Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
A miserable cold.
If you’re wondering where I am, not blogging and all – rest assured I am not dying, but just really sick from a cold and uninspired by most things in life at the moment. The worst part about this sick is that I’ve got two heavy days of meetings tomorrow and Thursday and I just don’t feel up to them even though I’ve been on bed rest already for the past four days! Here’s hoping that tomorrow brings the incremental boost I need in order to be able to do presentations and lead discussion sessions.
On the plus side, for the first time in years I’ve had someone around to take care of me when I’m sick, make me soup and rub my back and tell me that I’m beautiful anyway. If anything can make a cold less miserable it’s that.
Will be blogging again shortly, right after I get the last of this gunk outta me.
Blue Thursday.
This morning I was on my way to meetings and I dallied a little by getting off the bus at Clark to take a picture of the Lions. I didn’t like my pictures of the Lions but I got some eerie morning moon shots that I quite liked instead. Here’s one of em.
I’m fine too, by the way and I’m brimming full of things to write about but can’t find the time. Soon. Soon.
Sometimes sex and drinking is the only way to go.
I know. So crass. But after my post-return slump last week I find myself feeling a hell of a lot better today which I am chalking up to a Sunday spent in pursuit of nothing more than food, drink and time in bed with my guy. Sure, I’m a tad hungover this morning, and have a mountain of work to tackle, but I can’t stop smiling. It’s that good.
Besides that I spent the weekend reading, going for a walk, and seeing a bad movie in an actual theatre (I Am Legend – it’s awful – the only redeeming feature is envisioning post-apocalypse New York if you’re into that sort of thing. Even Resident Evil Three was more fun to watch than this.) Oh, and there was some tidying of the apartment and laundry in there too.
Really, it just felt right to be home, to have a whole day with Brian, to putter around without any concrete plans or expectations. I have one more weekend like that before being away from home for 10 or 11 days between my next trip to Ottawa and heading over to Victoria for my birthday. As much as I enjoyed my holiday, I am feeling a little over-traveled at the moment and thinking that my recreating in the next several months should be focused a little closer to home in order to get the maximum relaxation benefit.
This week marks the start of a pretty constant schedule for the next four months. It’s work, it’s union, it’s collective bargaining and hell, there is even some social stuff in there as well. I’m starting to think that 2008 looks like it might be a decent year with the way my life is unfolding right now.
Safe Third-Country Agreement struck.
In a ruling that probably won’t get much press, the Canadian courts have determined that the US can’t be considered a safe country for refugee claimants because it does not uphold international conventions that protect refugees nor does it meet its obligations with regards to conventions against torture.
Essentially the Safe Third-Country Agreement which came into effect in 2004 meant that a refugee could only make a claim in the country where they landed (the US or Canada) which of course curtailed the practice of coming into Canada through the US. Since the US has much more regressive laws concerning the granting of refugee status, and since many refugees have to come through the US because of travel patterns, this allowed Canada to send refugee claimants back to the US rather than giving them a hearing. This ruling essentially makes that practice illegal once again.
Interestingly, the Canadian Government is appealing even though official Foreign Affairs documents that surfaced yesterday indicate that the Canadian government is pretty sure that the US is practicing torture (duh!) Obviously torn between it’s official human rights stance and the political cost of seeing refugee numbers rise in Canada, the Government is having a hard time with consistency.
Either way, both the decision and the Foreign Affairs document have angered the US authorities already who are absolutely appalled! That they should be accused of torture. Remarkable, isn’t it? Even with the proofs that have surfaced in the last three years of deplorable human rights actions – the US government still behaves as though it has any moral authority on this issue. It must really be a case of repeating a lie long enough in hopes it will become a truth.
Slightly gratifying that there seem to be a few officials who can see through it.
Red Cedar 