There is no point in repeating what happened here since the media has covered it all. For the best coverage (in my opinion), see Torontoist, and for some images of the control falling out of police hands see the TorontoProtest blog

Photo courtesy of torontoprotest.blogspot.com, edited by Me

Also note the profuse waving of Tamil Tiger flags, considered a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including Canada.

The best Twitter of the night: @Quillspiller I don’t know what sport these Tamil Tigers play, but apparently they won something big.

Hey, we need to find some humour in this mess.

I was discouraged to hear that a representative in Michael Ignatieff’s office promised to bring the protester’s cause to Parliament. This may have helped to avert more chaos, however validating such (unlawful) behaviour was a mistake.

I love our health-care system in Canada.

I love that I am one of the fortunate ones who has a family doctor, and who can always get an appointment same day. I love that I don’t have to worry about whether I have enough money in the bank to get treatment when I am sick.

But there are problems, of course, as nothing is perfect. When I had my first seizure two years ago I had to wait two months before I could even get an initial appointment with a neurologist. As a result I had another seizure. So what, right? Well it is a big deal when the Ministry of Transportation says you can have an isolated seizure and have your driver’s license suspended for a month, but more than one seizure and your license is suspended for at least 6 months.

So I lost my license for 6 months, which caused a huge strain on my job, my relationship, my family, and my budget. Thank god I am lucky to have supportive friends and family around me, but I wonder what would have happened had I been able to see my neurologist that first week and get on the right medication right away to control the seizures. Considering the fact that I have been seizure free since starting on treatment I would wager a guess that I could have had my independence back far sooner than the almost eight months it took to have my license reinstated. Would I have paid for this privilege? In a heartbeat.

I don’t have all the answers to make a two-tier system work, but I believe it could with the right regulations (I realize that I am probably one of a small majority of Canadians who believe this). I don’t want to take anything away from our public system, again I love our health-care system in Canada – I just want more choice. As I see it, in a perfect world the word “privatization” would be a term worth considering, rather than a curse word meant to be shot down the moment it is uttered.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission is arguing that a provincial court judge failed to recognize the religious freedoms of a Muslim woman when he ordered her to testify at a sexual assault trial without a veil known as a niqab.

[From Woman's right to testify in veil a religious freedom? - National Post

Welcome to Canada, where we have a separation between state and church and women are not required to shroud themselves in masks as part of a so-called religious
bullshit belief.

Flickr photo by Ranoush

In fact, women are considered equals in our society, a liberty that was fought long and hard for. How terribly backwards that a symbol of oppression, such as the niqab, should even be considered tolerated in our courts.

The mere fact that the niqab is tolerated in Canada at all is a slap in the face to our society, but that is a diatribe for another day.

Perhaps it is time to start a new religion, one that regards clothes as a way for the devil to control us, making nudity a “religious” requirement. I wonder whether the Ontario Human Rights Commission would fight for my religious belief then?

I am officially uncool.

This moment of revelation came while I visiting an old teenage haunt, The Dungeon. I spent almost every weekend at the basement all-ages club from the age of 15 to the end of high school. Some of my fondest memories happened there, though I would never repeat most of them to my parents even now.

I found myself there again to hear a friend’s band play. Walking in those doors again was surreal because the place had literally not changed from the time I was there, but my group and I did not fit in. We were the oldest people in the room, save for the band we were there to see and the parents of some of the other bands (who we later found ourselves hanging out with in the 19+ section). Our clothes were not skin tight, our hair was not cut asymmetrically, and some of us were even wearing colours.

This wasn’t the moment of revelation though – that came when the band started and the youngsters started “dancing”. At first I thought medical attention was needed due to what looked to be a group seizure, but I was informed by somebody cooler than myself that what these kids were doing was actually a new trend called throwdown.

Noun
Throwdown
(slang, hardcore punk music) A type of hardcore dance in which a person violently clears a space for himself and appears to be ready to fight those around him, while making violent and erratic movements with his body.

- Wikipedia

I grew up during the nu metal period when weird looking people were the norm and I could safely navigate my way through a mosh pit, but I had a sense that night of what my parents must have thought as I was running off to concerts as a teen. That is when it dawned on me, for as much as I thought I was cool back then, I am just completely uncool now.

Iranian woman seeks ‘eye for an eye’ after acid attack

There are a few things that crossed my mind while reading this article.

First, obviously the best way to get a woman to marry you is to threaten to kill her if she doesn’t say yes. Nothing stokes the flames of passion quite like a death threat.

Photo by helgabj on Flickr

Second, good for Ms. Bahrami for not accepting the “blood money” offered from Mr. Mohavedi’s family.

Third, and most important, what better way to punish the wrongdoer than by upholding the principle of an eye for an eye? Forget jail time as a means of punishment, drip 20 drops of acid in the eyes to encourage remorse.

Then maybe Mr. Mohavedi will stop making such nonsense remarks, such as:

“They must also completely empty out her eyes, since I’m not sure that she cannot secretly see,”

We’ll see if he can “secretly see” once the acid has been cleaned from his eyes.

The inauguration of Barack Obama has come and gone, and I’m still feeling the same level of skepticism I had during all the pre-inauguration hype.

Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that it seems good change has finally come, and I understand now why it was necessary for George Bush to flounder as he so often did, as I’m not convinced Americans would have been ready for an African-American (or other visible minority) President otherwise.

I just can’t help but feel that Barack Obama is being set up for failure.

This is certainly a less than ideal time to inherit the legacy of the previous administration – with two unpopular wars on the go and a worldwide economic recession that will likely get worse before it gets better. Obama seems to have taken on mythic proportions, which is certainly understandable considering his charisma and magnetism, his innate ability to inspire.

Yet he is still just a man, only now with huge responsibilities that most of us can’t even begin to comprehend. He has become a role model for visible minorities, and while there is nothing amiss about that, I can’t help but wonder what will happen if (and this is a very likely if) the time comes that Obama makes the decision to take military action in the home country of the same people who so idolize him now. It is ironic to me that the parts of the world where he is seen as being the Second Coming are the same places most likely to come under military operation by the U.S. – at the hands of the man who is a deity now.

What then? I fear a severe backlash against Obama, and I have to admit that I find it grossly unfair to the new President. The reality is that no U.S. Administration in the past 100 years has withheld from using military forces to some capacity, and given the current polarization of the world it is unlikely that Barack Obama will be the one to break that record.

What a surprise I was in for. Her first full day with me she was the perfect puppy. She didn’t make a sound, stayed by my side wherever I went, and when it came time to eat dinner she slept peacefully on the couch without so much as a twitch.

That, I found out quickly, was just a façade.

Photo by Ashley

Now I am lucky if she sits still for longer than thirty consecutive seconds. Try getting anything even remotely productive done while running after a puppy chasing a cat, only to turn around and have to run after a cat chasing a puppy. A full night’s sleep is unheard of at my place, and I realize now that I should have bought stock in paper towels and laundry detergent way back when.

But it has certainly been a learning experience, mostly in patience (how does Cesar Milan make it look so easy?) and restraint (there are moments when I could wring her tiny little neck – with love, of course).

She has taught me a lot for a creature unable to speak, and I am only too happy to pass along the top ten things I have learned from my puppy:

1. Clean laundry tastes better when it is neatly folded
2. Walks are most enjoyable at 3am on weekdays
3. If you’re caught in the act freeze and hope nobody can see you. If that doesn’t work employ the power of puppy dog eyes
4. People food tastes better stolen
5. “NO!” really means “yes, please keep chewing on the wall”
6. When you don’t feel like going for a walk, fall over and play dead
7. If it looks like a dirty sock and smells like a dirty sock it probably is a dirty sock, but eat it anyway
8. What goes in must come out three times larger
9. Everything has a taste so put every single thing you can in your mouth – especially laptops, furniture, thumbtacks, and the cat’s tail
10. Running around with cat poop in your mouth is the fastest way to incite a fun game of chase

Oh to be a puppy!

“HIV is a problem but so is human papilomavirus (HPV), which leads to cervical cancer and anal cancer,” he said, referring to another sexually transmitted infection. “Are we going to legally prosecute anyone who transmits a communicable disease? Is that the kind of society we live in?”

[From Criminal HIV cases do more harm than good, group warns]

HIV is just a problem? As far as I’m concerned HIV is a death sentence. Remember, despite any advances in medicine to stall HIV from turning into full-blown AIDS, there is still no cure. While there is no dispute that HPV is responsible for cervical and anal cancers, an HPV infection does not inevitably lead to contraction of either cancers.

The criminal law should be used when someone deliberately tries to infect another person — through a needle prick or similar malicious action — but not in the context of consensual sex, he said.

[From Criminal HIV cases do more harm than good, group warns]

I fail to see how sleeping with someone who has unknowingly “consented” to sex, while not disclosing the fact that such an act could harm them, is not a malicious action. There is certainly enough education out there now that sexually active people should have the knowledge to take appropriate measures to protect their health, however that shouldn’t mean that HIV-infected people should be let off when they know are infected and yet still insist on having unprotected sex without disclosing to their partner(s) that they have HIV. No disclosure, no consent, as rightly provided for in the 1998 Supreme Court decision that has been the precedent for many of the recent cases in Canada.

Until there is actual empirical evidence that suggests prosecuting HIV transmission to uninformed partners is prohibiting people from getting tested, there should be no question that those who selfishly keep their positive HIV status to themselves should be prosecuted as their actions fit the offence:

From the Criminal Code of Canada:

Aggravated Assault ( C.C.C. section 268 )

268. (1) Every one commits an aggravated assault who wounds, maims, disfigures or endangers the life of the complainant.

Knowingly transmitting HIV is no different than slipping poison into someone’s drink when they’re not looking. Would we simply try and counsel the poisoner and then send them on their way?

Actually, this is Canada, so don’t answer that.

The worst one happened a few years ago while I was sleeping over at The Boy’s house. I dreamt I saw spiders around us (big ugly hairy ones) that were lining up around the bed, ready to attack us. Apparently I screamed bloody murder and started thrashing around. The Boy, who had been asleep, tried to grab me and stop me from screaming, and somehow in the kerfuffle I tore one of his nipples rings out.

That one was pretty bad, but usually these night terrors consist of me “seeing” (which is pretty amazing since my eyes are closed) insects, usually spiders, crawling on the covers of the bed towards me, or up the side of the bed towards me, or dropping from the ceiling towards me….you get the idea. I always jump out of bed, turn the lights on, and start searching around the bed for the little big sucker until logic steps in and I realize that I couldn’t possibly have seen anything because my eyes were closed. I get back in bed, wait for my heart to slow down, and eventually drift off back to sleep.

The only night terror I’ve ever had that did not involve insects was the only one I’ve had where I actually hurt myself (unfortunately it is usually my bed partner that takes the brunt of the violence). Again logic does not apply when you are sleeping, and I saw a white utility van driving towards me on the bed, so in an effort to get out of the way I dove over The Boy (who was sleeping peacefully) and off the bed, smashing my face off the floor. I managed to give myself a bloody nose and carpet burn on my face. That one was fun to explain to anyone who asked.

I have tried to find an explanation for these nightmares from dream analysis, but so far have yet to come up with any explanation that I believe. Sigmund Freud, for instance, hypothesized that spiders represent the devouring mother who eats her children through either possessiveness or the ability to make them feel guilty. A bit sinister, but I guess I could buy it – for some. However, I love my mother and am one of the lucky ones to have escaped any need of therapy from my upbringing. Contrarily, some dream analysts believe that spiders actually represent good luck. I wish that were the case, though I doubt luck would appear to me in such a terrifying fashion.

I’m still left wondering what it all means, if anything, and for now I will chalk it up to simple arachnophobia and hope that tonight I can sleep easy (and so can The Boy).

Now that the sideshow of the Canadian elections is over, we can get back to what is really on most Canadians’ mind: the U.S. elections.

[From Barbara Kay, At the Post, you don't have to be a Stepford columnist - Full Comment]

I know I said that I wasn’t going to comment further on the Canadian Federal Election, especially since my prediction was right on, but the above comment is so accurate that I can’t resist.

Voter turnout at our election on Tuesday was at record low: only 59.1% of Canadians cast their votes to determine our Prime Minister.

I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised. First, the open and close times on the polls were inconvenient for many people. Elections Canada tries to overlap voting in each time zone as much as possible, which oftentimes means that finding the time to vote becomes difficult for many. The idea is to prevent a bias from forming if results in other provinces are known before voting, though I’m not sure how probable that is. There has been a few calls from media and citizens alike to extend the voting window the next time around, but the fact is I don’t believe this is primary reason why people did not get out there and vote (still have to throw it out there though, you know how it is).

The simple fact is Canadian politics is boring. It is made even more boring when compared to current U.S. politics. Our politicians lack charisma, and personality. Sometimes I want to reach through my TV screen and poke them with a stick just to make sure they are still alive. We don’t have celebrity politicians, or even celebrities that endorse our politicians. We don’t have candidates that have been prisoners of war, or who have worked in Chicago’s impoverished areas. None of our candidates have pregnant teenage daughters, and all still have their wives and kids supporting them.

(As a side, I wonder whether Canadians would even care about the personal lives of our politicians if there was anything to care about.)

The night of the Vice-Presidential debate in the U.S. was also the night of our English language debate. I can’t name one person who watched the Canadian debate. In fact, I recall a journalist on TV that morning commenting that they were planning to watch the U.S. debates because they knew they could catch a summary the next morning (by people who were payed to watch it and report on it, I’m not sure if anyone watched otherwise). We knew there weren’t going to be any surprises, while it seems the entire world watched the U.S. debate that night, if only to see a trainwreck occur.

In a way I am thankful that there were no surprises, that everyone here went by the book. I know what to expect over the next few years, and I’m not worried, despite all the panic surrounding the financial markets around the world. We may be boring, but at least we’re consistently boring.

Still, it would be nice to inject a bit of life into Canadian politics, if only to nip apathy in the bud and strengthen voter turnout.