Greenpeace is still working tirelessly to bring some sense to Canada's tar sands - never thought I would see such devastation of Canada's environment and reputation as the tar sands. Meanwhile, French protest groups are gearing up to try to stop a large installation of wind turbines near Mont-St-Michel - only in France would such a protest against clean energy be so vocal.
In the most shocking example of discrimination I have heard of in a long time, Tourism Minister Diane Ablonczy has been pulled off her portfolio because she awarded money to gay pride events. Toronto's Pride events are a cultural event like any other, and draw tourists to the city from the entire Golden Horseshoe and beyond. The fact that sexual orientation is protected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms begs the question of how Harper's government expects to deny Pride funding without being challenged - and overturned - in court. The idea that Pride could be controversial to some Canadians underlines the need for the event, to help educate people on what should already be a moot point by now. While I have never been a fan of wasting taxpayer money on court challenges, Harper has consistently thrown our cash into protracted battles against socially progressive programs (InSite, medical marijuana and lisenced growers, etc.), and it is time someone stood up to his misogynistic, patriarchal war on common sense. Pride is a tourist event like any other, serving as a celebration of all types of sexuality, as well as an educational forum. It has transformed itself into a family friendly event, and done wonders for Toronto's reputation as an inclusive city of diversity. The fact that the grant was used to address accessibility for handicapped attendees further proves that Ablonczy was in the right. Canadian white supremists will be happy to note that Harper is one step closer to denying permits for Caribana due to its potentially controversial racial motif.
A recent decision by the BC Human Rights Council ruled that Dr. Gerald Korn, an ob/gyn practicing in the province for several decades, contravened the human rights of a lesbian couple to whom he denied access to artificial insemination based on their sexual orientation.
His claim was that by providing the service he was opening himself up to risks to his practice, of an efficient/economic nature. Luckily the BC Human Rights Council ruled against him, and this ruling was in essence backed by the BC Supreme Court. This kind of discrimination is clearly in contravention of the Canadian Federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act (esp. section 2e), as well as common sense. It brings up interesting issues surrounding the role of medical practitioners in society, and what rights they have to deny services on moral/ethical/financial grounds. In my opinion, there is very little room for a doctor's personal moral/ethical beliefs in diagnosing or treating patients, especially as they relate to areas protected by the Canadian Human Rights Act.
A recent California case has mirrored the Canadian case. In it, a lesbian couple has claimed that they were discriminated against by a clinic which refused to treat them because of their sexual orientation. The clinic however has blamed communication problems and denies that the couple's sexuality was at issue, instead stating that the treatment was denied because the prospective patient was single. This case is drawing interest from conservative religious and gay activist groups, many of whom have been granted an audience before the court. Pharmacists in the US have been increasingly granted the right to refuse to fill certain prescriptions based on moral grounds (manifesting as denials to provide contraceptives - and, sometimes illegally, to even transfer prescriptions to another pharmacist), which has combined with the lack of acceptance of the morning after pill (which is often not kept in stock at certain chemists) to add up to a barrier to choice of crisis proportions. However, discriminating against services or treatments is far different from discriminating against people.
In both of these instances, the morals of the doctor were pitted against the rights of the patients to receive care. This is a sticky human rights issue pitting freedom of religion against freedom from discrimination and issues of universal access to health care (at least in Canada, where lip service is generally backed up - despite notable inequalities in access to reproductive services experienced in rural, eastern, and aboriginal communities). While "No one can force me to carry a child" has a long tradition of acceptence, "No one can keep me from having a child" deserves just as much sway.
If you are Canadian, then chances are you are getting your information about your community, nation, and the world from one of a small handful of media conglomerates. This is true for newspapers, television, radio, and increasingly internet, and these various forms of media are often all under the control of one company. This kind of oligarchical control over the information that Canadians receive is unacceptable - there have been a plethora of stories (usually printed by a rival conglomerate) about the centralized owners of a media chain interfering in the editorial independence of journalists. This has taken the form of everything from issuing stories 'of national interest' that local papers must run, a relatively benign event, to killing stories attempting to expose Jean Chretien's involvement in corruption, and subsequently firing the journalist responsible for the story, for supposedly unrelated reasons. This type of undemocratic influence rips at the very heart of journalism's supposed role as an unbiased source of information.
In a democracy, the principle of an informed citizenry is key to allowing elected officials to be held accountable for their actions, and for keeping important and unresolved issues at the forefront of the social imagination. The concentration of media ownership which has occurred over the past three decades has served to limit the number of choices Canadians can make for their news. In addition, those sources that remain are increasingly accountable to anonymous shareholders, forced to prioritize a profit above their responsibility to report in an unbiased and accurate manner. This is not suggesting that media companies have were not interested in profit in the past - rather, it seems that the balance of power has swung away from principled editors and toward amoral owners and investors, to the detriment of the wider public.
Coupled with the shifts toward fewer news sources presenting fewer opinions, and the power shift toward self-interested capital at the expense of principles, has come the misguided belief that the public should in some way be consulted about what news is presented to them. This misguided notion has resulted in the extensive use of polls and ratings micromanagement. This is especially unfortunate in light of the fact that polling reliability is being called into question. Again, by no means have media ever operated in a vacuum, separate from the wants of the public they serve. However, an unfortunate side effect of the modern media corporation's propensity to worship at the altar of public opinion is the distortion of news media into a new breed of "info-tainment". This new species of media passing itself off as news is more likely to dedicate air-time or page-length to celebrity gossip and prolonged scandals than it is to less popular, though still vital, issues such as campaign finance reform.
Another problem facing the profit-driven, consumer-generated media choices being presented is that they are invariably the most violent and sensationalized stories from around the world, selected more for their shock value (and subsequently their ratings value, and subsequently their advertising dollar pull) than for their intrinsic worth as news. While unfortunate that humans are drawn to extreme violence, it is more unfortunate how modern media cater to these tastes like never before. This can help explain why heavy media consumers overestimate their likelihood of being involved in violence, why they experience higher levels of anxiety, and why they are more likely to behave in antisocial ways toward others. There are, of course, other studies which deny that violent media have a negative effect on viewers. Since there are fewer voices presenting fewer issues, focusing increasingly on titillating our basest fascinations, there is a dearth of stories Canadians need to hear - such as the issue of media concentration.
Welcome to my blog. This is my space to rant about the important issues of our day, with a focus toward those that aren't getting their fair share in the mainstream media. And yeah, I may occassionally delve into the muddy cesspool of entertainment news, but hey, I'm only human. Check this space for a list of past and future topics. Feel free to comment on entries or email me suggestions. Cheers! Wes Kellar
Past Issues: Media Concentration 1 and 2 Access to Reproductive Technology 1 Drugged Animals 1 Alberta Tar Sands 1 Stephen Harper's War on Gay Pride 1 Stephen Harper Visits The Pope 1 Sherlock Holmes (2009) 1 The Secret Homosexual Handshake 1 Alice In Wonderland (2010) 1
Future Issues: RFID MSG and Aspartame Age Discrimination for Tubal Ligation The Fight for Fair Copyright Canadian Blood Services Discrimination
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