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Michael Boyle's weblog

Link and think

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Link and think

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Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day, and to recognize the global impact of AIDS, mikel.org is participating in Link and Think. Whether or not your life has been touched by AIDS (and I’d find it hard to believe it hasn’t), we should remember that notwithstanding any advances in treatment over the last few years, AIDS is still a major problem – a plague in Africa – that deserves prompt attention. The following are a few links to sites that might be of interest today and the rest of the year.

Before Genoa, before Quebec City

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, before Seattle there was the APEC meeting in Vancouver. Today, the report of the RCMP’s Commission for Public Complaints was leaked. It found that, “Federal officials played an ‘improper role’ in security arrangements at the 1997 APEC summit, occasionally bullying RCMP officials who were poorly prepared for the melee officers should have known was coming, says a long-awaited report into the incident.”

I should be noted, however, that the Commission for Public Complaints is pretty much toothless, and efforts by protesters to get a higher-level inquiry going were rebuffed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Very sad news today

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from the world of Quebec literature. Mordecai Richler died this morning at the Montreal General Hospital. It’s ironic, and sad, that one of the greatest writers ever to come from Quebec is massively disdained by much of the population here.

I don’t have many personal memories of the man. We never met, though I used to see him quite often when I worked at Concordia. What I do remember are his words – vivid, funny, wry novels that captured the spirit of a neighbourhood, and city, that I have made my home. And even 40 years since his first great novel, shades of his Montreal are still evident.

I’ve been thinking about

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seeing all the riot cops last night, and about the (several) experiences I’ve had in my life of “riots” – plus the many more stories I’ve heard from friends and others in my circle. And – as I’ve felt for ages but not expressed in so many words – I have grave misgivings about the situation. Notwithstanding my past as a political theory student and very minor-league activist, I think I’m a bit of a poster boy for “non-radical” in most ways. I now work in Big Industry. I own things, I pay taxes. I enjoy considering a purchase of a new car for the first time in my life in a couple of months. Also – I live in a community, I try my best (and succeed to some extent) to contribute to my community and society in various ways. I have an ever-deepening commitment to urban living.

Time was when I was exactly who the cops were “serving and protecting”. When people like me were precisely who was enfranchised by our society to the exclusion of many, if not most, others. But now, for me, I don’t feel that included. I don’t think they represent me. I don’t feel that they in any way reflect my values or wishes as a citizen. And if they can’t even represent me – well, there’s a fundamental problem there. And, thinking back to Quebec City, it’s obvious that many, many people are in the same boat as I am. Poster kids for “doing pretty well” and completely nonplussed by the government and its institutions – indeed, convinced that they are actively undermining my values and those of my friends and community.

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