Twenty-six: Deflection

There has been a fascinating difference between how the Occupy movement was received in Canada versus the US. The occupations themselves seem to have ended the same, although more violently in some parts of the US, but the beginning of the occupations provoked quite different reactions.

In the US, everyone to the left of Fox News seems to have heralded this understandable reaction to the excesses of the banking sector in particular and big business in general, along with their disproportionate influence on politics. It took the Democratic Party quite a long time to embrace them with somewhat open arms.

In Canada, a whole other approach. Deflection. The Governor of the Bank of Canada expressing his understanding of the frustration that people can feel, but this is really about supporting the US movement, because they have something real to be upset about. Things just aren't that bad in Canada. This approach later repeated by other high level individuals, cabinet ministers, etc.

Oh really? I will give you that our banks were not as deregulated as their US counterparts, and that we have a somewhat less porous social safety net, what with medicare and all. If our banks did not teeter on the brink during the worst of the banking crisis, it is because they have been gouging us for a long time, so they are very solvent and stable. Is political power more widely distributed here than there? Wealth? Not particularly, but pointing southward worked.

Canadians didn't (and don't — it isn't over) take the movement as seriously and were more dismissive, less upset by the expulsions from public spaces. We sit here in our smug superiority pointing south to the real disparities and not seeing those at home.

A clever strategy on the part of our own ruling class, but no more respectful of the majority than the bare shows of force in some of the evictions in the US.

Twenty-five: Back of the Bus

More bus etiquette, I'm afraid.

When you get on the bus and the seats at the front are taken, move to the back! It is truly not helpful for you to take up a position next to the wheel wells — the narrowest part of the interior of the bus — blocking the progress of everyone else toward the empty part of the bus in the back.

Extra props to those who do this with their shopping carts or baby carriages. I can't imagine how anyone thinks this is a good idea. Now, I will recognize that people are just not very good about getting up and offering the baby carriage area to the person who actually has one of those. Half the time that that area is available, the carriage pusher opts to sit somewhere else and make a big show of pulling the carriage as close to the seat as possible, still effectively blocking the passage.

I have to say that when I get on a bus and find myself facing a bottleneck because two people, often with backpacks, have installed themselves on either side of the wheel well area, I am starting to push through. I know that I won't fit through the ten-centimetre space that is left, so I just push, disgusting them with contact with my oversized stomach.

If you don't like it, stop blocking the front of the bus!

Twenty-four: Listen to Your Mother

I'm heading into a public transit theme here, I suspect…

Earlier this week, I was standing on the bus near the back doors — you know, the ones you are supposed to use to exit, rather than fighting your way to the front — and the man in the forward-facing double seat AND his child both had coughs.

Did they cover their mouths when they coughed? Oh no. How better to demonstrate your concern for your fellow humans than to cough openly on a crowded bus. And directly onto the guy with no immune system to boot!

Now I am exaggerating a bit. I do not wear a sign indicating that my immune system is compromised (not entirely absent), and the man may have turned his head a bit to cough directly onto someone else. His example to his child, however, was quite clear and the uptake was swift and efficient. Cough, cough, cough. No attempt to cover the mouth or to engage in what we are now urged to do: coughing into our elbows.

Nope, just get those germs out there and spread them as widely as possible.

Twenty-three: Get a Grip

Anyone who takes public transit regularly has seen this. Well, maybe not the version above, but the person who leans against or so wraps her/himself around the vertical pole in the bus or metro that no one else can use it for support.

What, what, what are they thinking?!! The answer, of course, is that they are not thinking. Absorbed with thoughts of their own comfort, they are oblivious to the needs of those around them. I feel that when someone does this, I am entitled to stand uncomfortably close to them, so that they will break my fall if there is a sudden stop.

My other observation about this comes from my bus ride home the other day. The boy w2as draped all over the vertical cushion meant to line up with the back of a wheelchair and his arms snaked around the available poles. Cute, yes, but not so cute as to avoid my scorn from taking up all the hand grips on a crowded bus.

Twenty-two: Emotions in Their Place

Specifically crying. There is no place in a debate for tears.

I've had this experience before, where a group is discussing a serious issue that raises the emotional level all around and someone bursts into tears. I tend to feel blackmailed by that. We all want to be considerate and respect that someone is profoundly emotionally affected by the debate, but not to the point of giving in to that person's position.

One group I was a part of got to the point of offering a few moments to the person to gather themselves back up before returning to the debate. Fascinating how quickly those tears dried up and how seldom they returned in later debates.

Twenty-one: Just the Facts

You'll never understand how little time a journalist might have to grasp the meaning of all of the facts behind a story and the impact that might have on the quality of the information you are receiving until the story is about something with which you are familiar.

This happened to me today when I got home from work and listened to a radio reporter explain the situation currently unfolding at Citizenship and Immigration Canada. It seems that the often-criticized appointments of adjudicators to the Refugee Determination Board (hey, no fact-checking on my part, just going with what was on the radio) will be no more. The positions are being transformed into professional public service jobs and it seems that a number of currently-serving adjudicators have taken and failed the exam designed to test their knowledge of the subject matter.

This is where the story goes off the rails for me. The reporter asserted that these positions are currently called Governors in Council.

There are a large number of positions that are designated as being appointed by the Governor in Council. This means that they are executive branch appointments (ie: the Prime Minister appoints them), or, in our antiquated constitutional monarchy, by the Governor General in consultation with the Privy Council.

So, no, those positions are not known as Governors in Council. This is pretty basic government structure stuff. Some people need to make a little more effort to understand their subject matter before they charge ahead with confidence to mislead us all.