The Hungover Pundit

Golden Globe

After a couple of weeks of crises, a serious illness in the family (thankfully not my illness, but sadly still my family), a plunge into the deep-freeze and general all-round aggravation, I’m taking a bit of a break from the heavy politics and write about something I’m actually quite passionate about: Sailing in general and specifically the 2022 Golden Globe Race.

Those who know me know I’m in love with sailboats. I cut my teeth on a friend’s little Hunter 23.5 trailer-sailor more than twenty years ago and I’ve had the bug ever since. I used to crew on race nights out of the now sadly-defunct Port Hope Yacht Club on a variety of boats and it was a lot of fun… not to mention a great way to get out on the water if your sailboat budget is (as mine was at the time) only in the double digits. Last summer, as the first step in getting our own boat, my spouse and I registered for a keelboat program and passed the Sail Canada Basic Cruising Standard exam. The buy-our-own-boat plan has taken a bit of a financial hit recently, but it’s definitely still the long-term goal.

Growing Up in a Vacuum

So there were two heartening developments in LGBTQ+ news yesterday. The first, of course, was the overwhelming community turnout in Peterborough to oppose the same dozen fascist dipshits that have been trying to disrupt drag queen storytimes or drag brunches all across Southern Ontario. Police estimated about three hundred people turned out to defend the venue, which is amazing. There was a similarly large turnout to counter hate yesterday in Coquitlam BC, opposing that province’s version of the Dimwit Dozen semi-pro bigotry team.

I’ve expressed my opinion of the bigots’ bullshit before: they’re not “protecting” anything, they’re just getting their jollies by being able to scream homophobic abuse in public without consequences. Honestly, though you’d think they’d start to get the point when every time the local community comes out en masse to protect these events while they have to drive for hours, pay for gas and rent hotel rooms just to make hateful fools of themselves again and again. The endorphin payoff has to be hitting the law of diminishing returns by now.

What I Wish I’d Said

I have a lot of weird interactions when I’m out and about. I’m very well known among my friends for running into complete strangers who will give me advice, or confront me, or offer to sell me stuff or just generally tell me things. Once, I had a random stranger in a parking lot aggressively demand to know why I had a canoe lashed to the top of my car; he seemed quite put out when I told him that obviously, I was a bobsledder. I’ve had people complement me on my various pins, t-shirts, and jewellery, and then I turn around and had someone insult me for the very same thing. After the Pulse nightclub shooting I’d been making a point of wearing my Pride rings and an elderly lady in a grocery store asked me what they meant, then wept and called me a “brave boy” when I explained. I recently had an anti-masker charge at me screaming for wearing an N-95 in public.

And don’t get me started on all the weird shit that’s happened to me at various LCBOs across this province. The trick to dealing with the weirdness is to keep calm and, when necessary, deploy a caustic wit.

Doxxed Again & A Reportback

Writing has always helped me process stuff, so taking advantage of the unexpected bump in popularity on my Twitter feed that I’ve recently gotten, let’s try and reboot this blog.

First off, we’ve been doxxed. After my spouse and I joined in the community defence of an all-ages Drag Brunch in our hometown, far-right bad actors identified us (not actually hard, since I was live-tweeting from an account which links to this blog and I’ve never hidden my real name) the chuds quickly posted our home address, our workplaces, our phone numbers and so forth. Our personal information is out there, we’ve both been receiving death threats both at home and at work, various far-right scum are gleefully spreading hate and outright lies about us online, the whole works.

In short, this does not a very merry Christmas make.

Police and Trust Two Years Later

Given the recent tide of outrage against anti-vaxxers demonstrating at hospitals, there’s been an increasing amount of discussion on the role of the police in this country; specifically, why the police can’t seem to do anything about anti-vaxx protests, and yet can somehow behave very aggressively towards indigenous activists and homeless encampments.

Ordinary Canadians are increasingly shocked that this one-sided approach to policing is occurring… while LGBTQ+ people, people of colour and above all indigenous communities have been stifling the urge to jump up and down and scream “we told you so.”

I for one welcome the fact that straight white people can see a massive injustice when it parks itself in front of an ambulance bay and blocks traffic and I’m pleased that they’re finally asking why the police are allowed to let one group slide while cracking down hard on others.

This is a critically important discussion. Police in Canada and especially in Ontario have no meaningful oversight of their actions and have a great deal of discretion in how they decide to go about “maintaining law and order.” It’s a situation rife for abuse and injustice, and desperately needs reform. I’ve been writing about that need for a long time now… and sadly I suspect I’ll have to continue to write about it for a long time to come.