Paul Cipywnyk's Blog

Edmonds Clean Sweep

Community members participated in the Clean Sweep sponsored by the Edmonds Town Center Business & Community Association this morning. The main meeting site was the Eastburn Community Centre, whose staff were very helpful in coordinating the event. It was a rainy day, so we had fewer volunteers than usual. The City brought one of its salmon eco-sculptures and participants were invited to help plant it.

Mayor Derek Corrigan and Councilors Pietro Calendino and Dan Johnston helped out.

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers also participated in the event, setting up a sign-up booth in the parking lot of Edmonds Skytrain station. Thanks to the Horizontes Scouts for assisting!

photo by Joan Carne

Thanks to Burnaby Firefighters for supplying a hot dog BBQ and hot chocolate!

All in all, volunteers reported that the amount of garbage had diminished from previous events, which is a good sign. I did manage to fill a 5-gallon pail just patrolling around the community centre!

KINA Hosts Burnaby Cleanup

The Kingsway Imperial Neighbourhood Association hosted a successful community cleanup this morning. The politicians were out in force, including Burnaby Mayor Derrek Corrigan, BC MLA Raj Chouhan, and MP Peter Julian. Unfortunately I couldn't stick around for the entire event, but it got off to a great start with Diane Gillis of KINA and many volunteers helping out.

BC Achievement Awards

Several Burnabarians (as I like to call citizens of Burnaby :-) were honoured with BC Achievement Awards today.

One was Paul McDonell, a super-volunteer who is a major contributor to the Edmonds Town Centre Business & Community Association, of which I am president.

Another was Jennifer Atchison, chair of the Stoney Creek Environment Committee, a formidable streamkeeper who has done incredible work to protect and enhance that urban watershed.

The ceremony was hosted by Steven L. Point, OBC, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia at Government House, along with BC Premier Gordon Campbell.

Jennifer with Premier Campbell (right) and MLA Harry Bloy

Paul McDonell receiving award.

Government House.

OK, one more shot. My wife Yumi snapped this one of (left to right) me, Zo Ann Morten of the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation, and Maurice Coulter-Boisvert, our DFO Community Advisor.

Off to Victoria for BC Awards

Yumi and I headed off to Victoria this afternoon. I'll be representing the Edmonds Town Centre Business & Community Association at the BC Achievement Awards ceremony tomorrow, where one of our most active members, Paul McDonell, will be honoured. I know several streamkeepers will be there as well because Jennifer Atchison of the Stoney Creek Environment Committee will also get an award.

I love taking the ferry across...

Leaving Tsawwassen.

The carbon stack :-).

A mess of seals and gulls had a school of fish in a frenzy in Active Pass.

Burnaby Parks Volunteer Dinner

The Burnaby Parks, Recreation and Culture Commission put on its annual Volunteer Recognition Night this evening, and Yumi and I attended representing the Edmonds Town Centre Business & Community Association, of which I am president. I have had the pleasure of attending the event in the past representing Byrne Creek Streamkeepers, and the Stream of Dreams Murals Society. Tonight our table was made up of representatives from Byrne Creek, Stream of Dreams, and the City's Parks department. It was an excellent event, as always, and the food provided by the City's Deer Lake Catering was fantastic.

Streamkeepers, Stream of Dreams Tame Lions

Joan Carne and I spoke to the Burnaby Host Lions club this evening. I spoke about Byrne Creek Streamkeepers and Joan spoke about the Stream of Dreams Murals Society. We were warmly welcomed to dinner, and our presentations got lots of questions. The Lions generously asked if there was anything they could do for us, and are willing to bring out their rolling BBQ gear and do hot dogs and burgers, or pancake breakfasts, if we do any fund raisers. Thank you! It is community volunteers pulling together within and across organizations that make Burnaby a great place to live!

Burnaby Mayor Speaks to Board of Trade

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan delivered an update on the state of the City at a Burnaby Board of Trade luncheon today at Eagle Creek Restaurant at the beautiful Burnaby Mountain Golf Course. The event was sold out and the mayor delivered another of his uplifting speeches on economic, social, and environmental sustainability in the city. I enjoyed speaking with City staff and councilors. The mayor's address is available here.

We Miss You, Mom

Today is the first anniversary of my Mom's passing. It's hard to believe it's been a year already for she is still everywhere in my life, and will forever be in my heart.

Previous entries:

Initial announcement

Language Lanterns carries on

Obituary

Love of kids and teaching

My Royal Roads MA graduation -- she was a huge supporter

Posthumous UCC Nation Builder's Award

My citation for Mom's UCC award

Thanks for everything, Mom. Love, Paul.

Global News Piles On Errors

I am amazed at the errors in Global TV's coverage of the South Burnaby Public Safety Forum tonight. I have degrees in journalism and communications, and several years experience as a journalist, and I find this lack of accuracy appalling. It makes me question the integrity of the Global news organization.

According to the Global coverage, tonight's safety forum "was organized by the RCMP" blah blah, "in response to three home invasions of a senior..." blah blah.

Organized by the RCMP?

Wrong.

It was organized by volunteers from the Kingsway Imperial Neighbourhood Association, and the Burnaby District 3 and 4 volunteer community policing organizations with support from volunteers from the Edmonds Town Centre Business and Community Association.

In response to home invasions...?

Wrong.

The planning for this forum began months before the outrageous multiple invasions of a senior's home in the Edmonds neighbourhood.

How did Global screw up? I don't know, but I suspect it was a combination of several factors:

1) Overly focusing on the home invasion hook. AKA the "if it bleeds it leads" mentality. I can imagine the conversation:

"We need a hook!"

"OK, we'll tie it all into the old guy being invaded three times in a few days..."

2) Laziness in researching the history of such forums in Burnaby and digging for the truth. Tonight's forum was portrayed as citizens trembling in their homes, afraid to go out. In fact, there has been huge improvement in south Burnaby, particularly in the Edmonds area. The City has been doing a great job, the RCMP has been doing a great job, and volunteers in many organizations have been doing a great job. But that's not "news," is it?

I was amazed at how positive tonight's forum was. But I guess the "journalists" present were disappointed at the lack of fireworks.

Let's focus on the anomalies. Let's focus on the negative. Let's screw up our facts, even the simplest ones.

Shame, Global.

Public Safety Forum March 27, 2008

SOUTH BURNABY COMMUNITY POLICING

You are invited to attend an open community meeting on: Public Safety

Thursday, March 27, 2008
7:00-9:00 pm
Bonsor Community Centre
6550 Bonsor Avenue, Burnaby

For more information call:
District 4 Office at 604-656-3232 or District 3 Office at 604-656-3275

An update and discussion on Public Safety in Our Community

Speakers will include:

Mayor Derek Corrigan

Superintendent Rick Taylor Burnaby RCMP

District 3 and 4 Community Policing Representatives

Burnaby RCMP members and representatives from City of Burnaby departments and Burnaby School Board will also be in attendance.

Attendees are invited to bring their general concerns for the various departments. There will be a brief question and answer period.

A number of agencies and community groups will have displays of interest to all who attend.

Byrne Creek High School Global Issues Event

In the afternoon I represented the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers at a climate change workshop at Byrne Creek Secondary in southeast Burnaby. The Check Your Head group (Educating Youth for Global Hope and Local Action) facilitated the event, and I provided background on streamkeeping and how kids could volunteer on creek activities. I love working with students and getting their perspective on these sorts of issues.

Our 3D relief map of the Byrne Creek watershed was a big hit.

UBC Learning Exchange Breakfast

This morning I represented the Stream of Dreams Murals Society at a recognition breakfast thanking people and organizations involved in Learning Exchange Programs run by the University of British Columbia. The event was held at the beautiful First Nations Longhouse on campus, and Dr. Richard Verdan provided a moving, inspirational, and humorous welcoming greeting, while explaining and sharing the cultural significance of the venue. Professor Stephen J. Toope, the UBC President and Vice Chancellor, hosted the event and gave an excellent speech thanking all those involved in the program.

SDMS hosted a group of UBC student volunteers as part of the program this year. I wasn't involved in the day-to-day activities, but as president of the SDMS board of directors, I dropped by a couple of times and listened, learned and shared with the students. I was impressed with the diversity of backgrounds, and by the interest the students showed in the SDMS environmental education and community art program.

Garbage Blights Burnaby Bus Stops

Since the new big box outlets and accompanying smaller stores and restaurants opened in Burnaby's Big Bend area on Marine Way, streamkeepers have noticed more and more garbage in the neighbourhood. In particular the bus stops along Byrne Road and Southridge Dr. have become fast-food container and coffee-cup dumping grounds. I don't know who is responsible for putting in and maintaining garbage cans, the City or Translink, but someone ought to get a handle on this ASAP. It's disgusting.

Meanwhile, perhaps the businesses responsible for most of the garbage could live up to some of their talk of corporate social responsibility and send their staff out to clean up the mess.

The bus stop on Byrne Road just above Marine Drive.

With the usual contributors, McDonald's, Tim Hortons, and Starbucks:

Yes, I realize that it's the people buying the stuff who are dumping it, but with no food or drinks allowed on buses, what are they supposed to do when there are no garbage cans around?

How about adding 5 or 10 cents to each fast-food or coffee takeout, and put the funds toward installing and maintaining garbage cans? Or what about a 5- or 10-cent deposit on each paper cup, each burger or fry container and each paper bag -- our streets would be spick and span in no time...

Update Feb. 18: Translink says the sites are City property and therefore it is up to Burnaby to do something about the mess.

Edmonds Association Sets Clean Sweep Dates

At the Edmonds Town Centre Business and Community Association monthly meeting tonight we decided to fix the dates for our twice-yearly Clean Sweeps for the first Saturday in May and the first Saturday in October. That means that this year they will take place on May 3 and October 4.

This way people can anticipate when they will be held each year. The events have been very successful in pulling community groups and individuals together to clean up our neighbourhood.

I have some photos of streamkeepers participating in the spring 2006 event and the spring 2005 event.

Making it happen

"When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened."

Carol Christensen

I prefer to be one of those who make it happen -- in a positive, environmentally, economically, and socially acceptable manner.

Edmonds Association Xmas Party

The Edmonds Town Centre Business and Community Association held its Christmas party this evening. The event was hosted by Myles of Beans and a big thank you to Kim Mostat and her crew for putting on a great spread of food and drink.

It was my first event as the newly minted president of the group, and I would like to thank past president Dave Fairhall, and other board members including Kim Mostat and Jim McQueen for doing the bulk of the work in preparing for the evening. I would also like to thank Monica Mueller for organizing games and door prizes.

We had a great turnout, including Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Raj Chouhan, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, Burnaby Councillors Sav Dhaliwal and Pietro Calendino, and Burnaby Parks, Recreation and Culture Chair Paul McDonell.

If you reside or have a business in southeast Burnaby, this is YOUR organization to join and support to make this neighbourhood a great place to live, work, and have fun!

Community Group Surprises Me With President's Role

I was elected to the board of directors of the Edmonds Town Centre Business and Community Association at the AGM last month. I've been a member of the group for several years now, and it was my first time to sit on the board. Then to my surprise, today at the first board meeting following the AGM somehow I was chosen to be president!

I had hoped to get some board experience before taking on an executive position, but now that the gavel has been passed, I will do my best to fulfill the responsibilities. Past President Dave Fairhall, who has done a great job for many years, assures me the board works by consensus and other directors are more than willing to assist me as I get the lay of the land.

The group does a lot of good work in southeast Burnaby, and we aim to expand our membership and our activities.

Gift-Less, More Sustainable Christmas

Yumi and have decided that we will not exchange Christmas gifts this year with each other, and other members of our families. Why not?

It has become increasingly difficult to find anything useful or meaningful to give. We have everything we need, and a garage full of stuff we're getting rid of by sorting and donating it to thrift stores run by the Burnaby Hospice Society and the Salvation Army.

I'm a well-indoctrinated consumer so certainly there is a ton of stuff that I want, but nothing I really need, and Yumi feels the same way.

We'll still do some fun, cheap stuff for the stockings, but no gifts.

Riders Grey Cup Champs!

It was great to see the Saskatchewan Roughriders overcome a long drought and win the CFL's Grey Cup yesterday. Though I haven't lived in Saskatchewan for decades, like many expats, I still have Rider Pride!

Initial Glitches With Metro Vancouver Survey Fixed

I sent the following email to Metro Vancouver tonight. They're doing good work, and I don't want to criticize, but I've been having some trouble with their public response channels so I'm making this public on my blog:

Hi, I attended the public forum in Burnaby tonight, and really enjoyed it. It was great to meet many concerned citizens and speak with Metro Vancouver staff.

I have a question about the questionnaire: Have you considered providing the option of an online survey using an inexpensive service such as Survey Monkey? Or perhaps your IT staff could set up an internal, free, open source survey application on your own servers.

I would much prefer to be able to select responses and type my answers into an online web application. I will fill out the questionnaire by hand and fax it in, but it would save me time, and it would save you collation, data analysis, and transcription time (and costs), if the questionnaire was available online, and all of the results went straight into a database.

I happen to have a fax machine because I work from home, but other people will have to find an envelope and postage. I also note that on your website, you ask the public to print out and mail in the questionnaire. If I may be so bold, that is so late 20th century :-). And so wasteful of resources: paper, envelopes, ink, and moving the snail-mail around with internal-combustion engines...

The lower the barriers to access, the more responses you are likely to get. A survey a click away would make my day!

Update: my email message to the address on the paper survey bounced...

Update 2: I finally noticed that the paper survey says I can fill out the survey online here -- but I cannot see where....

Update 3 on Thursday, Nov. 15: The survey is now online! Thanks!

Mom Receives UCC Nation Builders Award

My mother, Sonia Violet (Stratychuk) Morris, was posthumously honoured today with a Nation Builders award from the Saskatchewan Provincial Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee of Canada at a luncheon in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Her husband, Barry Morris, delivered an emotional, touching and inspiring acceptance.

It was wonderful to see many of Mom's colleagues and old friends, many of whom had driven down from Saskatoon to be there. I grew up with these people, and while my life and career have taken me far away, and I haven't lived in Saskatchewan since 1983, it was heart-warming to be recognized as Mom's son again for an hour or two. Mom's son, and a "little boy" receiving many hugs and kisses....

A little boy of 48 years...

More later, I'm choking up.

My Citation For Mom's UCC Award

Here is the citation I wrote for my mother's UCC Saskatchewan Nation Builders award:

Sonia V. Morris
UCC Saskatchewan Provincial Council
Nation Builders Award 2007
Narrative

In the Ukrainian song Dva Kolory, or Two Colours, a mother embroiders a shirt for her son before he goes out into the world. The black threads signify life’s trials, and the red portray love. Sonia had several threads interwoven throughout her life: the first, her humanity with which she loved and nurtured her family and friends with respect and understanding; the second, her lifelong commitment to the Ukrainian language and culture; and third, her professionalism over a 32-year career at the University of Saskatchewan as an educator and mentor, and a role model for female students.

Sonia is remembered as a teacher, community leader, and supporter of charities. Her positive outlook and conviction that all people deserved the freedom to achieve whatever they desired, was inspiring. Sonia passionately promoted the Ukrainian language and culture within a goal of fostering multiculturalism and fighting racism, and was among the pioneering educators who developed Ukrainian-language curricula in Saskatchewan, serving on many committees and councils where she was known for her listening skills and diplomacy.

Sonia’s work ethic extended into retirement, as she spent hundreds of hours working with her sister Roma translating and editing Ukrainian literature into English. She was an optimist who was always learning, always looking to the future.

Sonia loved music and art, and many will remember her fine soprano voice and emotive piano playing. She supported artistic groups including orchestras, opera and theatre companies, and the ballet. She enjoyed entertaining, hosting family and social events, and was a caring wife, mother and grandmother who always had an ear for the troubled, a shoulder for the weary.

One of Sonia’s last public appearances was at a book launch of translations of Ukraine’s greatest literary figure –– Ivan Franko. If she were with us here today, she would urge us to think of his famous poem Kameniari that depicts the arduous toil of the never-ending fight for justice, freedom and democracy, and would ask us to keep swinging our hammers to crush ignorance and oppression wherever we encounter them.

Garbage Blights Burnaby's Foreshore Park, Glenlyon Development

An early afternoon stroll along Fraser Foreshore Park in Burnaby provided lots to see along the river and in ponds; however, the beauty was blighted by plenty of garbage dumped on the outskirts of Glenlyon Business Park in the vicinity of the lower reaches of Byrne Creek near where it empties into the Fraser.

First the good...

A view of the north arm of the Fraser from the park.

A small tugboat passing behind a log boom.

It's hard to believe summer is ending.

There were dozens of small frogs in the pond near Byrne Creek.

A bright red dragonfly.

An acrobatic chickadee.

And the bad, and the ugly...

I do not understand how some people can be so senseless and uncaring. I also do not understand how the tenants of the business park can drive by this crap every day and not ask the developer or the city to clean it up. At least two of these sites have smashed TVs, one of them several, and CRTs and accompanying electronics contain metals that are harmful to humans, other animals, and the environment.

I know that several of the tenants in the business park have security guards, and I've also seen mobile units patrolling the roads. As good corporate citizens, they might consider having their guards keep an eye out for dumpers and send license plates in to police.

Pink Salmon Too Cheap?

Whole fresh pink salmon (head off and gutted) were on sale today at Save On Foods at Highgate Mall in Burnaby for $2.99 each. Yes, I said "each." I was struck by what seemed to be the shockingly low price -- fishermen had to burn fuel and amortize boats and equipment to catch the fish, they had to be cleaned, and then shipped a fair distance.

The one I chose weighed in at 1.1 kg (I weighed it on a kitchen scale at home because the weights were not indicated on the packaging), or about 27 cents per 100 grams, less than the occasional sale price of 29 cents per 100 grams, and much less than the common price of 39 cents or more per 100 grams.

I wonder if our society is properly valuing this resource.

Addendum: I just discovered that Save On Foods is donating 50 cents from the sale of each salmon to the CKNW Orphans’ Fund. While I laud the gesture, it doesn't ameliorate my concern -- in fact it makes me really wonder how low the wholesale price of these fish is...

I'm baaack!

I'm back in action after a 10-day vacation visiting relatives in Saskatchewan. I took my notebook computer with me, but cracked it open just twice to download photos from my digital camera. I'm still wading through email messages, but it was great not logging onto the 'Net for over a week. Sometimes you just need to completely get away from it all. I'll be posting photos and commentary about our trip over the next few days, backdating the posts to "real time."

Learning the Telephone Computer Game

Several times over the last few months our call-screening has been evaded and we've picked up the phone and said "Hi" only to hear a digitized voice respond: "Sorry, that is not a valid response."

So tonight I received a call from "Private Number" and picked up the phone to hear "Congratulations!" Before the recorded message went any further, I intoned: "Sorry, that is not a valid response" and hung up.

Of course it was not a victory in any sense at all, but it felt good just saying the words :-).

We occasionally get snookered by the "Private Number" display because that's what often comes up when family and friends call us from Japan.

Sonia Morris (Stratychuk) Obit

Here is the obituary that should appear in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14, and the photo. We chose Saskatoon because that is where mom spent most of her life and professional career.

Mom as a young woman.

With profound sadness the family announces the passing of Sonia Violet Morris (nee Stratychuk), 73, in Burnaby, BC, on Thursday, April 5, 2007.

She is survived by her loving husband Barry; son Paul Cipywnyk (Yumi Kosaka), Burnaby; daughter Raissa (Bill) Choi, and grandchildren Raya & Benjamin, Los Angeles. She leaves sister Roma (Stefan) Franko, and nephews Roman and Ivan, and their wives and children, all in Toronto. She was predeceased by her father Roman (1986) and mother Sonia (2001).

A community leader, teacher, promoter of multiculturalism, and supporter of educational and charitable causes, she will be remembered for her legacy of love, acceptance, nurturing and understanding. Her calm, caring approach to life, and her conviction that all people deserved respect and the freedom to achieve whatever they desired, inspired everyone she touched. From a pioneer childhood in a small town to a path-breaking career in education, she never forgot her Ukrainian roots, and after retiring, devoted her days to working on translations of Ukrainian literature into English.

Born Nov. 23, 1933, in Windsor, ON, Sonia completed primary education and high school in Canora, SK, where she was the Canadian Legion Gold Medalist in 1951. Based on her educational record, she was selected for a Weston Tour of Great Britain in 1951. Qualifying for several scholarships, Sonia received a Bachelor of Arts with Great Distinction (1957) from McGill University, a Bachelor of Education with Great Distinction (1960) from the University of Saskatchewan, a Master of Education (1968) from the U. of S., and a Master of Philosophy (1976) from Columbia University, New York.

Beginning her career as a social worker in the late 50s, Sonia subsequently taught at the elementary and high school levels for the Saskatoon Public School Board from 1958 – 63. She then joined the College of Education at the U. of S. where she taught for 32 years, including roles as Head of the Department of Educational Psychology, Acting Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programs, and Acting Head of the Department of Communications, Continuing and Vocational Education, capping her career with four years as Assistant Dean, Student Affairs. She edited several academic books, supervised or was a committee member for dozens of theses, published papers in proceedings of numerous conferences, gave many invited lectures, and wrote or collaborated on dozens of reports.

Inspired by her hard-working, community focused parents, Sonia’s passion was promoting the Ukrainian language and culture within an overarching goal of fostering multiculturalism and battling racism in Canada and around the world. She was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Teachers of Ukrainian where she contributed from 1968 – 2001, and an original member of the Ukrainian Curriculum Committee of the Saskatchewan Department of Education, on which she sat from 1968 – 79. Together with her sister Roma, she developed Ukrainian correspondence and audio-visual programs used by the Saskatchewan Department of Education. Sonia was Vice-Chair of both the Federal Minister’s Advisory Committee on Minority Languages from 1978 – 80, and the Minister’s Advisory Committee on Heritage Languages from 1981 – 85. Sonia was Vice-Chair and Chair of the Saskatchewan Multicultural Advisory Council, and founder and President of the Saskatchewan Association for Multicultural Education. Sonia devoted eight years to the Canadian Council for Multicultural and Intercultural Education, including four years as President. Other contributions included terms on the Saskatchewan Council of Cultural Organizations, and the Minster’s Advisory Committee on Multicultural Legislation.

Sonia loved music and art, and many will remember her fine soprano voice and emotive piano playing. She chaired sub-committees of the Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Fine Arts in Education from 1975 – 80, and was Vice-Chair and Chair of the Saskatchewan Arts Board from 1998 – 2001.

Sonia spent many volunteer hours with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, and helped establish the parish of All Saints in Saskatoon. She was a leader in promoting educational exchange programs between the U. of S. and the Province of Saskatchewan, and the former Ukrainian S.S.R. She was overjoyed to see Ukraine gain its freedom, and helped arrange several pedagogical exchanges with Ukrainian universities.

Sonia received many awards, including the 2001 Saskatchewan Volunteer Award for Sport, Culture and Recreation.

Above all, she was a supportive wife to her devoted husband Barry, caring mother, and adoring grandmother. She enjoyed life to the fullest, and fulfilled her personal motto to help others be happy by allowing them to be free to make their own choices and decisions. Memory eternal.

At Sonia’s request, there will be no public service. Memorial donations can be made to the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko, 202 – 952 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R2W 3P4; the Canadian Cancer Society, Attention: Stephani Agg, CFRE, 565 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 4J4; or Amnesty International, 312 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa, ON, K1N 1H9

Bye Mom, We Miss You

My mother, Sonia Morris (nee Stratychuk), passed away late Thursday evening, April 5, in the comforting presence of her husband, sister and children. She leaves a legacy of love, acceptance, nurturing and understanding that we will remember to try to heal the gaping holes in our hearts. I will post several entries here over the coming days to celebrate her life as a mother, wife, community activist, proud Ukrainian-Canadian, multiculturalist, professor, writer and editor.

Mom stared cancer straight in the eye several times and never flinched, protecting and shielding her loved ones until the end.

Until we publish an obituary, I would like to let people know that Mom requested a simple cremation and a dinner of remembrance with immediate family instead of a public service, and we are honouring her wishes.

We would all like to thank the wonderful nurses, doctors and support staff at Burnaby Hospital, who worked so hard to keep Mom comfortable, and the caring staff at St. Michael's Hospice who gently provided for her in her final few days. You have all done us an immeasurable service.

Cory Doctorow on The Totalitarian Urge

Science fiction writer and Internet and DRM activist Cory Doctorow spoke about The Totalitarian Urge: Total Information Awareness and the Cosmic Billiards at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby this afternoon.

MP3 files of two talks Doctorow gave at SFU are available here.

A few notes:

People are hard, technology is easy.

The Internet has stimulated amazing works of collaboration that arise spontaneously. Collaboration is now so cheap that you don't even know it is going on. Anyone who has ever linked to a web page has contributed to collaborating. And now we have tagging of blogs and images.

The Open Source movement built by volunteers is amazing, and has changed our notion of what can be done by loosely controlled groups of volunteers.

People will use technology for freedom faster than it can be walled off. Company employees treat systems administrators as damage and route around them.

The more control there is, the less efficient we become.

Net neutrality vs quality of service -- it is more efficient to simply provide more bandwidth.

The Internet is also open to adding more control. Total information awareness is the idea that if we have enough data we can understand the world. This is leading to black lists, no-fly lists. Yet when you're watching everyone, you are watching no one. The Stasi in East Germany had a file on everyone, yet they didn't know the Wall was coming down. We need to distinguish between technologies that track us for our own benefit, and those that track us to spy on us.

RFID (radio frequency identification tags that are increasingly embedded in products) are setting us on a course for non-stop identification and tracking. We are being conditioned to live in a surveillance state.

Forward valuing is hard to do, but we must learn how to do it both in regard to privacy issues and a sustainable environment.

Politicians Tour Byrne Creek

This morning Byrne Creek Streamkeepers took our Member of Parliament, Peter Julian, Burnaby City Councillor Pietro Calendino, Burnaby Parks Commission Chair Paul McDonell and commissioner Alex Ng, and Burnaby RCMP S/Sgt. John Buis on a tour of the creek.

We discussed issues in the watershed, what streamkeepers do, SEA streets and rain gardens, and environmental and social issues. It was great to see them all come out and share their valuable time. Such dialogue is invaluable.

Never ones to waste valuable time, some streamkeepers combined the event with taking another sample in our ongoing late winter/early spring bug survey, while others pulled invasive plant species in the spawning habitat and picked up litter along Southridge Dr.

Going Cold Turkey On Holiday Excesses

After having turkey, turkey fried rice, turkey pizza, turkey sandwiches, turkey noodle soup and turkey stew, washed down on various occasions with bourbon, wine, nihonshu (sake), and Ukrainian and Japanese beer over the last week, I'm looking forward to going cold turkey on holiday excesses. I am blessed with the gustatory delights of several cultures in my family, so I still have Ukrainian Christmas (January 6/7) to wallow through before my New Year resolutions officially kick in.

The last couple of weeks have been a blast, but my body is definitely feeling the effects. I've had so much fun that it's making me tired and cranky! I can't sleep at night because I'm stuffed, so I'm dozy all day. I'm writing this at 4:30 in the afternoon and I can barely keep my eyes open.

Of course I have nobody to blame but myself. I don't have to eat and drink that much. It's embarrassing when you think of all those going hungry in the world. Yet all my good intentions aside, I repeat the cycle every year. There's something about humans and society and feasting, that when we have the wherewithal to indulge on special occasions or during holiday seasons, we tend to go overboard. It's the feast or famine gene, yet now that some of us lucky ones can pretty much feast anytime we want to, we still overindulge.

Storms Expose Urban Vulnerabilities

The recent storms that have knocked out power and blocked roads on Vancouver Island, the coast and the lower mainland of British Columbia further expose the vulnerabilities of our urban, energy dependent lifestyles. Not long after lower mainlanders witnessed scuffles over buying bottled water when we had a boil-water advisory for a couple of weeks, now many of us have not had power for several days, or in some areas, even longer.

I wonder what might happen if ever a more serious disaster hit the area, like the "big one" earthquake that could occur at any time. How many of us are really prepared?

And what would happen if we had to go longer than the 72 hours that emergency officials advise us to stock up for? We are so dependent on electricity, on running water, on food with long supply chains...

We've been lucky so far -- the power is still on at our house and since we work from home we haven't faced commuting in this mess. I ventured out this afternoon to pay our business licence and run some errands. The power was out at Burnaby City Hall, but they took my payment. Then when I tried to get to Metrotown, the streets were jammed because lights at intersections were out. With no pressing need to get my chores done, I decided it would be best to go home and wait it out.

We've had several wakeup calls over the last month or so -- are we listening?

Burnaby Acknowledges Streamkeepers, Stream of Dreams

There's a nice mention of the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers and the Stream of Dreams Murals Society on this City of Burnaby page. (Check the Community Support area) for their input into the city's Eco-Sculpture program.

As a streamkeeper volunteer and president of the Stream of Dreams board of directors, thanks Burnaby! We enjoy working with the city and appreciate the support.

Worldchanging.com

Ran across the worldchanging.com website tonight. It appears to be an excellent sustainability resource, and I think I'll buy the book, too. Everything from sustainable food to green building to smart growth to ecological economics to....

2006 Fraser Basin Conference Day 2

The second day of the 2006 State of the Fraser Basin Conference put on by the Fraser Basin Council was as interesting and even more inspiring than yesterday.

The exercise on interactive voting on actions from yesterday's breakout sessions was very informative and there was good audience interaction. There were also several more excellent speakers including Shawn Atleo, BC Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations, and Canadian Olympic medalist Silken Laumann.

It's hard not to feel inspired when listening to speakers like Atleo and Laumann -- they really get across the principle that individual efforts can make a huge difference.

I'm looking forward to the next conference in January 2007.

2006 State of the Fraser Basin Conference

I am attending the 2006 State of the Fraser Basin Conference put on by the Fraser Basin Council at the convention center in Vancouver today and tomorrow. The sessions today were a mix of depressing and inspiring. The focus of the conference is sustainability, and how governments, businesses, First Nations, and NGOs in the basin can work toward a sustainable future.

The council released its 2006 state of the basin snapshot (which can be downloaded from the above website), and overall, the grade was C-. Ouch. There is much we need to do.

I will share just a few highlights from each day that caught my interest.

First, the basin is projected to see 37% population growth over the next 25 years.

FBC Chair Dr. Charles Jago:

This conference is about inspiring action. We need collaboration for positive change. Realize synergies. We need to focus on what is most crucial. We have the ability to significantly remake our world. It is individuals who must act to change institutions. In turn institutions can change how individuals act.

James Hoggan, James Hoggan and Associates Inc.

Communicating Sustainability: People seem to be talking to themselves. People become less able to connect with broader perspectives. Gap between sustainability community and the general public. Need to bridge this gap to move forward to change how we function as a society. Research into how Canadians are thinking about sustainability.

Bad news – the word sustainability gets in the way. Very high level of mistrust of government, mistrust of business, mistrust of other Canadians, yet Canadians underestimate each others’ concerns about sustainability.

Canadians are very quick to understand sustainability and their values are in line with it, but they are looking for trustworthy leadership and are not seeing it.

Once the concept is explained to them, 82% of Canadians see sustainability as a top goal. Research shows 84% agree we need stricter laws and regulations to protect the environment and 65% agree businesses would be more profitable in the long run if they adhered to sustainability principles. Only 5% said they were not concerned about sustainability, yet thought 50% of other Canadians were not concerned!

How Canadians view sustainability:
Atheists (completely reject the concept) 2%
Heathen (oblivious to the concept) 16%
The Choir (sold on sustainability) 15%
The Congregation (receptive to sustainability) 67%

The Congregation is crucial because these people are enthusiastic but unfamiliar with the issues and too much negativity demoralizes them.

We must reach out on sustainability: Focus on the congregation. Second, given the degree of mistrust, we must communicate through action. Third, we need to define the term sustainability and use a human voice, use their language. The story needs to be hopeful, the benefits must be brought to the fore, and people must know they are not alone.

Canadians do not believe there is anyone at the wheel and are calling for leadership, particularly in sustainability.

The conclusion was that there is hope!

Chris Kelly Vancouver School Board:

There is more than a message here, there is an imperative that needs to be addressed. Humans are always intervening with cycles. The world is elegant and fragile at the same time. There are three themes in the snapshot report. A call for education/a call for learning. A call for leadership. A call for hope.

Young Canadians are starving for meaningful engagement. I’m not talking about learning instead of doing, but learning as active participation. There is no uniform way people learn. Learning is an individual and social process. Extend this to every organization. Importance of engaged learning with systems. Action is common learning. This is a time when a current generation must not pass on its way of doing things to a new generation. Leadership is the act of taking responsibility for the quality of other people’s experience.

Hope is the essential notion. Hope is the oxygen of the human spirit.

Kelly was an excellent speaker!

Paul Kariya, Pacific Salmon Foundation

If we’re going to have creativity we have to have fun. Think Salmon.

We, humankind are the problem, but we are also the solution.

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Sorry for the jumble, and apologies to speakers that I left out!

BMO Marketing Wastes Resources

The Bank of Montreal mailed me a package of fake American Express travellers cheques the other day. When you flip through the booklet, you see a stylistic plane taking off. Duh. Aside from the "buy travellers cheques" copy, that was it. What a waste of paper! And what a waste of energy shipping this wasted paper all over the country!

Canada Day in Burnaby's Richmond Park

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers volunteered at the City of Burnaby's Canada Day event at Richmond Park today. We had great weather and had a fun time interacting with the public. Hundreds of people dropped by our booth to learn a bit about their watershed.

The RCMP bear in front of the streamkeepers booth.

Streamkeepers answer questions.

RCMP honour guard gears up for the opening ceremony.

Air cadets and RCMP lead the parade of dignitaries.

My wife Yumi checks out a cruiser from the driver's seat...

And from the rather less desirable cage in the back seat :-).

Burnaby Environment Awards 2006

A few weeks ago we got a call from the City of Burnaby that Yumi and I had won an Environment Award for Community Stewardship for our volunteer work with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers. It took awhile for the idea to sink in -- while we've put our share of hours into the group, there are other members who are at least as deserving, if not more so. Ironically, I think what put us in the running was media exposure the two of us got after the devastating fish kill in the creek in late February this year when someone poured a toxin down a storm drain.

Today we received the award from the city's Environment Committee at a nice open-air luncheon at the city art gallery at Deer Lake, along with several other recipients, including an Environmental Star award for youth for another Byrne Creek Streamkeeper, Eleanor King.

Since we began streamkeeping about four years ago, we have made wonderful friends and learned so much.

Yumi, me, my Mom, and her husband Barry.

Burnaby Business Excellence Awards 2006

I am sitting on the nominations committee for the Burnaby Board of Trade Business Excellence Awards 2006. We are working to come up with a list of businesses that deserve to be in the running for an award this year, and encourage people to nominate them. The awards are not only for companies, but also for non-profits. I am president of the board of the Stream of Dreams Murals Society that won the Community Service award in 2004, and other community groups have also been honoured.

Please contact the board of trade at the link above if you have any ideas about Burnaby based companies and groups that you feel would be deserving of an award.

The categories and last year's winners are: Burnaby Spirit: Burnaby Edmonds Lions Club; Community Service: Burnaby Metrotown Rotary Club; Business Innovation: iv Cosmeceuticals; Entrepreneurial Spirit: Origami by Yu & Mi; Newsmaker of the Year: SFU Community Trust -- UniverCity; Business Person of the Year: Brad Alden, Burnaby Now; Business of the Year (Small Business): Beaver Electrical Machinery; Business of the Year: Bosa Properties; Hall of Fame: The Morrey Auto Group.

Evil Handyman God Smites Me

There is an evil handyman god that lurks on the fringes of do-it-yourself projects, waiting to pounce and mete out pain to the unwise and unwary. He strikes for various reasons. Haste and using the wrong tool for the job are common sins he watches for. Today he dealt me a swollen, purple, pounding fingertip for the temerity of giving advice and not heeding it myself.

Yumi and I were putting together a large, heavy cabinet, and as we assembled the larger pieces, carefully guiding them into place, I told her to watch her fingers. Less than a minute after those fateful words left my lips, I drove a drawer into its guides with a playful hip check, smashing a guiding finger with the lip. Yee-haa!

Much colorful language and dancing ensued. Watch your own damn fingers!

Privacy and Digitizing, Networking Health Care Records

The issue of digitizing and networking medical records has appeared in various panels at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2006 conference that I have been attending.

Here is some info on the Canadian initiative.

And here is a US patient privacy rights website on some of the privacy and security implications of what has been happening in the US.

This is something that very few people are aware of, particularly the security and privacy implications. Who gets to access such a database? How are those people authenticated? Can they download and save information to local computers? How are those computers secured? Can they print out information? Can I access my own information? How do I authenticate myself? If I think there are errors in my information, can I correct them? How? How are patients identified? Is there a common identifier across all of a person's records, or are there firewalls between various sorts of data? Can my dentist access what my gynecologist can access? Can insurance companies access that data? Can other branches of the government? The police? Are warrants required? Where is the data hosted? If it's in the US, other laws may apply, and the US government may be able to access that data secretly using anti-terrorist directives... It goes on and on.

One panelist said hey, forget it, the insurance companies already know all this stuff about all of us....

Spychips: Laying the Ground for Pervasive Computer Surveillance

Katherine Albrecht from CASPIAN, or Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, spoke on the potential negative privacy and security impact of RFID tagging at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2006 conference. Albrecht has written Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID, and there is a Spychips website.

Good info on RFID technology. Companies are experimenting with RFID tags in clothing and in indvidual items that you might buy. The problem is many of these initiatives are secret and consumers are not being told what the technology does.

Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation represented the other side of the debate. He said that the debate is all about whether we are for progress and optimism or not. New technology always creates fear. America has always made the choice for excitement and going forward. He did agree that secret tagging should be illegal, but overall felt tagging had many benefits.

Yet concerns remain. Some business models are very invasive. Some companies are placing RFID tags into clothing labels and into shoes. One plan wants to plant RFID readers in cell phones so that when we are walking down the street and see someone wearing something we like, we can scan them and find out where the item is sold. Uibiquitous readers are planned so that the moment you walk into a store, a doorway reader can scan a tagged customer loyalty card and know your complete purchase history.

I see the benefits of RFID, however I'm certainly going to check out the security and privacy concerns.

Senator Patrick Leahy Opens CFP 2006

Senator Patrick Leahy opened the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2006 conference by pointing to three key trends: a post 9/11 interest in security; a coming digital data micro-monitoring revolution; and a rapid post 9/11 rise of partnerships between government and private data collectors, and outsourcing of data collection and management.

He said there has been a blurring of lines of privacy protection. Private data agencies are becoming akin to mini CIAs. We face many risks, but we have to get the balance between security and privacy right. The public doesn’t want false assurances or to be unduly alarmed. We want to actually be safer, and we have a long way to go to accomplish that. New technologies shape the way we understand privacy. There have to be checks. Modern databases, networks are the defining challenge for privacy.

We are on the verge of a revolution in micro monitoring that can lead to widespread surveillance of our daily lives. Governments are increasingly using techology to monitor people. Nobody is above the law, you can’t pick and choose. The FBI has infiltrated groups across the country—religious, environmental, etc. Suppose you protest a tax policy, the building of a road, an environmental issue—should your group be infiltrated by your government? In the current environment, the Bill of Rights would not be ratified. Is this what we want to give our children? We should use info-gathering technology to protect ourselves, but there is no blanket right to spy on citizens.

We want to encourage innovation but ensure privacy.

The government is retroactively classifying data. This devotion to secrecy is often to conceal mistakes.

Technology is moving faster than we can predict. If we give up the rights we fought for in the Revolution, the Civil War, and two world wars, what are we going to leave for the next generation.

Walking Marathon in Beautiful Washington DC

We woke up on our first day in Washington at 7:30 am local time and got out and about around 9:00. The Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2006 conference that I'm here for starts tomorrow, so I had the full day with Yumi to get ourselves situated before I turned her loose on her own.

I'm going to put a bunch of photos at the end of this post, so if you're a visually oriented type and want to avoid all the blather, just scroll down :-).

We walked north across the Mall to the Old Post Office to try and find some breakfast in its food court. Along the way we noticed all the concrete planters placed for security since 9/11 and the armed guards everywhere. We encountered our first of many security checks when we entered the Old PO. I had stuff spread all over several pockets and had to pass through the scanner three or four times. The last item found was my Swiss Army knife, which the security woman perused, shrugged and handed back to me.

The food court in the magnificent hall was deserted, giving the place an eerie feel. We decided to go up the tower first and then get something to eat. I didn’t like the glass elevator, but felt fine at the top. There were magnificent views all around on the sunny, clear morning. We could see the Capitol, a chunk of the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Smithsonian buildings. Great place to start our visit!

Back down at the food court a few places were beginning to come awake at 9:30. We got bacon and egg breakfasts for $3.49 – a lot better than $12 for the same thing at the hotel.

Morning hunger pangs sated, we headed over to the White House. There was a crew digging up an area on the lawn, and I snapped a photo of a John Deere Gator with the White House in the background -- nice juxtaposition for a Saskatchewan boy!

It was gradually getting warmer as we ambled along toward the Vietnam War Memorial. As it came in view I began feeling somber. There were quite a few small Canadian flags left along the wall so it looked like a Canadian tour group had passed through recently. It was touching to see the photos and mementos left by people, and watch aged couples painstakingly page through the memorial books. Hard to believe there are over 50,000 names of the dead carved in that black granite.

Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. It’s an impressive structure. The feeling of awe and respect was destroyed by herds of rowdy schoolchildren who were running around and shouting despite the signs asking for quiet. The view up the Mall was impressive and we thought of Forest Gump.

We trundled off to the Korean War Memorial and it was a somber and impressive monument. I found the statues of a unit on patrol powerfully evocative of the rigors of that often cold campaign. Both the Korean and Vietnam memorials didn’t yet exist the last time I was in Washington nearly 35 years ago.

Down around the Tidal Basin we began to flag a bit as lunch approached and the sun strengthened. The Roosevelt Memorial was impressive. I found the quotations thought-provoking. They seemed to call upon ideals that are not actually reflected much in contemporary American society. Wonderful words, but are they heeded? I found this to be a recurring thread throughout our long march today. Many monuments to many highly intelligent men who wrote compelling thoughts, yet the swarms of fat retirees and screaming schoolchildren kept intruding with their apparent lack of awareness and respect.

Oh well, it’s still a magnificent place and the Washington Monument commands the eye from every turn.

Next up, the Jefferson Memorial. Somehow it was not quite as impressive as the Lincoln, or even the modern Roosevelt. I wondered out loud what presidents since Roosevelt would ever be honored in such a manner. Likely none, or at least none that I would deem worthy.

By this time we were tired, so we headed back across the Mall to the food court in the Ronald Reagan Building. Security again. It was a relief to get out of the sun, eat and relax. We checked out the Washington Visitor Center in the same building and were not impressed. The woman there ignored us until we were leaving, and there appeared to be little free information available.

Somewhat refreshed and fully refueled, we trekked on to Ford's Theater and caught a presentation on the assassination of Lincoln. I could remember visiting the theater as a kid of 11 or 12. I think we saw a production of “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” there, but I could be mixing that up. There is a museum in the basement of the theater. There is something macabre about the clothing worn by Lincoln the night he was shot and the pillow he died on, yet it is all strangely touching. Across the street is the house he was carried to and the bedroom he died in. The house is flanked by gaudy souvenir shops, fronted by raucous street vendors, and fumigated by the exhaust of idling tour buses. The parks staff seem dispirited and resigned to an endless stream of repetitive questions. Poor Abe.

That did it for us. Over seven hours of walking was enough. We dropped into a convenience store and picked up some drinks for the walk back to the hotel, and stumbled in, exhausted, at 4:30 pm.

I’ll do some blogging and some homework and Yumi will bone up on sights she’ll see tomorrow while I’m in sessions.

Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial from the Old Post Office tower.

John Deere on the White House lawn.

Bird's nest in a traffic light near the Mall.

Kids make rubbings of names on the Vietnam wall.

Lincoln Memorial framed by trees.

Yumi got me with Abe. There must be millions of photos like this one!

The Korean War memorial patrol. Canada is among the UN nations honored.

The two of us at the Tidal Basin with the ever-visible Washington Monument.

Roosevelt Memorial bread line figures.

The quotation on the wall to the left deserves sharing: "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

Fishy humanoid gargoyle on Ohio Dr. bridge looks Jimmy Carter-ish :-)

Sun/Post Quality Control Goes Overboard

Today we received the fourth or fifth daily call in a row from the Vancouver Sun regarding supposed delivery problems. We've had calls asking if we've received our papers, we've had calls apologizing that the papers were left in the lobby (we don't have a lobby!), we've had calls explaining that the delivery person can't get into our non-existant lobby... And we've been receiving our papers just fine.

I think somebody is pulling a fast one on the Sun folks. We had a few similar episodes in the past where customer assistance would call us and ask if we were were receiving our papers again, when we had never had any trouble in the first place. But this week takes the prize.

The first couple of calls we just said, yeah, we got our papers OK. From the third call I began asking what the problem was, explaining that we didn't have a lobby, that we lived in a townhouse complex, etc. Today the caller (it's been someone different each time) said she would look into it and get our number off the trouble list.

I wonder if it would help if someone local would call? The call display shows what appear to be Manitoba numbers!

Mayor Addresses Burnaby Board of Trade

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan gave his annual State of the City address at a luncheon meeting of the Burnaby Board of Trade today at the beautiful Burnaby Mountain Golf Course.

Corrigan focused on the draft Burnaby Economic Development Strategy 2020, which can be found and commented upon here.

The city's population has increased by 43,000 since the 1990 EDS was released, and booming development is resulting in decreasing land supply and higher costs. Corrigan said that means there will need to be redevelopment of low-intensity land uses, and also spoke about the problem of roadway congestion decreasing usability.

Corrigan invited comments and criticism of the draft plan, saying Burnaby needs to be smart, prosperous and sustainable. We need to become more efficient without sacrificing standards.

One interesting point he mentioned was that he felt the city lacked urban, or neighborhood, character. We need to develop more character while striving for a greener community, Corrigan said.

While praising Burnaby's development and job growth, the mayor emphasized that quality of life was important, pointing to the increasingly influential and holistic concept of social, economic and environmental sustainability.

In conclusion, Corrigan said we must leave our children and grandchildren something better than what we have now.

BBC Says UK 'Eating the Planet'

There's an interesting article on the BBC website that claims that "if annual global consumption levels matched the UK's, it would take 3.1 Earths to meet the demand." It has estimates for other nations as well, with the US topping the list at 5.3 Earths. Sobering reading for even if the estimates are off by a mile, and of course many nations are way below "an Earth," total global consumption is unsustainable.

The BBC website also features a series of articles on the theme "Planet Under Pressure."

Burnaby Draft Economic Plan Released

Burnaby has released its draft Economic Development Plan 2020 and all of the documents are available here, along with an online questionnaire. I've only skimmed the surface of this package, however I hope to find time to read it and comment, particularly on strategy G4 "Striving for a Greener Community."

Edmonds Clean Sweep

The Byrne Creek Streamkeepers joined in the Edmonds Clean Sweep today and signed up an amazing 42 people who helped clean up the area around the Edmonds Skytrain station and along Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby. A big hand to everyone from the community who joined in to help our efforts near the creek, and the teams working on Edmonds and on Kingsway.

Thanks to the Edmonds Town Centre Business & Community Association, Burnaby RCMP and Burnaby Parks for helping arrange and manage the event. And thanks to Burnaby Firefighters for providing refreshments after.

Thanking volunteers near an overflowing dumpster.

The Horizontes Explorers did a great job as usual.

It took just half an hour for Yumi and me to fill a heaping wheelbarrow!

BC Asks Public to Report Poachers, Polluters

From a BC Environment Ministry press release:

New highway signs, a website and a toll-free hotline for the public to report poachers and polluters were approved by Environment Minister Barry Penner, who is attending the 50th Annual Meeting of the BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF) today in Penticton.

“The Conservation Officer Service is seeking the public’s help in catching people who break our environmental laws,” said Penner. “The Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP) signs and free hotline give the public an opportunity to help protect our environment – anonymously and without risk of confronting the offender.”

The public can report violators 24 hours a day, seven days a week by visiting www.rapp.bc.ca or by calling 1-877-952-RAPP (7277). The new signs, which are scheduled to be installed starting in June, will help get the message out to the public. They will also be easy to use for cell phone users by dialing #RAPP.

“We’re hiring more conservation officers this year, but the public and local communities can also help us stop environmental violations,” said Penner. “Polluters are dangerous to our environment, our health and the economy. The water we drink, the air we breathe and the foods we eat all come from the environment and we need the public’s eyes, ears and good judgment to report known or suspected violators.”

Under the B.C. Environmental Management Act, polluters can face a maximum $1-million fine and six months in jail. Under the B.C. Wildlife Act, a poacher can face a maximum $100,000 fine and one year in jail for a first offence. Illegally taking fish or damaging fish habitat has a maximum penalty of $1 million under the Canada Fisheries Act.

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I commend this step, though of course the bottom line will be enforcement. It's easy to make feel-good anouncements, it's another to follow through. Here's hoping...

NYC Coyote Stirs the Animal in Us

I'm enjoying the commentary stirred up by a single coyote on the loose in New York. Even the venerable Times (free registration required) devoted an editorial to the canine's adventures in humanland.

"...what makes such occasions remarkable isn't just the sight of a coyote... It's the fact that such animals appear among us on their own, as if we were the creatures in captivity and they were the ones taking a gander. Even these places were wild once, their sudden presence seems to say."

It's interesting how the inmates decided they had to throw all those resources and time into capturing it. I'm sure it would have done just fine in Central Park, as the occasional pile of feathers had already attested to :-).

Passport Office Wait Times Wildly Off

I was applying for a new passport today so I checked the Canadian passport office website for times and locations.

I was happy to see that the site had average wait times posted. I saw that the Surrey office was averaging ten minutes and the Vancouver office was at 18 minutes. Surrey is a bit closer anyway, so I took the Skytrain to the office, arriving less than half an hour after I'd checked the website.

There was a line out into the hallway when I got there around 12:50 p.m. Hmm. I was assigned a number at 1:04 p.m. My number was called at 2:13 p.m. That's 69 minutes from getting a number to getting service, or seven times the wait posted on the website. The real wait was 83 minutes, or over eight times what was posted.

I asked a staff member how often the website was updated. She shouted down the row and a guy answered that it was refreshed about every ten minutes. Right. She said the wait time was always around an hour.

While I laud the government in its high-tech, near real-time efforts, what is the point of providing wildly innacurate data? Rather than smoothing the process, it just makes clients angrier because it raises false expectations.

When I checked the website again at 3:30 p.m., the wait time was posted as 18 minutes.

Just give us the truth, OK?

World Water Day 2006

World Day for Water 2006: Water and Culture

"We plan our cities near water; we bathe in water; we play in water; we work with water. Our economies are built on the strength of water transportation - and the products we buy and sell are all partly water, in one way or another. Our daily lives are built on water, and shaped by it. Without the water that surrounds us - the humidity of the air, the roughness of the river's current, the flow from the kitchen tap - our lives would be impossible.

"In recent decades, water has fallen in our esteem. No longer an element to be revered and protected, it is a consumer product that we have shamefully neglected. Eighty percent of our bodies are formed of water, and two thirds of the planet's surface is covered by water: water is our culture, our life..."

World Water Forum: UNESCO Division of Water Sciences.

Sustainability Means Changing Our Behavior

Why is it that when we talk about sustainability, so often people seem trapped by present ways of doing things? Why are people so afraid of trying anything different?

Why do we so often think we can build our way out of trouble, if only we can build in a greener manner?

Wouldn't it be a lot more cost effective to change human behavior to accommodate the environment, rather than always pouring billions of dollars into changing the environment to suit us?

Why are we still giving the few remaining pockets of nature in our communities short shrift, when we are so fortunate to have the little that remains? Cities that have eradicated nature are now pouring billions into trying to restore it. Wouldn't it be cheaper to simply protect and enhance what we have now?

Why can't we add density to already developed areas on major thoroughfares that are presently only one or two stories high? Why are we sill developing greenfields?

If we are really such an intelligent species, why can't we change?

I'm going to be thinking a lot about such questions as I take part in a discussion of sustainability in the lower mainland of BC over the next few months.

Vancouver Welcomes World Urban Forum

The third World Urban Forum will be held in Vancouver from June 19-23 this year "to identify solutions to the critical problems facing cities around the globe. The Government of Canada is proud to partner with UN-HABITAT to host this historic biennial meeting, themed Our Future: Sustainable Cities – Turning Ideas into Action. More than 6,000 participants from 150 nations are expected in Vancouver over five days. Will you be one of them?"

Registration is FREE! I've signed up, though I'm not sure how many of the events I'll be able to take in over the week.

Details and registration here

Effects of Blogs on Mass Media

A few fellow learners in the Master of Arts in Professional Communication program at Royal Roads University have asked to see a paper I did on blogging, so I've decided to post it here. (Newsdaily Canada has linked to this paper.)

The Effects of Blogs on Mass Media
From a Media Theory Perspective

by Paul Cipywnyk

Introduction

This paper explores the effects of Web logs, or blogs, on traditional mass media with reference to media theory. It covers the evolving relationship between blogs and mass media since the first blog was set up at the end of 1997 (Lyons, 2005), and how the blogging medium may face the imposition of regulation in the future.

The premise of this paper is that this simple, yet powerful communication medium has already had a significant impact on traditional mass media. While this impact will increase in the future as this technological change challenges traditional social discourse in a post-modern fracturing of the social equilibrium, there are also signs that normative effects may tame this publishing free-for-all to some extent over the next decade, along with the possibility of increased legal constraints and attempts at greater corporate control of the medium.

The Rise of Blogging Technology

Blogs have become an increasingly prominent means of communication on the Internet, and continue to proliferate rapidly. "A hundred thousand new blogs are created every day, more than one new blog per second, says Technorati, a firm in San Fransisco that tracks the content of 20 million active blogs" (Lyons, 2005, p. 131). Many companies, including major Internet players such as Google and Microsoft, offer free blogging services that allow users to easily post text, photos, and audio and video files to a blog simply by using forms through a Web browser, without having to know the underlying markup languages. Blogs typically present a series of chronological posts with the latest at the top of the page, with earlier entries being pushed downward, and eventually archived onto separate pages. Bloggers usually provide links to news or events or products that they write about, and commonly include RSS feeds that enable readers to monitor new posts to blogs they are interested in through automatically updated aggregators on their computers, or through Web sites that offer such aggregation services.

Blogging's Impact on Traditional Mass Media

The free-wheeling, personalized phenomenon of blogging exemplifies a post-modern world driven by technological change. "According to Marx, the capitalist class – the bourgeoisie – control the 'production and distribution of ideas' because of their control of the 'means of material production'" (Williams, 2003, p. 37), yet these days, anyone with access to the Internet can have a free or inexpensive printing press. The blogging phenomenon was enabled by technological change, and in turn is forcing mass media to modify long-standing journalistic practices. While Internet access is far from universal, technology has enabled individuals to challenge traditional mass media in ways that were impossible as recently as a decade ago.

The development of blogging has enabled individual reporting on events from a personal point of view, and when masses of bloggers question or directly confront reporting in traditional mass media, their collective power can be persuasive. For example, bloggers focused attention on racist remarks by former U.S. Speaker of the House Trent Lott, elevating a back-page story to a campaign of criticism that forced his removal (Kahn & Kellner, 2004). In another case, bloggers created "a media frenzy over the dishonest reporting that was exposed recently at the New York Times… (and) set upon the newsprint giant, whipping up so much controversy and hostile journalistic opinion that the Times’s executive and managing editors were forced to resign in disgrace" (Kahn & Kellner, 2004, p. 92).

According to post-modern media theory, audiences have the power to passively or actively resist media messages, and they cannot be fooled or manipulated by the mass media (Williams, 2003). Now, with the interactivity and personal publishing of blogging, mass media are facing a "community (that) is far from shy about going after journalists for offenses real and imagined, shocking thin-skinned journalists unused to being scrutinized the way they scrutinize others. Everything… is now subject to public analysis, comparison and fact-checking" (Singer, 2005, p. 180). Williams (2003) writes that the liberal theory of press freedom posits that "the smooth operation of the political system depended on the free expression of public opinion" (p. 39), and that the press acts as the voice of the people, and is accountable to them, as the fourth estate. Blogging is to some extent removing this intermediary function, and is putting the power of the press into individual hands. Blogs go beyond the structures of traditional journalism, drop much of the gatekeeping and filtering done by mass media, do not rely on corporate sponsors, and are even scooping the mainstream press (Wall, 2005).

Yet traditional mass media are not going away, and are not losing their influence. Bloggers often cite, and link to, material provided on Web sites run by huge media conglomerates. Research about war blogs that mushroomed after the invasion of Iraq in spring 2003 shows that nearly half of all links were to "mainly mainstream news outlets, primarily from the USA and the UK. In the USA, this included outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, etc." (Wall, 2005, p. 164). As for blogs run by mass media outlets, of 20 sites examined in one study, only three allowed direct commenting from readers, indicating they were unwilling to give up their gatekeeping role, so "it is still about vertical communication, from journalist to user, rather than horizontal communication that positions the journalist as a participant in a conversation" (Singer, 2005, p. 192).

Wall (2005), however, points out that the popularity of the war blogs arose at least partly because "mainstream media, as is historically its pattern during war, became less critical of the government and military actions and more prone to repeating propaganda…. leading increasing numbers of Americans to turn to the Web" (p. 153).

Are Blogs a New, Post-Modern Journalism?

Is blogging a new form of journalism? Are bloggers changing how mass media report the news? Wall (2005) argues that blogs are post-modern journalism:

This analysis suggests that these blogs represent a new genre of journalism – offering news that features a narrative style characterized by personalization and an emphasis on non-institutional status; audience participation in content creation; and story forms that are fragmented and interdependent with other websites. Ultimately, these shifts suggest that some forms of online news such as blogs have moved away from traditional journalism’s modernist approach to embody a form of post-modern journalism (pp. 153-154).

Traditional journalism is supposed to be objective, or at least fair, yet the "voice of the typical current events blogger is personalized, opinionated, and often one-sided. Indeed, an opinionated voice is a hallmark of blog writing and those mainstream journalists who fail to reflect this are criticized as not being true bloggers" (Wall, 2005, p. 161). Readers of newspapers and watchers of TV tend to be passive; however, "on blogs, audiences are often invited to contribute information, comments, and sometimes direct financial support. In effect, audiences sometimes co-create content and also serve as patrons" (Wall, 2005, p. 161). While journalists are taught the inverted pyramid of story writing, "with blogs, the story form has changed into a fragment, one that is often incomplete without following a link and, thus, is seemingly never closed" (Wall, 2005, p. 162). All of these hallmarks of blogging make for a very different experience than reading or watching the packaged stories provided by mass media.

Kahn & Kellner (2004) propose:

Bloggers have demonstrated themselves as technoactivists favoring not only democratic self-expression and networking, but also global media critique and journalistic sociopolitical intervention…. blogs make the idea of a dynamic network of ongoing debate, dialogue and commentary central and so emphasize the interpretation and dissemination of alternative information to a heightened degree (p. 91).

While mass media may be retaining their influence and their audience, the post-modern fracturing of the mostly one-way communication of traditional media into the millions of inter-linking blogging voices has created a new openness and the ability for individuals to share their personal interpretations of the world to potentially global audiences. Bloggers are providing alternatives to mass media. "Large political events, such as the World Summit for Sustainable Development, the World Social Forum, and the G8 forums all now have wireless bloggers providing real time alternative coverage" (Kahn & Kellner, 2004, p. 93).

Blogs Surpass Mass Media in Raising Political Consciousness

In addition to offering an alternative to corporate mass media, blogs are raising political consciousness in a manner traditional media have been unable to do. Because blogs are personal, they have an ability to attract readers in a way that traditional media do not. This is shown by the experience of Blog for America, the blog that helped galvanize Howard Dean's campaign in the U.S. primary race starting in March 2003.

Alternately informative, cheesy, silly, self-absorbed, innovative, and brilliantly effective, Blog for America turned tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of people into political activists and united them in collective action that extended beyond cyberspace…. This is something mainstream journalism could never accomplish (Kerbel & Bloom, 2005, pp. 20-21).

Blog for America may be viewed as a revival of the public sphere described by Jürgen Habermas. "Central to the operation of the public sphere is the free flow of information and communication, and media institutions are essential to its effective working" (Williams, 2003, p. 68). Williams (2003) goes on to say that eventually "the public sphere became corrupted by the growth of the power of the state, the emergence of corporate capitalism and transformation of the media into commercial operations" (p. 68). Blog for America became a forum to foster and harness the free flow of information in the public sphere, revitalizing the political process.

However, here too, there are cautionary notes.

As a third-tier candidate with few resources, Dean had little to lose by doing things unconventionally, and as we noted, discussion on the Dean blog became more conventional as the candidate started playing for keeps. For blogs like Blog for America to become routine, future campaign managers will have to weigh the obvious benefits of cultivating a loyal, active following against the potential loss of message control inherent in a decentralized campaign structure where anyone can participate. What is clear is that without some degree of decentralization, blog communities cannot thrive. It is the nature of the technology to buck centralized control, and it is the thing that generates feelings of empowerment (Kerbel & Bloom, 2005, p. 24).

Post-Modern Blogging

So while on one hand it appears that blogs are impacting mass media by providing alternative forums for shared self-expression, by confronting and challenging conventional journalism, and by enabling public discourse in a global manner heretofore unheard of in history, on the other hand it is also apparent that at least so far mass media are retaining much of their authority. Yet blogging may just be getting started, and has the potential to further spread its influence in the future as more citizens around the world come online and share their individual, unique perspectives. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, for as with any technology, it cannot simply be assumed that blogging will only lead to greater good. Overall, however, the benefits could outweigh the drawbacks.

Today, blogs embody the contradictions of postmodernity – they may balkanize interest groups and cater to partisan audiences but they may also encourage the creation of a multitude of virtual communities in which ordinary people feel free to participate and discover their own political voices. That is, blogs may ultimately pull more people into public conversations and perhaps provide opportunities for collective problem-solving. Those who fear the demise of the great society created in part by national media are perhaps overly nostalgic for a media that rarely reflected the entire community or allowed ordinary people much of a voice (Wall, 2005, p. 167).

Conclusion

While blogging's Wild West milieu has already had an impact on traditional mass media, and will continue to require mass media corporations to adjust to the onslaught of individual voices, there are doubts if the medium's free-wheeling nature will last forever. Blogs may undermine societal equilibrium, and to take a page from functionalism, "all components of society including the media are organized and structured and operate to maintain social stability" (Williams, 2003, p. 50). While blogging may fundamentally be of an individualistic, fractured, post-modern nature, in five or ten years some of the regulations that apply to traditional mass media may be extended to cover the Internet, and bloggers.

Indeed, Lyons (2005) describes the anonymous slander of individuals and corporations by packs of bloggers, and cries out for means to control them:

Google and other carriers shut down purveyors of child porn, spam, and viruses, and they help police track down offenders. So why don't they delete material (from blogs) that defames individuals? Why don't they help victims identify their attackers? Because they are protected by the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which frees a neutral carrier of Internet content from any liability for anything said online (p. 136).

Lyons (2005) goes on to cite a victim of a concerted smear campaign who "argues that Yahoo and other carriers should step up: 'They make money selling ads on these message boards, and the controversial material generates the most traffic. So they're benefiting from this garbage. I think they should take responsibility for it'" (p. 138).

While millions more blogs will be created over the next decade, and Web sites run by mass media corporations will gradually offer more interactivity and more opportunities for reader feedback, pressure from corporations and political forces that fear the libertarian blogging environment will likely lead to the imposition of regulatory restraints on the Internet, and by extension the blogging medium. There will be bloggers who will continue to resist any attempts at control, and a technological war will continue for decades between those who attempt to impose restraints, and those who will seek ways to outflank them.

References

Kahn, R., & Kellner, D. (2004). New media and internet activism: From the ‘Battle of seattle’ to blogging. New Media & Society, 6(1), 87-95. Retrieved November 17, 2005, from Communication Studies: A SAGE Full-Text Collection database.

Kerbel, M. R., & Bloom, J. D. (2005). Blog for america and civic involvement. The Harvard International Journal Of Press/politics, 10(4), 3-27. Retrieved November 17, 2005, from Communication Studies: A SAGE Full-Text Collection database.

Lyons, D. (2005, Nov. 14). Attack of the blogs. Forbes. 128-138.

Singer, J. B. (2005). The political j-blogger: ‘Normalizing’ a new media form to fit old norms and practices. Journalism, 6(2), 173-198. Retrieved November 17, 2005, from Communication Studies: A SAGE Full-Text Collection database.

Wall, M. (2005). ‘Blogs of war’: Weblogs as news. Journalism, 6(2), 153-172. Retrieved November 17, 2005, from Communication Studies: A SAGE Full-Text Collection database.

Williams, K. (2003). Understanding Media Theory. London: Arnold.

Flat Ben Golfs Near White Rock

Flat Ben, my nephew's mailable representative from Los Angeles, spent his last day in the Lower Mainland of BC visiting his grandmother and her golf guru hubby in White Rock.

It was another miserable day with a whipping wind and slicing rain, however Flat Ben bravely decided to go to the White Rock pier, which he remembered as being very nice in the summer.

"Let's go down to the white rock," said Flat Ben, with his grandmother and Uncle Paul in tow.

"See if you can get the Peace Arch on the border of Canada and the U.S. in the background," said Flat Ben.

"OK," replied Uncle Paul, "however I think it's only going to look like a tiny white dot in the upper left of the picture."

Ben was becoming quite the director: "Let's get a shot of me with one of the neat trash cans painted by local students in White Rock!"

"Let's get back to Hazelmere and get some shots on the golf course before it really pours," said Sonia, pulling her hood tighter around her ears.

"Yeah!" said Flat Ben, "Let's go to the driving range AND the putting green."

And with that, Flat Ben will be moving on to a new set of adventures. We'll send him on his way as soon as we fill in his travel diary. Bye Flat Ben!

Flat Ben Tours Stormy Burnaby Mountain

My nephew arrived in the mail from Los Angeles the other day in the form of Flat Ben. He will be traveling all over visting his relatives and friends. Here's his story on his first day outside in Burnaby, BC.

Flat Ben was getting impatient. "When are we going outside?" he cried. "I'm tired of hanging around with this sleepy cat."

"Well, it's been raining for days," said Uncle Paul.

"And the forecast is for another week of rain," sighed Aunt Yumi.

"I don't care," Ben said. "I thought you guys are streamkeepers! Are you afraid of a little rain?"

"OK," said Uncle Paul. "Lets go to Burnaby Mountain Park, no matter how hard it rains. Lets rig you up a sandwich bag for a raincoat, and off we go!"

As they drove toward Burnaby Mountain, they saw it was enshrouded in mist. Soon they were gaining elevation as the road wound its way upward, and the slanting rain began turning to sleet.

"Wow!" said Ben. "I remember that you can usually see the North Shore Mountains from here, but I can't see anything..." He sounded a bit deflated, but defiantly shouted: "Let's go outside anyway!"

Uncle Paul and Aunt Yumi groaned, but they zipped up their coats, put on their hats, and unfurled their umbrellas.

"Let's see the crane mural first," said Uncle Paul. "Aunt Yumi and I helped install it last summer. It commemorates the 40th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Burnaby and Kushiro, Japan. The Stream of Dreams Murals Society taught schoolchildren in Burnaby the story of the Kushiro marshland and how it was preserved by volunteers to bring the Japanese tancho crane back from the brink of extinction. Then the kids painted about 2,000 cranes, most of which were installed on the mountain, and some in Japan."

"How about we take a look at the Kamui Mintara 'Playground of the Gods' next?" said Aunt Yumi. "These carvings by the Ainu people of northern Japan were sent here years ago as part of the sister-city relationship."

As they began walking back to the car, Ben suddenly spied another kind of totem pole. "Hey, lets go see that one, too!" he said, pointing at the West Coast First Nations carving.

"All right," said Uncle Paul, "I'm cold and wet. Back to the car!"

Flat Ben, Aunt Yumi and Uncle Paul warmed up inside the car and then drove home. If the weather is a bit nicer tomorrow, they plan to have Ben help out with some streamkeeping activities.

Kia Minivan Ad Sucks

I'm disturbed by a Kia ad that has been running on TV lately in which a family -- Dad, Mom, and two kids -- gleefully push a minivan over a cliff and sneak away, with the premise that they can now buy a new Kia van.

I like a joke as much as the next person, however I fail to see the humor in this.

What are we seeing here? Environmental pollution? Littering on a grand scale? Insurance fraud? Abdication of parental responsibility?

Sheesh.

Merry Christmas

Best wishes to family and friends. Hope everyone has a happy holiday season.

Paul, Yumi, Choco the cat, and Dori the turtle.

Royal Roads Lower Mainland MAAC, MAAC-IIC Pub Night

Half a dozen learners in the 2005 Master of Arts in Applied Communication program at Royal Roads University met at the Irish Heather pub in Gastown in downtown Vancouver tonight. It was great to see people again over a month since our initial intensive three-week residency ended. As the program continues over the next year online, we hope to get together every month or so for mutual support and exchange of information.

I've created a private Google group for any MAACs or MAAC-IICs in the lower mainland of BC, or anywhere in BC for that matter, to keep in touch. Shoot me an email if you'd like to join.

Hitting Three Community Events in One Evening

I took in three community events this evening, which I think is a personal record :-).

The first was an open house at the Burnaby Southeast District Community Police Office. I've been in touch with the local RCMP through my volunteer work as a streamkeeper, so I dropped by to say hello, chat with other volunteers, and partake of the tables ladden with food.

The second was the December meeting of the Edmonds Town Centre Business and Community Association. I represent three groups there: the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers, the Stream of Dreams Murals Society, and my own company, Cipko Consulting Ltd. The event was a Christmas party held at the funky Myles of Beans cafe on Kingsway. The cafe put on some great food, there were games and contests, and it was a lot of fun talking with members.

Last, but not least, was a rezoning hearing at Burnaby City Hall. Several streamkeepers and Stream of Dreams directors went to watch the rezoning of the site of the original Stream of Dreams fence mural. The corner of Edmonds and Kingsway has long been empty and will finally be redeveloped with a new public library and a mixed residential/commercial complex. Stream of Dreams will have to remove the original mural, and we are keen to have the dreamfish represented somehow in the new design. After the meeting we chatted with the mayor and the city planner -- it's good to stay in touch!

Canada Off and Running

It's election time again. Following the defeat of the minority Liberals today, Canadians will be going to the polls in January.

Reaction from people on the street on tonight's news was uniformly muted. Most people just do not care. That's sad, and I encourage everyone to take the time to read the platforms of all the major parties. Check out their websites over the coming weeks and decide for yourselves. In alphabetical order:

Bloc Quebecois

Conservative Party of Canada

Green Party of Canada

Liberal Party of Canada

New Democratic Party