Goodbye Limba

This morning I woke up to heartbreaking news. Limba the elephant was euthanized at the Bowmanville Zoo this morning.

This tragedy is sadly about much more than the death of a 49 year old elephant at a zoo. Limba was Canada's oldest elephant, because most elephants Limba's age get to retire and live close to the way they would have in the wild, in a warm climate, socializing with other elephants. Younger elephants Iringa, 44, Toka, 43, and Thika, 33, were recently moved from the Toronto Zoo to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in San Andreas, Calif.

The Bowmanville Zoo has stubbornly kept Limba as their sole elephant since her companion Sheba died in 2011, and forced her to perform in parades and circuses. In January of this year, California-based animal rights group In Defense of Animals (IDA) named the Bowmanville Zoo the second-worst zoo in North America for elephants, stating that the zoo was imposing a "cruel sentence" on Limba, giving her a "miserable, lonely life."  During performances the zoo frequently used a bull hook on Limba, which is a cruel training device that was recently banned by Los Angeles city council .

Two weeks ago, after finding a possibly cancerous, grapefruit sized lump on Limba, the zoo decided to make her march in the Bowmanville Santa Claus Parade. When protesters made it clear that they would be there, parade organizers asked the zoo to leave Limba at home, but then reversed that decision when they secured more police presence at the parade to deal with protesters (which proved unnecessary because the protest was peaceful and unobtrusive). Some residents made a Facebook page called "We want Limba in the Bowmanville Santa Claus Parade." To them, the joy of seeing Limba in the community far outweighed concern for Limba's well being.

Additionally, the Bowmanville Zoo was planning on including Limba in their Christmas circus performance, shamelessly named "The Animal's Gift."

Though I am greatly saddened that Limba did not get to live her final days in peaceful retirement, she is now at peace. She no longer has to suffer through harsh Canadian winters that she was not made for, and her lifelong servitude to masters that made her perform humiliating tricks through coercion with a bullhook is over. I sincerely hope we can learn from this, and widen our circle of compassion to include non-human animals.

After all the crazy Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, today is Giving Tuesday. In honour of Limba, I just donated to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee in the hopes that more zoo and circus elephants will be able to retire in peace, and the Wildlife Conservation Network and Save The Elephant's Elephant Crisis Fund, tackling the supply of, demand for and trafficking of ivory.

Fall food is the best food: pumpkin cupcakes and maple coconut whipped cream

I must admit that I'm pretty lazy with my cupcake making. I found two brands that make vegan/gluten free/nut free cake mixes, and they're so amazing that I'm afraid to bake from scratch. However, in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house, I wanted to go a little bit out of my baking comfort zone and combine pumpkin puree with chocolate cake mix. I googled "how to add pumpkin puree to cake mix" and I got a lot of results for substituting the eggs/butter/oil/milk for pumpkin puree, but that doesn't help for a "just add water" cake mix. So, I decided to wing it, and the result was super delicious so I want to share my "recipe."

The cake mixes I use are Wholesome Chow (they also make really good icing mix, which is what I used this time) and Kokimo Kitchen (I've also tried their awesome "just add water" pancake mix).

The Kokimo Kitchen chocolate cake mix calls for 2 cups of water, so first I tried 1 cup of water and 1 cup of pumpkin puree, but that was a bit too dry so I added another half cup of each, which was perfect. I also added 1 tsp of maple syrup, 1 tbsp of light agave nectar, and some cinnamon. I cooked the cupcakes at 375 degrees for 25 minutes (doing the fork check multiple times, which is why one cupcake in the picture has a large hole in it). The cupcakes turned out kind of brownie-like, so I think the next time I make this I'll just make brownies instead.

For the icing, I mixed 1 cup of pumpkin puree, 1/2 a cup of vegan margarine, 2 tsps of vanilla soy milk, 1/2 a tsp of maple syrop, 1/2 a tsp of vanilla extract, some cinnamon and the Wholesome Chow vanilla frosting mix.

I also found a recipe for vegan coconut whipped cream. You MUST click on that link and try the recipe, because it's incredibly easy and tasty. Maybe next year I'll figure out how to make vegan pumpkin pie, because this stuff would taste incredible on pie!

(This picture is deceiving because I took it just after the shaking part of the recipe, and the whipped cream is so thick that it coated the inside of the jar. I actually made about 1 cup.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Conservative Government wants to know what you think.... well, not really.

I just received an email from Dan Hilton, Executive Director of the Conservative Party of Canada, inviting me to take a survey about the Economic Action Plan. I thought, "Well, okay, they want to know what I think, I'm happy to oblige!" Naively, I clicked on the link to the survey, thinking that I may actually get to say what I think of the Conservative government's actions over the last 7 years, and was presented with the most biased piece of garbage I've ever seen. They don't want to know what we think, not what we really think, they want to know which of their "accomplishments" we like the best. This survey is the governmental equivalent of a children's art show. You can't say anything negative, and everyone gets a participation medal. I had hoped for thicker skin in our federal government. The only opportunity for independent thought comes at the end, where the respondent is invited to give "additional comments on Economic Action Plan 2013." Since I doubt anyone at Harper HQ will give them a second thought, here are my comments:

This survey is skewed in favour of the Economic Action Plan, and does not give respondents the opportunity to propose alternative priorities or ideas, or to disagree with what is being done.  

After listing many examples in other questions, the survey asks, "The Conservative government is also investing in world-class research and innovation. Do you support this?" Why are there no examples of how the Conservative government is investing in world-class research and innovation? I cannot say whether I support this or not, because I do not know what kind of research and innovation is being invested in, or how.     

For the "Supporting Families and Communities" question, there are specific dollar amounts for the Investment in Affordable Housing and Homelessness Partnering Strategy, but not for conservation efforts or Aboriginal community programs, which is troubling to me. If the Conservative Party is committed to these investments, where are the figures? 

The final question, "Which three Conservative accomplishments are most important to you?" solicits a completely biased answer because the respondent must choose 3 options in order to complete the survey. This assumes that the respondent believes both that the Conservative government has actually accomplished these things (putting "standing up for victims of crime and passing laws to keep our streets and communities safe" in the same list as "scrapping the long-gun registry" has to be an attempt at an ironic joke) and that these accomplishments are actually important for Canada.  

If my skewed answers have in any way given you the impression that I think the Conservative party is doing a good job, or is on the right track, you should know that I unequivocally do not. In the future, if you actually want to how Canadians feel about your job performance, please put out a less biased and self-congratulatory survey, and I would be more than happy to give you some constructive criticism. Thank you.

If you want to wade through the questions and add your own comments, check out the survey http://conservative.ca/EAP2013survey.

If you want more information about the Economic Action Plan, check out Shit Harper Did's more honest ads.

Homemade Vegan Baileys

Last weekend for St. Patrick's Day/Weekend, I had a craving for Baileys, so I decided to make my own vegan Irish Cream! I found a vegan and nut-free recipe on "oh she glows" and tweaked it a little based on what I already had in my kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 1 can light coconut milk
• 1 can full-fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 3/4 cup brewed coffee (I only have instant, but better coffee would likely make better Irish Cream.)
• 1 cup Inishowen Irish Whiskey (any Irish Whiskey is fine, Jameson is the standard but the bf and I wanted to try something new for St. Patrick's Day.)
• A pinch of salt

 1. I put the cans of coconut milk into a medium pot and whisked on medium heat. I then increased the heat to allow the liquid to boil, stirring frequently. Then I reduced the heat and let the pot simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the coconut milk became a little thicker.

2. Then I removed the pot from the hot element and stirred in the coffee, then a pinch of salt, and finally the Irish Whiskey.

4. I tried to store all of it in one mason jar but there was too much! So I found other containers to put the rest in.

I also bought vegan stout beer so I could have Irish Car-bombs for the first time, and they were DELICIOUS! 

Overall, this was a big hit with my friends and I will definitely make it again! I'll probably use better coffee, and I might try to find a recipe using something other than coconut milk, because although I like coconut, it overpowers the other flavours. Also, we noticed that the mixture separates after awhile, but it just needs a good stir. 

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day!

Day 3: Care Canada's Walk In Her Shoes

On day 1 I ran into a problem; my step counter broke. I wore it on my apron at work, forgetting that I'm very clumsy, so naturally it got knocked onto the ground enough times to stop working. Not awesome. However, about 2 weeks ago I wore the step counter at work (attached much more safely to the pocket of my pants), and in 9 hours on a slow Monday I walked over 13000 steps.

 I figured it would be safe to assume that my steps would also be well over 8000 during my busier 8-9 hour Friday and Saturday night shifts, so I waited until today to buy a new step counter.

I didn't have to work today, so I walked around downtown for a few hours. I haven't reached 8000 steps yet, but I'm going to take the stairs to do laundry tonight (to the basement from the 12th floor, and vice versa) so hopefully that will be enough.

Why am I walking 8000 steps per day for 8 days? To raise money for Care Canada's work empowering girls, women and communities around the world to overcome poverty and adversity.Want to know what YOU can do to help? Click here to go to my personal page and make a donation, or sign up to do the walk too! Any amount helps, and donations over $10 are tax deductible!

Until next time, keep calm and step on.

Day 1: Care Canada's Walk In Her Shoes

Today is the first day of my pledge to walk 8000 steps a day for 8 days as part of Care Canada's Walk In Her Shoes. I've been awake for almost 6 hours today and I'm only at 89 steps. My day has consisted of sitting at my computer and on my couch doing homework, so it's not surprising that the number is so low. I'm hoping that my walk to work and 9 hour shift tonight will bring my steps up to 8000. I'm a server at a bar so I do a lot of walking. I will post an update tomorrow and let you know if work was enough or if I had to go up and down my building's stairs a few times afterwards to get to 8000.

Why am I walking 8000 steps per day for 8 days? To raise money for Care Canada's work empowering girls, women and communities around the world to overcome poverty and adversity. Here is one example of what Care Canada does:

Today is International Women's Day, what can YOU do today to positively impact the lives of women? Click here to go to my personal page and make a donation, or sign up to do the walk too! The event is flexible, you can choose any 8 days between now and the end of June. They will send you a pedometer, a lovely t-shirt, and give you lots of help and encouragement with fundraising.

Until next time, happy stepping!

Care Canada's Walk In Her Shoes

It's almost March 8th, International Women's Day, and the day I will begin my challenge to walk 8000 steps a day for 8 days to fund-raise for Care Canada's efforts to empower women, girls and communities around the world to overcome poverty and adversity. 

I will be posting updates from March 8th-15th so you can share this experience with me. Want to know what YOU can do to help? Click here to go to my personal page and make a donation, or sign up to do the walk too! Any amount helps, large or small, whatever you can manage would mean a lot to me, and even more to the women who live the reality of walking at least 8000 steps a day every day just to get the basic necessities for their families. Thank you.

Manning Road/Adelaide Avenue Connection, Whitby and Oshawa

Dear Doug MacKay and The Region Municipality of Durham Works Department,

As a Whitby resident who lives very close to the proposed road connection, I completely oppose this project. I have enjoyed the trails in this area since I was a child and it would be heartbreaking to lose them. Connecting Manning and Adelaide is not worth destroying the pedestrian and cycling trails, breeding grounds for at least 26 bird species, at least 6 endangered Butternut trees, and the habitat for hundreds of animals. The amount of forest that will remain after this project is not adequate to provide habitat for the displaced animals. This area already has issues with coyotes, foxes, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks being hit by cars, as well as entering private properties, getting into garbage containers, ruining gardens, and on occasion killing pets. If these animals have even less habitat near by they will become even more of a presence in the neighbourhood, endangering themselves because of traffic and pest control.

I completely agree with a fellow resident's recommendation published on DurhamRegion.com, "Instead of building a road, make the area into a regional conservation area and trail system. This would encourage families to get outdoors and foster an interest in nature. If the forest was protected then garbage bins could be installed and restoration of habitat could occur. Protecting the woodland would also create the opportunity for environmental stewardship programs in schools." (Breanna Hall, Oshawa, May 22, 2012).

This road connection may have been considered a necessity in 1970 when it was first proposed, but conditions have changed and plans should change accordingly. Since Whitby is one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, and most available natural spaces have been used for housing or retail, it is important to protect the few wild spaces that are left. Watching my hometown develop without taking environmental sustainability and conservation into account has been very upsetting, and I hope Durham Region will do the right thing and reverse its classification of this option as the recommended solution, because it is the option that causes the second most harm.

Please keep me informed about this project and any public information sessions or discussion forums on the issue.

Thank you,
-Colleen Bain

For more information, click here.
To sign the petition against this road connection, click here.
To submit your own comment on this project, email Doug MacKay, doug.mackay@durham.ca.

Why vegan?

I want to use this blog to help people adopt a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle whether their reasons are for animals, their own health, the environment, or simply because they find meat icky. In order to understand where I'm coming from in my advice I thought I should share my own story of how I became a vegan, and some of my reasons for keeping it up.

When I was 16 I stopped eating red meat. I never really enjoyed eating it, but to be honest I can't really remember what caused me to give it up. However, I have a vivid image in my mind of why I stopped eating poultry and fish as well. I was on a weekend trip with my high school's drama club, and in the parking lot of the hotel we were staying at there were several dead deer in the bed of a pickup truck. That was the first time I had ever seen an animal that had been intentionally killed by a person, and that image made me re-think my relationship to animals.

Over the next 9 years of vegetarianism I was blissfully ignorant about the egg and dairy industries. I thought, "the animals aren't killed to give us eggs and dairy, so it's okay." I thought that keeping cows and chickens in captivity was the big issue for vegans (as well as the poor treatment of cows and chickens in captivity, which I tried to convince myself was better than the fate of cows and chickens killed for meat). Then I went to China. I saw some horrible things there including a box of skinned dog heads, a man shocking hamsters in a tiny cage to demonstrate a pest control product, exotic animal furs being sold in every shopping district, a circus with animal acts including a tight rope walking bear that had to be beaten on stage to perform, among other things. While these things aren't related to the dairy and egg industries, they opened my eyes to what goes on in places that value animals less than we do in North America. That got me thinking about what is permitted in our culture that I wasn't aware of. So I decided to take the blinders off and I read an article about the link between the dairy and veal industries. And then I read an article about what happens to male chicks born on egg farms. And then I watched Earthlings. What I saw in China cannot be unseen, and what I know about how animals are treated so that people can have meat, dairy products and eggs cannot be unknown. So I made the decision to no longer draw a line saying, "it's okay to use animals in this way, but not in that way." It is no longer okay for me to use animals in any way.

I should add that I am fully aware of the place of privilege I come from as a Canadian. I have an abundance of food to choose from, and can enjoy a healthy vegan diet. I am aware that many people around the world do not have an abundance of food to choose from, and cannot afford to be picky about what they eat. That being said, we are facing a global food shortage and one of the best things we can do is to consume less meat. This would reduce the amount of water and fossil fuels we use and forests we cut down. Below is an infographic explaining the carbon footprint of one hamburger patty:

Furthermore, over 1/3 of the world's grains are fed to livestock. The following infographic explains the impact of livestock farming on the environment, as well as the inefficiency of feeding so much food to our food:

My health reasons for being a vegan are much less fleshed out (pun?). While I believe that eating a plant based diet that covers all nutritional bases is the most healthy choice for me (and something I am working towards), I also recognize that simply not eating animal products does not equal a healthy diet, and vice versa. However, I'm striving to be an example of a healthy vegan because the reasons above are compelling enough for me to keep going. 

Now that you know my story, I will do my best to provide advice for people at any level of interest in consuming less animal products- whatever the reason, I support you! :)

Feel free to comment below! If you have a veggie story to share I'd love to hear it!

Canada, It's Time To SPEAK OUT

Defend Canada's Core Values From Bill C-38

This is what you will find on the websites of many Canadian organizations tomorrow. The reason behind this is the fight against Canada's Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-38. Included in what should have been a standard federal budget are sweeping changes to Canada's environmental laws, which would effectively gut most of the protections Canada currently enjoys against environmental devastation.

Why is this a problem? Ecojustice has provided an analysis of what Bill C-38 means for the environment. Here is their report:

The 2012 budget bill (Bill C-38) will weaken Canada’s most important environmental laws and silence Canadians who want to defend them. Instead of using the usual process for sweeping changes, which allows for thorough debate, these changes are being shoehorned into a 452- page budget bill.  

The changes amount to: 

• weakened protection for fish and species at risk; 

• an entirely new — and less comprehensive — environmental assessment law;  

• broad decision making powers for Cabinet and Ministers; and  

• less accountability and fewer opportunities for public participation.  

What follows is a list of the TOP 10 items of environmental concern in the budget bill.

1.  Changes to the Fisheries Act mean that the law may no longer protect all fish and the waters where they live.  The new protection framework could exclude many fish and watercourses. Generally, habitat protection will only include permanent alteration or destruction of “commercial, recreational or aboriginal fisher(ies)” habitat and some activities will be exempt from the law regardless of how much damage they cause. The federal government will also be able to hand over the power to authorize destruction of fish habitat to provincial governments or other entities, which is worrisome.  

2.  No maximum time limits on permits allowing impacts on species at risk. This means that there will no longer be any guaranteed review to evaluate ongoing impacts to endangered species. These potential ‘perpetual’ permits could continue even where there is a drastic decline in the population of a species affected by the permitted activity.  

3.  The National Energy Board (NEB) will be exempted from species at risk protections. The NEB will no longer have to ensure that measures have been taken to minimize impacts on the critical habitat of at-risk species before the NEB approves a pipeline or other major infrastructure. For example, there is no guarantee that an environmental assessment will consider the impacts of a proposed pipeline project and related oil tanker traffic on the habitat of endangered orca whales before the NEB issues a certificate approving that pipeline. Prepared by West Coast Environmental Law and Ecojustice Published May 2012.

4.  The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act is being replaced with a new Act that will significantly narrow the number of projects that will be assessed for their environmental, social and economic impacts. Assessments, when they happen, will be less rigorous and subject to time limits that will place further constraints on public and First Nations’ participation. The new Act will apply only to “designated projects,” but we don’t yet know what those will be. The new Act gives the Environment Minister and government officials broad decision-making power: The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency would be able to exempt a designated project from even going through the assessment process. 

5.  The federal government is offloading responsibilities to the provinces. This is troubling because the patchwork of environmental laws and policies at the provincial level leave doubt as to whether they can act as a sufficient or legally defensible substitute for federal oversight. Prime examples of this offloading include shifting responsibility for implementation or enforcement of the Fisheries Act to provinces and eliminating many federal environmental assessments. 

6.  Cabinet is now granted authority to override a “no” decision of the National Energy Board. This may allow politics of the day to trump an independent, objective process and undermine the NEB’s expertise. 

7.  No more joint review panels. Where a major energy project will be subject to an NEB hearing, a Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency-enabled review panel is prohibited, so there will be no more joint review panels. Thus, the environmental implications of major energy projects will now be evaluated only by the energy regulator.  

8.  Broad decision-making powers are being shifted from the public realm and given to Cabinet and individual Ministers. This means decisions related to fish habitat protection and environmental assessments will be allowed to be made behind closed doors with minimal public scrutiny. 

9.  Significant narrowing of public engagement in resource review panel hearings, particularly for major oil projects, pipelines and mines. In order to participate, people will have to prove they will be directly affected or have relevant information or expertise. In some cases, their contributions may still be ignored.  

10. Repeal of two important environmental laws. The repeal of the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, means no more domestic accountability measures on climate change and the repeal of the National Round Table on Environment and Economy Act will phase out this valuable advisory body completely.

Help stop this devastating bill by signing the petition below, writing a letter to your MP, writing a letter to the editor of your favourite national and local newspapers, speaking out on Facebook and Twitter, and spreading the word in any other way you can! We can't let Canada's core values go down without a fight!

Dreamland

Sometimes I have dreams that completely crush me. 


Sometimes I wake up thinking that a dream I just had would make an excellent film or novel plot, launching a super successful career and awesome life for myself. Then I can't remember anything more about the dream than the specific decor of the protagonist's bedroom and I spend the entire day mourning my screenplay/manuscript/successful career that will now never be.


Sometimes I wake up after a nightmare and I'm disturbed by it for the rest of the day, and I dwell over whether something in the nightmare could ever actually happen. This is how recurring nightmares start, I know that, yet I dwell anyway.


Sometimes I wake up from a wonderful and extremely vivid dream and I am crushed by the fact that it wasn't reality. Then I go back to sleep and try to go back to where I left off, but it's never as awesome because now I'm aware that it's just a dream. I am left feeling unfulfilled for the rest of the day.


And I won't even discuss my anxiety dreams... usually work related, usually an exaggeration of a real life situation, and also extremely vivid.


Instead of sleeping can I just watch films from my childhood all night? The Neverending Story, The Little Mermaid, Labyrinth, All Dogs Go To Heaven, The Land Before Time, Little Monsters, The Nightmare Before Christmas... I know they're not real, I know there's a happy ending, and they're inspirational! They will remind me about the importance of: self esteem and imagination, loving yourself for who you are, family and the awesomeness that is David Bowie, being a good person (or dog), adventure and friendship, something about monsters, don't fuck with Christmas. No sleep, just movies. I think I'll try that out...

Actually, on second thought, no. No.... noo no no no. No. If I fall asleep at the wrong point in any of those movies I'll have even more messed up dreams! I can see it now, it would look like this...

Artax sinks into the swamp of darkness, then I cry uncontrollably forever.

If I ever need to scream or yell in a dream, I always lose my voice. So if Ursula takes my voice, I will clearly get murdered or something next.

I get groped and dropped. "She said down?? She said down!!!"

I have to run away from these dudes because they're trying to take off my head.

The junk lady roots through my all my stuff (which I actually DO have nightmares about).

I help Charlie and Itchy win bets...

..but then find out Charlie is using me...

...and never trust again.

I get chased by Sharptooth.

Just about anything from Little Monsters could happen at this point, because that movie is actually quite scary (what were my parents thinking!?!)

And finally, I save Christmas, because, let's be honest, The Nightmare Before Christmas isn't very scary and is completely awesome, therefore dreams about it would be just pure awesomeness. 

  

 The end.

Friday the 13th I'm in Love

Don't be scared...

This one scares me silly. My heart literally sank when I saw it. EEEEEIK!!

Not black cats... but spooky nonetheless

Anyone else think we need two Halloweens every year? Just me?