April 13, 2010

Revolution from within

The night that I meet Nerissa Cariño, there are several children at her home in Pickering, Ontario. Four are her own: Cariño and her partner have boys aged 11, seven and three, and a five-year-old girl. The others are family that they are babysitting. “It’s really loud there!” she says, as we chat at Tim Hortons. But Cariño seems pretty serene about the situation – the U of T student, volunteer, activist and volleyball player is used to being pulled in a lot of directions.

In November, Cariño was awarded the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s Peace Medallion. The award recognized V-Day events that she organized at U of T Scarborough in 2009. V-Day is a movement inspired by Eve Ensler’s playThe Vagina Monologues – independent groups hold events all over the world on or around February 14, raising awareness and money for charities that combat violence against women. It’s an issue that Cariño has become passionate about. “To raise money, I approached entrepreneurs. And many of the women said, ‘I really want to get involved, because this is what happened to me,’” she says.

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April 9, 2010

Protesters mount anti-G8 “people’s summit”

Organizers are calling this summer’s G8 and G20 summits “the largest security event in Canadian history” — more expensive and elaborate, even, than the Vancouver Olympics. The federal government will spend at least $179 million on security, first at the Huntsville G8 Summit and then in Toronto, where the G20 will meet at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

It’s the cost of holding one of the world’s most divisive meetings in a major city, where dissenters cannot be kept out of sight. The G8 and G20 have become flashpoints for protests about social justice, environmentalism and anti-globalization.

Here in Toronto, activists have been planning for the meetings since last spring but kicked into high gear with a flurry of press releases in March. They are working hard to build something as different as possible from the exclusive closed-door meetings of the G8 and G20.

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March 23, 2010

“Slow steaming” cuts costs and and carbon for global shipping

It’s been a tough couple of years for the shipping industry. First there was the recession, which led to almost 12 percent of the world’s cargo ships spending last December empty and anchored. The industry has also come under fire by environmentalists for its contributions to climate change and air pollution.

At December’s Copenhagen summit, the group Climate Justice Action (CJA) staged a protest outside the headquarters of Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies. While shipping may be a worthy target—it’s responsible for two to five percent of global CO2 emissions—going after Maersk was a strange choice. Even the CJA’s factsheets acknowledged the company’s green initiatives.

Among other things, Maersk has been developing a long-known but little-used practice called “slow steaming.” When big cargo ships slow down, they can sometimes run more efficiently. While each journey takes longer, the practice cuts CO2 emissions by 10–30 percent, and for the largest vessels it’s equivalent to saving 3,500 tonnes of fuel each year.

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March 15, 2010

PTP buys ‘wounded’ gay porn digital channel

Pink Triangle Press (PTP), the company that publishes Xtra, in partnership with Peace Point Entertainment Group, has bought gay porn digital specialty channel, HardTV.

The channel was purchased from OutTV’s parent company in a deal valued at about $70,000.

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January 14, 2010

Pride Toronto releases financial statement

Pride Toronto’s financial statements from the fiscal year 2009 — which ended last July — have finally been released, and they reveal a year of growth, change and controversy. In fiscal year 2008, Pride commanded a budget of close to $2 million, but in 2009 its budget was more than $3 million.

It also posted a deficit — after a modest profit of $41,972 in 2008, in 2009 the organization took a loss of $138,605.

According to Pride Toronto executive director, Tracey Sandilands, three factors are responsible for most of the deficit. The first is the gap in 2008 between the departure of former executive director Fatima Amarshi and Sandilands’ arrival.

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January 11, 2010

Poz couple wins immigration case

An American couple has won a federal court case that could change the way Canada treats would-be immigrants who are HIV-positive.

Justice Sean Harrington’s December 31 decision could be appealed before the end of January, but if it stands, it will make it easier for applicants who can afford to cover their own prescription costs to immigrate.

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January 11, 2010

Margin of Error: Why journalists of the future must be math-literate

A year of layoffs and anaemic ad buys has given journalists an excuse to turn inwards like never before. By now, even folks outside the industry must be sick of hearing about the Future of Journalism — my own fervent hope is to never read another article about social media for reporters. But I do think that an instinct for self-improvement is useful, so I’m going to add something else to the agenda — call it a Margin of Error manifesto. I’d like to talk about statistical literacy.

I know that it’s a bit predictable, even self-serving, to argue that everyone should have a skill that you have already developed. And I hate to add another job description to a list that is rapidly becoming unmanageable. Increasingly, it seems that we are all expected to be programmers and photographers, designers and copy editors, fact checkers and fundraisers. I’m not sure what to make of this job ooze, as an economist — we know something about the value of specialization — but so long as we’re all marginally employed and learning new skills, let’s try to pick up this indispensable one.

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December 21, 2009

Idea #1: Tax Ads to Fund Public Art

On Dec. 7, Toronto’s city council delivered the rarest of political creatures — a new tax with broad public support. The tax on billboards was proposed to help enforce the bylaws governing signs, and also fund public art to offset the blight of outdoor advertising.

Even as it was passed, the reform package is a victory for the public space activists, community groups and artists who pushed it through council. Toronto’s 13 separate sets of bylaws have been harmonized, and for once may be enforced, thanks to new fines. Changes to the zoning variance process will make approving new signs more difficult. The tax will generate an estimated $10.4 million each year.

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December 18, 2009

Margin of Error: Why charter schools may not be as good as you think

The charter school movement is enjoying something of a renaissance in the United States. Charter schools—which receive public funding but are privately run, thus removing some features of normal public schools, notably established teachers’ unions—are one of President Obama’s priorities.  They are also the cause du jour for New York City’s hedge fund managers. Education policy wonks are understandably interested in whether charter schools really help students failed by the public system.

I am sceptical about the benefits of private sector involvement in public schools, but I’ve still been watching the debates with some interest. There has not been much research on Canada’s only charters, in Alberta, so most of what I read is from the States. That’s why I came across this post on Eduwonk.

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December 17, 2009

Queer women need paps too

To get my first pap test, I had to pretend I was sleeping with men. Several years ago, I was leaving the country and wanted to make sure I was up to date with routine health care. My GP said that it wasn’t within “the guidelines” to give paps to women who sleep exclusively with women.

From my own research, I was pretty sure she was wrong. I also knew that I wouldn’t have time to get an appointment somewhere else. So I lied. She told me if I wasn’t interested in following her advice, I should get another doctor. After a supremely awkward pelvic exam, I left and never went back. Apparently, I’m not alone.

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