Sort of Back on Track… (*cough* *cough*)

I’ve written lately about how I had to take time off, and repeatedly so, due to my illnesses, and here’s the latest update.

The good news is that I’m active again. I’m just back from a rally at the Ministry of Education against School Liaison Police Officers (SPLO) and I’ll be posting about it tonight.

The bad news is that I’m still sick—sicker than usual to be precise. It looks like the symptoms I’ve been experiencing in the past few weeks are lasting effects of the MRSA infection which afflicted me in October, for lack of a better explanation. Recovery may take a very long time. Or my health may go further downhill instead. I honestly do not know, and I don’t expect doctors to have an answer either.

That means I have to adjust this publication’s formula a little, which isn’t all bad as you’re about to see.

The most significant change is that I won’t be reporting on as many events this year as I have last year. I’ll be giving precedence to rallies whose rationale align with the Victoria Liberation Front‘s mission. I’m also far less likely to report on events outside of town, like Nanaimo or Vancouver, which is sad because I felt like spending more time in Vancouver actually, but daylong trips are very taxing to my health.

Also, expect even less video clips on my Youtube channel, because this is the part of reporting which consumes the most time and energy. I know some of you will be disappointed because I’ve been archiving hundreds of speeches, but holding the camera still for extended periods in the middle of the action, often in awful weather, is far more strainful than it looks, especially for a disabled person, while processing and uploading several clips often keeps me up an extra hour or two late at night, and that’s just not worth losing sleep over.

On the bright side, I’m making a spin toward investigative journalism. I feel like I’ve achieved pretty much everything I could as a legal advocate in the past year, and it’s time for me to wear yet another new hat. Lately I’ve been filing a flurry of FOI requests left and right, so I should have plenty of bombshell material to work with starting next month.

While I’m at it, I’m looking forward to writing more howto articles such as the recent How to Reach Out to the Mainstream Media, which I’d been itching to write for a while but I never had the time and energy to do so. I’ve been sitting on a lot of activist wisdom I’m eager to share with the community, which is another way to support causes.

And then I’m going to prioritise organising over blogging, to be honest. I’ve been quietly building the Victoria Liberation Front even while sick, and supporting the Oaklands Park Residents Association, for which I remain the de facto spokesperson until a resident, current or former, is ready to take over the role. I’m also planning to similarly organise the unhoused community on Pandora; stay tuned for an announcement by the end of the month. Anyone who wants to help, feel free to ask for an invite to our Discord server at martin.girard@victorialiberationfront.org.