Debate Shenanigans

Hi friends. I am sick. It sucks.

We are getting lots of new volunteers, which is awesome. It seems like every week another escort is starting. Kudos to my existing volunteers for their recruiting skills.

Of course, the other side is no slacker when it comes to recruiting - there was a new protester out this week, a middle-aged woman with a sign ("How much does abortion cost? One life") and an attitude. I caught a glimpse of Peter Ryan out there too. I guess the Life Chain was this past weekend (was it? I haven't seen any media) but I didn't catch it, as I had a JAM PACKED Saturday (for real, I bought a hat).

I was at one of the candidates' debates last night, which is always fun. As always, the best (worst?) part is questions from the floor. I have to tell you about this one amazing dude who asked a question. Fair warning, I'm paraphrasing (I don't remember exactly what was said), so amazing dude, if you feel misrepresented, let me know.

Question dude: My name is [something something] and I live in Fredericton. First of all, can I ask a question with an "a" part and a "b" part?

Moderator: Well, we have a lot of people, and limited time...

QD: Other people have done it!

[at this point everyone could already tell he was a beligerent asshole]

Moderator: Sir, there are a lot of other people with questions -

QD: Look, [self-important puffery]

Mod: Ok, ok, if it's succinct. No preamble.

QD: Ok. [Proceeds to give a lengthy preamble, the gist of which was that the candidates were to represent themselves in their answers, and not the party or the party leader.] Part "A" - if your party was in power, and you found your party supported a policy that allowed the torture of Canadian citizens, would you go against party lines to oppose that policy?

[Pause while everyone waits for the part "b", which is not forthcoming]

Mary Lou Babineau: I need to hear the second part.

QD: Well, just answer that part first.

[general outcry and rolling of eyes]

Mod: Sir, you're obviously trying to set them up. Give them the second part.

[some back-and-forth]

QD: Fine, you asked for it. Part "b" - describe what you think happens during an abortion procedure.

Brilliant, right? Hahaha. At this point there was some booing from the audience, and some guy yelled out "it's a closed issue, jerk!". I probably would have booed or yelled myself, except that I was sitting there with my jaw on the floor. I mean, really! I just love how these people make themselves look crazy so we don't have to.

Mary Lou opted to answer the question, and stated that she was pro-choice, the Green party is pro-choice, and that she would "fight tooth and nail to defend that right". The Canadian Action Party candidate said about the same thing, and the Liberal and Conservative candidates both stated simply that they would not reopen the debate. Jesse Travis from the NDP said he was pro-choice, but went on a little side rant about the Christian community (he's Baptist) needing to provide better choices.

Afterwards the question dude was still up there, and said that his question had not been answered. You could tell the moderator wanted to throttle him, but instead asked him to sit down. The whole thing was fantastic. I hope that dude is at the Thursday debate.

Peace out.

Back to it, once again

Hi, friends.

I know I've been AWOL for a while. It's been a CRAZY month. Crazy.

First of all, we had to rearrange our clinic days for various reasons. So while we did have a couple ordinary Tuesday clinics, we also had a Friday clinic, a Monday clinic, and last week we didn't have clinic at all. So the good thing is that it's confused the protesters, but it has been playing havoc with everyone else's schedule as well.

Personally, I have been extremely busy this month. I spoke at the Take Back the Night March on the 19th, which was a wonderful experience. From that I've had a couple people contact me to start volunteering, so that's awesome. This past weekend I spoke on a panel about restricting access to rights at the New Brunswick Social Forum - so cool. I got to be on the panel with Andrea Bear Nicholas who is my new hero of life.

Also last weekend a guy I used to work with passed away, so there was that to deal with. And as always, work is afoot on the Toujours Rebelles conference that we are leaving for in NINE DAYS, holy crap. That is taking up a lot of my time and energy. I think it will be worth it.

Oh, and I also joined a group of feminists who are putting together a radio show on CHSR on Monday nights - more on that later.

SO. That is why you haven't seen me. But I am still here, fear not. Yesterday I got to be outside with the escorts for a change, which was cool. I had three new escorts to train (hooray!), and they got to see some of the best protesters, including Crazy Legs. Sadly, Glare-y Mary didn't put in an appearance.

Not much other news at the clinic. Dr. Morgentaler was granted standing in his lawsuit against the province, but the province is appealing the decision....which makes me pretty much want to stab myself in the face. The life tape people have split the Bound4Life New Brunswick group into a Saint John group and a Fredericton group...not sure how/if that will affect us at all, I guess we'll just wait and see. Oh, and it's about that time of year again: the "life chain" will probably be happening this weekend, so if you don't get enough ridiculousness in your everyday life, be sure to come out and see it.

I guess that's all I really have to say. For some awesome feminist analysis (and some larfs), check us out on Ovary Acting (This is What a Feminist Sounds Like) on CHSR (97.9FM), Monday nights at 9:30pm.

Mixing and Matching

It's been a fun couple weeks. We had to do a lot of rescheduling of clinics for various reasons, which hopefully has been confusing the pants off the protesters. The first week of September, we didn't have a clinic on Tuesday (the 2nd), so they were out protesting nothing, which amused me. Then we had a clinic that Friday (the 5th), so once they realized what was going on, they had to all scramble out with their signs. On Tuesday (the 9th), things were back to normal.

Friday was pretty weird - they sent out mostly the aggressive people, maybe to make up for the hour of protesting that they had lost by not being prepared for our sneakiness. There was a new woman, whom EI has christened Mean Marge, because she seems to be taking glaring lessons from Glary Mary.

At the end of the morning AL came in to let me know that one of the women was sprinkling dirt on the ground around the clinic. I'm not famailiar with Catholicism enough to know what the point of that was, but it amused me greatly.

I'm at work and a guy just called asking if we do pre-employment drug-screening urine tests. (We don't).

So Tuesday was fun too; the protesters haven't given up their tactic of sending out the meanest and most aggressive people to do their "sidewalk counselling". Crazy Legs is even back to her old tricks of throwing herself on cars. It certainly gives our new escorts some experience, which is probably the only positive thing one can say, really.

That's all the news. Check this blog out for an interesting take on actually choosing abortion - I've been reading it a lot lately.

Watching

No clinic today. I just wanted to express how happy it makes me to see the protesters standing outside with their signs, and looks of confusion on their faces. Perhaps they think they stopped us once and for all. Heh heh heh.