I have lived most of my life dependent on cars. Growing up in rural Ontario or small town Ontario you get use to having a car for everything. You become so dependent on cars it becomes absolutely ridiculous. I even remember this one guy who was in my small town who would drive his car from the parking lot of Zellers--that's where all the 'cool' folks hung out--to the store which was just across the street. He didn't feel the need to walk the few hundred steps to get there.
Recently though I've made a decision to go car free. I gave up my car in August 2006 and I've not looked back. I've seen some great benefits to living this lifestyle. It does help that I live in Toronto now which makes it much easier to go car free. I've lost about 20lbs since having to rely on my two feet and a heart beat. I've also increased my cardio tolerance. Where it use to be a challenge to walk for long periods of time I can now do it without running out of breath. I've also noticed a cost benefit. This has been the best motivator for going car free. I pay $100 a month for transportation plus any cab rides and they're cheap in Toronto. Before I went car free I was paying $300 a month for the car, $150 a month for insurance and then gas which was anywhere from $40-$60 dollars a week depending on gas prices and where I travelled too. I save a crap load of money by being car free. Which I need because I went from paying $300 a month in rent to $1400 in rent.
So why am I writing this post one might ask. Well today I came back to my parents place for the weekend. It's my nephew's first birthday. My daughter and I hopped on a GO train and my father picked us up in Burlington--they don't allow dogs on VIA. I had not bought Nolan his birthday present so I needed to do this while visiting the folks. If I had been in Toronto I would have just hopped on the TTC, taken the Dufferin bus down to the Dufferin Mall and went into H&M or some other store that has taken to selling kids clothes. Instead I was stuck here in Woodstock relying on my parents good faith to DRIVE me to the Wal-Mart--a post will soon be relegated to this organization--to pick up his present. They live close to it but you can't even walk to it in a reasonable amount of time. The urban/regional planner for this city has got to learn how to make the city much more functional. Where is the GREEN to Woodstock??
Friday, March 23, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
The Imprisonment of Children
I'm back and ready to write. I have all the time in the world now. It's very snowy out right now so today's post comes from the comfort of my living space. If it was warmer out I might consider walking down to the local coffee shop and sip on a macchiato and write away.
Today I'm going to touch on something that has been bothering me for a while. The way the US has taken to imprisoning Canadian citizens--more specifically children. As I write this there are two high profile cases of kids in jails in the US. One being the little Iranian boy who is Canadian by birth yet unable to stay in the country after we kicked his parents out, denying them refugee status and sending him to a country where he has no roots, to watch his father be tortured for three months and his mother raped. Despite all that we have done to the family, they escaped Iran again in hopes of returning to Canada--under false pretense but I'll look past that--and by some freak of nature incident had to land in the US where they were detained and transferred to a jail in Texas. We all know how Texans feels about imprisonment. They spend more money on jails then they do on the education of their citizens.
What upsets me the most right now is not only our governments inability to be flexible with certain immigrants but that the US has the audacity to put a child in jail. It's a huge human rights violation and for a country that talks about bringing democracy to other 'needy' countries they sure have a funny way of modelling said democracy. It sickens me even more to think that most of the Texans--I'm not saying all, but most--feel this is okay. It's not okay. A child needs to be in school and this jail he's in does not allow that for him. It also sickens me to see that the Canadian government took so long to act.
There is a happy ending to this story--kinda--in that the family has been granted a temporary visa to enter Canada until this matter is settled. This is not the case for the other child. His is a much more difficult and complex case to dissect. That being Omar Khadr.
I think Rosie Dimanno put it right in her editorial for The Star. In this editorial she compared two teenage boys who grew up in similar situations with similar outcomes yet because one happened on US soil and one happened in Iraq they should be treated differently. The other child Omar was compared to was Lee Boyd Malvo. You might have heard of him. He committed a terrorist like act. He will go down in history as the Washington Sniper.
Both boys grew up in a 'family' that used and abused them by moulding their minds of hate. I'm aware that the Khadr family has a rocky relationship with Canada but to allow one of our children to suffer the torture of the American Army in Abu Ghraib-we all know how that story ended-and the torture in Guantanamo Bay is quite sickening. We as Canadians should be ashamed of ourselves for not becoming involved in this case.
This detainment of Khadr is in direct violation of the United Nations Charter of Rights for Children and The Geneva Convention special treatment of children in armed conflicts. In these two documents it is said that children under the age of 18 shall not be recruited to the military as well as making it a war crime to recruit those under the age of 15 into armed conflict. It also allows for special treatment of children of armed conflict and the International Court Court will not charge those under the age of 18 with a war crime. According to them they are not criminally responsible for their actions.
The Optional Protocol of the Children's Rights Charter that specifically deals with child soldiers states the specific:
The war and prison industrial complex that is the US has blinded them to basic rights of children. I could go on about my thoughts on the US juvenile justice but I'll leave that for another day. My concern to date is the inability of the Canadian government to become involved in this case. We are failing a child and that saddens me.
I'm back and ready to write. I have all the time in the world now. It's very snowy out right now so today's post comes from the comfort of my living space. If it was warmer out I might consider walking down to the local coffee shop and sip on a macchiato and write away.
Today I'm going to touch on something that has been bothering me for a while. The way the US has taken to imprisoning Canadian citizens--more specifically children. As I write this there are two high profile cases of kids in jails in the US. One being the little Iranian boy who is Canadian by birth yet unable to stay in the country after we kicked his parents out, denying them refugee status and sending him to a country where he has no roots, to watch his father be tortured for three months and his mother raped. Despite all that we have done to the family, they escaped Iran again in hopes of returning to Canada--under false pretense but I'll look past that--and by some freak of nature incident had to land in the US where they were detained and transferred to a jail in Texas. We all know how Texans feels about imprisonment. They spend more money on jails then they do on the education of their citizens.
What upsets me the most right now is not only our governments inability to be flexible with certain immigrants but that the US has the audacity to put a child in jail. It's a huge human rights violation and for a country that talks about bringing democracy to other 'needy' countries they sure have a funny way of modelling said democracy. It sickens me even more to think that most of the Texans--I'm not saying all, but most--feel this is okay. It's not okay. A child needs to be in school and this jail he's in does not allow that for him. It also sickens me to see that the Canadian government took so long to act.
There is a happy ending to this story--kinda--in that the family has been granted a temporary visa to enter Canada until this matter is settled. This is not the case for the other child. His is a much more difficult and complex case to dissect. That being Omar Khadr.
I think Rosie Dimanno put it right in her editorial for The Star. In this editorial she compared two teenage boys who grew up in similar situations with similar outcomes yet because one happened on US soil and one happened in Iraq they should be treated differently. The other child Omar was compared to was Lee Boyd Malvo. You might have heard of him. He committed a terrorist like act. He will go down in history as the Washington Sniper.
Both boys grew up in a 'family' that used and abused them by moulding their minds of hate. I'm aware that the Khadr family has a rocky relationship with Canada but to allow one of our children to suffer the torture of the American Army in Abu Ghraib-we all know how that story ended-and the torture in Guantanamo Bay is quite sickening. We as Canadians should be ashamed of ourselves for not becoming involved in this case.
This detainment of Khadr is in direct violation of the United Nations Charter of Rights for Children and The Geneva Convention special treatment of children in armed conflicts. In these two documents it is said that children under the age of 18 shall not be recruited to the military as well as making it a war crime to recruit those under the age of 15 into armed conflict. It also allows for special treatment of children of armed conflict and the International Court Court will not charge those under the age of 18 with a war crime. According to them they are not criminally responsible for their actions.
The Optional Protocol of the Children's Rights Charter that specifically deals with child soldiers states the specific:
Reaffirming that the rights of children require special protection, andWhat it says in essential is that someone like Khadr requires specific consideration regarding what he has been accused of. Sure he killed a US solider during the Iraq war but when he committed the crime he was just a child. A child solider who has every right to be re-educated and protected under international law. Unfortunately the US doesn't see it that way and their War on Terror is blinding them to the call for the release of a child in Guantanamo.
calling for continuous improvement of the situation of children without
distinction, as well as for their development and education in conditions of
peace and security, Disturbed by the harmful and widespread
impact of armed conflict on children and the long-term
consequences this has for durable peace, security and development,
Mindful of the necessity of taking into consideration the economic,
social and political root causes of the involvement of children in armed
conflicts, Convinced of the need to strengthen
international cooperation in the implementation of this
Protocol, as well as the physical and psychosocial rehabilitation and social
reintegration of children who are victims of armed conflict,
Encouraging the participation of the community and, in
particular, children and child victims in the dissemination of informational
and educational programmes concerning the implementation of the Protocol,
The war and prison industrial complex that is the US has blinded them to basic rights of children. I could go on about my thoughts on the US juvenile justice but I'll leave that for another day. My concern to date is the inability of the Canadian government to become involved in this case. We are failing a child and that saddens me.
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