On the eve of the Canadian Space Agency’s 25th birthday, space experts are warning that the agency will become irrelevant unless it works closer with private aerospace companies and allows them to lead development of new space technologies.
To date, private companies have relied on agency contracts to build new space technologies — from satellites to heat shields. However, these companies are innovating faster than ever and the agency is not creating enough opportunities for them, said Chuck Black, director of the Canadian Space Commerce Association — a group specializing in economic opportunities for aerospace companies.
As a result, companies including B.C.-based Thin Red Line Aerospace are developing new space machinery and hardware independently of the agency. Some of their projects have made it to outer space through collaboration with American companies.
“There was a time when you needed a national space agency to do that, but not anymore,” Black said.
Canada’s space agency was established March 1, 1989, to help the government co-ordinate its contributions to the International Space Station. However, the agency expanded its mandate to co-ordinate most of Canada’s space activities, including earth observation and communications satellites that provide data to government departments.
Today, the agency employs 670 people — 90 per cent of whom work at the headquarters in Saint-Hubert, Que.
Marc Fricker — who works on outreach programs that support Canada’s space industry as vice-president of the Canadian Space Society — said it’s great that companies are building cutting-edge technologies, but the problem is that this is not happening “according to any government plan.”
Black said a good example of a public-private partnership that did work according to plan was the Canadarm — a revolutionary, 900-pound robotic arm used to move equipment on the space station. Built by Canadian company SPAR Aerospace, the Canadarm’s success allowed the agency to negotiate trips to the space station for Canadian astronauts.
Projects like the Canadarm are not materializing now because the agency focuses too much on overseeing projects and dictating design specifics instead of leaving those tasks up to the contracted company, according to Black.
In order to remain relevant, space experts say, the agency needs to catch up with private companies’ innovation, facilitate more public-private contracts, and give aerospace companies creative freedom.
Black and Fricker say they hope Canada’s new space policy framework released Feb. 7 will help reinvigorate the agency’s drive. The agency did not respond to questions about its direction, but the new framework explains that the agency and government will encourage using industry expertise. However, it does not mention how this will be done.
Space experts also agree that more agency funding needs to be dedicated to capacity building to help facilitate more partnerships with private companies.
In 2012-2013, the agency spent $334.5 million, of which 17 per cent was devoted to the Future Canadian Space Capacity program, which encourages public-private collaboration and oversees contracts.
Marc Garneau, a former astronaut and one-time space agency president, said even if public-private partnerships increase, consistent government funding remains crucial for the agency’s survival.
“The private sector is not in the business of investing money into high-risk ventures unless they feel there’s a chance for them to make a profit,” said Garneau, now a Liberal MP. “There will continue to be a need for government investment if there are certain things that we want to do that … is not readily a source of business for the private sector.”
Until 2012, the agency received $300 million annually from the government, but will receive only $260 million by 2014-15 due to a series of budget reductions. The new framework announced no changes to the agency’s annual funding.
Ultimately, it remains critical that the agency realize how far private companies have advanced, the experts say.
“The government is going to ignore these small companies and five years from now, [it is] going to suffer for it,” Black said. “If the Canadian Space Agency doesn’t adopt and embrace these new technologies, it will go the way of the dodo.”
The 25-year mark is one most organizations are pleased to hit.
Orillia’s Sharing Place food bank, on the other hand, would prefer to close its doors.
The Sharing Place, which opened March 7, 1989, is serving more people in more ways than ever before — by providing education and programs that encourage independence from the food bank.
“We’ve assessed what’s going on in the community and we’re trying to adapt with the community as the community change. The needs are changing so we’re changing along with them,” Hager said.
The industrial landscape in Orillia has shifted over past decade, she said, and good-paying jobs are being lost.
Three or four years ago, the manufacturing sector took a hit when concrete company Atlas Block left town and a few others cut back on operations, Stephanie Stanton, president of the Orillia Manufacturers Association, said.
But the manufacturing sector is not the only one affected, she pointed out. Other large local employers, like Teletech, have had a lot of ebb and flow in the past few years.
“I think there may be a piece to a fact that the cost of living in general has increased and average families are finding it hard to make ends meet,” Stanton said.
While in the mid-‘90s, the Sharing Place served about 2,400 people per year, according to it’s records, last year, it served nearly 17,000 — and about one third were children.
To try to keep up with the growing demand, the Sharing Place is morphing from an emergency-food outlet into a community food centre.
The Sharing Place promotes local food policy and community gardening through initiatives such as Growing Orillia’s Food Future and Gardens to Groceries. One third of its clients are children, so last year it launched a brown-bag lunch program.
Christine Hager, executive director of the Sharing Place food bank, is pictured with brown bags full of healthy lunch items for school-age children.
Georgie McDonald has been volunteering at the Sharing Place from day one. She remembers when it was up a flight of stairs above the Chinese restaurant at 24 Mississaga St. E.
“It’s just grown and grown,” said McDonald, who followed the organization to Victoria Street, Dunedin Street and finally its current location at 22 West St. S.
There’s a misconception that people who use on the food bank also rely on social assistance, Hager said.
That may have been the case in the early days, she continued, but it definitely isn’t now.
The Sharing Place began keeping electronic records of its clients last year.
“It turns out that a substantial portion of them have college and university degrees,” Hager said.
While McDonald said there are some clients who have been coming to the food bank as long as she has — “It’s become a way of life,” she said — she remembers an embarrassed local high-school teacher coming in one day.
She said he told her his mortgage and all of his bills had come due and he couldn’t afford to buy food.
“You wouldn’t expect it,” she said of his visit. “But it can happen to anyone.”
Orillia has always been divided into haves and have-nots, but when the national economy began to spiral downward in the mid 2000s, those who had been struggling to get by on their own no longer could, said Hager’s predecessor, Don Evans, who stepped in to help the food bank around that time.
The Sharing Place is a reflection of the community, he said, and without it, Orillia would really be in trouble.
Hager said the problem is growing across Canada as a result of federal policy.
“Food assistance is a Band-Aid solution to what’s going on. We need to discuss the root cause behind all of this and that’s a pretty complex conversation because that involves poverty and unemployment,” she said.
“There doesn’t seem to be any type of support to make any substantial changes. We have to start demanding from our federal government that they do something. Start supporting the people that live in Canada.”
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According to Food Banks Canada’s nationwide 2013 HungerCount report:
9.4 per cent of people access a food bank for the first time each month
3.64 per cent of those turning to food banks are children and youth
4.3 per cent of adults helped are over age 65
11.3 per cent of people are aboriginal
56 per cent of households helped receive social assistance
11.5 per cent have income from current or recent employment
16.4 per cent receive disability-related income supports
8 per cent of food banks ran out of food during the survey period
50 per cent of food banks needed to cut back on the amount of food provided to each household
Pictured is an article that appeared in the Orillia Packet & Times newspaper March 2, 1989. It was located using the microfiche archives in the Orillia Public Library. The article described how the Sharing Place food bank, Orillia’s first food bank, was slated to open that month.Pictured is an article that appeared in the Orillia Sun newspaper March 29, 1989. An original print copy was located in the Orillia Public library using the online News, Views and More search tool. While there was some deliberation over when the Sharing Place originally opened, this article confirmed it was in fact up and running as of March 1989.
In 1989, the Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed a resolution to eradicate child poverty in Canada by the millennium.
The child poverty rate 25 years ago was 13.7 per cent in Ontario. According to the latest report by Campaign Ontario 2000, one in seven or 13.8 per cent of children were living in poverty in 2011.
Campaign Ontario 2000’s reports are based off of the most recent data from Statistics Canada.
Laurel Rothman is the National Coordinator for Campaign 2000. The organization started in 1991 out of concern for the lack of government action in the fight to end child poverty.
She says there are many factors in our current society, which cause more families to stay poor.
“The public policy network is weaker and the labour market is less resilient and provides fewer options than previous years,” Rothman says. “The costs of food have become higher, making it difficult for any family to keep their head out of water.”
Rothman says that since the 2008 recession, Canada has a higher number of unstable job positions.
In the report, Ontario’s 534,000 minimum wage workers have faced a $10.25/hour wage freeze since 2010.
Low wages for full-time, part-time, and contract workers is just a portion of the problem.
“Since the mid 1990’s, the other thing that’s happened is that social welfare programs once delivered by the provinces, have all been stripped and cut back,” Rothman says.
While child poverty rates continue to increase in Ontario, Rothman says there have been a few improvements since the government’s 1989 pledge.
“The National Child Benefit has increased six or seven times since it’s inception in 1998,” Rothman says.
Social welfare and child advocacy groups have argued that families are more financially secure when supported by social assistance programs, as opposed to working at low-paying jobs. The program was launched by the federal government and it was intended to provide financial support to low-income families with children.
“The maximum NCB annual payment for the first child is now $3, 654,” Rothman says.
Terry Meehan is a mother of three and loyal advocate for the poor. She has been living on disability pension for over 20 years.
In 1989, Meehan had her second child. Not only was this challenging for a single parent trying to raise a toddler on a fixed income, but this was also Meehan’s second child with a mental disability. She would ultimately end up with three children, all of whom have special needs.
Meehan says her neighbors would often criticize her for being unemployed and living on social assistance.
“If I got something new they would say ‘you bought that with my tax money,’” Meehan says. “I lived in a town house and people would watch things going in and out like a fish bowl.”
She doesn’t think much has changed from the original proposal to eradicate child poverty and sees problems with Canada’s unemployment insurance programs.
If there had been significant improvements made over the past 25 years, Meehan knows her life would be different.
“For one thing, I may not have lost custody of my two youngest children,” Meehan says. “I would be able to afford the basics, and not have to decide which ball to drop.”
Going forward, Rothman says the federal government must instill a national anti-poverty strategy with defined goals and strict deadlines. She also believes there should be increased support for Aboriginal families living in poverty.
“In 2006, almost 40 per cent of children from minority groups were living in poverty across Canada. This is a problem for marginalized communities,” Jimeno says.
Jimeno says government action should include increasing wages, improving labour market conditions, and developing a national housing strategy to reduce housing costs.
One of the main recommendations in Campaign 2000’s report is a reduction of child poverty by 50 per cent at the end of the next Poverty Reduction Strategy in 2018.
This first report used in this article is titled Beyond Austerity: Investing in Ontario’s Future. It’s the 2013 annual report on child and family poverty written by Campaign Ontario 2000. I found it on the organization’s website when I was looking for sources to contact. Campaign 2000 collects its data from Statistics Canada. Next to this report, are links to reports from previous years and other poverty strategies. This documentation was helpful as it provided me with a number of useful statistics about poverty rates, low-income families, and poverty in marginalized communities. It also gave me insight into future plans for reducing poverty in Ontario in the upcoming years.
Library of Parliament (Text) The second document used during the research process is an issue analysis from the Library of Parliament. The report falls under the Social Affairs and Population Publication and is based on Child Poverty in Canada. I found this document on the Internet, using a simple Google search. This documentation was helpful because it gave me insight into the background of the National Child Benefit program and how it functions in Canadian society. It also gave me a brief history of the original resolution proposed by the House of Commons in 1989. While the information in this document is representative Canada’s national landscape, it applies to Ontario-based child poverty reduction strategies as well.
Twenty-five years after Alain Brosseau was killed in an anti-gay hate crime, new recruits at the Ottawa Police still hear the tragic story of his death.
The story is part of diversity training, where minority representatives speak to new recruits. Luke Smith, committee coordinator for the GLBT police liaison committee, said they tell recruits about Brosseau to teach the history of police and sexual minorities in Ottawa.
“All of our training is Ottawa-specific. An element of that is the history element, and the fact that Alain Brosseau was really the trigger moment for the creation of the committee,” Smith said.
The group, composed of community members and police, was created after Brosseau’s death sparked outcries from the gay community and then other sexual minorities, said committee co-founder David Pepper.
“I think it struck a cord that anyone, including people who weren’t queer, could be attacked because someone thought they were or accused they were or felt they happen to be, as the murderer said, ‘a faggot,’ ” Pepper said.
Brosseau, 33, was walking home from work along the Alexandra Bridge when he was attacked by a group of four men. They made fun of his shoes, and then one of Brosseau’s attackers threw him over the bridge to his death in August 1989.
In court, it came out that the men thought Brosseau was gay. He wasn’t, but his death brought attention to the major issue of hate-inspired actions against sexual minorities in Ottawa in the late 80s and early 90s.
Pepper said he remembers the violence against gays around the time Brosseau was killed – people were who robbed, beaten up and chased because of their sexual orientation.
The brutality and randomness of the murder was part of what finally spurred Pepper to call for change. Pepper said police at the time were not responding to how dangerous the situation was for gay people and sexual minorities at the time.
“We turned to activism,” Pepper said. “Yelling, screaming, having our voices heard, organizing.”
Staff Sgt. Shaun Brabazon with the diversity and racial section of the Ottawa police said he doesn’t have any awareness that there was a different level of response from the police towards the gay community at the time of Brosseau’s death, but did say relations have come a long way since then.
“It’s fair to say that over the years, the police services as a whole has had to work hard to establish those relationships with multiple communities they serve,” Brabazon said.
Aside from the monthly committee, the police now take part in gay community events such as the annual Pride celebration and the Transgender Day Of Remembrance. Despite this progress, Brabazon said they’re always working to keep communication open.
“It’s not a finite job, it’s an ever-increasing action,” he said.
Ongoing issues were addressed at the recent Feb. 24 committee meeting, where members discussed the relationship between queer youth and the police. Gary Leger, current community co-chair, said at the meeting that youth today fear police would out their sexuality to family if caught in a criminal matter.
The committee is considering creating a sub-committee to engage queer youth and address concerns brought up about confidentiality. The decision was put on hold until the next meeting, when the committee will hear from the police’s youth committee.
The mention of Brosseau reminded Pepper how far relations have developed, and also how much there is left to do.
“I take a lot of satisfaction in that 25 years later we don’t fight whether hate crimes exist,” Pepper said. “The struggle is making sure hate has no place in society.”
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*The following picture is a screen shot from the city of Ottawa’s website, where I was able to find David Pepper’s contact information. I found it by trying a variety of Google searches until I was able to narrow the search down to the David Pepper I was trying to reach. It was extremely helpful as it allowed me to contact my main source.
*This is a report prepared by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. One of my sources suggested the document to me, so I Googled it and found the PDF online. The document was helpful in that it allowed me to better understand the police perspective.
Ukraine’s violent revolution has some reflecting on 1989 and Solidarity in Poland, an example of a national movement that brought peaceful change and the end of communism twenty-five years ago.
A photo taken during the Solidarity movement in Poland.
Solidarność (Solidarity) began during shipyard strikes in Gdańsk, led by Lech Wałęsa. In 1980, the first independent trade union formed in the Soviet bloc, and the sentiment of solidarity spread throughout the country.
The Soviets reacted by imposing martial law but the peaceful revolution prevailed. In Feb. 1989 round table talks began between the communist party and the leaders of Solidarity.
On June 4, elections were held and Solidarity led the new government. This day was marked by Poles around the world as “unbelievable” says Jan Grabowski, a history professor at the University of Ottawa.
Gas mask worn by a protester during the Solidarity movement.
Grabowski was in Canada during the elections. He left Poland in 1988 when the regime loosened travel restrictions. He said he regretted leaving had he known freedom was so close.
“I simply thought that communism was this rock that would never budge,” Grabowski said. “I thought there was no future for any young person in Poland.”
During the eighties, Grabowski became a member of the Independent Student Union, an affiliate of Solidarity.
He printed leaflets and brochures he would scatter from the top of apartment buildings to inviting the people below to demonstrations, Grabowski said.
Once his landlord threw him out of his apartment and he carried a printing machine through the streets of Warsaw.
“I was wandering the streets of my fair city waiting to get arrested for this kind of behaviour,” he said.
He found refuge in his cousin’s apartment and continued his activity there. But after four years, his participation ended because he said he got tired of looking over his shoulder.
After the elections the communist oppression ended.
Solidarity was a national movement across Poland in the 1980s.
The political counselor at the Polish Embassy in Ottawa, Andrzej Farafa, was only nine-years-old at the time of the elections but he still remembers the severe food shortages.
“The economy was underdeveloped before change,” Farafa said who attributes economist Leszek Balcerowicz for successfully replacing the communism model with free-market reforms.
A contemporary Poland looks much different these days with shopping malls and well-stocked grocery stores. Farafa said it will be hard for his kids to understand the way things once were in Poland.
Lech Wałęsa, as the first President of the Republic of Poland, introduced capitalism and focused on foreign relations with the West.
Poland became a member of NATO in 1999. Since then, Polish troops have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2004, Poland joined the European Union but continues to use its own złoty currency. Working with neighbouring countries is a form of Solidarity, said Farafa.
“It’s a reasoning that we use with the European states, you need to be a team player to achieve more,” Farafa said.
While high debts caused the European financial crisis in 2009, Poland was the only EU member nation to continue economic growth.
The Solidarity memorial at the Gdansk shipyard. Photo by Shannon Lough.
The introduction of capitalism and globalization brought success to the country along with some challenges.
Poland has an unemployment rate of 14 percent and reports say after joining the EU, economic migration increased and people left to find job opportunities elsewhere.
The sense of national unity has faded and for Krzysztof Kasprzyk, an original supporter of the revolution, some “people forgot about many lessons from Solidarity,” he wrote.
The origins of the revolution may be lost among the generation who were too young to remember tanks in the streets and military rule during martial law.
Farafa said people still refer to movement. It’s a reminder that if “we really want something we can unite and we can make a change,” he said.
Whatever happened to story
Documentation
Shannon Lough
Feb. 26, 2014
I had several interviews. The first was with Jeff Sallot, who worked for the Globe & Mail’s Moscow bureau during the collapse of the Soviet Union. He provided me with solid background information on the elections and the Solidarity movement.
The second interview was Jan Grabowski, a history professor at the University of Ottawa. The third interview was with Andrzej Farafa from the Polish Embassy. I also reached out to the Polish consulate in Toronto who connected me through e-mail with other sources including Krzysztof Kasprzyk, who wrote the unofficial anthem for the Solidarity movement.
The idea came from a document I obtained while studying in Poland. I got it while I was in Gdansk, where I learned about the Solidarity movement. It’s a transcript of an international conference held in Warsaw on discussing the 25th anniversary of the Independent Trade Union, Solidarnosc. I decided to do my story on the success of the Solidarity movement by overthrowing the oppressive communist regime in 1989.
I took the photo of the memorial in Gdansk in 2007, and the Solidarity photos I photographed copies of from a professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
For my two documents:
Transcript of an interview with Jan Grabowski (attached)
I found him through searching online for people in the area that were specialists in Polish politics. I noticed that on the professor’s website his profile stated he had been in Warsaw in the 1980s and I contacted him for an interview on the subject.
The interview was extremely helpful because his memories were full of colour and he brought life to the story. He is also aware of Poland’s current situation because he travels four to five times a year for his work.
Transcript of the International Coference in Warsaw-Gdansk, August 29-31, 2005
I found the document while I was sorting through my books back at my parents house. I obtained the book while I was studying in Poland. I went on a trip to Gdansk to learn about the political history of the area and visited the memorial at the shipyard. I was given the text there.
It was helpful because it’s a reflection on the Solidarity movement by important figures within Poland. The most useful section was on the legacy of the movement and how it changed Poland after overthrowing communism.
Jan Grabowski
Professor/Professeur titulaire
Department of History/Département d’histoire
University of Ottawa/Université d’Ottawa
Desmarais Hall, room 9117, 55 Laurier East
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5
(613) 562-5800 # 1292
Article: Solidarity movement
Telephone interview
Possible questions:
What was the atmosphere of Poland like during the 80s?
Did you take part of the Solidarity movement?
How did you feel about the outcome of events?
What did this peaceful protest do for the Polish people and how has the affected the way Poland is today?
Jan Grabowski:
There were two periods one was the time of 1980-81, that was after the strikes when Solidarity was finally formed and created then there was martial law with several years of oppression and then you had the re-emergence of the solidarity movement in 1989.
Can you tell me about the atmosphere in Poland during this time?
Imagine one day for instance that you go out from your house in the middle of the winter, it was 13th of December 1981, you see tanks and armoured personal carriers sitting out in front of your house and your telephone does work any more. You cannot leave the country, you cannot leave even your city. Everything is under iron law of the military. People get shot for their trouble too and you know it was a bleak bleak period of time.
The hopes were so high before and then from one day to another it went into complete despair.
Were you a part of the Solidarity movement?
Oh yeah, at that time in 1980-81 I was a student. I was a member of the equivalent of Solidarity in the student movement, it was called Independent Student Union, which was a solidarity affiliate among the students. And then I became a member of the Solidarity in the underground. I was involved in the underground printing presses printing information for the Solidarity movement between December 1981- 1985. My participation stopped, you people sometimes get tired after four years looking over your shoulder whether someone is going to arrest you. You simply need a pause and I took a pause after four years.
How did you manage to leave Poland?
After several years of martial law the regime mellowed a bit. By 85-86, Poles could travel a bit abroad so you could leave the country, it wasn’t easily, its as doable.
In 1988 I was invited to continue my PhD in Canada, so I left. (To Montreal)
Have you ever returned?
Well you know, I’m a working historian and I’m doing the history of Poland so I imagine at this point I’m going four/five times I am in Poland. So you could say, yes, very often.
Can you reflect on how you felt with the votes went through in 1989?
I was extraordinarily surprised. I was leaving Poland in 1988 and I was already a trained historian by craft and I could never ever ever thought it possible. When I left in 1988 I thought there was no future for any young person in Poland. It felt like you were looking at the world through a thick wall of glass. It was sort of an un-reality we called; the rules were oblique, strange, inhuman even. Then after one year the system seemed to collapse like a house of cards.
I simply thought that communism was this rock that would never budge, at least not in my lifetime. Had I known I would never have immigrated to Canada in 88. I would have certainly stayed on until after a year or so, I had already made my commitment.
I was very very surprised and of course over joyed too.
How old were you when you left?
I left when I was 26yrs at that point.
Do you think that it was the Solidarity movement that brought the fall of communism in Poland?
The Solidarity movement was of course instrumental in bringing it down but of course everyone will tell you that simply the system started to rot in the Soviet Union. It was already very shaky. And simply Polish society and solidarity took advantage of the fact that the centre of Soviet power had started to collapse. It was good fortune for everybody. Solidarity took advantage of the fact that Moscow became weakened and the Soviet system became so ill at heart that it couldn’t control its periphery anymore.
How do you think this movement has affected Poland today?
It’s amazing, you have to go there one day, it’s open society. I am certain you would find Poles your age exactly the same as your Canadian counterparts. They are now raised in the same Western culture and Polish society has it’s problems, especially young people. It’s a normal Western society with all of it’s problems and vices but parts of it are fairly optimistic family of developed nations. It’s amazing what was done in 25yrs. It’s not as wealthy as Canadian society of course but given the point that I remember in 1988 where the only merchandise you could buy was vinegar I would say it’s a major improvement.
How did you feel about Lech Walensa becoming the leader right after?
He’s a person of historical dimension, he’s a bit larger than life and he commits huge errors and he makes wonderful decisions too so he is such a complex individual that I would be lost to describe him but I think he was much better in opposition than once he became President. Once he became President parts of his character came to the fore but once he was leader in Solidarity even the whole union, he made tremendous decisions and he was brave and we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude.
Can reflect on a moment during when you were in the underground movement?
Once I was in the little printing press, it was heavy but I could lift if off the ground. We produced underground bulletins. We as myself or one or two of my colleagues. We had to change locations because people were afraid of stuff, of helping anyone to do with the underground. I remembered one sunny winter morning it was in 1983, in the midst of a very severe winter, my landlord threw me out with this printing machine and in my backpack I had a few thousand sheets of paper and stuff you need to print and I had no where to go with the bloody thing. Because nobody wanted to lend me their space anymore. That was an utter disappointment. People after two years of hiding in the underground movement were tired. I was wandering the streets of my fair city waiting to get arrested for this kind of behaviour. Finally I found a place with my very old cousin. She was then in her 80s and she remember still the partition and occupation of Poland in WWI. And she opened her very modest apartment and she invited me in. And that’s where I was producing the brochures and the information leaflets for Solidarity for some time.
What kind of things did you print?
Normally it was simply 100,000 leaflets inviting people to demonstrations. Or appeals ordered to liberate political prisoners. I would print these leaflets, cut them, and throw them out from different buildings so they would be spread out to the crowds downstairs. Sometimes our little shop would produce internal bulletins for Solidarity. Whatever was required basically by the Warsaw Solidarity organization.
Did you ever go to Gdansk?
Of course many times but without Solidarity.
What can you say of the spirit of the Polish people during this movement?
Once again, I was at that point in Canada so I was a secondary witness. I can only tell you what my friends and family said that everyone felt absolutely and unbelievably happy especially during the June 1989 elections where suddenly people found out that they could actually a vote.That they could vote for their people. It was so novel and so absolutely unbelievable. For me the equivalent was in Aug. 31. 1980 when Solidarity became legal, it was absolute discovery that my goodness things can change.
A new project will help expose hidden stories about Alberta’s colonial history in March, after a three-year dispute over a mural in an Edmonton subway station.
A new project will complement the Grandin LRT station mural (left) in March. (Photo courtesy of Colin Keigher, under a Creative Commons license)
The 25-year-old mural is in the Grandin LRT station and depicts the legacy of the French-Canadian pioneer after which the station was named. Bishop Vital Grandin was instrumental in building Alberta, but he was also infamous for running the province’s residential schools.
Spearheaded by the Edmonton Arts Council and the city’s Aboriginal Relations Office, the soon-to-be-unveiled art project is still very much “on the hush,” according to Sylvie Nadeau, 61, the creator of the original mural and a proud Franco-Albertan.
Nadeau revealed she was involved on the new project but could not disclose its exact form or its expected location within the LRT station. She said however it would not be replacing her old work.
“I had created it with love, I had no idea,” the artist said about her first piece, adding that she was unaware of residential schools and their treatment of First Nations back when she completed her painting in 1989.
“It doesn’t change what happened but you can create something powerful with another perspective,” she said.
According to Nadeau, the leftmost panels of the original artwork were the “controversial ones” that drove some Edmontonians to react.
Artist Sylvie Nadeau poses with her work in October 1989, which was officially unveiled one year later. (Photo courtesy of Sylvie Nadeau)
Amidst the hues of blue, green, black and brown, a Caucasian woman with a crucifix around her neck is holding a Métis toddler. In the background, there is a small gathering of faceless aboriginal people and, further behind them, a four-story building with many windows that resembles a residential school.
For some passing through the high-traffic LRT station, the mural might only be part of the décor but, for others, it still triggers unbearable memories.
In February 2011, an article published in the Edmonton Journal brought survivors of the notorious schools to speak out, the artist said. The criticisms of Nadeau’s work spread like wildfire—to the point that aboriginal and francophone community leaders were compelled to sit together and find a solution.
“Nobody talked about that mural for almost 25 years. And then, it stirred up so much controversy,” said Nadeau, who was willing to have the panel with the woman and child taken down.
But the city has rules against taking down—or even altering—public art, she said. The project’s committee was left with a daunting task: to complement the perspective in the original mural with a new set of ideas, giving aboriginal people agency in expressing their version of history.
For University of Alberta professor Roger Parent, an expert in semiotics who looks at how culture is represented through signs and symbols, the project will allow long buried narratives to resurface.
“We can see how now the varnish is starting to crack,” he said. “I think it’s bringing to light the wider issue of the representation of First Nations and their history in white mainstream society.”
Parent explained that, what the artist saw as an act to protect Métis children “disowned” by First Nations, the latter interpret as a benevolent portrayal of residential schools. The meaning of an art piece, he said, is mostly constructed in the heads of those watching.
“You’re dealing with an extremely significant cultural space and, at the same time, that painting has evoked so many different stories that have never been fully told, that have never been fully understood,” he said.
By the end of March, Nadeau said, passengers can expect to see some of these different stories as they ride through Grandin station.
“It’s not just about two ethnic groups,” the artist said.
“We’re all in this together.”
This Neighbors article, dating from October 1989, provides context for the creation of the mural for the Grandin LRT station.
Every few Valentine’s Days author Salman Rushdie gets a reminder of the importance of free speech.
A card arrives reminding him there are groups that want to kill him for a story he wrote about a schizophrenic 25 years ago.
It’s freedom to read week in Canada. A week devoted to reflecting on freedom of expression, said Franklin Carter from Canada’s Book and Periodical Council.
It’s also the 25 anniversary of one of the most well known threats to free speech.
It began in January of 1989 when Rushdie’s new book, The Satanic Verses, was burned on the streets of the United Kingdom.
A month later on Valentine’s Day Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa—a judgment—calling for the execution of Rushdie.
The bounty on Rushdie’s head was millions of US dollars. Rushdie, a British citizen who was born in Mumbai, was rocketed into the international spotlight when radical Muslims forced him into hiding for over 13 years.
He was kept safe by 24-hour security. But others weren’t so lucky.
The book’s Japanese translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, was stabbed in the face until he died. Another publisher was shot but survived.
The threat was even felt in Canada.
“Canada customs seized an inbound shipment of The Satanic Verses,” said Carter who remembers the events well. “They had classified it as hate propaganda directed at Muslims.”
Though temporary, the seizures attracted enough international attention to be mentioned on C-Span during an interview with journalist Christopher Hitchens.
Carter said the initial ripples caused by the Ayatollah’s fatwa have grown into waves of fear.
When it comes to publishing something potentially inflammatory to Muslims “there are all kinds of signs that people aren’t willing to take the risk,” he said.
In late 2009 a book by Jytte Klausen about the infamous caricatures of Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper was censored by Yale University Press for fear of backlash.
The cartoons caused an international crisis when they were first published in 2006, closing embassies and resulting in the deaths of at least 200 people.
John Donatich, the director of Yale University Press told the New York Times, “when it came between that [publishing the cartoons] and blood on my hands, there was no question” that they would not publish the cartoons.
“Even South Park won’t show cartoons” of Mohammed for fear of violence,” Carter said referring to the cartoon comedy known for pushing boundaries.
Though the threat of violence is real, Carter said we as a society have “internalized Khomeini’s fatwa.”
“I think that this unwillingness to publish is partly born out of cowardice,” Carter said. “So part of the solution is overcoming the fear.
“Some say the problem is with us, people in the west,” he said. “The secular, liberal, multi-cultural west who have just come to a cultural and intellectual mindset that it’s just not right and proper to offend people.”
And it’s this fear that Carter says is leading us towards a lack of freedom.
“If you enshrine in law and culture, and in practice, that offending people, even inadvertently, is forbidden, you destroy freedom from oppression, you destroy freedom of the press, you destroy freedom of speech,” he said.
Though Carter says the threat of electronic surveillance is having the greatest chill on freedom of expression, the legacy created by the fatwa has changed how our society values the freedom to say and write what we want.
Perhaps the best example of this chill is Rushdie recently telling the BBC that the Satanic Verses would probably not be published today due to the risk of attacks.
Twenty-five years ago Nintendo released its handheld video game player that bred characters from Super Mario to Pokémon and sold 200 million units worldwide.
When the original Game Boy was first launched in 1989, the Energizer Bunny was introduced to the world, Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” reached international charts, and Chinese students were protesting on Tiananmen Square.
Nintendo Game Boy commercial from the 80s, marketed as “playing with portable power.” Click to watch.
The Game Boy was the first portable console with changeable game cartridges and batteries, marketed as “playing with portable power.”
“The Game Boy was very influential,” said Robert from EB Games who has been working in the gaming industry his whole life. “It really kicked off the relevance of the handheld market, especially to be able to play different games on the fly.”
“But man that thing sucked up my batteries,” he recalled.
The Game Boy line, which includes the original, pocket and colour versions, have since sold 118 million units, while the follow-up Game Boy Advance series sold 82 million consoles.
Robert said the original Game Boy player, known for games such as Tetris and the boundless adventures of Mario in the mushroom kingdom, has since then kicked off a revolution in the handheld market.
Twenty-five years later, the 3DS is the new generation of hand held game consoles by Nintendo made to complement the Game Boy Advance series. The first touch screen model, the DS, sold a little over 150 million units since its release in 2004.
Robert said the 3DS series have extra features like Internet browsing and built in-social media tools. He said gamers are always connecting and looking for gaming strategies, but the 3DS series are not the same as the originals for diehard fans.
Rebecca Besnos, long time gamer, still has her original Game Boy.
For Rebecca Besnos, an eighties baby who considers the Game Boy as a part of her childhood says nothing would replace the original.
“I think the 3DS is better in terms of graphics but game boy is always going to have a special place in my heart.”
She says her little sister and friends, who play with new generation of Nintendo portable game consoles are not as obsessed as she was with the original back in the day.
“I was pretty obsessed with it. All of us were. I used to bring it to school and played at lunch, after school and before bed.”
Besnos remembers when she used to blow into her game cartridges to get rid of the dust before playing religiously. “It was a sort of cult,” she said.
“Ask anyone who used to play with the Game Boy and they can tell you they did the same thing.”
“Kids now a days don’t remember the old school ways. They just download the games online. There’s no fun in that,” she said.
Despite its popularity, the Game Boy line was discontinued in 2008. In fact in 2006, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said, “I would have a second thought about using our resources on what would be the next generation of Game Boy Advance, considering the strong support DS is now enjoying.”
Although gamers around the world now enjoy touch screen devices, the Game Boy with its buttons labeled A, B, SELECT and START, holds an iconic status.
It was inaugurated into the National Toy Hall of Fame at Strong National Museum of Play. According to the Rochester Business Journal, “Nintendo’s Game Boy transformed electronic gaming by popularizing handheld games, and its simultaneous multiplayer gaming and slate of games such as Tetris and Super Mario Land were cited as innovations.”
All data used comes from Nintendo’s consolidated sales report.
Over the last 25 years, the Royal Canadian Air Force has become a more inviting place for women. But while women represent a larger portion of the Air Force today than they did in 1989, they remain significantly underrepresented.
Twenty-five years ago, Maj. Deanna Brasseur made a major breakthrough. In June of 1989, she became one of Canada’s first two female CF-18 fighter pilots.
As a girl growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, Brasseur didn’t think flying was a career option.
“I remember going out to the end of the road and watching them flying all the time and thinking boys were really lucky they got to do that because if they let girls then I would want to do that,” she says. “And then it happened.”
But Brasseur faced rampant discrimination after her graduation from the CF-18 training program.
“It was always my wish that the guys wouldn’t have made it so difficult,” she says. “They were always willing to engage you in a discussion as to whether or not women should be flying fighters.”
Being the only woman wasn’t easy.
“You’re the only woman pilot on your squadron and you’ve got 15 to 16 other guys that don’t think you should be there,” Brasseur says.
Eventually attitudes started to shift.
“After a time, six months, eight months, a year, once you proved yourself capable and competent and were no longer a threat to their ego, then it was fine,” she says.
While the number of women in the Air Force has increased since Brasseur’s first days, chair for Women in Science and Engineering Catherine Mavriplis says gender inequality is still a problem.
“We don’t always get the same doors open to us that some guys will have open to them,” Mavriplis says.
Mavriplis says the number of women working in traditionally male fields, such as aviation, needs to be higher.
“A critical mass of 30% would change things drastically,” she says.
Underrepresentation also remains a problem for girls in the Royal Canadian Air Cadets, which aims to increase interest in aviation among youth between the ages of 12 and 19.
Tanya Brooks, a second lieutenant for 632 Phoenix Air Cadet Squadron in Orleans, says girls are often outnumbered by boys two to one.
Brooks says that when she joined the cadets in 2003, her squadron only had two spots designated for girls. The other dozen spots were designated for boys.
Overtime, Brooks says she saw a shift toward equality.
“In 2005 and 2006 they changed it so that there was no discrimination from male to female. You were given an amount of spots and you could fill it with whatever candidates you wanted,” Brooks says.
Brooks says the policy shift has had positive results.
“The retention of female cadets definitely increased,” she says. “We started seeing a lot more female cadets progressing all the way to the age of 18 and achieving some of the highest ranks they could achieve in the squadron.”
While there are still barriers for women in the field of aviation, Brooks and Brasseur are among the women who want to carve out a space for themselves.
And despite the challenges, Brasseur still has fond memories of being airborne.
“Once you leave the ground, everything that’s on the ground stays on the ground. All the problems, all the challenges, all the whatever. And when you’re in the air it’s just pure joy.”
For more information on Brasseur’s career as a fighter pilot, click here and here.
