- drama, diversions, life experienced by Kenn Chaplin

Archive for the ‘activism’ Category

Town of Perth, Ontario moves to conserve downtown’s beautiful buildings

Perth Town Council has taken the bold, even if obviously necessary, step of creating a formal Downtown Heritage Conservation District. It comes in the form of a by-law which outlines the boundaries of the district – North and Harvey Street (to the south) and Wilson and Drummond Streets on the west and east sides, respectively. [...]

Newspaper clipping from Mom: “A GAY JOCK TAKES OFF THE MASK”

It was on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen’s March 17 “Saturday Observer”  section. The paper sat on a table beside Mom’s comfy chair, where she keeps anything she wants to pass along to me.  She knows that, like Jamie Hubley, whose passing touched me so deeply, hockey stories wouldn’t normally need to be on [...]

No sentence could undo the harms caused by Graham James

I join the outcry today over the sentencing of convicted serial pedophile Graham James to two years in prison for the sexual abuse of Theo Fleury and Todd Holt. Counter-intuitively (because I knew it would just get me stirred up) I watched the news coverage of the lawyers’ statements and victims’ reactions. Graham arrived at court [...]

Adieu Madeleine Parent

Aerial view of  Montreal Cottons Valleyfield works, 1950. Copyright undetermined as per citation at Université de Sherbrooke’s Bilan du Siècle I was saddened to learn of the death last night of the iconic Québec labour activist Madeleine Parent. She was 93 so I knew that when I wrote this tribute to her more than five [...]

So three lawyers walk into the Ontario Legislature…

…but this is no joke! There’s a friendly exercise each morning that the Ontario Legislature sits when Members have the opportunity to introduce guests seated in the gallery – family members of one of the high school student pages, perhaps a visiting township reeve, or dignitaries representing other governments, be they in Canada or elsewhere. [...]

Final tributes to Jack Layton in pictures

It was an emotion-packed, life-affirming day.

There are some blog posts I’d like to forget – on returning to the NDP

I’ve always tried to make this blog somewhat of a record of my life, however fragmented, warts and all.  Here in the archives is my defiant abandonment of the New Democratic Party for, let’s say, greener pastures.  However right it felt at the time, and for a couple of by-elections and a general election after, [...]

June 18 proclaimed as Pride Day in the Town of Perth, Ontario!

Imagine my delight, and yes pride, to learn that LGBT Lanark County had won its bid for a Pride Day proclamation in Perth for June 18. (This was also the first I’d heard of LGBT Lanark County. Their web site is pretty impressive!) The Perth Courier, and an advertiser-householder known locally as the EMC, both [...]

Michael Lucas and the ‘pink-washed’ liner notes of “Men of Israel”

His fans might be forgiven for not actually knowing his name. Michael Lucas has made millions from gay men who have bought, or otherwise paid to view, one of hs 100+ films – roughly eighty percent of which he has starred in. Lucas touched off a controversy last week when he threatened to pull his [...]

Recording resistance and history through music in Palestine

Songs from a Lost Homeland, which originally aired on Al Jazeera English last year, is in the programming rotation again this weekend. Is there a song in the west right now with even a small percentage of the punch of these musicians? I hope you get a chance to see the entire documentary. There’s another [...]

Music of the movement

One of the first activists’ songs that had any resonance for me was “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” (1961) and then “Give Peace A Chance” (1969). Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind” (1963) was an anthem, if ever there was one, and I remember making a connection with “One Tin Soldier” in 1969. While grown-ups [...]

As Libya and neighbours seethe, CPT reports on West Bank demolitions by Israel

CPTnet 23 February 2011 SOUTH HEBRON HILLS: Israeli military demolishes village of Amniyr Amniyr, South Hebron Hills, West Bank At 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning, the Israeli army, accompanied by members of the Israeli District Coordinating Office, arrived at the village of Amniyr and demolished five tent-houses, two cisterns and the village’s olive trees. The demolitions [...]

Awesome task (or perhaps not): bridging the perspective gap

Excerpts from my tweets (and a RT) from early this afternoon: Death by daily repression and near-starvation or death by desperate martyrdom via the State responsible? Your choice? #Bahrain #Libya #Yemen MD from #Bahrain: “Pls, pls, where is the #UN; we need the world; ppl are being killed in the streets!” Ambu’s BLOCKED frm #PearlRoundabout [...]

Txt, telephone or…blog…let’s talk about mental illness!

This is Bell Let’s Talk Day. Multiple Olympic medallist Clara Hughes, lead spokesperson for the campaign, was on CTV News in Toronto today. From among the calls she fielded came this articulate gem, “To kill the pain too often means to kill oneself.” However, and this was Clara’s message, help and hope are available to [...]

Shelter from the St. Valentine♥s Day Ma$$acre

Having, hopefully, just paid at least the minimum owing on their Christmas credit card bills, gluttonous consumers are now being cajoled into the can’t-win Valentine’s Day debacle. Take heart…PLEASE! First of all, what are we teaching our kids when we buy them Flat Stanley-sized boxes of Valentine’s Day cards, so intimately perforated along the edges, [...]

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