December 6th, 1989A disturbed young man (whose name I…

December 6th, 1989

A disturbed young man (whose name I deliberately do not use) deliberately murdered Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz at the École Polytechnique.

Because they were women.

I chose to use the roses because they were part of a candlelight vigil in on December 6th, 2016 in Chilliwack, BC.  People across Canada continue to share in this sorrow.

In response to our collective mourning of the Montreal Massacre, in 1991, the Canadian Government designated the 6th of December as the “National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women in Canada.”

Decades later, Canadians continue to mourn, but the sad fact is that violence against women in Canada shows no sign of abating.  Perhaps we need more than a day.

Image Credit

“Roses [Dec 6 vigil 5 Corners-1]” cc by University of the Fraser Valley have been released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

December 6th, 1989A disturbed young man (whose name I…

December 6th, 1989

A disturbed young man (whose name I deliberately do not use) deliberately murdered Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz at the École Polytechnique.

Because they were women.

I chose to use the roses because they were part of a candlelight vigil in on December 6th, 2016 in Chilliwack, BC.  People across Canada continue to share in this sorrow.

In response to our collective mourning of the Montreal Massacre, in 1991, the Canadian Government designated the 6th of December as the “National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women in Canada.”

Decades later, Canadians continue to mourn, but the sad fact is that violence against women in Canada shows no sign of abating.  Perhaps we need more than a day.

Image Credit

“Roses [Dec 6 vigil 5 Corners-1]” cc by University of the Fraser Valley have been released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Cory Doctorow in WaterlooOn Monday, December 4th, 2017, Cory…

Cory Doctorow in Waterloo

On Monday, December 4th, 2017, Cory Doctorow gave his “Dead canary in the coalmine: We just lost the web in the war on general purpose computing” talk at the University of Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science. 

The “Dead Canary” references the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in a long running controversy about incorporating DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) within the Web Standard.  When the W3C chose to ignore the substantial objections both from within the W3C community & its partners, open internet advocates and the public, and refuse a compromise that would have at least made the situation livable, Doctorow wrote the EFF’s open W3C resignation letter.   

The W3C continued on its sudden abandonment of support for the open web that it might pander to the powerful media companies calling the tune.  This talk is one way in which Doctorow continues to educate and advocate for better.

For more about @Doctorow check out his website http://craphound.com/
or follow him on Tumblr

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has been fighting for user rights since before I used the Internet.  https://www.eff.org/  

Buster Keaton in “The Railrodder” (1965)(my…

Buster Keaton in “The Railrodder” (1965)

(my favourite) Silent Film Star Buster Keaton plays a world traveller in this NFB (Government of Canada) short film.

Arriving from across the pond, the Railrodder arrives on  Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia from where he embarks on the scenic route across Canada by train…
well, sort of.   

Produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Directed by Gerald Potterton & Buster Keaton (uncredited)

Writing by Buster Keaton & Gerald Potterton.

Starring Buster Keaton

As this was financed by the Government of Canada, it would presumably been made under Crown Copyright, which expires after 50 years, which would have expired in 2015, so I believe it is in the Public Domain. BUT sometimes the Government does weird things with Copyright so I can’t swear to it.