Category Archives: Personal

Why I will be at SlutWalk Vancouver today

By monnibo | Published: May 15, 2011

The very first SlutWalk happened in April of this year in Toronto, but it has since taken local, national and even international media by storm. SlutWalks are popping up all over major cities in Canada, USA and across Europe in response to victim-blaming. SlutWalk Toronto is a rally that began in response to the victim-blaming that occurs throughout society in response to rape and sexual abuse. The tipping point was when Constable Michael Sanguinetti of the Toronto Police Service advised women at York University to “not dress like sluts” to avoid getting sexually assaulted. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. In Manitoba, Judge Robert Dewar sentenced a rapist only to house arrest attributing it to the way the victim was dressed and behaved. If this victim-blaming occurs in Canada, where we have a strange reputation for ‘politeness’, I dread to think what is happening in other countries around the world. Many women have it worse than us living in First World countries, but I strongly believe that action starts at home. Blaming victims of a sex crime—in any country—just doesn’t sit right with me. A fantastic article was circulated last week (I saw it on Facebook and Twitter) about what would happen if we blamed the victims of other crimes. Do we blame people who are robbed for having expensive items in their home? Do we blame people who are the victims of credit card fraud or identity theft? No! Because that would be ridiculous. So, this Sunday, May [...]

Also posted in Alongs, Out & About, Rant, Sharing | Tagged canada, empowerment, human rights, international women's day, politics, pop culture, rally, rape, sex, sexual abuse, slutwalk, vancouver events, women | 1 Comment

Fantastic time at Northern Voice 2011

By monnibo | Published: May 14, 2011

Northern Voice 2011 at the UBC Life Sciences Centre

We laughed, we cried, we chatted, collaborated, brainstormed, and solved problems. Northern Voice 2011 was an incredible event and I had a lot of fun. Friday morning began with a touching tribute to Derek K. Miller who was a prominent local blogger and recently lost his battle with cancer. While I never met Derek, I had read his blog and it was great to see a fitting farewell from the community—his community. The Keynote was then given by April Smith of AHA Media. She’s a citizen journalist and long-time resident of Vancouver’s downtown Eastside. April started off sounding a tad rehearsed, but you could tell she was nervous and excited at the same time. (I can relate, I felt the same way moderating a panel, and a keynote is 10x as important). April also brought people to tears with her passionate activism and life-changing encounters with other residents of the DTES and the issues of that community. If you have a chance, check out some of her stories and videos.

Also posted in HTML & Web design, Out & About | Tagged activism, bloggers, blogging, blogging conference, book bloggers, community, ethics, law, northern voice, nv11, social change, social media, twitter, website, wikipedia, wordpress | 6 Comments

Join me at Northern Voice this weekend

By monnibo | Published: May 10, 2011

Last year I attended Northern Voice for the first time and I absolutely loved it. Northern Voice is an annual personal blogging and social media conference that is all volunteer run. I had been too shy previously to attend, even though I’d been blogging since 2001 and on Twitter since March 2008. When I saw a tweet saying Speaker Submissions were open, I figured that I shouldn’t waste any more time being shy. I pitched a session… and it was accepted!

Also posted in HTML & Web design, Out & About, Sharing | Tagged blogging, blogging conference, conference, northern voice, northern voice 2011, social media | Leave a comment

Dear Canadians, Go VOTE! (for anyone but Harper)

By monnibo | Published: May 1, 2011

I am a Proud Democratic Canadian and I Pledge to Vote on Election Day!

Over the past five years, the Conservative Party and Stephen Harper have screwed up a lot for our country. Among some of the worst are: cut foreign aid funding and peacekeeping forces (and subsequently were denied a seat to the UN Security Council for the first time in history) cut funding for women’s advocacy groups (43% cut) cut arts funding ($45 million) gives tax breaks to large corporations such as the tar sands industry ($1.4 billion… more than the entire budget of Environment Canada) neglected funding for the mentally ill and addicted (but committed $2 billion to expand prisons) cut childcare funding ($1.2 billion) cut public funding for science ($138 million cut, while the US invested $2.75 billion/year) becoming the first party in Canadian history to be guilty of contempt of parliament. prorogued parliament… twice tried to secretly eliminate the long form census (which would result in uninformed decisions) fires employees who try to do their job (such as Linda Keen who ordered the shut down of a reactor at Chalk River because of concerns about the emergency power system) if they can’t influence committee proceedings… they decrease funding for the commission in question to the point where they can’t operate. refuses to sign the UN Declaration designating clean water as a human right decided to buy 65 fighter jets ($16 billion) instead of search and rescue air crafts And the most ridiculous ones: renamed the “Government of Canada” the “Harper Government” on all official correspondences redecorated the Prime Minister’s [...]

Also posted in Rant | Tagged canada, shit harper did, vote | 3 Comments

April: A Month of Books, Busyness and Blossoms

By monnibo | Published: April 26, 2011

April is the crazy month at work, hence the silence on the blog. But, fear not, I have a huge update and lots of good things to share. So grab a cuppa something nice and sit back. First, let’s get the obligatory Henry photo out of the way. Here he is sunbathing in the Spring sunshine at the end of March. Such a cutie! Chico’s cage is in the background and I have since moved it to the other side of the room so he doesn’t get the morning and afternoon sun as directly.