Building communities, rebuilding Haiti

It is obvious that when disaster strikes, communities are formed, but when these communities are formed hundreds of thousands of miles away from the disaster, the true power of an old motto, “service above self,” comes to the surface. Canadians have poured out hundreds of thousands of dollars to relief agencies through donations, both large and small. One of these agencies is a relief effort known as ShelterBox. Simply put, Shelterbox is the basic necessities of life provided in a quantity that will house and provide for ten individuals. An amazing way to provide immediate relief, individuals and companies around the world have chosen this as their contribution to the people who have to pick up the pieces and begin anew in Haiti.

The University of Lethbridge Rotaract Club chose to raise funds for ShelterBox as a way to give aid to Haiti. Alix Blackshaw, Rotaract President for the University of Lethbridge commented “We have seen how effective it is and how much it can help. Our district has been a strong supporter for years, and I think that was just a chance thing because somebody knew someone.”

Rebuilding this country is not as simple as hiring the crews and drafting plans. It will take months, even years of intense financial and developmental aid, of providing expertise on proper building methods and ensuring that a government is in place who will lift up the poorest Haitians to a level of basic survival. Yes, this disaster was a magnificent force of nature, and no one could have prevented it from creating havoc. However, when homes are built nearly entirely of mud and tin, and millions live in abject poverty, there is more needed than a simple re-building plan. The entire country needs to be restructured and rebuilt from the ground up.

For this reason immediate aid, and suitable, even if only temporary, shelter, is so absolutely necessary. The basic concept of shelter, of a home, and the psychological desire to have a safe space for yourself and your family is universal. The pictures of the makeshift tent cities, and hundreds thousands of people camped in squalid conditions is enough to provide solid evidence that what Haitians needs right now is a place to sleep at night.

International aid organizations are in the process of setting up three sites that would be safe for the creation of the tent cities that will serve as homes and communities for the people of Haiti during the time it takes to build proper infrastructure. Conditions are bad right now, and as the dead lay decomposing in the street and sanitation systems have been all but eliminated, the basic services a community needs to thrive are stripped away.

Aid organizations are doing everything they can, and the outpour internationally has been immense. For a country whose people have toiled in obscurity for too long, this incredible disaster has finally woken others up to their desperate cries for help.

In Haiti itself, it is the sense of community that constantly astounds those who crowd around their radios, televisions and computer screens to witness what some are calling “disaster porn.” Regular worship is still occurring, whether it is inside the church ruins or outside. Families continue to beg disaster workers to not stop searching for their loved ones, and despite rising tensions and increasing desperation Haiti is not devolving into the violence many were predicting would occur. That is not to say that the worst is over; there is a lack of government presence, a ruthless sense of law and order, and an increasing need for sanitation services, clean drinking water and food. Still, despite this, the Haitian community is still present.

Art continues to reflect the current circumstances, and photos depict children laughing and smiling as their parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents wash clothes and cook small, inadequate meals. Here in Canada, that sense of community is not lost on those reaching out to help another country in during these desperate times. Rotary was founded close to the time of our own country and has reached out to its members and its community to raise funds and awareness to help the Haitian people in this current catastrophe. The ShelterBox initiative was started with a Rotarian, Tom Henderson, who had the very simple idea of a kit equipped with everything a family would need to survive for a temporary period of time. From that conception, ShelterBox has gone on to provide basic needs such as blankets, a ten person tent, dishes, tools, water purification tablets and more to families in disaster-affected areas. This kit has been used successfully worldwide to provide basic shelter to families in need. In Haiti, nearly 4,000 Shelter box have been dispatched already, providing hope and security, albeit temporary, to nearly 40 000 people.

Though, helping people is what Rotarians do; their motto, “service above self” is inspiring for anyone. Speaking to Alix Blackshaw, President of the University of Lethbridge Rotaract club, her passion for community service is evident in the way her eyes light up when she speaks about Rotaract’s achievements and activism through volunteer work and the people she has met and the organizations she has served. “First off it just shows you how to be a member of your community,” Blackshaw says, “I’ve volunteered with every non-profit in Lethbridge. It teaches you how to be an international citizen, just the fact that even the smallest things really do help. Even the smallest fundraisers we do can help, in the big picture.”

The personal connection to the organization is shown through the dedication Alix and other club members have for the work they do and the volunteer efforts they undertake. Theirs is a community dedicated to both local and international efforts, teaching students how to be stronger citizens while creating a strong community at home. It is this community that allows Rotaract members to help people in Haiti. It is the Rotarian spirit that gives incentive to those involved in postsecondary education to increase their community visibility and to give back to the community their institutions are situated in. One of the ways Rotaract works in their local community is the annual bowl-a-thon that raises money for the Lethbridge hospital’s “Books for Babies” which provides educational resources to low income families in Lethbridge.

Communities can be created over mediums other than the traditional lunchtime Rotary template, and no one understands that quite like Elsa Cade, a Lethbridge Rotarian. Cade is a member of an American based, Democrat oriented forum/blog, and until the disaster in Haiti used it primarily as a forum to discuss science education and to voice her disapproval of George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” education programme.

“I don’t write a lot, I like to read but then once this Haiti thing came out, and I had an opportunity to say look at this, this is a good thing to donate too,” Cade explains. “It’s really desperate in Haiti, and desperation is because they don’t have any place to stay, and I put this thing out there, and before you know it, I was getting all these donations and in my mailbox I’m hearing from the Executive Director of ShelterBox USA, and heard from several ShelterBox rescue teams.”

The thing she is referring too is the ShelterBox initiative, and through her appeal Cade has raised over $122,000.00 for ShelterBox, primarily through American donations. This on-line community has surprised Cade, and she expresses the momentum an on-line community can generate, “It says something about the Internet, that you can connect with people like that. It is such a powerful tool in terms of disseminating information.”

The message most prominent through these examples of humanitarianism is that community both empowers us and can serve others. Whether it be in a traditional format like Rotary, through a University club, or an on-line forum, there is are individuals at the beginning and end of each these connections, and it is people who are making the effort and have the desire to help others.

Has Facebook given Canadians a place to get political?

The proroguing of Canadian Parliament has taken worldwide news agencies by storm. From Great Britain-based The Economist, to online news sources such as Reuters, to home grown national news sites such as MacLean’s, The Globe and Mail, Rabble, The National Post, and the CBC what this break in parliament means to Canadians has been covered extensively.

Prorogation is not as uncommon as most think, and has been done by nearly every elected government in Canadian history. However, this time Canadians have reacted with an unprecedented level of distaste. Proroguing parliament at a time when the current government is under scrutiny for alleged torture in Afghanistan, when Canada is still trying to stay afloat in the worldwide recession, and after a period of international embarrassment because of Canada’s lack of action on climate change seems to have made Canadians rather unhappy.

This discontent has manifested itself in public displays of frustration with the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), although such public displays have so far accomplished very little in the way of changing the current political situation. The great public equalizer, Facebook, has become a topic of heated debate amongst pundits who now have very little to do without Question Period to keep them hot and bothered. Speculation on the effect of blogging, Twitter, and the exponentially growing Facebook group, “Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament,” will have on the political process has been flying left and right. Defenders of the beloved social media sites denounce naysayers, citing the exponential growth, the increased volume of communication between members, and the spread of knowledge amongst Canadian citizens about what proroguing means.

There is some truth to what these social media advocates preach about. The Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group has 158,164 members at the time of writing, a number that, when compared to other leading Canadian political groups on the same site, doesn’t even compare. The BC Anti HST group has 129,790, while the Canadians Against Coalition Government – a site that was used last year to hold rallies across Canada against the Liberal-NDP coalition – had 126, 930 at the height of its popularity. For the further sake of comparison, members of ten separate groups celebrating the television program Mad Men only total to 8,116 individual Facebook members. But what, if anything, does all this mean?

Critics scoff at the impact that these groups have. It is all too easy to join a group on a social networking site logged into an average of 100,000,000 times daily; it does little to motivate a person to attend a rally or write a letter to their MP, and it is a very passive form of resistance. However, the ripple effect of online tools is impossible to know comprehensively, for better or worse.

The fact of the matter is that Facebook has 350,000,000 active users, and there are 3.5 million pieces of content created daily, viewed by half of Facebook’s active members. On average, users are invited to three groups a month and when there are over a hundred thousand members joining said group in a small window of time, you can guarantee almost everyone’s news feed will contain at least one mention of the group, and that mention will include a Facebook friend of yours.

The group itself has “gone real world,” as described by CBC political blogger, Kady O’Malley. The use of social media by Canadians to discuss prorogation has spawned an entire debate unto itself, sliding itself over top the actual prorogation debate. Articles in independent media sources such as this paper, blogs, and the mainstream media have all picked up on the mass conversion to political interest. While this group may not change which MP’s will be on Parliament Hill come January 25th, it certainly has changed how Canada is debating the decision to prorogue. The question is no longer whether or not Harper has the legitimacy to do so – and constitutionally he does – it is now whether or not Canadians will retaliate against him and the Conservative Party when session is re-convened.

An EKOS poll taken on January 7th, a little over two weeks after Harper made that fateful call to Michaelle Jean shows the Conservative Party drop by 2.8%, giving them a 5.8 point lead over the Liberal Party, their closest opposition. This drop indicates that the gap between the two parties has narrowed considerably since mid December.

Despite these polling statistics, this could very well mean nothing. Facebook, while socially relevant and broad in its scope, is still self-selecting and the 158 154 members of the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament group may well be the same users who would not vote for the CPC in the first place. When session reconvenes in March, it will be most interesting to see how many of those members watch the Throne Speech, and involve themselves in continued political action. The creator of the group himself, Christopher White, is a University of Alberta Masters student with only a peripheral interest in politics. The site is entirely made of content that members posted and created, not of content he himself created.

Regardless of how much genuine direct action comes out of the Facebook group, or from any of the blogging chatter or Twittery tweets, the fact remains that it is getting us talking. Worldwide, Canada’s parliamentary break in proceedings is getting as much air and print time as South Korea’s fist fighting parliamentary proceedings. With the government proroguing parliament for the second time in a year, Canadians are getting used to hearing it, and are likely starting to understand what it means. Is it very possible that Facebook is actually useful for something other than tragically erroneous grammatical errors and pretending to be a farmer.

Shuffling the deck, or: other assorted sinking ship references

January fifteenth 2010, Premier Stelmach did some light shuffling to his cabinet. The opposition has come up with many witty phrases remarking how this shuffle was little more than a last ditch attempt to appease right wing Progressive Conservatives to keep the PCs strangle hold on the Alberta Legislature, and while this might be true there is something to be said about the changes that were made.

Stelmach changed two visible and divisive portfolios, putting former Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton into the ministry of Finance and Enterprise and placing Gene Zwozdesky – MLA for Edmonton-Mill Creek – into the ministry of Health and Wellness. Other substantial changes included moving Iris Evans, the minister who bore the brunt of the fiscal downturn out of the Finance portfolio and into International and Intergovernmental relations, keeping Doug Horner in the Advanced Education and Technology portfolio, and moving Ron Liepert from Health and Wellness to Energy.

The shuffle was a clear shift to the right, placing some of the most vocal “fiscal conservatives,” including rookie MLA Jonathon Denis, who is a member of the ‘fiscal four’ into cabinet as Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs. Considering the province’s pledge to end homelessness by 2019, Denis has quite the challenge in front of him. A minister from Calgary, his previous right wing affiliation has come into play when meeting with student groups, including his defense of the pro-life club in last year’s University of Calgary vs. pro-life club situation. Denis is not the only conservative minister to secure an influential spot in cabinet. Every top-level position has gone to an MLA who has supported fiscally and/or socially conservative policies within the Progressive Conservative party, not to mention exhibiting extreme party loyalty.

Truthfully, it’s a fairly boring cabinet shuffle, giving truth to the phrase “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Fiscally, Morton in cabinet is every true progressive’s nightmare come true. Morton has been vocally in favour of privatization of services, both in his education and political life, as well as in his alliance with the University of Calgary’s “Calgary School” and the now-famous Friends of Science. All told, this does not bode well for social services and those that support them in Alberta. These moves hit especially hard in light of the recent choice to make substantial cuts to disability funding in Alberta. Moving Morton to Finance also gives what might be viewed as a public blessing from Stelmach and could denote a possible incoming PC leader, an “anointed one” to replace Stelmach when he moves on.

Moving Ron Liepert out of Health and Wellness was a politically sound decision, and will likely buy some time for the Alberta government to do some work to fix up this portfolio, damaged by the administration of the H1N1 vaccine last fall. Liepert’s charm will lend itself better to the Energy portfolio, where his efforts to schmooze will go over better with multi national oil executives than it did with out of work nurses and senior care officials.

The somewhat new faces in cabinet are also Calgary and rural centric, likely in response to the threat the Wildrose Alliance poses to taking Calgary and rural seats from the PCs. This shuffle is more in response to an upstart party with one legitimately elected member in the legislature, two floor crossers, and a newly elected leader who has yet to win a seat.

The opposition has yet to take advantage of the shift to the right in Stelmach’s cabinet, nor have they capitalized on the PCs’ rewarding of party loyalists. Instead, they have shifted their attention to criticizing the Wildrose Alliance, and speculating on the threat that they pose to the PCs. It is disappointing to see Alberta’s Official Opposition bow to a party that has yet to even achieve official party status.

This shuffle does little to spell change for Alberta’s legislature and until the next provincial election, I highly doubt too much will change in the way of Alberta’s political workings. The shift to the right is not favourable in light of tight fiscal choices and a seeming de-prioritization of public services but in reality the change is little and party loyalists are party loyalists, regardless of the seats they occupy.

Bills, bills, bills

Inspired by a CBC journalist who wrote about the many bills that were killed as Harper prorogued parliament for the second time in as many years, I couldn’t help but go to the LEGISinfo website and look for myself.

Parliament convened on the 18th of November in 2008, and was quickly prorogued on December fourth, leaving an extra long Christmas break for all members of Parliament. As it was such a short little session for our elected members, only four government bills and 52 private member bills were tabled. The four government bills passed through a first reading, but were killed, only to come back during the second session in January. The 52 private member bills were kept as they were, frozen in time until parliament could reconvene.

This is due to nifty (and somewhat convenient) law that was passed over a decade ago that allowed private member bills to carry forward from one session to the next within the same parliament – even despite proroguing. If – and now I think it is safe to say – when a parliament is prorogued due to the wisdom of the Governor General, all government bills that are killed on the spot rise again, reborn. Private member bills, however, stay kicking around in the state they were left in, to be reintroduced to the House or Senate for eventual defeat or royal assent. After the 2009 prorogation, all 52 private member bills came back, all having undergone first reading in the first session.

On to session number two. It was a busy year for the Senators and MP’s, beginning on that shiny morning of January 26th, 2009. 354 private member bills were tabled, all made it through the first reading and many were ready to come back after they were scoured by committees and layered with amendments. Only 64 government bills were tabled, though. Out of those 64, 30 received royal assent, which means more than half died on the table.

Truly, though, what does this matter to Canadians? It is not the number of bills passed or defeated; it is their content that matters. Many of them were procedural, but a few notable ones include Bill C-6: The Consumer Safety Bill, Bill C-15: The Drug Sentencing Bill; and Bill C-26: The Auto Theft Bill. All three made it to Senate and will now have to be brought back into the House then to the Senate, which will likely look remarkably different after Harper’s expected appointments.

Parliament amended the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act that extended the geographic definition of Canadian arctic waters to 200 nautical miles offshore (from 100), a response to the perceived threat on Canada’s arctic sovereignty.

An “act respecting not-for-profit corporations and certain other corporations,” as stated on the LEGISinfo site, was introduced and received royal assent. This act combined three previous bills that died during the 2008 prorogation. This act was introduced to give non-profit organization greater flexibility and recognizes them separately outside the Canada Corporations Act.

There is also Bill C-8, Family Homes in Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act. Reserve land is governed under federal law, and all acquisition or transfer of property is as well. However, the provincial government decides when a married couple divorces what the division of property will be, both real and personal. See the catch? The province cannot make decisions about reserve land, but there is no federal legislation or provisions in the Indian Act that governs the division of martial property. Essentially, those who obtain a divorce who also reside on reserves in Canada, are stuck in limbo as to the ownership of their home, their land, and any other property attained in their marriage. Even the United Nations has told Canada to get their act together. However, since this bill died on the order paper it looks like, once again, Ottawa will have to re-examine its treatment of FNMI persons in Canada.

These are only three examples of government bills that came through during the second session of parliament. It may have been short, but it sure was not sweet. Despite the potential to achieve quite a bit, many bills will have to come forward again, going through parliamentary procedure. Hopefully we will see more decisions made before the next election, or dare I say, prorogation.

Before it all went Prorogue in the House of Commons

First Session: November 18th 2008 – December 4th 2008,

Second Session: January 26th 2009 – December 30th, 2009

(Information from LEGISinfo, updated January 4th, 2010)

Private member bills:

354 tabled

354 went through first reading

23 were voted through to second reading

83 members who tabled private members bills

21 bills relating to Employment Insurance

25 bills relating to the Criminal Code

Government bills:

64 tabled

30 received royal assent

34 dead on the table, waiting to be revived

3 tabled by The Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway

3 tabled by The Minister of State

5 tabled by The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians

3 tabled by The Minister of Health

4 tabled by The Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities

3 tabled by The Minister of Finance

6 tabled by The President of the Treasury Board

2 tabled by The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

12 tabled by The Minister of Justice

3 tabled by The Minister of Environment

7 tabled by The Minister of Public Safety

1 tabled by The Minister of Natural Resources

2 tabled by The Minister of Industry

1 tabled by The Minister of Veterans Affairs

1 tabled by The Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism

2 tabled by The Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development

1 tabled by The Minster of Labour

1 tabled by The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

The MP who wins for most bills tabled is MP Peter Stoffer with a grand total of 22 bills tabled.

Wiseman on proroguing parliament

It’s really a free ride by the government. I think its a debasement of our parliamentary system, which is based on the principle of responsible government.

Constitutional expert and University of Toronto Dr. Nelson Wiseman on CBC speaking on the decision by PM (?) Stephen Harper to prorogue parliament for the second time in as many years.

Celebrating this decade: ten momentous occasions in University of Lethbridge history

This decade has seen some incredible and historic moments. The Y2K bug/anti climax of 2000, the threat to North American security on September 11^th, 2001, the rise of the China’s international political and economic power, the fall of the American economic system, climate change as a ever growing concern, Canada’s lowest voter turnout in 2008, and the political polarization that has occurred in European and South American states.

Living through the events in this past decade, and reflecting on the effect these events have had causes me to pause and marvel at our ability to adapt to new and different surroundings. The world looks very different today than it did in 2000. Old threats have diminished and new ones have emerged. Technology has boldly re-invented itself, and the age of social communication through sites such as Twitter, and Facebook have allowed our personal and professional relationships to draw new boundaries and consider greater fluidity.

The fall of capitalism, the major natural disasters we have witnessed, and the changes in our political and societal landscape are no small thing. This decade has changed the way everyone views the world. When everything can be taken from you in an instance, through no control of your own, suddenly baubles mean less. It is the intangible values, and the moments of happiness that we remember when looking retrospectively, not shiny presents of things.

The University of Lethbridge has undergone some major changes, both physical and psychological. We have grown in prestige and strength as a suburb undergraduate institution, and have expanded our physical presence in the Southern Alberta community tremendously. UofL have expanded their graduate studies programs, more students are enrolling and graduating than ever before from both graduate and undergraduate programs, and UofL is attracting world renowned talent to bestow their knowledge to UofL students, who will one day go on to surpass even the greatest.

In honour of the passing of this glorious decade, a harking back to the years before when “Jenn’s Top Tens” graced these pages; I present a top ten of the most momentous occasions in University of Lethbridge history:

On-Campus Daycare Center (2005 – 2010)

After a long and arduous process of constantly lobbying the administration, the University of Lethbridge reinstated the on-campus day care, promising to have it built as soon as possible. Luckily, this coincided nicely with a boom in our provinces’ resources, and soon the day care plans were under way and a committee was struck to deal with the detailed execution of the building.

This would not have been possible without the persistence of many people, some who are still here to see the fruits of their labours, and some who have since moved on but are no doubt celebrating in spirit. 2005, a rally was held to show support for on-campus day care and those who spoke and attended remember it well. Dr. Harold Jansen of the Political Science department extols as a “Great example of solidarity between undergrad, grad students and faculty.” Together, the entire university came together to show the need for this service on-campus, and the will of the community to make it so.

Fortunate to be able to attend the ground breaking last March, a feeling of overwhelming pride in the community I belong to rose up in me. I am proud of the incredible individuals who attended countless board of governors meetings, who presented solid arguments and who proved to the whole community that there was a need and support for an on-campus childcare center. I am proud to attend a school with lead by members of administration who continue to work to see this plan executed and deliver the tangible outcome of so many people’s hard work.

The day care is set to open officially in January 2010.

Womens Rugby CIS Wins (2007, 2008, 2009)

Our womens rugby team took the CIS National Championships three consecutive years this decade with a lot of hard work and effort. They expended their top notch training with ease and grace and secured this national honour three consecutive years running, the 2^nd team in history to earn that title; proving that the pronghorns are indeed the fastest and toughest animal in North America and the University of Lethbridge truly has an athletics programs to shout about. Two time CIS Champion Allie Laurent remembers it is a shining moment in her UofL career, “Winning the universities second CIS national championship since men’s hockey won in 1993 and after only having a women’s rugby team for 7 years…then winning the next two years in a row to start a pronghorn’s rugby dynasty”. This is a feeling every UofL member can hold dear, off and on the field.

Polaris Prize (2009)

They call Dr. Bruce McNaughton the “20 million dollar man” and his decisions to join the University of Lethbridge Neuroscience program, bringing his excellent expertise and experience was very much a win for this university. Of course, the experience and first class facility he gets here was a rather large incentive for him. The Canadian Center for Behavioral Neuroscience welcomed Dr. McNaughton officially in 2008, and celebrated the achievement of securing the AHFMR Polaris Award, a research grant worth $10 million over 10 years, matched by Alberta’s iCORE research grant, giving an addition $10 million over ten years. Dr. McNaughton will be working with University of Lethbridge students on brain behavior, incorporating UofL knowledge into this innovative and groundbreaking research.

WTF?!/First Choice Savings Center – 2006

Yes, not the most glorifying moment in history for either the University of Lethbridge or the University of Lethbridge Students’ Union. After the students passed a referendum to partially, but substantially, fund the new sports and recreation center, the university thought it was fit to allow them to name the building.

Then came the infamous title “Witness the Fitness” or, WTF. Thankfully, the university axed that in favour of naming it after the second largest donor, a bank. Yes, this was the best anyone could come up with, naming the new world-class fitness center either after a bank, or a colloquial term primarily used by 12-17 year olds.

Notwithstanding the naming fiasco, the fitness center has had a major flooding incident, and was partially shut down for a period.

However, overall, with the steam rooms, the rock climbing center and that very sexy track, our First Choice Savings Center – or as it is more commonly know, the PE building, is something to be inspired by. It has aided in attracting many community members from around Southern Alberta to use the facility and interact with the university.

Uleth goes to space (2004 – 2009)

Dr. David Naylor, an astronomy professor has lead a team of both graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Lethbridge to provide a major contribution in the form of the SPIRE instrument, which was used in the Herschel mission, launched May 14^th 2009. The Herschel mission is a mission designed to gather information about the universe, the deepest and darkest parts of the universe.

The SPIRE instrument is an infrared camera and spectrometer that can simultaneously look at an entire region in the sky. The UofL delivered the test model and technology to the missions’ headquarters in the UK, and was used for the first time in 2004 to qualify the early version of SPIRE.

Take that NASA, we do not just blow up parts of satellites to see what is going on.

The (new) Library Building (2003)

The building of the new library building was a huge achievement for the University of Lethbridge and allowed not only our holdings to increase, but also future technological changes to be implemented and installed with greater ease. Our library building is fantastic for a school of our size and the decisions to place it in the center of campus completes the student hub between the Students’ Union building, the PE building, and the library.

A 6% increase for Alberta’s post-secondary institutions base operating grants (2004)

The Advanced Education and Technology ministry of the Alberta Government made an incredibly forward and progressive decision in the mid 2000’s. They boosted the yearly increase to post-secondary institutions to 6%, from the traditional increase of 4%. With Alberta rapidly growing economy, and increase in expenses 4% a year was below the Alberta price index inflation adjustments.

Without this extra grant, it is unlikely that the University of Lethbridge would have been able to provide the $600,000.00 in Quality Initiative Program funding, invest financially in the plethora of new buildings, or attract the talent and knowledgeable faculty  members was have taken in over the past 5 years. While the Alberta government has told Albertans that PSE is not a budgeting priority in the fiscal crisis, it is important o remind them of all the good that was done and the benefit it has to Alberta’s students and Alberta’s knowledge economy.

Former ULSU President, Kelly Kennedy comment on this, “When the province started to give post-secondary institutions a 6% increase to base operating grant funding. They normally were given 4% increases yearly, which was generally below API. I doubt QIP and other construction would have happened if it wasn’t for this increase.”

Markin Hall, Stadium, Canadian Center for Behavioral Neuroscience center (CCBN), Water Building, and Turcotte Hall (2000 – 2010)

This decade the UofL built, with assistance from the student population, the provincial, and the federal government, six new buildings and substantially upgraded Turcotte Hall to enlarge and increase the modernity of our campus. This is an incredible feat in ten years, and has no doubt added to the quality of education for every student at the UofL.

Notably, the student body has shouldered a significant amount of the cost of these new buildings.

Poo Day (2008)

Who could forget this incredible day? November 4^th, 2008, I know where I was. Sitting in my VP Academics office, hearing commotion outside and then learning that sewage line broke and level one of the Students’ Union building, a building that deals with high foot traffic everyday, is flooded with…well, poo. As this was clearly a health hazard, and the sewage and water system for the entire university had to be turned off to fix the broken line, every single person got the day off from all classes and mid-terms. Hence the affectionate given to this day by at Uleth’er: “Poo Day”.

Dr. Bill Cade, our illustrious leader for this decade.

The University of Lethbridge has been lead admirably by this President for the past decade; and under his leadership the University has lead the field in water and neuroscience research, expanded Liberal Education programming, increased the visibility of the Edmonton and Calgary campus’, and continued to display itself as a strong undergraduate university focused on graduating insightful and critical thinkers. As Dr. Cade is stepping down from the Presidency after this academic year, our institution owes a great deal of gratitude to the passion he has exhibited for the UofL. His Texas drawl, his office Chameleon, his obsession with crickets all give him the personality I think we will miss.

Eating local, does it mean eating well?

It’s that intense flavour a tomato has when it is picked from a backyard and enjoyed right off the vine, it is the sourness of fresh blueberries, and it is small sweet strawberries in early summer nights as the air gets cooler. The encapsulated memory of enjoying a piece of fruit or vegetable grown in ones own backyard and eaten fresh as possible, adding nothing because it would be sacrilegious to ruin that summer-fresh taste is almost universal. Even the most urbanized person will swear by their window box herb gardens, knowing it tastes better because it came from their hands to the table.

There is a certain pride had in growing one’s own food. Backyard gardens and community gardens provide affirming relationships with fellow foodies, the land, and the self. Knowing the time, and energy, the worry, and care put into the tomato vine, or corn stalks makes them taste that much more delicious. Creating a meal with them for family and friends is that much more satisfying; you are feeding your loved ones with something you created entirely.

For most of our history, we have had to contend with eating what we could produce in the climate and agriculture zone we live in. Cities and larger townships popped up along bodies of water, with which came arable land, fresh water source for drinking and irrigation, and a transportation route. Just 60 years ago, isolated families in rural communities grew the majority of their food, and only bought a few basic ingredients

As our populations became increasingly urbanized, understanding where our food comes from – other than the extensive knowledge everyone in Vancouver has on where to find the cheapest and freshest sushi and the strongest organic Americano – has gone by the wayside. Food of all varieties is bought from large supermarket chains with little consumer research on the company, the strain of seed, the transportation methods used, or the suppliers farming practices. Understanding the roots of your vegetables does seem a little hypocritical as you reach for the bag of GMO’ed grown corn chips covered in artificially flavoured and coloured sodium hydroxide powder.

Find a food fad anywhere, put an ambiguous name on it and see what sticks. The 100-mile diet, eat local, and organic only; these are all lifestyle choices to live in a more sustainable and responsible manner. However, they are by no means a get out of jail free card when it comes to knowing where it is your food comes from.

What you feed yourself has always gone beyond how it affects your body. There is more meaning to food production and consumption than simply the drive to the chain grocery store for a pre-made pizza. Food production sustains communities and it allows rural areas to thrive. It protects the large and beautiful swaths of land in Southern and Central Alberta, Saskatchewan, Southern Manitoba, Interior British Columbia, and PEI from being industrialized. Using this land to produce food for its population is crucial to continuing the knowledge base on how to grow food, and for ensuring our land and our country doesn’t get eaten up by industry, manufacturing, and urbanization, and for continuing a sustainable and self-sustaining community.

The basic principles of eat local are like the basic principles of any lifestyle choice: awareness and information. Eating local, like anything else, should not be about preaching to the unconverted about how much better you are than they are, it is a more holistic approach to understand how your consumption impacts your community and your environment. The reasons are obvious. It provides business directly to your community, it encourages your local shops to have more variety and it encourages big businesses and shopping market chains to carry products from local farms. As well, the environmental impact is huge; less transport equals less emissions. The closer your food is to you, the less preservatives it needs to stay fresh, and the better it is for you and the environment.

Changing your eating habits is not about sacrifice or going without. It is about developing a deeper and more complete understanding of what it is you are contributing to. Eat local basically advocates a lifestyle and consumer choice to buy food that was locally farmed and produced. Farmers markets are perfect examples of this. Worldwide, millions of people shop farmers markets in their urban communities to take advantage of locally grown, fresh produce and locally created, artisan baked goods. Canned goods, local crafts, vintage items, and one of kind specialties are all showcased in these multi-purpose venues – it is simply – a foodie’s wet dream. Specialized cheeses from local farms and colonies can yield some of the best taste experiences you will ever have, and baked goods straight from a local matriarchs oven means fresh bread, incredible cakes, and a memory of being in the kitchen with your grandmother as she makes her signature plum pudding.

This is eating local, simple and easy. To take it one step further, it is easy to talk to the vendors, and stall proprietor about their farms and their produce. Pick up a recipe, learn how to pick the ripest and freshest melon, and gain a greater appreciation for the food you are taking home. That summer tomato plant in your backyard means as much to you as every crop a local farmer pulls in. The bag of yellow peppers you’re holding represents generations of attention and care to the land and to the produce grown. It also represents a choice made by the farmer to continue feeding their community using their land versus growing strictly cash crops that are often modified to be heartier and pesticide free. Some local farms can receive guaranteed government subsidies to protect the farmer from market price drops or crop spoilage. These government subsidies also allow the government to guarantee large companies that there will be a certain amount of raw material for them to convert to the more marketable, and cheaper to make products. This is a practice done specifically with corn in the mid-western United States. Corn is used in almost everything now, as it can be converted to a simple sugar, used as a preservative, and used as filler in almost any pre-produced product you buy. The American subsidizes corn production to an obscene amount, but no other cash crop to the same extent. This encourages poor farmers, whose land has become barren and listless due to poor agricultural practices to pump artificially created fertilizer into their fields to grow the same crop season after season to produce the quota the government is looking for.

It is a consumer responsibility to ensure that sustainable farming practices are encouraged, whether that be from the British Columbia fruit farms, or the farms right outside Lethbridge, Alberta. Eating local doesn’t always mean eating sustainable, but by getting to know your producer or by researching the company you buy from, you can be sure your food is benefiting not just yourself but also the greater community.

Eating local is also about more than just picking your own berries, or frequenting a farmers market. Some smaller urban communities don’t have famers markets available year round, in Lethbridge for instance, the farmers’ market only runs during the summer – when the student population sadly isn’t around. However, by being mindful of the negative repercussions of consumerism, the consumer can work to pressure their big business supermarket to carry local produce. James MacKinnon, a c0-creator of Vancouver’s “100-Day, 100-Mile Diet” challenge, and a passionate advocate for urban food production, and land reclamation acknowledges the challenges to eating locally.

“Still, there are positive things that the big chains might bring to the local table. They could help pressure governments to make the policy changes necessary to make smaller, more diverse farms affordable and competitive. They could help make more sustainable foods more affordable for more people. And going local could change the chains themselves – when more of their products are coming from close to home, they may find themselves more susceptible to citizen pressure for better environmental, social, and health standards. They won’t be able to depend on our ignorance of what kinds of farming they are supporting in distant corners of the globe,” says James.

Essentially, eating locally is about more than just eating food produced within a 100 mile radius. It is about being aware and using your consumer power for good. Walking to a local supermarket and purchasing locally grown products makes the Canadian dollar more powerful. It increases consumer viability and the impact is greater than the wicked delicious meal you will create. It benefits your local community, supports sustainable farming practices, and protects the environment. It shows big business and our governments that you are aware, as a community member and a consumer, of where your dollar goes, and that you dictate how it is spent. It is empowering for you as an individual and for your community.

Eat local, but eat smart.

ChangeCamp: a better plan…

It has been more than a month since ChangeCamp Edmonton, and since then, I have has ample time to reflect on ChangeCamp and why I choose to participate.

As a student, my life moves from one deadline to the next. Self absorbed out of necessity, I often lament the time constraints which excludes me from many of the social and community activities that happen around Alberta. I am fortunate in that my (amateur?) professions throughout last three years have allowed me to make community work a priority, but as my last year in my undergraduate degree slips through my fingers, I now am forced with that all important question.

What the hell should I going to do now?

I know I love political engagement, and I love media. To an obsessive level. To prove: I am in the midst of writing a paper on social media’s impact on political engagement, #nerdfest, amirite?

The biggest challenge I see is connectedness. Society has embraced social media in the mainstream consciousness. Facebook is used as a marketing/advertising tool, and press releases are disguised as personalized message. Twitter is used by a demographic which had yet to be tapped into, the educated well established professional. Blogs are widely read, and they are able to capture the collective consciences in a way that mainstream media has failed to do in the last five or so years.

ChangeCamp first captured my attention with its broad appeal. Completely format free, yet structured enough to be conducive to open and somewhat organized discussion. What impressed me especially was the quality of the discussion, the willingness of individuals to bring forth opinions and the openness with which they were received.

I am fortunate to be well acquainted with a few of the organizers and the level of commitment and the amount of effort being poured into this event impressed me. I wanted to be part of this movement, to be a member of this Alberta wide community, active in promoting a change,  a re-visioning of our current societal norms and processes.

In any city, ChangeCamo gives any citizen who has the cahones the chance to come forward and propose a topic, question a pre-existing norm, and offer a collective solution.

Recently, I have felt delighted and overwhelmed with the different paths in front of me to engage the democratic process in Alberta. Resistance Alberta, this blog, Twitter engagement, and the many circles of friends who see a need for a change in Alberta, and in our own communities.

Democratic engagement is not really Alberta’s strong suit any longer. Everyone has an opinion on something here, and a way to do it better, especially government spending and regulations; but all too often we allow ourselves to be placated by the lack of efficacy and empowerment many rural and isolated communities feel.

What does it matter to be progressive, if being progressive leaves you out of the process?

This is why I went to ChangeCamp. To meet these people, to interact with the same bloggers who I have followed to gain insight on such activities as Bill 44, Resistance Alberta, and the Alberta’s governing party, and the minutia which really does mean so much when put into context. Writers and analysts I have come to admire because of their willingness to criticize the status quo, while offering citizen based solutions.

Four others from Lethbridge accompanied me, and our discussion afterward revolved around the same basic issue we all had. How does this level of open discussion spread beyond the activist capitol who attend such events? How do we, or I, take everything heard and discussed here past this room.

Southern Alberta can often feel disengaged from the rest of Alberta. From the many involved tweeps I connect with, I hear of meetings carried out to continue the change they felt was needed. Whether it be open access, direct engagement with our representatives, or even a challenge to the current Albertan democratic process it seems that there are things happening, but they are very much centered in Alberta’s captiol city.

Stillthough, this gives me heart, but I wonder how this level of activism can be disseminated through the rest of Alberta. ChangeCamp should be more than just one day in one city center, it should reach out to inspire everyone to change what they can in their own communities. Be it the music scene in a smaller center, the way you connect with your political representative, or bigger changes such as running to be a representative yourself.

To enter into the system, the challenges are there and they are fierce. Compromise is necessary, but many of the individuals who take that opportunity to act as a community leader have been truly exemplary in leading through example and initiating progress. There were several political representatives participating in the ChangeCamp event, from multiple levels of governing and it was fantastic to be able to address them as people, not as politicians. Just as another person who is interested in something more, finding the common ground of active community involvement.

While my change may be as simple as inviting four others to be a part of this community, I know that it will ripple out. ChangeCamp should not start and stop with me or with anyone else.

I hope to hold a ChangeCamp event in Southern Alberta in early 2010. I hope to see people affected by this idea, and bring forward their own ideas for progress, and address the challenges they see and face.

One person can accomplish a great deal when they allow themselves to be heard, one community can accomplish even more when we allow ourselves to listen.

Dr. Barry Cooper: not a friend of Science, or Quebec, or Ontario, or parts of the Prairies, or most of Atlantic Canada…

“Canada is a federation, that we have different understanding what the country looks like, and that nobody has a monopoly on what our national myth; and ours are Cowboys.“

Dr. Barry Cooper is not just a professor of Political Theory at the University of Calgary. Counted among his interests are Canadian public policy, climate change, environmental policy, third party campaign advertising, classical political theory, filmmaking, hunting, and even fishing. He is a man of mystery, self-denying of his fame. When he is not enlightening students on his particular perspective on Canadian politics and political theory, he hunts and fishes with good friends Dr. Tom Flanagan, past advisor and campaign manager of PM Stephen Harper, and Dr. Ted Morton, current Member of the Legislative Assembly; both members of the Political Science department at the University of Calgary.
Dr. John von Heyking, our own resident Political Theorist in the University of Lethbridge Political Science Department, presented Dr. Cooper to speak for the Uleth community. Dr. Cooper was Dr. von Heyking’s Graduate program supervisor, thus there was only slight surprise on behalf of myself at the boys club familiarity Dr. von Heyking bared in his introduction.
After his talk (see page six for more), I sat down with Dr. Cooper to discuss his views on partisan academia, Albertan culture, and the Friends of Science.

Alberta, a distinct and separate culture
Meliorist: Why did you go into academia?
Cooper: Well, I was always smart and good at school. I was a jock too, but I enjoyed reading books. My dad was a surgeon, and he said ‘you can do anything, except be a lawyer’. This was a generation when doc’s and lawyers didn’t like each other, and he wanted me to be doctor but I quit Chem 300 in third year and I didn’t tell him until I couldn’t get back, and I didn’t want to irritate him again, so I decided to go to graduate school. Back then, if you had a fairly good GPA you could, there was lots of money available and I had good grades so I got a free ride and did graduate school in the States.
Meliorist: So, you have worked at other universities in Canada and you graduated with your Doctorates in the States, so what drew you back to Alberta to teach?
Cooper: When I was a kid, I used to spend summers here working. I went to UBC and when I was there, I worked on fish boats. I enjoyed working on fish boats, but there aren’t any fish boats anymore because there are not any fish. I preferred it actually, because I preferred to get paid. When I was working here [Alberta], I would get paid a dollar a day and I preferred to get a little more, so although it was more fun, it didn’t pay.
Meliorist: So, you came back to Alberta to teach because you missed the culture? You mention in your talk the ideas of Albertan, and western culture, the ‘cowboy spirit’. It seems very appealing to you.
Cooper: I was the first person, well, not literally the first person; but when I was a UofT and another guy was at York, I started teaching Canadian Political Thought in the same year, sometime in the mid-seventies. I began it because I couldn’t understand my students. I couldn’t understand why they were so obsessed with Quebec. They always thought about the West, as being, first of all, out there and not in. We’re in and they’re out. So then I said, we (Albertan’s) think of you as being backwards, back east. They didn’t think that was funny.
So, I started teaching this course on political thought to understand why I thought so differently about the same issues they discussed at length. It wasn’t about Liberal, Conservative, whatever, it was about that their assumptions were quite different, because I grew up with different stories. Both the literature and the literary criticism, they’re much different. In terms of the literary imagination, compared to Southern Ontario, which is what I call Loyalist, it’s anti-American. Part of the Laurentian value that Canada is bilingual, Quebec is like the two Canada’s of the nineteenth century. Upper Canada and Lower Canada, Canada East and Canada West. Those political structure reflected the garrison mentality, or survival. It was something that was foreign to the way I would think, and it would be expressed in detail in conversations I would have with students when I was in Toronto, and that puzzled me. So then, it became a kind of problem, an intellectual problem. How did this come about, that you have these very distinctive ideas, what I call myths in the book.
Meliorist: Alberta does have a very strong culture of being political vocal, and you seem to have a very strong history of being politically outspoken, especially when it comes to decisions made by certain parties. How does this affect your teaching, and your style of educating your undergraduate students?
Cooper: I don’t teach Canadian politics.
Meliorist: Do you think that students take your classes because you have been a controversial subject?
Cooper: No, no. I know that my colleagues in the Canadian government subfields would object pretty strongly, because most of what I think they do is not very interesting. If I were teaching a course on Canadian politics, the syllabus would be different. So, they’re not going to let me, even if I wanted to.
Meliorist: What would be in the syllabus?
Cooper: There would be a lot of literature. There would be books like Mallorys. It would be mostly focused on Alberta, versus the rest of the country. I would talk about what was wrong with Macpherson – and there’s a lot that’s wrong with Macpherson – and how that set the agenda for the way Easterners look at Alberta.
When I was in Toronto, we have these discussions, in public, and I would say ‘You don’t have a clue what culture in Alberta is like. Ya know, when was the last time you got on a horse?’ When he talked about the petty Bourgeois alienation of Alberta grain farmers, of which there was a certain amount of it, he said nothing about cowboys, and the grain industry is important, but culturally ranching is at least as important as farming.

Partisan political commentary and the role of academics
Meliorist: You have voiced very public opinions of partisan choices and government choices, not just the Liberal or Conservative parties. Do you see value in academics getting involved in trying to influence policy?
Cooper: It’s almost impossible to have the same command of information with respect to public policy, because so much of it is necessarily secret. As it is, with respect to interpreting texts. Most of what I have said about Canadian public policy is based on texts, like the Gomery report. It’s emphasizing certain statements that Gomery made, and what the significance of the statements were, or what the Prime Minster – particularly Chrétien – personally, I think he was a coward – but it wasn’t personal. He actually said these things. He said ‘Canadian Military are boy scouts with guns’. Well, that is an incredibly stupid thing to say, and it’s not just that I disagree, it is just stupid. The Canadian military are not boy scouts. They are guys that go out and kill people, to defend the country.
That nevertheless was revealing about the guy, why did he think that? Partly, it’s because of Quebec, not partly, I’d say quite a bit actually. It’s nothing to do with the number of Francophone’s in the Canadian forces, it’s likely about a quarter, likely less. Francophones join the military; they do, just like everyone else does. It has nothing to do with their culture, it’s their politics and the political advantage that Quebec politicians, whether they are federal or provincial see in being free riders.
Meliorist: You are a vocal member of several organizations that have feature – the now infamous – Calgary School, well known across Canada. It is a group of academics from the University of Calgary Political Science Department, and they have been very involved with influencing public policy, especially [Dr. Tom] Flanagan and [Dr. Ted] Morton. Does this influence the way that the political science department at the UofC operates? Does this influence the way you interact with your students or with the university itself.
Cooper: I’ve written two columns on the myths about the Calgary School, because on a lot of public policies we disagree as much as any group of people would. We get along with one another; some of us get along better than others. Morton and I just went hunting, and Flanagan and I go fishing. As far as I know, Flanagan and Morton don’t do either. I think I am probably good friends with more of them than they are with one another. There is not much internal coherence, what there is, is a certain intellectual challenge to the perceived wisdom with respect to the Canadian public life. It’s not really that it’s Conservative, I mean some are more liberal than I. There certainly are distinctions about social conservatives and social liberals; though I think we all think that you should not spend money you don’t have, so there is a fiscal conservatism there. Morton is much more social conservative than libertarian. There is not the kind of coherence that is often contributed, except with respect to be critical of the received orthodox. How that happened, I think it was serendipitous.
Meliorist: So, it is more of a coincidence then?
Cooper: A lot of coincidences, yah.
Meliorist: You guys have formed a pretty strong reputation for yourselves.
Cooper: Can’t help that. A lot of it is journalists. Jeff[rey] Simpson is the first guy that talked about this, and he was invited by Roger Gibbons, who was a typical liberal middle-of-the -road, average, mediocre academic. He invited Jeff to come up here and tell the bullshit. Before Tom got to working with Stephen [Harper], before Bercuson and I got to writing about confederation, about the late-eighties. He was so astounded that we were not giving the kind of Liberal, NDP view of things. He would talk to his friends in the Eastern media, and that’s where it came from. It’s anti-Albertan, its not like they admire all the great work that we have done. It’s a way of marginalizing and silencing any arguments.

On First Nation, Métis, and Inuit federal policy or, in his words: “Indian Policy”
Cooper: What I said today about Indian policy, that’s extremely upsetting to a lot of people. I know lot’s of Indians, and they say ‘Yah, yah, it is, this is what’s happening.” You can’t do anything about if you’re not focused on what the problem is, the problem is dependency, being dependent on bureaucrats.
Meliorist: So, then, what was your response to [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper’s statement at the G20 conference that Canada does not have a history of colonialism?
Cooper: I think that nonsense. What do you think the Mounties are? They were Red Coats. Where did they get their red coats from? Not from Canada. The British way of dealing with aboriginals in Canada is no different than their way of dealing with Aboriginals in India, or in Africa. Basically, it’s bureaucratic management. Unlike the Americans, who have fights. At least with fights, with Long Knives and the Apaches. I have American Indian friends who celebrate the destruction of the 7th Cavalry. They say, ‘at least we showed them once’, and it gives them a sense of pride. I mean, there are some Métis I guess who think that of Crazy Louis and Batoche, but not very many. I think most think that is was a terrible tragedy. I think it was an interesting minor skirmish, what the British used to call the turbulent frontier.

Partisan politics, Cooper backs Martin
Meliorist: Has being vocally partisan helped your academic career at all? Has it benefited you in anyway? Do you feel you have received any gain from this partisanship?
Cooper: No, I have not received any gain. For all I know, some other difficulties I have had may have been because of this, I don’t know. I certainly haven’t gotten any benefits from being critical of Chrétien, and I think Paul Martin really did initiate the change, it wasn’t Stephen Harper. I think he was basically a decent human being, in a way I can not say about Chrétien. Nobody has ever said what a decent guy Jean Chrétien was. That tells you something.

(Un)Friend of Science?
“…the University of Calgary had received a huge sum of money from the government of Alberta to deal with how are we going to sequester CO2, and this was like hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Meliorist: You are involved in the Friends of Science…
Cooper: No, I am not involved with the Friends of Science. I did one project for them. It was the making of the DVD.
Meliorist: Which landed you in quite a bit of hot water with the University [of Calgary].
Cooper: Yes, it did.
Meliorist: The audit did not come out favorably for you.
Cooper: No, the audit was fine. The audit said there were, there were some reporting procedures that had changed, not because of anything I did. They were changed because, well, there were two reasons they were changed. One is, the most important one, the University of Calgary had received a huge sum of money from the government of Alberta to deal with how are we going to sequester CO2, and this was like hundreds of millions of dollars.
Meliorist: When was this?
Cooper: A couple years ago, just before this other thing.
Meliorist: 2005 or 2006?
Cooper: Yea, and for reasons best known to themselves, they thought this project [Friends of Science DVD project], the total cost on it, I dunno, a couple hundred thousand dollars and I mean it didn’t come to me, it came to produce the DVD. The DVD was done by the Friends of Science. The University of Calgary would have guys like David Suzuki – I call them Climate Change Alarmists -  that’s a polite way of saying it.
They had given a number of lectures at the University with the University’s logo on it, and since the money for the DVD came through the University I thought it would be perfectly legitimate for the University logo to go on the DVD, I didn’t know that.
Meliorist: Didn’t you create the Trust Account in the University on behalf of the Friends of Science?
Cooper: Not on behalf of me, it was for the funders.
Meliorist: The Friends of Science?
Cooper: It was like, I’ve had SSHRC funding, people, friends, other foundations, they have given me research funds. I treated this like any other research fund[ing]. It was not political, it was the construction of a DVD. I ran it the same way, with the same kind of controls on it that I would with a SSHRC account. Apparently, this violated a policy of which I knew nothing. Senior administration said it did. I said, ‘if you guys say so’.
A lot of it [the DVD] was technical stuff. I was managing the production of this product. When I was called in by these guys, I was a little surprised until I realized they thought this was putting this enormous grant that they had not yet nailed down from the government of Alberta in jeopardy, that their behaviour was inexplicable. I still don’t know for a fact that’s why they did, because, they would never admit it. They just said there were accounting irregularities, I didn’t have sufficient controls, the logo was used without permission. It was so vicious, I am not naturally suspicious, but there was so much, it made no sense really. I looked to me as if it was just another research project, it didn’t look that way to them.
The final thing was that Friends of Science took some advertising. They were in Ontario, there were some radio stations, some commercials, ‘if you’re interested in some of the facts about climate change that you won’t get from CBC’, or whatever it was, ‘go on our website’. The Vice President and a lawyer, the general council for the University – she was a very pretty woman – they were extremely upset about this, because these things appeared during the 2005 (sic) election campaign, and some guy who was on the David Suzuki Foundation board in Vancouver complained during the elections.
Meliorist: Because it contravened the Elections Act?
Cooper: Because he alleged it contravened the elections act.
Meliorist: Right, but the Friends of Science didn’t register as a third part advertiser?
Cooper: No, they didn’t, and they didn’t do it for a very good reason, because it wasn’t third party advertising, because every party opposed the Friends of Science position, every party. I’m a expert witness on third party advertisement. The lawyer said ‘this was third party advertisement, didn’t you know it contravened the elections act’? I said, ‘look, I know more about the Canada Elections Act pretty near anybody in the country, I’ve been an expert witness on third party advertising, this was not third part advertising. There is no way in God’s green earth’. They said, ‘we’re going to have get outside opinion’, and I said ‘well, you have the best opinion in the room’, she said, ‘no’. The guy [presumably, the outside opinion] said it was kind of ambiguous. They went to a [Elections Act] tribunal, and they said no, this was not third part advertising, but no one told the university, but they told Friends of Science this. One of the guys sent me a PDF of the letter they got from Elections Canada, so I sent it to the Provost and the pretty lawyer.

Meet my little friend: THE FLU

I got the H1N1 this week, and with term papers piled in front of me and finals around the corner, it was pretty much the best possible timing (Italics meant to convery sarcasm).

I also still work for the paper, and had to write something… so this is what came out of a feverish and very spotted mind:

My fellow scholars, this all too dangerous time of year lays many pitfalls for the unwary academic to fall into. Missed paper deadlines, corrupted files, stress, lack of sleep, obtuse professors, unclear assignment details, canceled office hours, and the very worst of them all: the flu.

Yes, H1N1 has preoccupied our minds and health clinics for the last two months but its less pretty and almost forgotten sister is still hanging around, waiting to fill that glass slipper. According to health officials, there are three to four strains of the flu floating in our air stream that are not H1N1 related, and this editor was lucky enough to catch one of them.

Lest you think this is some self-pitying diatribe, please let your eyes be at ease. This little piece of text is nothing of the sort. The following is merely offered as a warning, and a guide, to you.

First, to warn you defenseless student: stress and late nights are the number one way to lower your immune defenses and invite pathogens aplenty into your body. I have spent the last two and a half weeks lying to myself, plying myself with coffee and baked goods to stay awake long into the night and getting up far before my mind or body was ready. It took a toll on the work I produced and now has taken me entirely out for the count.

Not to be around people, I can’t attend class; I sleep nearly fourteen hours a day (I had to nap three times while writing this), thus nullifying any hopes of productive sick days. Sick days are great, but only when you are not so sick you can still function and thus use them to catch up; I am not in that category.

While you can pretend that the term paper, or exam you are losing sleep over is worth it, it only gives you a one way ticket to vom-town. Sexy, amirite? Never one to follow my own advice, I did not heed this common sense and instead spent several successive days awake in the past month, fueled only by stress, coffee, and delicious breakfast bagels.

As great as those bleary eyed days were, I am now confined to bed, and occasionally the couch, watching Animaniac’s and stressing out about the work piling up, work I have absolutely no energy or cognitive ability to complete. Thank god for the flu registry.

Now, let’s say you heed none of my well worded and wisdom laden advice and go straight for your third large fair trade of the afternoon. Here are some things you can get accomplished while feverishly bed-ridden, because you will be soon:

- Stop smoking: You are coughing so hard your lungs are exploding, you have a headache like Mt. Vesuvius, and you are shivering like a Canadian nudist colony in February. Smoking, although it feels really, really good will only make you regret every wrong decision in your life to this point. Use these five days when walking to the bathroom seems like a chore to quit smoking. It’s bad from you, from what I hear, and it makes you smell. The coughing and wheezing that will ensue it not worth it.

- Watch documentaries: Get smart all while lying down. Even if you snooze during the films, there has to be some sort of sensory retention in R.E.M. sleep, maybe? Regardless, you’ll be bound to pick up a factoid or two and possibly get some latent creativity flowing for your I’m-no-longer-sick-kissing-the-sweet-sweet-library-floor days.

- Catch up on letters: or e-mails, FB message, RSS feeds, whatever. With limited ability to stay awake and aware, these short snippets of things to do will keep you from getting bored and make you feel like you are getting something – anything – accomplished.

- Make a giant pot of soup: It’s easy, and your illness ridden body will thank you once the finished product is ready to be consumed. My vegan not-chicken-but-better-than chicken noodle soup is killer easy. Vegetarian bouillon (found at most any grocery store), udon noodles, and cubed (1/2 inch by ½ inch) tofu. For an average size stock pot, four bouillon cubes should suffice, half a brick of tofu and about two average packages of udon noodles. Fill the pot about ¾ full with water and boil that noise all together; then consume. Tastes like the real deal, cruelty free.

Most importantly boys and girls, use these five-or-so days to get better. My theory is, my body got sick to prevent a nervous breakdown, so I am listening. I e-mailed my boss (give that EinC a high five for me when you see him), my professors, and my friends to tell them I am in no condition to do anything, at all. Feverish work tends to produce very little, and anything I tried to produce would be mired in 100 degree mind speak, a la nonsense.

Today’s lesson is: rest when your body demands it. While you can trick it for a very long time with double espressos and breakfast tacos, it will exact revenge leaving you in the fetal position, praying for a fever blackout.