Canada's federal election

Several things happened today:

1) Email bounce from Mayor David Miller's office to my mother's email box on the day of the Federal Election. She never emails any organizations, much less City Council. (Nor have I never emailed City Council.) Here's an excerpt:

> ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
>
> (reason: 550 No such recipient)
>
From: XX
To: councillor_miller@city.toronto.on.ca
Subject:
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 18:10:42 -0400


A virus was detected in this email message and has been removed.

The City of Toronto is scanning all email entering the City for viruses.

If you have any questions, please call the Help Desk at 416-338-2255 or email scanmaster@toronto.ca

-----------------------------

For complete message, click here

Searched Google...only other reference I can find is here.

Email Bounce from Mayor's Office

Message below came to my mother's email account on election day (Mon June 28). Several points worth mentioning:

1) My mother only uses her email for personal use -- she has never emailed City Council, and would never do so. Nor have I ever emailed City Council or any Councillors.

2) Although Mayor David Miller represents municipal government, he openly supported several federal candidates in the city's ridings -- all NDP.

3) I also supported NDP. I even sent emails advocating strategic voting (ie, NDP over Green), and predicted the election outcome two weeks before.

4) Bounced email says my mother contacted Mayor Miller on Sunday June 27, yet she didn't even use email that day.*

5) I was staying at my mother's place the day she received the email. She then forwarded it to me cause she knows I'm currently participating in an initiative for more equal representation and participation in municipal governance.

*Note: I've deleted original sender's information for privacy reasons.

>From: Mail Delivery Subsystem
>To:
>Subject: Returned mail: see transcript for details
>Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 02:10:01 -0400 (EDT)
>
>The original message was received at Mon, 28 Jun 2004 02:10:01 -0400 (EDT)
>from iduna1-s.inet.toronto.ca [137.15.73.81]
>
> ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
>
> (reason: 550 No such recipient)
>
> ----- Transcript of session follows -----
>... while talking to cotgw504.corp.toronto.ca.:
> >>> RCPT To:
><<< 550 No such recipient >550 5.1.1 ... User unknown
Message/delivery-status

Reporting-MTA: dns; atlas-2-v2.inet.toronto.ca
Received-From-MTA: DNS; iduna1-s.inet.toronto.ca
Arrival-Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 02:10:01 -0400 (EDT)

Final-Recipient: RFC822; councillor_miller@city.toronto.on.ca
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Remote-MTA: DNS; cotgw504.corp.toronto.ca
Diagnostic-Code: SMTP; 550 No such recipient
Last-Attempt-Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 02:10:01 -0400 (EDT)



From: XX
To: councillor_miller@city.toronto.on.ca
Subject:
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 18:10:42 -0400


A virus was detected in this email message and has been removed.

The City of Toronto is scanning all email entering the City for viruses.

If you have any questions, please call the Help Desk at 416-338-2255 or email scanmaster@toronto.ca

The following shows the name of the file in which the virus was detected and the name of the virus that was detected.

File name: details_councillor_miller.doc.pif
Virus name: W32/Netsky.p@MM

--
ib

Technology glitches continue

See next post, 'Leafletting for Jack Layton.'

It's now 3:30am - just tried to 'audioblog' my calls again. Here's what happened:

1) Went to my weblog. One of the phone messages has been deleted - yet I just posted it.

2) Several times this month, I've had email tampering - and now weblog tampering.
- Week after Citizens' Inquiry into 9-11 (June 1-10 sent emails to media and listservs. Of the 20-plus newspapers I emailed almost all bounced back to me for over a week. ??)
- This week I've been emailing, talking and leafletting about Canada's federal election - and suddenly, I'm having phone problems and both weblog and email deletions.

3) Try to call Audioblogger.com again and just before line connects, I can hear distinct breathing - yet Audioblogger is a completely automated service.

3) I hang up and try again, but Audioblogger's automated response keeps asking for my number. I punch it in about 7 times, but the recording keeps repeating. And I can still hear someone breathing in the background.

4) As I'm about to hang up, I hear clicking and now the recorded voice says, "You have used up your phone limit. You must purchase additional calls to continue using this service." Audioblogger is a free service (apparently, it used to be paid), so I shouldn't be getting this message at all.

5) The sounds (ie, breathing, repeating message, numberpad having no effect, clicking on the line and rustling noises) are consistent with someone interfering with my call.

6) Just before writing these two posts, I was surfing the net for sites on technology, privacy, and security.

7) While all this is going on, my neighbour downstairs -- someone who has harassed me endlessly for well over a year (as she even admitted to another neighbour), and whom I've suggested is co-opted into the surveillance/harassment** -- is suddenly coughing and banging loudly directly under me, where I'm sitting. Eg, Discovering deleted weblog post, during phone wrangle with Audioblogger.com, and then, the buzzing of my apartment door.

So in the two hours I'm writing all this, and trying to upload phone messages, I get: i) weird phone tampering, ii) my audio post is deleted, iii) neighbour is acting up, and d) someone buzzes on my door. This is from 1:30 - 3:30am.

**If this sounds trivial, bear in mind that people have moved out because this person makes such disturbing noise. Among her repertoire of sounds, she'll drop something heavy like a bowling ball directly beneath me, wherever I am in the apartment. Very unnerving.

'Leafletting for Jack Layton'

Got 2 phone messages today: one's a wrong number (Jack Layton campaign), other's a beeping call. I got 4 calls about the federal election, yet I have an unlisted number and do not generally give my number out.

You'd think I was 411. I get calls for so many different people, organizations, and businesses - be it Pizza Pizza, two different hospitals, doctors, lawyers, realtors, other people's friends - you name it.

Either my phone has a major technical glitch, or I'm being harassed. If you listen to my messages, you'll understand why I think it's the latter. This stuff has been going on for 3 years! So many calls closely echo events or conversations in my own life.


(If link above doesn't work, use MisterPrivacy.com, then copy and paste http://oneadventure.tripod.com/.)

Like today's message. With Mon June 28 being the Federal Election, I called the Council of Canadians two weeks ago asking for extra copies of their excellent 'Voter's Guide'. Got one in my FoodShare food box the other day and decided to pass them around. The leaflets arrived on Tues June 22.

Next evening, I distributed a bunch of Voter's Guides along with FoodShare leaflets. At one store, the shopkeeper asked who I'm voting for, and we enthusiastically agreed that Jack Layton would be our choice.

Now today, two days later, someone from Jack Layton's campaign office calls asking for 'Pierre' to help distribute *leaflets* for Friday, Saturday, Sunday (June 26-28). (...seems kinda familiar.)

If it's a real call, it's pretty short notice. Today's already Friday. Also 'calling on supporters' so close to election day, you'd think they'd rely on more current volunteers, people they have up-to-date phone numbers for.

My number is UNLISTED. I've had it for almost 4 years. Funnily, I received four calls about the election (1 NDP, 3 Liberal). When I mentioned this to someone, they were surprised: they didn't get any and would've loved the chance to sound off. My voicemail message should also be a clue that they may have reached the wrong person.

Yes, maybe this guy dialled incorrectly. But still, I get so MANY wrong numbers that closely echo activities in my own life. Read other examples here.

Beeping message below arrives 6 minutes later. I get many of these, but at very specific times.

Beeps

Finally, as I am typing this post, somebody just buzzed on my apartment - it's 1:45AM!

I've had people buzz my apartment before to harass me, so I often ignore it just like I do my phone.

Read some of my emails about the election.

Interesting links:

Eclectic message board about phones.

NDP, Green or....?

[There was a lot of debate around whether to vote NDP or Green, in terms of both political standpoint and overall strategy. This was my response to environmentalist David Orton's reasons for voting Green.]

----- Original Message -----
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 14:13:55
Subject: Re: NDP and/or Green and/or something else

The press being given Harper (Conservatives) and the lack of credibility being dished to Layton (NDP) mirrors my concern about a Liberal minority government with Conservatives in opposition.

For what it's worth, I personally think 'Vote NDP' first, and then, gradually strengthen widespread support for the Green Party so we have better choices. There are many within the NDP who are environmentally-conscious and inclined. While it may be anthropocentric environmentalism, it's a start.

Recent post on cormorant shootings should be a wake-up call as to where Liberals are heading.

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.”

Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), lawyer and political martyr

9/11 - My uncle's death

Attended conference on Racism and National Consciousness, University of Toronto (Oct 25-26, 2003). Keynote speaker: Ward Churchill, well-known Aboriginal activist and academic from U.S.

Being outspoken, I posed questions to nearly all speakers. Met a woman named Beverley on first day; we left at the same time. She wanted to stay in touch, but would not give her phone number, and asked for mine, instead. She started saying things that made me suspicious. (I've encountered many people who have known things about me that they couldn't possibly have guessed.)

Three days later, on Tues Oct 28, I distributed an email about surveillance, race, social power, capitalism, and socio-environmental activism. I explained why I think hierarchies make sense - especially given current population imbalances - yet I also feel social harmony is desired by many, and certain changes are needed. Being critical is only half the battle: healing and action are also necessary.

My mentally-handicapped Uncle Joseph suddenly takes ill five days later, on Sunday, November 2. I had had an incident with a nursing home staff the year before and had long predicted my uncle would be the first target, if authorities wished to suppress my outspoken social concerns and attempts at activism. By this point, I'd already been experiencing harassment for several years; I often predict events before they happen.

During the week of November 3 - 9, I received a higher number of wrong number calls. This often happens, after I send out one of my email diatribes - or if I try to tell people about my surveillance concerns.

Got several calls from one number: turns out to be Beverley's. She leaves no message, so I assume it's yet another crank caller. (Hear my calls.)


(If link above doesn't work, use MisterPrivacy.com, then copy and paste http://oneadventure.tripod.com/one/id0.html.)

On Friday, November 7, after five days in Scarborough Grace Hospital's Emergency Ward, and after much loving attention from the nursing home staff, as if he might be on his death bed (despite his having been in hospital on previous occasions), my uncle goes home. But, by the next day, he's apparently contracted pneumonia and is back in hospital. At this point, I know my uncle will die.

On Sunday, November 9, I receive two calls, which I ignore. Just as I'm leaving to meet relatives for a family lunch, I get a third call. I answer, thinking it's my mother -- but it's Beverley. (Message below is her earlier call.) She asks if I'm all right, saying how worried she's been after trying to reach me 'all week' (the period my uncle is in hospital); she stresses this point.

We speak briefly, as I have to leave. Later that evening, my uncle dies. It is the 9th of November -- 9/11.

Beverley's Call

Questions About Beverley:

1. I've only met Beverley once; we had never spoken by phone before.

2. Why call all week just to tell me you're worried about me? (6 calls)

3. Why didn't she leave a message, if she wanted to reach me?

4. Calling twice within an hour on Sunday suggests urgency - yet, after a brief conversation, we make no plans and I never hear from her again.


Analysis of Phone Message:

1. Message is contradictory. She says she's concerned that she hasn't been able to reach me all week - yet in her first and only message, she uncannily assumes I am:

a) home;
b) not picking up my phone;
c) awake (in order to get her message);
d) willing, able, and likely to answer her follow-up call.

2. We met two weeks before at a conference. She should have no clue what habits are, or what I'm doing, yet she sounds pretty firm: 'Be there' and 'Answer your [my] phone,' as she will be 'calling back at 1 o'clock'.

3. How worried is she? She assumes I'm able to answer, but what if I was sleeping and am pissed off that she's calling back? If she were genuinely concerned, the polite thing would be to leave a message, asking me to call when I'm able.

4. It's true, I often don't answer the phone. Yet Beverley, again, correctly guesses I'll be answering her second call. Yet, I only did so because I thought it was my mother calling with last-minute changes.

5. None of this makes sense - especially coming from a total stranger. My own mother would not assume so much about me - ie, my whereabouts (am I even home?), am I likely to retrieve my voice messages right away, my ability to answer a follow-up call (maybe I'm asleep, or the ringer's off, or both).

[Edit: The night of my uncle's funeral, I was hit on the head, while sobbing into a payphone at a subway station. A strapping young fellow fumbles with the payphone next to me (or pretends to dial). Then, holding the receiver in his hand, he hits me on the side of the head with his hard knuckles. Stunned, then angry, tears streaming down my face, I ask why he hit me, and why he hasn't bothered apologizing. Turning to his buddy, he says: 'Oh, we thought you were a guy. Didn't we?' (har-har) Obviously, his action was intentional. If I was guy, so what? I was wearing a cap, and was hunched over, half-kneeling, crying over my uncle's death and two-and-a-half years of sheer stress. I've only bawled like that a few times in my life, at most. I'd say this guy was pretty mean. Since it's my first and only experience of queer-phobic aggression, I suspect it was a deliberate assault: icing on the cake after my uncle Joseph's death. Other, related incidents also support this conclusion.

'Solar water heating,' please

Click above for CBC article on power outage.

Just before and after the province wide power outage (August 14/03), I wrote two posts to an Environmental Studies listserv re: surveillance. I incorporated thoughts on the energy situation. Day after my second post, I receive this phone msg:

Solar Water Heating

Note: I have received literally hundreds of crank and wrong number calls, and have over 60 recorded messages on audio cassette. Many correpond closely to whatever is happening in my life at the time.

The cause of the power outage still unclear nearly a year later, yet on the actual day -- within less than two hours of the power cut -- all major news media were saying with absolute certainty, 'This is not a terrorist attack.'

How do they know this, when they do not even know where or how the problem originated? Still no definitive answers have been offered as to how or why the power outage happened.

This is not unlike the 9/11 disaster. There are anomalies surrounding both these major events that require further questioning.

For a complete 'timeline of 9/11' offering insight into political events before and after the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, please visit www.cooperativeresearch.org.

'Go To Hell,' he says

I have spoken at length about issues of race and politics between different ethnic groups. In the past year, I have received a high proportion of wrong number calls from South Asian people. I also had a 3-minute rap song about nig*ers that was left by a man of African-Caribbean background. Unfortunately my entire voicemail got deleted by Bell. More on this later...

Go To Hell #1

Go To Hell #2