April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

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This time it’s personal

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The last few months I’ve been through numerous medical tests, and yesterday I had surgery.

I hear complaints all the time about the state of our health care system but I have to say, although I had to travel out of my community for two of the appointments, all my tests and procedures were booked and over with in record time.

In the course of about two months I had about seven different tests, four different doctors appointments and surgery.

Every effort was made to make it easy for me, including doing my pre-op over the phone. The doctors all communicated well with each other and all I needed was my health card.

One of the gentlemen in the outpatient surgery had a cataract removed. He said it was less hassle than going to the dentist and cost a lot less too.

Our system isn’t perfect of course, but it’s working pretty well despite efforts to destroy it.

Oh and if you’re interested everything went well and I should be fine.

Which is good news or bad depending on how you feel about me. 😉

Blog for Choice Day

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Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe v Wade.

While this is predominately a celebration for American women, I believe that women worldwide can share in the celebration.

In the words of Virginia Woolf, “As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.”

The topic this year is a simple one, “why I am pro-choice.”

I am pro – choice because I believe children have a right to know they were wanted. That they weren’t born because of some imagined obligation to church or to god or because some law ruled their mother had to carry them to term.

I am pro – choice because I do not believe that my daughters have less right to decide their futures than my sons.

The simple answer is I am pro choice because I could not be anything else.

I have written to this subject before here, here,and here
to name a few.

I would say to sum up those posts that abortion is a woman’s right. A human right.

A society which would seek to suppress human rights is neither democratic nor just.

And human rights are not up for discussion or debate, they just inherently are.

technorati tags: Blog for Choice

I always thought the future would be a lot more fun

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Yesterday over on Canada’s Debate I took the “Which science-fiction writer are you?” test.

My result,

John Brunner

His best known works are dystopias — vivid realizations of the futures we want to avoid.

So in keeping with that I present the following possible dystopic futures. [Read more…] about I always thought the future would be a lot more fun

Nuance, it’s the new black!

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Nuance used to be a good word

Dictionary meaning:
1. A subtle or slight degree of difference, as in meaning, feeling, or tone; a gradation.
2. Expression or appreciation of subtle shades of meaning, feeling, or tone: a rich artistic performance, full of nuance.

New meaning:
1. Riding the fence with a picket up your ass (see E. May abortion policy)
2.Trying to save corporate face by changing a policy but pretending not to..

example

Royal Bank has changed its U.S. dollar account policy and will now let dual nationality Canadian customers open the accounts as long as they meet standard residency and other requirements.

Canada’s biggest bank issued what it called a clarification of its policies “due to confusion” surrounding the issue.

A brief statement from the bank said it asks for proof of citizenship and residency for any individual client wanting to open a U.S. dollar account.

“With some exceptions, RBC will provide a U.S. dollar account to dual citizens of sanctioned countries as long as they meet our ‘know your client’ and ‘anti-money laundering’ requirements, which include proof of residency in Canada,” the bank said.

An RBC spokesman in Montreal said the bank “just nuanced our position to a certain extent.”

nuance

The Children’s Health and Nutrition Initiative

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OTTAWA – The Children’s Health and Nutrition Initiative – a proposal to make safe and healthy food available to all of Canada’s children – will help working families address real concerns relating to childhood obesity and malnutrition.

NDP children’s advocate Olivia Chow (Trinity Spadina) says the initiative calls for universal nutritious food programs to make breakfasts, snacks or lunches available to any child in Canada under the age of 18, in venues deemed most appropriate by each local community. This initiative will mean that no Canadian child will go to school hungry.

The initiative was unveiled today in Ottawa by a group of concerned Canadians led by Chow, Dr. Robert Cushman, former Medical Officer of Health for the City of Ottawa, and Ulla Knowles, a parent and Student Nutrition Facilitator at FoodShare Toronto.

Providing children with nutritious food has a long history.

Today most countries provide for at least one good meal per day. There has been some success here with school breakfast programs but they depend heavily on support from corporations who are not likely to be providing fruits and cheese and other foods children may not have access to at home.

[Read more…] about The Children’s Health and Nutrition Initiative

Is Canada a soveriegn country?

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It’s getting hard to tell.

First we turned from peace keepers to war mongers.

Then

An American policy has forced Montreal’s Bell Helicopter to ban 24 employees from working on a U.S. military contract because of their nationalities.

and now


The Royal Bank has refused to open American dollar accounts for people of certain nationalities since April 2006, Radio-Canada reported Monday.

Canadian citizens with dual citizenship in Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Myanmar are affected.

The bank didn’t agree to an interview with Radio-Canada, but did confirm the report.

The Royal Bank is conforming with U.S. Treasury Department laws.

Conforming with US Treasury laws???

Holy crap did I sleep through the invasion? Are we now the Northern Division of the States?