Trouble Is Everywhere

I've already sent this off, so my beloved grammar mavens, I have seen the comma abuse, but now it's gone and I can't take it back. Woe. :(

I actually do believe that someone at my MP's office reads my emails and they actually respond to them as though they've read them. I do get good personalized responses to the bulk of my emails. (This makes it sound like I email every week, but I email in personal stuff probably every three or four months, and slightly more often email "I support this thing you're doing, don't bother to respond.")

Hello Megan,

As you know, I'm a very passionate disability rights advocate. Today I am writing because I have repeatedly responded to the NDP emails that link to NDP videos requesting that they be transcribed and subtitled, in order to be more accessible to Canadians, both those with disabilities and those without. Unfortunately, these emails have not been responded to.

While I note that in the most recent email that went out, Jack Layton's speech at the Caucus Strategy Session does have a transcript provided (which I presume is from his prepared speech, as there are several differences between it and what is shown on the video), both the video provided with Mr Layton's Press Release about the Gun Registry (http://www.ndp.ca/press/ndp-to-pm-you-don-t-have-votes-time-to-compromise) and several of the videos on the NDP YouTube site are neither captioned nor transcribed.

I know disability and accessibility are things you care about too, Megan, so I hope that you will pass along my concerns to the NDP Leadership: Transcribing and subtitling/captioning of video and audio content is an accessibility issue. Providing both a transcript and subtitling allows for more Canadians to be able to access the message of the NDP. As well, it shows a commitment to accessibility and to including Canadians who prefer or require transcripts and subtitling, for whatever reason. As this is something I believe the NDP values, it would be helpful for the party, at all levels, to provide transcription and subtitling for all the videos that they produce.

Thank you very much for your time in reading this email.

Anna

Honestly, I have a form letter I now send off in response to every party email I get from all the National parties asking about transcriptions and/or subtitles. I have never gotten a response. I've even had specific Party members swear to me up and down they'll look into it. Never get a response. My father suggested I just skip all this and email Megan, and thus, here I am.

Don's home from Out West.

He looked like a cyclone hit him, some of which I have managed to repair but I suspect sleeping in his own bed and having a safer space in which to be sad will be helpful to the rest of his recovery. That I am incredibly unlikely to suggest a steak house for dinner (him being vegetarian and all) is also likely to be helpful. (Yes this actually happened, and yes everyone involved knew Don was a vegetarian, and no it wasn't the only food option even on the same block.)

lizbee linked to Wiki's take on the Australian History Wars, and although I've only so far managed to skim read the main points, I'm a bit distressed at how similar it is to the Canadian History Wars. I'm not surprised by any stretch. (If I felt like I was up to finding some sort of balanced discussion of them, I would link you to it, but since I have Opinions on this matter - and since Opinions on this matter are the sorts of things that Get One In Trouble and I will be looking for a job at some point in the future - I'm afraid you'll just have to believe me. Or ask a Canadian historian who killed Canadian history. Or wait until I get riled up about it again and throw caution to the wind. It should only take a few days.)

And bcholmes has reminded me & Don that, according to our current government, we are not classed under "Canadian". This makes perfect sense now that Don has renewed his Dutch passport. (Also, apparently the Conservatives do agree that most rapes go unreported and that this is a problem? That's awesome! They will, of course, immediately put more funding into programs that deal with that problem, yes? I should call someone up tomorrow and get them right on that.)

I'm exhausted. My husband is home. Life is better.

Who do I know in my extended contacts that knows how to agitate around Private Members Bills and help make them into actual laws?

My friends, let me introduce you to what I hope will be our new goal in life: Getting Bill C-523 passed into law.

Here is the summary:

This enactment requires the Minister of Transport to direct the Canadian Transportation Agency to inquire into and report on the accessibility of all modes of transportation under federal authority in order to remove undue obstacles to the mobility of persons with disabilities.

[Read the whole thing.  Be informed!]

Here's where we can follow it on Open Parliament.  Our new hero is Pat Martin.  He's in the NDP.  (For my non-Canadian friends, the NDP is our "left-wing" party.  I put left-wing in scare quotes because I've lived in Europe.)

Here's the write up at Council for Canadians with Disabilities.

It's 8:30 in the morning in my world and I'm a little scattered right now, but I'm sure there can be a plan.  Even if all we do is get people talking about such a regulation, and people with disabilities telling their stories of, say, Air Canada breaking wheelchairs and Halifax Airport Staff stranding disabled passengers with said broken wheelchairs, maybe this can amount to something.

Thoughts?