Enid Norah Monteith 1933-2009

Enid Norah Monteith (née Lucas) died suddenly December 13, 2009.

She is lovingly remembered by her husband of 56 years Mel Monteith, her brother Ken Lucas (Anne-Marie) of Ottawa, her sister-in-law Doreen (Roy Baillargeon) of Kamloops, her children Mike (Linda), Brandy (Brenton Wilkie), Terry (John Pisarczyk), Ken, Syd (Tracy Baird), 8 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren

Enid grew up in Kamloops, graduated from Kamloops Senior Secondary School in 1951, and worked as a legal, administrative and medical secretary while raising a family throughout the B.C. interior.

Enid was a hard-working, intelligent, creative and caring person. Her baking talents and great sense of humour brought pleasure to countless others. She was a ravenous reader and took a keen interest in what was happening in the world around her.

Together with her husband Mel, Enid raised a loving family and inspired them all to do their best. What made her happiest was having her whole family together, and it is a tribute to them both that being together is always a happy experience for the whole family.

Enid will be remembered in a private family gathering. There will be no service by request.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital (Acute Care), R.R. 1, Clearwater, B.C. V0E 1N0.

Enid, Mum, Granny…we miss you.

Inappropriate Eating

Okay, it's time to denounce a practice that I keep seeing but will never accept. Nor should I. I am talking about the scourge of eating on public transit — what are you people thinking?!

This is not just about hygiene, although if you are really trying to consume everyone else's viruses and bacteria, you couldn't find a better place. Grab that bar or strap to steady yourself and then, once seated, use the same hand to manipulate your sandwich into your germ receptacle (mouth).

It is also not just about the cleanliness of the bus or the metro car, although I am generally grossed out by having to avoid a seat or a patch of floor because of the crumbs — or worse! — that I find there and disgusted by those who would just drop their food wrappers where they stand instead of hanging on to put it in a proper garbage can.

Oh no, this is about the rudeness of it. It is not the appropriate place to eat, just like it is not the appropriate place to have a loud and animated conversation on the phone (but that's a whole other post, now, isn't it?!). You are impinging on the space of others who are using public transit for the purpose it is intended to serve (travel from one point to another) and you are having an inadequate culinary experience on top of that. For shame!

Beyond the bus and the metro, there is another offender I would like to mention that has no place on the sidewalk. This is a relatively new phenomenon, having arisen with the Starbucks and the Second Cups. It is the person stumbling down the street with her/his cup of coffee held out in front at half-arm's length.

This coffee thing tends to happen at all times of the day, but I imagine it to the worst during the morning rush hour. I get it that you are addicted to coffee. I get it that you have some place to be. I get it that you are late. Surely none of these things is well-served by your rude stumbling along the sidewalk with your coffee outstretched before you.

At best, you will have an unsatisfactory coffee experience (probably bad coffee in that cup anyway, getting cold faster than you had planned) and you will arrive at work late and with coffee spills on your outfit. At worst, you will spill your coffee on me and that, my friends, is completely unacceptable!

Get up a little earlier or call to warn your work that you will be a little late today, sit down and enjoy your addiction to caffeine the way it was intended to be enjoyed. Or do we need to get funding to set up a safe sipping site for you?

World AIDS Day

I'm with Brian on this one. Er…let me explain…

It's World AIDS Day as I write this (the day doesn't end until I go to bed) and I have a shopping list of items that I would like to get as gifts on this day.

The serious version:
• Stable and adequate funding for AIDS organizations and those working with populations vulnerable to HIV infection
• Appropriate prevention activities for all who might encounter a risk of contracting HIV
• Appropriate HIV sensitization activities for all
• Affordable and effective medications for people wherever they live — and the same standards for defining what that means
• Accessible medical follow-up for all
• Judges who recognize that personal responsibility is shared when two people are involved
• Effective interventions to proactively address the issue of stigma and discrimination related to HIV/AIDS
• Policy decisions based on science and not ideology
• A cure?

And just to keep it light:
• A wealthy, generous and doting boyfriend so that I can be what I have always wanted to be — a volunteer!

Only 364 shopping days until the next World AIDS Day….

Hypocrisy

Today, the Swiss voted in a national referendum to ban the construction of minarets in their country. They voted convincingly enough that this measure will be added to the Swiss constitution.

Now, I'm no friend of religion, and certainly no friend of one that in many of its manifestations would rather see me dead than alive, but I have to pose that question about subjecting a minority's rights to referendum. The whole idea of human rights protection — and these measures are generally enshrined in countries' constitutions — is to protect unpopular minorities (the popular ones not needing any help).

The ultimate hypocrisy, of course, is to be found in so-called laic societies defending themselves against the expression of a religion that might be newer to their territory while defining the symbols of the dominant religion as 'cultural' and therefore protected from the application of the same norms.

I'm sure that the church spires I have juxtaposed with minarets in the pictures above are seen as 'heritage buildings' or 'cultural symbols', but I really don't see the difference between them. I have read that the four existing minarets in Switzerland are not even used to issue the call to prayer. Can we say the same thing about the bells (or increasingly speakers) in all of those church bell towers?

This all reminds me of our vociferous debate in Québec about 'reasonable accommodation' of minorities, sparked by a similarly intolerant ban on burkas by a by-law of the town of Hérouxville. After a commission that heard testimony from many hundreds of groups and individuals called for the reinforcement of laicism in our society, the members of the National Assembly voted unanimously (unanimously!) to reaffirm the presence of the crucifix above the Speaker's chair as a 'cultural symbol'.

This pretty recognizable symbol of Christianity has not been there since the building was built. It was installed during the 'grand noirceur', the reign of conservative Catholic premier Maurice Duplessis.

I'd say if you are going to ban one, you must ban them all. Maybe we can start by removing their tax-exempt status and see who survives.

One More Long Day

My last night in Toronto, and I am worn out! It has been an interesting conference, but the days have been rather long and I feel like I just need to nap.

An annual general meeting tomorrow and then we will zip off to catch the 5 pm train back to Montréal. (Our choice was to rush less for the train, but take the milk run and get in at almost midnight, which didn’t appeal to me.)

As I promised last time out, here are a couple of shots from my hotel room window in the daylight.

Osgoode Hall, home to the Law School and the Court of Appeal (my Toronto friends will correct me if I mixed up what actually happens in there).

Toronto’s very distinctive city hall, with its curved towers. As many times as I have been to this city, this is the first time I have been in this neighbourhood. I had never even seen the old city hall, right next to the new one (but out of my picture). It is a very lovely brown stone building with delightful gargoyles sticking out from the four corners of its clock tower. Here is a lovely photo of it that I picked from the web, specifically from here:

T-Dot

I am in Toronto for the next few days for the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) Research Conference and the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE). I came on the train with my Board President and amused myself along the way updating my Facebook status with my progress (I had to add back in the accents on the French ones, as FB stripped them away!):

- is headed to T-Dot on the T-rain today.
- est à Dorval...en route vers T-point. Est-ce que ça se dit?
- empiète sur le térritoire canadien...et personne n'a demandé de passeport!
- Cornwall! (Hi Shendah's mother!)
- Kingston, et le train sera complêt pour le reste du voyage, on annonce.
- Farmland...and no sudoku in the VIA Destinations magazine.
- Guildwood.
- 29e étage! (Oui, le monsieur est arrivé a T-point.)

Only 8 updates, which I consider rather restrained. ;-)

Now for the lexical translation… T-Dot being a hopelessly inane name for Toronto. I believe it started with T.O., and then they just dropped the O (did it sound too much like BO?). This is probably all quite passé as well, as I think they are calling it « Metro » since their own municipal mergers, but that will always designate for me a train on rubber tires wending its way through underground Montréal.

To make things worse, I have attempted my own translation of the archaic inane expression, making it T-point in French. All of my FB friends are most confused.

I will attempt some photos of my fabulous view, looking north over Osgoode Hall and the Toronto City Hall, from the 29th floor of the hotel, but that will have to wait until there’s a little light tomorrow.

For now, in a nod to Bob, let me offer you a look at my hotel room. I wonder if his will be looking similar this week?

Verification

How annoying! One of my long-ago posts suddenly had a spammy comment (selling likely fake pharmaceuticals), so I have had to enable the word verification thingy on my comments.

If I get any more I will have to start moderating, even though I prefer free expression. Of course, the kind of expression I have in mind when I think of that isn't trying to sell anything or cheat someone of their money.

Grrrr.