Up until recently I had been earning a living building adaptive sports equipment for children and adults with special needs for a company that I will not name because it will hurt the kids. I landed there 3 years ago after leaving my previous career due to lack of fulfilment. It was an excellent move, even in spite of the much lower pay grade, and I was happy at work for the first time in a long time. I even moved close by and began cycling to work everyday, thing were fantastic.
But it would not last and over time it became clear to me that I was working with some pretty intolerant characters. Quebec has long been a hotbed of cultural clashes between the Nationalist Francophones and the anglo/immigrant community and so I was not a surprised by this but, with the election of Donald Trump last year, these sentiments intensified and things went from intolerant to openly racist and discriminatory.
It became common place for me to walk into situations were several employees had gathered on break to openly discuss the "fact" that whites were genetically superior and non whites should be labelled as mentally handicapped and be given less significant roles in society. There were even open displays of "patriotism" where my co-worker would raise his arm and shout his support for La Meute, a violent hate group that wears masks and patrols the streets at night looking for "suspicious Muslims". Even the younger employees began showing videos of themselves harassing black players in online Xbox games. Their laughter still makes me sick to my stomach.
This drove a spike deep into my heart and I could not and would not tolerate any more of this nonsense and so I stood my ground and quietly, but consistently, denounced their behaviour, and that was the end of the happy days for Joe... I was hit with a constant onslaught of criticism in every aspect, from my clothing to my eating and habits to my mother tongue, English. This went on for over a year.
At first I wanted desperately show the world what I was seeing and lost many nights of sleep debating with myself as to what to do. I could have easily recorded this behaviour and made it public but this would have only hurt the kids. Being heavily supported by charities and the provincial health system (they buy the equipment for the kids.) there would have been pressure to cut ties with the company had any bad publicity come of it and that would have only served to basically ruin summer for hundreds of children and adults that already have a great deal difficulties to contend with. And so I was left with one last option, to simply walk away.
And so here we are... Me and my principles, cheap Bitcoin and no income to #BuyTheDip
Fuck....
Ohhh Canada..., eh?
Hodl for me folkes, just hodl for me....