Things I Saw Last Week

Specifically, things that are mostly related to Canadian (and, directly or indirectly, American) politics.

Groan. 

I know.

In the animal rights arena, some new proposed changes to humane transport of animals used in the meat industry, open for public comment until this Wednesday. I haven’t done it yet. Even sending emails makes me uncomfortable. (But obviously I’m going to, it just needs thinking about for an unnecessarily long period of time.)

As for refugees and immigrants, I learned this week about the Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care, which provides necessary care for those who are in health coverage limbo while they’re waiting for citizenship. The context of learning about it was this article about the increase in refugees fleeing into Canada from the States and 45. The article was amazing, profiling the heroism of Dr. Caulford as well as the courage of refugees, many of whom require treatment for frostbite. I mean. This isn’t good news, and obviously Canada could be doing a lot more here, to say nothing of the nonsense happening south of the border. But this organization seems like a really useful local thing I can support so I guess that’s something.

In unsettling self care news, I bought The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood because some nice fascist dystopia seems like just the thing for these times. While I paid, two staff members were laughing about how they were shipped a huge box and all it had inside was one copy of Animal Farm, when they had actually ordered a bunch of copies of 1984. So. I guess we’re all reading fascist dystopia now. Cool.

There is a trustee a couple of municipalities over who called a parent a racial slur a while back and she hasn’t resigned yet. Also she claims she isn’t racist. What’s all the fuss about, guys? Who needs decent upstanding people – or who, at the very least, don’t call people racial slurs – in charge of school systems, am I right?

This article about Justin Trudeau and the electoral reform promise made me laugh, a lot, and then I felt better about the whole thing.

Propane Jane told a bunch of progressives ranging from slightly annoying to actively harmful to “mount [their] damn unicorns already” and I’m dead. Please serve only cake at the funeral.

Susan, Bernie, Jill, Gary, Michael, Nina, Cornel, where y'all at? Mount your damn unicorns and commence to being revolutionary already.

— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) February 9, 2017

Unrelated to politics, Paul wrote nice things about Paperman again.

And. The US rounded up a bunch of people and deported them, and they abandoned the federal government’s attempt to protect civil rights for trans students (that stupid bathroom thing again, yes).

All right. Let’s start the new week.