the complicated problem of sweatshops
Have you ever heard of the island of Saipan? It is an American territory in the pacific, where I had never heard of it until an email arrived from Walt…
christyk
the complicated problem of sweatshops
Have you ever heard of the island of Saipan? It is an American territory in the pacific, which as a Canadian I had never heard of it until an email…
Developing the political will to end poverty
I had the opportunity to attend a meeting hosted by Poverty Free Ontario. There were about a hundred attendants listening to presentations and discussing how we can work to get…
Developing the political will to end poverty
I had the opportunity to attend a meeting hosted by Poverty Free Ontario. There were about a hundred attendants listening to presentations and discussing how we can work to get…
confidentiality agreements and power imbalances
One of the many things that makes me uncomfortable with the way our laws work is the abundance and acceptance of confidentiality rules. I’m thinking about things like clauses in…
an open-letter about social assistance in Ontario
The other day I sent off a bunch of handwritten letters. They varied depending on whom I wrote them to. The one to the Ontario NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, went…
is there such a thing as a neutral education system?
I love it when similar or related ideas appear in several parts of my life at once. There’s been a number of things that come together to make me think…
writing letters to politicians
My days seem a strange mix of tobogganing with the kids, cooking, reading to them, helping them with schoolwork and trying every day to understand the world around me and…
What is social assistance really about anyway?
A few days ago I had a conversation with a woman on Ontario Works (welfare). She described what she goes through in order to get emergency dental care. She has…
work: both paid and unpaid
One Model of How Things Work I’m thinking today about work, both productive work like building houses or caring for sick people, and less productive work like packaging bad mortgages…
A Response to Anthony Sowan’s Rant Against #IdleNoMore
The following is my response to Anthony Sowan’s rant against the #idlenomore movement. One big mistake within that rant is the idea that this is about preservation of culture. It…
Interacting with those we disagree with
What do you do with people you don’t agree with? Do you agree to keep quiet about the topics you disagree on? Do you cut them out of your life?…
blogging about blogging
“Writers deserve to get paid for their work” says a popular blogger in defense of putting her blog behind a paywall. The arguments and comments made by her fans and…
thoughts after a visit to the social assistence offices
I went last week with some friends into the Ontario Disability Support Program office (ODSP) and the Ontario Works (OW) office. It was my first time being in the building.…
vaccines and the selling of fear.
I read an article today about a family in New Zealand where a young boy came down with tetanus. His father is speaking out about their decision not to vaccinate,…
Is there a way to "fight our own government"
I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a regular feature on my blog, a weekly post about the facebook memes (maybe Meme-y Monday) that I end up seeing, going…
Cast of Stones: Book Review & Author Interview
A Cast of Stones by Patrick W. Carr is a strangely dark story. I saw it advertised as a “Epic Medieval Saga Fantasy” and that it was published by Bethany…
my thoughts on Paved With Good Intentions: Canada’s development NGOs from idealism to imperialism
I’m getting ready to return the book Paved With Good Intentions: Canada’s development NGOs from idealism to imperialism by Kikolas Barry-Shaw and Dru Oja Jay back to the friend who…
Homemade Marble Maze Ideas
One of the things I find fun is building marble mazes. There’s something kind of silly about them, but I enjoy them. We have a couple of sets of store-bought…