It's a noble effort by Lead Now, but unfortunately no one can force the Conservatives to do anything within our present political system. This is why our system needs a serious revamping...which we can't do until another party gains control of Parliament. If the Canadian population as a whole were getting more progressive, I'd say that there were many ways we'd be able to hold the Cons accountable, but sadly this country is getting more conservative by the day. Sometimes it feels like we're heading backwards a decade rather than forwards as far as social consciousness and progressiveness.

Even veggies taste like crap half the time. I can't find a decent carrot to save my life. I love chomping on a raw carrot but every time I buy a bunch they are either tasteless or flaccid or both. The same with radishes. I love radishes. I can't remember the last time I actually ate one that I enjoyed. The limp tasteless thing again. I wish I had the time and a way to grow my own stuff.

Ya, I know. I think the world as a whole is getting more conservative by the day. By design I imagine. But then I'm a bit paranoid. Doesn't mean it's not a plot to keep the money in the hands of the few. It's so easy to get people to look below them on the socio-economic ladder for the cause of their financial problems. It's really the direction they want to look anyway. Just in case they get a chance to climb up a few rungs they want to keep the status quo. They just don't get there isn't much room for climbing anymore.

Quebec is having a stroke over the crime bill. They are seriously stressed here. It's hilarious. Most countries look to the states to understand what NOT to do regarding a prison system. Unfortunately now Canada appears to be looking to emulate them.

Elections Canada has determined that if you've been out of the country for longer than 5 years you cannot vote in any further elections.

Perhaps a new gov't might cause Elections Canada to change their policy?

So today is the day that the NDP membership chooses a new leader.

There are three people left. Thomas Mulcair, Brian Topp, and Nathan Cullen. Peggy Nash got bumped out in the most recent vote.

I was honestly really disappointed that Nash was eliminated. She was really the only one I was really hoping to see lead the NDP.

She was probably the most NDP-like of the potentials, so it does suck.

Thomas Mulcair. I don't know! I didn't vote for him, but I think he'll be okay. He's probably a bit of a departure, but that might be a good thing.

With Nash I felt she was a lot more involved in the community than most MPs seem to be. When I was still living in Parkdale I was impressed at how engaged and visible she was with the community, in contrast to most MPs who you don't see or hear from other than around election time.

I don't know how engaged/visible Mulcair has been in his riding for folks living there, but Nash is one of the rare politicians who reads "activist" to me. I don't get that from what little I know of Mulcair. It would have been nice to see a party leader that was more "activist" than "politician" in Canada.

Ontario Appeal Court decriminalizes brothels
 

Ontario's Court of Appeal has struck down Canada's ban on brothels or "bawdy houses," but says the ban on communicating for the purposes of selling sex should stand.

In a 132-page landmark decision, the court said Monday that the ban on brothels puts prostitutes in danger by forcing them to ply their trade outdoors. It said sex trade workers should be allowed to work safely indoors.

The court said the law against brothels was too broad because "it captures conduct that is unlikely to lead to the problems Parliament seeks to curtail." It said the impact is "grossly disproportionate" to the law's intent because "the safest way to sell sex is for a prostitute to work indoors in a location under her control."

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories...#ixzz1qFsSiD9m

Wow. That was interesting.

http://shine.yahoo.com/beauty/miss-u...192000420.html
Miss Universe Canada Disqualifies Transsexual Contestant: She was Born a Boy

Little lighter topic, prayers go out to those injured, hoping for a speedy recovery.. but otherwise.. holy crap!

This is right outside of my childhood home.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2...S2jD8.facebook

Money AND Candy all over the road? Hell yes!

In case anyone hasn't heard, Jenna Talackova was allowed back into the competition a few days ago.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/...eant-after-all

Obviously, I'm happy that a competition for women has chosen to include non-cis women (I originally said "all women"...but that really isn't true considering the standard of what qualifies as "beauty" in these things). At the same time, I'm not a big fan of "beauty contests," in general. So I think in some sense this is a victory, at least for trans rights and being recognised as one's true sex. On the other hand...beauty pageants have never sat well with me because of this idealisation of what female beauty "should" be, when it can be so many things, and why create a competition out of it? But either way, congratulations to Jenna and being able to compete in an area that she is passionate about.

And yet solicitation continues to be illegal... Honestly, our laws around sex work are really silly. You can be a sex worker, pay for sex/receive payment for sex, work in a brothel/own a brothel...but you can't solicit. It's like telling a shop owner that they can have their shop and sell their products, but they can't attempt to advertise/attract customers to their product. It has more to do with cracking down on sex workers than protecting them, imo. There is no reason sex work should not be entirely legal, and generally improve the treatment of sex workers. It's a business like any other as far as I'm concerned.

Gay activist killed in attack in Halifax.
 

A prominent gay rights activist and journalist in Halifax was beaten to death outside a popular gay bar, Canadian media organisations report, in what seems to be a homophobic hate crime.

LINK

There's some discussion as to whether or not this will be classified as a "hate crime" as the attacker was on a day pass from a local psychiatric facility.

Speaking of Canadian sexiness..

Toronto Folks!
 

Queer Femme Artist Circe has a show!

http://thatswomensworkarts.com/services/

Here are some of her Butch/Femme images from her Queer Lives Series. For those of you in the GTA, it's worth a trip to support this wonderful representation of queer and butch/femme inspired art! :)


http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com...2c5c836dba.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...28975179_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...27335017_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...33252778_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...93914245_n.jpg

Realtor behind ‘homophobic’ newsletter fired, says attention is ruining his life
 

An Ontario real estate agent has been fired by his agency after distributing newsletters promoting the value of traditional families, but says he is not homophobic and would be a “very good neighbour” to a gay man or woman.

Andrew Ciastek says he did not intend to offend anyone when he mailed a newsletter to residents of a Mississauga, Ont., neighbourhood that included a note entitled “traditional family is the best for the future of the kids.”

The article is said to have been taken from a Polish weekly newspaper called Sieci and pointed to research done by Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus. Regnerus suggests children of same-sex couples are more likely to be unemployed, depressed and get in trouble with the law.

“I put a few sentences from reputable polish (sic) weekly. I did not suggest in any way that this is my opinion," Ciastek wrote in an email to Yahoo! Canada News.

"If I only knew that some people were so much hurt by the statistics I included I would never do it and for that I really wanted to apologize."

A RE/MAX spokesperson confirmed that Ciastek had been "terminated and is no longer affiliated" with the agency. His profile had been scrubbed from the RE/MAX website on Friday.

A statement released by Christine Martysiewicz said the company "cannot and will not tolerate any form of discriminatory behaviour."

Ciastek claims the the affair was a misunderstanding. He said when he first moved to Canada more than 20 years ago, he lived in Toronto and participated in gay parades because they were colourful and he loved dancing. He said he was concerned about the impact that news coverage of his newsletter would have on his family.

"If I had a gay or lesbian neighbour I probably would be a very good neighbour and I would defend my neighbour if somebody wanted to offend him/her verbally or otherwise for the simple reason that everybody, no matter what colour or gender, has the right to love and be loved," he wrote.

Ciastek sends frequent newsletters to the community that included details on agency as well as information about the real estate market. Three recent flyers forwarded to Yahoo! Canada included some topics that could be useful to homeowners, such as information about paint and how to maintain air conditioning units, as well as tips on insulating an attic.

Other, more general, details were also occasionally included, such as an article on trans-fats and the study about traditional families.

Reaction to Ciastek’s newsletter has been strong, with residents complaining to local police and the Human Rights Tribunal. No charges are expected. A profile for Ciastek real estate agent ranking site currently contains 12 comments, all posted after the controversial letter came to light.

Most of them were anonymous, all of them were negative, and only one suggested the reviewer has business dealings with Ciastek.

“I regret my business relationship with him but it’s too much work,” said the one anonymous user who claimed a connection. “I cannot believe he would put out a flyer slagging one group of potential buyers without thinking about the harm it would cause to my listing. Moreover some potential buyers would definitely choose another house vs. mine if they are already fence sitting. He doesn't represent my values. But I realized this too late.”

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily...160030598.html

I hope some others had the chance to see Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip's final performance. It was awesome. Broke my heart a little bit.

Here, in my little town, they live streamed the performance and invited one and all down to the beach to watch the performance....
You are absolutely right....it was heartbreaking...

I :hk19: Canada!

I just found this out when reading about Brazil, the water, and the olympics. The article talked about how Canada is also guilty of dumping raw sewage into the ocean. I checked it out cause I figure it might be something worth knowing in case the opportunity to change it presents itself. It's hard to change things we aren't aware of.

http://environment.about.com/od/wate...nadasewage.htm

Canada flushes some 200 billion liters of raw sewage directly into natural waterways every year, from the St. Lawrence River to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean. That’s only a fraction of the three trillion liters of sewage Canadians produce annually—about 6 percent, in fact—but it’s still enough to fill more than 40,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

According to Macleans, Canada’s leading news magazine, the sewage is a mixture of water, human waste, microorganisms, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, excreted pharmaceuticals and, potentially, pathogens such as cholera, typhoid and hepatitis B.

"It is widely recognized that inadequate or no waste water treatment have negative impact on aquatic life, human uses of water, fisheries and human health,” Environment Canada told Macleans. “Therefore it is unacceptable and shortsighted not to maintain and upgrade infrastructure."

A number of municipalities throughout Canada persist in this practice that the Sierra Legal Defence Fund calls a “national disgrace,” particularly coastal cities where for many years the sewage could be dumped in open water and remain out of sight and out of mind for many people.

Unlike the European Union and the United States, Canada has no national standards for sewage treatment that cities and towns must follow. So while some Canadian cities have top-notch sewage treatment facilities, others have none.

Even Montreal, a seemingly world-class city, pumps 900 billion liters of sewage into the St. Lawrence River. Most of it receives primary treatment, which reduces the number of solids somewhat by means of a settling process, but 3.6 billion liters of that total enters the river as untreated raw sewage.

According to many environmentalists, however, the worst offender in the Canadian landscape is Victoria, the picturesque provincial capital of British Columbia. Not only does Victoria pump its raw sewage directly into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, an arm of the Pacific Ocean, but city officials also claim they are doing the “right and responsible thing” for their community and the environment. They see no reason to change.

Anyone else fuming about Trudeau supposedly trying to back track on electoral reform? :explode: Hopefully people will come together to hold him accountable if he continues to try to, instead of just fawning over his hair or whatever.