Many Canadians, and most Newfoundlanders, are already familar with the plight of the Portnoy Family. Having been in Canada for ten years, well-known and liked in the communities in which they have lived (and even started a business), they have sought citizenship several times and have been denied. This, despite the fact that they are political dissidents in Moldava and Israel, facing severe issues if and when they are forced to return. Today the four young children and their pregnant mother Angela Portnoy continue to seek sanctuary in the basement of a local church, but their father Alexi was taken from them in December 2005 after briefly leaving the building and being arrested during a routine traffic check. Despite the fervent pleas of the people of Marystown and Newfoundland, he was deported to Israel during the Christmas season.

Official requests to allow Angela safe passage to receive medical treatment have been repeatedly denied, creating great concern for the family and all involved, including medical professionals.

As a pregnant mother, this strikes all too close to home. If, like me, your heart was broken this past Christmas by the Portnoy’s story, please take a moment to visit this website to learn more, and consider signing the online petition. Public support will strengthen a new application, and copies are being sent to various politicians with the power to intervene.

Between baby and work, I’ve been especially busy lately, but I’d like to share two links.

From a link on Elaine Bond’s site, I came across Operation Eden, a blog maintained –through no small effort– by photographer Clayton James Cubitt. He has chronicled stories and images of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina as only a photographer and insider could. (Parental guidance is advised.)

Crafty-girl was good enough to post about an eye-opening article from National Geographic called Gone with the Water. It is an important and enlightening read.

Between painting and family events I hadn’t been paying much attention to the media: Canada’s new Governor General has been announced, and I have to agree that Michaëlle Jean is a truly great choice.

Update: People are protesting the appointment on parliment hill this morning. I may to brush up on my Canadian history, but I’m not sure if that has ever happened before. More about the controversy here.

I just wanted to say a special thank you to everyone for their comments. That kind of positive energy from some very talented people has been very motivating to me, especially when most days the only way I can meet the combined needs of my work, health and family is by being slightly sleep deprived. I wanted to especially thank Avaris, because her link (and blog) led me to theanimalrescuesite.com. I used to visit the affiliated hunger site to place my little click each day, but as life got busy I somehow forgot, so I’m grateful for the reminder. The animal rescue site is new to me. They also now have a downloadable and colourful toolbar for Internet Explorer, but as I am using Firefox on the Mac, I have created a set of bookmarks on my own toolbar: it will be my daily gentle reminder. There is also something to be said for the energy, sense of well-being and expansion that comes from giving. It is stepping outside of the “scarcity mentality,” or as my grandmother always said, “What you give, you get back seven-fold.” The nice thing about this site is that even if you are a starving artist (and they say the average working artist in Canada lives 25 percent below the poverty line), you can make a contribution. If you have barely a moment to spare, let it be for a mouse click. The more people that click on those buttons, the better the chances of ending world hunger, combatting breast cancer, promoting literacy, saving the rainforests, or providing health services for children around the world. Not bad for a day’s work, wouldn’t you say?