Archive for canada
“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:
American scholars move north
Brynn Tannehill writes on Twitter this morning:
I’m going to break my personal rule about not posting on Twitter anymore because I need to get out this warning: Timothy Snyder (On Tyranny) and Jason Stanley (How Fascism Works) have left the US. I’m on my way out too. The experts know what this is.
She links to Leiter Reports:
Jason Stanley (philosophy of language, epistemology, political philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, has accepted a senior offer from the University of Toronto, where he will be three-quarters in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and one-quarter in the Department of Philosophy. Professor Stanley tells me the primary reason was the deteriorating political situation in the United States, with the capitulation of Columbia University sealing his decision. (The well-known Yale historian Timothy Snyder has already moved to the Munk School as well.)
The arguments in Jason Stanley’s “How Fascism Works,” from 2018, were persuasive, and his exposition of history was plain as day.
Promise
I am 66 years old. I have spent 33 years living in the United States and 33 years living in Canada. I love both nations equally. Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada alarm and nauseate me. I will defend Canadian sovereignty with everything in me.
Neighbour
Yuval Noah Harari said on a fairly recent episode of Bill Maher that it takes much longer to build institutions than it does to tear them down. Hearing that, I had that uncanny experience of reaching an accurate comprehension of something really, really obvious but also hidden within plain language. Perhaps it was the timing of his message.
One of my sisters used the film’s last line as her .sig file for a time back in the nineties.
[Related.]
Simplicity is beautiful*
Filling out the customs form before crossing the border north into Canada this Sunday, I noted that I was bringing some food back. When the customs officer asked me what food I got, I explained that I had a carton of instant mashed potatoes and two boxes of Grape Nuts breakfast cereal. He said, what the heck are Grape Nuts? So I showed him the boxes. Then I added: “I am so pathetic that my girlfriend had to buy them for me!” and got a laugh. (I think I’ll quit while I am ahead – not gonna try to make a custom officer laugh again!)
A few months back it dawned on me that one could no longer purchase plain “potato flakes” in Vancouver. Each variation of instant mashed potatoes was “flavoured” and was filled with everything from soy, milk, citric acid, and wheat to pyrophosphates and silicon dioxide. I wanted hardcore *plain*. It felt ridiculous that I couldn’t find any! I found out about “Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods” on Amazon, but it would cost an arm and a leg to ship their potato flakes to my place north of the border. That is where my partner stepped in.
During my visit she also guided me to a local Safeway so that I could stock up on Grape Nuts, that weird and crunchy cereal that was discontinued during Our Time of Covid. It has reappeared in parts of Canada – allegedly! – but certainly nowhere near me. I have long truly treasured Grape Nuts. During times of real poverty, I used to eat them with warm water instead of milk – and felt like I had just won something.
—
* The title of this post comes from Juliana Hatfield’s very fine song of the same name. Love these lyrics:
Blues soul rock country
Red green blue yellow
Morning laughing talking walking
Bread rice water fruit
It’s a simple feeling
Hold feel save me
Baby brother sister parent
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.
Canadian Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday, one whose name I obey, happily, twice each year.
“Orange Shirt Day” in Canada
My colleague Seema Ahluwalia of Kwantlen‘s Sociology department has given me permission to share this:
The Kwantlen Faculty Association (KFA) acknowledges the underlying title and inherent rights of self-determination of Indigenous peoples, and our presence as uninvited guests in the traditional and unceded territories of the xwmƏθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), qi̓ cə̓ y̓ (Katzie), SEYMONE (Semiahmoo), scə̓ waθən (Tsawwassen), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), and kwikwəƛə̓ m (Kwikwetlem); and qw̓ ɑ:nƛ̓ ə̓ n̓ (Kwantlen) Peoples.
The truth is we must learn from and alongside Indigenous Peoples in order to make things right.
September 30 was chosen as “Orange Shirt Day” by Indigenous people in 2013 to commemorate and honor the survivors of The Indian Residential School System (IRSS) and those who never returned home. At this time of year, over the course of more than 100 years, Indigenous children were forced to return to IRSS institutions where they were targeted for indoctrination and torture organized by the Canadian state to weaken and destroy Indigenous nations. In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) recommended that the Canadian government establish a statutory holiday so that Canadians may never forget the history and ongoing legacy of the IRSS. September 30 is now also Canada’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
In solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, we mourn the loss of the children who did not make it home and honor the courageous survivors and their allies who worked for decades to break the walls of silence and denial surrounding the IRSS. On this day of solemn reflection, we acknowledge that racism and religious persecution were used to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their territories, and that we must educate ourselves about the ongoing and current impacts of colonization and genocide on Indigenous peoples. We must do the urgent work of ending systemic racism by engaging in a meaningful process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples that leads to decolonization.
Many Indigenous leaders have warned that “reconciliation” has stalled and advised that Indigenous perspectives must be employed to understand the critical issues impacting Indigenous peoples. Canadians must ask ourselves how we are holding our governments, associations, and ourselves accountable for the work that must be done and transform our talk into action.
On September 30, we encourage Canadians to learn, reflect, and act.
Here are some resources that you may find useful:
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: 94 Calls to Action
Calls to Action Accountability: A 2022 Status Update on Reconciliation
Semiahmoo First Nation 3rd Annual Walk for Truth & Reconciliation: Sept 30, 2023
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation: Lunch and Learn Webinars, Sept 25 – 29
Sign CLC’s petition “Justice for First Nations’, Inuit, and Metis is Long Overdue”
BCFED Reconciliation Plan Framework
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION: CUPE TAKING ACTION THROUGH COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
UFCW: Indigenous Rights and the Workplace Bargaining Guide
Support Services and Resources:
Indian Residential School Survivors’ Society: Toll-Free Line 1 800 721 0066
Indian Residential School Crisis Line: (604) 985-4464
Hope For Wellness: Toll-Free Line 1 (855) 242-3310
Metis Crisis Line: 1 (833) 638-4722
KUU-US Crisis Line: 1 800 588 8717
Tsow-Tun-Le Lum: 1 866 925 4419
Ô Canada
… where Good Friday and Easter Monday are national* holidays. I will always find this odd (and oddly satisfying). I love my home.
*Exceptions: Folk from Quebec have to choose just one of the two days for their holiday. In Alberta employers have an “option” to give their employees Easter Monday off; in Medicine Hat everybody sleeps in on Good Friday.
My train
My friends know I love a good train ride. And more than that, I count on one particular line, the Amtrak Cascades, to bring me to and from loved ones in the States. Discontinued at the start of the pandemic, Amtrak restarted partial service a few months ago, and in March Amtrak is bringing back the second train – early morning southbound to Washington State, night-time return to beautiful Vancouver. They’re hiring, and I could not be more pleased.
Below are photo tributes I made to my home stations, in Vancouver and Seattle, a few years back.
Amtrak
I rejoice at the news the train from Vancouver, BC to Seattle is set to start running again in September. That train has meant the world to me. It brings me to my loved ones in Washington State and then home again to my beguiling paradise.
Here’s a little piece I wrote on that train ten years ago on my iPhone blog:
A morning Amtrak conversation
Old fellow: “Same person’s been in that bathroom for five minutes!”
His wife: “What makes you think it’s the same person?”
Fellow: “It has to be!”
Wife: “No dear, it doesn’t have to be.”
Me: “How long have you two been married?”
Fellow: “60 years!”
Wife: “50 years, dear.”
Car 6 explodes in laughter. It’s going to be a fine trip to Olympia!
Norm Macdonald
A marvellous Canadian who cracked me up every single time.
The Washington Post has a fine obituary, with lots of links to edifying and profoundly funny stories.
Canada Day
The faculty email-listserv at my university has been roaring the last day or so, prompted by an ad sent out by the campus bookstore: “Canada Day Sale – 25% off Canada-Made Items!” The ad – since taken down – was at best grossly tone-deaf, given the recent discoveries of several hundred unmarked graves of indigenous children on the grounds of former “residential schools” run by the Canadian government and the Catholic Church.
My colleagues’ emails have ranged from plaintive to strident to illuminating to defensive. And a couple of the usual trolls have shown up. Overall, I have found the spectacle more edifying than irritating. Many of my colleagues have used this occasion to do what they do: teach.
My own feelings today are mournful.
Love the logs
The great Vancouver landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander has passed away at the age of 99. I hadn’t realized until now how ubiquitous her work was in my beloved city. It was Oberlander’s idea, for instance, to set up “log seating” on our city’s beaches (in 1963). I visit her simple yet sublime design literally every day, on English Bay.
According to the Vancouver Sun, Oberlander’s “legacy of design [also] includes such iconic contributions to Vancouver’s public spaces as … Robson Square (1983), the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch rooftop garden (1995) and the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre (2011). She also designed landscapes for the Vancouver General Hospital burn unit garden, UBC’s Museum of Anthropology and the C. K. Choi Building.”
“May her memory be a blessing,” Mayor Kennedy Stewart wrote in a statement.
The Sunshine Coast tomato
RSS - Posts