Category: Canada

Anything related to Canada or Canadians

Andrew Coyne on Peter MacKay’s departure from politics

His career at the top of Canadian politics tells us more about the state of Canadian politics than anything else. That such a palpable cipher could have remained in high office for nearly a decade is a testament to many things: the thinness of the Tory front bench, the decline of cabinet, the prime minister’s cynicism, the media’s readiness to go along with the joke. The one thing it does not signify is his importance. He had all of the titles, but little influence, and less achievement.

Hopefully this is a case where the most obvious interpretation is correct: senior Harper Conservatives expect to lose the next election, and are distancing themselves from the defeat in advance. Of course, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of the Liberals and NDP to ruin their own chances.

Burial wishes

A limited effort expended to try to find the comment thread where I explained my preference to be buried in a simple sheet without being embalmed – so as to better return to nature – hasn’t been immediately simple to find.

I really like this idea of making soil from the bodies of the dead. It reinforces the essential point that we are part of the biosphere of the Earth. Putting your remains temporarily in some sealed box is futile and unnatural. The relationship between a particular batch of atoms and molecules with consciousness remains a philosophical and scientific quandary, but it’s surely better to quickly become part of life again rather than be a toxic corpse in a box.

Obviously, any usable organs I possess should be used for transplants or research or practice by doctors, but whatever they don’t want I would like to see composted in the way proposed by the Urban Death Project.

OMG NDP!

Too bad they have such a misguided climate and energy policy:

Party leader Rachel Notley has said on the campaign trail that she would withdraw support for the Northern Gateway pipeline, but the NDP is interested in proposals to expand the Trans Mountain line and build the Energy East pipeline to Atlantic Canada.

Of course, it would be hard to be worse than the Alberta PCs or Wildrose on this issue.

U of T’s fossil fuel divestment brief

As promised, Toronto350.org got the electronic version of our final fossil fuel divestment brief to the committee members a week before our presentation: The Fossil Fuel Industry and the Case for Divestment: Update.

My friend Anne designed a great cover, using a photo from our November 2014 divestment march. I also have a version of the cover which prints perfectly at 11×17″ to serve as a cover for a bound book.

We are having paperback versions of the brief with glossy colour covers printed for the committee members, our presenters, and to deposit with the U of T library system and Library and Archives Canada. We are required to provide a legal deposit copy to them, since the work has been issued an ISBN: 978-0-9947524-0-6. The book is being printed by the Asquith Press at the Toronto Reference Library.

The next step is to adapt the brief into a kit version that can be easily employed by other campaigns. Long parts of the brief are applicable to every fossil fuel divestment campaign, such as the parts on climate science and the economics of the fossil fuel industry. Other parts need to be tailored for each institution. Particularly given that Glasgow has already succeeded using our basic text, putting in some effort to make a kit seems worthwhile.

March 13th meeting of CUPE 3902

This afternoon, the members of CUPE 3902 met to discuss a possible bargaining position.

The union’s bargaining team had worked out a way to reorganize the offer last made by the university, the rejection of which began the strike. As re-organized, the deal would raise the funding package from $15,000 to $17,500. It would also halve tuition for Phd students in their fifth and sixth years, regardless of whether they are domestic or international students.

The big gain – if the university accepts this proposal – is getting tuition and the funding package explicitly incorporated into the collective agreement, opening them as topics of negotiation in all further bargaining.

The meeting was scheduled from 3:30pm to 6:30, with a strict end time. Most of the meeting was taken up with the bargaining team and strike team presenting this potential deal and then answering questions on it. In the last half hour, a motion to approve the deal and have the bargaining team present it to the university was hastily debated.

The final vote at 6:36 went 280 in favour, 251 opposed. I voted against it, as I don’t see it as an adequate response to the problems faced by TAs at U of T, and I think we could have pushed successfully for something better. (At the same time, I recognize that getting something better might have required more dedication than CUPE 3902 members collectively possess.)

Regardless of the merits and drawbacks of the deal, I don’t think too highly of this decision-making process. People had to consider a deal which they hadn’t seen before the meeting, an inadequate amount of time was allowed for debate, and the system where any whoever happens to be at the microphone when the appropriate part of the meeting begins produces the motion that then becomes the main subject for debate and voting has potentially very random results.

We will see how the administration replies to the offer. In one sense, they may see it as a cheap way of ending the strike. After all, the union is mostly proposing to shift the precise way in which previously-offered funds will be spent. Alternatively, the administration may be wary of incorporating tuition and the funding package into the collective agreement, and so resist accepting this deal.

Regardless, I have my last picket duty of this week tomorrow. Then, I can turn my attention to trying to organize and execute the completion of the brief update and my PhD proposal.

CUPE strike day 3

Today’s 1pm – 5pm picket shift was good fun. We occupied the Munk Centre, where President Gertler was meant to be taking part in an event:

Then we marched all over campus: to the administration offices at Simcoe Hall, over to Queen’s Park, through University College, around Robarts, and back to Munk:

The university has not yet accepted the union’s offer to resume negotiations.

Twitter is probably one of the best places to watch the strike. Search CUPE3902 and #WeAreUofT.

Mid-February

The last couple of days in Toronto have been a reminder of winter in Ottawa.

That’s particularly true of the importance of going out in an extra-warm double-layered toque and wool scarf; merino wool top and bottom long underwear; a t-shirt, long-sleeve fleece, and down vest; a long jacket with extra insulating liner; fingerless inner gloves and heavy outer gloves; cargo trousers; cotton inner socks, wool outer socks, and hiking boots.

A walking home across one bridge spanning the Don Valley at 2:00am a few nights ago was, surprisingly, a lot less cold than walking around in the sun yesterday afternoon.

My hope is to take advantage of reading week to make progress on the fossil fuel divestment brief update; my PhD research proposal; the book chapter I am helping with; and the initiation of the Massey Halfway House project. If anybody knows about (or knows someone who knows about) real estate in the U of T area, I would like to be in touch.