Monday, May 31, 2010
George Vanier- 19th Governor General of Canada and Humanitarian Hero
"The road of unity is the road of love: love of one's country and faith in its future will give new direction and purpose to our lives, lift us above our domestic quarrels, and unite us in dedication to the common good... I pray God that we may all go forward hand in hand. We can't run the risk of this great country falling into pieces." George Vanier
Vanier was the first French Canadian governor general of Canada (1959 until his death in 1967). The appointment of Vanier established the tradition of rotating between French and English speaking persons, and Vanier's bilingualism was an asset in his mandate of fostering Canadian unity. The greatest threat during Vanier's tenure was the threat to Confederation which came from the rise of the Quiet Revolution, Quebec nationalism, and the Quebec sovereignty movement, including the terrorist actions of the Front de libération du Québec. As a Québécois representing the Canadian monarch, and someone who promoted federalism, he was perceived by many Quebec separatists to be a traitor to his people. Amongst most other circles in the country, however, he was lauded as a distinguished viceroy.
He was born and educated in Quebec. He was the product of an Irish mother and a French-Norman father. Although he trained as a lawyer, he joined the military, served in Europe in WW1 and lost a leg. During that service he won a Miliary Cross and a Distinguished service medal. Afterward he served in a diplomatic role in Europe until WW2. He then returned to Canada and married Pauline (see film clip below) and became the father of five children.
Following the fall of Vichy France in 1944 to the Allied Forces, Vanier was posted as Canada's first ambassador to France. While serving in that role, as well as acting as Canada's representative to the United Nations, he toured in 1945 the just liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Later, back in Canada, he delivered a speach on the CBC expressing his shame over Canada's inaction, saying: "How deaf we were then, to cruelty and the cries of pain which came to our ears, grim forerunners of the mass torture and murders which were to follow."
Back in Paris, he and his wife continued to help the refugees who arrived at the embassy, arranging for them food and temporary shelter. The couple, with the assistance of numerous others, eventually pushed the government of Canada to revise the regulations of immigration, and more than 186,000 European refugees settled in Canada between 1947 and 1953.
It was in 1953 that Vanier retired from diplomatic service and returned to Montreal, though he and his wife continued social work there. Vanier simultaneously sat as a director of the Bank of Montreal, the Credit Foncier Franco-Canadien, and the Standard Life Assurance Company, and served on the Canada Council for the Arts.
Pauline Vanier- Refugee welfare
Ma Grandmere
My mother's mother lived a short and difficult life. A devout Catholic in the old school, she went to mass early in the morning, perhaps to hide her tattered clothes. She was the mother of Gerald, Raymond (Buddy), Joan (my mother), Desmond, Madeline (Susie), Lorraine (Chickie), Katharine (Kitty), Mary Louise, Michelle, and Tommy and she still took care of me until I was about 5. She died at 56 of polycystic kidney disease but she left me with a legacy.
My earliest memories are of her and of her home. She gave me a gift of belonging that I have cherished. She gave me the gift of fascinating older kids to play with which shaped my reasoning abilities. Most of all though, I remember the food. I remember the garden plot that seem enormous. I remember the pies lined up on the ironing board and the distinctive smell of the gas stove. There would be pumpkin, sugar pie, pecan, apple and cherry. I remember trying to make a soup that she made for me as a child and it wasn't until I was much much older that I realized that it had not been made with beef but with lamb (I think she was convinced that I would balk at eating lambs). I remember baked beans in the old bean pot that is now Louise's treasured possession in Chillawack BC. I remember her warm smell, and her 'tick French accent, der'. She was fiercly proud, intelligent and witty. She was born in northern Ontario and I think it was some sort of poorly kept secret that her mother had been a 'squaw', an aboriginal woman. So I am a mixed blood Canadian that passes as white because no one ever asks. They didn't ask when I qualified for scholarships. Once an interviewer asked what nationality my last name was and I happily told him that I am a mutt. I am convinced that mutts like me are genetically hardy. (My grandmere was not the only one to supply diverse genes). My kids sure are beautiful and she would have been very proud of them.
It is in honour of her that I encouraged my children to speak French as well as English. Two of them are fully bilingual as is my daughter-in-law. It enriches the children of any country where people speak more than one language. It enriches all of the citizens to embrace difference and I have lived a rich and varied life in this country that I love. (PS- She looked like Louise Arbour to me).
My earliest memories are of her and of her home. She gave me a gift of belonging that I have cherished. She gave me the gift of fascinating older kids to play with which shaped my reasoning abilities. Most of all though, I remember the food. I remember the garden plot that seem enormous. I remember the pies lined up on the ironing board and the distinctive smell of the gas stove. There would be pumpkin, sugar pie, pecan, apple and cherry. I remember trying to make a soup that she made for me as a child and it wasn't until I was much much older that I realized that it had not been made with beef but with lamb (I think she was convinced that I would balk at eating lambs). I remember baked beans in the old bean pot that is now Louise's treasured possession in Chillawack BC. I remember her warm smell, and her 'tick French accent, der'. She was fiercly proud, intelligent and witty. She was born in northern Ontario and I think it was some sort of poorly kept secret that her mother had been a 'squaw', an aboriginal woman. So I am a mixed blood Canadian that passes as white because no one ever asks. They didn't ask when I qualified for scholarships. Once an interviewer asked what nationality my last name was and I happily told him that I am a mutt. I am convinced that mutts like me are genetically hardy. (My grandmere was not the only one to supply diverse genes). My kids sure are beautiful and she would have been very proud of them.
It is in honour of her that I encouraged my children to speak French as well as English. Two of them are fully bilingual as is my daughter-in-law. It enriches the children of any country where people speak more than one language. It enriches all of the citizens to embrace difference and I have lived a rich and varied life in this country that I love. (PS- She looked like Louise Arbour to me).
Louise Arbour- Looking Evil in the Eye and Not Blinking
Louise Arbour- In her own words:
“Judicial bodies provide a forum for truth telling, for the simple affirmation of a reality sometimes so brutal that the human mind could otherwise be forgiven for suppressing it, or for inventing half plausible rationalizations that could serve to dilute or to reassign the blame. Yet it is very much our collective mission, in part the link that binds us together, to understand our past as we embrace our future. There is no better time for Canadians to become global citizens, democrats in a world in which we could be tempted to view ourselves as an aristocracy. Without painting an unduly romantic self image of Canadians as citizens of the world, I do believe that largely because of and through our differences, we are exporters of ideas and of ideals, committed to leave no one behind as we embrace a future enriched, rather than mortgaged by the past.”
In 1969, Louise Arbour began her studies in law at the Université de Montréal; two years later she graduated and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1971. She then made her home in Ottawa and clerked for Mr Justice Louis-Philippe Pigeon of the Supreme Court of Canada. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1977. Her keen mind and hard work led to a meteoric rise. She became first a professor of law and then Vice Dean of the Osgoode Hall Law Faculty at York University in Toronto. In 1987 she was appointed to the Ontario Supreme Court. In 1990 she moved to the Ontario Court of Appeal, the first francophone ever appointed. She was recognized by her peers as a first-class, indeed a ground-breaking, judge, who was leaving her mark on the profession. She wrote widely on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Some of her decisions attracted public attention, most notably her 1992 ruling that prison inmates have the right to vote. In 1995 she tabled a devastating report on Canada's prison system following her investigation of violent incidents at the Kingston Penitentiary for Women.
Judge Arbour enjoyed wide respect and became an international figure. In 1996, Un Secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali announced that he had chosen her to act as prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal. It was a gruelling task. She had to supervise the work of two tribunals set up by the UN in 1993-94. The first was investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and more recently in Kosovo, the second was investigating the genocide in Rwanda in the spring of 1994. Louise Arbour ruffled feathers: in 1997 she accused France of "dragging its feet" in Bosnia by not arresting war criminals. In May 1999, while the war in Kosovo was at its height, she did not hesitate to accuse the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, of war crimes. Many international observers criticized her willingness to speak out, claiming that she was undermining the chances for a peace treaty with Belgrade. By June 1999, Louise Arbour had the world’s attention. Her courage and her dedication have given a measure of justice for those that have suffered at the hands of war criminals in our time.
She decided at that point to withdraw from the hunt for war criminals, and accepted a seat on the Supreme Court of Canada. Madam Justice Arbour brought to the Supreme Court an incredible range of experience and a vast knowledge of the law. She currently heads The International Crisis Group.
“Judicial bodies provide a forum for truth telling, for the simple affirmation of a reality sometimes so brutal that the human mind could otherwise be forgiven for suppressing it, or for inventing half plausible rationalizations that could serve to dilute or to reassign the blame. Yet it is very much our collective mission, in part the link that binds us together, to understand our past as we embrace our future. There is no better time for Canadians to become global citizens, democrats in a world in which we could be tempted to view ourselves as an aristocracy. Without painting an unduly romantic self image of Canadians as citizens of the world, I do believe that largely because of and through our differences, we are exporters of ideas and of ideals, committed to leave no one behind as we embrace a future enriched, rather than mortgaged by the past.”
In 1969, Louise Arbour began her studies in law at the Université de Montréal; two years later she graduated and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1971. She then made her home in Ottawa and clerked for Mr Justice Louis-Philippe Pigeon of the Supreme Court of Canada. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1977. Her keen mind and hard work led to a meteoric rise. She became first a professor of law and then Vice Dean of the Osgoode Hall Law Faculty at York University in Toronto. In 1987 she was appointed to the Ontario Supreme Court. In 1990 she moved to the Ontario Court of Appeal, the first francophone ever appointed. She was recognized by her peers as a first-class, indeed a ground-breaking, judge, who was leaving her mark on the profession. She wrote widely on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Some of her decisions attracted public attention, most notably her 1992 ruling that prison inmates have the right to vote. In 1995 she tabled a devastating report on Canada's prison system following her investigation of violent incidents at the Kingston Penitentiary for Women.
Judge Arbour enjoyed wide respect and became an international figure. In 1996, Un Secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali announced that he had chosen her to act as prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal. It was a gruelling task. She had to supervise the work of two tribunals set up by the UN in 1993-94. The first was investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and more recently in Kosovo, the second was investigating the genocide in Rwanda in the spring of 1994. Louise Arbour ruffled feathers: in 1997 she accused France of "dragging its feet" in Bosnia by not arresting war criminals. In May 1999, while the war in Kosovo was at its height, she did not hesitate to accuse the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, of war crimes. Many international observers criticized her willingness to speak out, claiming that she was undermining the chances for a peace treaty with Belgrade. By June 1999, Louise Arbour had the world’s attention. Her courage and her dedication have given a measure of justice for those that have suffered at the hands of war criminals in our time.
She decided at that point to withdraw from the hunt for war criminals, and accepted a seat on the Supreme Court of Canada. Madam Justice Arbour brought to the Supreme Court an incredible range of experience and a vast knowledge of the law. She currently heads The International Crisis Group.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Why did I pick that tree for the header?
I chose the Japanese maple for this site's photo header because it says so much to me. It is a maple, not a sugar maple but one that shows the red colour year round. It is exquisite in its form and gracefulness. It communicates the multicultural nature of our country better for the purposes of this dialogue about our country than the standard maple does.
When I was a little girl, my next door neighbours were the Murphys, an older couple whose children had all left home. They were gardeners and a Japanese maple held a special place in their yard. The Murphy's were a wonderful, warm couple. They also had Canada's oldest Tulip tree in their yard and it stood silent sentinel over my childhood. It is strange what impresses children and the Japanese maple impressed me. As an adult, I have planted at least one Japanese maple, preferably with the most delicate of leaves, in the yard of just about every home I have lived in. I now have one in my front yard and another in the back garden. Their year round colour provides a contrast to all of the green that surrounds them.
Somehow that speaks of Canada itself to me. Every immigrant who comes to Canada with good will to start a new life brings something of infinite worth and beauty to our mix. We do not want them to be whitewashed into submission but to elevate us all into a higher level of understanding and perspective. As they shake off the fetters of the unproductive parts of their past, we hope to elevate each of them in return. Canada is a place for futures that are formed from ideas and good will.
When I was a little girl, my next door neighbours were the Murphys, an older couple whose children had all left home. They were gardeners and a Japanese maple held a special place in their yard. The Murphy's were a wonderful, warm couple. They also had Canada's oldest Tulip tree in their yard and it stood silent sentinel over my childhood. It is strange what impresses children and the Japanese maple impressed me. As an adult, I have planted at least one Japanese maple, preferably with the most delicate of leaves, in the yard of just about every home I have lived in. I now have one in my front yard and another in the back garden. Their year round colour provides a contrast to all of the green that surrounds them.
Somehow that speaks of Canada itself to me. Every immigrant who comes to Canada with good will to start a new life brings something of infinite worth and beauty to our mix. We do not want them to be whitewashed into submission but to elevate us all into a higher level of understanding and perspective. As they shake off the fetters of the unproductive parts of their past, we hope to elevate each of them in return. Canada is a place for futures that are formed from ideas and good will.
Signs that You are a Canadian
Signs you may be a Canadian
• You're not offended by the term "Homo Milk"
• You understand the phrase, "Could you please pass me a serviette, I just spilled my poutine."
• You eat chocolate bars instead of candy bars
• You drink pop rather than soda
• You know what it means to be on pogey
• You know that a mickey and 2-4's mean "Party at the cottage, eh!!"
• You don't hold your hand to your breast when you sing the national anthem
• You know that anglophones, francophones and allophones are not electronic devices
• You don't know or care about the fuss with Cuba. You just know it's a cheap place to travel to and has good cigars
• When there is a social problem, you turn to your government to fix it instead of telling them to stay out of it
• You're not sure the leader of our nation has EVER had sex and don't really want to know if he has
• You get milk in bags as well as cartons and plastic jugs
• Pike is a type of fish, not a freeway
• You sit on a couch, not a chesterfield - that's some small town in Quebec
• You know what a Robertson screwdriver is
• You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers or car's glove compartment
• You know that Thrills are something to chew on and "taste like soap."
• You know that Mounties "don't always look like that."
• You know that the Friendly Giant isn't a vegetable product line.
• You know that Casey and Finnegan are not a Celtic musical group.
• You wonder why there isn't a 5 dollar coin yet, because you could really use more change. The new coin should have a picture of a musk-ox on it and be the size of a hamburger pattie and have fifteen different kinds of metals in it, including poutine.
• You know that a "Premier" isn't a baby born a few weeks early.
• You design your Hallowe'en costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• You've taken your kids trick-or-treating in a blizzard.
• Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled in with snow.
• You're not offended by the term "Homo Milk"
• You understand the phrase, "Could you please pass me a serviette, I just spilled my poutine."
• You eat chocolate bars instead of candy bars
• You drink pop rather than soda
• You know what it means to be on pogey
• You know that a mickey and 2-4's mean "Party at the cottage, eh!!"
• You don't hold your hand to your breast when you sing the national anthem
• You know that anglophones, francophones and allophones are not electronic devices
• You don't know or care about the fuss with Cuba. You just know it's a cheap place to travel to and has good cigars
• When there is a social problem, you turn to your government to fix it instead of telling them to stay out of it
• You're not sure the leader of our nation has EVER had sex and don't really want to know if he has
• You get milk in bags as well as cartons and plastic jugs
• Pike is a type of fish, not a freeway
• You sit on a couch, not a chesterfield - that's some small town in Quebec
• You know what a Robertson screwdriver is
• You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers or car's glove compartment
• You know that Thrills are something to chew on and "taste like soap."
• You know that Mounties "don't always look like that."
• You know that the Friendly Giant isn't a vegetable product line.
• You know that Casey and Finnegan are not a Celtic musical group.
• You wonder why there isn't a 5 dollar coin yet, because you could really use more change. The new coin should have a picture of a musk-ox on it and be the size of a hamburger pattie and have fifteen different kinds of metals in it, including poutine.
• You know that a "Premier" isn't a baby born a few weeks early.
• You design your Hallowe'en costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• You've taken your kids trick-or-treating in a blizzard.
• Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled in with snow.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Starting My List of Things that Make up the Distinctly Canadian Character
1. We can laugh at our own foibles and we enjoy it!
2. We do not bury our mistakes under our flag or a shroud of patriotism. We hold them up to the light to ensure we understand why we made them, to ensure we do not make them again and we remind ourselves of them occassionally.
3. We think other people and other nations have some darned fine ideas and we love to learn from everyone.
4. Greed is not our number one attribute, in fact, we tend to think it is rather inappropriate in public and even in business when it is taken to excess.
5. Most of us are pretty good at sharing (but that doesn't mean we like being ripped off!)
6. We are interested in your opinion and your way of life.
7. We obey international laws.
8. When it comes to a choice between life and profit- life wins.
9. We really like the truth.
10. We really like peace (and parties).
2. We do not bury our mistakes under our flag or a shroud of patriotism. We hold them up to the light to ensure we understand why we made them, to ensure we do not make them again and we remind ourselves of them occassionally.
3. We think other people and other nations have some darned fine ideas and we love to learn from everyone.
4. Greed is not our number one attribute, in fact, we tend to think it is rather inappropriate in public and even in business when it is taken to excess.
5. Most of us are pretty good at sharing (but that doesn't mean we like being ripped off!)
6. We are interested in your opinion and your way of life.
7. We obey international laws.
8. When it comes to a choice between life and profit- life wins.
9. We really like the truth.
10. We really like peace (and parties).
Canadian Artist Bruce McCall
McCall was born in Toronto but has lived in New York City for many years doing art and cartooning for many of the major magazines like the New Yorker. This short film was made in cooperation with the National Film Board of Canada.
Friday, May 28, 2010
What motivated me to start this blogsite?
Not long ago, I was at a National Sales meeting in Boca Raton, Florida. I work for an American Mulitnational, excuse me, they would dub themselves a global company, in their Healthcare division here in Canada. While there we are normally treated as one of the gang which is to say we included in all the activities. The final evening of the sales meeting was our awards banquet. You might first need to understand that Canadians are responsible for 10% of North American sales. You might further need to understand that we do it with a staff of only six people. That leaves 90% of North American sales for the Americans with at least two staff for every state and the entire corporate marketing team and corporate offices in Minnesota. That last night, we sat at our own table (which was an improvement because 3 years ago we did not even have a table- we stood in the middle of the room with the Americans eating their meals while wait staff rushed to find us a table and set it up). We waited as the awards were handed out for every conceivable sales achievement from Rookie of the Year to best surgical rep to top Sales to safe driving which recognized everyone but the Canadians. We waited patiently. And then, they thanked the wait staff, the organizers and each other and called it a night. It did not matter that our top achievers danced circles around and superceded the accomplishment of their top reps by miles. It did not matter that we were responsible for both halves of the business while the Americans dealt with one side or the other. It did not matter that 6 people produced more than twenty or that we did it with fewer products and far less support.
And then I realized that it was a mandatory 'National' meeting but it was not our Nation.
They did quickly realize that the Canadians were upset. They brought the head of Global Healthcare R&D to speak with me as the longest tenured staff member and I tried to explain what seemed to be so very obvious. I simply shared that they had to decide if they really wanted to do business in Canada and if they did, certain facts had to be communicated. Our regualtory bodies were not stupid because we did not do it the American way and our laws had different requirements that were not optional or ridiculous because they did not match their own. Our hospitals were in some ways more aligned with the European model of infection prevention than the American and that standard was higher. That night I reminded her that Canadians feel as strongly about our country as they do about theirs. I shared that in the MBA course I had just completed in International Marketing, ethnocentricity was a business killer. When I was hired, the then VP of Healthcare ridiculed our Healthcare system. It was news to him that we actually like many things about our Healthcare system. I had a very civil conversation and then went back to my room to write a couple of essays but some of my colleagues were still very upset.
When the man in charge of Healthcare North America heard about it, he had a meltdown saying that we had not handled it well and demanded a written APOLOGY!
That experience and the experience of dating an American judge in Buffalo, New York reignited my strong feelings for my country and sparked the smoldering warm feelings into a flame of patriotism. It isn't just the land. It isn't just the people here. It is the ideals and the inclusion of everyone that makes us something very special. Not perfect, we are not so arrogant as to suggest that- but pretty great!
And then I realized that it was a mandatory 'National' meeting but it was not our Nation.
They did quickly realize that the Canadians were upset. They brought the head of Global Healthcare R&D to speak with me as the longest tenured staff member and I tried to explain what seemed to be so very obvious. I simply shared that they had to decide if they really wanted to do business in Canada and if they did, certain facts had to be communicated. Our regualtory bodies were not stupid because we did not do it the American way and our laws had different requirements that were not optional or ridiculous because they did not match their own. Our hospitals were in some ways more aligned with the European model of infection prevention than the American and that standard was higher. That night I reminded her that Canadians feel as strongly about our country as they do about theirs. I shared that in the MBA course I had just completed in International Marketing, ethnocentricity was a business killer. When I was hired, the then VP of Healthcare ridiculed our Healthcare system. It was news to him that we actually like many things about our Healthcare system. I had a very civil conversation and then went back to my room to write a couple of essays but some of my colleagues were still very upset.
When the man in charge of Healthcare North America heard about it, he had a meltdown saying that we had not handled it well and demanded a written APOLOGY!
That experience and the experience of dating an American judge in Buffalo, New York reignited my strong feelings for my country and sparked the smoldering warm feelings into a flame of patriotism. It isn't just the land. It isn't just the people here. It is the ideals and the inclusion of everyone that makes us something very special. Not perfect, we are not so arrogant as to suggest that- but pretty great!
Steven Pinker- Great Modern Thinker
Pinker’s academic specializations are visual cognition and language development in children, and he is most famous for popularizing the idea that language is an "instinct" or biological adaptation shaped by natural selection. On this point, he opposes Noam Chomsky and others who regard the human capacity for language to be the by-product of other adaptations. He is the author of five books for a general audience, which include The Language Instinct (1994), How the Mind Works (1997), Words and Rules (2000), The Blank Slate (2002), and The Stuff of Thought (2007). Pinker's books have won numerous awards and been New York Times best-sellers. Pinker was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and one of Prospect and Foreign Policy's 100 top public intellectuals in 2005. He has also received honorary doctorates from the universities of Newcastle, Surrey, Tel Aviv, McGill, and the University of Tromsø, Norway. He was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, in 1998 and in 2003.
Here he speaks on the topic of violence at a TED conference
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
David was born in 1932 in Vancouver, Canada. He became the national badminton champion three years in a row while he was still in high school and this developed his competitive edge, determination and will to succeed. He left high school without finishing and never pursued any further formal education. David started in the construction industry, first succeeding in Canada and then moving to California. In 1969, a gas leak destroyed his company, injured an employee, and it cost him most of his million-dollar fortune. Although his business career ended in disaster, David learned how to run a business effectively, a skill that benefited Greenpeace. It was almost 40 years ago, aboard his 38-foot double-ended ketch named Vega, that McTaggart began his journey into history. In 1972, he set a course for Mururoa in the South Pacific to stop the atmospheric nuclear testing occurring there. McTaggart quite literally sailed up against the French war machine, daring them to blow him out of the water. But heavy weather pushed the Vega 30 miles from ground zero, allowing the French to successfully explode nuclear bombs into the atmosphere.
In the summer of 1973, when France announced its intentions to continue testing nuclear weapons into the atmosphere over Mururoa, McTaggart set sail again. This time, McTaggart successfully maintained position inside international waters, causing the French to delay their testing. Thwarted, the French sent seven commandos to ram the Vega and rough up the crew. McTaggart almost lost his right eye in the scuffle; his navigator was knocked out cold. Fortunately for McTaggart, the whole incident was captured on still camera. In 1975, the Palais de Justice in Paris found the French Navy guilty of ramming the Vega and were instructed to pay damages. More importantly, that was the last nuclear test made into the atmosphere.
Whether he was taking on the International Whaling Commission, the French government, or protecting the world's oceans, McTaggart is single-minded in his approach. For more than three decades, this restless and driven man has taken on the world's rich and powerful. In the process he has not only created a long list of friends but an equally impressive list of enemies. The French prosecutor noted, “It is very possible that McTaggart’s attitude, reinforced by the reactions of certain countries and certain groups, caused the government of France to think again.”
At Mururoa David learned many valuable lessons he would apply in later years –how to confront a government power, use the world press, stand up for one’s beliefs, and the value of action and determination. After his victory in Mururoa, David moved to Europe where he began to develop Greenpeace in the UK, France and the Netherlands. These three countries would eventually become Greenpeace Europe, which would metamorphosis into Greenpeace International. McTaggart served as both Executive Director and Chairman of the Board for Greenpeace International from 1980 to 1991, when he retired for reasons of health. But in some ways as the organization institutionalized itself David increasingly felt constrained. He valued action over planning (which increasingly caused tension between him and the organization). He obviously believed in taking risks and provided the support and protection that allowed hundreds of Greenpeacers to face jail, beatings, fire hoses, police, and law suits in acting on their beliefs. David was also a friend of multi-millionaires, heads of state, rock stars and CEOs but he simply used them to get access or bring pressure or find resources that would help Greenpeace win the day. He never traded on his friendships or made them public. However, David’s always working behind the scenes eventually pushed him out of Greenpeace as people got tired of the secrecy and perceived manipulation. Most often it was how David made a decision rather than the decision itself that got him into trouble. His last years were spent living in Italy and working on special issues.
He realized that mining in Antarctica would be a disaster just as the Antarctic treaty nations were about to sign a mining agreement. In two short years, David and Greenpeace not only stopped the agreement, but also persuaded the Treaty nations to sign an Environmental Protocol banning mining for 50 years.
David died in 2001 in a car accident near his home in Umbria, Italy. He thought of himself as a citizen of the world. He preferred to work from the shadows, manipulating events and people without having to step right into the light. He counted among his friends several powerful politicians, a couple of multi-billionaires (including Ted Turner) and at least one rock star (Bryan Adams). For 20 years he haunted the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
Sanford Flemming - Standard time zones
One of the inventions that allows the modern world to work is time zones. It was created by Sanford Flemming as he built the railroad across Canada.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
John de Chastelain: General; overseer of IRA disarmament
Since November 1995, de Chastelain has been involved in the Northern Ireland peace process and since 1997 he has been Chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, which is responsible for ensuring the decommissioning of arms by paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. He has made an impact on the way that Britain has viewed the IRA since the decommissioning has begun. As part of the Good Friday Agreement an independent neutral adjudicator was selected to look over the disarmament of Republican and Loyalist paramilitary weapons in Northern Ireland. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Forum of Federations, the global network on federalism.
De Chastelain was born in 1937 in Romania of a Scottish father and an American mother. He immigrated to Canada in 1955 and was became a citizen in 1962. De Chastelain is married, and he and his wife MaryAnn (née Laverty) have two children, Duncan and Amanda, and five grandchildren. De Chastelain was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh, at Mount Royal University in Calgary and the Royal Military College of Canada. He graduated in 1960 with a BA in history and was commissioned to the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. In 1970 he was commanding officer of the Second Battalion PPCLI. He was also Deputy Chief of Staff of the United Nations Force in Cyprus and Commander of the Canadian contingent there. As a brigadier-general, he was successively Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada, Commander of the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Lahr, Germany, and Director General Land Doctrine and Operations at National Defense Headquarters in Ottawa.
As a major-general, he was Deputy Commander of the Canada Land Force then called Force Mobile Command) and Commander of the Mobile Command Division, which was exercised as such in 1985 on Exercise RV '85. As a lieutenant-general, he was Assistant Deputy Minister for Personnel, and then Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff. In 1989, he was promoted to the rank of general and appointed Chief of Defense. In 1993, he transferred to the Reserves and was appointed Ambassadors to the United States. In 1994, he was recalled to Regular Force duty after the departure of Admiral Anderson, and re-appointed Chief of the Defense Staff, from which post he retired in December 1995.
In 1985, de Chastelain was appointed Commander of the Order of Military Merit and in 1991, Commander of the Order of St. John; in 1993, he received the Commendation Medal of Merit and Honour of Greece, and was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada; in 1993, the was appointed Commander of the Legion of Merit (U.S.A.), and in 1999, he was made a Companion Of Honour from the British Government. General John de Chastelain was a recipient of the Vimy Award, which recognizes a Canadian who has made a significant and outstanding contribution to the defense and security of Canada and the preservation of our democratic values.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
A Canadian who Carries the World on His Shoulders
David Suzuki
At the age of six David Suzuki was imprisoned in a Canadian Internment camp along with his family even though he was a 3rd generation Canadian. During WW2, people of Asian decent were subject to internment and property confiscation based on their race and potential allegiances in Canada and overseas. Even so, David has gone on to be forgiving of our country and has spent a lifetime working for the good of all mankind.
He was born on March 24, 1936 of Japanese Canadian parents. He earned a BA in Massachusetts in 1958 and a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961. He became a professor of genetics at the University of British Columbia in 1963 where he remained until his retirement in 2001. Suzuki is best known for his television program ‘The Nature of Thing’ which found mass appeal from the mid-1970s. He is well known for his work in radio and television. His 1985 hit series, “A Planet for the taking” averaged more than 1.8 million viewers per episode and earned him a United Nations Environmental Program Medal. He has also written a number of books.
David Suzuki has been an outspoken advocate for our planet. He agitated for a halt to global warming long before it was a well known concept. He established the David Suzuki Foundation in 1990 to work toward ways in which society could live in balance with the natural world. He also served as the director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982-1987. In 2007, Suzuki made a cross-country tour in a diesel bus, speaking to Canadians about climate change and urging compliance with the Kyoto accord. Gold standard carbon offsets were purchased by the David Suzuki Foundation for all bus travel and tour activities. His Foundation suggests simple steps people can take to protect nature and improve their quality of life.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
22 minutes Canadian Apology to the US
This is not typical of the postings on this site but I just found it and thought some might find it funny.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Wilder Penfield was born in Spokane Washington in January of 1891 and later became a Canadian citizen. He was educated at Princeton and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to England. While there he studied neuropathy with Sir Charles Scott Sherrington. He obtained a medical degree from John Hopkins and then trained for several more years at Oxford. He gained a position at the Neurological Institute of New York but when David Rockefeller wanted to endow an institute for the treatment of epilepsy and politics interfered in New York State, Penfield moved to Montreal and became the city’s first neurosurgeon. In 1934 he founded the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University where he also taught. He is known as the father of neuroscience.
He, with his colleague Herbert Jasper, established the Montreal procedure with which he treated patients with severe epilepsy. Before completing the surgery, he stimulated brain cells with electrical probes while the patients were conscious on the operating table to observe their responses. In this way he targeted the cells responsible for the seizures while avoiding side effects. Through this procedure, he established maps of the sensory and motor cortices of the brain and he demonstrated their connections to limbs and organs. In 1951 he published an important book called Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain. This had a major impact on our understanding of lateralization of brain function. In addition, Penfield pioneered the use of a technique that reduced the scarring in the brain which came to be known as the “Penfield dissector’ and it is used today. He is known for the 'Humunculous', research on memory and for being a proponent of bilingualism in childhood.
In 1960 he retired and became an author. In 1967 he was made a companion in the Order of Canada, in 1994 he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. He passed away of abdominal cancer in 1976.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tommy Douglas: Defining what it means to be Canadian
Tommy Douglas
If you were to ask me what makes Canadians distinct from Americans, I would say that it is in our commitment to the common welfare. The man who led us to this commitment was a politician from Saskatchewan named Tommy Douglas. In 2004, he was voted the ‘Greatest Canadian of All Time’ by the CBC and the votes of the public. He was the leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1942 and the Premier of that province from 1944 to 1961. That government was the first in North America to introduce universal healthcare. The party later united with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democratic Party. Tommy Douglas became the leader of that party from 1961 to 1971.
Like many other great Canadians, he was not born here. He was born in Scotland in 1904 and immigrated to Canada in 1910. His leg was injured before his family left Scotland and he developed osteomyelitis. After a number of surgeries in Scotland the condition flared up again in Winnipeg where doctors believed that the leg would need to be amputated. Happily, a well known orthopedic doctor offered to take on his case for free. This pivotal experience shaped his belief in universal health care. He is known for the following quote: “I felt that no boy should have to depend either for his leg or his life upon the ability of his parents to raise enough money to bring a first-class surgeon to his bedside.”
The family returned to Scotland during WW1 but returned in 1919. During the war, Douglas dropped out of school at 13 to help support his family and then got a good paying job as in a cork factory. Once back in Canada, Douglas experienced the Winnipeg General Strike where he saw the police brutalize the strikers and an RCMP officer shoot and kill a striker. Around the same time, Tommy became an amateur boxer and he won the Lightweight Championship of Manitoba in 1922. He served an apprenticeship as a linotype operator but returned to school with the goal of becoming a minister. At the age of 19, he went to Brandon College to finish high school and study theology. He embraced the social gospel movement. Stanley Knowles, another minister and left wing politician attended classes with him. Douglas financed his own education by performing Sunday Services at several rural churches. He often preached about building a society and institutions that would uplift mankind. During one of these preaching sessions, he met his future wife, Irma whom he married in 1930 and with whom he had one daughter, Shirley (mother of Kiefer Sutherland) and they later adopted a second daughter, Joan.
In 1930 he graduated and continued his education at McMaster where he earned an MA in Sociology in 1933. His thesis “The problems with the subnormal family’ is controversial in that it endorsed eugenics. (One of the blights on Canadian history is legislation in Alberta and British Columbia that enacted similar eugenic policies). Douglas studied for a PhD at the University of Chicago but did not complete his thesis. IN 1935 Douglas was elected to the Canadian House of Commons. Douglas enlisted when WW2 broke out but his old leg injury kept him from active service. Douglas and the Saskatchewan CCF then went on to win five straight majority victories in Saskatchewan provincial elections up to 1960. Most of his government's pioneering innovations came about during its first term, including:
• the creation of the publicly owned Saskatchewan Power Corp., successor to the Saskatchewan Electrical Power Commission, which began a long program of extending electrical service to isolated farms and villages;
• the creation of Canada's first publicly owned automobile insurance service, the Saskatchewan Government Insurance;
• the creation of a large number of Crown corporations, many of which competed with existing private sector interests;
• legislation that allowed the unionization of the public service;
• a program to offer free hospital care to all citizens—the first in Canada.
• passage of the Saskatchewan Billl of Rights, legislation that broke new ground as it protected both fundamental freedoms and equality rights against abuse not only by government actors but also on the part of powerful private institutions and persons. (The Saskatchewan Bill of Rights preceded the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human rights by the United Nations by 18 months).
Premier Douglas was the first to propose a Canadian Bill of Rights but it was not enacted until April 17th, 1982, with the proclamation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Douglas's number one concern was the creation ofMedicare. In the summer of 1962, Saskatchewan became the centre of a hard-fought struggle between the provincial government, the North American medical establishment, and the province's physicians, who brought things to a halt with the Saskatchewan Doctor’s Strike. The doctors believed their best interests were not being met and feared a significant loss of income as well as government interference in medical care decisions even though Douglas agreed that his government would pay the going rate for service that doctors charged.
The Saskatchewan program was finally launched by his successor, Woodrow Lloyd, in 1962. The success of the province's public health care program was not lost on the federal government. The newly elected Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, also from Saskatchewan, decreed in 1958 that any province seeking to introduce a hospital plan would receive 50 cents on the dollar from the federal government. In 1964, Justice Hall recommended the nationwide adoption of Saskatchewan's model of public health insurance. In 1966, the Liberal minority government of Lester Pearson created such a program, with the federal government paying 50% of the costs and the provinces the other half. So, the adoption of healthcare across Canada ended up being the work of three men with diverse political ideals - Tommy Douglas (NDP), John Diefenbaker (Conservative) and Lester Pearson (Liberal).
He retired from politics in 1978 and served on the board of directors of Husky Oil, an oil and gas exploration company.The Douglas Coldwell Foundation was established in 1971. In 1981, Douglas was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1985, he was awarded the Saskatchewan’s Order of Merit. He became a member of the Queens’s Privy Council for Canada on 30 November 1984. In 1998, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Douglas died of Cancer on February 24th, 1986 at the age of 81 in Ottawa.
If you were to ask me what makes Canadians distinct from Americans, I would say that it is in our commitment to the common welfare. The man who led us to this commitment was a politician from Saskatchewan named Tommy Douglas. In 2004, he was voted the ‘Greatest Canadian of All Time’ by the CBC and the votes of the public. He was the leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1942 and the Premier of that province from 1944 to 1961. That government was the first in North America to introduce universal healthcare. The party later united with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democratic Party. Tommy Douglas became the leader of that party from 1961 to 1971.
Like many other great Canadians, he was not born here. He was born in Scotland in 1904 and immigrated to Canada in 1910. His leg was injured before his family left Scotland and he developed osteomyelitis. After a number of surgeries in Scotland the condition flared up again in Winnipeg where doctors believed that the leg would need to be amputated. Happily, a well known orthopedic doctor offered to take on his case for free. This pivotal experience shaped his belief in universal health care. He is known for the following quote: “I felt that no boy should have to depend either for his leg or his life upon the ability of his parents to raise enough money to bring a first-class surgeon to his bedside.”
The family returned to Scotland during WW1 but returned in 1919. During the war, Douglas dropped out of school at 13 to help support his family and then got a good paying job as in a cork factory. Once back in Canada, Douglas experienced the Winnipeg General Strike where he saw the police brutalize the strikers and an RCMP officer shoot and kill a striker. Around the same time, Tommy became an amateur boxer and he won the Lightweight Championship of Manitoba in 1922. He served an apprenticeship as a linotype operator but returned to school with the goal of becoming a minister. At the age of 19, he went to Brandon College to finish high school and study theology. He embraced the social gospel movement. Stanley Knowles, another minister and left wing politician attended classes with him. Douglas financed his own education by performing Sunday Services at several rural churches. He often preached about building a society and institutions that would uplift mankind. During one of these preaching sessions, he met his future wife, Irma whom he married in 1930 and with whom he had one daughter, Shirley (mother of Kiefer Sutherland) and they later adopted a second daughter, Joan.
In 1930 he graduated and continued his education at McMaster where he earned an MA in Sociology in 1933. His thesis “The problems with the subnormal family’ is controversial in that it endorsed eugenics. (One of the blights on Canadian history is legislation in Alberta and British Columbia that enacted similar eugenic policies). Douglas studied for a PhD at the University of Chicago but did not complete his thesis. IN 1935 Douglas was elected to the Canadian House of Commons. Douglas enlisted when WW2 broke out but his old leg injury kept him from active service. Douglas and the Saskatchewan CCF then went on to win five straight majority victories in Saskatchewan provincial elections up to 1960. Most of his government's pioneering innovations came about during its first term, including:
• the creation of the publicly owned Saskatchewan Power Corp., successor to the Saskatchewan Electrical Power Commission, which began a long program of extending electrical service to isolated farms and villages;
• the creation of Canada's first publicly owned automobile insurance service, the Saskatchewan Government Insurance;
• the creation of a large number of Crown corporations, many of which competed with existing private sector interests;
• legislation that allowed the unionization of the public service;
• a program to offer free hospital care to all citizens—the first in Canada.
• passage of the Saskatchewan Billl of Rights, legislation that broke new ground as it protected both fundamental freedoms and equality rights against abuse not only by government actors but also on the part of powerful private institutions and persons. (The Saskatchewan Bill of Rights preceded the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human rights by the United Nations by 18 months).
Premier Douglas was the first to propose a Canadian Bill of Rights but it was not enacted until April 17th, 1982, with the proclamation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Douglas's number one concern was the creation ofMedicare. In the summer of 1962, Saskatchewan became the centre of a hard-fought struggle between the provincial government, the North American medical establishment, and the province's physicians, who brought things to a halt with the Saskatchewan Doctor’s Strike. The doctors believed their best interests were not being met and feared a significant loss of income as well as government interference in medical care decisions even though Douglas agreed that his government would pay the going rate for service that doctors charged.
The Saskatchewan program was finally launched by his successor, Woodrow Lloyd, in 1962. The success of the province's public health care program was not lost on the federal government. The newly elected Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, also from Saskatchewan, decreed in 1958 that any province seeking to introduce a hospital plan would receive 50 cents on the dollar from the federal government. In 1964, Justice Hall recommended the nationwide adoption of Saskatchewan's model of public health insurance. In 1966, the Liberal minority government of Lester Pearson created such a program, with the federal government paying 50% of the costs and the provinces the other half. So, the adoption of healthcare across Canada ended up being the work of three men with diverse political ideals - Tommy Douglas (NDP), John Diefenbaker (Conservative) and Lester Pearson (Liberal).
He retired from politics in 1978 and served on the board of directors of Husky Oil, an oil and gas exploration company.The Douglas Coldwell Foundation was established in 1971. In 1981, Douglas was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1985, he was awarded the Saskatchewan’s Order of Merit. He became a member of the Queens’s Privy Council for Canada on 30 November 1984. In 1998, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Douglas died of Cancer on February 24th, 1986 at the age of 81 in Ottawa.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Romeo Dallaire- Rwanda and the World's Responsibility
Romeo Dallaire, general; commander of Rwanda international peacekeeping mission :"no human is more human than any other".
Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire was born on June 25, 1946 to a Canadian non-commissioned officer and a Dutch mother in Denekamp, Netherlands. He came to Canada at the age of 6 months and spent his childhood in Montreal. He discovered in 1971 when he went to apply for a passport that he was not actually a Canadian citizen and then took steps to become officially Canadian. In 1963 he enrolled as a cadet at Le College Militaire Royale de Saint-Jean and he graduated fro the Royal Military College of Canada with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. He has been a Canadian Senator, humanitarian, author and a retired general.
He served as Force Commander of UN AMIR during the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis and Hutu moderates about which he wrote the book “Shaking Hands with the Devil’. The atrocities and the lack of power he felt in the face of the horror combined with the lack of will of those who were in charge of the mission, left him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and he attempted suicide after returning to Canada. This has made him an outspoken advocate for mental health intervention for Canadian soldiers. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and Co-Director of the MIGS “Will to Intervene Project” that recently released a policy recommendation report called “Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership and Action to Prevent Mass Atrocities”.
IN 1995 he won the Vimy Award. In 1996, Dallaire was made an Officer of the Legion of Merit in the United States, the highest military decoration for his service in Rwanda. Dallaire was also awarded the inaugural Aegis Trust Award in 2002, and on October 10 of the same year, he was inducted as an Officer in the Order of Canada. He was ranked 16th in the CBC’s “The Greatest Canadian’ program which placed him as the highest ranked military figure. He is also the 25th recipient of the Pearson Peace Medal which was awarded by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. In 2006, Daillare was awarded the Human Security Award from the Centre for Unconventional Security Affairs at the University of California, Irvine. He has also received numerous doctorates from Canadian and American Universities including: U of Saskatchewan, St. Thomas U, Boston College, The U of Calgary, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Athabasca U, Trent U, U of Western Ontario, Simon Fraser U, U of Lethbridge, Ryerson Polytechnic U,the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY).His book "Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda", was awarded the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2004.
For more information about this amazing Canadian, please see his website at:
http://www.romeodallaire.com/
Rowanda
Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire was born on June 25, 1946 to a Canadian non-commissioned officer and a Dutch mother in Denekamp, Netherlands. He came to Canada at the age of 6 months and spent his childhood in Montreal. He discovered in 1971 when he went to apply for a passport that he was not actually a Canadian citizen and then took steps to become officially Canadian. In 1963 he enrolled as a cadet at Le College Militaire Royale de Saint-Jean and he graduated fro the Royal Military College of Canada with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. He has been a Canadian Senator, humanitarian, author and a retired general.
He served as Force Commander of UN AMIR during the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis and Hutu moderates about which he wrote the book “Shaking Hands with the Devil’. The atrocities and the lack of power he felt in the face of the horror combined with the lack of will of those who were in charge of the mission, left him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and he attempted suicide after returning to Canada. This has made him an outspoken advocate for mental health intervention for Canadian soldiers. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and Co-Director of the MIGS “Will to Intervene Project” that recently released a policy recommendation report called “Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership and Action to Prevent Mass Atrocities”.
IN 1995 he won the Vimy Award. In 1996, Dallaire was made an Officer of the Legion of Merit in the United States, the highest military decoration for his service in Rwanda. Dallaire was also awarded the inaugural Aegis Trust Award in 2002, and on October 10 of the same year, he was inducted as an Officer in the Order of Canada. He was ranked 16th in the CBC’s “The Greatest Canadian’ program which placed him as the highest ranked military figure. He is also the 25th recipient of the Pearson Peace Medal which was awarded by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. In 2006, Daillare was awarded the Human Security Award from the Centre for Unconventional Security Affairs at the University of California, Irvine. He has also received numerous doctorates from Canadian and American Universities including: U of Saskatchewan, St. Thomas U, Boston College, The U of Calgary, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Athabasca U, Trent U, U of Western Ontario, Simon Fraser U, U of Lethbridge, Ryerson Polytechnic U,the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY).His book "Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda", was awarded the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2004.
For more information about this amazing Canadian, please see his website at:
http://www.romeodallaire.com/
Rowanda
Saturday, May 15, 2010
K. D. Lang- Canadian Singer
KD Lang has won both Juno Awards and Grammy Awards. She came to prominence as a singer with Roy Orbison with whom she sang a duet “Crying”. Most recently she sang “Hallelujah”, a song written by another Canadian singer songwriter Leonard Cohen at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Lang is a vegetarian, an actress, an animal rights advocate, gay rights activist, and Tibetan human rights activist. She is openly gay. KD Lang was born in Edmonton Alberta on November 2, 1961. She has one brother and two sisters. She is the daughter of Audrey and Adam Lang, a drug store owner who left the family when she was 12.
I think the best way to get to know this amazing singer, is to listen so here is her version of one of my favourite songs: Hallelujiah.
Lang is a vegetarian, an actress, an animal rights advocate, gay rights activist, and Tibetan human rights activist. She is openly gay. KD Lang was born in Edmonton Alberta on November 2, 1961. She has one brother and two sisters. She is the daughter of Audrey and Adam Lang, a drug store owner who left the family when she was 12.
I think the best way to get to know this amazing singer, is to listen so here is her version of one of my favourite songs: Hallelujiah.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Quantifying Evil - Robet Hare, PhD.
The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is a diagnostic tool designed to rate an adult male’s psychopathic or antisocial tendencies (newer forms also assess female and adolescents). People who are psychopathic prey ruthlessly on others using charm, deceit, violence or other methods that allow them to get with they want. The symptoms of psychopathy include: lack of a conscience or sense of guilt, lack of empathy, egocentricity, pathological lying, repeated violations of social norms, disregard for the law, shallow emotions, and a history of victimizing others. The PCL-R is used for diagnosing psychopathy in individuals for clinical, legal or research purposes. Because psychopaths are often repeat offenders who commit sexual assaults or other violent crimes again and again, the PCL-R is now being used in the courtroom and in institutions as an indicator of the potential risk posed by subjects or prisoners. The results of the examination have been used in forensic settings as a factor in deciding the length and type of prison sentences and the treatment subjects should or should not receive.
The Hare PCL-R contains two parts, a semi-structured interview and a review of the subject's file records and history. During the evaluation, the clinician scores 20 items that measure central elements of the psychopathic character. The items cover the nature of the subject's interpersonal relationships; his or her affective or emotional involvement; responses to other people and to situations; evidence of social deviance; and lifestyle. The material thus covers two key aspects that help define the psychopath: selfish and unfeeling victimization of other people, and an unstable and antisocial lifestyle. The interview portion of the evaluation covers the subject's background, including such items as work and educational history; marital and family status; and criminal background. Because psychopaths lie frequently and easily, the information they provide must be confirmed by a review of the documents in the subject's case history. When properly completed by a qualified professional, the PCL-R provides a total score that indicates how closely the test subject matches the "perfect" score that a classic or prototypical psychopath would rate. Each of the twenty items is given a score of 0, 1, or 2 based on how well it applies to the subject being tested. A prototypical psychopath would receive a maximum score of 40, while someone with absolutely no psychopathic traits or tendencies would receive a score of zero. A score of 30 or above qualifies a person for a diagnosis of psychopathy. People with no criminal backgrounds normally score around 5. Many non-psychopathic criminal offenders score around 22.
The twenty traits assessed by the PCL-R score are:
• glib and superficial charm
• grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
• need for stimulation
• pathological lying
• cunning and manipulativeness
• lack of remorse or guilt
• shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
• callousness and lack of empathy
• parasitic lifestyle
• poor behavioral controls
• sexual promiscuity
• early behavior problems
• lack of realistic long-term goals
• impulsivity
• irresponsibility
• failure to accept responsibility for own actions
• many short-term marital relationships
• juvenile delinquency
• revocation of conditional release
• criminal versatility
The following is an excerpt from a film in which Robert Hare evaluates the actions of corporations using the concepts of psychopathy.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Norman Bethune Hero of China
Bethune spent a good deal of time treating the poor and he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He left Detroit for Calydor Sanitorium in Gravenhurst, Ontario. Bethune thought he was dying and demanded a divorce and sent Frances back to Scotland but they continued to write (and when Bethune engineered his own cure from medical reading he had conducted, they remarried only to divorce again three years later). His cure gave him a great interest in artificial pnemothorax procedures and he studied thoracic surgery in Montreal with Dr. Archibald. From 1928 to 1936, Bethune worked as a thoracic surgeon in Montreal. He became famous there for his treatment of tuberculosis patients. His is also known for developing several surgical tools some of which are in use today.
Although he cured hundreds of cases successfully, many of his poorer patients became ill again when they returned to crowded, unsanitary homes. Bethune became increasingly disillusioned with surgical treatment and concerned with the socioeconomic aspects of disease. In 1935 Bethune had travelled to Russia and had taken an interest in Communism. As a concerned doctor in Montreal during the economic depression years of the thirties, Bethune frequently sought out the poor and gave them free medical care. He challenged his professional colleagues and agitated, without success, for the government to make radical reforms of medical care and health services in Canada.Bethune realized they could not be cured without proper living conditions and medical care. Bethune became unpopular among other doctors who thought his ideas were too radical.
Bethune left his practice in Canada to head the Canadian Medical Unit in Madrid where the Spanish Civil War was raging from 1936 -1939. He jointed the Mackenzie-Papineau Military Unit which was made up of Canadians. While there he developed the world’s first mobile transfusion unit (first MASH unit). The mobile unit could conduct up to 100 operations on the battlefront. Bethune returned to Canada on June 6, 1937 where he went on a speaking tour to raise money and volunteers for the anti-fascist battle. In 1938 Bethune travelled to China to help with their war against the Japanese. He became the Red Army’s Medical Chief and trained thousands of medics and doctors. He died in 1939 after getting blood poisoning while doing a surgery. Norman Bethune was immortalized in China by an essay by Mao Zedong who extolled him and admonished the Chinese people to follow his example: "We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very helpful to each other. A person's ability may be great or small, but if he/she has this spirit, he/she is already noble-minded and pure, a person of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a person who is of value to the people." Norman Bethune was far more well known in China than in his native Canada. There are many statues to him in China but his greatest legacy was in opening the door of understanding between Canada and China.
Sir Frederick Banting - Nobel Laureate
Banting had become deeply interested in diabetes after reading an article in a medical paper on the pancreas. It indicated that diabetes was caused by lack of a protein hormone secreted by the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Schafter, one of the authors had given the name insulin to this hormone, and it was supposed that insulin controls the metabolism of sugar, so that lack of it results in the accumulation of sugar in the blood and the excretion of the excess of sugar in the urine. Attempts to supply the missing insulin by feeding patients with fresh pancreas, or extracts of it, had failed, presumably because the protein insulin in these had been destroyed by the proteolytic enzyme of the pancreas. The problem, therefore, was how to extract insulin from the pancreas before it had been thus destroyed. Another researcher Moses Baron pointed out that when the pancreatic duct was experimentally closed by ligatures the cells of the pancreas which secrete trypsin degenerate, but that the Islets of Langerhans remain intact. This suggested to Banting the idea that ligation of the pancreatic duct would, by destroying the cells which secrete trypsin, avoid the destruction of the insulin, so that, after sufficient time had been allowed for the degeneration of the trypsin-secreting cells, insulin might be extracted from the intact Islets of Langerhans. J.J.R, MacLeod, Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto provided lab space and encouragement. A medical student, Charles Best was appointed to be Dr. Banting’s assistant and together they discovered insulin.
In 1922 Banting had been appointed Senior Demonstrator in Medicine at the University of Toronto, and in 1923 he was elected to the Banting and Best Chair of Medical Research, which had been endowed by the Legislature of the Province of Ontario. He was also appointed Honorary Consulting Physician to the Toronto General Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children, and the Toronto Western Hospital. In the Banting and Best Institute, Banting dealt with the problems of silicosis, cancer, the mechanism of drowning and how to counteract it. During the Second World War he became greatly interested in problems connected with flying (such as blackout).
In addition to his medical degree, Banting also obtained, in 1923, the LL.D. degree (Queens) and the D.Sc. degree (Toronto). Prior to the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1923, which he shared with Macleod, he received the Reeve Prize of the University of Toronto (1922). In 1923, the Canadian Parliament granted him a Life Annuity of $7,500. In 1928 Banting gave the Cameron Lecture in Edinburgh. He was appointed member of numerous medical academies and societies in his country and abroad, including the British and American Physiological Societies, and the American Pharmacological Society.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Beautiful Manitoba
by the beauty of the land
we live in.
This is a picture of
the Aurora Borealis
in Manitoba.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
I am Canadian!
In a recent MBA course, the American textbook writer took issue with this ad and what he called the 'rant'. An interesting fact is that this ad was produced by- you guessed it- AN AMERICAN.
We Are More by Shane Koyczan
Olympic Poem
Shane L. Koyczan (born 22 May 1976) is a Canadian poet and writer. He was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, but grew up in Penticton, British Columbia. In 2000, he became the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship title at the US National Poetry Slam.. Together with Mighty Mike McGee and C. R. Avery, he is the co-founder of spoken word, "talk rock" trio, Tons of Fun University (T.O.F.U.). In August of 2007 Shane Koyczan and his work were the subject of an episode of the television documentary series Heart of a Poet, produced by Canadian filmmaker Maureen Judge for broadcaster Bravo!. Koyczan has published two books, poetry collection Visiting Hours, and Stickboy, a novel in verse. Visiting Hours was selected by both the Guardian and Globe and Mail for their 2005 Best Books of the Year lists
The Olympics are over but the glow remains. Thank you Vancouver! You did Canada proud. Here is the transcript of the poem Shane shared at the Olympics.
We Are More
When defining Canada
you might list some statistics
you might mention our tallest building
or biggest lake
you might shake a tree in the fall
and call a red leaf Canada
you might rattle off some celebrities
might mention Buffy Sainte-Marie
might even mention the fact that we've got a few
Barenaked Ladies
or that we made these crazy things
like zippers
electric cars
and washing machines
when defining Canada
it seems the world's anthem has been
"been there done that"
and maybe that's where we used to be at
it's true
we've done and we've been
we've seen
all the great themes get swallowed up by the machine
and turned into theme parks
but when defining Canada
don't forget to mention that we have set sparks
we are not just fishing stories
about the one that got away
we do more than sit around and say "eh?"
and yes
we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One
who inspired little number nines
and little number ninety-nines
but we're more than just hockey and fishing lines
off of the rocky coast of the Maritimes
and some say what defines us
is something as simple as please and thank you
and as for you're welcome
well we say that too
but we are more
than genteel or civilized
we are an idea in the process
of being realized
we are young
we are cultures strung together
then woven into a tapestry
and the design
is what makes us more
than the sum total of our history
we are an experiment going right for a change
with influences that range from a to zed
and yes we say zed instead of zee
we are the colours of Chinatown and the coffee of Little Italy
we dream so big that there are those
who would call our ambition an industry
because we are more than sticky maple syrup and clean snow
we do more than grow wheat and brew beer
we are vineyards of good year after good year
we reforest what we clear
because we believe in generations beyond our own
knowing now that so many of us
have grown past what used to be
we can stand here today
filled with all the hope people have
when they say things like "someday"
someday we'll be great
someday we'll be this
or that
someday we'll be at a point
when someday was yesterday
and all of our aspirations will pay the way
for those who on that day
look towards tomorrow
and still they say someday
we will reach the goals we set
and we will get interest on our inspiration
because we are more than a nation of whale watchers and lumberjacks
more than backpacks and hiking trails
we are hammers and nails building bridges
towards those who are willing to walk across
we are the lost-and-found for all those who might find themselves at a loss
we are not the see-through gloss or glamour
of those who clamour for the failings of others
we are fathers brothers sisters and mothers
uncles and nephews aunts and nieces
we are cousins
we are found missing puzzle pieces
we are families with room at the table for newcomers
we are more than summers and winters
more than on and off seasons
we are the reasons people have for wanting to stay
because we are more than what we say or do
we live to get past what we go through
and learn who we are
we are students
students who study the studiousness of studying
so we know what as well as why
we don't have all the answers
but we try
and the effort is what makes us more
we don't all know what it is in life we're looking for
so keep exploring
go far and wide
or go inside but go deep
go deep
as if James Cameron was filming a sequel to The Abyss
and suddenly there was this location scout
trying to figure some way out
to get inside you
because you've been through hell and high water
and you went deep
keep exploring
because we are more
than a laundry list of things to do and places to see
we are more than hills to ski
or countryside ponds to skate
we are the abandoned hesitation of all those who can't wait
we are first-rate greasy-spoon diners and healthy-living cafes
a country that is all the ways you choose to live
a land that can give you variety
because we are choices
there are millions upon millions of voices shouting
"keep exploring... we are more"
we are the surprise the world has in store for you
it's true
Canada is the "what" in "what's new?"
so don't say "been there done that"
unless you've sat on the sidewalk
while chalk artists draw still lifes
on the concrete of a kid in the street
beatboxing to Neil Young for fun
don't say you've been there done that
unless you've been here doing it
let this country be your first-aid kit
for all the times you get sick of the same old same old
let us be the story told to your friends
and when that story ends
leave chapters for the next time you'll come back
next time pack for all the things
you didn't pack for the first time
but don't let your luggage define your travels
each life unravels differently
and experiences are what make up
the colours of our tapestry
we are the true north
strong and free
and what's more
is that we didn't just say it
we made it be.
-Shane Koyczan
Shane L. Koyczan (born 22 May 1976) is a Canadian poet and writer. He was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, but grew up in Penticton, British Columbia. In 2000, he became the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship title at the US National Poetry Slam.. Together with Mighty Mike McGee and C. R. Avery, he is the co-founder of spoken word, "talk rock" trio, Tons of Fun University (T.O.F.U.). In August of 2007 Shane Koyczan and his work were the subject of an episode of the television documentary series Heart of a Poet, produced by Canadian filmmaker Maureen Judge for broadcaster Bravo!. Koyczan has published two books, poetry collection Visiting Hours, and Stickboy, a novel in verse. Visiting Hours was selected by both the Guardian and Globe and Mail for their 2005 Best Books of the Year lists
The Olympics are over but the glow remains. Thank you Vancouver! You did Canada proud. Here is the transcript of the poem Shane shared at the Olympics.
We Are More
When defining Canada
you might list some statistics
you might mention our tallest building
or biggest lake
you might shake a tree in the fall
and call a red leaf Canada
you might rattle off some celebrities
might mention Buffy Sainte-Marie
might even mention the fact that we've got a few
Barenaked Ladies
or that we made these crazy things
like zippers
electric cars
and washing machines
when defining Canada
it seems the world's anthem has been
"been there done that"
and maybe that's where we used to be at
it's true
we've done and we've been
we've seen
all the great themes get swallowed up by the machine
and turned into theme parks
but when defining Canada
don't forget to mention that we have set sparks
we are not just fishing stories
about the one that got away
we do more than sit around and say "eh?"
and yes
we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One
who inspired little number nines
and little number ninety-nines
but we're more than just hockey and fishing lines
off of the rocky coast of the Maritimes
and some say what defines us
is something as simple as please and thank you
and as for you're welcome
well we say that too
but we are more
than genteel or civilized
we are an idea in the process
of being realized
we are young
we are cultures strung together
then woven into a tapestry
and the design
is what makes us more
than the sum total of our history
we are an experiment going right for a change
with influences that range from a to zed
and yes we say zed instead of zee
we are the colours of Chinatown and the coffee of Little Italy
we dream so big that there are those
who would call our ambition an industry
because we are more than sticky maple syrup and clean snow
we do more than grow wheat and brew beer
we are vineyards of good year after good year
we reforest what we clear
because we believe in generations beyond our own
knowing now that so many of us
have grown past what used to be
we can stand here today
filled with all the hope people have
when they say things like "someday"
someday we'll be great
someday we'll be this
or that
someday we'll be at a point
when someday was yesterday
and all of our aspirations will pay the way
for those who on that day
look towards tomorrow
and still they say someday
we will reach the goals we set
and we will get interest on our inspiration
because we are more than a nation of whale watchers and lumberjacks
more than backpacks and hiking trails
we are hammers and nails building bridges
towards those who are willing to walk across
we are the lost-and-found for all those who might find themselves at a loss
we are not the see-through gloss or glamour
of those who clamour for the failings of others
we are fathers brothers sisters and mothers
uncles and nephews aunts and nieces
we are cousins
we are found missing puzzle pieces
we are families with room at the table for newcomers
we are more than summers and winters
more than on and off seasons
we are the reasons people have for wanting to stay
because we are more than what we say or do
we live to get past what we go through
and learn who we are
we are students
students who study the studiousness of studying
so we know what as well as why
we don't have all the answers
but we try
and the effort is what makes us more
we don't all know what it is in life we're looking for
so keep exploring
go far and wide
or go inside but go deep
go deep
as if James Cameron was filming a sequel to The Abyss
and suddenly there was this location scout
trying to figure some way out
to get inside you
because you've been through hell and high water
and you went deep
keep exploring
because we are more
than a laundry list of things to do and places to see
we are more than hills to ski
or countryside ponds to skate
we are the abandoned hesitation of all those who can't wait
we are first-rate greasy-spoon diners and healthy-living cafes
a country that is all the ways you choose to live
a land that can give you variety
because we are choices
there are millions upon millions of voices shouting
"keep exploring... we are more"
we are the surprise the world has in store for you
it's true
Canada is the "what" in "what's new?"
so don't say "been there done that"
unless you've sat on the sidewalk
while chalk artists draw still lifes
on the concrete of a kid in the street
beatboxing to Neil Young for fun
don't say you've been there done that
unless you've been here doing it
let this country be your first-aid kit
for all the times you get sick of the same old same old
let us be the story told to your friends
and when that story ends
leave chapters for the next time you'll come back
next time pack for all the things
you didn't pack for the first time
but don't let your luggage define your travels
each life unravels differently
and experiences are what make up
the colours of our tapestry
we are the true north
strong and free
and what's more
is that we didn't just say it
we made it be.
-Shane Koyczan
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