3:29 AM - 14.10.04
Cleaning
I woke up when one of the most respected master herbalists in Calgary called me. I had left a voicemail at his clinic just offering to bring in my harvestd hawthorne berries. No charge - just don`t want them to go to waste and I know that there isn`t much of a fresh supply around the city. I planted the tree about 24 years ago and it produces a lot of berries. Hawthorne is good for circulatory/heart problems, so there are a lot of people it could help. It was nice he returned the call himself, but I really didn`t expect that. I just didn`t wasnt to spend a lot of time harvesting them, then travelling by bus to his clinic to find that they weren`t wanted is all.
Heard from Elections Canada and some of my staff again today. There is a strike by Federal civil servants going on right now, so I don`t know how timing will be affected. I received a letter yesterday saying that I would be paid all my fees except for the one about answering questions. Apparently the promptness of the answers isn`t their issue, it`s that I didn`t answer one. The one I wouldn`t answer was because it is against our laws to collect such information from employees. Privacy_Act_Definitions. The question? What is your race? Only certain races were targetted, but that`s even worse. I checked the province`s human rights legislation - HUMAN RIGHTS, CITIZENSHIP AND MULTICULTURALISM ACT Chapter H-14 - and sure enough 8. 1. b)is very clear on that particular issue. "8(1) No person shall use or circulate any form of application for employment or publish any advertisement in connection with employment or prospective employment or make any written or oral inquiry of an applicant (b)that requires an applicant to furnish any information concerning race, religious beliefs, colour, gender, physical disability, mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin,marital status, source of income or family status." Can`t collect that information, nor may one record or convey it. The only information one is allowed to collect with respect to employees is that which is part of the qualifications for the position. For our work? Must be 18 years or older, live in the constituency (sometimes) and be a Canadian citizen. Literacy and numeracy skills are also necessary.
Now we did collect information on what languages polling day and office workers spoke, so that we could be certain we were able to offer translation services to electors. 42 language groups were accounted for just out of the local residents signing up to do the election day work. If ensuring diversity in the workplace was an issue, that bit of data should have been sufficient to prove that we had done due diligence there. I had sent about a four page essay on why racial profiling was unacceptable in my electoral district, but it obviously either didn`t get in the hands of the correct bureaucrat or it was dismissed by someone as irrelevant.
The fine levied against me is considerable so I called the local civil liberties office in town to ask if I had erred in my interpretation of either the provincial or federal legislation. No not at all - call the federal privacy commissioner to register your concerns. Well I will if anyone is on the job either at Elections Canada or the commissioner`s office. With the strike we might not even be paid our "bonus". Remember how long it takes just to get paid under non-strike conditions.
Got to talking with the civil liberties lawyer for a while. I`ve sat on a couple of her committees and attended some of her workshops as well - the Kyoto Protocol among them. I laughed when I heard they had had a seminar about racial profiling the day before. Synchronous and also frustrating. It would have helped a great deal to have been able to attend. I am still quite concerned about racism - both intra and extra cultural - in my office and any viable/practical solutions would have been welcome. Guess I`ll have to wait for the proceedings to be published.
She noted there would be another workshop at the beginning of December. They haven`t decided yet what the topic will be, but Human Rights Day is December 10 so that will be the theme. We chewed over some ideas just based on what I had seen and heard in the past few days.
First up the conversation with my sister`s sister in law last night. Closing the international border between Canada and the US. The article in the newspaper today about the US President`s intention to reinstate the draft as soon aa the election in November is over. Now that one I would have pooh-poohed if I hadn`t read of the amended agreement between Canada and the US that had been confirmed early this year. Draft_dodgers That being that young Americans of draft age would not be allowed to cross the border into our country unless they can prove that they aren`t on the call up list. It`s implied in the text and expanded on in the application/policy/regulations arising. Uh huh. Sometimes being friendly with one`s neighbour is not such a bonus. Conscienscious objectors from all over the world - such as young men from the Middle East - come to our country to claim refugee status on those grounds. Those people would rather be at home, but the penalty for refusing to kill at the state`s direction has a penalty of jail or murder of the objector. Even though some of their country`s regimes are hostile to us, we still provide sanctuary for their pacifists. Shouldn`t we be encouraging a culture of non-violence instead of trying to stamp it out?
Other possible topics for the workshop included freedom of access to information. My sister`s sister in law had noted getting any information or news about global happenings was nearly impossible where she lived in California. The reason? Aggressive censorship of any information about the political world stage unless homeland security approved it. No dissenting points of view or information allowed. ?
Another issue about closing the border with our heretofore closest trade ally in that now even shipping goods bought as part of commercial transactions between neighbours is being shut down. This morning the postman brought a video game for my son - one he ordered from a US supplier on e-bay at the beginning of July. It had been held up by customs problems on the shipper`s side. The day before I received a bill from one of the courier companies for customs charges that had been imposed on my instructional tape about using zils. I ordered them from the Fat Chance Belly Dance (really) company which is a performance troupe of artists who are Californians who produce saleable items such as tapes and CDs, as well as costumes to support their art. If the cost more than doubles for the purchase of such goods because of customs surcharges, how long will it be before there will be no cross border trade. Apparently, all US shippers must now have signed and attached an international declaration of the type and state of the goods or they must be inspected manually - thus holding up shipping indefinitely. Explains why my astrology tape was so long in coming. Hope the listeners learned something useful from that reading by Astrofish. Apparently two main customs house - including the one in Calgary - have been shut down without notice, meaning that those who pay for expedited service now have no chance of seeing their purchases any sooner than those who don`t. That is really durious given that the same agreement that is mentioned above had been amended just recently to increase points of transfer and access between ur two countries. How does closing down two major ingress points achieve that. The average wait time is now estimated to be about three weeks - for rush mail. Merry Christmas everyone.
Anyway my youngest and I spent the day cleaning up our pcs - you know, scan disk, defraging, de-virusing and such things and it is very late right now. I think cleaning floors and dishes is easier. Do that tomorrow. Good night dear diary.
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