After a pleasant week of travel and visiting, I am grateful to be home and ready to settle into autumn activities. I am delighted that my website has a new look, thanks to Lynda my talented designer.

The mountain roads of British Columbia and Alberta are magnificent although frightening at times.  It is truly a marvel that someone’s vision and  the skill of engineers were able to create that such paths, first with the railways and now amazing highways.

 

Autumn is the season of wisdom and communal development, of giving thanks for the abundance of harvest and the fruitfulness of our labours. We seek the ability to go deep within ourselves to heal what is still wounded and to gather our energies to prepare a world of understanding and peace.

I am incredibly grateful that the City of Edmonton last week chose to consider an exit strategy from licensing “body-rub” parlours. I believe this is an important step in creating a healthier and more equal society.

One Councillor expressed concern that five years might not be enough time to change the habits of consumers. Really? I’m sure society agrees that legislation against domestic violence was a move in the right direction even though we all know there are still abusers among us. We do not offer them protected sites with “licensed” volunteers where they can vent their frustration.

Why would we think it acceptable to commodify women – especially when many already lead lives of desperation, poverty and trauma? Legislation is intended to express the will of society, not to protect offenders.

Keep posted in the weeks and months to come as I continue work with the MMIWG report and share further developments with changing attitudes around the world.