighting and fix Canada before we stop worrying about Harper using the R-word and start tossing around the D-word.

Come on. We'll call it my Christmas and birthday present.

More entries on: On the Hill

Queerly Canadian #1: Do they know it's World Aids Day after all?

Posted by Cate Simpson at 09:54 AM ET | Comments (0)

[Editor's Note: today we introduce "Queerly Canadian," Cate Simpson's new blog column on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans- issues. Queerly Canadian will appear every other Thursday.]

This Monday was World AIDS Day, and last week was AIDS Awareness Week. If both of these events had so far escaped your notice, you wouldn't be entirely to blame.

red ribbon Men who have sex with men are no longer the fastest-growing infection group for HIV, and some suggest that HIV/AIDS is no longer an issue for the queer community. But with gay and bisexual men representing 40 per cent of new infections in Canada, the disease is still very much present in our communities. We cannot afford to become complacent about HIV/AIDS education and testing.

With the Ontario curriculum reportedly falling short when it comes to educating youth about HIV prevention (a recent study by the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research found that more than half of Canadians between grades 9 and 11 think there is a vaccine for HIV), and the mainstream media largely ignoring World AIDS Day (The Star and the Ottawa Citizen were the only Big Seven publications to give it space), where is the next generation going to get its facts?

The queer community was the first group to mobilize behind AIDS education. Has the community focused its political consciousness so squarely upon the fight for gay marriage in the last few years that it has lost sight of where that political consciousness was born? From the LGBT press to the Globe and Mail, everyone is talking about Proposition 8 which passed in California last month. Even in Canada, where we already have gay marriage and no personal stake in that outcome, people are protesting in the streets over the right to marry in California and almost nobody is talking about AIDS. And nobody is dying for lack of a marriage license.

Of course same-sex couples should have the right to marry, and these protests are about demanding access to something that was always rightfully ours. But the fight for gay marriage has obscured and, in some cases, actively sought to obscure, other issues of significance to queer people.

Gay marriage is important because, in some ways, it is a proxy for other things. It's about being recognized as full members of society. It's about not having our relationships made "other". But in making our case, we try to convince the world that our relationships look just like theirs, and associating the queer community with AIDS reminds people of stereotypes we want them to forget. It reminds them of bathhouses, of promiscuity, and, horror of all horrors, it reminds people that same-sex relationships often include sex.

The No On 8 campaign wanted voters to see two men in tuxedos, surrounded by their families and their religious leaders and think, "That looks just like my wedding." They don't want voters to imagine that couple barebacking after the reception.

But to pretend that AIDS isn't part of the history of our communities not only does a disservice to the 266,272 American and 9,515 Canadian gay and bisexual men who have so far died of the disease, and to those people who are still living with HIV and AIDS, it makes it more likely that it will be part of our future.

Cate Simpson is a freelance journalist and the web editor for Shameless magazine. She lives in Toronto.

More entries on: Queerly Canadian

December 04, 2008

What could have been

Posted by Daniel Tseghay at 02:32 PM ET | Comments (0)

What would the coalition have amounted to if Parliament hadn't been suspended today? According to a report in Embassy, a Canadian foreign policy newsweekly, the coalition would have had an internationalist and multilateral vision; emphasizing human rights. For instance:

"It seems the free trade agreement with Colombia, signed by Mr. Harper last week, could also be dumped in pretty short order. Both the Liberals and NDP have expressed concern over the human rights situation in the country."

But, instead, we have a prorogued Parliament and a freeze on legislative initiatives until the end of January.

More entries on: On the Hill

Parliament: FAIL

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 12:10 PM ET | Comments (0)

This is going to be a long two months.

More entries on: On the Hill

December 02, 2008

What should Stephen do?

Posted by Lindsay Kneteman at 04:46 PM ET | Comments (1)

Well, well, well, this is quite the situation that Harper has gotten himself into. Though it's definitely a nice example of how being a bully can backfire, it's hardly the ideal situation for a country that currently has much more important issues to deal with.

So now that he's here, fighting for his job while Dion, Layton and Duceppe busy themselves crafting a new Canadian government, what should he do?

I recommend a good hour or so in the gym with a punching bag followed by a national announcement about how he and his follow federal party leaders need to talk.

Now, I have to admit that a part of me wants to see the coalition go ahead and take control. I'm curious to see how it would do and what exactly it would do. Who knows, perhaps it could be the start of a wonderful transformation that would see Canada become the envy of the world (well, except for the weather).

But then another part of me, that pesky logical part, points out that now is not the best time for political experiments. Perhaps if we were in the middle of boom times, when the government, any government, could do no wrong, we could try this left-wing coalition thing out. But what the country needs now is strength, stability and someone who knows where to spend and where to save. In otherwise words, we need a government that's currently not being offered to us in any shape or form.

And this is where Harper's announcement would come in. With a tired body but clear mind, he'd declare that last week his party announced some proposals that weren't really the best and that now having learned his lesson, he wants to work with the other federal party leaders to develop an economic plan for the country, one that would touch on everything from stimulus spending to what to do about the auto industry to minimizing (though not necessary avoiding) a deficit. With carefully selected words and sympathetic body language, he'd make it clear that he and his Conservatives realize that the country is on verge of heading into a very dark place and that because of that, they're willing to set aside their ideological differences and work with the other parties for the good of the country.

In short, it would be the type of speech that most Canadians would understand and agree with and that would put Dion, Layton and Duceppe in one hell of a predicament. After an offer like that, going ahead with the coalition would simply look like a greedy power grab, a case of putting politics before country. To proceed with the coalition in that situation would be setting it and the parties involved with it up for an election disaster. This is how Harper could grab his majority, by having his olive branch thrown back in his face.

I like to hope that if Harper decides to do "the right thing" and offer to genuinely work with the other parties, they would put the coalition on hold and get down to the business of running this country, together with the Conservatives. Come the next election, the idea of a left-wing coalition could be re-visited but until then, let's just have a "coalition of Canadian politicians working together to keep this country on track during uncertain economic times".

After all, that's what we elect the politicians to do, isn't it? To run the country and create the conditions that let it and us thrive?

I realize that the idea of Harper stepping up and saying "let's work together" sounds about as realistic as Duceppe deciding that Quebec is just fine as it is, but if Harper doesn't step up to the plate, there's always the Governor General.

This article over in the Toronto Star quotes former Reform MP Deborah Grey on how the GG could step in and sort things out, "I'd get those guys in a room, the four of them, and I'd say to them I'm not proroguing this, I'm not calling an election, I'm not naming this coalition. You four guys get yourself in a room and don't come out of there until you decide that you're going to run this government, and I am forcing you all to get back to work and make the economy the focus, stupid, rather than all of this inside baseball."

Good advice; I hope someone follows it.

More entries on: On the Hill

More on the coalition

Posted by Daniel Tseghay at 04:14 PM ET | Comments (1)

The Liberal-NDP coalition has great support among the countless disillusioned by the Conservative Party. The Conservative's recent proposals for a "three-year ban on the right of civil servants to strike, limits on the ability of women to sue for pay equity and eliminated subsidies for political parties" struck many the wrong way - notwithstanding the party's eventual reversal on their subsidies decision and ban on civil servant strikes.

Yet despite this, there might be at least one sufficient reason to withdraw one's support for the coalition: it's arguably undemocratic. In today's Globe and Mail, Janice MacKinnon, professor of public policy at the University of Saskatchewan and a former NDP finance minister, had this to say about a coaltion she would normally be inclined to support:

"as a Western Canadian, I fear the reaction of most in this region should they awake one morning to find the Conservative Party, which won 72 of 92 seats in the West just weeks ago, replaced by a coalition with a prime minister from the Liberal Party, the party that came third in every province in Western Canada. This would be especially dismaying since the election results weren't even close: The Conservatives won 37 per cent of the vote and 66 more seats than their nearest rivals."

We might want Harper out, and we might even believe the coalition would work, but we should also keep in mind the way everyone voted.

More entries on: On the Hill

ThisAbility #7: Not all Buildings are Created Equal

Posted by Aaron Broverman at 02:09 PM ET | Comments (0)

As a follow-up to last week's entry called Riddle Me This I got in touch with Michael Swan, the man in Toronto City Hall who can answer all your pressing Ontario Building Code questions. I had more than a few. Most of my questions pertained to buildings that feature some accessibility features like automatic door buttons, but have other barriers to access like stairs in the same location. The Econo Lodge at 335 Jarvis St. was used as an example last week (look carefully at the photos on that website and you'll see the problem), but there are plenty of buildings that seem accessible on the outside, but are obviously inaccessible without the power of levitation or divine intervention.

The reason, at least in Ontario, is that buildings cannot be forced to conform to the current building code accessibility regulations. The only time a building needs to conform to the building code is at the time it is awarded its permit. The Econo Lodge has existed as a hotel of one kind or another since it received its permit in 1971, well before accessibility requirements were first established in 1983, so it doesn't have to be an accessible building and any accessibility improvements it does make, like the automatic door button, are up to them.

From 1983-2006, the accessibility portion of the building code was upgraded six times. Only buildings created from 2006 onward must meet the most stringent accessibility requirements. Buildings with permits dated before then, only have to be accessible enough to meet the standard from the year they were erected and don't have to meet the current standards, which means many Toronto buildings will remain only partially accessible for as long as they stand.

Sure Ontario has goals to become fully accessible by 2025, when the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act becomes legally enforceable, but by then I will be 40 years old and there is no guarantee that I'll even live long enough to see it in action. Even Michael Swan says that based on current building code laws, the idea that every building in Ontario will be forced to be completely accessible is, "Wishful thinking."

Plus by 2025, Ontario will be decades behind other provinces in Canada. British Columbia will be fully accessible by 2009 with the arrival of the Winter Olympics. In Ontario the permit is the least expensive part of making your building accessible, the renovations recommended by Toronto's own accessibility guidelines — and that's all they are, guidelines — could run up a hefty bill.

Obviously, in Ontario at least, "equality" is just a buzz word meant to stroke the ego of politicians. As long as the bureaucrats sit on their hands while flapping their gums, accessibility begins and ends with the common man. Next time you run into a person with a disability do the following: hold a door open, pass up elevators in favor of the stairs and above all, ask what it is you can do to bridge the gap between getting in and staying out.

More entries on: ThisAbility

Two heads are better than one (but proportional representation is best of all)

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 11:07 AM ET | Comments (0)

From left to right, above: Stephane Dion, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe (Artist's impression)

Your This Magazine bloggers haven't weighed in yet on all the coalition talk that's sprung up in the last few days, mostly because there's been so much speculation and so little substance to talk about. The Parliamentary procedures that will dictate exactly how, or when, or if the coalition of the NDP, Liberals, and Bloc may make their move and topple the Harper Tory minority are arcane and far from cut-and-dried; a lot depends on the elaborate Kabuki theatre of "opposition days", brinksmanship over proroguing Parliament, and how the Governor General responds when she returns to Canada tomorrow. It's far from clear how this will all shake out.

It's clear something has to be done, though. For me, this all comes down to the move by the Tories to end public funding for political party campaigning (the financial calamity/bailout issue is another tinderbox altogether). Even for a cabinet known for its cynical partisan moves, this was an astonishing maneuver that needed an urgent response. And given the sudden burst of pro-coalition activity on the web — rallies, petitions, even the blizzard of Twitter messages — we know that there is a huge pent-up demand for that response.

Now, whether a mashup government of centrists, socialists, and separatists is actually going to work? Well, I think we'll just have to wait and see on that front. Coalition governments work, with varying degrees of success, all around the world, and frequently group together parties with way less common ground. So if it gets things moving legislatively again, and preserves democracy-strengthening measures like the public funding of political campaigns, then bully for them.

But I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the core problem isn't Parliamentary process or a minority government or any of the parties. The problem is that our first-past-the-post electoral system is fundamentally broken. It doesn't represent the will of Canadian voters. Proportional representation would go a long way toward fixing that imbalance, and it would likely result in more coalition governments. That can be a mixed blessing (see the crazy quilt that is the Israeli Knesset) but on the whole, having your vote count in Parliament is the greater virtue. While it has the potential to be an awkward arrangement, the coalition that has now formed in Canada actually does, in the aggregate, represent a majority of the electorate. What a crazy idea.

More entries on: On the Hill

December 01, 2008

November-December 2008 issue now online

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 05:07 PM ET | Comments (0)

The November-December issue of This Magazine is now online for your screen-based reading pleasure. Read Alison Lee's look at how a new generation of feminists are changing the porn industry, or Alex Felipe's photo essay of Canadian-owned gold mines in the Philippines, or Craig Saunders' profile of Buzz Hargrove at the end of his legendary tenure at the head of the CAW.

Plus a look at the troublesome return of fur to the catwalk after years stigmatized to the margins; a call to legalize and regulate sex work; the mythic rivalry of comic-book pioneers Alan Moore and Frank Miller; a new documentary about Quebec's gentleman vandal, Roadsworth; and the many contradictions of addictive website Jezebel.com.

To prevent the wait that comes with reading the web edition (which goes online after the print edition is out), may we suggest subscribing to the magazine so that the newest issue is always waiting for you in your mailbox. Just $24.99 per year, a full 25% off the cover price.

As always, I'm happy to have your comments and letters on the blog or by emailing editor at thismagazine dot ca.

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THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL

Please note that all writers hold the copyright for their pieces and it is illegal for any portion of them to be copied or distributed without their expressed permission. So please don't steal.

THIS MAGAZINE: BECAUSE EVERTHING IS POLITICAL

December 29, 2008

Polarized #4: The storm before the storm

December 23, 2008

ThisAbility 10: Deathly Cold

December 22, 2008

Polarized #3: Welcome to the seafaring life

December 19, 2008

The airing of the grievances

December 18, 2008

Queerly Canadian #2: Escape Claus(e)

December 17, 2008

Some parents just don't understand

Polarized #2: Whale Wars - The Next Generation

December 16, 2008

Global plane traffic graph: like bugs devouring a corpse

December 15, 2008

ThisAbility 9: Accessible or Accessi-bull?

December 10, 2008

International Human Rights Day!

December 09, 2008

The Daily Show on Canada

Polarized #1: Life and Death at the End of the World

ThisAbility #8: Condo Conundrum

December 08, 2008

The New Yorker on Naomi Klein (and This Magazine)

Dion, we'll miss your antics

December 06, 2008

CITIZENShift is looking for podcasts

December 05, 2008

Pirates

Guest Blogger: What Mumbai means

All I want for Christmas is an effective government

Queerly Canadian #1: Do they know it's World Aids Day after all?

December 04, 2008

What could have been

Parliament: FAIL

December 02, 2008

What should Stephen do?

More on the coalition

ThisAbility #7: Not all Buildings are Created Equal

Two heads are better than one (but proportional representation is best of all)

December 01, 2008

November-December 2008 issue now online