Mary Had A Baby (II)

Mary Had A Baby (I)

I am not a fan of Christmas carols. In fact, you might say that Christmas carols bring out the Grinch in me (as if I need any help). There is, however, at least one Christmas carol to which I am partial.


I first heard Mary Had A Baby on Bruce Cockburn's Christmas album fifteen years ago. It is a good old-fashioned call-and-response spiritual and it always seems to put me into a good frame of mind, if not into a Christmas-like frame of mind.

It is also one of the few songs whose words I could remember in their entirety when I was in Tanzania last year. The girls at the orphanage I was volunteering at constantly sang, and they asked (or rather, demanded) that volunteers share songs with them.

Happily, the girls loved Mary Had A Baby as much as I did and we often sang the song together. They even created a little "choo choo train" dance for the part of the chorus that goes, "The people keep coming but the train has gone." Dancing is not something I normally associate with Christmas carols, but in this case it matched the joy of the music.

Remembrance of Battles Past

I went to a local shopping mall today and came face-to-face with a reminder of my childhood in northern Saskatchewan. The parking lot was covered with a series of snow ridges created by the snow plows that cleaned Yonge Street. Although the ridges seemed as tall as the ones I remembered, they were lacking one feature: armies of youngsters reliving battles we hadn't even heard about yet.

The Dala-Dala of Toronto

Well, the big storm came and the big storm went, and life goes on in Toronto.

The roads were a mess, as usual for these kinds of things, but the commute home was surprisingly easy. It took about two hours to get from work to apartment (including 30 minutes spent waiting for the bus to turn from the depot onto Yonge Street), but I didn't see any accidents. Perhaps people stayed home -- I know the bus that normally is packed from front to back during blizzards had less than 10 people on it for the entire journey.

The subways, however, were another thing all together. It was so jam-packed with people that it reminded me of the dala-dalas that I took last year when I visited Tanzania. Unlike those overly-crowded vans, however, the riders of the subway were anything but gracious fellow travellers. Torontonians, it seems, get grumpy when they have to share public transit.

The (Froz-)End Times?

Ontario is supposed to be on the receiving end of a huge winter storm tomorrow. The local media are happier than kids in a candy shop, and they seem to be trumpeting themselves as the best provider of storm information.

The funniest thing about the anticipated storm is the fact that some media outlets have been calling it "stormageddon", but I am not sure they are entirely correct about the theological significance of this storm front. However, if you do not see any more posts from the Griot, I guess it means that the Rapture has come and that I had a lot more faith than I thought.

Bye-Bye Bettie

An accidental pioneer of the sexual revolution died in Los Angeles on Thursday. Bettie Page, the model and "Notorious" subject of a recent film biography, died at 85 after being hospitalized for a heart attack.

When we think of the Fifties in America, we often think of Father Knows Best, Joseph McCarthy, and a tendency towards conformity. Bettie Page was certainly marching to a different drummer as she progress from modeling bikinis and see-through lingerie to posing for sadomasochistic photos complete with high heels and a whip.

Bettie Page seemed to keep her fame (or infamy) in perspective. She once said that she became a model because it seemed like an easier way to make a living than pounding away at a typewriter. She felt that God approved of nudity, since Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden. She thought the S&M photos were silly. She didn't understand why Senator Estes Kefauver was outraged enough to target her in his congressional inquiry into pornography. When she quit modeling, it was because she was 34 and her days as the girl with the perfect figure were over.

By all accounts, Bettie Page's personal life was tumultuous. In 1959, she became a born-again Christian and attended Bible school. She wanted to become a missionary but was turned down -- not because she was a notorious pin-up model, but because she was divorced. She wound up working for the Billy Graham ministry. A move to California led to several stays in mental institutions and relative obscurity until the 1990s, when Bettie Page became discovered by a new generation.

In some ways, the passing of Bettie Page is a signpost pointing towards the end of an era. In a world of easily accessible pornography and the sexualization of damn near everything, it is hard to believe that a pinup model wearing high heels and holding a whip was once enough to inspire a congressional inquiry.

The Return of the Griot

Somebody once asked me why I named this blog "SilentGriot". After all, the whole point of having a blog is to let people know what you are thinking about. I suppose that I somehow understood when I started this blog that there would be times when the stories dried up.

It seems to me that I've spent a good part of my working life telling stories. I've been a telephone bill collector, a manager, a corporate executive, an instructional designer, and a trainer/facilitator. In my personal life, I take photographs and try my hand at the occasional poem, short story, and script. Perhaps it is no wonder that I ran out of things to blog about.

Anyhow, the current period of silence has come to an end. I can't promise you a post every day, but (for now) the Griot is no longer silent.

Too Busy to Blog

Summer has finally arrived and I have been far too busy to blog. Don't expect many updates over the next little while unless the weather really sucks.

A Liberal Proposal

In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court struct down the District of Columbia's anti-handgun legislation. Although the ruling clearly stated that the US Constitution protects the rights of individuals to bear guns apart from membership in militias, that does not mean efforts to control handgun usage are dead -- anti-gun advocates just have to be more creative.

I have a suggestion to make to the District of Columbia. Since their anti-handgun legisilation cannot stand, I suggest that it be replaced with a $5000 annual handgun registration fee.

On the Greasy Grass

On this day in 1876, several hundred American soldiers and civilians lost their lives at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The commanding officer, George Armstrong Custer, died in the battle along with two brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law.

"Custer's Last Stand" was not the biggest American loss in the Indian Wars, nor did it result in the highest number of native casualties. It was not even a lasting victory for the natives: the coalition of Lakota, Cheyenne, and other tribes soon scattered. Within months, most were on reserves or living as refugees in Canada.

For some reason, the battle has seared itself in the popular imagination. People who know nothing else about the history of the American West have heard of Custer, the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull, or Crazy Horse. I even once had an in-depth and entertaining discussion about the battle with a local Glaswegian while on a business trip to Scotland.

I have to admit that I have a strange fascination with the battle. When I was 9 or 10 I received a 12-inch tall General Custer action figure for Christmas. (My sister called it a doll, which was far more perceptive but far less masculine.) The battle also dominates my bookshelves, with close to two dozen books on the battle or the participants.

Still, I have no idea why it exerts such a hold on me. Perhaps it is the tragedy of so many men making a last stand in the wilderness of Montana that sings to me. Perhaps it is the tragedy that the Indian alliance did not capitalize on their victory. Perhaps it is just the fact that the battle seemed so inevitable.

Deutschland Über DieTürkei

In Euro 2008 action, my two favourite teams of the tournament met on the pitch today. Germany went into the match as the favourite but the Turkish side was definitely not a walk over. The Turks are a pretty tenancious group, so I wasn't surprised at how tight the game was.

(Germany won, by the way, by a score of 3 to 2.)

Cool Nature News

www.nationalgeographic.com reports that a number of African frogs have an extreme defence mechanism: they pierce the skin of their feet with toe bones and create instant claws. Because the claws cause serious damage to the skin, they are only used when the frogs are threatened. I wonder what else remains to be discovered.

Party Time

Happy National Aboriginal Day!

Truth in Advertising

I went for a walk at lunch today. Amongst the myriad of posters covering the light posts was one of the most succinct and, in its own way, elegant ads I have ever seen: Two Guys Moving.

That was it. Two guys moving. There were no adverbs, no adjectives, no attempts to appeal to a particular sub-set of the market. Just a simple declaration of what you would be hiring.

Down But Not Out

The Taliban scored a major victory when they pulled off a successful rescue raid on the government's prison in Kandahar. Reports say that hundreds of prisoners were freed, including over 400 Taliban fighters. Canadian troops and US Marines are now going door-to-door to hunt the escapees.

I fear that this may be just the start of another bloody summer for our troops, our allies, and the people of Afghanistan. I also fear that people will use these losses to argue that we should not be in Afghanistan.

I dread the next few weeks and months.

It Ain't MY Second Anthem

Much has been made of the recent acquisition of "The Hockey Song" by the CTV network. The song had been used as the theme music for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, but that network was unwilling to pay the $3 million that the owner was seeking. CTV, on the other hand, was willing to pay for a song that has been associated with its rival for some four decades.

Personally, I couldn't care less about who owns the rights to the song. I was, however, somewhat surprised to discover that many Canadians consider it to be "Canada's second anthem". Of all the songs that could fit that billing, I would never have picked "The Hockey Song". Stan Rogers' "Northwest Passage", maybe. Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds", perhaps. But "The Hockey Song"? NEVER!

Deutschland Uber Alles?

Not quite, but Germany did beat Poland by a score of 2-0 today at the Euro 2008 tournament.

As for my sentimental favourite -- Austria -- well, the less said the better. (Croatia beat them 1-0.)

Football 4 - Hockey 0

I can't exactly explain it, but I love watching football. Not the athletic equivalent of the Somme that North Americans call football, but the elegant ebbing and flowing game which we refer to as "soccer". In fact, I love watching the game so much that I have already watched more football games this season (4) than I watched hockey games (0).

Like most North Americans, I grew up thinking that soccer is a bit of silly sport because of the lack of scoring. Over the past few years, however, I have grown to appreciate the game. It has the tidal rhythm of baseball, but the players stay on the field for 90 minutes or more. There is a constant flow between the ends that basketball enjoys, but none of the profligate, almost promiscuous scoring of basketball. Best of all, there is none of the senseless violence of rugby, North American football, or hockey.

I have to confess that I am one of those Canadians who hates it when people defend fighting and violent physical contact as "part of the game". It may be the fact that I never played the game and have thus never developed a sense of blood lust, but I really don't understand why it is necessary to stop the game so that goons with the ability to throw punches whilst balancing on ice skates duke it out while the crowd goes wild.

I got to watch the first game of the Euro 2008 tournament today, an exciting and hard-fought match between Portugal and Turkey. There was plenty of physical contact without anyone finding the need to throw punches. Then again, these fellows are running up and down the field for 90 minutes, so they don't have time to waste on things like brawling.

Score One for the Monkeys

In what has to be a first for any business school, Lucknow's Sardar Bhagat Singh College of Technology and Management has selected the Hindu monkey god as its chairman.

Hanuman is extremely popular in India, where he is known for his strength and valour. He is known for his ability to lift mountains and leap oceans, but perhaps his greatest feat as a manager was in leading an army of monkeys to rescue a kidnapped princess from the demon king Ravana.

According to the Associate Press, Hanuman's new position comes complete with an office, desk, and laptop. Visitors to the office will be required to enter the office barefoot, which makes Hanuman a refreshing change from the corporate dress policies that most institutions seem to have these days.

Perspective

I suppose I could comment on a lot of things: Obama becoming the first black American presidential candidate, the GM plant closure in Oshawa, the big huff caused when Rachel Ray wore a scarf in a Dunkin' Donuts commercial, but I really couldn't care less. I am just waiting for Friday, when the temperature is supposed to break the 30 degree mark for the first time this year.

The Hard Side of Equality

Much has been made of the fact that Hillary Clinton is the first woman to mount a serious campaign for the presidency of the United States of America. Some might say that too much has been made of it. Some would just say that it's about time.

As Clinton's campaign began to lose traction against Obama, many of her supporters have begun to take opposition to her historic mission as a manifestation of sexism. If you don't support Hillary, the thinking goes, you oppose equal rights for women in America.

Now, I can understand the passion that people feel about the campaign but I think Clinton's loyalists are missing the point: true equality means that voters have the option to vote against Clinton. But somehow I think this campaign is less about equality and more about power.

Downward, Ho!

A standard, if historically inaccurate, scene in many western movies is the Indian attack on a wagon train. The brave, God-fearin' agents of civilization and progress would circle the wagons to form a temporary fort. The blood-thirsty heathens would then proceed to ride in circles around the laager in order to provide the settlers with as many opportunities to kill them as could be fit into a ten-minute scene.

It was largely bunk, of course, but "circling the wagons" is a handy metaphor for what is happening with the Democratic Party in the United States. The only difference is that the settlers tended to shoot out towards the menacing horsemen, whereas the Democrats seem to be intend on shooting into the laager.

Yesterday, the Party's rules committee issued a decision to resolve the contentious issue of delegates from Florida and Michigan. Both states moved their primaries to January earlier in the year in defiance of the Democratic National Committee, which in turn banned delegates from those states from sitting at the upcoming national convention. When this all happened, both Clinton and Obama agreed not to campaign in those states. Obama even went so far as to remove his name from the Michigan ballot.

In yesterday's decision, the rules committee decided to give each delegate from Florida and Michigan half a vote at the national convention, which seems like a generous concession considering that the states had been clearly informed that their delegates would have no votes. Obama's camp is content with the decision, but Clinton's team are furious and threaten to keep on fighting to the bitter end. Some Clinton partisans have even declared that if she does not win, they will leave the Democratic Party and will become Independents.

After 8 years of one of the most inept (Republican) administrations in history, John McCain will have to work hard to get elected. But if the Democrats keep circling the wagons and shooting in, his job will be a little bit easier.

Panties for Peace

The Canadian Press ran a story a few days ago informing us that Canadian women are being asked to send panties to the embassy of Myanmar in Ottawa as a form of protest against thatcountry's military junta. According to the group that launched the campaign -- Panties for Peace! -- the generals fear that contact with women's underwear will sap their power.

I know that the connection is somewhat tenuous but I, for one, applaud PFP!'s initiative. After all, women have been throwing their panties at Tom Jones for years and he certainly has not been oppressing the people of Myanmar.

Talk About Irony

I came across a news item earlier this week that talked about how much time Canadian kids are spending in front of a screen. According to its annual report on children's physical activity levels, Active Healthy Kids Canada claims that 90 per cent of Canadian kids fail to meet guidelines on physical activity. A contributing factor: children in the 10-to-16 age group typically spend 6 hours a day in front of a television, computer, or video screen.

As alarming as this was, it paled in comparison to the realization that I heard about this news item on the television news -- and then came across it again while checking out the news on-line.

A Fly in the Ointment

The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled today to dismiss Martin Mustapha's appeal.

Back in 2005, Mustapha sued Culligan of Canada Ltd. and was awarded damages in the amount of $341,000. The basis for his lawsuit? He found a dead fly (and part of a second fly) in a large bottle of water that Culligan delivered to his house.

Now, Mustapha was not awarded over $300K just because of the presence of insects in his water bottle. No, he was originally awarded the settlement because his response to those tragic circumstances was insomnia and depression. Oh yeah, his business and sex life were also adversely affected.

Today's SCC ruling not only quashed the original ruling, but Mustapha has been ordered to pay Culligan's legal bills. Although the case seems a bit silly, it does establish rules for "reasonableness" that should result in fewer frivolous lawsuits in the future.

Unfortunately, it also means an end to Retirement Plan # 3. I guess it is back to the old drawing board.

A Day Which Will Live in Famy

Today is a good day to be Japanese-American. That's right, today all Americans of Japanese descent can bask in the glow of Kristi Yamaguchi's impressive victory in the most recent season of Dancing with the Stars.

The lovely and talented Ms Yamaguchi did not let the fact that she basically danced on skates for her entire career as a figure skater keep her from seizing the moment -- and the crown.

Can it get any better than this?

The Devil Is In The Details

I got off the subway this morning and walked past a group of construction workers who were smoking and drinking coffee outside of their work site. The youngest of the group was wearing a t-shirt with the large, yellow initials "F.B.I." on the chest, in imitation of the police services apparel that one sees in movies and on television shows.

I've seen "F.B.I." shirts before, but there was a slight twist to this one. Usually they declare the wearer to be a "Female Body Inspector", but this shirt proclaimed to the world that he was a "Feminine Body Inspector". The funny thing was that he did not look particularly feminine. In fact, he looked as butch as any of the other construction workers.

Something Odd Out of China

There was an earthquake in China the other day. Thousands have died, and many others remain unaccounted for.

The Summer Olympics are scheduled to start in a few months, so the Chinese government felt obliged to reassure tourists that China is safe.

I don't know which is worse -- the fact that they feel they must make such a statement or the fact that they think it will actually have an impact on Olympic tourists.

Green or Red or Yellow?

I am of two minds regarding the local ban on pesticides and the resulting proliferation of dandelions. On the one hand, my eyes are constantly itchy and red from allergies, and I do not understand how cities can ban pesticides that the federal government says are safe. On the other hand, I find the carpet of yellow flowers visually stunning.

R.I.P. Civility

There was a time when my favourite city's nickname was "Toronto the Good". Not anymore. At least, not when Torontonians are riding the public transit system.

Every day I see the same acts of rudeness:

1. Perfectly healthy young men and women sit on subway and bus seats while pregnant women, parents with small children, and the elderly are forced to stand.
2. People of all ages place backpacks, briefcases, and shopping bags on the empty seat next to them, so as to drive other commuters to seek another seat elsewhere or to stand.
3. People playing their music at incredibly loud levels which can be heard across the bus or subway car.
4. People conducting conversations about work, their personal lives, the personal lives of others, the presumed personal lives of others, or the desired personal lives of others at such loud volumes than one cannot help but become party to the information.
5. People heavily salting their conversations with obscenities including that perennial favourite, the "F-word".

[If you happen to be the young lady whose telephone conversation I overheard would make a sailor blush, may I recommend Paul Fussell's excellent book on the Second World War, Wartime. Not only does his chapter on said word use it almost as much as you did, but he does it in a witty way, which your conversation was sadly lacking. But I digress.]

I won't even get into the lack of civility on the roads -- especially around intersections on yellow lights.

Saturday Night Music

I have had a musical evening.

From 7:00 til 9:00 I listened to Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap on CBC Radio 1. This week's show was the third in a series profiling songs that got stuck at number two on the charts. In addition to playing the second-place song, Bachman played the song that kept it out of the number one slot. The show covered the early 1970s so Bachman was able to play two of his own number one hits, or rather three, since No Sugar Tonight was the B side of The Guess Who's American Woman single. (The other single, by the way, was Bachman Turner Overdrive's You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.)

After 9:00, I listened to music and worked compiling my database of music recordings. This evening I worked primarily on listing folk, blues, and world music CDs. It gave me a chance to listen to several west African albums that I had not heard in quite some time

Life in the VIP Lane

I found myself in traffic with a lot of very important people today. In fact, I suspect they were surgeons rushing off to perform life-saving surgery.

At least, I presume that is the case. It is the only way I can account for the incredibly large number of people honking their horns at the slightest delays in traffic.

I hope all the patients survived.

The Great Transit Strike of Aught Eight

Well, the TTC strike is over. The provincial legislation met yesterday and unanimously passed back to work legislation. Service resumed late yesterday afternoon and today's commute was uneventful.

I suppose it is all over except for the game of trying to figure out why the transit union voted against a deal that gave them a decent increase, more benefits, and which (in the words of a TTC spokesman) did not ask any concessions.

Strike Out!

The news has just reported that the transit union has rejected the tentative deal reached earlier in the week. To make matters worse, they are striking effective midnight.

For the past couple of weeks the union had been talking big about how they would give the public 48 hours notice before starting the strike. Tonight, however, they have justified reducing this notice to 2 hours by blaming the public.

According to union leader Bob Kinnear, "We have assessed the situation and decided that we will not expose our members of the dangers of assaults from angry and irrational members of the public". It seems that members of the transit union had seen an increase in threats and abuse from passengers.

What Kinnear didn't mention how unprofessional his union members have been acting. Every day I take the subway and every day I pass TTC employees "manning" the entrance to the platform. In the morning, I am greeted by employees slouching and yawning in the seat. (Not that they even bother to show up some days.) In the evening, I walk past employees who are either busy chatting with their friends or slouching in the seat. I have heard the line about what happens to a person's attitude when you put a person in uniform, but I never assumed that it applied to the burgundy suit of TTC ticket collectors.

And don't get me started on the snotty, condescending tone the subway car operators use when addressing customers getting on and off the trains at Bloor. Here's a newsflash, idiots -- using a sarcastic tone to tell us what we already know is not going to earn our cooperation. And threatening to keep the train at the station until you get your way (which I actually heard one operator say this past week) is certainly not going to gain our respect. Nor, for that matter, will the rudeness that TTC employees show to people who do not speak English as a first language.

Now, I am in favour of people getting decent wages. However, I am also in favour of people bringing something to the table, especially when discussing a new agreement. The reportage on the negotiations concentrated entirely on what the union wanted from the TTC; it never mentioned what the union was going to bring to the table. (And that bullshit public relations campaign claiming that each TTC employee was worth a million dollars to the city's economy does not count. It proves that the union is as adept at manipulating statistics as any government organization, but it does not count as anything more than that.)

Maybe if the transit union started thinking about its customers rather than just mouthing platitudes about them, we wouldn't be so bothered by the fact that unskilled, unprofessional people with bad attitudes are upset with wages that are higher than a good many of the people who ride the TTC.

Another Sign of the Season

I was on my way to a much delayed dental check up earlier today when I came upon another sign of the changing seasons. A number of students were moving out the Ryerson University student residences.

Some of the students congregated in groups whose main purpose appeared to be to hug each other. Others were trying to balance the conflicting demands of moving their possessions out of their rooms while not been overly embarrassed by the parents who were there to help them move. There was even one brave lass whose approach to moving was to carry as much in her arms as she could and to pray that her forward momentum would carry her all the way down the street to her car.

It brought back memories of my own university days and it was as much a sign of spring's arrival as the open roof of the Skydome.

No Strike!!!

I am glad to hear that the TTC and the union were able to come to a tentative agreement and avert the strike that was scheduled to begin tomorrow. As one of the millions of riders of the TTC, I would have been sorely inconvenienced had the strike occurred. Good work to the negotiators on both sides.

Right or Right?

If you've ever doubted that Canada is different from its neighbour to the south, perhaps a law enacted in Florida this week will convince you.

On April 15th, Governor Charlie Crist signed the Preservation and Protection of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Motor Vehicles Act of 2008. The law allows employees and customers with permits to carry concealed weapons to store firearms in their vehicles while locked on company property. The law forbids most business holders from restricting concealed-permit holders from storing guns in their parked vehicles even if the parking area is accessible to the general public. Certain employers (including schools, nuclear power plants, and prisons) are exempt from the law.

Even though Florida is now the sixth US state* to enact such legislation, it did not have an easy time getting passed. The business community and the National Rifle Association scrapped it out for years before the bill action became law.

Interestingly enough, the legal challenge is likely to be on constitutional grounds since it is an infringement on the private property rights of business owners as enshrined in both the United States and Florida constitutions. That should be an interesting match up: private property rights versus the right to bear arms.

* In case you are wondering, the other five states are Alaska, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. The Oklahoma law is currently in the appeal process in the US Court of Appeals.

It's Here! It's Here!

To everything there is a season. After one of the worst winters on record, we seem to have a new season too. Today was a beautiful 23 degrees Celsius (or 73 American), making it the warmest day in a sunny week. Spring, it would appear, has come.

Personally, I like the snow. I like the crispness of the air. I like the way the blues and whites reflect light. I like the way that snow looks under streetlamps, as if someone had spilled a sack of diamond dust on a white ceramic floor. But enough, as they say, is enough and I am quite happy to walk around the streets of Toronto sans overcoat and gloves.

I'm Back -- And This Time It's Personal

That's right, folks, I am back and boy am I pissed off!

I have spent the last four or five months watching the governing Conservative Party act like a bunch of bullies and frankly I am getting tired of of what passes for a commitment to democracy in the halls of Parliament.

When Harper et al were still the loyal opposition, one frequently heard rumblings of a "democracy deficit" in parliament. The Prime Minister's Office, or so the story went, had centralized so much power under the various Liberal incumbents that the Prime Minister of Canada now has more direct power than the President of the United States. Under the Tories, however, Members of Parliament would become relevant again, Senators would serve a viable purpose, and politicians of all stripes would cooperate and sing Kumbaya as a new golden age of Canadian democracy unfolded.

Now, I haven't been to Ottawa in over a decade, but I can pretty well guarantee you that you won't be hearing Kumbaya anytime soon. In fact, the only singing you are likely to hear is the Liberal caucus singing The Death March every time He Who Passes For A Leader enters the room, but that is something for a future post.

The reason I am mad enough to start up this blog again is Bill C-10, particularly Section 120. C-10 is an omnibus bill -- a technical phrase for tacking on a whole bunch of garbage that one wants to enact into law but which is so contentious (and, often, mean-spirited) that the only way you can pass it is by attaching it to a law that no opposition parties can defeat without looking like mother-hating baby-killers. It is a notorious tactic for people who are so scared of losing a free vote that they do not have the balls, guts, or backbone (take your pick) to propose it as a separate bill.

This particular omnibus bill is designed to amend the Income Tax Act, which probably does need amending. Unfortunately, the Tories have added in a bunch of amendments which are assaults on free speech and therefore do not belong in a democratic society.

In particular, Section 120 would allow the Heritage Minister to pull tax credits from production if the Minister determined them to be "contrary to public policy". The Minister and, presumably, his or her henchmen would create guidelines to identify topics that should not receive taxpayer funding. Television programs or films that contravene the guidelines would risk having its tax credits withdrawn. They might even be asked to repay funding that was already received.

In effect, the government would be denying access to tax credits to anyone who expressed a viewpoint that differed from the authorized version of acceptable content. Think of this as a made-in-Canada version of the Hays Code, albeit a version that was introduced 78 years later. If you want to look at it a different way, the government wants the power to censor productions that do not meet its definition of good taste or political correctness.

The Tories, of course, deny this. The Heritage Commissar, I mean Minister, Josee Verner claims the bill "has nothing to do with censorship and everything to do with the integrity of the tax system. The goal is to ensure public trust in how tax dollars are spent." Well, Minister Verner, putting limits on artistic expression and free speech does not increase this member of the public's trust in how you are spending his tax dollars.

I am not surprised that some people have praised the legislation. I would never have expected groups like the Canada Family Action Coalition or Real Women of Canada to oppose any legislation that would put a muzzle on anyone who does not support their "traditional" value system. Nor am I surprised that Canadians Concerned About Violence In Entertainment would come out in favour of this. I just don't think they have the right to limit the rights of others to address serious matters.

I have to wonder if any of these proponents of Bill C-10 have ever read any good novels or seen any good television or movies, because if they had they might realize that the world is a complex place. Now, I do not advocate casual violence. I do not encourage abuse of alcohol, tobacco, narcotics, or prescription drugs. I oppose racism in all its forms, sexism, religious bigotry, and attacking people because of their sexuality.

I also oppose a simplistic mindset that refuses to accept the fact that one can include any or all of these themes in a movie without being "contrary to public policy". Especially in a diverse, multicultural democracy. Which Canada is. Or so I thought.

Here are just a few works that address issues which would not be eligible for tax credits were they to be filmed under the proposed rules:

• The Englishman's Boy, a powerful novel that was recently aired as a magnificent two-part miniseries on the CBC. There is abuse of corpses, assault and battery, gang rape, and genocide.
• The Wars, the novel by Timothy Findley, that includes a scene of homosexual sex at a brothel, violence towards rabbits and horses, and several suicides.
• A History of Violence, David Cronenberg's dark masterpiece which is filled with casual violence, matter-of-fact portrayal of prostitutes, and a horrifying, hypnotic knife-wielding ballet between naked mobsters in the shower of a Turkish bath.
• The Boys of St. Vincent, the classic but controversial docudrama about the physical and sexual abuse of orphan boys at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy.

I suppose, though, that there is one silver lining if the bill becomes law. It's been a while since I read my Bible, but I seem to recall rapes, murders, incest, violent attacks, genocide, religious persecution, witchcraft, and other activity which surely would never meet the Minister's guidelines. If the bill passes, I reckon I will be spared the indignity of having to see Biblical bio-flicks financed using credits paid for by good Canadian taxpayers like me.

The End

All good things, or so we are led to believe, must come to an end. This blog does not exactly qualify as a "good thing", but today it's come to it's end.

When I first started SilentGriot in April of 2006, I had no idea how long it would remain open. 455 posts later, it is clear to me that the time has come to shut 'er down. You see, I've got nothing to say.

Comeback? What Comeback?

I hate to sound like a word nerd but why are so many people calling Senator McCain the "comeback kid" after his victory in yesterday's New Hampshire primary. How could it be a comeback when he had never been on top before?

Husky

I was walking through the parking lot at Finch subway station this morning when a beautiful husky loped through the rows of parked cars. From time to time it would stop and sniff the ground, but for the most part it just seemed happy to be out and about amongst the pack of commuters. It would have followed us down the steps to the trains had it not been shooed away by a rather severe woman in a business suit.

The Coldest Night of the Year

Last night was the coldest night of the year, thus far, which I suppose is not saying much considering that it was only January 2nd. Perhaps it makes more sense if I say it was the coldest night of the winter. It got as cold as minus 18 degrees Celsius (that's about 0 degrees American). Of course, this being the new type of winter, things are supposed to get as high as 8 degrees Celsius (46 Fahrenheit) on the weekend, so I guess that all those people who are "wishing they could go to the south of France" (as Bruce Cockburn puts it) will be relatively content.