Category: Ottawa

Posts about Canada’s capital city, and the experience of living there

Adrian Harewood on Black History Month

As part of Black History Month, I attended a speech by Adrian Harewood, a journalist with the CBC. One of the things he spoke about was the importance of interrogating received versions of history – going back and uncovering the more complex story that has usually been streamlined into a simpler narrative. He gave the example of Viola Desmond, from Nova Scotia, who has arrested and tried for sitting in the portion of a movie theatre in New Glasgow designated for white people in 1946. People like to think such segregation was something that happened in the southern United States, but it seems it was something that happened in Nova Scotia too. He also talked about the two teenaged black women who did exactly what Rosa Parks later did in Montgomery, Alabama but who were deemed unappealing test cases by the black community, given that they seemed radical and unsavoury, in comparison with Rosa Parks herself.

There are a number of lessons to draw from all of this. It reinforces the important point that history serves a purpose, and that dominant narratives can be highlighted while more awkward counter-narratives are suppressed. For instance, the second world war is often presented as a response to the Holocaust, whereas the historical evidence for that claim is weak. Indeed, Canada refused to accept at least some Jewish refugees during WWII. Similarly, while people are quick to point out the war crimes committed by the Axis powers, they are much more hesitant to consider whether the indiscriminate bombing of German civilians was a war crime. Similarly, embarrassments like the 1967 Klippert decision of the Supreme Court of Canada are not much mentioned.

We should not allow ourselves to get too comfortable with official histories that only tell the stories that flatter us. It is only be recognizing the grave errors in our own histories that we can really appreciate our own potential for error. When we recognize that people who we admire were dead wrong about critical moral issues in the past, we also open our own minds to the possibility that we are passively accommodating – or even facilitating – grave injustice today.

Beaver Barracks photos

Spacing Ottawa – a blog about Ottawa’s urban landscape – is using the photo I took of the Beaver Barracks complex as their photo of the day.

It was taken inside the eight-story tower at 464 Metcalfe, looking across the central space that will eventually contain a community garden. The four-story building you can see is the one I live in (160 Argyle). While I did everything I could to reduce the amount of inside lighting, you can still see some reflected in the windows (this being a 30″ exposure).

I have a whole set of Beaver Barracks photos on Flickr. Some of them are taken directly from the roof of 464 Metcalfe, so they don’t have the reflection issue I mentioned.

Geothermal heating and fuel price risk

The building I recently moved into is distinguished by the technology which it uses for heating and cooling. Rather than use electricity or fossil fuels to generate heat directly, it takes advantage of the way in which the ground maintains a fairly constant temperature all year round, if you dig down deep enough.

One big advantage of this approach – when it comes to the residents of the building – is that it takes away the risk associated with volatile fossil fuel prices, and reduces the amount of electricity required. People living in such a building have a better guarantee that they will be able to heat their homes than people living in conventional structures will. This could be especially important if fossil fuel prices spike in the future, or even if they just progress relentlessly upward.

It can be challenging to identify situations in which the economic self-interest of individuals aligns closely with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas pollution. Geothermal heating and cooling seems to be one of the places where those interests align.

Related: Heat pumps

Express mail and spectacles

I really appreciate the efforts of everyone who helped me get my Action Canada fellowship application together – both my references and the people who have helped to assemble everything across oceans and continents, especially my friend Antonia.

Aside from dashing around getting reference letters and mailing a priority courier package today, I also got some new glasses from Albert Opticians on Sparks Street. They are much bolder than my old ones, and my prescription seems to have changed a fair bit since I got my first pair in 2001.

Indeed, the world has quite an uncanny quality at the moment. Everything is much sharper than I am used to it being; I don’t need to squint to read; and the three-dimensionality of everything is much more noticeable than normal. Walking around for the first few minutes, things were so different, I felt unsteady on my feet. Even now, it is super noticeable when a computer screen is being viewed from an angle other than straight-on. Also, three dimensional objects seem distorted when examined close up, as though being viewed through a wide-angle lens.

For comparison:

Bonus: My father in specs

[Update: 12 February 2011] Here’s a more human shot with the new glasses.

Jeopardy selection starting

As my trivia buddy Aaron pointed out via Twitter, Jeopardy testing is starting today – just the thing for the various species of geek and nerd who I am pleased to say read this blog.

One of Ottawa’s better trivia teams is called ‘I Lost on Jeopardy’. Even if you don’t win on the show, just getting on it might be enough to get them to let you join.

There are scheduled test times for the eastern, central, and Pacific time zones:

  • Tuesday, February 8th at 8:00pm ET
  • Wednesday, February 9th at 8:00pm CT / 7:00pm MT
  • Thursday, February 10th at 8:00pm PT

If you are lucky enough to be in Alaska or Hawaii, the times are 7:00pm (Alaska) and 6:00pm (Hawaii).

The test takes an hour and will only be given once on each of the three nights.

Widening the search

A while ago, I wrote about how I am looking for climate-related jobs in Toronto. So far, the search has not gone especially well. Positions listed tend to be either very junior or too senior. Also, most of what is available looks more tedious than meaningful or engaging.


For a number of reasons, I am now broadening my focus beyond Toronto. I am looking for jobs anywhere in the world that would offer the opportunity to apply my knowledge and skills to meaningful work on helping to fight climate change. I am also considering academic programs that would be useful, that would put me in contact with people doing interesting work, and that would put me in places where new and important ideas are developing.

If readers have any suggestions, please let me know.

Rideau canal skating

Somehow, over the course of my two years in Oxford, I never managed to go punting.

Lest my Ottawa experience be similarly impoverished, I got some skates today and gave the famous Rideau Canal a try. My high-school era rollerblading experience seems to have been surprisingly well maintained, given the comparative ease with which I took to skating. Over the course of the day, I went from Argyle (near the Elgin Street diner) to the pavilion at Dow’s Lake, then back to Argyle, then back to Dow’s Lake, then back to the Bank Street Canal Bridge, and back once more to Dow’s Lake.

The ice is certainly rougher than in an indoor arena, and you need to watch for fissures. That said, the experience is much more enjoyable than looping round and around a generic ice rink. You get some sunlight for vitamin D synthesis, and you feel like you are participating in a part of civic life. For certain friends, the canal is actually a pretty useful mode of transport for me. If you live somewhere along it and ever need to get to the southern end of Preston Street, it provides a nice alternative to the random timing of Ottawa’s non-transitway buses.

I am going to try and skate a couple of times a week, at least, between now and when the canal skating season ends. If people have skating plans, please let me know. I now live five minutes from the canal, and have skates at the ready.

Fun, and also educational

Here’s a question that I think a lot of Ottawa-area Anglophones would appreciate an answer to:

Are there any good French television shows or films available via Netflix streaming?

For one reason or another, a few of us could benefit from some revision and practice.

I think most people watch at least some television as a guilty pleasure (HBO doesn’t count as television, does it?). Maybe we could just do that in French and kill two birds with one stone – get in one’s vegging time, and maintain French language skills.

Home for real

With work resuming tomorrow, my month of wandering is now truly at an end.

Many thanks to all those who hosted me: Meaghan in Hamilton; my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Bennington; and my cousins and Tristan in Toronto. My appreciation also goes out to all the friends and family I was lucky enough to see over that span.

With my life returning to a state of greater regularity, people can expect more regular updates here, with photos from the various journeys forthcoming.

All told, my time away has reinforced my desire to move to Toronto – or at least away from Ottawa.

Slowly re-establishing order

Due to my nearly-completed move, all my possessions are in their state of maximum entropy so far.

Back on Booth Street, things were predictably and sensibly arranged: can openers near cans of food near cooking pots. For the move, everything was thrown together chaotically and compressed into boxes and a van.

Now, I am in the process of de-compressing and re-ordering everything. I am pushing myself to get it all done over the next few days, during which I will also regain my lifeline to the internet at home.