The thoughts of a writer, activist, and alcohol enthusiast
As astute readers of the blog are aware, I’ve not been posting for the past couple of weeks. Basically, I’m dealing with a serious health issue and that’s taking up most of my emotional energy and creativity.
I’m putting the blog on hiatus for the next couple of weeks or so while I sort things out.
I hope to be back at it by mid-December.
Last Friday CBC’s Samantha Craggs published a story about the Hamilton Police Service’s post-Pride analysis; apparently she’d gotten a copy of a document called “The Way Forward“, outlining the response to “concerns raised by members of the LGBTQ at a meeting in August.” Along with a great deal of pious insincerity about how “[The HPS] is committed to self-reflection — words matter” and how they “must consider the impact of its words, active listening and working towards restoring trust” the document proposes an “action plan” for the HPS to improve their relationship to the LGBTQ+ community in Hamilton, including several specific recommendations:
– The creation of an “online portal” to educate the general public about hate crimes.
– Implementing “more officer training.”
– Resurrecting the long-defunct LGBTQ+ advisory committee.
– Appointing a uniformed officer to be an “official liaison” with the LGBTQ+ community
On Monday, October 21st, millions of Canadians went to the polls, exercised their democratic franchise, and sent a message to Ottawa with a resounding “meh.” Voter turnout was slightly lower than in 2015 at 65.95% of total eligible voters and the result was a Liberal minority government. The Conservatives did worse than they expected, the Bloc Quebecois did better, and the NDP managed to stay relevant and energized despite not having all that good a night in objective terms.
It was, in many ways, an absolutely normal Canadian election.
In other ways, not so much. The presence of the extreme-right “People’s Party of Canada” under Maxime Bernier revealed a vein of populism, racism and outright xenophobia that runs right through the Canadian political landscape. The PPC quickly became popular with Canada’s white-supremacist/fascist/neo-Nazi subculture who saw in the rise of a populist party a way to get their ideas into the mainstream political discussion. Of course, these fascist chuds very quickly convinced themselves that the PPC was the vanguard of the long-awaited populist wave which would rise up and sweep all the filthy immigrants, godless faggots and ANTIFA terrorists into the sea.
Clearly, this was not what happened… mostly because the alt-right goofs continue to ignore the fact that bots can’t vote.
Continue reading “The Absurdity of Hashtag-Wexit”