Mounties pinned me down in cell and tasered me, Manitoba girl says.

Yep you read that right: ‘tasered’. That means a machine named after a comic book hero and meant to be used as an alternative to deadly force when apprehending someone armed or otherwise dangerous was used on an un-armed 16 year old girl, in her cell, BY FOUR COPS WHILE THEY HELD HER DOWN.

Oh sorry, was I yelling?

Tasers are already getting enough bad press what with the alarming number of taser deaths in Canada to date. Why not add a few child-abusing cops with tasers to the mix?

The girl decided to report the incident following the death on Tuesday of a Métis youth who was also shot with a taser. In the Globe article she describes her experience at the hands of Manitoba’s finest:

“She was held down by four officers, one for each limb, while a taser was used on her legs and groin area. She said the third shock lasted between five and eight seconds and left her screaming in pain.”

I am going to let Jessica take a crack at dealing with the fact that both of the youth tasered in Manitoba were of Native descent, I feel I have said all I can say without resorting to more all-caps.

What if you lived by the largest body of fresh water in the world but could no longer afford to use it?

In Liz Miller’s video documentary, The Waterfront, residents of Highland Park, a struggling community on the shores of Lake Michigan are shown looking with distress at water bills totalling between 3 and 9,000 dollars.

One woman sits on a porch with her children and grandchildren and explains that on a fixed pension she will be unable to pay her bill, and since the city has decided to attach water bills to mortgages she faces eviction and foreclosure on her property.

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This being the last Wednesday before the iPhone’s (insanely over-hyped) release in Canada I thought I’d cover the issues that surround the sleek little 3G hockey puck.

First things first - what exactly is 3G and why is it so important?
3G refers to third generation wireless capability. The little cellfriend you have now is probably (unless you bought it somewhere in Asia where 3G enabled phones are the standard) a 2G machine, which is why when you hear ‘internet-enabled’ what you really get is ‘darn slow transfer rates’. 3G phones change all that because as Wikipediastates:

“3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Additional features also include HSPA data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8Mbit/s on the uplink.”

Wicked cool right? 3G iPhone users will literally have no down time away from the internets. That is, not if they carry their phone with them everywhere they go (and don’t we all?)

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Joanne Byfield, president of Life Canada, said many people will be offended and appalled if Dr. Morgentaler is honoured.

From: Outrage brews as Ottawa set to honour Morgentaler

Well jeez, many people will also be offended and appalled if they have to deal with abortions performed by shady types at midnight at the local laundromat. So I guess we’re at a bit of a stalemate here eh?

This is a sad story to read on Canada Day.

Comments are closed on the G & M article (oh I wonder why?). So register your feelings here or send a letter to the G & M editors. I am especially troubled that the piece ended with a quote from a pro-life group, and nothing from someone who supports the award. Judy Rebick is great, but she’s buried in the middle of the article.

So this is a new charitable organization called Little Geeks: “Little Geeks is a philanthropic organization and registered Canadian charity that collects, refurbishes and re-distributes donated home computers to children in need.” How about that graphic design - like Toys R’Us on poppers. I feel like Joe Matt must have done the illustrations since no-one has eyeballs. Seriously though, “Little Geeks”? I can’t say I like it.

Though it may seem harsh to take shots at a good-hearted enterprise, I strongly believe that people from the corporate sector, (and take a look at the board of directors if you want to know who’s backing this project) need as much educating about social change as people who barter for used monitors need educating about interest rates and borrowing to save.

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This is one day late for Wired Wednesday, maybe we can call it post-Thursday? For all you Electro fans out there, check out toneShared, it’s a library of ringtones by Electro artists available for free. Yeah that’s right, dump Rihanna and go for Caribou, or if you’re feeling experimental maybe Chris Herbert?

So this is my first Wired Wednesday post (I forgot it was Wednesday last week, summer’ll do that to you), and in classic Miriam fashion, I want to really stretch the definition of what constitutes a “wired” subject.

See, I just came back from Detroit, where I was attending the Allied Media Conference, and I brought my computer and everything, because I am a technophile (with mild ADHD, natch) and I figured I would spend a lot of time listening to people talk and display PowerPoint presentations, leaving me with ample opportunity to do stuff like surf Metafilter or Favrd. That’s what you do at conferences, right? Show up, wear the badge and try to network. When not networking, stare at your laptop and “take notes” on the speakers.

Oh how wrong I was.

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With the Supreme Court becoming more conservative, many people who support women’s right to choose an abortion fear that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that gave them that right, is in danger of being swept aside.

When such fears arise, we often hear about the pre-Roe “bad old days.” Yet there are few physicians today who can relate to them from personal experience. I can.

Waldo L. Fielding, M.D is a gynecologist who spent the early part of his career (1948 - 1953) working at a New York City hospital. His recollections of the days before abortions were safe and legal is a chilling reminder that the fact of a women’s unwanted pregnancy is often mistaken for a moral issue.

And this isn’t just a problem stateside. Here in Canada, we have our own private members Bill C-484: “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of an unborn child while committing an offence)”. What this means in plain speak is that if a pregnant woman is attacked or killed and the fetus also dies, then the person who attacked the woman is on the hook for two attempted homicides. Sounds fair, right? Except that according to current Canadian law a fetus is not a person, and therefore termination of a fetus does not constitute murder. If a fetus were a person then abortion would be murder.

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So my little brother got married last week, and despite my total and overwhelming love for him and for my new sister-in-law, (and the fact that I was an awesome bridesmaid IMHO) there are moments when I was less then appreciative of the institution of marriage.

I loved their wedding. I loved the seven course Italian meal with scallops and steak (sorry vegetarians, that’s how I roll). And I loved dancing with my cousins to Michael Jackson. There is something about dancing with family members that is much much more fun then dancing at a club or a party. I think it’s because you’ve known then since you were two so they’ve already seen you do the “you put your right foot in…” dance, and they’ve already seen your awesome Milli-Vanilli lip sync routine for camp, so nothing you could possibly do dance-wise is going to embarass them anymore, it’s like free to be you and me with a DJ.

I digress, post wedding blitz I was feeling if not pro, then a little less anti-marriage, when I stumbled on this comment in the Globe and Mail this morning: Looking For Mr. Good Enough

Such is the new thinking from the front lines of modern dating. Forget about finding Mr. Right. You should settle for Mr. Good Enough. Heck, go for Mr. Just Okay. Don’t expect a head-spinning courtship. You should not even want love. In fact, you’d be wise to borrow a few pointers from arranged marriages.

It seems that getting married is hipper than skinny jeans these days, and maybe since matrimony is such a hot commodity, hooking up “for ever and ever” takes precedence over actually loving your partner?

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