Shane's Domain

I come from a place where french is not “discouraged”, but you are given a frank discussion by your grade 9 french teacher at the precipice of choosing whether to continue on in french or not. Primarily, the incentive for most of continuing on in french education was the promise of a Quebec City trip/ ski-trip to Tremblant. The french teacher frankly said, “unless you are going to take on teaching french - truly evaluate when you are going to use french again”. I evaluated it with a lens of disdain at that point. 

My french education floundered in Southwest Ontario, even with the statistical highest concentration of francophones outside of Quebec, as it was a low priority in my mind. I finished up after grade 9 and jokingly lamented every time I heard la belle langue in the Student Activities Council (SAC - to which I was co-president) office, as the coordinator for SAC, in my grade 12 year, was my grade 9 teacher. We bonded well as people, however, shared little common interest as I relished in history and politics and she relished in languages. 

Upon finding my path in politics, I knew I had to center myself in Ottawa. Ottawa is a bilingual city where employment is enhanced and facilitated by working ability in both languages. Often times, as the dynamic of french being the minority language in the country - the nation’s capital becomes a hub for francophones, who are much more strongly encouraged to learn english rather than be a unilingual francophone. However, anglophones in eastern Ontario and southwest Ontario find little motivation to expand themselves for tactical gain because they are inundated with “will you teach french then?” However, interestingly, there is new impetus for health’s sake to learn a new language today: 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/learn-french-canada-its-good-for-you/article2437431/

So it seems my memory troubles and my long-term mental health will be improved by an endeavour I was going to work on anyways. It could be my cure-all to mental, memory and career problems all-in-one. I encourage every one of you to take a second look at french. I did. I tossed myself into a bilingual University, started surrounding myself with bilingual people, encouraged them to speak french around me, took a 2nd year-upper level french class (got a B) and moved into Gatineau, QC to immerse myself. I also immersed myself into a french riding association, working with two francophone elected people (MP Mauril Bélanger & MPP Madeleine Meilleur) working to facilitate connections to francophone culture. I’m a little late for the best time in your learning curve when you sponge in languages and information more, but it’s just a bit more of an uphill now. For my overall betterment, it is essential though. 

Donc, à la prochaine et merci pour votre attention. Bonsoir. 

I remember when he was just my friend in high school arguing whatever devil’s advocate position I wasn’t taking… but now he’s gone onto writing manifestos.

He is a leader in the anglo-out-of-province contingent of the Montreal protests. He actively works for the student movement on education rights.

Well, at least, I can see he does not do it in spite of me anymore and does it of his own accord.

This is a manifesto, “End Monogamy;Begin Communism” that I wrote with Leah Mersky for our Radical Political Thought class. It describes the need for open relationships to replace monogamous ones as a means to destroy the traditional nuclear family. We did well on it and some people have asked to see it, so it’s here. Any thoughts on it would be awesome, please share them!

http://www.scribd.com/dmastracci/d/92625536-End-Monogamy-Begin-Communism

So there you go. That is that. Enjoy. I will dissect it later when I have I have the text available to me to pick apart. It requires such attention I believe.

Disclaimer: I am not against family structures or for literal platonic societies by sharing this. I am merely spreading a good friend’s ideas who merits attention as he expands his thoughts leftwards. ;)

Happy birthday Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms! 30 years ago - we were able to enshrine rights & freedoms in our constitution while bringing it home to where it belongs so that we, ourselves, could change it and claim to be fully independent. To this day, it remains our shining achievement and a central tenet of our Canadian identity for me. Vive le Canada!