On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Wishing everyone a kind outcome this Labour Day.

If you want larger PNG or SVG versions, let me know...?

Some fool knocked on the front door - so I believed I'd heard - at 715 AM on Labour Day morning. By the time I got out of my room to look, no one was there.

If I did hear correctly, that person may have worked on making sure their luck was good.

Some of you wonder about my impressions of the Labour Day parade here in Ottawa yesterday. Wonder no more.

I got to the Mackenzie King Bridge about an hour ahead of the noon-hour launch time. Making my way down the staircase on the western side of Rideau Canal and through Confederation Park to Laurier Street, I noticed the gentleman wearing the “Union Thug” t-shirt, a companion of his being interviewed by a reporter for one of the TV services, and across the street, two contingents of people from PIPSC and ACORN Canada. And also, back on the north side of Laurier where I was standing…a ghost bike.

I’d heard of the death that occurred maybe a week or two earlier. That it happened right outside City Hall provoked a particular flavour of earned anger from bicyclists across the Ottawa-Gatineau region. I took some images and then retreated to the new Bistro in Confederation Park. One chocolate croissant and a Coke later, I was ready to move across Elgin Street to wait on the parade to get in order. It took maybe ten minutes past the announced start time, but the Labour Council musicians got going. So did the rest of the procession.

We proceeded in good disarray along Laurier Avenue West to Bank, turning south onto Bank. Given the longstanding history between the New Democratic Party and Labour Day traditions in Canada, perhaps it was a good thing to have what’s now the Jack Layton Building marking that turn. The building started out as an Eaton’s storefront, but has been repurposed several times over the decades, with the upper floors now serving as NDP HQ. I remember they used to operate out of a building on Laurier and O’Connor, now operated by the Embassy of Ukraine back when I moved to Ottawa. But I digress.

The parade was using Bank Street as the southward leg this year, due to the reconstruction and refitting now underway along Elgin Street from Laurier to the Queensway. The turn onto Bank was briefly greeted by a light rain. That was the only real weather problem the parade faced from there to McNabb Park, though.

Lots of kids and a few dogs tagging along, the usual mixture of labour unions as well…although while IATSE and ACTRA were represented, I didn’t see the flags of the Writers’ and Directors’ Guilds of Canada this time out. Considering the slow growth of the media trades in our region, that surprises me in retrospect.

NDP represented? Check. ACORN, as noted earlier? Check. Communist factions? Likewise. City Hall representatives at McNabb Park looking to get opinions about the next revamp of their Official Plan from picnic attendees at McNabb Park at the other end of the parade route? Check.

My one complaint: lack of crowds lining the parade route. Maybe it’s a cultural issue behind that. If you’re not already inclined to empathize with labour unions and their causes, you’re not going to be there. But that’s for another posting.

- For radargrrl:
https://apt613.ca/ottawa-roller-derby-disco/

- For fans of Corner Gas and/or the Indigenous cultures:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/indigenous-kids-molly-of-denali-1.5262616

(Noting that Atomic Cartoons has branch studios in Vancouver and Ottawa...)

- Bigots getting the responses they earn in Mississauga:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/singh-muslimfest-protester-1.5267827

- I'll try to get those Labour Day pix uploaded to my Flickr account at "dwight_ew" this morning.

- Job search resumes today after the Labour Day weekend, as well.

- Newsrooms are still unionizing these days!
https://niemanreports.org/articles/why-newsrooms-are-unionizing-now/

- More later...

Managed to find this, because I suspected that Elgin Street was off-limits to the parade route this year due to the ongoing reno work:

https://twitter.com/Ottawalabour/status/1166729037378666497

Anyone else planning to attend along the route at any point? I figure on doing my semi-usual photography walk alongside the parade again. Weather permitting. And looking at the forecast on Environment Canada, that might be iffy this time around.

Mine today: I didn't go to the parade today. I was expecting a visit from relatives of mine, but that fell through. As a consequence, I went shopping for newspapers and magazines in the Market instead.

Part of the reason that it bothers me is that I've made a specific point of attending the parade, walking the route, camera at hand over the past decade or so. Some of you may have seen the photos I've uploaded of past Ottawa Labour Day parades on my Flickr account (dwight_ew, if you decide to go looking). It's gotten more exhausting as each year goes by, and when said relatives expressed an interest in visiting me today, I took the opportunity accidentally implied.

My temptation, my flaw.

Taking my cameras to the parade on Monday means charging up the battery pack on the current main workhorse camera, a Canon T5 - that's done - and three sets of AA batteries for the old Canon S5 IS, which is in progress now. I hope I've picked the right sets of AA batteries to recharge, because if I haven't and the workhorse's battery pack craps out?

Admittedly, that's an unlikely prospect. But one should always be prepared for that. Right?

So I went and saw the parade. Followed the new route caused by the renovations in progress on Gladstone from City Hall to McNabb Park. Got a few pix, some of which will be posted to Flickr later. Rallied my spirit a little, and actually got stuff done to break the mood I was falling into.

More later. 

Here's the link!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwight_ew/sets/72157635356631714/

More on other stuff over the course of the week...