apologies, this is totally a rant...

Peter MacKay is considering suing opposition MPs for questioning his integrity in the House of Commons. I'm sorry, what?

This for me marks a new low in Canadian politics - at least in Conservative Canadian politics. For a Minister of the Crown to present a version of events that does not necessarily correspond to official paperwork is CAUSE FOR SERIOUS CONCERN and opposition MPs have a duty to question the Minister, dog him if that's what it takes, until he provides an acceptable answer to put this whole controversy to rest. That's actually the job of the Opposition. And your job, Minister MacKay, requires that you tell the truth to Canadians in the House of Commons.

MEMO TO THE HONOURABLE MINISTER:

No matter how good an explanation looks on paper, no matter how plausible or probable the story you tell, if the opposition can find enough evidence for another competing version of the story, they MUST present it in the House and hold you to account. Without at least a basic level of integrity, a government loses its legitimacy, and further erodes citizen engagement in our increasingly disconnected political processes. The voter turnout rate is trending down to less than 50% and this latest example of a Conservative Minister behaving badly (that's you Peter) can only cause more damage to a badly damaged democracy. You, as a Minister of the Crown, cannot sue away questions of integrity and transparency if they are raised in the House of Commons and are backed by evidence that contradicts your own version of events. And if you, Minister, attempt to bully the House with these ridiculous threats to sue the people who've done their job by raising these questions, MPs who have essentially done nothing more than hold you to account, then that in and of itself demonstrates your clear contempt for Parliament. Should you be fired, Minister MacKay? No. But at very least, for the sake of Canadian taxpayers and your fellow MPs, you should perhaps be shuffled into a Ministry that offers fewer temptations for adventure travel. Secretary of State for Seniors comes to mind...

on bureaucracy: part 1 (or, "my first ten years")...

It happened quite recently that I was asked by the HR Coordinator in my office to choose a "gift" as part of my "10 Years of Service Award", recognizing my first decade as a full-time, job-for-life, federal public servant.

I dutifully followed the intranet link she had sent me via our corporate email system which brought me to a sharply designed, red and white emblazoned site called "Seasons."

Immediately gratifying was the soft focus nostalgia that such a website name evoked, like the never-ending cycle of birth, growth, decay and renewal, I had graduated, by virtue of my 10 years of public service dedication, from a salad green springtime servant to a servant in the glorious summer of my career.

From a list of possible choices that ranged from a silver-plated ring stamped with an impressive "10," to a set of binoculars (for use on an outdoor adventure during my four weeks of state-sanctioned annual leave, I supposed), I opted for the digital heart-rate monitor sports watch. I haven't been to a gym in at least as many years as I've worked for the public service, but this item seemed to me a kind of pilot light, a way of keeping alive that faint hope of eventual escape.

And OK, my new watch won't win me any awards for best fashion accessory, but that's not why I chose it.

For you see, on the one hand my new watch tells me how slow the daily routine of bureaucracy makes my heart beat, all but guaranteeing I'll live to see my next 10 year landmark. On the other hand, it marks out clear little units of time, as a reminder that another ten years can feel like a season in Hell if endured without one eye firmly fixed on the world beyond my little plot of the public service cube farm.

And with that I believe it's now time for my coffee break...

quick post...

I love this piece. Puts me in mind of Mrs. Unguentine (the partial namesake of this little blog 'o mine). Another gem from the A & L Daily site.

a random essay that i enjoyed...

If your undergraduate major was in English Lit. (or, in my case the even less employment-worthy "Drama Specialist Degree"), this gentle jeremiad against the current state of literary criticism in the Academy is worth a read.

Please note this post is truly geared to a niche audience.

toronto the communist...?

I'm amazed that this man who is paid by taxpayers to represent them in a democratic government has absolutely no idea how democracy actually works. I miss David Miller. Hell, I miss Mel Lastman at this point...

yes you have a health card, but are you "happy"?

Can you ever imagine the Canadian government going for something like this?

To dream of the day...

freedom 24...

This is well worth reading.

july 15th, they (summer)work hard for the money...

Not sure if you've been following this story, but the response to recent veiled threats made to the independent not-for-profit arts community by Jim Flaherty and others in the Harper administration has been met with a rather excellent response by the arts community.

July 15th, coming to an independent and free-speech promoting theatre near you...

words of wisdom...

"I have only one solution: to rise above this absurd drama that others have staged around me."

-- Frantz Fanon

sun media. sigh...

Read this.

Then watch this and this.

Then go here.

Knowing that there are artists like Margie Gillis actually willing to accept an interview invitation from Sun News, and knowing full well the kind of treatment she can expect at their hands, is surely proof that our society (though not as compassionate as it could be), still has courage to spare.

I would encourage a final visit here.

(Optional: an email of support here.)

shamelessly pushing the merchandise...

I have a lot of creative friends (a fact I will never take for granted), and some of them just published a beautiful art book. Please buy one!

Full disclosure: I wrote an essay included in the book, but since my friends are poor artists I did this for free and won't make a dime off the book sales. All that to say, I'm not pushing books to make $$, but only because they are GORGEOUS.

Launch party tonight!

recommended reading...

I'm a great big fan of the website "Arts & Letters Daily" because it's such an eclectic buffet of food for thought.

I'm also afflicted with an on-going fascination with the Western world's hindsight view of the Cold War, especially our collective and nervous fascination with the collapse of the Soviet system.

And so here is my recommended reading (courtesy of the A&L website), a piece about the second coming of perestroika.

Enjoy.

i'm not trying to get all political and sh*t, but...

The latest round of cuts to the Canadian federal public service, including two senior managers at the National Gallery of Canada, are increasingly random and verging on the totally pointless.

With an enormous deficit to tackle, trimming jobs from all those sectors that conservatives (big "C" and small) distrust most (i.e. arts and culture, environmental policy, policy in general) seems like a total dog and pony show, and pretty far from a real and sustainable solution.

After cutting a major revenue source (the GST) and reducing corporate tax rates, both in the name of economic prosperity (and both being widely viewed as bad economic policy by REAL economists), Harper, Clement, Flaherty and co. have perhaps come to realize that it was not the best move to so boldly knee-cap the Federal Treasury for the sake of some pre-majority photo ops.

Canada, like all middle powers, needs to do better than just get by. We need to find a niche, to mark ourselves off from other middling Western nations, to aim to be innovative like Germany but with our own unique cultural quirks like Australia or New Zealand. Instead we're trying to emulate Britain, with their "austerity measures," and almost Thatcheresque contempt for public service and true commonwealth.

And although we were once firmly identified as the "good colony," the ever-reasonable Dominion of Canada, we attained our independent stature by staking out territory outside of conservative thought and beyond our colonial beginnings, to become an inclusive and diverse nation where difference was a catalyst for growth, and the public good meant something designed for the benefit of all citizens, not just those in Conservative ridings.

I think it is a sign of the times that Canada Post locks out its employees, and the tone of political commentary and media coverage would have us believe it was the postal workers who had decided to single-handedly ruin our economic recovery. The public seems relatively indifferent, and as usual the Conservatives are more than happy to further debase an inconvenient piece of the democratic puzzle (still so puzzling to them, after all these years), by eroding the role of organized labour and collective bargaining within the public (and private) sectors.

So, where does all this leave us? With a need for patience and perseverance to start. We must fix our thoughts and sights on a better destination than this government intends for Canada. We must survive the next four years with our ideals intact. We must seek out non-partisan perspectives to cut through the pointless (and ultimately destructive) rhetoric that is chipping away at our public sector institutions, at our means of exercising our rights as citizens and workers and at our very idea of Canada as a country that creates something greater than the sum of is diverse (and sometimes almost incompatible) parts.

We must in short demand better next election. And between now and then, resist the temptation to surrender to bullying by narrow-minded partisans (from all parties), or worse than this, to surrender to apathy, because increasingly our progressive values are not the values of the day.

As a public servant, I have to believe in the possibility of a better Canada than the one in which I currently live.

mais pourquoi?

I have no idea why I decided (did I decide?) to go back once more unto the blogosphere breach, but here I am and there you have it.

The title is inspired (in part) by my latest all-time favourite book of all time, "The Log of the S. S. The Mrs. Unguentine" by Stanley Crawford.

That explains this thing in part (well, not really, but...).

As for the rest...I have never seen the the film The Graduate, but have obviously listened to a S&G song in my time. So, yah... umm.

But why this blog? (Ou bien, pourquoi ce blogue?).

I miss writing, so that's the selfish part of this enterprise. Like any good quasi-artistic middle class Westerner of my generation, I like to self-express and be told how clever I am for so doing. I tend to have random interests, almost always fleeting but recurring, which can sort of amount to a template for a "life's work," but only if I keep track a bit.

So this is kind of a way to keep track. But also to self-express and seem clever. And I promise things will eventually be far less abstract and 'high concept' (or maybe just 'concept') and with a bit of inspired luck I may stumble upon something of interest and value while rambling through the randomizer that is internet self-publishing.

OK, admittedly I may be overthinking things a bit. I'm afraid I tend to do that.

So to finish off:

1) read something by Jonathan Franzen [NB: this homework is optional but recommended].
2) be patient with me, while I find my footing in this thing [NB: please and thank you!].

Ta ta...for now.