Toronto Writers’ Co-operative launches their members’ anthology

Hi all

Very exciting and I am thrilled! I have two poems and one song lyric published in VOICES by the Toronto Writers' Co-op. See the details below. I'll also be reading one of the poems/lyrics at the launch. Join us if you can. It will be a great TOWC event. You can pick up a copy for $5 - very worthwhile - or order a copy from me (signed of course), the local shipping rate will be around $5 also.

Toronto Writers’ Co-operative

launches their members’ anthology

VOICES

on

Thursday, September 29

7 PM

Elizabeth Beeton Auditorium

Toronto Reference Library

789 Yonge St., 1^st Flr.

The TPL’s writers’ community launches its 4^th anthology.  Co-operative authors will read selections from their work—a wide variety of poetry and prose.

Copies of Voices will be available for sale.

Jack We Hardly Knew Ye

The people of Canada have been given the opportunity to freely exercise a vote of their conscience and the heart song rings across this nation in tribute to Jack Layton. He was a fighter and a lover for the earth and her people. He was a leader who knew the ropes and how to tie the knots binding opposites and bringing them together for the goals they all had in common. He cared for the future and well being of all his family down to the seventh generation. He was a person who never swerved of his vision. He was a person of great compassion, and of energy, integrity and persistence.

As was said at his funeral, he represented the “ordinary Canadian”. He made Canadians feel comfortable with his unassuming ordinariness. As an extraordinary effect, he made those of us he touched feel more than ordinary.

Ordinary Canadians count for the greatest part of the population of this country. They are students looking for a future, they are working people comprising the majority of the core of the economy, they are self-employed and small businesses, they are the marginalized and unemployed struggling to become something different, they are the First Nations from whom we can learn many truths, they are the diverse cultures that brighten the fabric of Canada, they are the men and women of the Police and Armed Forces putting themselves in harms way for their convictions, they are our first responders, they are our own spiritual leaders and elders who have the experiences of life to share, and so many more.

Ordinary people are the heart and soul of Canada.

Funerals have a way of drawing diverse people together and they become intimately aware of being in the presence of profound truth. I was down at Toronto City Hall and there was such an intensely, gentle power of the collective spirit, and hovering in the infinite space, the presence of profound truth.



Not just the citizens of Toronto filled every possible space with messages in chalk but people from far and wide chalked their hearts on the concrete. Last week even Nature provided another fresh page so that we had to search for a faded spot to chalk our thanks.

In many other places across Canada this was the experience during the last week, and in their unbounded freedom voted their honest appreciation for Jack.

This, Jack is what we knew of ye.

What if?...what if on the mountaintop and seeing the “the promised land” he could lead his people down. But sadly, this was not to be and we can only say, “Jack we hardly knew ye.”

But he said to us, we can all rise to the challenge of making a better Canada in the world. We are buoyed by his great spirit, and can continue to stand on the shoulders of giants. By this Jack, we know ye, and by this we will know again who Canadians are and the way to go.













Thank you Jack for showing us the way.

Jack's Strawberry Patch

I was making a 2' sq. bed for strawberries today and 2" below the topsoil was a 6" layer of stony rubble and all I had was this trowel. After 3 hours of stabbing, levering, scraping and picking the job was satisfactorily completed. I was thinking all the while of Jack Layton and his challenges.









A challenge this certainly was, and we agreed that we did this for Jack. Next year the patch will bear the fruits of Jack's inspiration.





Thank you Jack.

John & Marie

Ford: Toronto’s Proud Mayor

This CatAsTrophy inaugurates the first of many awards to come and is being presented to His Honour In Abstentia, Toronto’s Chief Magistrate, Toronto’s New Mayor, Rob Ford. Amongst his many achievements that he can be proud of this is his greatest to date: being coy about his attendance, or not, of Toronto’s famous PRIDE Event.

Congratulations Rob for inspiring this catastrophe.

Ex-mayors to Ford: Just say yes to Pride

The Courage of Brigette DePape

What do these two images have in common?


Standing for Truth to Power

Also see: Message in a stop sign by Brigette DePape

Thank you Brigette!!

LEAF - 15th anniversary fundraiser

On Thursday June 2, 2011, LEAF - Local Enhancement & Appreciation of Forests will be holding its 15th anniversary fundraiser at the Steam Whistle Brewery and will be joined by some of Toronto’s brightest musicians and artists. Musical guests include Gentleman Reg, Poplar Pines and Music in the Barns and exhibiting artists include Vincenzo Pietropaolo, Martin Reis, Laura Berman, Shea Chang, Natalie Castellino, Schuster Gindin, Ryan Halpenny, Ruthanne Henry, and more. Since 1996 LEAF has helped citizens plant over 16,000 native trees and shrubs in their neighbourhoods and involved thousands in their education and stewardship programs. NIGHT OF THE FOREST welcomes everyone in Toronto and the surrounding regions to come out to celebrate the work that strengthens our urban green spaces. Tickets are $40 at the door/$35 in advance and available at: http://nightoftheforest.eventbrite.com.

For more information:
Matthew Higginson, Coordinator, Marketing and Communications
416-413-9244 x 13
416-795-4449
matthew@yourleaf.org

LEAF is an incorporated, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the protection and improvement of the urban forest. For more information or to get involved, visit www.yourleaf.org.

Attack Ads – Hate Ads

In the 2006 Federal Election the Liberals under Chretien used attack ads to create the fear of Harper’s Secret Agenda. Not that it backfired on them because they say hate…or I mean attack ads work, but Harper won anyway only because the Libs were hated, dishonest and couldn’t be trusted. Harper’s victory was just punishment by Canadians and to teach them a lesson that Canadians still have the power.

Canadians (70%) for most of the last half century, and still to date, have lived well and are comfortable with a left of centre governance but for the last decade (or three) fear to vote their natural preference and are forced to feel what is shown to them and what they hear. But unfortunately Canadians didn’t have the leaders to take back the power they gave up to Harper. This election could be different. If you are looking for a leader to take you into the great unknown a, where Canada has never been before, and Harper is not going to explain it to you, it takes more than just a managed economy, which Harper luckily inherited from Paul Martin, it will take someone you should trust with your first born.

When you look back to those fiery accusations or allegations, most turned out to be quite accurate or even true!


"This is what Stephen Harper told his American friends: 'Canada is content to become a second-tier socialist country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services, to mask its second-rate status.' When he said, 'You won't recognize Canada when I get through with it,' he wasn't kidding."

or

"Get a load of this. Stephen Harper once said: 'The Western ridings that the Liberals hold are dominated by either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada. People who live in ghettos.' We're not kidding. He actually said that."
The ads ended with a voice stating the Liberal campaign slogan, "Choose Your Canada".

or

"From the Washington Times, Dec. 2, 2005: 'Canada may elect the most pro-American leader in the Western world. Harper is pro-Iraq war, anti-Kyoto and socially conservative. Bush's new best friend is the poster boy for his ideal foreign leader. A Harper victory will put a smile on George W. Bush's face.' Well, at least someone will be happy, eh?"

For more Harper quotes go to Stephen Harper Quotes.

Each year the political process gets more extreme. Negative ads are now having real consequences. Elected politicians are no longer opponents but are now enemies. Question Period is no better that monkeys in a cage throwing their poo. Harper’s Conservatives and the Liberals are mostly to blame as they hold most of the seats and the biggest budgets to buy this media hate propaganda. (btw. This really sells and the media eats it right up) It has really come back on the Liberals who, for the last, and recent election, are getting their brakelines snipped, tires slashed, “L” scratched on the paint job, and graffiti defacing their property. No reports yet from the Harper Conservatives, Greens, Bloc, NDP or anyone else.

Vandals strike homes, cars of Liberal backers

A slew of Liberal supporters in a Toronto riding arose on Good Friday to learn their tires had been slashed and their vehicles keyed with a partisan "L," reminiscent of a similar spate of vandalism that hit the district during the last election.


Toronto ridings spooked by spate of tire slashings



The worst possible act of this rage inducing propaganda was the attempted assassination directed against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Attempted assassination

On November 5, 2010, Giffords was declared the victor after a close race against Republican Jesse Kelly. Kelly, an Iraq War veteran (and not related to Mark Kelly), was listed as a top ten Tea Party candidate to watch by Politico, and described by azcentral.com as highly conservative even compared to Sarah Palin. Giffords had been targeted for defeat by Sarah Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC.
Giffords participated in the reading of the United States Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives on January 6, 2011; she read the First Amendment.

You have to agree that this extremist violence has to be seen objectively and not emotionally as their creators intend to spread fear and look for the alternative – it is here! Canada: Democracy = Majority

Celtic Cuff on Dragon's Den

Watch Kevin O’Leary go head-to-head with Alter Eco! Well almost, anyway.

For real – we are really excited to have the “Celtic Cuff” being shown on the last episode of the season of CBC’s Dragons’ Den!

Alter Eco has an online selling shop on Ethical Ocean.com who will be pitching their business on March 30th. Watch Dragons' Den on CBC and find out what the Dragons think about e-commerce with a conscience.

Alter Eco will be donating 5% of all sales, plus free surface shipping, from the Dragons’ Den for two weeks to Doctors Without Borders for the Japan Crisis.

Beginning in April, I will be facilitating a workshop for “The Yellow Door” in downtown Toronto. I will be showing people how to make “Street Jewellery” for themselves and others. It is an amazing place that has so many interesting and positive courses to offer and of nominal charge or free if you can volunteer.

So Kevin, take that!!

P.S. remember Earth Hour, March 26th at 8:30pm

World Class Humour

It's good to have a mayor of the world class city of Toronto who has a sense of humour and can appreciate that most Torontonians have one too and can laugh at him.

He thought it would be fun to invite Don Cherry, the one in pink, to do the honours and not much thought to his short investiture speech. It was a riot!! I hope that it was intended to be a schoolyard prank.

But seriously folks, the first kudo was his excellency Stever (The Cleaver) Harper.

The Tea Party has nothin' on us! Watch out Americay we're a comin again!! (humour {and to humour the Yanks, humor})

HA

Cartoon via Gigi Bowman

A reply to an article by Kevin Libin: Connecting the dots in the National Post

The Tea Party is a group of angry, disaffected Americans who have just been set up by the power behind Wall Street who for some reason Obama had to bring on board in his administration. Perhaps his thought was that those who broke it could fix it and also best to have your enemies in view.

Also just look at some of the founders of the Tea Party, The Koch brothers for example, with a $35 billion tar sands refining opertion to run. Wall Street now have unwitting pawns on the political game board of disintegrating "Western democracy". This isn't a recent phenomena but had its claws in the economy with the end of the Keynes Philosophy and superceeded by the Milton Friedman School of thought, the Market is infallible and exercised his economics thanks to Thatcher & Reagan.

- “They’ve looked at their situation and decided in the last two years, Obama made the drift of recent decades explicit, and a lot of Americans woke up to that and decided they didn’t like where they were drifting to,”

Obama got his majority as people were looking for a different kind of leadershp not like the Bushs' & Clinton's which were only two sides of the Wall Street coin and just two years doesn't make up for the last thirty. Americans don't wake up that fast. No country does.

As for fundamentalism of any kind be it free market, Christian, Muslim, Judaism, it has always succeeded in creating extremely divisive conflicts and is exploited by a group who have the power, or think they have the power or want more power, to justify the destruction of those who oppose them. If you can tap into their emotions (9/11, Wall Street Crash of 2008) and combine it with additional fears you will have control of dedicated willing extremists.

Steyn's assertion that "United States as the only liberal power properly equipped, both demographically and psychologically, to withstand the undermining of its values by the growing global influence of Islamic fundamentalism." is that it was violently born in 1776 and developed a pathological nationalism for whom the Tea Party was an iconic symbol of David defeating the English Goliath.

Steyn is using Khadr to support his anti-immigration thesis "Khadr family as the poster boys for all that’s virtuous in Canada, it’s not an assimilation issue, it’s a societal issue.” It could be argued that one society's "poster boy" is another society's "poster boy" (intended) such that it could also be argued that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. Khader is just a symbol, an icon, a pawn with an Islamic fundamentalist angle.

Where could this lead? "The Clash of Civilizations" is more than just a euphemism it today it is intended to become reality. The bible, like H.G. Well's Journey to the Moon, is written by man and was most likely inpsired by events and thoughts, some divine/creative, of the time. But what ever man can envision he can create a serious illusion of reality. Some realities are pathological particularly those who look in the skies for Armageddon. As the rich become richer and resources, rational society, and climate dissappear by their hands, we are left with the last man standing. He will die too Mr. Steyn.

Thanks4Giving 10/10/10

The internet has given us reason to give thanks in these times of corporate media throttling of diverse thought. It has given us grassroots, collective capability to stand against the distorted power of the few who are throwing our society and environment into the greyzone of confusion, doubt and fear.

We give thanks for the ability to mobilize instantly, to share common values, to open our minds, to develop opportunities to create & debate and to understand others as you would like them to understand you.

It gives us feelings of gratitude that, as individuals, we can express our thanks knowing that to our own selves we are true.

On Monday this week I went with a friend to make an "Urban Garden". She is the chief steward with LEAF (Local Enhancement & Appreciation of Forests) for this project in partnership with the TTC. This is a 10/10/10 work party event a worldwide initiative of 350.org





This is the St Clair Subway Stn before the 'micro forest' is planted.

(photo courtesy of Marie Van Schie)












This is the Leafy crew ready to start reducing Global Warming.

Go Leafs Go!!

















This is part of the Leafy crew putting the fine touches in the dark and light drizzle.















I can smell the fresher air already! The new Urban Forest in the heart of mid-town Toronto doing its part (per million).


(photo courtesy of Marie Van Schie)

Wishing you all a special Canadian Thanksgiving and give thanks to all that hear you!

Gaza - The Lesser Guilt

While Harper was hardening his commitment to Netanyahu, I doubt that he knew he was shaking hands with the devil and that piracy was unleashed on the Gaza Flotilla early that morning. Not that it really matters as Harper has no aversion to devils and has little compassion for much of the consequences as long as he believes creating a world of his imagination.

Netanyahu has a more directly violent lack of compassion and will push his contempt for the world beyond Israel’s border. Many have commented on a people who have faced psychopathic lack of compassion during the “Final Solution” so he has taken the role of the Hebrew’s avenging God.

And now I’m beginning to wonder if Ignatieff’s feeble whines of dismay aren’t carefully hiding a lack of conscience and he still has invisible ties to the Rove machine. This would account for the pandering to Harper as the Liberals become less and less of a threat year after year.

As for the guilt? Netanyahu is true to his soul and therefore has no guilt. Harper has little soul and his agenda has been fully exposed now for a few years and as a Canadian we must burden him at the polls with a fair proportion of guilt as he is incapable of doing it himself. Ignatieff? Who would have imagined? I can see nothing but guilt now behind those aristocratic eyebrows.

The Hypocracy of Harpercracy

Stephen Harper never really was a good actor, nor is he a hip fashionista. Whenever his dresser tries to pry him out of his suit you know that something is up. If he thinks Canadians are dumb then he's sure that the rest of the world are dumber. After all who ever paid attention to Canada at all. Not even really Afghanistan. Maybe he pricked Copenhagen's attention with his smarmy faux pas and dirty oil.

Probably true that the rest of the world has no idea of his fundamentalist misogynism amongst other global deceptions underscored by our near perfect financial survival which was more luck than planning.

You have to give him credit for his gall to call the G8 meeting in Muskoka. Does this show his empathy for aboriginal women? Will they have the conference in wigwams and longhouses? Certainly not! This is the playground for Canada's very, very rich - no Indians here. Maybe hypocracy but nice views. Nice to paint rosy pictures of hankies ringing out crocodile tears for all the Women and Kiddies who have conveniently become the flavour of the year in the Harpercrats eyes.

"On Wednesday, Liberal Status of Women critic Anita Neville told me, "Mr. Harper is not looking at these issues in Canada. Take a look at the aboriginal population. Look at maternal health care here. He's got a lot of work to do here. "

or

Undermining CIDA and cutting funding to NGOs like Kairos leave Stephen Harper with a sizable credibility gap on maternal health

Demand Proportional Representation

To the Honourable Leaders of the Opposition

Dear Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Layton,



I beseech you to introduce Proportional Representation for fair elections. We would not ever have a Stephen Harper in power long enough to abuse the wishes of the majority of Canadians and besides you would get a stronger turnout at election-time when people know that their vote is effective and feel themselves to be part of a real democratic process.

You don’t need polls to read the true will of the people who, without any leadership, managed to become a major force in showing Harper their disapproval of his proroguing and are not fooled by him. We have called his bluff it’s time for you to do the same.

This is the best opportunity in a long time to call to your popular base and you may never get another one like it if you don’t. Harper can call on his base but his financial clout is weakened by his illusion of Canadian apathy and intelligence. Don’t forsake your disillusioned base!

No election plans? Just watch him

No election plans? Just watch him



Absolutely on target! Harper tries reverse psychology one more time while boasting Canada's economic position is the envy of the western world and is relying on superficial diversions to buy him political capital, Iggy's wandering in the woods and the always effective 'blame it on the opposition' to precipitate an election before the economy/debt/interest rate/bubbles hit the fan and secure his desperate "Grail" of a majority.