Librarians at Night

A final farewell post for my defunct blog. This funked short features Candace, the Director of the library I worked at for the past year. It all came together when she received her Fluevog leather boots in the mail: time to break it down in the stacks. Shot with one light, one camera. I used a Sony PMW-EX1 HD cam with a fig rig for a hand-held long take.

Enjoy! Librarians really do have the most fun.

Librarians at Night from Michelle Lovegrove Thomson on Vimeo.

NB’s Health Minister promotes anti-abortion stance at rally, should resign for conflict of interest

May 19, 2009

NB’s Health Minister Must Resign

As elected official, Michael Murphy is imposing his religious views and failing to enforce federal laws

FREDERICTON – A national pro-choice group is demanding the resignation of New Brunswick’s health minister Michael Murphy, after he promoted his religious views against abortion at an anti-choice rally in New Brunswick last week. Speaking in his official capacity, Murphy said that because of his personal anti-abortion views, he’s not “entirely comfortable” with administering the provincial law that allows funded abortions at New Brunswick hospitals.

“After Murphy resigns, he’s free to preach at all the anti-abortion rallies he wants,” said Joyce Arthur, Coordinator of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. “But as an elected official with a portfolio, it’s inappropriate for Murphy to publicize a direct conflict between his personal religious views and his ministerial duties. He risks losing the confidence of voters, not to mention the thousands of women in New Brunswick who’ve had or may need abortion care.”

“Actually, if Murphy thinks it’s his duty to enforce a law he doesn’t like, why doesn’t he enforce our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canada Health Act instead?” asked Peggy Cooke, an ARCC spokesperson based in Fredericton. “New Brunswick’s law is discriminatory and unconstitutional. We are the only province in Canada that forces women through unnecessary hoops to get approval, which results in delays, increased medical risk, and hardship.” (The Medical Services Payment Act states that Medicare will fund abortions in hospitals only if two doctors agree the procedure is medically necessary.) “These restrictions violate women’s Charter rights and the Supreme Court Morgentaler decision of 1988,” said Cooke. “Also, women who can’t wait are forced to pay out of pocket for an abortion at the Morgentaler Clinic. This contravenes the Canada Health Act because it discriminates against women, especially those who can’t afford to go to the clinic.”

Arthur pointed out that no doctor needs to decide whether an abortion is medically necessary, because all abortions are deemed medically necessary under the Canada Health Act, whether they’re done at a hospital or clinic. “There’s absolutely no difference between the abortions done at New Brunswick hospitals and those done at the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton,” Arthur said. “The only reason most women end up paying for an abortion at the clinic, is because hospitals don’t have nearly enough operating room access or abortion providers.”

“Murphy’s duty as Health Minister is to keep his personal views to himself when they conflict with his duties, and to repeal the discriminatory New Brunswick regulation so women can access abortion without paying,” Cooke concluded. “If he can’t do that, he must resign.”

Issued by Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/home.html

Action Needed: Pay Equity. Fight Bill C-10.

Please contact a Senator in your area:


Don't use the budget bill to eliminate pay equity!

If Bill C-10 passes it will…
• Allow the Conservative Government to remove pay equity complaints from the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

“Canadian Human Rights Commission does not have
jurisdiction to deal with pay equity complaints in the
public service.” (Excerpt Bill C-10)

• Force individual women to make pay equity claims without any
support from their Union, and would impose a $50,000 fine on
Unions for assisting them.

“The bargaining agent…is strictly forbidden to
encourage or assist her in filing a complaint, and is
liable to a $50,000 fine if it does.” (Excerpt Bill C-10)

• Allow Private sector workers to continue to complain and defend themselves on paydiscrimination through the Canadian Human Rights Commission while Public sector workers will no longer have that option.

I am asking you as one of the N.B. senators to vote to remove the Public Sector
Equitable Compensation Act from Bill C-10. Pay Equity is a Human Right and Human
Rights are not negotiable!

Name: ____________________________
Signature: ________________________
Mailing address:____________________
__________________________________
___________



List of New Brunswick Senators:
Listes des Sénateurs et Sénatrices du N.-B.


Name/Nom Affiliation(Parti)

Bryden, John G. LIB (NB)
damphh@sen.parl.gc.ca
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont., KlA 0A4
Tel : 613-947-7305
Fax 613-947-7307

Corbin, Eymard G. LIB (Grand-Sault)
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Tel: 613-996-8485
Fax: 613-995-8172

Day, Joseph A. LIB (Saint John-Kennebecasis)
dayja@sen.parl.gc.ca
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Tel: 613-992-0833
Fax: 613-992-1175

Kinsella, Noël A. CONS (Fredericton-York-Sunbury)
kinsen@sen.parl.gc.ca
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Tel: 613-992-4416
Fax: 613-992-9772

Losier-Cool, Rose-Marie LIB (Tracadie)
losier@sen.parl.gc.ca
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Honorary Co-Chair of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity.
• co-présidente honoraire de la Coalition pour l’équité salariale du Nouveau-Brunswick.
Tel: 613-947-8011
Fax: 613-947-8013

Lovelace Nicholas, Sandra M. LIB (NB)
smithc@sen.parl.gc.ca
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Tel: 613-943-3635
Fax: 613-943-3637

Mockler, Percy CONS (St.Leonard)
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Tel: 613-947-4225
Fax: 613-947-4227

Ringuette, Pierrette LIB (NB)
ringup@sen.parl.gc.ca
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Tel: 613-943-2248
Fax: 613-943-2245

Robichaud, Fernand LIB (NB)
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Tel: 613-943-0675
Fax: 613-943-0677

Wallace, John D. CONS (NB)
The Senate of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4
Tel: 613-947-4240
Fax: 613-947-4252

Something from Nothing: from Republican Barracudas to God Particles

When bad news abounds, I like to find solace in particle physics (no, not quantum of solace—blech).

First the bad news: North America enjoys paternalizing, destroying, saving, and sexualizing women politicians (watch out, this Globe article is accompanied by an image of the front page that refers to Sarah Palin as a "Republican Barracuda”--Wow).

Also, apparently the province of NB has decided to appeal the ruling made in August allowing Morgentaler “standing” to launch a court battle to force NB Dept of Health do its job—provide free and accessible abortions to women who need them. Morgentaler hasn’t actually sued the province yet, because first he must prove his right, as a man, to represent the women of NB. The Province will apparently stop at nothing to prevent proper access, and continues to insult the women of this province.

With Palin, no matter how much I abhor her politics, it still infuriates me to see the simultaneous demonization and sexualization of her by so many media outlets; the media spin on her ultra-conservative anti-feminist
politics as being feminist; the assumption that women can be duped by a skirt; and the focus on her appearance. My quick google search of her name says it all:


The Good news: we’re close to discovering how to go from nothing to something.

Higgs boson (otherwise known as the “God particle”) is a hypothetical “massive scalar elementary particle” predicted to exist by particle physics (first theorized in 1964). Hypothetical as in, it has yet to be observed. This is where the Large Hadron Collider at CERN comes in. Basically, observing the Higgs boson particle would help explain how massless elementary particles somehow construct mass in matter—the difference between the massless photon and bosons with mass.
To be clear: How did the big bang happen? How do you go from nothing to something, from zero mass to particles/matter with mass. These are the thoughts that used to keep me up at night, clutching the bedcovers to keep from spilling out into space.

This brings us to CERN, where the Large Hadron Collider is housed. The LHC is in a circular tunnel 27 km in circumference. The tunnel is buried about 100 metres underground between the Swiss and French borders on the outskirts of Geneva.

According to the official Large Hadron Collider website, the goal of the experiment is “to smash protons moving at 99.999999% of the speed of light into each other and so recreate conditions a fraction of a second after the big bang”. Based on the results, the LHC experiments will try and map out what happened.
Though some people believe that colliding high speed protons in an underground circle of life will spark the bang to end all bangs, CERN continues to issue press releases to allay all fears.

The researchers at CERN (the birthplace of the WorldWideWeb (though not the Internet per se) thanks to Tim Berners-Lee) will be flipping the “switch” on the LHC tomorrow September 10th, circulating the first high energy beams, after months of preparatory actions. The first collisions at high energy are expected to happen about a month from tomorrow.

So, tomorrow the countdown is on to discovering how it all began on a micro and macro level simultaneously.

In case my explanation is too banal (or just plain wrong), here’s a thorough rap explaining all.

Large Hadron Collider:



Sweet Dreams!

Bill C-543 a welcome alternative to Unborn Victims of Crime Act (C-484)

ARCC has just posted this brief explaining why the newly proposed members Bill C-543, “an Act to amend the Criminal Code (abuse of pregnant women) is a much better option than the existing Unborn Victims of Crime Bill, which opens legal pathways to affirm the personhood of a fetus (against the Supreme Court ruling that woman and fetus are one person) and punishing women/doctors who seek/perform abortions. I've already written about this problematic anti-choice bill here.

The last paragraph of the brief compares the goals of the two bills perfectly:
"Bill C-543 protects women, which was the stated goal of C-484, but it does not grant personhood to fetuses, which was the true goal of C-484. Anyone [who continues to] support C-484 instead of C-543 needs to acknowledge that they are not, and have never been, primarily interested in protecting pregnant women from abuse."

NB next of kin rules relaxed: excellent news for common-law and same-sex couples

The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission announced Monday that all eight regional health authorities have agreed to allow a patient to give the person of their choice the power of attorney for personal care.

This action comes after a human rights complaint was filed in 2003, when a patient's same-sex partner was denied the ability to make decisions on his ill partner's behalf. Until 2000, NB common-law partners were also in the same illogical situation.

With the new process, a member of the NB Health Authority's quality and safety department will visit the patient in person, review the power of attorney, and oversee the signing of the appropriate documents.

It is so affirming to see changes being made that reflect the growing number of people who opt to form relationships outside the defined and legally approved roles.

See full Daily Gleaner article here

keeping up

I haven't written personally on this blog in a while, and thought maybe I'd check in with an update.

On the horizon:

I have invited Canadian art filmmaker Bruce Elder on behalf of the NB Film Co-op's Experimental Film Program to deliver a lecture about his work and filmmaking process. He will be in town on March 27th at Marshall D'Avery Hall 8pm, with films in tow, to talk about his work and:
"Cosmological Themes and New Media Technologies: The Body and The Celestial Dance."

Bruce was one of the recipients of the Governor-General's Award for Visual Arts in 2007, and has an immense body of work starting in 1975. He currently teaches film at Ryerson, and is Director of the Communications and Culture Program.

Bruce Elder's Lecture will be the final one in a series that began in January and included Barbara Sternberg, Andrea Dorfman, and a screening of Canadian Short Experimental Films. The community's response has been so positive, and I'm hoping we can fill the auditorium for our final big event.

Our screening on January 11th included (from CFMDC):
Brakhage, Stan “Mothlight” 4 min.
Brown, Carl “Drop” 4.3 min. 16mm
Daniel, Mary J. “Confessions of a Compulsive Archivist” 7 min. 2004
Gruben, Patricia “Before It Blows” 1997 8.3 min video
Hoffman, Phil “?O, Zoo! (The Making of a Fiction Film)” 23min.
Hoolboom, Mike “in the dark” 8 min.
Mitchell, Allyson “Precious Little Tiny Love” 4.5 min
Pruska-Oldenhof, Izabella “fugitive l(i)ght” 9 min.
Sternberg, Barbara “surfacing” 10 min.

See also Fringe Online, an assortment of Canadian Filmmakers homepages.

Some of other excellent online resources for film art:
Ubu Film (got this bookmarked to Maya Deren...
Video Data Bank
NFB Animation dept.


Having just returned home from the face-creasing but amazing "There Will Be Blood", must add that two of my favourite features of the year were def The Secret Life of Words, Red Road.

Finally, an Independent (of Irving) paper in NB!

Aha! One small victory, hopefully the first of many.

Story Here

As reported in Halifax (I wonder what coverage has been like in NB? I remember hearing a snippet abotu this before I left for France.... has it been written up in our papers?).

CANADA: Upstart Paper Cracks Irving Media Monopoly
By Chris Arsenault

HALIFAX, Nov 7 (IPS) - For more than two years, the Irvings -- the 129th richest family in the world, with interests in energy, construction, forestry and transportation -- owned every single English language newspaper and magazine in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

In 2006, a Canadian senate report called the Irving monopoly a "media-industrial complex that dominates the province."

That total dominance ended on Oct. 30, when, after a court overruled an Irving attempt to halt its publication, the first issue of the Carleton Free Press hit news stands.

"I'm just a guy who wants to serve his community," William Kenneth Langdon, the independent paper's publisher, told IPS. But observers around New Brunswick are casting Langdon and his newspaper as a symbol of something more powerful.

"David fought Goliath and David won," said Erin Steuter, a professor at Mount Saint Allison University who has studied New Brunswick's media monopoly. "The Irvings lost this latest battle about crushing the alternative publication," Dr. Steuter told IPS.

The battle over the Carleton Free Press started on Sep. 27, when a team of four forensic accountants hired by CanadaEast News Inc., a media holding company owned by the Irving family, barged into Langdon's home in Woodstock, New Brunswick, a small town of about 5,300 people.

Under a little known criminal code provision related to industrial espionage, the private agents scoured Langdon's residence. "They even rooted through my wife's lingerie drawer," Langdon told IPS.

Days before the search, citing a poor relationship with his immediate supervisor, Langdon had resigned his post as publisher of the Bugle-Observer, a paper owned by the Irvings, where he had worked for four years. In his resignation letter, Langdon expressed his intent to start a new paper.

"During my last weeks in the employ of the Irvings, I consulted with a lawyer who advised me that I had grounds for a constructive dismissal suit," wrote Langdon in the Carleton Free Press' first editorial. "Subsequently I sent to my home files that I could use as part of that suit."

The Irvings allege those files contained confidential commercial information. They were able to secure a court injunction to search Langdon's home while attempting to block the publication of the Carleton Free Press.

Victor Mlodecki, vice president of Brunswick News Inc. and Langdon's former boss, issued a statement in early October saying that the Irvings welcome competition in the newspaper business.

On Nov. 2, Justice Peter Glennie of the province's top court blocked the Irvings' request to halt the publication the Carleton Free Press, while prohibiting Langdon from using confidential Brunswick News information.

The new competition was welcomed by some unlikely sources. "In this province, the Irvings are connected to their monopoly in the forestry sector," Jeannot Volpe, leader of New Brunswick's Conservative Party, the official opposition, told IPS.

"I've been to events concerning this sector with hundreds of people which no one from the Irving papers covered. People are starting to get frustrated: how is our voice going to be heard if the media won't report the message?" said Volpe, whose party normally takes the side of big business.

The Irving family's fortune is valued at 5.9 billion dollars and its 300 companies directly employ eight percent of New Brunswick's 750,000 residents, according to figures from Kim Kierans, director of the journalism school at the University of King's College in Halifax. The Irving companies are private firms, rather than publicly traded companies, so their internal information isn't reported.

"The whole idea of freedom of the press implies that media are a check on powerful economic interests," Isabel Macdonald, the communications director for the New York-based media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, told IPS. "When the media are incorporated into a powerful monopoly, it's very disturbing."

While media rights activists are hopeful about the Carleton Free Press, Irving still dominates the province's public sphere. The company has big plans in the works, including a seven-billion-billion dollar oil refinery and a new liquefied natural gas facility and pipeline in the city of Saint John.

These mega-projects have raised the ire of environmentalists who say the province should be decreasing rather than increasing its production of greenhouse gases. "There is no credible reporting by anyone who understands the science behind these proposals," said Inka Milewski, science advisor to the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

"There is no credible capacity of any Irving media outlets to cover these stories," Milewski told IPS.

"Media concentration is worse in Canada than in other industrialised countries -- and in New Brunswick, way worse," Robert Picard, a U.S. media economics expert, told a 2003 conference in Moncton, New Brunswick.

According to 2003 figures from Enn Raudsepp, head of Concordia University's journalism programme in Montreal, 84 percent of Canadian media is owned by five companies.

As of 2005, one company, CanWest Global, owned by the Asper family, accounted for 28.5 percent of total daily newspaper circulation in Canada.

HERE Magazine, a tabloid style weekly, was New Brunswick's sole independent English language publication up until 2004, when the Irvings opened a competing "alternative" weekly called the Metro Marquee. While HERE had been publishing successfully for four years, the independent publication couldn't compete with the ad rates of the new Irving competitor and HERE's owners were forced to sell out to the monopoly rather than face financial ruin.

The Irvings closed down the Marquee upon purchasing HERE and changed the paper from a staff-driven organisation to a freelance model, with most writers receiving 25 dollars per article.

On Oct. 18, HERE Magazine, an Irving owned weekly which bills itself as "New Brunswick's Urban Voice", ran a cover story titled "Why not choose natural gas?" HERE normally requires its cover stories to be at least 1,000 words; the natural gas cover clocked in at 302. The article, which reads like a press release from a natural gas company, ran without listing its author, which also violates the magazine's normal guidelines.

"The Irvings sometimes just run press releases as their own stories," said Dr. Steuter. With citizens debating the merits of Irving's proposed natural gas pipeline, Steuter doubts the story was a coincidence.

"Time and time again we have seen that the media are really not very good at reporting on their corporate owners," said F.A.I.R.'s Isabel Macdonald. "If the corporate owners are the biggest player in the province's economy, that's a real problem from the standpoint of the public's right to know."

Atlantica Protester

i love this idea.

http://maritimes.indymedia.org/

Irving Oil to build another Refinery: Baird sees no problem

Ivring Oil Refinery in Saint John- largest in Canada

It seems everyweek I discover a new reason to feel anxious for my sweet Maritimes:

Conservation Council of New Brunswick - News Release

May 24, 2007

Environment Minister John Baird Exempts Colossal Refinery Development From EIA

Following close on the heels of Environment Minister John Baird’s decision to exempt industry from hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions, the Minister has exempted the first Canadian oil refinery to be built since global warming became a concern, from assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

Irving Oil plans to build a colossal $7 billion dollar, 300,000 barrel/day refinery adjacent to its existing refinery in Saint John. Irving’s existing refinery is the largest in Canada and therefore among the top 25 greenhouse gas emitters in the country at 3.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year. The gasoline is to be marketed in the northeastern United States. Six out of 10 cars on the road in Boston are already fueled by gasoline refined in Saint John, New Brunswick.
[Atlantica, anyone?]

“We are appalled that Mr. Baird does not plan to have Environment Canada assess the impacts of the new Irving refinery’s emissions on global warming and smog,” said David Coon, Policy Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. “Clearly, the carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides will cross provincial and international boundaries, one of the triggers for a federal environmental assessment,” said Coon. "Clearly, the federal government has legal obligations for the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions on global warming."

“We raised these issues with Minister Baird in a letter three months ago and haven’t had the courtesy of a reply,” said Coon. “Yet the Minister found time in his busy schedule to fly to Saint John for a private meeting with the Irvings to discuss the refinery project,” he said.

Speaking on CBC’s April 27th edition of The Current, Environment Minister John Baird said the Irvings new refinery “ will provide great economic benefits for the province, a lot of jobs, a lot of hope, a lot of opportunity will be created with that. If we didn’t have an intensity-based system (for regulating greenhouse gas emissions) that wouldn’t be able to go ahead”.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced today that the proposed scope of the environmental assessment would be restricted to the potential impacts of the construction of a pier and breakwater to load gasoline and petroleum coke onto ships for export and the unloading of crude oil from supertankers. The public has until June 30th to comment on
the proposed scope of the federal environmental assessment.

For more information, contact:
David Coon, Policy Director: (506) 466-4033

CBC article from October about Smog concerns for current refinery, and Irving's plans to build another.

NB will have a publicly-funded Midwives Association by 2008!!

See Daily Gleaner article

Health Minister Mike Murphy has announced that Midwives could be helping New Brunswick women give birth by the spring of 2008. A committee will be formed in June to develop legislation to allow midwives to practice in New Brunswick (currently midwifery in NB is a grey area, not illegal, but not legislated either). Most important is that midwifery will be part of the NB health-care system, a viable choice for mothers who would otherwise have to travel to Nova Scotia for a midwife's care (or perhaps she might be able to access one of NB's six practicing midwives).

Only New Brunswick, P.E.I., Newfoundland and the Yukon don't include midwives in the public health-care system.

In other women's health news:
Morgentaler's lawsuit against the province for limiting access to affordable abortion began this week.
The province is arguing that Morgentaler doesn't have legal standing to challenge current regulations, that he cannot assert the right of women under the charter because he is not a woman, not pregnant and not seeking an abortion.

If men were not allowed to represent the interests of women to their peers/government, women would still not have the vote, be able to own property, and would still be considered minors in marriage law (going back to John Stuart Mill, one of the first to champion legislated rights for women).
Due to the social stigma attached to abortion, high profile nature of the case, and potential intimidation and retaliation by anti-choice protestors, no woman has yet come forward with the willpower and resources to mount a case against the province on her own.

Lawyers debate Morgentaler's standing
Abortion Lawsuit sparks rally

ATTN Atlantic Canadians: the cons of "Atlantica"

Atlantica tide should be kept at bay
Chronicle Herald - May 15, 2007

By DAVE RON

In response to Charles Cirtwill's May 8 column, "Like it or not, Atlantica does exist, thankfully": I cannot recall a more rhetorical piece of propaganda ever gracing the pages of this newspaper.

Seeing as how Cirtwill spent the majority of his word count championing some false notion of inter-regional communion, erecting straw-man arguments, and speaking to what Atlantica doesn't represent, I thought it wise to elaborate on what Atlantica does, in earnest, represent.

To avoid any further confusion, Atlantica is not "the name that has been attached to the northeastern corner of the United States and the eastern portion of Canada." Atlantica is the abbreviated name for what's formally known as the Atlantic Northeast Economic Region (AINER), a cross-border trade concept spanning the Atlantic provinces, Newfoundland, southern Quebec, and the New England states (i.e. Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and upstate New York).

Its main proponent and originator is a right-wing think-tank group called AIMS, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, of which Cirtwill is not-so-coincidentally president. The Atlantica tag line is "business without borders," which has a double meaning: business unhampered by the international border, but also unbound from social protections such as minimum wages, social program spending, environmental regulation, public ownership and unionization.

Contrary to the belief that Atlantica is concerned with increasing trade ties in the northeast region, it is actually about two very different things: First, developing a conduit to channel Asian goods to the United States through the Atlantic provinces. Massive container ships called "post-Panamax" are too large to pass through the Panama Canal and Halifax is the closest North American port for ships from Asia via the Suez Canal.

Second, Atlantica is about increasing exports of unprocessed resources, like energy and water, from Canada to the United States. The intent is to export oil and gas from the Atlantic offshore as quickly as possible on terms that favour industry and leave decisions regarding exports to deregulated markets rather than through direct public participation.

Sure, as Cirtwill remarks, "Atlantica is delivering benefits on the ground today" insofar as it primarily profits elite interests and foreign investors. For example, Atlantica prioritizes U.S. energy needs over Atlantic Canadian energy security.

Atlantic Canada currently exports 75 per cent, and rising, of gas to the U.S., without even meeting the energy needs of everyone in the Maritimes; under NAFTA's proportionality clause, Canada must supply the U.S. with the same proportion or more of total exports as it has within the previous three years.

A central flaw in the Atlantica scheme is in its being predicated on historical inaccuracies. Contrary to its claims of past inter-regional prosperity, the Atlantic provinces have not gained much at all, in the past, from integration with the U.S. According to a 2006 Micro-Economic Analysis completed by Statistics Canada, for example, the manufacturing sector benefited least in terms of output, productivity, employment and wages.

The environmental and health concerns we have to look forward to include the bulk of massive expansion in container traffic shipped onwards by "truck trains," resulting in increased greenhouse gas emissions, higher fatal-crash rates per mile, as well as the likely expansion of superhighways through communities, wilderness, and farmland.

Also, with increased pressure to deliver finite oil and gas reserves to the U.S., there is no regard given to the advantages of using cleaner-burning natural gas as a stepping stone to a more renewable energy future for the region.

And yes, Atlantica has caught the ear of labour unions; but what working individual wouldn't raise an eyebrow at Atlantica's flippant use of beguiling buzzwords, like "poor quality public policies" and "economic distress factors," to describe minimum wage and union density, claiming that their extremely low rates in the region are already too high.

Cirtwill's vilification of labour unions as a means of thwarting opposition to Atlantica doesn't account for the growing number of citizens' groups, environmental organizations, non-profit associations, and others in the region who are directly opposed to the undemocratic and destructive nature of this radical experiment in free-market fundamentalism.

Atlantica is rooted in a framework which aims to attract corporate interests to the Atlantic region by threatening to axe our minimum wage (which is already below poverty levels), our environmental regulations, our social programs, our public services and our workers' rights to unionize – things they refer to as "policy distress factors." This kind of language is eerily familiar to that of NAFTA and the FTAA, stemming from a neo-liberal agenda that aims to dismantle "trade barriers" such as social and public programs, environmental regulations and workers' rights.

Like it or not, Charles, Atlantica doesn't yet exist, thankfully. It's the public's role, however, and not just labour's, to ensure we keep it that way for the vitality of our children, our environment, and our energy security.

Dave Ron is executive director for the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group, a non-partisan policy think-tank based at Dalhousie University with 16,000 student members.

Write letters to protect NB Morgentaler Clinic from anti-abortion interference

From the NB Advisory Council on Status of Women:

BUBBLE ZONE LEGISLATION: PLEASE WRITE LETTERS!

The Morgentaler Clinic staff and other pro-choice organizations are pressing for the provincial government to pass “Bubble Zone” legislation.

A Bubble Zone bars anti-choice demonstrations in certain places, typically the immediate area around an abortion clinic and also around the homes and other workplaces of clinic staff. Such legislation provides a basis for police to act against the type of conduct described above. Ontario and British Columbia have had Bubble Zone legislation for many years. In those provinces the legislation has been effective in protecting clinic clients and clinic staff from precisely the kind of harassment they are experiencing here in New Brunswick.

The Minister of Justice is currently considering Bubble Zone legislation for New Brunswick. Please contact him to show your support for this important legislative initiative!

Hon. Thomas J. Burke, Q.C.
Attorney General, Minister of Justice and Consumer Affairs
Phone: (506) 462-5100
Fax: (506) 453-3651
T.J.Burke@gnb.ca

Mailing address:
Centennial Building
P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1

Constituency Office:
Phone: (506) 453-3365
Fax: (506) 453-5469
tjbconstituency@hotmail.com

Mailing address:
288 Union Street
Fredericton, NB E3A 1E5

ONGOING HARASSMENT AT THE MORGENTALER CLINIC

Tuesdays are ‘clinic day’, the day when women from around the province who have been denied publicly funded abortions come to the Fredericton Morgentaler Clinic. On arrival, they are forced to endure a gauntlet of anti-choice demonstrators in order to access their right to an abortion. Although the antis claim that they behave in a peaceful manner, they are in fact extremely aggressive. Here is an account of today’s events from a member of the Clinic staff:

“The "antis" were horrible today. The sign that the police once confiscated (very disgusting) is now in their hands again. They had another one as well. These are the same signs that the Show the Truth people used when in town. We saw close to 20 people today and many walked in crying and extremely upset. Needless to say, it creates a less than comfortable environment in here. People settle down once they get inside but it takes a while!

“I called … the police department and [the officer I spoke to] told me that there's nothing more they can do. They did try and apparently didn't have enough evidence or whatever they needed to make the conviction stick. A couple of people (not sure who they were) were involved in shouting matches with the antis and I said to [the police officer], that I was concerned this could lead to an incident. I believe he understood but said well if there's an incident, call the police….

Abortion Rights in NB: I'm tired of being angry. Heather Mallick joins the club.

I have written more entries on women's health in NB than any other topic. And nothing is changing in that area. Now Heather Mallick has written an article for CBC about our emergency situation, and hopefully will draw much needed national attention to the issue (see below).

To date, I have sent letters to Brad Green (when he was minster of health), Bernard Lord (when he was premier), Michael Murphy (current min of health), Shawn Graham (current premier), and Tony Clement (Fed Minister of Health) on this issue. I have received one reply, from Minister Clement.

This is what he had to say, in response to my plea for him to FORCE New Brunswick to uphold the Canada Health Act, as is his duty:

"As Minister of Health, I have the mandate to ensure that the principles of the Canada Health Act are upheld. [Yes, Tony, this is why I'm writing to you] Under the Act, the provincial and territorial health insurance plans are required to provide coverage to their residents for all medically necessary hospital and physician services. Abortion services have been determined to be medically necessary by the provincial and territorial health insurance plans, in consultation with their respective physician colleges or groups, and are insured by every province and territory in Canada. [Thanks for the review. Let's get to work then!]

You may be aware that a court action has been launched against the province of New Brunswick seeking to have declared unconstitutional an amendment to the provincial Medical Services Payment Act to exclude public funding for abortions performed outside an approved hospital facility. [Yessir, very aware. It's not going very well]. The Government of Canada is not involved in this court case. [I am asking you to be]. Prime Minister Harper has made it clear that the Government will not initiate or support any legislation to regulate abortion." That's the whole letter.

Did your jaw just drop? Clement (or an aid) seems to have taken a policy statement about abortion in NB, then slapped on ONE SENTENCE in which he washes his hands of the whole affair. Fully admitting, in the one sentence, that Harper has a policy to be willfully in contravention of the Canada Health Act, and that he himself is not going to lift a finger for anyone on this issue. [Letter was received dec 16, 2006]

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Abortion rights and abortion fights
Heather Mallick
April 20, 2007

Canada's abortion battle legally ended in 1988 when the Supreme Court ruled that women had dominion over their own bodies. Abortion became a woman's choice.

But ever since, the provincial anti-abortionists have continued their mean, small-time work by targeting working-class women. Thus, the problem for Canadian women is not abortion rights, it is access to abortion. And New Brunswick has become a tragedy in this respect.

Fredericton is an attractive capital city of just over 50,000 on the shores of the St. John River. The well-kept, beautifully painted big clapboard houses along the shore with their wraparound decks and intricate woodwork make the place seem healthy, wealthy and immensely appealing. The University of New Brunswick has a campus here and the presence of so many young people gives the city its energy.

But in 1989, the New Brunswick government, furious that women couldn't be denied abortions, made sure that women could not get timely access to publicly funded abortions and that poverty-stricken women couldn't get abortions at all. They set up regulations (thus bypassing the legislature and voters) saying hospital abortions had to be performed by a gynecologist, although the procedure is easily performed by a non-specialist. The abortion had to be approved by the gynecologist and one other doctor. Abortions in clinics would not be covered by Canadian health care (this is illegal).

Since almost no New Brunswick hospitals perform abortions anyway, women must discover their pregnancy very early, find a local doctor who'll refer them (difficult), and travel to a city to find another doctor to sign for them (expensive), and then book the operation (sometimes cancelled and impossible to rebook).

She must then go to the Morgentaler Clinic and pay for her abortion. Anti-abortionists bought the house next to the Fredericton clinic, where they try to lure women to change their minds, terrifying them with misleading photographs and false information.

When she escapes these people, she will get her abortion and then make her way home, often shamed and traumatized for what is a perfectly simple procedure elsewhere in Canada (except in P.E.I., where abortions are unavailable).

The obstacle course
Fredericton citizens often see Liberal Premier Shawn Graham around town. He is 38, but he looks 16. This is the man who has followed his predecessors in maintaining the obstacle course for pregnant women. Note that because these abortion rules are minor regulations passed by cabinet, they aren't approved by the legislature. Voters have no say. This is just a little act of cruelty by a cabal, and it could end next week if New Brunswickers made enough of a fuss.

They are starting to. This month, I spoke at a gathering sponsored by the Faculty of Law at the University of New Brunswick, Law Students for Choice, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada and other groups. Law school dean Philip Bryden, a distinguished lawyer, moderated a panel where a nurse, a law professor and a physician all spoke passionately about the mistreatment of women seeking abortions.

I had expected 25 students to show up. Instead there were 290 people, not all of them students, and they overflowed into other rooms as the discussion went on. It was wonderful to hear Prof. Marilyn Merritt-Gray from the Faculty of Nursing, because medical matters are usually left to god-like doctors, not mere nurses. It was illuminating to hear law professor Jula Hughes remark how often one hears the word "shame" in anti-abortion circles. Women are shamed for their fertility, for their sexuality. It hadn't struck me before. I wonder how many girls and women internalize this "shame" that can turn to self-loathing.

A Frederictonian in the audience, who introduced himself to me later as Eric Wright, stood and addressed himself to anti-choice males: "If you guys are so opposed to abortions, don't have one."

I had to laugh. It really is that simple. It's not your business.

Morgentaler steps forward
The Morgentaler Clinic has sued the provincial government, and its court case will begin May 16. At the moment, the young premier's lawyers are arguing that since Henry Morgentaler is not a woman, he should have no standing in the case. It's difficult to find a local woman willing to go to court, so Dr. Morgentaler, 84-year-old former prisoner of both the Nazis and the Canadian government, has stepped forward once again.

The problem has spread across Canada. Since 2003, the percentage of hospitals offering abortions has decreased from 17.8 per cent to 15.9 per cent. That means you only have the opportunity to obtain an abortion at one in every six hospitals.

Read the rest, but avoid the comment section (too painful).

Small Towns in Canada Making Huge Environmental Changes!

Leaf Rapids Manitoba is the first municipality in Canada to ban plastic shopping bags! This is exciting, but there are only 550 residents in this town.... If only Toronto could take this on as an issue, perhaps with the help and advice of the Mayor of San Francisco, who announced just last month it will be banning shopping bags. Toronto recently joined San Fran's Digital City Network, which seeks to connect municipal government's in various hubs in matters of networking, media, film and economic exchange. Perhaps Miller could tap into San Fransico's already in place infrastrucutre for dealing with the plastic bag problem.

Wolfville Nova Scotia announced today it is Canada's first Fair Trade Town. It's a move that will have economic benefits for the town, and I imagine it will significantly reduce it's ecological footprint.
Importantly for the Atlantic provinces, this will mean that more money will be put back into the local economy instead of being invested in importing goods from other provinces or countries.
Mayor Bob Stead says "it's almost impossible to talk about fair trade without in this instance talking about buying local and fair price for local produce as well." When the community was considering supporting fair trade farmers in other countries, it realized it should also be supporting local farmers who are suffering major losses.
And of course, the less goods that are transported across Canada and imported form other countries, the less fuel that is used. Win win.

Good read: John Jacobs on the problem of "Atlantica" (trading scheme between Maritimes and New England).

NB Gov thinks raising taxes will stop mass exodus...

The Liberal Government of New Brunswick announced their $6.6-billion budget Monday, projecting a surplus of $37 million for 2007-08 (A CBC article called this a "small surplus". Is it? I have no idea what provincial-sized bank-accounts should look like, but it doesn't seem small).

The point of the budget is: New Brunswick is poor and spending more money than it takes in. This is due to fledgling natural resources/economy, and a mass exodus of workers and talent.

Premier Shawn Graham revealed that personal taxes and corporate income taxes (CIT) will be raised. Also, the New Brunswick Liquor Corp, always a big revenue generator for the government, has been ordered to boost its net income by $13 million. You hear that? The government will be stripping an extra percentage off your hourly $7.50, AND will be asking you to chip in some more money when you buy beer. You WILL pay for every last drop of pavement on the highway.

Effective Jan. 1, 2007, the province's personal income tax rates will be increased in order to generate an additional $50 million in revenue annually. The new rates will be 10.12 per cent on the first income bracket, 15.48 per cent on the second, 16.80 per cent on the third and 17.95 per cent on the fourth bracket.

For a one-earner family of two with taxable income of $40,000, this represents an increase of $42 in New Brunswick personal income taxes for 2007 compared to 2006.

2003-2006 rates were : 9.68% on first $33,450; 14.82% on $33,450 to $66,902; 16.52% on $66,902 to $108,768; 17.84% over $108,768.

Let's be clear: I'm NOT against taxes. I am for them. I live in privatized Alberta, where, for example, a public library card costs $12 (plus all your future fines). The community should take care of everyone through a pooling of resources. However, to ask an already impoverished community to pay even more out of their half-empty pockets doesn't seem fair. And to target them through leisure purchases!? There must be some other way to balance the budget. How much federal money do we get? There must be over-spending in an area related to special events/travel expenses and other frivolities. How much do we spend on landscaping provincial buildings?

Further, I don't see how raising taxes in a province with so little income and work is going to attract people.

A recent study by the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies reported that Alberta alone had drawn nearly 13,000 Atlantic Canadians away in the year ending July 1, 2006. Mr. Graham has promised to reverse the exodus and has set a target of attracting 5,000 immigrants a year by 2015.
Yeah, good luck with that.

My New Approach to Dealing with Assholes

MisGuide to Mothering
Lampooned by Michelle Lovegrove Thomson

Here is an excerpt from a letter to the editor* printed in Fredericton's "Daily Gleaner" on Dec 28, 2006, equanimously titled
"Feels not all persons are created equal".

I have extrapolated five phrases in which the writer explains the facts and realities of womanliness, manliness, and mothering. Readers may re-arrange the letters or words of each section to create a new but equally entertaining phrase. Alternately, you may want to cut the quotes into fortune-cookie sized strips, and keep them in your wallet in case you ever need to fill an awkward silence with an even more awkward silence.


1. "It is incorrect to say that men and women are 'equal' ".

i.e. Loquacious man-tits are made into warts, ho!


2. "A man cannot look after a baby as well as a woman can."

i.e. A fart-boy (aka Sal) cannot, won't, see: a man can be a woman.


3. "Women should not compete with men, because men cannot be mothers."


4. "Only women who cannot be mothers, or those who have already performed the duties of motherhood, should work away from home."


5. "While machines and computers have made it possible for women to compete with men, it defies nature's plan."

--
* This was a letter from a mathematics professor at the University of New Brunswick, a prominent community-member with always harrowingly awful politics. I'm not printing his name here, though perhaps I could seeing as he always signs his letters (he has no problem with defaming himself, why should I hesitate?).

[This was originally a submission for the "Activity Book" issue of Kiss Machine. Read my rejected piece here for free!]

A slave in a time of no slavery?

From the Telegraph-Journal:

An ad in a NB newspaper in 1786 promised a reward for the return of slaves who had run away from their "owner", a Loyalist from what is now Fredericton. The runaways included "Nancy, about 24 years old, who took with her a Negro child, about four years old, called Lidge". Nancy was seemingly returned to that slave owner, since in 1800, she asked the Supreme Court of New Brunswick to set her free. The slave-owner said that Nancy had been a slave since birth.
Her two lawyers, who had volunteered their services, argued that she should be freed since slavery was not officially recognized in N.B. On Feb. 18, 1800, the court announced a split decision among the four judges. Nancy lost and remained a slave for another 15 years. Soon after that yearlong trial, one of the slave-owning judges set his slaves free. Nancy's case touched off such protest that it is said slavery became an unworkable institution in the province.

Nancy's story - and other stories of New Brunswick women in our history - should be better remembered. One effort in that direction is Nancy's Award.
Middle-school students can win one of 15 awards named after Nancy Morton. Nancy's Award is offered to students whose entry in the New Brunswick's Regional Heritage Fair touches on some aspect of New Brunswick Women's history. Heritage Week Is Feb. 12 to 19.

that's weird...

A poll group has created a Relative Happiness Index (RHI) to gauge the level of happiness experienced by Canadians, with special emphasis on finding out whether money actually guarantees happiness or not.

Apparently money really doesn't matter, because New Brunswick scored the highest out of the whole country... We're the happiest! Followed by Newfoundland and PEI.

The Atlantic provinces were the happiest, with the score getting lower and lower in the western provinces. Oddly, Nova Scotia was unlike the rest of the Maritimes and scored the lowest in the country. Why so unhappy NS?

I find NB's results fascinating. How can this be? High unemployment, low wages, constant governemental complaining about the mass-exodus of workers to Alberta, the lack of daycare spots, the unattainable abortion situation (unless you can afford it/have medical approval), the obesity of the population.... and we're the happiest? I wanted to see what questions the survey agency posed, but they were not listed on the website.

Maybe the high Atlantic rating is the result of all that balmy Atlantic weather. It's hard to feel elated here in Edmonton when it hasn't been above -8 since the last week of October....

Happiness is freedom of movement, is being able to speak to the person you are walking beside without having to perform full-body turns because your neck and head are so bundled they won't rotate.

See the article below, or visit their website:


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The New Brunswick Paradox

More than a paradox, New Brunswick shows all the characteristics of a distinct society and serves up a few lessons on life.
Despite having one of the lowest provincial GDPs and one of the lowest proportions of individuals declaring very high incomes, New Brunswick recorded the highest RHI in Canada.

The paradox is even more evident when you consider the fact that the residents of this province also have a number of the characteristics that normally are associated with a diminishing happiness index. More of them come from large families and, as we saw before, members of large families tend to have lower-than-average RHI values.

The same is true for people who generally find it more difficult to accept life today as it is and those who are concerned about the future. New Brunswick has the greatest proportion of people with these characteristics. A similar trend exists with technological advances: New Brunswick seems to have more trouble than the other provinces in keeping pace.
Then where does this optimism and greater propensity for happiness come from? Probably from the attitude of New Brunswickers, because their province is the place in Canada that agrees the least with the idea that modern society makes it more difficult to achieve happiness. Furthermore, New Brunswick has the greatest number of individuals who think that people in the past were just as happy as people are today and will be tomorrow. This is definitely a positive attitude.
Although they find it more difficult to accept life today as it is, more of them state that they are living the lives that they dreamed of.

Above all, New Brunswickers appear to be more in touch with their feelings and turned in the highest scores for most of the twelve happiness influence factors. In this regard, and perhaps this is where we should focus our attention, New Brunswick is the only province that did not rank spiritual life last among the happiness influence factors. In fact, they gave it a score of 80.50, which is 12 points over the Canadian average. Another positive attitude.

Will New Brunswick be able to hold its slot when the next RHI is revealed? Is it too early to talk about a trend? While these figures may be indicative of a trend, a number of signs are not very encouraging, including the province's low differential between improvement and deterioration of the state or happiness of people last year (24 versus 26 for Canada) and the fact that there are far fewer New Brunswickers (47% versus 57%) who indicated that they were satisfied with what they had accomplished in their lives up until now.

--

Interesting:
- that NBer's report feeling left behind by technology. Hmm?? Wasn't it Frank McKenna's legacy to entrench NB with IT and communications companies and programmes, and wasn't Fredericton the first "Wireless" city in Canada?
- being collectively happy makes us a distinct society?! sweet. better get rolling on our secession platform.
"Welcome to Irvingville, the capital of Happyland/ Terre de nos Joyeux; We accept Alpine as currency. Bring your own abortionists." [insert mi'gmag & maliseet trans here].

the anti-love letter

Tired of hearing about how crappy New Brunswick is? Me too. Why are practices that seem so logical as to be automatic, entirely--systematically--overlooked by our Conservative government? (Is the answer in the statement?) Thankfully Lord finally called an election (er, well, he sort of did). I’ll be writing all candidates with a short concise list of the many ways the Conservatives have turned our province into an extremely unwelcoming place to live--for everyone.

1. Instead of legislating mandatory pay equity, they instead proposed a five-year “voluntary” plan, in which businesses can opt to pay women their fair share, if they want to (equal pay for equal labour). The government (a new one) will review the situation in five years to see if anyone actually changed their policies, once all momentum has been lost.

2. Planned Parenthood has just announced that after 34 years, it will be forced to suspend all services in September due to lack of funding, and a lack of doctors to keep the Second Story Health Clinic running. This one makes me sigh very exhaustedly and deeply. Why is women’s health so completely undervalued? no midwives, no abortions, no clinics, no free condoms, no free paps, and hell no there won’t be a free HPV vaccine...

3. Apparently, Saint John has the highest percentage of lone parents living in poverty (60%) of all Canadian cities! Most of them are single mothers, a huge percentage are teen mother’s who are unable to complete their high school education due to lack of daycare, and integrated programs in the schools to assist pregnant/parenting students. 
See Influencing Healthy Public Policy For Pregnant And Parenting Young Women and Closing the Gaps: Ensuring Pregnant Teens and Young Women Succeed

4. Stop violating the Canada Health Act: PROVIDE abortion services. FUND abortions. It’s really that straightforward.

Funny how all our problems seem to be related.