April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Politics

Wishing on Facebook

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The Great Canadian Wish List on Facebook has been taken over by the So Cons.

It seems to some, a silly thing that pro choicers care about this endeavour.
I would ask those people to consider the situation to the south of us.

Media regularly gives the crazies the floor. Christianity is no longer associated with love and charity, but with hatred, bombs and people who actually deride other christians for caring about the poor.

In a country facing mounting military deaths from an illegal and unneeded war, poverty, domestic terrorism, declining standard of living, the main election platform issue is whether or not you are pro choice. [Read more…] about Wishing on Facebook

Get it done

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“We can get it done,” Brownback told a crowd of about 100 people, according to the Des Moines Register.
“We’re one justice away, and if we lose this we’re going to be two or three judges away from overturning this thing that is wrong,” he said.

This is the second time that Brownback has said he would like to nominate the next Supreme Court justice who could provide the fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Canada’s New Government™ (retch) Getting things done for all of us

Nascar Get er done

Coincidence?

CAPs Update

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Community Access Program (CAP) has been renewed. However, the funding only lasts till March 2008 and $1.5 million was cut from the budget.

This proves the lack of commitment this government has to those in need, and to ensuring that all citizens have access to what is fast becoming necessary technologies.

Thank you to all who signed the petition. I hope we will see this program reinstated in full in the not too distance future.

From the NDP

OTTAWA – NDP Literacy Advocate Denise Savoie (Victoria) cautiously welcomed yesterday’s long-delayed announcement that the Community Access Program (CAP) has been renewed, albeit only until March 2008 and with a $1.5 million cut.

“This is a victory for the community groups who deliver and believe in this program, and it’s good news for those vulnerable Canadians whose access to online literacy and job skills resources was hanging in the balance,” said Savoie. “But once again it is only a short-term reprieve instead of a long-term commitment. It is consistent with the Conservatives’ half-hearted, piecemeal approach to literacy programs.”

The program, which expired on March 31st, supports the provision of Internet access to low-income, unemployed and homeless Canadians at over 4,000 community sites across Canada. Yesterday, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier formally announced that funding would be provided for the 2007-08 fiscal year. The call for applications went out quietly to past recipients in late April to early May, with a May 31st deadline and a warning that contribution agreements could take up to three months to issue.

“That’s seven months’ worth of funding before the program expires again in March,” said Savoie, who also noted that the program’s budget was cut for the second consecutive year. Last October’s Supplementary Estimates (A) confirmed a $6 million cut from 2005-06, to $20.5 million in contributions for CAP. This year, the department says the budget is set at $19 million.

“This Conservative government is clearly not committed to literacy for vulnerable Canadians,” said Savoie. “They have undermined literacy programming at every turn, with delays, cuts, and one-year extensions instead of providing stable, transparent funding for the long term.”

Savoie questioned the secrecy surrounding the renewal of the program.

“The whole process was inexplicably hidden from public view,” said Savoie. “I hounded the Minister for months in the House to publicly confirm that CAP would be renewed. But the formal announcement didn’t happen until after the application deadline. Why did the Conservatives leave these vulnerable groups in the lurch?”

But we have no class!

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I’ve often heard my brothers and sisters of the Great White North patting themselves on the back for our lack of class system. Unlike other countries where class divides are marked.

I always did wonder if we had no class system why we had so many classes. Working class, middle class, lower middle class, upper middle class, blue collar, white collar–I used to ask what very poor was, dirty collar?

There is without a doubt a very strong class system here and the idea that class lines are easily crossed is naive.

A child from a poor or working class home is unlikely to have the same opportunities for post secondary education as a child from a middle class home. This starts right from public school.

A child who speaks out, grabs toys, and is bossy with playmates receives very different attention depending on the income of the parents concerned. One child will be seen as a leader, confident, assertive, the other as aggressive, lacking self discipline and a future behaviour problem.

Interviews will be scheduled and the parents advised to seek help now while s/he is young enough to “retrain” and parenting classes will be suggested.

Even if s/he is gifted s/he will be treated differently. There will be no extra supports or encouragement merely a derisive attitude that you would even consider that your child could somehow be smarter than his/her monied counterparts.

This attitude pounded grade after grade into a childs mind ensures they will have little belief in their abilities. The cycle of poverty is not created by the poor it is forced upon them.

Are there examples of people having lifted out regardless? Of course there are. That doesn’t disprove the reality of most. [Read more…] about But we have no class!

Freedom from Religion

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True story: man kills wife, stabbing her in the neck 19 times with a steak knife, is convicted of first-degree murder and appeals on basis that she was unfaithful and, as a devout Muslim, he was protecting family honour.

Nice try, and maybe elsewhere in the world Adi Abdul Humaid might have been acquitted. But the United Arab Emirates citizen made the mistake of murdering Aysar Abbas in Ottawa in 1999 and, ultimately, the Ontario Court of Appeal rejected his appeal.

Superior Court Justice J.A. Doherty said that had Humaid killed his wife for religious beliefs, that alone would have been “a motive for murder.” But it was a moot point because Doherty didn’t buy Humaid’s new religious devotion and, in his 2006 ruling, concluded the story lacked credibility.

Nevertheless, the judge was concerned enough about the nature of the defence argument to write: “The alleged beliefs are premised on the notion that women are inferior to men and that violence against women is in some circumstances accepted, if not encouraged. These beliefs are antithetical to fundamental Canadian values, including gender equality.”

[Read more…] about Freedom from Religion

Putting it on the line

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MonetlineAurora Mayor Phyllis Morris is campaigning to have clothes lines designated “as a good, a service or a technology,” this would enable home owners and tenants to bypass developer and landlord restrictions.

Think about it, clothes lines are the original solar powered home appliance. They help to conserve energy, and are another way to fight global warming.

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment says that a standard clothes dryer consumes 900 kWh of energy per year, creating up to 840 kg of air pollution and greenhouse gases.


Ontario Energy Minister Dwight Duncan was not available to comment, but a spokesman said Aurora is the only municipality to have issued a formal complaint.

Lets rectify that! Write your council, your mayor, your MPP and the Minister of the Environment.

And if you don’t live in Ontario don’t let that stop you!! Be the first to start the campaign in your area.

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Mayor of Aurora


Right to Dry Campaign

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