To The Lovely Business Owners of London

by Clara on May 6, 2011 at 12:37 am
Posted In: Blogs

So, we love local businesses. Because we live downtown we frequent them almost exclusively. But we admit we kind of screwed around with them at last weekend’s Stairbomb (pictures of which can be seen here). Most people we talked to were unfazed, bemused or guiltily–but inactively–peeved by our little prank. But we realize some people may have been pretty angry at the whole petty-vandalism thing. In fact, Clara got an email yesterday from someone we won’t name who was pretty seriously annoyed that the yellow tape may have cost him some dineros. Because we think other business owners might feel similarly, here is the response we sent to our sole complainant, reproduced here for any angry victims stumbling across our website in fitful Stairbomb-induced rages. (Words in quotations were lifted directly from his very emotional email.) ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Why it’s still okay to be a left-leaning Canadian

by Jeffrey Preston on May 3, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Posted In: Articles
Pic for WikiProject Political parties and poli...

Image via Wikipedia

Last night’s election treated Canadians to historic results–the first Conservative Majority, the first NDP opposition and the worst results ever for the Liberals. Meanwhile, online, young people (mostly…I’m assuming) are left wondering what the hell happened and how we’re going to survive 4 years of a Harperdom. Harperocracy. Harperbabyrapeicide.

Something didn’t seem right…after all, do you know anyone who voted for Harper? I probably know 10 people who voted for him, but I’ve talked to hundreds of people who were voting ABC (Anything But Conservative). Admittedly, I’m a young left-leaning university student who generally associates with progressive people, so this is by no means an accurate survey of the feelings of most Canadians. But the results have many left questioning…is Canada swinging to the right? Are socialists not welcome anymore? Do I need to buy a wind suit made out of a Canadian flag?

Ultimately, I had nothing left to do but cry myself to sleep and consider moving to a nice Scandinavian country (just not Sweden…a lot of neo-Nazis there now…).

Waking up this morning, though, I decided to do a little research. Did the majority of Canadians really support Harper? How big of an issue was vote splitting? What if the Liberals and NDP combined forces? With talk of a merging on the left, in the same way the right merged to form the Conservative Party several years ago, I decided to look and see how many ridings would have been won IF the NDP and Liberals become the “Liberal Democrat Party” and only ran 1 candidate in each riding instead of two. The following results are not scientific and do not take into account the number of right-wing Liberal voters who would swing to the Conservative Party or the left-wing NDP voters who would swing to some other party if this merger took place. Rather, I simply added up the NDP and Liberal numbers to see if they received more votes than the Conservatives. By my calculations the government would look a little different this morning:

The Liberal Democrats would have won 177 seats and would form a majority government.
The Conservative Party of Canada would have won 130 seats and ended up as the official opposition.
The Green Party of Canada would win 1 seat and likely still be blocked from participating in any debate because Elizabeth May is too nice to be a real politician.
And, most interesting of all, the Bloc wouldn’t win a single seat. I’ll let you decide whether or not that’s a good thing on your own (spoiler alert: it’s a good thing for Canada).

These results are starkly different and in no way indicate a majority of Canadians want Stephen Harper as their Prime Minister. In fact, it shows that left-wing/socialist thought is still the dominant ideology in this country (…except for Alberta…at least until the oil runs out).

So I guess the question is, will the NDP and Liberals join forces in four years, or will we have eight years of Conservative governments that a majority of Canadians don’t want? The ball is in your court, politicians…

PS. Yay Elizabeth May. She’s so sweet.

The following, in no particular order, are ridings the 41 ridings that the “Liberal Democrats” would have won according to CBC’s election map:

  • South Shore-St Magaret
  • West Nova
  • Labrador
  • Madawaska-Restigouche
  • Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean
  • Montmagny-L’Islet-Kamouraska-Riviere-du-Loup
  • LotbiniereChutes-de-la-Chaudiere
  • Naute-Gaspesie-La Mitis-Matane-Matapedia
  • Bas-Richelieu-Nicolet-Bacancour
  • Richmond-Arthabaska
  • Ahuntsic
  • Kenora
  • Nipissing-Timiskaming
  • Essex
  • Kitchener-Centre
  • London-North
  • London West
  • Mississauga-Erindale
  • Mississauga-Streetsville
  • Mississauga-Brampton South
  • Etobicoke Centre
  • Etobicoke-Lakeshore
  • Eglinton-Lawrence
  • Don Valley West
  • Don Valley East
  • Scarborough Centre
  • Willowdale
  • Pickering-Scarborough East
  • Brampton West
  • Bramalea-Gore-Malton
  • Richmond Hill
  • Ajax Pickering
  • Winnipeg South Centre
  • Elmwood-Transcona
  • Yukon
  • Vancouver Island North
  • Vancouver South
  • Edmonton Centre
  • Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River
  • Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar
  • Pilliser
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A fitting celebration for 1 year online

by Jeffrey Preston on May 1, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Posted In: Articles

A year ago today, May 1st 2010, Cripz: A Webcomic went online with its first comic (which you can see here). One of the main questions Clara and Jeff get about the comic is “Why did you decide to make a webcomic about disability?” While there isn’t any one answer, we felt it was an opportunity for us to present a progressive and satirical representation of disability to combat the largely negative (and bizarre) representations of disability in the mainstream media. Beyond that though, we see Cripz as an opportunity to educate and motivate people (both disabled and otherwise) to actively resist the structural, attitudinal and political forces working (actively and otherwise) to oppress and suppress the disabled population in both Canada and America. Deep down, we hope the readers might be inspired to fight with the same tenacity of Rhett while understanding it’s okay to be a big goof too, like Griff.

Over the past year, lots has happened (both online and offline) and Clara and Jeff have had an awesome time and hope you’ve enjoyed the strip thus far. We thought one fun way to celebrate the first year anniversary was to develop a list of our TOP 5 Comics of Year One. After counting up the page views and shares, here are your favourite comics of the last year:

Without getting too gushy, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank some special people who have helped us launch Cripz over the last year, specifically (and in no particular order) Hunter Forman, Jason Strauss, Derek Silva, Corey Downie, Jen Brewe, Ron Brown, Dan Harvey and Orpheum Hosting. Also, thank you to everyone from the London Free Press for being good sports and putting up with our criticism. You guys are aces in our books.

Also, of course, a huge thank you to everyone who comes back week in and week out to read our goofy new comics and send us lovely messages. Without you none of this could be possible!

But it wouldn’t be a birthday without a party, would it??

To celebrate the first year appropriately, we decided to take a page out of Rhett’s book and do a little stairbombing. We had a really, really good time and you can check out some of the awesome photos on our new Operation: Stairbomb facebook fan page. Thank you to EVERYONE who came out and keep an eye out for our next attack.

And the cherry on top?

Ed Holder Campaign vehicle illegally parked in a handicapped parking spot

There was no permit, we checked.

After noticing that someone had stairbombed Jim Bob Rays, a local bar/meat market, Clara and Jeff didn’t think the night could get any better…until they discovered a local MP candidate had parked his campaign vehicle in a wheelchair parking spot. Yep, that’s the same parking spot that also held a cop car and city vehicle several months ago. While the driver of the vehicle has apologized publicly and removed the vehicle, note that Jeff actually told the driver the vehicle was parked illegally and the driver denied it, then attempted to blame it on another candidate (who was parked behind him legally), and finally gave in when he was shown the photographic evidence on Jeff’s iPhone.

It’s not nice to be told you don’t know what you’re talking about when it comes to accessibility and you’re in a wheelchair. But then again, we guess it’s not nice to have a photo of your mistake retweeted over 50 times on twitter over the course of the night…so we’re even now?

What’s perhaps most disturbing is that some have reacted to this photo on twitter by accusing it of being a “smear” or being exclusively about our dislike for the candidate or the party — this has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the law. Illegally parking in a handicapped spot is a $300 fine, regardless of your party affiliation. This isn’t about ideology, it’s about accessibility.

So in honour of today, which also happens to be Blog Against Disablism day, we’d like to welcome any photos of other candidates illegally parked in handicapped parking spots to be sent in and we’ll be sure to post them right away. No one is allowed to park in these spots without a permit. Period.

Thanks everyone for the great year and hope you’re excited for all the great stuff we have planned for year 2!

Cheers,

- Clara & Jeff

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Accessing Democracy

by Jeffrey Preston on April 29, 2011 at 10:44 am
Posted In: Articles
Accessible voting sign telling people how to provide Elections Canada feedback on voting booth accessibility

Clara and I love the "interpretive" wheelchair guy at the bottom. Totally vanguard art.

Over the past few years, much has been made about the lack of accessible polling stations across the country. While a bulk of the publicized concerns surround the use (or the lack) of technology to allow people with visual impairments to vote independently, the problems stretch much further. For instance, I will never forget reading about the polling station in Toronto that was located downstairs. Is it sick that my first thought was “Man, I wish that happened to me”?

Dreams of rabble-rousing aside, this little incident served as a bit of a wake-up call to Elections Canada, who are now actively working to make sure future elections will be accessible to all Canadians, regardless of their ability. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Calling all youth activists

by Jeffrey Preston on April 28, 2011 at 10:47 am
Posted In: Articles

Just got this call for youth with disabilities to participant in a Youth Activist Forum in Ottawa. You should come, we’re going: Jeff will be making a presentation and running a workshop.

—–

Registration is open for  the Youth Activist Forum hosted by Citizens with Disabilities-Ontario in partnership with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.  This event will bring young people together to meet established and emerging disability mentors. The Forum will include a performance night with disabled artists, discussions lead by disability leaders from Canada and the United States, and workshops where youth participants will have the opportunity to showcase their talents and interests. We are looking for youth with and without disabilities aged 16-30 from across Ontario to attend this exciting event to be held at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON from June 3-5th. We are still fundraising, and hope to cover all or a portion of travel, lodging and accessibility costs for participants.  Know anyone who might be interested?

Registration and more information available here: http://www.cwdo.org/d/content/youth-activist-forum

Please circulate widely!

Signed,

The Youth Activist Forum Planning Committee

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