Day 159: And oh what a Monday morning it was... 6 am, 'You need to drive me into work the car isn't working' - I drag my ass out of bed and take Heather to Kirkland Lake (you are going to want to follow along, please open up a tab with google maps on it for today's recap). Back to Matheson and make the boy Breakfast. Off to Val Gagne to pick up side kick and take him into Timmins for a Dr. appointment... wait in the car for over an hour... And then back to Val Gagne to drop off SideKick and then back to Matheson to load up the hockey gear and get Lawson's bike... Heather was going to bum a ride home from someone at work. We loaded up the car (forgot the bike that was to go in for a tuneup) and headed back to Timmins. Picked up Melanie at her friends house... now it turns out that her friends Brother is actually on the board of directors for the Timmins minor hockey group AND he was a goalie when he played AND faced a lot of the same issues we are having as Lawson gets worked through the system... so I'm finding that interesting and may just need to sit down and have a chat some time in the not so distant future.... where was I? Ah yes we went out for lunch... Sushi! Well a lot more Sashimi than Sushi... trying to keep it Keto you know. We got there and needed a mask to walk from the door 10 feet to the table, at which point you can take them off to actually eat and stuff, cough on things, lick the seats, what ever turns your crank... us we ate like free willy, oddly enough the raw fish came in waves... LOL The staff there has gotten stupid, not sure where the hell they found these people but it's happening to a lot of places around town. They quoted the price difference between lunch and dinner as only $1, ya... well that came in at about $40 more as a total on the bill. I was pretty sure she was wrong and stupid when she told up so it wasn't a huge surprise that she was stupid. Did I mention she didn't know shit? After Dinner/Lunch we got back in the car and went to drop off the bike to get it tuned up... we stopped and told him I would drop it off tomorrow because I can't remember shit. Then we head off to the Arena. Low and behold some fucktard from the town has made a new rule that no cameras are allowed in the Arena because some people may not want their photos taken... OK Timmins is just full of Stupid people today, the one who made this decision worked for the government... Like Stupid people in the government is any more of a surprise than... well, what happen at lunch... fuck... Long story short (see below) - I leave the boy to head in for hockey practice after he gears up in the parking lot. Me and the Twins dad head over to Timmies for a coffee both with our oldest children in tow. And hour and a half of time just goes by so fast some times... LOL Back to pick up the boys. It's raining... they are getting changed again in the parking lot... the city is really going to have to get their shit together and utilize the stands in sections or something to give the players space inside to get ready. We head back to Matheson (anyone got a mileage total yet?) pretty sure at some point in the day I needed to stop for gas but it's all a blur now so... Heather apparently made it home and finished making the ice cream. Not in time to have some tonight... but... anyway we sat around chatted a bit before B1 and B2 head to bed and left Melanie and I to head to the basement to watch a movie. After the movie I couldn't sleep, got a little ticked about stupid people in Timmins and wrote the following letter which I expect a response to (see comments)... finished up at about 4am and went to sleep

Rod Turnbull

As a local photographer I was a little shocked today when I was informed that no cell phones/ cameras/ or go-pros were allowed in the public arena in Porcupine. In Canada I am guaranteed the right to express myself through photography, and I have the freedom to publish the photos I take. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees my right to take photographs of anything I want, as well as publish them.

I don't generally need permission to photograph people for the purposes of 'personal photography' and there are no Canadian privacy laws that prohibit non-commercial distribution of the photos on internet based media. The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act may require a photographer to obtain consent from anyone that will be identifiable in a photograph. This is not really applicable to hockey players in full gear wearing helmets equipped with face-shields posted at the resolution and compression used in most online media platforms. Even with the slim odds that a player can actually be identified, this requirement does not apply to photographs taken solely for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes, which are the photos I am currently taking. Hence no consent is needed from players or staff, there are no laws that state consent is needed.

Although the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms also says that every Canadian is guaranteed a reasonable expectation of privacy. This privacy does not include public spaces like the arena, anything that a normal person could see from public property is allowed to be photographed and shared. Reasonable expectation of privacy includes things like peoples homes, autos in some cases, public restrooms, even the dressing rooms at the arena, a person should be able to expect privacy in these places. You will find that there are already rules in the arenas regarding cameras/cell phones in the dressing rooms, I believe these areas are even posted... if cameras aren't allowed in the arena why are there rules specifically disallowing cameras in particular rooms in the arena?

I spent a week at the Whitney Arena taking photos and video, all which are being posted to the internet on various media platforms, below I have included a link to over 400 photos which are posted to Facebook. All of these photos were taken following the Public Health Units guidelines as to occupancy of the facility and social distancing. The parents are not being allowed in to watch due to these restraints and these photos and videos are the only things they have to allow them to connect with what is going on inside, during the troubling times we are currently facing. There have been thousands of views and nothing but positive comments left on the page hosting the photos and many parents have taken the time to personally express their gratitude for the material posted to date. By restricting photography in the arena you are doing a terrible injustice to the community adding to the stress and concerns that most of the parents are having trying to return to a more normal level of activity with their children returning to sports and other activities. Please correct the situation and be part of the solution, help things return to normal, there are no reasons to justify disappointing so many people by adding rules that have no merit and no legal reasoning.

Sincerely,
Rod Turnbull

Please respond to: rodandheather@grnail.com
Link to last weeks photos in the Whitney Arena
https://bit.ly/2Q4wPwk