kar0ling

Just rip off all the packaging and leave it behind – that’ll teach them! Or not. In many cases, leaving plastic wrapping in the store is an exercise in futility that simply irritates staff who have no power to do anything to effect change. However, the impulse to do *something* to change the system is to be applauded, and advice to simply shop somewhere with better policies doesn’t ultimately help. One or two people opting out and using a specialized low waste supplier is good but not as effective as those one or two people lobbying mainstream suppliers to make less-waste practices that will now affect everyone whether they care or not. The advice to “just ask for them not to give you a bag next time” is nice, but sometimes the employee is so quick on the draw tossing your stuff into unnecessary plastic (while you’re getting out your wallet to expedite the transaction) that you miss the window of opportunity. Instead, let’s advocate for employee behaviour to change: P...

“Moderator dropped from green forum over NDP concerns” The headline caught my eye. I wonder what that’s all about? There’s always a back story. When there’s an outrageous headline, it’s generally best to read the article – and read between the lines. Sensational headlines never tell the whole story, and rarely does the full article either. What I read said the NDP objected to one of the moderators (one *of*, mind you – not the sole) on the panel because she had written critical columns about the party leader. Now I can’t bring to mind those columns, so I can’t say in what way she was critical, but given they were published in the local newspaper, a reputable journalistic entity, I can’t imagine they were unrestrained personal attacks. Editors don’t want to be threatened with a libel suit. So when did it become unacceptable to critique politicians? On the other hand, another headline points to the problem of unrestrained opining: “Threats, abuse move from online to real w...

Thank you for your service. Thank you for the countless hours you stole from your family and your own health to walk the campaign trail, attend community suppers, sit through long meetings, glad-hand, deliberate legislation, draft policy, etc. It is worthy of appreciation and recognition. But you can sit down now. Male politicians of 65 plus, you've had your turn. It's time to hang up your running shoes and pick up the coach's towel. I know you've still got the fire, your ideas still have merit, and maybe you're even better known and well funded than ever, but it's time to pass the baton. If your concern is truly what is best for the community, and not about your personal self-aggrandizement, it's time to step into the background and let someone else take the lead. It's time for you to lend all the might of your reputation, your fundraising machine, your personal networks, your ways of working the system, your depth of policy knowledge, your i...

“Greens in the legislature will change the tone; we work collaboratively with anyone.” The opening quote on this report on the Hunger and Poverty Provincial Forum at Knox United Church August 20, 2019, hosted by Make Poverty History, the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, Winnipeg Harvest, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, is your first sign I may not be an unbiased reporter. Despite his claim of civility, Green Party leader James Beddome couldn't quite resist some digs at the premier, whose party failed to send a single MLA to represent them in the debate. Just recently, Mr Pallister replied to me that poverty was an important issue for his party, said Beddome, who placed a rubber chicken at the empty spot left at the table in hopes a PC candidate might be found to take the spot. Moderator Richard Cloutier was clear in his opening remarks that the Q&A period was not intended for "speechifying," and it was, I daresay, one of the more civilize...

It was not the ride up the hill of what turned out to be quick-sand-like mud (unsurprisingly, Karla had to push half the way).  It was not the kilometre of walking her heavily mud-encrusted bike over a further mud-encrusted shoulder while cars hurtled past on Fermor.  It was not trying to keep herself and her bike from tumbling off the little goat path to find the entrance to the obviously unused bridge sidewalk.  It was not the fact that the rear derailleur was so full of mud, her crank couldn't make a full rotation without the chain being stretched to the max and freezing up. It was not resting the Moose in curbside puddles of filthy, frigid water to try to get the mud off, soaking her mitts and chilling her feet in the process. It was not fouling her travel coffee mug scooping filthy road water to pour over her chain. It was not the next 10 or more minutes with her bike upside-down on the sidewalk, trying to get enough mud off the chain that it would fit on the ...

ርሑስ በዓል ልደትን ሓድሽ ዓመትን። Flight into Egypt (coptic icon from the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Abu Serga) in Cairo) Smells and bells, indeed! The semi-dismissive and half-affectionate description of high ritual churches came unbidden to mind as I stepped into the sanctuary at St Mark’s Coptic Church for the Feast of the Nativity, known in Winnipeg as Ukrainian Christmas. We were a few minutes late for the beginning of the service, but so were the majority of the other worshippers, and the room was already filled with a haze of incense. Stand, sit (mostly stand), while a crowd of male persons of all ages chant liturgy from the front. TV screens mounted at intervals around the sanctuary present the text in English, Coptic, and Arabic. (Or they try to. The person running the display seemed a bit lost for the first hour when perhaps he or she was replaced with someone better acquainted with the liturgy.) I’m unfamiliar with the extra letters Coptic added to their use...