BLOG THIS | blog.thismagazine.ca: March 2009 Archives

I've often said that one of my concerns about dating a person with a disability is how limiting it could be, if it's not the right situation. You spend all your life figuring out exactly what your capability level is (how far you can walk, whether steps are an issue, how much you can carry or balance etc.) then, when another disability is introduced into the equation, suddenly you have to be mindful of that person's ability level on a more constant basis. The more time you spend together, the more you're passing up opportunities to hang out in various places in favor of more accessible options. Places you used to go by yourself are not really an option together, if she can't get in. If you use a scooter and she uses crutches, you have to go places that she can easily get to.

The issue comes down to finding someone of a similar ability level to your own. Although, there's another aspect to this that I never really considered until recently. At one time or another, every person with a disability has probably faked it.

Now, I'm not Elaine Benes, I'm not talking about faking orgasams here. I'm talking about faking ability, or a lack of ability, to get what you want from the able-bodied population. Everybody has had their moments of lying to get what they want. Pretending you can't get in somewhere to make a point about the inaccessibility of a location or get closer to the person who is helping you (you may want to use them for support just for the physical contact). It works the other way too, there are people who have feignned a level of capability they don't really have, in order to make themselves feel better about their circumstances so they can feel more equal to, or escape judgement from, their friends or lovers.

Even though there maybe momentary benefits to faking it, (hey, you got into that bar without any effort) it eventually all ends badly. It sucks to know that you've been possibly passing up various places to go because of your understanding of a person's ability level, when you really didn't have to in the first place. Or that the person you've been hanging out with has been suffering in discomfort just to keep up with you.

Faking it doesn't really help you in the long run. If someone helped you because they legitimately thought you needed it, and then they found out you didn't, they'd never help anyone with a disability again. At minimum, it's bad for the rest of us; it could come back to haunt you down the road. It's hard enough to get people to come forward and do the right thing on a good day; most are secretly afraid they'll get run over by a scooter anyway, so when you introduce this extra deceptive layer, you're just breeding cynicism in people. Honesty should still be the best policy. People need to be honest with themselves about what they can do and they need to be all about honest disclosure, or they're just shooting themselves in the foot and setting the rest of us back.

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

20 years on, the ocean still runs black

Posted by Elaisha Stokes at 10:07 AM ET | Comments (0)

The Ocean Runs Black
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, off the coast of Alaska. In the early morning hours of March 24th, 1989, 11 million gallons of crude oil entered the ocean when the oil tanker collided with the local ocean reef.

While Exxon Valdez ranks relatively low on the scale of largest oil spills in terms of volume, it is considered the worst human-induced environmental disaster to ever occur at sea. The leaking crude oil spread more that 700 km from the spill site, devastating the oceans ecosystem. The WWF estimates that the initial impact of the oil killed 250,000 seabirds, 4,000 sea otters, 250 bald eagles, and more than 20 orca whales. In addition, the herring fishery completely collapsed, causing local fishermen to loose upwards of US $286 million in revenue and bankrupting the Alaska Native Corporation.

To this day, the arctic ecosystem has not recovered. The oceans still run black. Environmental experts estimate that more than 21 000 gallons of oil remain in Prince William Sound. In any other environment the remaining crude would have dispersed or biodegraded by now. But Prince William Sound is a closed ecosystem. It is not subject to the pounding waves necessary to both disperse the oil and feed to local oil munching bacteria that allow for biodegradation to occur. And so the oil remains, with ample time to seep further into the shoreline, and continue to devastate the fragile ecological balance of the region.

Sadly, 20 years on, it appears the powers that be have learned nothing from the disaster. Recent plans by the United States government to sell offshore oil drilling rights in the Bering Sea, which provides half of all seafood consumed in the US, illustrates that cash is still king when it comes to ecology. The bottom line? Until we can find alternatives to fossil fuels, drilling and transport of crude oil will continue, putting our most precious resources at perpetual risk.

More entries on: Environment

March 23, 2009

My so called life without tv

Posted by Lisa at 06:11 PM ET | Comments (0)

[Lisa is forgoing TV for the month of March and blogging about the experience here. Read her first blog post here.]

"How are you holding up?" my friend asked. "Okay, okay," I mumbled. Really I wanted to cry "waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh," while simultaneously pouting, stamping my feet and shaking my head.

My friend was asking how my month without television was going. I was about two weeks into the month at this point and alternating between feeling liberated and like a junkie in need of a Thursday night NBC must see TV fix.

Sure, not having my ass parked on my couch mindlessly watching From G's to Gents (season two, if you can believe it) has freed up time to devote to other things. I bonded with my neglected Twitter account. Of course, now I am hopelessly addicted to Twitter (please follow @nerdygirly). I did countless loads of wash. I got to the bottom of that weird smell in my vegetable crisper (carrots, in case you care). I went for walks in my neighborhood and laughed at the joggers. I read books and magazines I'd neglected for months in favour of my beloved television. Have you heard about these Coldplay folks? The Spin magazine I just read from 2000 predicts they're going to be huge.

Not only was I getting stuff done, but I was also saving money. Time usually reserved for watching the 11 pm episode of Arrested Development I've already seen 23 times is now devoted to packing my lunch for the next day. Life felt great.

Like any addict trying to go cold turkey will tell you, highs are soon followed by lows. A friend's Facebook status update inspired by the previous night's episode of 30 Rock left me lying in the fetal position on my bedroom floor, repeating "I want to go to there." Blog posts about the next cycle of America's Next Top Model made me think, "stupid blogging jerks. Can't you feel my pain?"

I needed some fix. Any fix. I retired to a local watering hole which boasts two televisions. I maintained I wasn't really cheating since I wasn't watching my own television and I know the remotes are broken or frequently hogged by old drunk men who smell like pee and only want to watch CP24 or European soccer. CP24 weather reports somehow didn't do the trick. The beers didn't either and if TV was an actual person with a listed number I would have been drunk dialing it repeatedly to say how much I missed it.

Things were somewhat better the next day. I rented My So-Called Life on DVD and spent the whole day on my couch watching it. Before you start screaming cheater, the rules of this challenge (how I miss you, Survivor ) allow me to watch television series on DVD. I was back in TV land and my Facebook status updates announced to the world how happy I was to be spending my Saturday afternoon with Angela Chase and perpetual locker leaner Jordan Catalano. Friends posted comments about their favorite My So-Called Life episodes and memories. It felt good to be basking in television's warm glow again. Then I got to the DVD commentary and realized I had watched the whole series. Not wanting to admit my fix was gone, I watched the commentary three times.

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March 20, 2009

How to fix your favourite drink

Posted by Anna Bowen at 05:12 PM ET | Comments (0)

I'll give you a bottle of bling if you can tell me what day it is on Sunday. Maude Barlow's birthday? Nope, but close. It is World Water Day. Since 1992, the UN has designated March 22 as WWD in order to draw international attention to the critical lack of clean, safe drinking water worldwide. Despite water being a basic necessity for sustaining life, and the fact that 1.1 billion of the world's population lack access to safe drinking water, the commodification of water has gone overboard selling water as at once religious, environmental, and sexy. I've decided to offer a graphic glimpse at the many ways water is being consumed these days... including

Special holy drinking water from CA Wayne Enterprises. Drink up a wellspring of Freedom, Balance, and Formula J. This is one of the holy waters that has a little kitsch appeal. Others are less tasteful. Careful drinking this one though, or you might decide condoms don't prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Designer Boxed Water is Better. The greener choice. (you've got to be kidding) According to CoolHunting, this company is apparently taking "the bottled water phenomenon to eco-friendly heights," and BWiB is certainly the trendy, minimalist-chic choice in H2O. Self-defining as artists, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists, management behind these boxes think they've got something going on. Is the way to kick the bottled water habit really to start a new one? (Thanks for the tip, RP!)

Bling h20
The Baby Red and Green Bottle comes for the sale price of $10 for 375ml. You can also buy "Paris Pink," "Goldilocks" or "Cobalt Blue" for $480/case of 12 750ml glass bottles, with the bling h2o logo in Swarovski Crystals on frosted glass. Developed by Hollywood writer-producer Kevin G. Boyd, who wanted to let actors on set have their water bottle be a fashion statement.

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March 19, 2009

Intern with This: deadline is April 1!

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 06:14 PM ET | Comments (1)

No Coffee-fetching Just a reminder to everyone out there considering applying for the This Magazine internship: the deadline is now less than two weeks away, so chop-chop. It's fun, educational, in a great location, and we promise you will never, ever have to fetch coffee.

All the details for applying are here. The deadline for the summer program is April 1.

Feel free to call or email if you have questions. Consider tracking down my phone number and email address your first assignment!

More entries on: THIS matters

Queerly Canadian #8: Sick of talking about gay marriage

Posted by Cate Simpson at 03:55 PM ET | Comments (0)

lesbian wedding cake toppers

Yesterday a friend in Edinburgh, where I lived until just over a year ago, sent me an invite to a Facebook group started as part of a campaign for marriage equality in Scotland.

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sick of talking about gay marriage. Especially now that I live in Canada, where it passed four years ago. I wish the rest of the world would cut the crap and stop holding out on us, so we can all get on with our lives. Gay and trans kids are still being beaten up in school, queers have less than equal access to healthcare, and Canadian same-sex couples might be able to get hitched but that doesn't mean their families are always willing to stand at their sides at the ceremony.

The point is, we have other things we need to be talking about. There are other campaigns to start and wars to wage and — as Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore has often (and eloquently) pointed out — the campaign for gay marriage sets those fights back years in its zeal to make queer relationships seem as "normal" and hetero as possible.

But here's the thing. Queers are not going to dismantle the institution of marriage by refusing to care very much about it. And all we achieve by trying is confirming the attitude that American Defense of Marriage clauses and civil partnership stop-gaps reflect: that our relationships are less legitimate, less permanent, less important. States that don't allow for same-sex marriage fail to do so because there is homophobia in those states. But that causal chain goes both ways. DOMA and Civil Partnership clauses are state-sponsored homophobia. Why should individuals confront their own prejudice when it comes with a government stamp?

We can't get started on discussions of healthcare, shelter, and the oppressive aspects of marriage itself when we live in a state that doesn't even recognise our right to full equality under the law.

We have gay marriage in Canada. That's pretty awesome, and I think our society is better for it. But that doesn't mean that, as Canadians, we're done. If we can throw parties and hug and cry and rejoice over the election of an American president, if we accept that America's reach is wide enough to have that kind of impact on our lives, then we better be ready to pitch in next to those in California whose marriages were unceremoniously anulled on the same night. We can't share in the joy of other countries' progress and then remain quietly superior when they fall short.

There is weight to some of the arguments against marriage from within the queer community. Marriage is a flawed institution, and it's got some serious historical baggage. But we don't have to get married. And if we do, we don't have to get married with one person in white and the other in a tux. We don't have to have one partner who works in an office while the other stays home. We don't have to buy marriage lock, stock, and picket fence. But we do need the right to do so.

More entries on: Queerly Canadian

March 18, 2009

Star puts the heat on nanny business profiteers

Posted by Anna Bowen at 04:17 PM ET | Comments (0)

This week, the Toronto Star has begun to shed some light on the plight of Filipina nannies and their struggle within the flawed federal Live-in Caregiver program. This past Saturday the Toronto Star began its ongoing investigation into the matter, beginning with a look into the dealings of what has begun to look like a Thornhill nanny depot. They have reported that Trakela Spivak, one among many recruiters, is using the system to her advantage, getting families to sponsor one Filipina - a process that takes several months - and landing them a nanny within a week. The trick? She's been hooking up families with nannys who were sponsored three months earlier, an activity that not only leaves new nanny's jobless but is illegal.

Groups of Filipinas under Spivak's care were housed on mattresses in her basement in order that Spivak could offer the speediest nanny connections by having several women on hand. In the meantime, the Star reports that Spivak held their passports and social insurance cards. The potential nannies paid Spivak placement fees, and many hope to attain permanent Canadian residency. Placement fees are banned in four western provinces, but not yet in Ontario, No-one is Illegal reports. Permanent residency can occur in the narrow window after two years in a position as a paid, live-in caregiver, but before three years of landing.

Although the live-in caregiver website urges caregivers to know their rights, reinforcing that people within this program are subject to all the same rights as other Canadian workers and are entitled to overtime pay, vacation, and safe working environments, many Filipina live-in care givers have complained of unsafe working environments and overtime without pay.

No-one is illegal reports that more than 34,000 nannies and caregivers enter Canada every year, and reporting for NIE, Harald Bauder suggests that these temporary foreign workers are going to feel the sting of the economic depression perhaps more than most.

The issue is not only north of the border, however. As Marjorie Ingall reports today for the NY Jewish daily, Forward, domestic workers in NY are also struggling for rights and recognition. Ingall takes a look at the history of racialization on the domestic worker scene.

Thanks to the Star for putting this story in the spotlight.

PIC COURTESY OF JOECLARK'S flickr PHOTOSTREAM

More entries on: Human rights

March 17, 2009

Reflections on Christian Lander one year later

Posted by Anna Bowen at 04:21 PM ET | Comments (2)

I was flipping through Christian Lander's web-site based book, What White People Like, which has garnered lots of media attention and blushing from those who can relate over the past year. Among the culprits? Brunch, high-performance clothes, Moleskine notebooks, sushi, taking a year off, IKEA, saving Africa, etc. Most people are familiar with this already. I was thinking about this on the subway, thinking Christian Lander needs some more critique, when I overheard a group of middle aged white-Anglo people behind me discussing their love of jogging, half marathons, and staying in shape. Their conversation initially caught my attention because they started talking about how "the Kenyans" are always running past them and are so very fast. One of them said her favourite thing was to find a 5k "brunch jog" - that way she could jog a loop and reward herself at her favourite brunch spot. No joke.

So a little more than one year after Lander's webpage became a hit overnight, and six months or so after his book was published, nothing much has changed (save perhaps awareness, that elusive term). Will it ever?

Having been put in my place by subway eavesdropping (Lander is obviously hitting this thing on the nose), I reflected a little more on Lander. My first reaction is funny, funny, yes, yes, ooh uncomfortable, funny, irony, oh irony. But that only gets you so far. My next thought is that it's amazing that "white people" love this stuff (Not the "stuff," but the book and the blog). However, I can imagine many Canadian "white people" laughing along but sort of looking over their shoulders thinking, I totally love brunch! Wait a second, I'm white?

Thoughts?

1. Although we try to avoid talk of race in Canada, unlike our American counterparts who are more at ease with being upfront about it, the popularity of this site and book - even up here in multicultural Canada - shows that we know deep down inside that race is still an issue despite the beacon of multiculturalism that we uphold.

2. "White people" can take a joke (well, for the most part - a lot of not-humour comes out in the comments), a good first step

3. But what about this comment about "the Kenyans"? What of the things that these selfsame "white people" don't like? Burkas, for instance, or elementary schools in "undesirable" neighbourhoods? One blogger pointed out that "white people" don't like too many people living in one house. As we look a little deeper into what it is "white people" don't like, the joke gets a little less funny.

The cover of today's G&M shows a couple who fit deftly into the pigeonhole "white people," cuddling on pillows with their "Instant Family," siblings they adopted from Ethiopia. Although the premise is that this is a win-win situation, there's no pretending that overseas adoptions are not sometimes (a) fashion statements (b) benevolence
statements, or (c) trendy.

As Chandler Levack pointed out in her timely THIS article last year, what works about Stuff White People Like is that you can "laugh at yourself while maintaining a sense of superiority" when you read this stuff. And while that's what makes Lander's joke so successful, it's also what allows room for, and demands, more work.

More entries on: Race

ThisAbility #20 Cash that Really is Cold and Hard

Posted by Aaron Broverman at 02:57 PM ET | Comments (0)

Money is Blinding

It's amazing the things you learn from TV. One lesson, a few weeks back, came courtesy of John Quinones and his ABC Primetime series What Would You Do?

It's a hidden camera show that tests whether people would intervene in various situations. It was on this show that I learned the United States of America is the only country in the developed world that doesn't have accessibility features for the blind on their money.

Leading to incidents where clerks short change their customer because they know those customers can't tell what denominations they're getting back. It appearently happens on a more frequent basis than you may think.

All American bills are the same size, texture and colour, which makes it extemely difficult to differentiate between a $5 bill and a $20 bill without the aid of machines or sighted people, leaving America's blind population at a severe disadvantage when compared to the visually impaired in other countries.

It may not be noticeable to the naked eye, but every Canadian banknote has raised tactile dots on the opposite top corner from the smaller printed number. The higher the denomination, the more dots there are.
The Euro is the gold standard for accessibility, each demonination increases in physical size as you move up the value scale and each number on the note is a raised surface.

Other countries have recognized that in order to act in accordance with their own bill of rights and practice what they preach in terms of non-discrimination, they must have accessible currency. Not having any is arguably the highest form of instituational discrimination.

It's only recently that processes have been set in motion to make accessible currency a reality in the U.S. The American Council of the Blind won a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury in May 2008, demanding that they make their currency accessible in accordance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as soon as possible.

Of course that's extremely vague, the first time we see accessible currency in the U.S. will be whenever the next currency redesign is (possibly five to eight years from now), but with the economy in shambles it's easy to put a ruling like this on the back burner. The treasury still has an opportunity to Appeal, so who knows.

Just be thankful you live in Canada where banks issue free bill reading machines to the blind. The U.S. is a country where the Bank of America has made significant strides in making ATM machines accessible through braille keys and audio menu delivery, but it takes this long to even think about making the money that is spit from the machine accessible? However, the U.S. Treasury has to be sued before they'll even consider it. What's up with that?

More entries on: ThisAbility

What's in your fridge?

Posted by Melissa Wilson at 01:25 PM ET | Comments (0)

If you're living in the suburbs, it's easy to hop in your Prius and drive to the closest mall parking lot-turned farmers market during the summer to pick up some locally-grown produce, but if you're one of the 13 million (ish) Canadians living in a large city, finding organic, locally-grown, real food can pose a bit of a challenge.

The foils of the ever-faltering economy (even Big Bird is not immune to layoffs) compound the issue further. As much as I would love to stock my fridge with organic, locally-grown green apples, my rigid grocery budget keeps me gnashing on whatever is ninety-nine cents a pound.

We all make our own concessions when it comes to eating properly. Some make hamburgers from scratch instead of downing McDonalds while others give in to potato chips once a week but never twice and never more than one serving. We all try to avoid the baddies, but no one is perfect.

Michael Pollan, author of the best-selling In Defense of Food, has made a career out of challenging the way we Westerners think about food. His food rules can be boiled down to the simple mantra: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. But of course, it's not always that simple, and his books explore the rule in further detail.

In a recent New York Times blog post, Pollan has reached out to the masses for a world's worth of cultural food rules.

"Will you send me a food rule you try to live by? Something perhaps passed down by your parents or grandparents? Or something you've come up with to tell your children--or yourself?
I will post your suggestions on my Web site and plan to include the best in a collection of food rules I'm now compiling."

So now I'm curious, BlogThis readers: what rules do you impose on yourself when it comes to food?

Some of my own rules loose guidelines for healthy eating:
- Don't eat food that isn't food (If Family Guy and the Simpsons have sketches about a snack cake that can survive a nuclear holocaust, I'm not touching it)
- Don't spend money on packaged food that I can make myself
- Don't eat food that has more ingredients than it should
- Don't buy lunch/dinner unless I am out with someone (Cutting eating out altogether will never work, but this significantly limits my intake of restaurant salts/fats/oils/etc. and saves me a ton of money)
- Whenever possible, substitute vegetables for meat
- If I make poutine at home from scratch, I don't have to feel guilty about eating it.

Some of my favourite replies from the comments to Pollan's request:
- Don't eat anything that comes in a krinkly bag
- If it needs a label, it may not be food
- Slow down. Your food isn't going anywhere.

In other thoroughly terrifying news, here's an article that details how French fries will kill you.

More entries on: Food Security and Agriculture

March 13, 2009

ICC indictment of al-Bashir provokes aid worker kidnappings

Posted by Anna Bowen at 12:52 PM ET | Comments (0)

The kidnapping of Medecins sans Frontiers P.E.Islander Laura Archer, and of Mauro D'Ascanio and Raphael Meonier Wednesday night comes on the heels of the International Criminal Court at the Hague accusation last week. The ICC accused Sudan President Omar al-Bashir of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of Sudan, issuing another arrest warrant for the President. The ruling, a first for its accusation of a sitting president, perpetuated increased violence in the region, as well as causing the expulsion of several non-profits in the area, including Oxfam, CARE and Save The Children.

The UN reports that 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur region since the violence began in 2003 and 2.7 million people have been displaced.

Last week President Omar al-Bashir said the accusations are a sign of a new colonialism, and reportedly a crowd of 2,000 gathered in his support in El Fasher last week, and still more gathered in Khartoum.

I'm wondering a few things, namely:
(1) Why has the ICC insisted on accusing Omar al-Bashir of war crimes right now? Probably the fact that no sitting president has ever been accused is for good reason. Not heeding the warnings that violence and anger would increase and NGOs would be forced out, removing needed assistance, seems like a pretty bad move at this point.

(2) Why does the story of one kidnapped Canadian make me write a blog post sooner than the fact of the ICC accusations in the first place? Because I can identify with her and her family? Yes, I suppose that's true. Because I know someone who was kidnapped overseas? Yes, that's true too. Because she made the front page of the G&M? Tripleyes.

(3) What do repeated kidnappings of white foreign aid workers tell us about the role of white foreign aid workers abroad? A couple of years ago at the R.A.C.E. conference that was held in Toronto at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), I was interested to see that there was a paper being given on the sticky issue of the Christian Peacemaker Teams kidnappings in Iraq. I went to the presentation with mixed feelings, because you need a stout heart to enter an academic environment where the golden calves of Canadian identity (Dallaire or Stephen Lewis) are fair game for critical anti-racist theorizing. I was surprised to find that the seminar was actually addressing how Jim Loney was able to subvert the typical white-anglo desire to find another hero by juggling the media with one hand and turning their expectation of him on its head with the other.

My heart absolutely goes out to the friends and families of those who were abducted and are being held, and we hope for their safe and speedy return.

But let's not forget the thousands of detainees and disappeared worldwide who don't make front page news.

I am grateful in a way that can never be adequately expressed in words. There are so many people that need this hand of solidarity right now today, and I'm thinking specifically of prisoners held all over the world, people who have slipped into an abyss of detention without charge, due process, hope of release; some victims of physical and psychological torture, people unknown and forgotten. It is my deepest wish that every forsaken human being should have a hand of solidarity reaching out to them.

-part of a statement made by J Loney the day he was returned to Canada

More entries on: War and peace

Cory Doctorow reminds the internet that labour matters

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 11:04 AM ET | Comments (1)

cover of Thomas Geoghegan's Which Side Are You On? It was a nice surprise this morning to run across Cory Doctorow's blog post on Boing Boing about Thomas Geoghegan's book Which Side Are You On?, a memoir/history of the labour movement. I haven't read the book, although now I intend to. But the reason it was a nice surprise is because labour is a huge blind spot in the mainstream blogosphere.

There's a pervasive notion in many online communities that the web is a meritocracy, a level playing field where technology demolishes all barriers and equalizes everyone. Nick Denton, founder of the Gawker Media blog network, coined the phrase "anarcho-capitalist" to describe this vibe: decentralized, anti-authority, profit-hungry, and post-political. The economics of blogging mean that most writers for online outlets write for peanuts, seldom see each other in person, and work alone. Organizing for better wages and benefits isn't on the radar: even if there was the will to do it, the business model doesn't produce enough income to pay contributors enough anyway, so why bother?

The young, globalized, culturally schizoid generation that writes and consumes blogs sees the labour movement as out of touch and irrelevant at best, obstructive and corrupt at worst. The gains in working conditions, wages, benefits, and worker safety made by labour are taken for granted by a whole swathe of young people for whom the movement is ancient history. That Doctorow, who is hugely influential in the blogosphere, is talking to his audience now about the goals and achievements of the labour movement is important and valuable.

Some of what he says:

Throughout, Geoghegan keep the focus where it belongs: on the injustices faced by working people -- from labor, from management, from government -- and on the failures of these systems to improve their lot on life, and looks deeply into history, politics and sociology to explain why and how labor has failed laborers.
Geoghegan is a lifelong, old-time labor lawyer whose practice has encompassed defending unions from management to defending workers from unions -- representing clients whose corrupt Work Agents have had them beaten up, smeared and excluded; representing workers who've been robbed of their pensions, unfairly dismissed, even arrested, under the most shameful, sleazy circumstances. He writes like a poet, like a Hunter Thompson crossed with Studs Terkel, full of humility, wry humor, and a burning anger at all that's wrong in the world. He tells the stories of the fights he's fought -- with, for and against the Teamsters, the mine workers, nurses, pilots -- from union elections to wildcat strikes.

Geoghegan is unabashedly pro-union, even though he's seen the worst of what unions can become. In a world in which employers hold all the cards -- times like now, when every worker worries about job security -- workers who fight on their own to demand justice (fair pay, safe working conditions, fair treatment, pensions) always lose. Workers who fight together can win -- have won, anyway.

More entries on: Labour

March 11, 2009

Thank yous and photos from our redesign launch party

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 12:21 PM ET | Comments (2)

Crowd at the This Magazine redesign launch party, March 10, 2009

Last night's redesign launch party in Toronto was a big hit, and we had a great turnout — the biggest since the magazine's 40th anniversary party a few years ago. Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with us, we enjoyed meeting so many subscribers and supporters, old and new.

There are some important thanks to be dished out. We thanked these people at the party last night, but here it is again, because we think they really deserve your recognition.

David Donald, our art director, executed the whole design of the magazine, top to bottom, and everyone I've talked to agrees that it's a great new look and a very successful redesign. Also very helpful during the whole process were board member Bill Reynolds and Ryerson journalism instructor Steve Trumper.

The magazine's staffers also need to take credit for the new look: Jordan Himelfarb, Lindsay Kneteman, Stuart Ross, Eva Salinas, and Ivor Tossell. I'm also putting this shout-out to my predecessor in the editor's chair, Jessica Johnston, who left the magazine in tip-top shape when I arrived last August, which allowed us to focus on the design changes.

Last night's volunteers made the whole thing happen: our current interns Anna Bowen and Elaisha Stokes handled everything from booking the venue to wrangling the sponsorships, to selling tickets at the door. They were ably assisted by former This intern Melissa Wilson. DJs Rebekah Miskin and Luke Woodard worked the turntables. David Hayes acted as celebrity cupcake judge.

And finally, the sponsors who provided a raft of keen swag. We're particularly grateful to Urbane Cyclist for providing the beautiful Dahon Speed C7 folding bicycle that we raffled off.

The sponsors who provided door prizes are:

Click through the jump to see some more photos from the event. Thanks for coming!

Lisa Whittington Hill, Julie Crysler, Jeremy Nelson at the This Magazine redesign launch party
Left to right: This Magazine publisher Lisa Whittington-Hill, former This editor Julie Crysler, and writer Jeremy Nelson.

Megan Griffith-Greene, Carolyn Morris, Morgan Passi, Andrew Wallace at the This Magazine redesign launch party
Left to right: Shameless editor Megan Griffith-Greene, with Ryerson Review of Journalism staffers Carolyn Morris, Morgan Passi, and Andrew Wallace.

view from the DJ booth at the This Magazine relaunch party
The view from the DJ booth, where Rebeakh Miskin and Luke Woodard worked the tables.

Some of the competing cupcakes in the 2009 This Magazine Cupcake Smackdown. Morgan Passi's "Pacmantastic" cupcake, visible in the lower left corner, took first place.

Meg Campbell, winner of the Dahon Speed C7 folding bike, courtesy of Urbane Cyclist
Meg Campbell, with her new Dahon Speed C7 folding bicycle, courtesy of Urbane Cyclist, won as part of the raffle at the party.

More entries on: THIS matters

ThisAbility #19 Buyer Beware

Posted by Aaron Broverman at 08:56 AM ET | Comments (0)

Deal or No Deal Logo courtesy of NBC

This particular entry has been on deck for a while. It concerns something everyone who ever buys assistive devices should know.

I bought a new scooter a few weeks back, a Pride Victory Twin with a set of twin wheels in the front for increased stability (the better to grip snow with, my dear). Most people who buy scooters in Ontario (other provinces have their own funding programs) do so through Ontario's Assistive Devices Program [ADP]. If you already receive income support from the government, 100% of the cost of your scooter will be covered. If you're like me, and don't currently qualify for income support, 75% of the cost of the scooter is covered and the customer pays the other 25%.

That's not the issue, paying for part of the scooter means it can be delivered to you faster, since the dealer gets at least part of the money they're owed. No, the issue comes from what the dealer charges relative to the manufacturer's suggested retail price. A mark-up so severe, it would never stand without a literal captive audience.

I was told by my dealer,Medichair Etobicoke,that they typically sell the scooter I was buying at a $2000 retail price with all the amenities like cane holders, shopping bag clips, charger backpacks, and whatever other external doohickies I need, thrown in for free.

This price jived with the suggested retail price from PRIDE,the manufacturer, but I was told by Medichair that Ontario's ADP would not cover my scooter at the $2000 retail price because five years ago, the ADP set the prices of every assistive device they cover and that price is $3264 for all scooters. Since this price was set by the government, no matter which dealer I go to, whether its Motion Specialties, Therapist's Choice, or Medichair, I was told that I'd be paying 25% of $3264 ($816), not 25% of $2000 ($500). The only way I'd be offered the retail price is if I bought the scooter outright from Medichair without ADP funding.

So, naturally, I phoned the ADP program to try and find out where they got the arbitrary price of $3264 from, where the extra money goes, and why they couldn't just cover 75% of the retail price. I spoke to Ian Lowe, the program coordinator for the ADP,(who, I found out later, used to sell scooters for Medichair and was trained by the guy who was selling me my scooter) and Lowe told me that they would absolutely cover the $2000 retail price and that $3264 was only the MAXIMUM amount that they would cover.

I went back to Medichair with this information and asked them to charge me the properly acceptable retail price and what they said was absolutely dumbfounding. What they said was, "We normally charge the maximum amount because it takes five months to receive the full payment from the government."

That means that until someone smart enough to call them on it came along, they have been forcing the customer to pay more just because the government takes a long time to pay them. Obviously, they should not be forcing the customer to take the financial hit, the customer has nothing to do with the delay of payment. If anything, Medichair should be asking ADP to expedite their approval and funding, so that the customers don't have to cover for the process.

At first, I felt extremely conflicted about calling them out because I was concerned that refusal to acquiesce to their mark-up would mean I wouldn't get the scooter that's vital to my ability to get around. Of course, I realized that's what Medichair and other dealers are counting on. They know just how dependent their customer base is, and that even if they decide not to get a scooter for the time being, chances are good that they'll come (literally) crawling back.

That's what pushes this practice way past just simply being taken advantage of by opportunistic, crooked sales people. This isn't just about selling a product, this is about selling a person's ability to move, and to play games with someone's right to move freely about their surroundings is a new level of screwjob.

More entries on: ThisAbility

March 10, 2009

I'm From Away

Posted by Anna Bowen at 11:49 AM ET | Comments (0)

Ok, so maybe Lisa's TV rehab blog has got me thinking about my own relationship to technology. I mean, sure, I don't own a TV and I don't even have a cell phone (gasp, how do you live?) but I would say on average my laptop becomes an extension of my body for probably about ten hours a day or more. I try to think that I balance my relationship to electronic devices with a healthy engagement with the natural world, when in fact for the last few years I have basically hibernated in front of the computer (ok, also books) all winter and then come out squinting into the growing season in a pretty remote location in Nova Scotia where I have a hard time understanding how anyone could lie to themselves and call the internet "high speed," and where clean water is still an issue. True Torontonians look at me with mouth agape. Where I work in Cape Breton, facebook is a bi-monthly event, cell phones are for snow storms, and movie night means going to Ralph's Dairy to pick up "The Pursuit of Happyness" again (please, no). It's a little manic, in the end.(It's also illegal to drive while chatting on your cellphone, a law I could do with more of here in Ontario.)

Although I was shocked to hear that my partner's students don't know how to find something in a book (Student: Where's the answer? TA: Look in your textbook. Student: Where? TA: Look in the index. Student: What's an index?) recently I have been really trying to remind my brain that when reading a book there is no "Find" or "Search" function. In the same vein, the NY Times just published a piece on the way that cellphone navigation might change the way we (er, you) think.

I try to tell myself that I no longer need to cling to these sticky binary oppositions between nature and culture; that neither has the upper hand, but function interdependently, that neither is pure. Recently I have had a renewed sense of the miraculous and the human in the city - my gawd, how are all these people so squished together and don't want to kill each other? Cities are amazing! But at the same time, when I need something for comfort in times of grief, myspace or facebook obituaries just don't cut it for me. I would much rather see things grow and die and compost in the natural world in order to get a deeper sense of WTF is going on.

More entries on: From the intern desk

March 09, 2009

TV Free #1: I Want My MTV or any TV. Please!

Posted by Lisa at 12:22 PM ET | Comments (3)

For the month of March I've given up my beloved 300 television channels. OK, actually, truth be told, I don't really love the sports channels so much, or the one that just seems to play the Godfather movies back to back. So let's say 250 beloved television channels and some filler. The important thing is, they're all gone for the month of March. I'll be blogging the experience at the end of each week right here, until the friend I gave my cable box to returns it on April 1.

This started as an experiment to see what it would be like to cut TV out of my life. I was initially excited about the projects I would finally finish, once my Saturday afternoons weren't spent eating chip dip with my finger and watching What Not To Wear marathons. I would finish decorating the apartment I moved into many months ago. I would read all those books I started but soon cast aside because I needed to watch the Top Chef finale and then complain to whoever would listen that the bald guy never should have won. I would bake pies from scratch. I would write the great American novel — even though I live in Canada. Without television I would get shit done.

I am not shy about my love of television. People assume that because I work at a progressive magazine that I spend all my time reading Marxist theories of worker alienation or waving placards outside embassies. My love of television is frequently frowned upon in progressive circles. "But you're watching it with an eye to critical discourse, right?" they ask. Maybe, okay, if you say so. Sure, I have some semi-intelligent things to say about what I watch. I may get annoyed that queer men are only represented on shows where they compete to be fashion designers, hairdressers or the next Rupaul, but truth be told most of the time I'm not sitting on my couch with librarian glasses on giving what I watch a whole lot of thought. Television is my escape. I like to turn my brain off and watch Rock of Love and the only thing I'm really thinking that hard about is what's wrong with Brett Michaels' hair. Is it a wig? A bandana with extensions glued to it? Does it feel gross when touched?

I recently read — because I can't watch tv — that the average American watches something like five hours of television a night. I told a friend this statistic and she responded with "that's gross." I tried to fake disgust.

"Yeah, totally. That's gross. Losers. Who do they think they are?" Secretly, I was jealous and wondered what they were watching.

I miss being an average American. My first night without cable I didn't know what to do. There was no Gossip Girl. No Intervention. Also, why are the people on Intervention always so surprised when the intervention happens at the end? Are they too wasted to ever see the show to the end? The title sorta gives the premise of the show away. There was no Whitney Port and her big fake adventures in The City. I read. I grew restless and organized some sweaters in my closet. My apartment was oddly quiet. I went to bed at 10:30. I thought, "My god, what have I done?" By day three it wasn't any easier. I cheated and watched some episodes of on 30 Rock online. On day five I wondered what the cast of The Real World: Brooklyn was doing without me. On Saturday I rented Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and watched it twice just to bask in the warm glow of my television — also because it has
Michael Cera and a good soundtrack. They say the first week of giving anything up is the hardest. Here's hoping week two is easier.

Also, I know the new cycle of America's Next Top Model just started. I know Andy Dick is now on Sober House. I know the new season of Celebrity Apprentice is upon us. Please don't rub my nose in it. That's just cruel.

More entries on: Television

March 06, 2009

International Women's Day 2009

Posted by Anna Bowen at 02:52 PM ET | Comments (0)

This Sunday, March the 8th is International Women's Day. Communities worldwide will be marking the day with demonstrations, festivals, and advocacy events. Info on Toronto's rally and fair (Saturday, March 7) can be found here. For events across Canada, including film festivals, marches, conferences, readings, music, and more check out this site.
PICTURE FROM IWD 07 TORONTO, COURTESY OF WWW.IWDTORONTO.COM

More entries on: Feminism

Party update: Cross-Canada Cupcake Craze

Posted by Graham F. Scott at 11:25 AM ET | Comments (3)

You may have heard that we're having a party next week to celebrate our redesign. If you haven't, the details are all here, and we'd love to see you at 8 PM on March 10 at Supermarket (268 Augusta Ave). To celebrate going full-colour, we decided to host a little cupcake-decorating contest at the party, and several other small magazines, blogs, and assorted other publications are going to participate. The good people at Geist couldn't make it in from the west coast for the party, so they emailed us these photos of the cupcakes they made for us (and ate on our behalf):

Cupcakes reading Geist [hearts] This

We ♥ them right back.

Details for the party are shaping up: we've got a desk-full of door prizes here at the office that will be given away the night of the party, provided by a long list of generous sponsors (see below). Urbane Cyclist in Toronto has kindly donated a Dahon Speed D7 folding bicycle to the cause, which we'll be raffling off. Hope to see you there.

Sponsorship provided by: Urbane Cyclist, Toronto Cyclists' Union, Snare Books, Goose Lane Books, Coach House Books, HotDocs, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Freshwood Grill, Alternative Grounds, the Textile Museum of Canada, Art of Time Ensemble, Theatre Passe Muraille, Dufflet, Fresh Restaurants, the Toronto International Film Festival, and Penguin Books Canada.

More entries on: THIS matters

March 05, 2009

Queerly Canadian #7: LGBT Blog Roundup

Posted by Cate Simpson at 01:15 PM ET | Comments (1)

Logos of four LGBT blogs: Bilerico Project, Lesbian Dad, Slap Upside the Head, and This Girl Called Automatic Win

It occurred to me this week that if you're reading this, whether you're queer or not, chances are you have at least some interest in, you know, gay stuff. So, this column being but a tiny drop in the queer blogging ocean, I thought I'd round up some other sites that deserve a spot in your RSS feed-reading software of choice.

While we're at it, I'll also give a shout out to Snarfer, the program I use to aggregate my RSS feeds. It's much more user-friendly than Google Reader; it downloads the whole webpage rather than just the text, which means you get the full visual experience of the site you're reading; and it works offline.

We now return to your scheduled LGBT blog round-up. The biggest and most comprehensive is The Bilerico Project, a massive group blog with more than 50 contributors. It started out as a politics blog but it's grown to include all kinds of queer-themed content including pop culture, music, and an advice column. The great thing about Bilerico's size is that it manages to cover a tremendous amount of ground; their bloggers have something to say about most of the major (and many of the smaller) LGBT–related happenings in the US. The content can be slightly overwhelming in its volume, but the site's layout makes it easy enough to pick through for posts you want to read.

Lesbian Dad is, as you might imagine, a lesbian parenting blog. Winner of Best Lesbian Parenting Blog at last year's Lezzies, the blog's author writes about her experiences as the butch non-birth mother to her and her partner's two young children. The great thing about kids is that they provide fantastic comedy material, which makes Lesbian Dad an always entertaining read. It's also frequently moving, especially in its Prop 8 (she and her partner live in San Francisco).

My favourite recent discovery is Slap Upside The Head, which illustrates the best and worst LGBT-themed stories in the news. The Author's drawings (he just goes by "Mark") are reliably adorable, and with so many blogs covering the same ground, Slap Upside The Head is refreshingly different. Also, its lighthearted approach to rage-provoking events makes it a pleasant way to keep up with what's going on without becoming wrapped up in the emotions of it all. Bonus points here for the blog's Canadian focus.

Finally, in the almost entirely non-political corner, is an amazing personal blog called This Girl Called Automatic Win that, amongst other things, contains some really beautiful writing and offbeat content. AutoWin's author also posts some pretty awesome L Word episode recaps at her spin-off pop culture blog, Automatic Straddle, which are actually more fun than watching the episode.

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

More entries on: Queerly Canadian

March 04, 2009

Bring it on, Spring! Seedy saturday events gaining ground

Posted by Anna Bowen at 01:32 PM ET | Comments (0)

It occurred to me that this retro CBC special from 1987 on organic farming could just about have been broadcast yesterday. Methods of organic farming, including building up the soil using compost and covercropping, remain essentially the same, and so does the message: keep it simple and local.

If you're a gardener or farmer, checking out seed catalogs can make it feel like the spring is coming just a little sooner. Hundreds of Canadian are spending a Saturday this February, March, or April attending one of dozens of "seedy Saturday" events across the country loosely affiliated by their interest in organic gardening know-how, heritage seeds, and seed saving. Checking out this site is a good start (though not comprehensive) for finding out about events in your area. For a review of Toronto's overly successful Seedy Saturday event this past weekend, see this Toronto Food&Drink review by Sheryl Kirby.

An article from the Guardian from last Thursday by Jane Perrone suggested that more people are getting into gardening in order to beat the credit crunch, enjoy the outdoors, or to reduce their carbon footprint. The article features the community of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, that has decided to become veggie self-sufficient by 2018. The community is setting up what is sometimes called edible landscaping in order to make use of every bit of soil.

If you're not comfortable with guerilla gardening, which is about as naughty as gardeners get (otherwise known as'illicit cultivation'), other options for urban ag this spring could include joining a community garden, finding an allotment garden, or pulling up a few patio stones if you're lucky enough to have them.

happy planting.

More entries on: Food Security and Agriculture

March 03, 2009

ThisAbility # 18: Breaking Bad and Breaking Barriers

Posted by Aaron Broverman at 05:15 PM ET | Comments (2)

RJ Mitte photo courtesy of AMC

You're a genius level chemist with terminal lung cancer, stuck teaching the periodic table to high school students. No teacher's salary can pay mounting medical bills and still have money left over for your family after you're gone, so the only obvious thing left to do is cook meth.

This is the premise behind AMC's original series Breaking Bad It stars Bryan Cranston, who played Hal the dad with the hairy back on Malcolm in the Middle , as Walter White, chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin. He won an Emmy for the role last year, but that's hardly why I'm discussing it on the ThisAbility blog.

Breaking Bad features one of the only well rounded disabled teenage characters ever on television. Walter White Jr. has cerebral palsy, but unlike past depictions of disability, this isn't the distinguishing feature of his character.

Thickening the plot further is the fact that the actor who plays Walter White Jr., RJ Mitte, also has cerebral palsy, but it's actually less noticable than his character's own cerebral palsy diagnosis. While Walter White Jr. uses forearm crutches and has pronounced speech impediment, Mitte can pass as able-bodied in public and his speech symptoms are less noticeable in real life. The acting challenge for him is playing up the disability. Something he told me is a constant reminder of the hard work and perseverence it took to get to the ability level he currently enjoys. For Mitte, some days are better than others.

The show itself gives his teenage character three dimensions, it doesn't pretend we're all just superheroes for stepping out into the world and living our lives. Sometimes Walter Jr. is a smart alec jerk, sometimes he's a whiny bastard and sometimes (perish the thought) he's trying to bribe liquor store patrons to buy him beer.

This regular teenager, who just happens to have a disability, comes from the mind of series creator Vince Gilligan (The Lone Gunmen) who was inspired to create an authentic disabled teen because of a friend with cerebral palsy in college.

RJ Mitte and his Walter White character represent a shift in possibility for disabled characters on television, but at the same time, we shouldn't get too excited too fast. The industry still has a long way to go and a lot more disabled actors, creators and crew to employ. It is unfair to think that one 17-year-old teen with cerebral palsy should carry the hopes and dreams of millions of disabled viewers on his back. The load still needs to be spread around and new disabled actors have to enter the industry without reservation.

It's going to be difficult, it still is, even with organizations like I AM PWD bringing the issues to the public, but nothing will change as long as people with disabilities stay out of the industry because they think they'll never make it. To break into the Hollywood system actors with disabilities need to shoot for something higher than just fame. Fame won't happen, but for every actor with a disability that makes it, and plays not just roles written with disabilities, but takes a chance on regular roles, a mind will change and influence the landscape. With enough repetition hopefully seeing disabled people in rich and diverse roles in media will be as normal as seeing black people do the same today.

No one's just going to give us opportunity, so we can't be afraid to take it.

Breaking Bad Season 2 Premieres Sunday, March 8 2009 on AMC at 10pm EST/PST

For more on this issue, read my article "Coming Attractions" in the Winter 08/09 issue of Abilities Magazine available through abilities.ca or at various bookstores nationwide.

More entries on: ThisAbility

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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

March 24, 2009

ThisAbility #21: Faking it

20 years on, the ocean still runs black

March 23, 2009

My so called life without tv

March 20, 2009

How to fix your favourite drink

March 19, 2009

Intern with This: deadline is April 1!

Queerly Canadian #8: Sick of talking about gay marriage

March 18, 2009

Star puts the heat on nanny business profiteers

March 17, 2009

Reflections on Christian Lander one year later

ThisAbility #20 Cash that Really is Cold and Hard

What's in your fridge?

March 13, 2009

ICC indictment of al-Bashir provokes aid worker kidnappings

Cory Doctorow reminds the internet that labour matters

March 11, 2009

Thank yous and photos from our redesign launch party

ThisAbility #19 Buyer Beware

March 10, 2009

I'm From Away

March 09, 2009

TV Free #1: I Want My MTV or any TV. Please!

March 06, 2009

International Women's Day 2009

Party update: Cross-Canada Cupcake Craze

March 05, 2009

Queerly Canadian #7: LGBT Blog Roundup

March 04, 2009

Bring it on, Spring! Seedy saturday events gaining ground

March 03, 2009

ThisAbility # 18: Breaking Bad and Breaking Barriers