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More amazing stuff from Patrick Stewart. Here, he links PTSD among veterans to violence against women and children. To be anti-violence, we must also be anti-war. If you haven't seen it, please watch.

While everyone's been glued to Rob Ford's crack and Mike Duffy's featherbedding, something even more important happened: the Federal Court confirmed that there was election fraud in the 2011 federal election. Not just "robocalls" - that diminutive buzzword that the media clings to - but election fraud : a deliberate, targeted attempt at voter suppression. The conservative media has framed the ruling as a victory for the Harper Government TM , because the court stopped short of nullifying the election results. But the ruling was very clear . Judge Richard Mosley wrote: I find that electoral fraud occurred during the 41st General Election. Some important and potentially damning details still have not been revealed. Who had access to the Conservative Party's database? Who orchestrated and authorized the election fraud? Let's join the Council of Canadians in demanding the Conservative Party answer those questions. They won't do it, of course. But let'...

In 2009, I wrote this brief history of trolls at wmtc. At that time, the sad man who calls himself magnolia_2000 had been reading and leaving comments on wmtc for about three years. Now it's mid-2013, and Mags is still reading. It's been six years.  Six years!! None of his comments is ever put through moderation. Ninety-five percent of his comments are deleted unread. But still, he continues to post. GaryStJ went away. The guy from the Naruto fan forums  went away. But not Mags. Allan says Mags is my most loyal reader, and at this point, I can't disagree.

Canada lost a true hero today, someone who spent the better part of his life defending the rights and freedoms of others. From the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Morgentaler decision: Jillian Bardsley, Medical Students for Choice , Toronto Chapter, on Canada's lack of abortion providers, and what students are doing about it Michele Landsberg , author, former columnist for Toronto Star , instrumental in writing about abortion and other feminist issues Angela Robinson , Women's College Hospital, on anti-abortion by stealth, and how she found the movement Author and activist Judy Rebick , with memories of working alongside Dr. Morgentaler, as "the girl from the clinic," and the widespread public support for their work. * * * * Dr. Morgentaler's obituary in the New York Times . Rabble has collected some nice tributes from Canadians.

I'm back! And Walmart workers are on strike! Workers in Miami, Massachusetts and the Bay Area in California are on strike. Please sign their petition supporting their right to speak out for better conditions in the workplace. Workers who have spoken out have seen their hours reduced, their shifts changed for maximum inconvenience, their meagre pay raises disappear... and they've been flat-out fired. But these courageous workers are refusing to be cowed. Let's stand by them in every way we can. Click here to sign the Walmart workers petition. It will be delivered at the next Walmart shareholders' meeting.

We used to send a lot of postcards from our travels, but that is a ritual lost to time and email. A few people do still get postcards, though: my mother, Allan's great aunt in Vermont, and in this case two friends, for specific reasons. I bought the postcards, tucked them away, and kind of half forgot about them and half kept on the lookout for a post office from which to buy stamps. Every time we saw a mailbox - yellow in Spain, marked correo - I remembered that I didn't have stamps, but I never saw a post office. We asked about stamps at a souvenir store, and they told us to go to a tobacco shop. Anytime we saw a tobacco shop, I would remember the stamps, but we would be busy, or looking for something else, or they were closed for Sunday, or for the long midday break, or for whatever reason, I didn't go in. In a few different cities, we asked again, and would be directed either to a tobacco shop or a post office. Then I would forget about the postcards until we either sa...

For most of the trip, I was hoping to spend a few hours in Toledo on our last day in Spain. Allan was skeptical at best, feeling it would make the day too rushed and pressured. I was holding out hope until the last moment, but once we found the highway out of Bilbao and saw the time, I realized he was right. What's more, the medieval synagogue in Toledo, the main site I wanted to see there, is closed on Mondays. The interior is supposed to be beautifully preserved, but we wouldn't get to see it anyway. Ah well. I reluctantly gave up on the idea. We had breakfast in Bilbao across the street from our hostal, in a lovely little cafe/bar, the kind that will make me miss Spain. I must note that I asked for a slice of something at the bar, thinking it was an egg tortilla... and it was cheesecake. Yummy cheesecake, but nevertheless, I had cheesecake for breakfast, a first for me. Naturally when I finished the cake, the host came out of the kitchen with a big egg tortilla. We had a goo...