Lately I've really not minded working. High praise.
At one of my jobs today, I was watching a film reel, trying to figure out when it was filmed and who the players were. This can often be a nightmare, with the reporter not bothering to say the name of the person at all and my knowledge of pre-1977 being a void (being soft-brained at that time and all). Sometimes, like today, it can be a fun little treasure hunt.
When there is audio, this makes things infinitely easier because you can sometimes pick stuff up based on what people are talking about, even if names aren't involved. Today's film was in that category. It was a film about SFU, likely from the spring of 1968, about the chaotic student protests at SFU. Leading the cause on the film reel was a mouthy student with an Irish(?) accent who spoke of social justice and giving educational access to people from all classes, rich or poor, since everyone deserved the right to an education. He went on and on. After a bit of research, it became apparent that this student was Martin Loney.
Who is he? you may ask yourself. From articles and brief bios attached to writing, he's now a neo-conservative writer/policy advisor who, despite having a PhD, hasn't been able to secure a stable academic posting in Canada. I just can't figure out how a seemingly liberal radical winds up writing about how terrible pay equity is and how minorities don't deserve special representation in a workplace. Social justice kept spewing (literally, spewing, as he barked the words out) from his lips in the film and, yet, seems to support the boys' club of the past now.
This might be a long-term research project when I have a bit more time around the three jobs I have to work to keep myself afloat. There must be more to this story than what reviewers have focused on. Because, going by those reports, he got an extreme version of what he was fighting for in the '60s and now doesn't want it.
