This month, February 2013, we celebrated my Mom's 75th Birthday.

Happy 75th Birthday Mom!!

My Mom was born in 1938 before World War II in Mabolo, Cebu City, Philippines. On the Pacific front, WWII began in 1942.

Most of my Mom's siblings (she's the 2nd eldest of 11 children) live in the Philippines. Her brother Pedro & his family live nearby in the Niagara region. 

Some of my mom's siblings I've only met once (and some I haven't ever met ) .. .Corazon, Lilia, Victorio (Vic), Teresita, Perpetuo (Petot), Maria Luz (Dede), Eva, Jocelyn.

My Mom's hometown, Cebu City, was the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

Ferdinand Magellan brought missionary zeal when he sailed in Cebu City in 1521. Magellan met his demise from warrior chief Lapu-Lapu on Mactain Island a few weeks later. This gave the natives temporary respite against the conquistators' incursions.

In 1565, the avenging Spaniard Miguel Lopez de Legazpi delivered Cebu and eventually the rest of the Philippines to Spain and Catholicism. My mom's strong faith as a devout, practising Catholic probably stems back to her upbringing, rooted in hundreds of years of imperialism & Catholicisim in the Philippines.

In 1575, the founding of the Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesús (Village of the Most Holy Name of Jesus) marked Cebu City as the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

The Spanish weren't the only visitors to the Philippines. My Mom's name in Portugese means Christmas 'Natividad'. 

When Ferdinand Magellan sailed into the Port of Cebu on 7 April 1521, an eyewitness account relates that he was already a latecomer: 'Many sailing vessels from Siam, China and Arabia were docked in the port. The people ate from porcelain wares and used a lot of gold and jewellery…'

My Mom's great-grandmother's maiden surname (paternal side) was 'Yap', indicative of her Chinese ancestry. My great-great grandmother Yap fished and farmed to support her family.

My Mom studied nursing at Southwestern University in Cebu City. After she graduated in nursing, my Mom immigrated to Chicago in 1962 where she worked at Cook County Hospital and Bethany Brethren Hospital. My Mom was prepared to be treated differently in Chicago in the early '60s.  Her nursing training at Southwestern University in Cebu prepared their students for this. My Mom said she was taught not to make a fuss or not to resist if they were told to move to a different seat in a public facility.

Chicago Freedom Movement (1965-1967)
Some of my Mom's nursing friends eventually accepted job offers in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

My Mom eventually applied to some of these positions. She moved to Hamilton just before the growing momentum of the Chicago Freedom Movement, an ambitious civil rights campaign from 1965-1967.

Since 1962, the CCCO (Coordinating Council of Community Organizations) had harnessed anger over racial inequality, especially in the public schools, in the city of Chicago to build the most sustained local civil rights movement in the North.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. placed demands on the doors of Chicago City Hall in order to gain leverage with city leaders in 1966. Some of these demands addressed housing discrimination, education, transportation and job access, income and employment, health, wealth generation, crime and the criminal justice system, community development and quality of life.

Civility v Civil Rights

My Mom pointed out to me the incompatibility between 'civility' versus 'civil rights'.
The extent to which civility was not compatible with the promise of racial justice has strong similarities with the Law Society's Civility Complaints Protocol. W.A. Derry Millar actually mentioned that growing diveristy of the Bar was one of the reasons proferred to explain the supposed decline in civility. His unsound Civility Complaints Protocol coupled with judicial immunity breaches one's Charter rights. An individual is entitled to confront their accuser(s) under oath but with judicial immunity & Millar's unsound Civility Complaints Protocol, the LSUC is trampling on lawyers' Charter rights.

Law Society of Upper Canada - Civility Complaints Protocol

The duality of 'civility' discourse versus civil unrest & disorder has the same duality as the Law Society's discourse of 'civility' versus argumentative 'tone' & 'words' of female, sole practitioners.

My good friend Elsie was name-called 'baboon' by one of the Law Society's witnesses. The Law Society does not believe this prejudice is relevant to their witnesses' credibility or to their Conduct Application against her which makes numerous unfounded allegations. Instead, Elsie's LSUC Panel   suggested their Conduct Application simply relates solely to issues of tardiness, and refuses to admit the materiality and Stinchcombe relevance.

Former LSUC Treasurer's (W.A. Derry Millar) pernicious and insidious Civility Complaints Protocol is being mis-used in a discriminatory, economic way against sole practitioners from non-traditional backgrounds.

Name-calling 'Baboon' condoned by LSUC Panel

The Law Society is content to condone name-calling 'halfway house', 'baboon' etc.  Clearly, the Law Society is still stuck in the historial period (1791-1841) of Upper Canada with the prejudices of that era.

Prejudice disguised as 'Civility' continues to discriminate & oppress lawyers from non-traditional backgrounds.

My Mom is disgusted that the Law Society proceeded with their hearing & Estates Application against me in my absence when I'm battling cancer.

I attended at Estates Court to view the LSUC's Application. At the computer, it asks the computer user to enter the name of the deceased. So, I entered my name. Then it asks the computer user to enter the Date of Death. Since my file number could not be retrieved this way, the clerk had to retrieve my file number to pull my estates file.

The Law Society's insidious behaviour far exceeds incivility. Their behaviour is appalling. This is one of many reasons why the LSUC is not fit to self-regulate or self-govern. Independent over-sight is necessary to keep the public interest protected from the private interests of lawyers regulating other lawyers.

This is my 3rd week making a conscientious effort to stick to a Vegan diet.
My friend Andrea generously bought me nutrient-rich, delicious Super foods at Fortinos.
Andrea is a wealth of knowledge!

Here's an interesting article with tips to help pre-empt cancer . . .
...
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.


11. An effective way to battle cancer is to STARVE the cancer cells by not feeding it with foods it needs to multiple.

What cancer cells feed on:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Note: Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.


b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells will starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes t o nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.

To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water--best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines will become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor.

Anger, unforgiving and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

CETA's Implications for Canadian Municipalities

Negotiations btw EU and the Harper government are continuing next week in Ottawa, with a view to finalizing the CETA.

Is the Harper government going to ignore all the 40+ Cdn municipalities who brought motions seeking to be exempt from the Canada-EU trade agreement? 

What is the City of Hamilton going to do?

Recently I wrote my City Councillor Scott Duvall (Ward 7) about the implications for Canadian municipalities with the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement ('CETA'). 

The letter is available at: https://www.box.com/s/macp5uzhyikpzf05pooq