Going around in circles for the right reasons
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I natter on the concept of circular economy and the right to repair, which earns me some points in the dorkiest scribe category. But seriously, in an economic climate where everything is getting more expensive quicker than incomes can keep up with, there are so many reasons to give serious thought to how much we consume and why. It’s even good for the climate, too.
I have no fresh legal writing to share this week, you’re welcome!
Keep your thoughts away from my pregnant belly
The New York Times had a most infuriating video featuring a runner who — get this — kept running while pregnant. An elite runner. Who kept running while pregnant, with the support of her doctor. Apparently people felt this gave them the right to give her a piece of their mind and even swear at her. I want to scream and not just a little.
I popped three beautiful healthy babies (and had a miscarriage between numbers one and two) between late 2006 and mid-2010. You don’t have to be good at math, or even basic biology, to know that for a while there, I was pregnant a lot.
I was also very active. I ran most days and I did karate five or six days a week. I earned my first black belt in 2004 and my second-degree black belt in June 2007 (third-degree black belt would have to wait until 2016 because somehow babies and toddlers are even harder on your schedule than pregnancy).
In the picture below I was nine months pregnant, and pretty pleased with myself to have taken my sweaty training all the way to the night before my due date. That was October 23, 2006.
I was back in the dojo eight days after Eldest was born. Not jumping around, obviously, but training as much as my recovering body would allow. I did the same with the second and third babies except I didn’t wait eight days to return to training. If memory serves it was four with the second kid and two with the third because by that point I was getting pretty good at that game.
Should everyone do this? Obviously not. Pregnancy is not the time to pick up a new high-intensity sport. But for those of us who are already elite athletes when the sperm meets the egg, who are healthy and followed by medical professionals, hell yes. If I hadn’t trained during my pregnancies, I don’t think I’d have survived them. I’m totally not kidding.
Of course you modify where necessary. I didn’t do any sparring while I was pregnant and I didn’t help anyone learn to throw. Duh. But I did everything else and newsflash, I was better for it. Of course people commented. They had opinions. Why are you running while pregnant? How dare you do pushups? Aren’t you hurting your baby with those crunches? It’s a thing about pregnancy that it seems to give permission to everyone to voice their opinions about what’s happening inside your body. We should get rid of that and trust pregnant people and their doctors to know best.
While I’m good and sweaty ranting, I want to take a solid breath and tell the NHL to go fuck itself for its decision to ban rainbow tape. Perhaps not surprising considering hockey’s other problems with male toxicity and sexual abuse. But still.
En français
À l’autre extrême, on retrouve des gens formidables qui se servent de leurs talents pour rendre le monde meilleur, comme par exemple cette belle initiative pour réduire l’impact des navires sur les créatures qui vivent sous l’eau:
Dans les laboratoires d'Innovation maritime, centre de recherche appliquée affilié à l’Institut maritime du Québec (IMQ), des experts en acoustique développent des solutions pour réduire les vibrations et les sons sous-marins générés par les navires qui sillonnent le fleuve Saint-Laurent.
Et pour faire suite à l’élection du NPD de Wab Kinew au Manitoba la semaine dernière, quelques données sur la composition du caucus de ce parti.
Le caucus des députés du Nouveau Parti démocratique dans la nouvelle législature manitobaine sera très diversifié, alors que plus de la moitié de l’effectif est issue de la diversité.
Selon le parti, 14 des 34 députés élus sont des femmes ou des personnes de diverses identités de genre, 10 sont des Autochtones (Métis ou membre des Premières Nations), 10 sont issus de groupes de minorité visible et 4 sont des membres de la communauté LGBTQ+.
