Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 56

I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar Department

Le Devoir this morning carried a front page story in which a group of feminist medical types warn that new omnibus legislation restructuring the health care system in Quebec might make it harder for women to get abortions in the province.  Anne-Marie Messier, director of the Centre des santé des femmes, and 30 others had written a letter to the crusty Health Minister Gaétan Barrette charging that  a draft rule, attached to the bill, would do such things as put a cap of 504 abortions per doctor per year.  The figure works out to less than ten per week, which is far fewer than health professionals at abortion clinics provide.

However, shortly after sunrise when the newspaper article began to circulate both Barrette and Premier Philippe Couillard took the airwaves, saying that that the government has no intention of restricting abortion. The quota would not apply doctors who specialized in teh procedure.  By afternoon Le Devoir   had changed its headline and modified the story.

The prompt action is very interesting.  Obviously the groundswell of protest that flooded call-ins and social media this morning convinced Quebec's leading class that this was a debate they didn't want. As Chantal Hébert said on the Radio Canada morning show C'est pas trop, the last thing any government in Canada wants at this point is to get involved in the abortion question. Even Stephen Harper, who has a flock of backbenchers against abortion, would rather have dissension in caucus than to open the debate, she pointed out.

So score one for the women who jumped into the fray immediately. 

Signing Back on after a Couple of Productive Months

This morning I sent off a draft of my new non-fiction book Road through Time to a publisher who seems interested in it.  What a great feeling!

Reading it over for one last time before I let it go, I was rather pleased with what I've done.  Will be interesting to see what the publishing guys say.

This last couple of weeks I've also beeing working revisions and copyreading proofs of my novel River Music , which should be available in mid-May.  That, too, was a very interesting experience, as it had been more than a year since I'd read it.  Marc Côté at Cormorant Books had done an excellent job in editing it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the book was--like reading somebody else's work!

So now that things are more or less back to normal, I'll be posting more often.  So many things have happened since the first of the year that cried out for a rant, but I didn't have the time to stop and comment...

In the Meantime, River Music is on Its Way...

Very little action on the blog front, as you can see, because current projects have got in the way. 

But here's a bit of news about a project that's coming to fruition: My  novel River Music is now scheduled to be published by Cormorant Books this spring.

I'll be talking about the long road that got me to this point on at 7 p.m. Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at the Roxboro Public Library, 110 Rue Cartier, Montréal, QC H8Y 1G8.

There are a limited number of places, so to reserve contact the library at: 514) 684-8247.

Happy Holidays to Everyone

The year is drawing to an end, and I find myself running ever faster--but in circles.

But I did have a chance to finish this year's version of our holiday blog.  If you'd like to see what's up with us, here's the link. 

Too Busy to Post

The world swirls on, and there are many event that beg to be commented on, but I've been just too busy lately.  Once the dust settles from this inense period of work on Road through Time , I'll get back to posting regularly. 

And now back to work....

Saturday Photo: Remembering Brazil

All right, I've been back from South America for a year now, but I keep returning to it mentally.  Not only am I getting to the part of writing Road through Time when what I saw there takes pride of place, but as winter closes down around us, I remember how different it was there.

This was taken in late November in a cafe in Brasilia.  Not a fancy place, I think, but nevertheless all decked out for the Christmas holidays.  What a difference!   That I have three small pointsettias from Christmases past that are beginning to produce red leaves is a small triumph, but nothing like the host of outdoor flower here.

Edward Snowden and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois

Went to see Citizenfour , about Edward Snowden, last night.  Definitely worth the detour.  Snowden, you'll remember, is the young US cyber whiz who was employed by the National Security Agency and blew the whistle on the vast network of cyber spying governments are now involved in.

He was 29 when he broke into public, and seems an earnest, extremely articulate and intellent guy.  Full of principles too.  As such he reminds me of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the 24 year old Quebec student leader who won the Governor General's award for non-fiction last week and on the weekend launched a campaign to counter propaganda in favour of various oil pipelines. They even look a little alike.

Of course, that may merely be due to the fact that skinny young white guys with half shaved beards can't help but resemble each other.  But it would be nice if there were a whole lot more people like them willing to stand up when it's important.

(And one more thing: this old lady finally learned something all the rest of you know: how they all keep their stubble at the proper length.  At one point in the film, Snowden says he can't shave off his beard entirely because he hasn't got the right razor head.  Okay, I guess you're allowed to be a little concerned about your appearance if you're also so straight up about more important things.)

Saturday (or Tuesday) Photo: Brasília

A year ago I was in South America, doing the last bit of on-the-spot research for Road through Time .  The photo is of the cathedral designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the Brazilian Capital, Brasília.  The building is spectacular, but like much of the city, hasn't aged very well. 

Why that's so is one of the things I want to talk about in the new book, but I haven't got there yet. Because the subject is vast--roads as vectors for change and exchange--it's taking me a long way to get from the first roads taken by humans in Africa and out of that continent to populate the world.  I've just finished a chapter called "Mysterious Roads" about the paths taken into the Americas by First Nations.  The next one is called "The Revenge of the Roads" and begins with a comparison between the wonderful Inka Road in South America and the Spanish Road, which Phillip II of Spain ordered to be built from Milan to Flanders.  Needless to say,   the Inka one was much better in the period.

All this is a way of explaining why I haven't been posting very much lately.  Too many things going on, too many trails to explore...

Saturday Photo: Springtime in the Andes

Just a year ago I was on a plane on my way to my excellent South American adventure.  That's the view as we neared the crest of a 4200 meter pass in Peru, and the bus that took me from Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado.  The road we were traveling was the Estrada do Pacifico.  Following it (which has more than one name along its length,) you can go from the Atlantic to the Pacific over the Andes and into the Amazon basin. 

Right now I'm a little more than half way through a first draft of the book that I was researching on the trip, Road through Time .  The next chapter will talk about the Inca road as well as the very bad roads that existed in the 16th and 17th century in Europe.  I've got a ways to go before I make it to the present!

Red Poppies: Wars Are Eternal

Today is Remembrance Day, but I'll not be wearing a red poppy.  It's fine to honour the dead, but not to glorify war.

So I'm posting here a picture I took last summer in Portugal.  The poppies were growing in a field near the old Roman town of Conímbriga which was abandoned to attackers about 300 AD. 

Conímbriga's ruins are spectacular and definitely worth a detour.  The fact that poppies grow in distrubed soil nearby just testifies to the way that wars go on and on.