Freedom of Information

There's still communication going back and forth between D. and his son (C.), providing more details and insights. We've both been struck by how similar their writing styles are. Sadly, they both became separated from their sons at an early age, something which may have been the catalyst for C. wishing to seek D. out. C. indicated in one of his messages that he thinks "we may be more similar than either of us would have imagined."

We've now found out that my Aunt died of pneumonia and that she'd been ill for quite some time. In order to obtain her records from the institution I have to file a request with the Canadian equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act through the Ministry for Children and Family Development. They will make a copy of her file and someone has to come to their offices and pick it up in person, showing identification. Obviously I'm not going to be able to do that, so I hope my brother will help me out. My contact from the institution's survivor's group said not to be surprised to see information blacked out, that it would only consist of "what they dared to write in her file". I'm not quite sure why I feel so compelled to find out as much as I can about her. Partly its just pure curiousity; I can't imagine being deaf and blind, never mind growing up in such a place. I'd love to write about it, maybe that's my first novel.

























In obtusely-related news, last Thursday Dubya signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. Does this mean the end of blog trolls? Here's the relevant language: "Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." Read the CNET article here.