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About the author
CKirkby
- earned degrees in language / literature and law (but is not currently a lawyer or a journalist);
- worked for over a decade on Parliament Hill;
- misses writing; and
- appreciates thoughtful comments, en anglais ou en français. (Email addresses are not published.)
June 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Categories
Archive
Yearly Archives: 2024
Poverty tax fund idea
You know what, I’ll tell the internet about a project I want to be working on: a revolving pot of money people can borrow from for things like buying in bulk and avoiding “insufficient funds” charges. A very simple ledger. … Continue reading
Posted in Community, Projects
2 Comments
“This question could end up in court and is beyond your pay grade”
I was thinking again today about the decision that held Air Canada responsible for the garbage spewed by its “customer service” chatbot, as I tried repeatedly to explain a very precise question to a call-centre agent. Likely under-paid. Definitely under-supported. Continue reading
Punishing individuals for societal failures
We do, as a society, love to punish people for things that are beyond their control. Continue reading
Paying people for their work
I was very stubborn at someone today re: the principle that they deserved to be paid for their work. Continue reading
A short chronology
The outcome I wanted was for Voilà to uphold the fine print in their email and stop forcing expensive waste on customers, but it looks like at best I have annoyed them into deleting a sentence that could be used against them. Continue reading
Societal untruths
On this April first I’m thinking about some of the different ways society encourages or enables us to deceive each other.
There’s April Fools’ Day, of course, and there’s Santa Claus. Government entities like NORAD and Canada Post even get in on that “benevolent” lie.
And then there’s Parliamentary privilege… Continue reading
Arbitrary deadlines
In case anyone is interested, there has been no activity on the pharmacare bill the federal government introduced a month ago and bragged about as a “giant step forward for our health system” and “a concrete step toward true and lasting gender equality.” Continue reading
Posted in Commentary, Employment, Health, Politics
Tagged being human, legislative process, pharmacare
1 Comment
Some good sentences
I have written some good sentences in relation to ongoing projects. Continue reading
Empty words
I don’t actually want to spend all my time fighting with people.
Ideally, when I raise concerns to someone, they would respond from a place of compassion and act promptly for the well-being of other humans and the planet. Continue reading
July comes before October
I would bet there’s racism going on here too, but this sentence made me think of all the times I had to explain something comparable to “July comes before October” to a government department and it’d still take them years to agree with me. Continue reading →