from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 9:52 PM
subject Sécurité au G8/G20: Flaherty accepte qu’il faille payer cher; Feds seeks to again boost product safety laws
Dear Stephen,
Apparently you have given the asbestos industry your commitment that, as long as you are Prime Minister of Canada, you will support export of asbestos and will even go so far as to block a UN environmental agreement, the Rotterdam Convention, so as to prevent chrysotile asbestos from being put on a list of hazardous substances. All this to possibly gain a few seats in Québec? And while asbestos is currently being removed from your house at 24 Sussex and in the House of Parliament? Shame on you, but not surprising, really. The $-billion in security spending for G8 and G20? The Tar Sands? Offshore oil drilling? Blah blah blah blah blah. I’ve had a long day at work and Claudine was upset when I got home, apparently Kuan pissed on the hall curtain again, we are close to our wits’ end with her, poor thing. We don’t want her to be sick or suffering, and she doesn’t seem to be suffering, but we can’t afford pet ultrasounds and constant tests to find out what is wrong, especially for a 12-year old cat. I mean, maybe it is just old age? Anyway, Claudine is stressed out, and it makes her upset, and I am a lousy comforter. I seem to be emotionless, and non-emotive.I just don’t know what to say. And Rose had a crisis tonight as well, crying hard and long for a half hour. I believe it is teething but of course there is no way to be absolutely sure. Anyway, I’m tired and cranky now myself, still hungry after making a mediocre meal of pasta and sauce, though the boccincini was a nice touch. I’m going to bed. But I’ll leave you with this great quote from Tim Horton’s president, which I find hilarious yet also sad: “It is part of what helps set us apart from the competition. Our goal is to have every cup, every day, in every store taste the same, and that’s a real challenge when you are dealing with an agricultural product.”
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 11:51 AM
subject Retour d’un organisateur conservateur qui avait été écarté; Lawyers urge Supreme Court to force Khadr review
Dear Stephen,
I must write quickly as Rose is just starting another nap, and I have no idea how long she will sleep. Today we fed her some rice cereal for the first time, she ate a few mouthfuls, of course most ended up on her cheeks and bib. It seemed a positive introduction to solid food, though it was quite watery. Uh-oh, she is still awake…but calm. I am watching Rose all day today, Clo went to the library to work on the big translation contract from the MACM. I took the day off work, everything is running smoothly with the installation and this week is mostly a catch-up week. All the painting is almost done, we received the rest of the crates on Friday morning. Last night I sat down to watch the hockey game and it wasn’t even on, it is tonight. I just assumed, and made an ass out of you and me. Actually, it had nothing to do with you, I just like that expression, how it spells out “assume”. So last night I cleaned up a bit my email contacts list, reduced it from 1200 contacts to just over 800, deleting non-existent addresses in order to send out our sublet announcement to as many people as possible.
Did you get it? Know of anyone who wants to spend a good chunk of the summer in Montreal?
Have you heard about the poor mother whose 21 day-old daughter was mauled by a family dog? She is being charged, which perhaps makes sense, but what a terrible tragedy. Tragedy in a different sense from the oil leak, which BP claims to be containing more and more of, though it sounds more like patting oneself on the back after successfully closing up a seeping wound on a fresh corpse,
but whatever, best to put as good a spin on it as possible. I just keep wondering how this company can even continue to exist after this catastrophe? OK I had best redact this letter and send it and then post it and then get ready for a trip to the park, and the bank, and a little shopping. We are going to start making our own purées for Rose and freezing small quantities. Good to be efficient. Speaking of which, three weeks after the fine folks at Revenu Québec were to have cashed the first payment on my tax debt I get a letter asking me to contact them, which I do. Turns out the payment plan doesn’t add up; I’m short $280. Somehow they didn’t fully include the $480 penalty they slapped on my debt because I hadn’t paid them yet. So I have to send them a cheque post-dated for January 2011 before they will begin cashing my cheques.
I just shake my head at this point and wonder how or why I should even bother trying to get out of debt. I guess I should because I can. Freedom 2012!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 10:14 PM
subject Les journalistes dénoncent le contrôle de l’information de Harper; Toronto’s controversial G20 security fence cost $5.5 million
Dear Stephen,
I forgot to mention to you that a Conservative Party member called us the other night asking for donations. They seem to have forgotten that I strung them along for five months last year with a supposed $200 donation that I never honoured, and lo and behold I done did it again. Let’s see how long I can stretch this one out.
I had a great day yesterday, just me and Rose, running errands, hanging out in the park, that sort of thing. Then Clo sent me work about a free Arcade Fire concert in Longueuil, so we quickly made plans to go. I met her at the library, we grabbed some pizza in the Village, then we hopped on the metro toLongueuil with about 10,000 other young hipsters. It was actually a pretty good show, though the sound was a bit off, absorbed by the bodies in front, then lost up in the air, or reflected weirdly off the St-Hubert and other stores in the mall of Place Longueuil. The title of the new album is Suburbs, see, so that was a bit of the raison d’être for the free promotional show in…Longueuil, which is still considered the suburbs. A lot of the lyrics seem to deal with modernity and Claudine and I started having a theoretical discussion of the exact meanings of post-modernism during the concert.
An odd coincidence: I ran into Ryan, a former tech at DHC, twice, once in the JT market and again while we were eating pizza in the village. He put me on to an excellent site to find and host sublets, and I’ve just uploaded out info and am already getting requests. Now just need to update my Paypal account and all should be good. Dude still owes me $200 but I can’t even bother asking him about it, it was too long ago and he was in a rough spot then.
When we came home from the concert the hockey game was still on so I watched the Blackhawks finally win the Cup, in overtime, for the first time in 49 years. Good for them! Now we can concentrate on the World Cup, and soccer. Just have to try to ignore that fact that the F1 has started here in Montreal, and that 300,000 petrol-heads (as our friend Jess calls them) will be flooding St-Laurent, Crescent and Ste-Catherine. Not that I plan to be in that vicinity anyway. I just hope we won’t be able to hear the cars from our apartment. That would be a real annoyance.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 9:44 PM
subject G8: des leaders invités à une réunion spéciale; Liberal attack ads target G20 as an ‘international embarrassment’
Dear Stephen,
We had a surprise visit from Stephen and Monica, S&M this weekend. I had a suspicion they might be here this weekend, as when Stephen wrote in a recent email “maybe we’ll see you this weekend?” and we of course were not planning to be in Saint John, leaving really only one possibility. In fact I saw Monica, or rather she saw me, at the corner of Mont Royal and St. Urbain on my way to work Friday morning. She came out of Beauties and stopped me at the intersection. She met me after work, we had a beer, then drove the van up to the Mile End, then Bixied home, meeting Claudine and Rose, then went for supper to le Petit Alep, which was, as always, delicious.
Saturday we went for brunch at a new place on St. Viateur, the B&M, then drove to St-Lazare to visit Chantal and Édouard on their new 13-acre horse farm and stables. We played soccer, since World Cup Fever has officially struck, and Ultimate Frisbee, just to shake it up a bit. Had chicken, burgers and sausages on the barbecue. A bunch of their friends came, it was Chantal’s birthday, it was lots of fun. Stephen had just come in on the bus that morning, but even so they went out to party late into the evening. We stayed in and watched Shutter Island, which terrorized us. I don’t know if you have seen it, and with your kids the age they are I wouldn’t advise it unless you can really distance yourself from film, or the horrific things we put on film. But the film was incredible, so well designed and shot, with a fantastic twist at the end that makes up for what seems at times throughout the film to be inconsistencies or hiccups. It felt like such an accurate portrayal of a mind in denial, creating fictions within realities, a very multi-layered film. Scorsese at his best, I think.
Today was another World Cup day, watched Ghana at home, Claudine was working on her translation at the café next door, S&M had gone to brunch. Met up with them in the Plateau and we walked north searching for a decent place to watch the game, meaning any place that wasn’t playing the F1. I hate the F1. Perhaps that is too strong: I dislike the F1. Or better yet, the F1 does not interest me in a bit. It angers me that so much public money went to Bernie Ecclestone, who just seems a greedy prick. We watched Germany trounce Australia while sipping Coronas at a cute little Chilean-Mexican restaurant on St. Laurent. I came home with Rose; S&M continued on to play some soccer at the mountain. I don’t know how they do it; my legs ache from yesterday. I am indeed getting old. Claudine made supper, I’ve showered, now must clean the kitty litter. At the end of the day, or most often at the beginning, there is always the kitty litter.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 10:44 PM
subject G8: Les employés politiques doivent témoigner, selon le légiste de la Chambre; Auditor General finally gets nod to review
Dear Stephen,
I have sad news, my grandfather Fred “Poppy”, passed away this afternoon. So sudden, a bit shocking, and just plain sad. My mom called with the news, she had driven down to Bridgewater last night, she had only received the news he was in the hospital on Sunday. It was all very weird, he had fallen down last week and broken his wrist, but hadn’t gone in to get it checked until it was too badly swollen. And there is something about him being knocked over by a car in a parking lot, and another fall due to something else, and it seems that now all the falls were perhaps heart attacks, as the doctor said he had a few. For a little guy, he was some tough. I think I get my stubbornness from him. I’ve booked flights and we leave tomorrow, I am taking some personal days off work. Tomorrow will be busy, we have crates arriving and leaving and electronic components to condition and most likely plywood to reinforce behind walls, but that is tomorrow. Today we uncrated a couple of the Map paintings, an exercise in caution and care. But tonight, first I need to verify who is looking after cats, who will give Manu her pills, who will drive us to and from the airport. And pack. So a short letter tonight, there are other things to attend to. Family first.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 9:49 PM
subject Sommets du G8 et G20: un test pour Harper; More rainfall looms for flooded Alberta areas
Dear Stephen,
Happy fathers’ day! It was my first. Was your first fathers’ day different from the rest? I hung out with Rose almost all day, it was bliss. We flew back from Halifax early this morning. Rose was a great traveller, again. She slept most of the flight including the descent. We had a nice nap together this afternoon, while Claudine worked.
The ceremony went well. I was asked to read a passage as well as speaking in general, so I had to write a speech, which was OK, but I fear didn’t really do justice to the fun-loving, gregarious, exact person my grandfather was. In fact I think I am still in a little bit of shock that he is gone. It was strange to feel him in the funeral home, so very cold. They cremated him about an hour after we saw him. He never got to see Rose, but she saw him, although certainly not in the best of ways. The ceremony took place at their church, St-Luke, the one that burned a few years ago and was restored beautifully.
I didn’t get this letter finished yesterday, ran out of time, went to bed exhausted. Actually I’ll be heading that way shortly, am whipped from work. Everything appears to be going according to schedule with the install, but there are so many little details that it is hard to stay on top of them all. The show is going to look great, it is so slick, colourful, but sharp and insightful in its commentary as well. I think it is the smartest show we have presented thus far. It definitely has a strong anti-war, anti-government, abuse-of-power (comes as no surprise) theme.
Claudine has been working super hard on the MAC translation contract, it is almost finished. We’ve booked our apartment in Berlin, it is actually at Edith Dakovics, the artist who will be at Third Space in the fall. Now we just have to sublet our place for a few more weeks this summer, so far we only have 1 week confirmed, and need to rent at least 6 out of 8 weeks to break even. Know of anyone who wants to stay in Montreal for a week or more this summer? $350 per week. Lots of festivals going on, almost as many festivals as there are construction sites.
We are also considering putting our dear Manu down before we go on vacation. She is not getting the love she needs not can we even give her the pills twice daily, we usually end up giving her one dose in the evenings. She hides all day! You like cats, would you like another? She is between 7 – 9 years, though maybe a bit older, and she has a hyperactive thyroid so she needs half a pill twice daily. As a result of the medication she hardly ever pukes anymore. She has a funny meow, and often only comes out at night to be petted and cuddle on the bed. She is a Siamese but parts of her ears are missing due to frostbite when she was abandoned or lost on Manitoulin Island. You have a week to decide. Let me know,
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 10:02 PM
subject Un séisme de 5,0 secoue l’est du pays; Town declares emergency as earthquake rattles Ont., Que.
Dear Stephen,
Had a crummy day at work, spent a lot of it under the data floors, crawling through dust over wires to get to the windows in order to install ventilation, blackout fabric and tape up the blinds. What a pain. After work I had to run a series of errands as tomorrow is the St-Jean, the Fete Nationale, and nothing is open, and then I was stuck in traffic. And all day I was angry at my bank as I just found out they bounced my cheque to Kim for her tax services and charged me $50 NSF. I’m ready to pull out of TD if they don’t take give it back. I should probably try open an account at another bank before I fly off the handle with them. And then there was a shuddering of the building during that earthquake, though I was in the van at the time, listening to the World Cup and the US winning goal against Algeria. I must say I didn’t notice the earthquake, though Iliana left the gallery as she was concerned about its stability. I am more concerned with the incomprehensible British sports commentators. I never know what is going on, they don’t describe the plays.
When I finally got home we packed up and drove to the vet and had Manu put down. It was sad, and I couldn’t stop crying. I’ve only known her for the past 5 years, and she was more Claudine’s cat than mine, but I felt close to her, and I miss her. It makes me sad that her last moments with us were at the vet, and her meowing in her strangled-baby way didn’t help. But she certainly didn’t seem all that well lately, even with the thyroid medication she was always hiding and sleeping all day, she was not very active, she hadn’t even teased or chased Kuan in months. And the worst part is we don’t have the time for them. Anyway, that is enough about death and sadness, I need a shower and then off to bed.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 1:56 PM
subject G20: pluie et policiers attendent les manifestants; G8 leaders condemn Iran, North Korea
Dear Stephen,
I met Jenny Holzer last night, briefly, for a walk-through of the exhibition. She quickly, and decisively, made some changes to the placement of the Map paintings on G1, liking the complication of the heating and air unit, and placing the works intuitively. It looks good, and she was happy with everything else. It was a bit of a late night, as she was delayed a little in customs, but since there is so little left to change I have the day off, going back tomorrow for some final fine-tuning. As a result I will be able to go to the cousins barbecue out at Joanne and Phillipe’s. Claudine and Rose are already there, having taken the bus out last night. We ate at Pub Victoria but the food was well below average, with soggy, over-battered fish, over-cooked fries and an average burger. And since I’ve been working so much I haven’t been paying any attention whatsoever to the G8, G20, the Fake Lake, the intense security, the protests, nothing except a little World Cup action. We hooked up the projector at work in our office to watch the end of the Japan-Denmark game, and I watched South Korea bow out painfully to Uruguay this morning, but otherwise it has been work work work. No, that’s a lie: even though we worked on the St-Jean, we finished a bit early, then Clo had invited friends and Oboro co-workers over for an apéro chez nous. Radio Radio was headlining the neighbourhood concert on the steps of St-Cecile, then we came back for drinks at our place, then went downstairs to Christophe and Anne-Laure’s place for a final nightcap and singalong. Now I’m off, hoping to get to Île Perot in time for the US-Ghana matchup.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 9:58 PM
subject La population canadienne dépasse les 34 millions d’individus; Toronto looks to Ottawa for G20 compensation
Dear Stephen,
I ran into Michael Fernandes after work today. I was walking up St-Laurent while he and his brother were walking down, heading to the Jazz Festival. His brother says he has written to you numerous times, but only gets form letter replies or forwards to other ministers. He says he got a personal reply from Jean Chrétien though. The reason I was walking up St-Laurent was that I was trying to stop at Moog audio to pay for a PA for the opening tomorrow but I wrote the address down wrong and overshot the store, parked my Bixi and then there wasn’t any time to go back. So I was walking to another Bixi station. The exhibition is almost all ready, a couple nagging little details to finish, and a few bigger things to do with the new education space, but it is all good. Do people still say that? It’s all good? I don’t know if Big Oil or the military-industrial-capitalist complex is all good, or even a little bit good. Maybe it is a necessary evil, providing some balance of sorts. Speaking of balance, is there any when it comes to the reporting of the protests over the G20 and G8? Good grief what a disaster. $1-billion in security and what do you have to show for it? Angry protest, abusive cops, a trashed downtown and a fake lake. Please write me and let me know just what it was you accomplished please. I’m off to have a shower and accomplish a good cleaning on myself. Today was a bad day for Claudine, she was cleaning the heck out of the apartment when our downstairs neighbour came up because there was a leak. It was from our washing machine, which is broken but I don’t know what is wrong with it, which means we need to call someone in to look at it and repair it and that is just one more bill I could live without. Clo also thought that Kuan had got out and gone missing but she was actually in a closet somewhere. It turns out that Chantal already got a couple cats for her farm so now we have to decide what to do with Kuan, either put her on a plane to my parents or drive her to NB with us, or find another home for her. Do you want another cat? She hasn’t peed on anything lately.
-chris
DEAR PM 