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Update notes
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I’m making good use of the new “announcements” section in the sidebar, for non-post content. For example, I’ve started a project of sources / references / inspirations, for accountability and because it’s good shit that I’m going to end up recommending to everyone I know at some point anyway.
On the current reading list are three heavy psychology books:
- (I’ve already mentioned) Set Boundaries, Find Peace. It’s so fundamental, I think this is my third time reading it since it came out in 2021.
- Good Morning Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery, which a friend mentioned looks interesting to her so I suggested we start a mini-book club. It has given me an idea for a poem.
- The Body Keeps the Score, which I’ve been reading slowly over some number of months but it seems more urgent now, as I wait to see if my latest symptoms are long covid or years of neglect catching up to me.
This may affect the focus of future posts, TBD. Making shit up as I go.
(The tech person reminded me repeatedly to write a blurb for Google and I couldn’t anymore than I could figure out what words to get printed on business cards. (… Although actually “Making shit up as I go” appeals to me as a placeholder.))
I’ve also figured out next steps on two big projects, I’m pilot projecting a third, and I’ve started using my professional new email address to selectively contact people I don’t know. Progress!
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A “corrupted bastard” with a jiu jitsu background
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There is video today of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh confronting a protestor who may or may not have called him a “corrupted bastard” and it is worth watching.
Singh walks like a martial artist. He ducks his head and moves in to force eye contact with the guy who seems desperate to avoid it. He looks genuinely ready to throw down and I’ll be honest: if the NDP ditched “We, Too, Love the Middle Class” for “It’s Time to Start Punching Fascists,” they’d be a lot more politically interesting.
What I’d like to know is what security service protocol says for when a Parliamentarian is within spitting distance of a fight. There are at least three security professionals in the vicinity, hanging back to watch; one actually seems to walk away, based on the shadow at 0:33.
To be fair, this was an angry politician approaching a constituent, not an angry constituent approaching a politician, so the intervention calculus would be different. But I still wonder if they ought to have gotten closer faster, and if they ought to have, why they did not.
I hope the answer isn’t because the Parliamentary Protective Service is “friendly to the cause.”
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So, how many federal employees caught covid this week?
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I’ve been pondering what to write. I’ve been following political news only enough to be confirmed in my opinions that (1) the NDP is abandoning principles and veering right and (2) Justin Trudeau’s post-retreat governance strategy remains “I’m not as bad as the other guy.”
What’s of most importance to me day-to-day at the moment is the federal government’s “return to office” policy. What it means for workers. For their time, and for their health. For their futures if they just keep their heads low now. I’m terrible at history, but I’m good at patterns.
Among the books I’m currently reading is Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab, which also applies in the employment context. Saying no to unreasonable requests is a way of standing up for yourself. The reading I’m doing on fascism also seems to confirm the importance of learning not to comply in advance, nor to comply easily against your own interests.
What unions are reportedly doing
The “three days in office” policy started this past week, and I wonder how many federal employees caught covid. I have no insider information on what unions are up to (despite repeated efforts), but I’ve been reading the news coverage and I’d call it mixed.
The better story is about unions complaining about pests in public buildings. This is a good move. Obviously employees shouldn’t have to commute to worse conditions when they can do their job at least equally well in better.
Consider the health and safety standards employers thought were reasonable to expect of you in your own home when you’re teleworking. Employer work spaces – which are communal and publicly funded – should have better working conditions than that. At minimum the employer should be meeting the standards they required for remote work. There’s no reason office conditions should be worse, unless federal employers are massive hypocrites who just want to download costs and don’t actually care about your well-being.
I assume “flood management with complaints” is a deliberate union strategy, and I love it. Submit insect and wildlife complaints. Submit plumbing and HVAC complaints! Submit ergonomic complaints while you’re at it. I wouldn’t even call this “malicious” compliance when the complaints just require the employer to provide a safe workspace. It’s just good boundary-setting.
The worse story is whatever the fuck PSAC thought it was doing by targeting third-party businesses downtown instead of federal employers and politicians. Do unions not stand for solidarity and punching up? Appalling.
If unions are lacking in ideas for effective campaigns…
I will reiterate, if unions are lacking in ideas for effective campaigns, that employees could be encouraged to start tabulating the costs of this unnecessary commute, including actual expenses and quantified time (by my calculations: 4-8 weeks per year of vacation). How much is this policy costing each employee individually? What is the total cost to all employees under the collective agreement? What legal right does the employer have to conscript this wealth when it’s not even necessary for the job?
Those expenses should be compensated by the employer who is imposing the in-office requirement as a condition of employment. There’s a non-zero chance a chaos judge would accept the argument that federal employers will have to reintroduce mileage payments and per diems if they’re going to require a commute that is (1) unrelated to productivity, (2) imposed outside of contractually agreed-upon hours, and (3) an actual risk to employee health (due to government failures in public health and infrastructure). I see a pretty strong Bedford-style argument sitting right there.
If even unionized employees just go along politely, at their own expense and at potential detriment to their health, what lessons do employers learn?
Let me know if anyone wants to borrow my C02 monitor for data collection.
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Making political games out of people’s lives
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I didn’t write about this week’s big political drama because I’ve been too depressed, at the finger-pointing and lack of introspection. The desire for power at the expense of principle. How common it is to refuse to distinguish between fact and propaganda. How society conflates arrogance with competence, at least when it comes to white men.
I had things to say but I was too discouraged to say them.
We make choices every day. We can choose to help people who need it, or we can pretend the only people who matter are “middle class” or richer. We can listen when people point out our actions are causing harm, or we can ignore them and continue to cause harm.
It can be discouraging to point out when people are causing us harm. We’re told we don’t matter. We’re told we’re too sensitive, too needy. We’re told it’s too much work to fix. Sometimes we’re accused of being the problem, because we pointed out the existence of harm. Often we’re told that we should be grateful because the harm could be worse; often that comment comes with threatening subtext. But staying quiet means things will never get better.
I can’t make people listen if they’re determined not to understand. But I can concentrate on reducing the harm I cause myself, and some other day I might have the spoons to try again.
Quick update on pharmacare
I’ll do a quick update on pharmacare, though, since I have the facts to hand after the last few days of trying to get Liberal supporters to admit that it doesn’t actually exist yet. (They’ve proven even less receptive to the facts that (1) Justin Trudeau introduced the bill only under significant pressure from the NDP, after nine years as Prime Minister, and (2) the text is considerably less impressive than their talking points.)
I compared the bill as introduced to the bill as it currently exists in the Senate and my earlier analysis stands. The only changes made to the proposed law so far are to reduce the Minister’s discretion a tiny bit, by turning two “may”s into “must”s (ss. 6(1) and 7) and by imposing a tabling requirement with time limit (new s. 11(3)). Those are fine amendments – there’s no reason, for example, that the Minister should be permitted to bury expert reports or refuse to pay out after entering into an agreement with a province – but they do nothing to speed up the process of Canadians getting support with medical expenses.
The only path to that is for politicians to start privileging the needs of their constituents over their own egos.
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The limits of patience in politics
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Among the practices I’m working on is patience. I imagine it’s challenging to develop patience at the best of times and particularly hard when society is on an obvious path to climate collapse and mass disabling and fascism and the people in charge seem determined to keep on chugging down that track.
It’s not a secret that I’ve found Justin Trudeau disappointing. Seeing him fail to live up to his inspiring promises as Canada got obviously worse was among the factors contributing to my professional burnout; seeing him pitch nothing but “I’m better than populists” as he tanks in the polls has cemented my cynicism. Sure, the vulnerable will die slower under your continued reign, what a great deal. Even people whose livelihoods depend on him have had enough of his failure to live up to his own human rights rhetoric. I’d bet money it contributed to the collapse of his marriage to a compassionate idealist.
I can’t help hoping we’ll get to experience the same excitement as Americans, of the disappointing white guy admitting it’s time to step aside for the good of the country, in favour of someone who might actually challenge a very bad status quo. I don’t know who that someone would be, though, who is likely to inspire the same excitement as Kamala Harris and the Coach. Trudeau maneuvered the women who actually speak truth to power out of politics. Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney obviously aren’t going to shake things up.
Scrolling through the Cabinet list, the most enthusiasm I can muster is “might be interesting” or “might not be awful.” Anita Anand seems like she has the clarity but keeps getting sucked into Liberal complacency. Watching François-Philippe Champagne engage with people is always fun. I’d support the redemption arc where Steven Guilbeault starts setting fire to shitty government policies rather than the planet. Mélanie Joly has been surprisingly strong and I’d love to see her publicly challenge her disappointing old friend. The chaos goblin in me also thinks Pablo Rodriguez could be entertaining.
Apparently there’s a Cabinet retreat next week, and there is private grumbling. TBD if Trudeau will take the hint that he’s wasted his lustre, and TBD if any of the more interesting private grumblers will become public. I suspect I can be relatively patient until November, when in an ideal world Kamala Harris wins and Liberals en masse learn the right lesson.
Canada needs a Prime Minister who will overcome Justin Trudeau’s ineffectuality, not someone who will perpetuate it. Continued patience is not the right choice for this time in this world.
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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.)
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