Archive for BC
“A Disaster Not Waiting to Happen”
This is the excellent title of Andrew Petter’s Vancouver Sun article explaining how recent federal education policy has been undermining universities throughout Canada. The subheading is similarly right on:
A new report from Canada’s auditor general reveals that the federal program represented as a measured effort to reduce international student numbers instead produced a shockwave — destabilizing post-secondary institutions, damaging Canada’s global reputation and hitting B.C. particularly hard.
Both my former home and my current one have been hit hard, with very large layoffs (more seem to be on the way, alas).
This country’s international student program [had] been a quiet success story — supporting institutional excellence, strengthening communities and projecting Canadian values abroad. …
The dramatic rise in international enrolments during the past decade was no accident. Federal and provincial governments actively encouraged it. Federally, international students were seen as drivers of economic growth and a vital source of future skilled labour. …
The auditor general’s findings reveal a program rollout that was deeply flawed. What was represented as a measured effort to reduce international student numbers instead produced a shock wave — destabilizing post-secondary institutions, damaging Canada’s global reputation and hitting B.C. particularly hard.
Here’s the Auditor General’s troubling report in full:
She’s still in diapers!
A post from basil.CA’s third year:
27 February 04: On Tuesdays and Fridays I have a long commute from the West End of Vancouver to the pastoral town of Langley, where I teach university part-time. I pick up my first bus at 5:42AM, switch to the Skytrain downtown, then zip off to Langley from the Surrey Station in a bus that’s getting less and less quiet. With the sun rising earlier, I’m enjoying the trip more, listening in to conversations. Tuesday:
“My son said ‘motherfucker’ yesterday. He’s three years old! Monique told me I should put hot sauce on his tongue every time he swears.”
“Won’t work,” said a cherubic toughie whose lips held an unlit cigarette for the entire trip. “I tried it once, and the next day I came into the kitchen and my little girl was drinking hot sauce from the fucking bottle. It’s beyond hope. Last week we’re in the car and we hear a siren, and she goes, ‘Shit! Cops!’ She’s still in diapers!”
Crossing the Fraser River in the early morning
There is almost nothing I love more than taking the Amtrak Cascades train south and across the border. Coming back up north, to Vancouver, comes close, though.
Toby Cleary and the insurance company
“B.C. man battling Stage 4 cancer denied insurance coverage for last-hope clinical trials: Maple Ridge’s Toby Cleary was denied insurance for ‘last hope’ clinical trial because he forgot to disclose an ER visit nearly two years before his diagnosis.”
This is from a front page story in today’s Vancouver Sun (by Sarah Grochowski, photo by Ashliey Wells). The Vancouver Province also ran the story.
Toby and his wife Danielle Raymond are friends of mine. I admire them both very much.
David Cooper
Congratulations to David Cooper for being named a member of the Order of Canada, for “his innovative contributions to Canadian performance photography and for his dedicated mentorship of emerging artists.”
David is an astonishing talent and spirit. I love that the announcement focused on David’s mentorship of others. I cannot think of a better thing to have said about you.
The above photograph, of dancer Alex Kolarcik, is from Cooper’s work on The Performance Research Project. What a great photograph! The portrait below is by Emily Cooper.
Home
This is from late 1999, on my way to the clinic to get my staple-stitches out. I had injured myself trying to hop a curb with my bike: I tipped over, shattering my humerus, separating my shoulder, and breaking a bone in my neck. I was in the hospital for about a week.
It was an exceptionally sweet time for me, though. My care at St. Paul’s hospital was marvellous and friendly, and there was no bill. Lots of friends and colleagues and clients from work came by. My brother and his wife brought their kids. I enjoyed morphine for the first and last time.
I was still pretty new to Canada – born here but raised in the States, not returning until 1996. It was during this hospital stay that I saw manna falling from the sky – here, in Vancouver, BC. I was given such grace.
The photograph is by my dear and esteemed friend Lincoln Clarkes, who had brought two pies to my hospital room.
“I’d rather leave the room quietly than seriously injure someone.”
I am teaching a conflict-resolution module to my advanced-communications class tomorrow afternoon. I love this Pam Grier interview.
Can I get class credit for that?
My beloved province is home to so many financial ruses and scams.
This story amused me more than it should have.
Almost six months after the B.C. government asked post-secondary institutions to stop taking large cash payments for tuition, many [universities] have closed the loophole identified in Peter German’s report on money laundering. [German is a former high-ranking RCMP officer leading a province-wide investigation into money laundering and the gambling industry.]
Contained among the recommendations … was concern that B.C. universities and colleges could be vulnerable to money laundering.
The report included an example of a student who went to an unnamed college with a duffel bag containing $9,000 in cash and asked to deposit it.
“Peter German has advised that people are paying thousands of dollars in suspicious cash for multiple semesters in advance and then seeking refunds by cheque,” Attorney General David Eby said at a new conference in May. “Our post-secondary institutions must not be used to launder money, and we are asking them to review their policies to put a stop to it.”
Since then, many of B.C.’s public post-secondary institutions have moved to end the practice, including Thompson Rivers University and the University of the Fraser Valley. …
Several schools are still reviewing their policies. [My employer] Kwantlen Polytechnic University … still accepts cash but is “looking at the possibility of moving to a fully online payment model and recently adopted a new online payment method for international students.”
Neighbours
Great footage. The wolf watching in the background makes it perfect. God bless British Columbia!
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