test blog #10

This ad for Yoplait Light reduced-calorie yogurt, which I saw on TV last Sunday night, was supposedly pulled from circulation. The National Eating Disorder Association petitioned General Mills because the ad promotes a mindset associated with eating disorders. Instead of negotiating every bite of food, anxiously calculating if we've earned the right to eat a dessert, as this woman does, how about asking ourselves, Am I hungry? And maybe, even if we're not particularly hungry, if it's not habit or routine, and it's food we really like, how about enjoying a small slice of cheesecake? Whether or not this one ad continues to air, advertising that perpetuates the message that eating is bad - but buying our product is good - is legion. When I wrote about eating disorders in the 1990s, several therapists referenced current ads and said, "That is an advertisement for exercise bulimia." (Exercise bulimia is another term for compulsive exercise , the attempt to purge ...

Naser Bader Al-Raas, a 28-year-old Canadian, is in prison in Bahrain. He has been tortured. His passport has been confiscated, so he cannot leave that country. He has a heart condition, and may be in desperate need of medical attention. He needs our help. Al Raas's plight began in March, when he went to visit his sisters , who live in Bahrain. He went to the airport for his return flight - then vanished. When his family in Ottawa next heard from him, he had been released from prison, where he had been tortured. But his identification, cellphones and Canadian passport have all been confiscated. “Police told him not to contact the Canadian embassy and not to say he was arrested,” said Sadeq Al Raas. But six weeks later, three charges, including kidnapping, were laid against him and a group of about 10 others. The family has requested help from several human rights organizations. “The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is aware of a Canadian citizen who was detained...

As part of my work for the video surveillance project, I was wandering around the Square One mall, when I saw this sign in the window of Lush. I went inside to ask for more information: there was a petition, a postcard drive, and an excellent pamphlet from Freedom To Marry . The manager told me about some of the company's past political actions, including Stop The Tar Sands and anti seal hunting campaigns. I am very impressed! Most corporate chains define their social responsbility in the blandest and least controversial way possible. With Stop The Tar Sands, Save Our Seals, and Freedom To Marry, Lush is bound to take a lot of static in both Canada and the US. They'll certainly gain some business, too, but corporate social responsbility is usually all about middle-of-the-road. Lush sells beautiful handmade soaps, all cruelty-free and ethically sourced. As much as it pains me to plug a competitor of my friend Stella Marie Soaps , shipping charges from Rhode Island may be prohi...

The members of Canadian Union of Postal Workers engage in labour actions. In response, their employer, Canada Post, locks them out. The Harper Government tables back-to-work legislation. The Opposition launches the longest filibuster in Canadian history. What have we learned? 1. Stephen Harper and his government hate organized labour. 2. Stephen Harper and his government will always side with big corporations against working people. 3. Jack Layton and the New Democratic Party are a real opposition, taking seriously their responsibility to oppose. 4. The Liberals suck. OK, lessons 1, 2 and 4 were already well known, and I strongly suspected and assumed lesson 3. I didn't think Jack Layton would achieve the pinnacle of his party's power and then become Michael Ignatieff. But it was still so exciting to see. Lessons for the future: 1. Keep fighting. Jack and the Orange Crush are prepared to support our struggles. We finally have a strong, clear voice in Ottawa. Let's stand t...

Alice Walker has written a long, thoughtful essay about her experiences in the Palestinian territories, and her decision to participate in Freedom Flotilla II - Stay Human, the international convoy of ships bringing hope and humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza. Perhaps some of the people visiting wmtc from a link in a National Post column (short version: Canadian Boat to Gaza is full of anti-Semites, there is no siege of Gaza) will read it. Not likely, I know, but worth a try. You can read it Walker's excellent piece on Rabble's Canadian Boat to Gaza blog or on Walker's own blog, Alice Walker's Garden . Why am I going on the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza? I ask myself this, even though the answer is: What else would I do? I am in my sixty-seventh year, having lived already a long and fruitful life, one with which I am content. It seems to me that during this period of eldering it is good to reap the harvest of one's understanding of what is important, an...

There's an excellent and eye-opening story in today's New York Times Magazine . Jose Antonio Vargas was born in the Philippines, and came to the United States at age 12. He has lived the American dream, fighting for a quality education, pulling himself up by his bootstraps, working very hard and applying his considerable talents in all the right ways. And still, to this day, he cannot obtain US citizenship, and is at risk for deportation. Vargas shows tremendous courage. He's taken a huge risk to bring his story to light in an attempt to change the insane system. The Obama Administration has deported almost 800,000 people in the last two years. Any one of those stories could be this one. One August morning nearly two decades ago, my mother woke me and put me in a cab. She handed me a jacket. “ Baka malamig doon ” were among the few words she said. (“It might be cold there.”) When I arrived at the Philippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport with her, my aunt and a famil...

New York State, thank you for doing the right thing ! Forty-two years after Stonewall, same-sex couples have the legal right to marry in New York State. Whoo-hoo! New York is the state of birth, of my parents' birth and even one grandparent's, my home for 44 years (minus my time in Philadelphia), and in so many ways, the place of my heart. At one point, it looked like I'd be ashamed of my home state, but now I am proud of it. A special shout-out must go to Jason West, the former mayor of New Paltz, New York, a straight guy who said, this is ridiculous, and married same-sex couples in a parking lot. When I Googled "New Paltz mayor married same sex couples" to find West's name, this turned up: Awaiting a Big Day, and Recalling One in New Paltz . I remembered this because I feel a personal connection to New Paltz and nearby Minnewaska State Park, related to our trips upstate with our dogs . I love that this happened in that same little college town. We're ge...

"If that's really happening, why don't I see it in the news?" I bet many of you may have encountered a question like this one. You're speaking to a co-worker or a classmate, or discussing an issue on a blog, or you've wandered into the comments section of an online news story. You offer a wider perspective, and you meet with a question like this one. If millions of women are being beaten by their husbands, why don't I ever hear about it? If First Nations people are getting cancer in unprecedented numbers, why haven't I read about it in the newspaper? If the United States really has military bases all over the world, how come I don't know about it? This person is not criticizing the mainstream media for not covering this issue; that's not what the question means. He's questioning the validity of a statement of fact, implying that you are grossly exaggerating an issue or even fabricating it. If working conditions in these factories are so bad...

The Globe and Mail , emphasis mine: Standing Alone, Canada blocks push to label asbestos a hazardous chemical Canada has single-handedly blocked listing chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous chemical, the United Nations confirmed Wednesday, even as the Conservative government maintained its silence back home. At a summit in Switzerland, Canada's delegation ended days of silence and speculation by opposing the inclusion of asbestos on a UN treaty called the Rotterdam Convention. “Yes, I can confirm they intervened in the chemicals contact group meeting this afternoon and opposed listing,” Michael Stanley-Jones of the UN Environment Program said in an email. Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan also initially opposed the listing. However, Mr. Stanley-Jones said one-by-one they switched positions after India announced it would support the listing. That left Canada as the lone voice against the listing. “All had consented when Canada announced its position opposing listing,” Mr. Stanley-Jon...

Please sign a petition opposing the Harper Government's back-to-work legistlation. Minister Lisa Raitt, I am urging your Government not to introduce or support back-to-work legislation aimed at ending Canada Post’s lockout of members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Back-to-work legislation is an infringement on the right of all workers everywhere to free collective bargaining and only encourages Canada Post to remain entrenched in its demands. Instead of introducing back-to-work legislation, your Government should: - require Canada Post to immediately lift its lockout of members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers - require Canada Post to reinstate the recently expired Urban Operations Collective Agreement. Once this is done, CUPW members will return to work - require that Canada Post give their negotiators a new mandate to arrive at a new Collective Agreement with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers that enshrines the principles of respect, dignity, and a sharing of...

My friend (and wmtc reader/commenter) David Heap was on CBC Ontario Morning radio yesterday, speaking from his hotel room in Athens, Greece, about why he'll be on the Canadian Boat to Gaza, as part of Freedom Flotilla II - Stay Human. Listen here.

This morning in Toronto, locked-out postal workers and their supporters will rally at the legal offices of Canada Post, to protest the collusion of Canada Post and the Conservative Government to strip workers of their legal right to collective bargaining - and in defence of good working conditions, wages and benefits for the next generation of Canadians. I can't make it to Dundas Square this morning, and chances are, you can't, either. But we all need to rally, in every way we can. We need to write letters, speak to our friends and co-workers, speak out to the government. We need to take to the streets, both physically and virtually. We have to stand up for the kind of Canada we want to live in. Even if you don't care about good jobs in your community - which you should - you probably care about decent public services. In Toronto, misplaced public anger over the 2009 sanitation strike has allowed mayor Rob Ford to leverage his plan to privatize trash collection . Now, inst...

The project I've been working on - my summer position as a research assistant - is in the spotlight today, as two of the IPSI research teams give a public progress report. IPSI Research Day - Proportionate Digital ID + Video Surveillance Sponsor: Identity Privacy and Security Institute (IPSI) This is a free, open, public workshop. . . . The focus of this year's IPSI Research Day is on two research projects dealing respectively with: * an experimental, minimally disclosing digital ID wallet we refer to as Proportionate ID * a study of private sector video surveillance installations and signage in relation to PIPEDA compliance we refer to as Smart Private Eyes Both projects have been funded by the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner. For further details, see the links below. This workshop is intended to present provocative works in progress and promote lively discussion reflecting a variety of perspectives around contemporary technological design and policy development is...

My little garden-ette is going gangbusters. Originally: The rose bush is to Cody's right. Then: Then: Here you can see how pathetic the rose bush had become. And now:

This morning in both Toronto and Montreal, many of the Canadian delegates of the Canadian ship Tahrir , will meet the media before boarding their flights to Turkey. The Tahrir will set sail for Gaza as part of Freedom Flotilla II - Stay Human, an international flotilla of more than 1,000 civilians protesting the Israeli siege of Gaza. The delegates on board the Tahrir include Jewish, Muslim and Christian Canadians - politicians, artists, peace and human rights activists, and small business owners, some of whom have taken part in previous flotillas. Dylan Penner, leading member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada (and also an organizer with the Canadian Boat to Gaza ) and Vivienne Porzsolt from Jews Against Occupation in Australia, will be joined by Harmeet Singh Sooden, who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2005 and held for 4 months (along with Canadian James Loney while participating in an international Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation), as well as Muhammed Hamou from the London Muslim...

What terrible, sad, shocking news. Clarence Clemons, the Big Man, the heart and soul of the E Street Band, has died. My heart goes out to Bruce, who must have lost a brother today, as well as all the other E Streeters, and Clemons' four sons. Mr. Clemons’s first encounter with Mr. Springsteen has become E Street Band lore. In most tellings, a lightning storm was rolling through Asbury Park one night in 1971 while Mr. Springsteen was playing a gig there. As Mr. Clemons entered the bar, the wind blew the door off its hinges, and Mr. Springsteen was startled by the towering shadow at the door. Then Mr. Clemons invited himself onstage to play along, and they clicked. "I swear I will never forget that moment," Mr. Clemons later recalled in an interview. "I felt like I was supposed to be there. It was a magical moment. He looked at me, and I looked at him, and we fell in love. And that's still there." Springsteen: Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried with...

A while back in my Intellectual Freedom and the Public Library course, I encountered an interesting shift of ideas. Larry Alexander, while arguing that freedom of expression is not a human right ( I disagree! ), points out that free speech is less about the right of the speaker, than the rights of potential listeners. Alexander uses the example of a government banning the works of Karl Marx. Marx himself is dead, so his rights cannot be infringed on; if Marx is banned, our opportunity to encounter his ideas - and so, our own freedom of expression - are being denied. This was the central issue in Canada's refusal to allow George Galloway entry into the country. Galloway is not a Canadian citizen, so his Charter rights were not being infringed, but ours were. Canadians have - or are supposed to have, anyway - rights of freedom of association and expression. We have a right to see, meet and hear anyone we choose, and if those people pose no threat to the security of the country, we ...

I have blogged several times about the horrific conditions endured by the people who pick tomatoes in Immokalee, Florida, working for fast-food giants like Burger King, Taco Bell and McDonald's, and supermarket giants like Kroger, Stop & Shop, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. For important background, see the norm is disaster, the extreme is slavery , and a side order of human rights . (An update on one point in that earlier post: in April of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that migrant farm workers do not have the right to unionize . It would cause the farmers too much hardship!) The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been campaigning for some head-slappingly obvious improvements, like ending slavery - not "slave-like conditions", but actual slavery - and a "penny-a-pound" wage increase. The penny-a-pound, paid for not by growers but by the mega-corporations that contract them, amounts to a huge wage increase for the impoverished workers, yet...

A message from the Canadian Boat to Gaza, to anyone who thinks they can bully the boat into submission: We will not be intimidated by threats or lawsuits It has been brought to our attention that a lawsuit has been filed against the Canadian Boat to Gaza seeking over $1 million in damages as well as an injunction seeking to block our fundraising and other activities. The alleged damages mentioned in the claim occurred years before the inception of our project. It is our view that this lawsuit has no substance and that the Canadian Boat to Gaza, the Tahrir, has both the legal and the moral right to sail with the Freedom Flotilla 2. To date, we have not been officially served with legal notice of this suit and first heard about these claims, and the baseless allegations they contain, through media outlets. We remain absolutely clear that the Canadian Boat to Gaza has not been, is not, and has no intention of breaking any laws. It is the blockade of Gaza that is illegal under internationa...

What does abortion access look like to women who don't have any? What does it mean to be unable to obtain an abortion when you need one? The anti-choice movement in the US has succeeded beyond most of our worst nightmares. Although early abortion is still technically legal, many necessary later procedures are not. And crucially, it's almost impossible to obtain any abortion - not in " a few backwaters ," as some would have us believe, but everywhere. This means that if a woman doesn't have the resources or ability to travel, she is either forced to carry her unwanted pregnancy to term or find an illegal abortion provider. Abortion access isn't about convenience. It's about human dignity, self-determination, and the basic human right to control our own bodies. It's about punishing women for having sex. And it's often about life and death. From Salon, here's a harrowing personal story that illustrates the horror of the current reality, and the l...