Friday July 2, 2004
I attended one of the fireworks displays that celebrated Canada Day tonight. Down at the lake. It was a nice evening after a stormy day.
On the walk back to the car I recalled the following exchange between myself and the Mediator from yesterday.
She: "Why do you want to stay there?"
I: "I've been moving around a lot lately."
She: "But you've been in this apartment for two years."
I am not making this up. It really was part of the "mediation" session. Could she really have been insinuating that I ought to be ready, willing and able to move because I've been in one place for two years?
Then I remembered another. This was after I gave another reason for not to wanting to move immediately, namely that I expected to be finding work away from Kingston once I am well and didn't want to go through two moves in a few months. Besides, there's the issue of convincing another landlord that I am a good risk while I am not employed.
She: "You're not working at the moment?"
I: "Right."
She: "You have no income right now?"
I: "Correct."
She: "How are you able to support yourself then?"
I: "People are helping me."
But really. What the hell did any of that have to do with mediating a compromise in my application for a rebate of rent? Nada.
Which is what I will be discussing with a lawyer tomorrow. Mediation shouldn't involve putting either party in a proceeding on the defensive about irrelevant issues.
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