A New Year, and some New Ambitions

I've had a bit of a revelation here in Aurelia's world. I got a fabulous night's sleep last night, mostly due to starting back on Prometr!um. (I normally don't take it orally, but what the heck? I desperately needed the sleep. Crap was I out like a light.)

And what do I wake up to this morning? The Globe and Mail's front page has a story about the new board of the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency up here in Canada. (Please go read it, and feel free to leave comments, it's a free sign-in. Infertile people seem poorly represented there.) Apparently Stephen Harper thinks appointing a bunch of pro-life religious people to the Board is a good idea. There are few scientists, no medical experts, no REs and NOT ONE person who has gone through fertility treatment.

I will blog about this in detail later, but suffice it to say that I had pitched Michael Ignatieff, and Bob Rae, Gerard Kennedy and Stephane Dion on this exact thing. I warned them, and I was right. If this law isn't changed not only will infertile couples in Canada suffer greatly, but anyone who wants to find a cure for Alzheimer's, for MS, for ALS, and for any disease potentially cured by stem cells will suffer. And since Canada provides billions in stem cell research dollars that the current US government doesn't, we have become the one of the leading places on earth to do good well-funded research.

This is utter insanity, and as of this moment the religious right has finally cemented it's control over a women's reproductive organs. I blogged about this early on, and I let someone intimidate me into taking my posts about it down. Well, no more. Months and months ago when that person took some threats too far, I went to the Toronto Police Service. And after I explained what a blog was, and showed them my Statcounter reports, and the emails, etc. the lovely guys at 54 Division told me they would protect me, and take care of any problems. They monitor, and so do I. Not the most fun, but it keeps me and my family safe from harassment, while I practice free speech.

I like debate, hell I love debate, but as I've told a few people recently, there are legal limits on the internet, just as in real life. It isn't the Wild West of old.

So I've decided to jump back into the fray, and call email a whole bunch of politicians and reporters. We're going to do an awful lot of talking and strategizing. Personally, I can't wait to pitch the Conservative Caucus members who only have children because of IVF. Like the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty and his wife, who is an MPP here in Ontario. They have triplets. My sources say that it was very difficult to have those kids and I cannot imagine for the life of me that he would endorse this kind of legislation.

I'm back, everyone, I may not succeed right away, it may take a long time, and a lot of work, but I'm back....and determined to fix this mess.