With the election coming up tomorrow night, I figured I'd mention a few things before I sign off tonight. Firstly, I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. As Ralph Nader has often said, "Democracy is about voices and choices", and we do have a number of choices (some better than others, but still choices nonetheless). I will, however, tell you who not to vote for, and that is Tim Hudak's Progressive Conservative party.
While there's a number of reasons not to vote for Hudak, I'll mention a few that I view as often overlooked and seldom-mentioned, but totally relevant. The first item I feel the need to bring to the table is his judgement. As someone who was one of the organizers of the Pro-Iraq War march back in 2003, I simply cannot trust the wisdom of such a person; especially in the role as premiere. In addition to this rather scary misstep, he also claimed to have no criticism of the Mike Harris years; even most in his party would be uncomfortable with such a stance. The last item I will mention is his party's lack of understanding when it comes to education. This is a copy of a flyer that was both approved and circulated by his party:
I find actions such as this one to be very sad, especially in our day and age. Our society has a long way to go in terms of embracing diversity, and quite often some of the worst examples of intolerance are faced by the youth of our province in an environment that should be both safe and encouraging. Growing up was a challenging time for myself, and I recall being beaten black and blue on occasion for merely being different. Standing up for yourself is fine, but it's often not enough when others willingly turn a blind eye. I would not wish many of my experiences upon anyone, yet from what I hear from young people, it's still not much better for them a decade later. Embracing diversity, especially relating to GLBTQ youth is crucial, and anyone that says different has no grasp upon ethics, human rights, or the statistical data readily available which shows the need for better education towards tolerance. "This McGunity Agenda" they speak of should be a non-issue, and I think it's a prime example of the profound ignorance in the PC's leadership.
Anyway, that's about all I have to say tonight. Go out and vote (and hopefully we'll send a few local MPPs out to find another job) :)
So I decided to vote at the advanced polls a few days back to avoid what little congestion might occur had I decided to vote on May second. With this said, I ended up going to an advanced station set up in the local Shriner's Club. The place was entirely empty, and it was a pretty sad sate of affairs.
I'll admit, I've been rather pessimistic lately. The Liberal party has now had what I believe to be two weak leaders, consistently caving in and voting in support of the Conservatives time after time to avoid the election that they would inevitably face sooner or later anyway. Ever since they supported the extension of the Afghanistan mission under Stephane Dion, I've found it hard to truly view them as a viable form of opposition to this government. Of course, the Liberal party has tried to justify their stance, once even blaming the extension on the NDP for bringing down Paul Martin's government in 2006 (By this logic, had the NDP not had brought down the Martin government, the Liberals would not have been in opposition, and therefore, not voted for the extension). Hardly a feasible argument...
What really puzzles me throughout this election though is the unabashed support that many have for Harper's Conservative government. Without going into too much detail, this government has attempted to rule with an iron fist in ways unprecedented, not only during my lifetime, but for generations. Under Harper's government, our parliamentary system has been prorogued twice to merely keep his party in power, we have lost our UN Security Council seat, and taken a combative role overseas that has been quite foreign to our "Peacekeeping" stance that was once respected as a form of peace brokerage. This government has even been found in contempt, a historic first in this nation for any ruling party, and even wants to change the "Government of Canada" logo to "Harper Government".
With all this said, it's a wonder that Mr. Harper has managed to keep a grasp on power as long as he has. Still, when the election was forced, many conservative MPs have made smug remarks about the opposition parties "wasting" tax-payers' dollars with this process. This was brought up in my riding during our debate by Jim Flaherty, the federal finance minister. What Harper, Flaherty, and other members of their party fail to realize is that they have continually failed to achieve a majority government, and therefore, facing elections are part of the democratic process in any "free" country. This government appears to have acquired the attitude that they attain almost a type of inaleiable "right" to govern, and how dare anyone question their rule. This obnoxiousness is exactly why we're having this election now. Had they taken a different attitude and actually worked with the other parties, we could have easily avoid this election, but their stubborn, hardline stance has left the other parties no choice, but to force the election.
Let's say I even put these previous factors aside for a second and simply look at a couple recent examples of the dispicible voting record of the Harper government. In late 2010, I e-mailed Mr. Flaherty on behalf of Amnesty International, urging him to support the Liberal's Bill C-300. This bill would hold Canadian corporations more accountable for their actions in other nations after various atrocities were committed recently against those that protested unethical mining in foreign countries. Amnesty's plea can be read here. I received a vague response back from Flaherty (or one of his assistants e-mailing under his name) stating how he also respected human rights, but would be unable to support such legislation. To make a long story short, every single Conservative MP sitting in parliament voted against this bill, as can be viewed Here. With the lives and safety of individuals being jeopardized, this party displays a fine example their desire to be a collection of partisan hacks.
Another example of the partisan nature comes more recently during the latest reading of Bill C-389; also known as "The Trans Rights Bill". This was a crucial piece of legislation introduced to parliament by NDP MP Bill Siksay. Quite simply, this bill would would amend the criminal code to recognize hate crimes towards gender identity and expression to provide further protection for this marginalized group. We may have come a long way in the past few decades in terms of accepting diversity, yet trans people, especially mtf (male to female) individuals still face an incredible amount of discrimination, and even physical threats of violence in our society on a daily basis. One merely just has to pull up a few random statistics such as these to these how self-evident this fact is:
"55% of transgender youth report being physically attacked. (GLSEN. (2003). The 2003 national school climate survey: the school related experiences of our nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.)"
"74% of transgender youth reported being sexually harassed at school, and 90% of transgender youth reported feeling unsafe at school because of their gender expression. (GLSEN. (2001). The 2001 national school climate survey: the school related experiences of our nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.)"
"In a survey of 403 transgender people, 78% reported having been verbally harassed and 48% reported having been victims of assault, including assault with a weapon, sexual assault or rape. (Wilchins, R., Lombardi, E., Priesing, D. and Malouf, D. (1997) First national survey of transgender violence. Gender Public Advocacy Coalition.)"
I could pull up more stats, but I believe I've made my point. I've seen the same consistent stats ever since I was researching data for human rights papers I was writing in undergrad, which was several years ago now. Clearly, this bill was necessary, and I find it appauling that all but six members of the Conservative Party voted against this legislation. I was hoping to press the Minister for International Cooperation, Bev Oda tonight about this with a question I submitted when I attended a debate for the Durham riding, but to little surprise, she was a no-show. There aren't even any bogus arguments to put forth against this piece of legislation. This government has clearly failed to honour and protect the dignity of Canadian citizens here. Even within this past week, there was the beating of a trans woman Chrissy Lee Polis that was filmed by mocking McDonalds employees in Maryland that simply stood by and watched. Some of you may have seen the video and Change.Org petition that I posted on Facebook earlier this week. Over 141 000 average people have taken action and signed this petition in outrage, yet Bill C-389 had 135 MPs vote against it.
The questionable logic of some of these MPs baffles me. There were also seven Liberal MPs that voted against the bill. I see a great twist of irony in some of these cases, such as the vote by Gurbax Malhi. I'm mentioning Malhi since he was the first Sikh to wear a turban in Canadian parliament. His insistence for Canada to honour his religious dress changed our laws to allow him this freedom of religious expression in parliament. That's fine, we're supposed to be a tolerant nation. Yet through his vote against C-389, Mr. Malhi somehow failed to connect the dots between the similarities of protecting and honouring his form of expression, and the rights of expression of trans people. I don't care if an MP doesn't fully understand transgenderism, or even plans to. I've never been harassed or assaulted for being transgendered, but I've been harassed and assaulted for being different, so I do have empathy for anyone that also has similar circumstances, and would surely hope our government would do everything in its power to minimize "acceptance" of any forms of violence to any particular group. Discrimination seeds from the same roots, regardless of its application.
The premise here was rudimentary, to simply protect the rights an freedoms that any human being should be entitled to. I am just thankful that this legislation did pass, and I applaud the six Conservatives who demonstrated substance by going against the party line, as well as the NDP and Bloc, and *most* of the Liberals who were also supportive. I have lost any respect I once had, however, for the 126 Conservatives, and 6 Liberals who tried to stop this legislation...
Despite my inherently negative tone in this post, I am somewhat optimistic about the recent polling results. It's kind of interesting, actually. A week or so ago, it looked like this would be a third installment of more of the same; Conservative minority with a Liberal opposition. However, since after I voted, the NDP has recently picked up support, and even surpassing the Liberal party. It really seems that Jack Layton's party and creditability have been legitimized to the masses as now the attack ads are focused upon the NDP. Even the fact-opposing outpost Sun TV has posted a front page "Top Story", claiming Jack Layton had a massage in a questionable area... Fifteen years ago...
This was of course, after their paper was done producing an article on who the "hottest" female candidates were... This must be at the height of dirty tricks to carry out a few days before the election. A huge issue made over a total non-issue. A sleazy and desperate attempt like this shows that the NDP is definitely making opponents in both parties very nervous. This "orange wave" as some call it may quite possibly lead them to be the official opposition with this election. I guess it goes to show that however mundane politics can be, upsets do happen anywhere and everywhere. Although the possibility of an NDP opposition has been an idea very long overdue, I'm still happy to use the saying "better late than never" here...
As usual, one thing leads to another, and I end up reading about something rather odd or unusual. In this case, I somehow ended up reading about how amputations; yes, amputations have been requested by certain sports athletes. Sometimes to chronic pain, and sometimes just enable them to continue professional sporting careers after injuries. At first, this seems like a bizarre practice; coming from a musician's standpoint anyway; fingers are important! Yet, apparently Australian footballers such as Brett Backwell, Daniel Chick, Jone Tawake, and NFL player Ronnie Lott have all had procedures done of this service Removing a digit to keep playing... That's definitely dedication...
Washrooms are generally an uneventful place, but at times they can be somewhat awkward. As a high school student, I worked at The Bay in the Oshawa Centre, and apparently its washroom had developed quite a reputation throughout the previous twenty years. Customers for some reason felt the need to explain to me about the “activities” that apparently went on in there. I recall one old man saying to me “You know, twenty years ago, if you came into this store and headed straight into the men’s washroom, you’d be looked upon with great suspicion”. He then proceeded to explain his bafflement as to why men would do “that” with plenty of women around; poor logic, but oh well. There was also a sign outside the washroom that read “illegal activity in washrooms is strictly prohibited”. One day two women walked by it and one and remarked “Too many gays”. Interesting attitudes, considering this was only about ten years ago. Keeping in mind that this was in Oshawa, the sign could have been referring to drug use, but people seemed to find the first more interesting and worthy of gossip, considering "cottaging" has been a taboo activity dating back centuries; ironically popularized recently by social conservative US senator Larry Craig.
I personally saw nothing strange while working there for four years; only hearing from one of the maintenance workers that apparently one of the “regulars” that wandered our store each day got his head stuck under the sink while trying to get a drink, and also proceeded to beg an off-duty police officer for change (with his pants down). This story didn’t surprise me that much. The guy looked like Jon Bon Jovi if he’d been dragged behind the tour bus for a few blocks, and with looks aside, he did some odd things like stand and stare into the security camera for up to ten minutes straight at times, or start small fires in other parts of the mall. The head in the sink part, I just find humourous for some odd reason.
This brings me to my next point about washrooms; urinal etiquette. This topic has come up a few times recently for some reason. As a guy, public washrooms can be somewhat of an awkward place when urinals come into play. As I was explaining to someone recently, if there are three urinals in a washroom, the common thing to do is to leave one in between yourself and the other patron. If this is not possible, displaying proper etiquette would be to simply use the stall. Friends who I’ve discussed this with also agreed with this system. It has nothing to do with being homophobic, it’s just sort of an unwritten rule about the men's washroom and personal space.
Now if someone deviates from these rules, it’s not a big deal really. The only reason I’m posting this is due to some rather odd instances I’ve encountered by those who don’t conform to these rules. The first instance being at the Hunt Club Royal Oak pub in Ottawa. In the middle of a night of drinking, I went into the washroom and had a rather odd and almost intimidating character come up and use the urinal right beside me. I had previously seen this individual when I first entered the pub. He donned a black eye patch; with the aesthetics of a Jack Sparrow or Captain Hook. Feeling a little awkward, and purposely trying not to pay attention to his theatrical-looking eye patch, I froze, and couldn’t “go” so to speak. Then, things got even more uncomfortable. He turned and looked at me, already demonstrating poor etiquette and remarked “You got a plug in that dick? Piss and get it over with”. I was speechless; almost in disbelief He then proceeded to leave the washroom (I don’t recall him washing his hands either…) As I came back to my table to continue drinking, I suppose I had an odd look on my face, and my roommate proceeded to grill me on what happened. He said “You have no poker face, something happened in that washroom”. So I had to then explain my encounter with the uh “Eye Patch Guy”. Eye patch or not, this guy was totally inappropriate!
The second awkward situation was also in Ottawa at The Cock and Lion pub on Sparks Street. I was standing at a urinal once again, and a rather intoxicated patron came to the corresponding urinal (unfortunately there were no partitions this time either) and proceeds to say to me “Nice penis”… Once again, I was speechless, and don’t recall giving any sort of response. Whether he was joking or serious, looked or didn’t look, that was kind of out of line. Then, when I returned to my table, his friends and my friends were somehow involved in a conversation of some medium, so much for getting away. Seriously, I’ve seen this sort of stuff in movies, but didn’t think that it actually happens in “Real Life”. Let’s not exempt stalls though either, they can create awkwardness too. Recently, when I tried using one of those, the first one was bolted shut (for unknown reasons), and someone was taking forever in the other. Then, finally the door opened, and not one but two large guys exited, very casually. I’m still not sure how that stall accommodated two large people, but they can also fit twenty in a Volkswagen, so.... Still, I’ve yet to see anyone shooting up in a washroom, so maybe I really haven't seen that much oddness.
So 2010 has now come and gone, and I still don’t know how to describe this past year.Maybe disastrous is the proper descriptive, but I’m not sure.In the past year I lost a number of friends, some sadly due to tragic circumstances, others due to hostility for reasons that still puzzle me. I saw the dissolution of my role in three bands; I quit the first one when they became a little too “mean” for my tastes. The second, I was told, booted me out while I was away at a friends funeral (Yet, oddly, I’m still invited to their shows), and the third seemed to sadly just fizzle out no matter what I tried. I also saw some of the greatest occurrences of “Murphy’s Law” in the largest concert I was involved in last summer.It kind of seems that nothing went particularly well!This also led to me almost question my dedication to music at this age, but then I realized that I really don't have much else at the same level that's "fulfilling", "satisfying" or "engaging", or basically that I enjoy doing on a personal level, so I accepted the failures and decided that I have to carry on.
I’m trying to remember some positives, but it’s been tough.When someone asked me about a month ago what I looked forward to in the future, I was totally stumped. I recall only being able to say dinner, and finishing off the stack of books that I was reading.I feel that many of my previous goals that I put much stock into are back to square one as of late.
With all this said, I hope that I’ve at least acquired some wisdom of some sort from all these experiences, regardless of how small.I suppose that the biggest lesson I’ve learned throughout the past year is that if I want to do something, I’ll likely have to do it by myself.In the past, I used to do everything with friends or acquaintances (I have many of those; I know many people, but not many people well), whether it be traveling, concerts, discovering new things, etc. But it seems that if I still followed that premise these days, I’d sit around all day, and really experience very little.I’ve always had a shaky confidence in people, but throughout the past year, I’ve seemed to more openly embrace the idea of doing everything independently, which although not as fun, hasn’t been that bad with the exception of the Halloween attempted-mugging incident. Even that evening wasn't all bad, and I'm glad that I went out instead of staying inside like I used to. I find that some of the most memorable experiences that I've had over the past year have been when I've thrown myself into something totally foreign or unfamiliar. As one of my friends once told me, life is about stories. Stories may also be called adventures, misadventures, or even awkward moments, depending on how they they come about, but either way, I consider them a positive thing to have.
I’ve also tried to be a more open person, which I’ve definitely found to be a double-edged sword.It’s much better to embrace what you’re passionate about, but merely having an opinion or just doing as you please without censorship around others seems be toxic to some relationships in the oddest of ways.I suppose all the time I’ve spent locked away reading strange books may have gone to my head, but on a positive note, I’ve probably read more books in the last year than I can recall in ages. I've actually come to enjoy just going to a coffee shop by myself to read. A few years ago, that really wasn't my idea of a good time :P
As for 2011, it looks pretty hazy at the moment, but I’m hoping to work harder, be less distracted, and avoid the shortcomings that led to the failures of 2010.I’m still not sure if and how this is possible, but hopefully I’ll stumble onto something.
With the recent GLBT suicides in the media, this really caught me off guard when doing a simple Google search the other day. I find the search autofill feature helpful sometimes, and an outright annoyance in other instances. I can't even count how many terrible human beings from my past that Facebook has displayed through their version of this feature that you couldn't pay me enough to have any contact with whatsoever. Anyway, what really bothers me is that I was searching for information pertaining to setting up a webstore/business, and I merely typed in "Easiest way to", and suddenly Google filled it in with "kill oneself". Obviously, this came as a shock, and it also greatly concerns me; not does this probably mean that it's a popular search, which is troubling in its own right, but it almost seems that something this unthinkable is being inadvertently promoted through the search engine. The last thing that anyone needs to pop up in any search is a list of results of this manner, I know that America is very adamantly opposed to censorship, but this is nonetheless a problem I see. About a year and a half ago, I had an uncle that took his own life, and I can help but wonder if he was one of those who had that search. As great as I believe the internet to be, it definitely has its darker aspects. I just hope recent positive efforts such as the "It Gets Better" project can counter such influence.
It seems that by this point in life, quite a few people I’ve known have experienced robbery or mugging of some medium. I’ve had friends robbed while working in stores, and even my sister had some that punched her in the stomach and attempted to snatch her purse while in Brussels. Although I’ve been a victim of theft on a number of occasions, I’ve considered myself lucky to not actually be held up. I had a rather odd experience however, on my way home on the subway on Halloween this year.
I didn’t feel like sticking around home for Halloween, and no one was interested in doing anything, so I decided to check out the block party at Church and Wellesley for something to do. That part was rather uneventful. I checked out the sights, had some drinks and headed home around 12:30am. I tend to walk everywhere, and avoid transit if I can, but since I was running behind, I decided to catch the subway about one stop from Union Station. Since it was Halloween, the clerk said not to worry about the fee, and I proceeded to head towards the stairs.
This is where things began to get a little strange. On my way to the stairs, I was accosted by an odd-looking character with what looked to be a pathetic attempt at Skeletor face paint. He started asking me a bunch of questions, trying to block my way to the stairs. I initially tried to talk, but he was not only blocking my path, but asking a bunch of irrelevant questions, so I pushed by and went downstairs. Since the clerk did not take my money for the fare, I still had a five-dollar bill in my hand. This individual, who proceeded to follow me down the steps saw this money, and then asked “How much you got?”, while attempting to pull the bill out of my hand.
In my head, I was thinking about how ridiculous this was, so without hesitation, I pulled the money back, and basically said “Uh no, this isn’t how it works.” The guy seemed angered and now went on to say “I was trying to be nice… Do you know who I am?” I simply said “No…” He then edged closer, and rolled up his sleeves, and repeated his mantra once again “Do you know who I am?”. Once again, I told him I had no idea who he was, or thought he was. With this said, things were getting fairly tense, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Growing up, I had to defend myself physically fairly often; sometimes on a daily basis from various people I had the misfortune of attending school with, so I was prepared to get physical. Although, carrying a heavy backpack after a night of drinking probably wouldn’t help my odds.
Finally, I had enough and went back to the clerk, and said that this guy was trying to mug me. The clerk basically just chewed the guy out, yelling “What’s wrong with you!” They then told me that due to the late hours on Halloween, the police probably wouldn’t bother to come, so I went back downstairs. The guy whom I’ll just call “Skeletor” at this point was now on the opposite side of the tracks, and began whining like a ten year old child, “Why did you rat me out? You pussy!” He then began to climb off the platform to the tracks with the train coming momentarily, so I reported the guy once again. He finally went back onto the platform, and endlessly whined and complained to the clerk that I “ratted” him out rather than give him my money. Maybe there’s a new logic here I’m missing?
Anyway, I actually missed my bus home after this incident, but luckily the driver saw me chasing it down and stopped. This evening could have ended worse, I suppose; I didn’t get into a physical altercation and/or lose any money, but an obvious word to the wise, be careful when you’re traveling by yourself at that hour.
My usual Goth/Emo Halloween/Fancy Dress look... (Taken at Union Station, Toronto)
