And then god created the tar sands and placed them beneath the ground, while the dinosaurs roamed above, and instructed his followers to destroy the environment in order to dig them up for fuel.This may be what some Alberta parents will be teaching their children while they are kept home from school when everyone else is being taught science.
If you work for Siemens Building Technologies and you see people breaking the law, and they are doing it right beside a sign advising them that they are breaking the law, it is best to keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, one of the lawbreakers might report you and you could be fired, especially if the law being broken is a health regulation and the lawbreaker works for Health Canada.
The time is ripe for the completion of the final stages of the Cuban Revolution and the transition to a truly democratic and socialist society. Let us be clear. This must not be an American style “capitalist democracy” where wealthy corporate interests control the economy and political system, but a true peoples democracy.
I see three components to this transformation.
Economic Democracy – Beyond State Enterprises
This will include the expansion of the economy from state institutions to include small businesses, (where the owner works in the enterprise and earns his income from his labour and not from capital invested in the businesses) as well as co-operative enterprises, including both producer and consumer co-operatives.
Economic democracy must above all else ensure that foreign corporate interests are not allowed to dominate the economy.
Civil Democracy – Freedom of Expression and the Press
The revolution is truly strong enough to withstand competing ideas. The people of Cuba can be trusted with the full right of free expression, including full access to the Internet and the right of free expression on it, whether on forums, blogs or other means of communication.
As well a free press will invigorate the people and enhance the revolution. But we are not talking about the rights of corporate interests to build propaganda machines. We are talking about the rights of the people to have free journalistic expression by means such as newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, through their organizations such as labour unions and co-operatives, including co-operatives of journalists.
Political Democracy – Free Elections
It is time to move beyond one party politics - but not into corporate politics, where corporate interests dominate elections and conduct them as marketing campaigns. It is time to have real alternatives to the communist party candidates. These should come in the form of candidates from peoples organizations, such as labour unions and co-operatives, as well as independents. But election campaign funding and expenses must be restricted to ensure elections are grass roots activities and not marketing campaigns conducted by the wealthy.
Towards A Free Democratic and Socialist Cuba
Some will say that because this model does not mirror that of western democracies that it is not truly democratic.
Remember that Cuba had an American style “capitalist democracy” and when the people were about to elect Fidel Castro into government the corporate interests scuttled the election and it took a revolution for the people to put their chosen leader into power.
And I ask is our system truly democratic when the economic and political system is so heavily dominated by wealthy corporate interests as current events so obviously demonstrate.
I say to the leaders and people of Cuba you have a chance to set an example for the world of what a peoples democracy can truly be.
Foreword:
After having time to reflect on the March Open House and read over more carefully the Display Boards, that are now posted on the City of Ottawa website, I have further reflections.
Unfortunately there is still not the detailed information available on the website that would be required to do a real comprehensive analysis of the proposed trail plan.
The Proposed Trail Plan and the Environment
When this process first began my main concern was reports of overzealous environmentalists wanting to close off all access to the South March Highlands. Ironically, the opposite seems to be the problem at the moment – an apparent lack of concern (as far as I can see) from environmentalists over the proposals to denaturalize significant portions of natural rugged single track trail. The more I look at the trail map the more I realize just how extensive the proposed denaturalization is.
The most glaring and troubling proposal involves the Trillium Woods, which has been identified as the most environmentally significant and sensitive portion of the management area. In the Trillium Woods the plan calls for turning the narrow natural trails into 2-3 metre wide compacted granular surface stone dust paths. One can only ask what are they thinking. The only possible reason for that is because of it's proximity to development and houses. As an environmentalist I find this to be unconscionable.
But the Trillium Woods is not the only part of the management area where the city plans to denaturalize narrow trails and turn them into wide hard packed paths as the map below shows.
Perhaps some compromise is necessary. And in that spirit I would propose that such paths be limited to Zone 3, the least significant environmental zone, and the zone that includes the area that attracted the broadest public interest, the Beaver Pond Area, and is thus, self-identified as the area where most people would want easy access.
In the more environmentally significant areas we need to do all we can to protect the natural environment, and that does not include building wide hard-packed paths through it.
As I have stated several times before on this subject in The Fifth Column:
As an environmentalist and serious hiker and mountain biker my first and primary concern is that the trails be kept in their natural rugged state and be retained as natural surface single track trails.I call on all Ottawa environmentalists to rally together to protect this natural area and it's natural rugged single track trails.
The City of Ottawa has finally posted the information presented at the March Open House on it's website. Please note in particular the map of the proposed trail system.
South March Highlands Management Plan Open House Display Boards (March 2009)
As the CBC reports, Afghanistan's proposed law to legalize spousal rape, or to put it in other terms “make it illegal for women to refuse their husbands sex”, has rightly been widely condemned.
However, we would be wrong to characterize this as some sort of Islamic barbarism foreign to western civilizations.
Indeed, as the Globe and Mail reports, the same provision existed in Canadian law up until 1983.
Indeed, the concept has had a long history in the jurisprudence of the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, Canada and the United States, as the following articles record:
Historical Development of the Offence of_Rape (Bruce A. MacFarlane, Q.C. Deputy Minister of Justice Deputy Attorney General for the Province of Manitoba)It took a long time to banish from the law books of the west, It should not be allowed to be put on the law books of Afghanistan at a time when Canadian soldiers are dying there, supposedly in the name of women's rights and human rights.
Making Marital Rape A Crime: A Long Road Traveled, A Long Way to Go (Lynn Hecht Schafran, Director, National Judicial Education Program; Stefanie Lopez-Boy, Program Associate, National Judicial Education Program; Mary Rothwell Davis)
In a statement issued 2009-04-01 00:01, Mayor Larry stated:
The time for me to step down has come. When I first decided to give up my position as the CEO of a pseudo high tech company to run for mayor many of my friends thought it was the most foolish thing I had ever done. But I was determined to win the race and prove that you can fool most of the people most of the time. Many of you may think that giving up this lucrative position during a time of economic uncertainty is a foolish thing top do but I assure you, and you know that my word is my bond, that I am no fool. For those that do not believe that I would ever do such a thing all I can say is that I am not fooling. It is time to move on. I would like to thank all of my supporters, especially those few that still support me, and especially my Chief of Staff, Avril Fuhl.Farewell Larry.
It may not have the high profile corporate sponsors and marketing hype that Earth Hour does but Earth Day, celebrated every April 22, is the largest, most celebrated environmental event worldwide. More than 6 million Canadians join 1 billion people in over 170 countries in staging events and projects to address local environmental issues. Nearly every school child in Canada takes part in an Earth Day activity.
Unfortunately this important event has been lost in the media hoopla surrounding Earth Hour, which I commented on in a blog post a year ago.
Another in my Austrian Reflections Series.
One of my pet peeves has been the closure of the Queensway pedestrian and bike underpass from the summer of 2007-2009 (don't know if it will open at all this summer) while construction is being carried out on the western portion of the Queensway near Kanata.
They do things differently in Austria. We were on mountain bikes along a trail that followed the Marchfeldkanal on the outskirts of Vienna and came upon the construction of a highway over the trail. As you can see from the photographs nobody felt that there was a need to close the trail and indeed children (with parents) and bikes were explicitly allowed on the trail.
The sign in German translates (according to Google)to “Forbidden to enter the site - Parents are responsible for their children”, which I understand to mean “stay on the trail”.
This is a continuation of my Austrian Reflections Series.
These are photos of a trail drainage system used on mountain bike and hiking trails in the Vienna Woods. The above ground system makes it easier for trail users, or the rain, to clear silt out of the troughs than it would be to clear out culverts under the trail and you can still ride over the troughs..
Last week we were in Toronto visiting our daughters so I took a blogging break. Spring has arrived in Toronto and there was no snow to be seen in the city. With the warmer weather I should be back on my bike this week. The Fifth Column will probably become intermittent again. But I will try to do at least one posting a week.
"You know that recession we just had. The one where you lost your job, your home and your pension. It really wasn't that bad" - Stephen Harper March 10, 2011
Dr. David Suzuki is a respected scientist, world renowned environmentalist, and excellent communicator. So one would think that it would be difficult to make him look foolish. But the folks at powerWISE have found a way to do it.
I only hope that he is being well paid for the powerWISE commercials and putting the money to good use because, IMHO, they make him look like a fool.
Unfortunately the folks at powerWISE are very protective of their commercials so I was unable to embed a clip of the worst one, entitled “TV-Habitat” (the habitat of the common draft dodger), which makes me cringe every time I see it. The only copy of it I found on the web outside of the powerWISE site had been removed for a “terms of use violation”.
The powerwise ads can be viewed here.
My advice to Dr. Suzuki, never leave your image in the hands of the advertising industry again.
I really do not understand the Roman Catholic Church policy of excommunicating persons for doing evil.
Does the Bible not teach that we are all sinners. Did Jesus not die on the cross to forgive the sins of believers. Do sinners not need the church to seek forgiveness and redemption.
The answer seems to be that only the most evil are excommunicated.
So, would that include the stepfather who had been raping his nine year old stepdaughter since age six. Apparently not. But it does include the doctors who undertook the necessary medical procedure (abortion) to save her life when she became pregnant with twins as a result of the rapes.
It seems it is the Roman Catholic Church that is the most evil.
According to the Ottawa Citizen
"The mayor's task force on governance found that city council does not operate effectively and cannot provide the strategic leadership the City of Ottawa needs because of systemic problems with governance," says the report from the panel, which includes former Carleton University president Richard Van Loon and is headed by University of Ottawa government expert David Zussman.The Citizen article further states:
To combat this, the task force recommends creating an executive level in municipal government, the mayor and city councillors who chair various standing committees, to set a firm agenda.The mayor's task force misses the point, or perhaps it was supposed to miss the point. There is no structural problem. The city has functioned well in the past and will function well in the future. The problem will be fixed at the next election, or possibly sooner, depending on the verdict in the mayor's bribery trial.
Zussman said this group would then drive the city-wide political agenda at council, making it more likely that other councillors would take a larger view of the issues before deciding how to vote.
This document is being submitted to the City of Ottawa South March Highlands Conservation Forest Management Plan public consultation process.
If you attended the March 2, 2009 public meeting please let the city know your views on the plan. If you could not attend the meeting become informed and make your views known.
For more information, or to make your views known, please contact:
David Miller
Program Manager, Environmental Sustainability
City of Ottawa
4th floor, 110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1J1
Phone: 613-580-2424, ext. 21447
Fax: 613-580-2459
E-mail: david.miller@ottawa.ca
You may also wish to let your city councillor know about your views.
Contact Information for City Councillors
Introduction
I am a lifelong environmentalist and outdoorsperson who hikes, mountain bikes, skis and snowshoes in the South March Highlands.
In this document “trail” will refer to natural rugged single track trails and “pathway” will refer to wide hard packed gravel-stone dust pathways. As there are no official trail names provided in the plan I will refer to trails according to the names on the Ottawa Mountain Bike Association (OMBA) Trail Map.
Reference Maps (click on maps to enlarge)
As an environmentalist and serious hiker and mountain biker my first and primary concern is that the trails be kept in their natural rugged state and be retained as natural surface single track trails.The Trillium Woods is described in the city's plan as the most environmentally important and sensitive part of the South March Highlands. That being the case I might have expected possible trail closures in that area. Indeed the Trillium Woods Trail has begun to widen and my recommendation would be for mitigation measures to be taken to restore the trail to its natural single track state.
There has also been the possibility of wheelchair access pathways suggested. Despite the potential benefits of this, I do not wish to see the natural ruggedness and wilderness-like nature of the protected area compromised. One possibility is to build such a pathway around the “Beaver Pond”. This would also provide a place for casual walkers to enjoy the forest without ending up on the rugged natural trails in their high heels or sandals.Kanata Lakes
Afterwards, I immediately went to the City of Ottawa website to see if I could review the maps and other documentation. However, as is usual whenever I go to the City of Website to look for planning or development information, I found it to be woefully inadequate.The response I received from the city on May 12, 2008 was:
It would be very useful if the public could access more details and background information on the City of Ottawa website in order to make better informed comments and suggestions.
I noted your comment on the web site and I agree that we need to get materials there as we proceed with the process so I will be working to get material posted as soon as possible.However nothing was posted and only recently very sparse information was posted on the City of Ottawa website at the link below.
According to The Code on CBC's The Fifth Estate almost everyone involved in professional hockey from the head of the NHL down believes that fighting is an important and integral part of the game. So why are there rules and penalties against it. And why are the rules and penalties so lax as to be ineffective.
There seems to be something just a little bit hypocritical about having purposefully ineffective rules against something that they claim to be an integral part of the game.
I would like to thank The Enlightened Savage for drawing my attention to this article from Canwest News Service.
Unfortunately there is some missing and misleading information in the article which states:
OTTAWA - The House of Commons is developing a system to put every MP’s voting record on the web, shining light for the first time on information that has long been buried deep within House of Commons records.What is true about the article is that there is not yet a user friendly online way to directly access House of Commons voting records. However, for at least ten years, an automated voting records system has been in place and MPs voting records have been provided on request. The system, which certainly has it's faults, has been developed and improved over the years but cannot be accessed directly by users. The main clients of the service have been Members of Parliament's offices and the media, so it is surprising that the Canwest article ignored this fact.
While voting records of elected officials in other countries are often easily accessible, the House of Commons currently provides no comprehensive records of how MPs vote on bills and motions in Parliament.
The information can only be found by searching through thousands of pages of Hansard, the official record of the House of Commons debates, and extracting the listings for results of each individual vote, a process that would be extremely time-consuming.
- percentage of votes won by the governmentThere is a whole other factor that comes into play as well – the fact that huge numbers of votes on amendments, particularly at report stage, can skew the statistical results. It would be useful to be able to exclude these votes from the results on certain occasions and just analyze the results for the main votes on each stage of bills and motions..
- percentage of times each party voted with the government
- MPs that voted against their own party, and the votes where they did
- comparisons by party of MPs voting against their party by percentage
-ability to track votes by subject
-ability to track the rare occasions when a vote is declared a “free vote”
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), and others of their ilk, claim to be concerned about the ethical treatment of animals.
Let us talk about science. Animals can be classed as carnivores, herbivores or omnivores. It is natural for carnivores to eat meat, herbivores plants, and omnivores both.
People are animals. To be more specific, people are primates, mammals and omnivores.
Let us talk about ethics. It is highly unethical to try to make an animal go against it's own nature. For example, to try to force feed a herbivore meat or a carnivore plants. It is equally as unethical to try to coerce people into going against their own nature and eat only plant matter, and extremely unethical to suggest that it is immoral for people to act in a perfectly natural way, as the omnivores that they are.
And while I may enjoy PETA's rather sexist topless protests I find it rather odd to see the “I'd rather go naked than wear fur” protesters dressed in high “leather looking” boots. I can only assume that they are synthetic and that PETA, who try to claim to be environmentalists, believe it is better to wear boots made from petrochemicals from the tar sands, than wear boots made from natural renewable animal products.
We need to send PETA, and their followers, back to school for some basic lessons in biology and ethics. I have selected a few sources that might help them understand.
Omnivores - Kid's Corner - Sheppard Software
Carnivore, Herbivore, or Omnivore?
What is an omnivore?
The Fifth Columnist has just gone through migraine hell, spending two weeks with an almost continuous migraine. Thus blogging was sporadic over the last couple of weeks. After a visit to emergency, and a CT scan determined my brain was normal and a visit to the doctor put me on new medication, I am actually feeling quite optimistic that my migraines may now become much fewer.
Unfortunately a lot was happening and I was thinking about blogging about things but was not able to – like how pissed off Stevie must have been when Michaëlle shared the front page photo of the Ottawa Citizen with Barack, rather than him, especially as he tried so hard to hide her from the press, but she and they would have none of it.
The other thing I contemplated was other “controversial” ads that OC Transpo could ban from their buses, like:
The Earth is Not Flat, Stop Worrying You Won't Fall Off The Edge
Gravity Keeps You Down – Don't Worry If You Run Out of Crazy Glue
The Climate is Changing and it's Our Fault – Don't Worry, Do Something About It
The interesting thing that all these slogans have in common with “there’s probably no god”, is that they have nothing to do with religion and everything to do with science. It is a sad day for Canada when scientific facts become too “controversial” for the side of a bus.
these ads would not be allowed on OC Transpo buses...
and these ads would.
NOTE: the Gods of Rock ads have been withdrawn, no thanks to OC Transpo or any mythical creature, but due to Virgin Radio listening to the people. Now will OC Transpo listen to reason and allow atheists the same freedom of expression they allow religionists on OC Transpo buses.
OC Transpo Screws Up Scheduling On First Days Back
On the first Saturday and Sunday of post-strike service OC Transpo managers, the people who want to take more control over OC Transpo scheduling, screwed it up so that drivers ended up being paid overtime, even though the system is at reduced capacity and drivers are sharing limited working hours.
As the Ottawa Citizen reported “Under questioning from River Councillor Maria McRae, OC Transpo director, Alain Mercier, said when the company made up schedules for drivers returning to work, an error was made and extra drivers had to be called in to cover all the routes.”
Pete Seeger Receives Apology – Better Late Than Never
As the CBC reported:
Nearly a half century ago, amid suspicion and fears of McCarthyism, folk singer Pete Seeger faced an ultimatum from the San Diego school district: Sign an oath against communism or cancel a concert he planned at a high school auditorium.E-Cigs – I Got Spammed
Seeger, who at the time of the board's demand was under scrutiny for his leftist politics, refused to sign the oath. A judge allowed the concert to proceed anyway.
Decades later, the school board wants to make amends. In a resolution approved Tuesday night, the school district declared that the board "deeply regrets its predecessors' actions" and offered an apology to a man who has become "one of our dearest national treasures."
The 89-year-old songwriter appears willing to accept the board's apology, saying the board's resolution is a "measure of justice that our right to freedom of expression has been vindicated."
The right wing believes that a fifteen year old child soldier (according to the United Nations definition) accused of killing an American soldier (based on questionable evidence) in a war zone should be treated as a terrorist.
The right wing also believes that American soldiers taking refuge in Canada after refusing to fight in an illegal war, where they might be required to kill innocent civilians, should be returned to the United States to face punishment.
Go figure.
With the global environmental crisis comes a global economic opportunity. Just as the response to climate change involves solutions that we should be undertaking anyway, so does the global economic crisis. In the long term we have to change our way of living to save the global environment and the global economy.
In the long term we have to move from an unlimited growth economy to a limits to growth economy. In the short term we have to preserve the livelihoods of working people while preparing for long term changes. That means we need short term economic stimulus and job creation.
Short term governmental budget deficits are going to be a necessary part of this response. We must bear in mind that budget deficits shift payments to future generations so they should be utilized in a manner that benefits future generations.
First of all they must not be used to transfer money from future generations to the present generation via tax cuts. The use of tax cuts at this time to stimulate the economy is a flawed approach anyway as people are more likely to save during times of economic uncertainty, rather than spend, because it is the prudent thing to do. The only people who will spend the tax cut funds are those that do not need them. Using deficit funding for tax cuts is simply stealing from our children and grandchildren.
The most important thing we can spend stimulus money on is dealing with the infrastructure deficit. If your roof was leaking and you had to borrow money to fix it – would you do that or leave it to deteriorate till the repairs could not be avoided and the costs had multiplied many times over what borrowing to fix it would cost you. That is what we have done with our infrastructure, except future generations will be saddled with those inflated costs. In our short-sighted concern about avoiding budget deficits we have let our country's infrastructure go into a deficit. Using deficit financing to eliminate the infrastructure deficit will save, not cost, future generations money.
As well, damaged transportation infrastructure increases transportation costs, as poor infrastructure leads to more necessary repairs on private vehicles, as well as public transit vehicles, and greater fuel consumption with it's environmental costs. Decaying water and sewer systems have health and environmental implications. Inadequate educational infrastructure affects the quality of our children's education and our society's readiness for the future.
The other component of economic stimulus that should provided by deficit spending is preparing for the new future. We should not be spending any government funds, and in particular funds that future generations will be paying for, on the old failed economy.
No funds should go to fossil fuels or nuclear energy. Funding of the energy sector should be targeted at renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources,
Industrial funding should be targeted at low energy and environmentally friendly infrastructure and sustainable industries. Funding for the automobile sector should be target to next generation environmentally friendly vehicles and public transit infrastructure.
We must prepare our economy, and the public, for the transition to a limits to growth economy and for the need to share the planets limited resources more equitably between those who now live in abject poverty and those who live in wasteful abundance driven by greed. This will be an economy with the emphasis on self-sufficiency and environmental sustainability, an economy based on a sense of community, locally and globally.
Special Sunday Fifth Column
I do not usually post software reviews here, and this is not a full review, but something I stumbled upon.
I love Gmail, especially it's LABELS, which allows one to put messages in multiple virtual folders. My one big concern was not having my mail stored on my own computer. I now have a very easy and simple and intuitive way to do that using free software called MailStore.
This is one of the most intuitive programs that I have ever used. I had it up and running and tested the retrieval function on two Gmail accounts in under ten minutes.
MailStore can be downloaded here.
I will still store and retrieve my mail from Gmail online but I will have peace of mind knowing I have it duplicated offline on my own computer.
This is the first of a series on the economic crisis opportunity.
Karl Marx said “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. In other words we are all expected to contribute to society what we can and only expected to take what we need. Under socialism laziness and greed are both vices.
Unfortunately under modern capitalism greed is considered more of a virtue than a vice and has become the driving force of the economic system. It is greed that has brought capitalism to where it is today.
So is socialism the answer. Rather than try to insert a lengthy treatise into the middle of this post let us just all agree that we are not ready to move to that stage at this point in time.
But we do need to change our way of thinking and the way we live in this world for the good of the planet and it’s peoples.
Capitalism has simply gotten out of control, especially American capitalism where most corporations today operate on the principle that “corporate officers have a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value”, that is profits, without regards for employees or customers, or communities, or the broader public good.
We have seen it in our communities with the decline of local businesses and the growth of mega corporations. As owners become more disconnected from their businesses concerns for workers and customer value disappear to be replaced by the pursuit of, not just a fair profit, but maximized profit.
And we are all complicit as we sell out our friends and neighbours who worked in the locally owned businesses and local factories, for cheap goods produced abroad by near-slave labour.
Alongside greed, but driven by it, are false assumptions. The first false assumption is that wealth creation is all that matters, and wealth redistribution is an evil of socialism. The assumption being that as long as we keep creating wealth the rich will keep getting richer but enough “crumbs” will trickle down to working people and the poor to keep them happy. This is based on the same theory that sees recessions as the worst thing that could possibly happen. But it is a theory based on continuous and unlimited growth, a dangerous false assumption, The planet simply does not have the resources to support unlimited economic growth without self-destructing.
So where do we go from here. For the moment those responsible are still living their lavish lifestyles, pausing only to fly to Washington in their corporate jets to ask the common people to bail them out with their tax money. But the fact is that the American economy, and even the Canadian economy is so dominated by these mega corporations that their failure would have serious implications for working people.
In the short term governments need to keep the economy from collapsing, for the broader good, But they should not do it on the corporations terms but in a way that serves the common people. In the long term this is an opportunity to change the way the economy works – to an economy that serves the common good, not just corporate interests.
We have seen that countries with mixed economies, in particularly Canada, with a greater degree of government regulation and involvement in the economy have done better than the American pure capitalist approach. We need to learn from that, and build on it. But we need to go much further in building an economy for the people and the planet rather than an economy just for the corporations.
We can build an economy that can provide everyone with a decent quality of life if we responsibly and sustainably utilize and distribute the planet's resources.
Future posts will look in more detail at what we need to do in the short and long term.
This was a strike that had to be, but never should have been. After over 50 days of the workers going without pay and the city going without transit service, and the hardships resulting from that, we ended up with a settlement that we could have had without a strike.
But the fact is that it took a strike for OC Transpo and Mayor Larry to realize they could not impose their position (the main issue being the rollback of previously negotiated contract provisions) unilaterally.
At this point we have very ill will between workers and management and the potential for a “poisoned work environment”. How do we move forward from here.
The irony of it all is that the very contentious scheduling provisions that we're at the heart of the strike were negotiated as a solution to the ill will between management and workers and a “poisoned work environment”.
The solution put forward at that time, by the consulting group KPMG, was to get both sides to work together for the common good using interest-based bargaining, rather than the traditional confrontational demands-based bargaining. Out of that came a management proposal to change the scheduling system to give the workers more control over their lives. And things did improve.
Then Larry O'Brien was elected Mayor of Ottawa, and he obviously did not bother to learn the history of OC Transpo or he chose to ignore it.
We can no longer ignore history. We not only need to rebuild OC Transpo ridership, we also need to rebuild trust between workers and management. We need to go back to the non-confrontational approach.
Their may be a need for improvements to the scheduling system. If so, they should be designed the same way the existing system was designed, by workers and management taking the time to co-operatively design a better system together.
There will be a lot of challenges to rebuild OC Transpo and rebuild ridership. The chances of success will be a lot better if workers and management do it together co-operatively. We are at the stage of moving into a whole new phase of public transit in Ottawa. We can only succeed if we work together and take advantage of, not only the expertise of hired consultants, but the expertise of our own front line workers who are in contact with transit users everyday.
Both sides could start by providing transit users with an assurance of continued stable transit service by agreeing to use interest-based bargaining for the next collective agreement and agreeing to send any outstanding issues to binding arbitration with no preconditions.
They could start working immediately by establishing a worker-management brainstorming group to develop ways of improving transit service in Ottawa. Not only might this come up with some novel ways to improve service, it will get both sides working together for the common good.
Special Sunday Fifth Column
He may be the most hated man in Ottawa . During the OC Transpo strike he certainly did not endear himself with the public and he never said what he was supposed to say. Indeed I called him “the world's worst communicator”. But he spoke straight from the heart and the gut. In the midst of the chaos and hardship of the OC Transpo strike he made it clear that there was only one thing he cared about – his members' rights and their struggle against and OC Transpo's attempts to roll back previously negotiated contract provisions and Mayor Larry O'Brien's goal of breaking their union. He fought for them to the end not caring what anyone thought of him, only thinking about winning the battle for the workers he was leading.
An old school labour leader, he may not be the right man to lead the workers during the next stage of labour management relations at OC Transpo, that will be for them to decide, but he is still a true Working Class Hero.
It is not because safety is not important that I say that this is a phony issue. It is a phony issue because there was no concern raised by the city before the strike began, or even at the start of the strike, or at least no concern that was made public, and Mayor Larry has shown no inclination to keep such concerns private.
The concern was only raised after OC Transpo, and Mayor Larry's, financial arguments about their scheduling position were discredited when the public learned that the current scheduling system was proposed by OC Transpo and that the workers took a pay reduction to pay for the additional costs of the system.
It was simply an attempt to justify the unjustifiable.
However there is a problem with OC Transpo not being under any safety regulations regarding bus drivers' working hours. This is because of the federal government's blatant disregard of their responsibility for inter-provincial (and international) municipal public transit and the lack of appropriate safety regulations. Requests were made, and granted, to have municipal transit services exempted from the federal regulations because the federal regulations were designed for long distance trucking and bus systems and were not suited to municipal systems. The fact that the federal government has jurisdiction over inter-provincial municipal transit systems and does not provide appropriate safety regulations is inexcusable.
The ideal solution would be to recognize that OC Transpo is essentially an Ontario transit service and have a federal-providential agreement giving the province regulatory powers so that OC Transpo would be under the same safety regulations as other Ontario public transit systems.
In the interim I would suggest an agreement (outside of the collective bargaining process) between OC Transpo and the Amalgamated Transit Union to have OC Transpo operate as if it was covered by the provincial regulations.
In the meantime the scheduling system could be referred to mediation, the financial issues could go to arbitration, and the buses could go back into service.
The Fifth Column is a Member of a blog aggregator or blogging community known as Progressive Bloggers.
Progressive Bloggers describes itself this way:
Progressive Bloggers is a group of Canadian bloggers who firmly believe that this great country needs to move forward, not backwards. Be they Liberal or liberal, New Democrats or democrats, Green voters or voters who want a green country, or even Red Tories searching for a home, these bloggers believe that Canadian politics should move in a progressive direction.When I first started my blog, The Fifth Column, I set out to find ways to increase my readership and I discovered a number of blog aggregators that post your blogs, or the first few paragraphs, together with other blogs, and Progressive Bloggers was one of them.
On these blogs you will read about the importance of the environment, the need to preserve Canada’s social programs and its multicultural mosaic. You’ll see posts on why national unity is important and on why there are worse problems than letting two people who love each other marry.
If you have a progressive blog, be sure to join this group. If you enjoy reading progressive blogs, then you’ve come to the right place.
It is really easy to blame the drivers, mechanics and their union for the strike. However the facts do not support that.
The strike was called when the employer, the City of Ottawa and OC Transpo, presented a final offer and stated that they were not willing to negotiate any further (and they have not moved from their bottom line position since then). That left the workers with the choice of accepting an unsatisfactory offer or going on strike. Further negotiations were no longer an option (although the union indicated its willingness to accept the federal mediators proposal as a way of ending the strike within days of it's start).
We could still blame the workers and their union if the strike had been the result of unreasonable demands by them. But it was not.
The strike was precipitated by an attempt by the City of Ottawa and OC Transpo to rollback previously bargained for benefits relating to the scheduling system. This was a system that was proposed by the employer and negotiated in a non-confrontational interests-based bargaining process over an extended period of time. It was also a proposal that, despite the rhetoric (lies?) of Larry O'Brien and his cohorts, did not cost the City and OC Transpo anything because the workers took a reduced pay increase to pay for the extra costs.
The strike can be settled immediately if City of Ottawa and OC Transpo would accept the workers and their union's reasonable proposal to send the financial package to arbitration and the scheduling issue to a mediation process. The system was developed in a non-confrontational process over an extended period of time. If the city believes it has problems that need to be fixed that is the process to use, a process that may be able to find improvements that benefit both the workers and the employer.
The facts make it clear that it was the City and OC Transpo that that caused the strike and it is the City and OC Transpo that are responsible for it continuing.
Submission to the National Capital Commission Greenbelt Master Plan Review
By Richard W. Woodley, environmentalist, hiker, mountain biker, snowshoer, cross country skier, kayaker
The following statement, contained in an email from an NCC representative, dated May 12, 2006, makes it clear that the current NCC policy banning mountain biking on the Greenbelt trails is unenforceable.
We know that there is a lot of interest in off-road riding on Greenbelt hiking trails. On the other hand, section (16) of the NCC Traffic & Property Regulations states..."No person shall ride a bicycle on property of the Commission other than a driveway or on a bicycle path set aside by the Commission for the purpose...". While we have not actively tried to enforce this particular regulation, we do not condone the practice. There are long-term impacts on the trails and surrounding area, particularly rutting, trail erosion, trail widening as users veer off the designated route to avoid ruts and muddy surface, and destruction of adjacent vegetation. In the winter, we want to discourage bike riders who may travel across groomed ski tracks.What is apparent, when one examines the facts, is that there are no legitimate reasons for banning mountain biking on the Greenbelt trails. In fact, there are numerous reasons why it should be allowed, and indeed encouraged.
Special Saturday Fifth Column
The Amalgamated Transit Union has made a proposal that could end the OC Transpo strike almost immediately by sending the financial offers to binding arbitration and submitting the scheduling issue to a mediation process.
Mayor Larry O'Brien, the City of Ottawa and OC Transpo claim that they have made a fair and reasonable offer to the Amalgamated Transit Union and claim that their new scheduling proposals are better for the drivers and are just not well understood by the drivers and their union.
If that is true why are they afraid to send their financial offer to binding arbitration without preconditions and submit their scheduling proposal to a mediation process where it can be explained to and understood by the union and it's members.
There is a word for it when you tell other people something you do not believe to be true.
As an environmentalist, I am inclined to say yes to that question because of the extensive environmental benefits provided by public transit systems, the main one, of course, being the fact that it reduces automobile use considerably and in some cases can make car ownership unnecessary.
But the first question we have to answer is what does that mean.
If public transit is essential, like police and health care services, then it must be provided. There must be legislation requiring municipalities above a certain size to provide a public transit service.
If public transit is essential, then it must be publicly provided. It cannot be left to the whims of the private sector that will only provide service where it is profitable.
It must be a meaningful service so the legislation must provide standards of service that must be provided.
It must also be affordable to all citizens, especially lower income citizens. In order to do this fares must only be used to cover a portion of the costs, no more than fifty percent.
Since municipalities have the least effective and least equitable taxing powers of all levels of government, funding must be provided by all three levels of government, municipal, provincial and federal.
And for it to be effective in getting people to make permanent lifestyle changes it must be reliable and provided without interruption.
This would require removing the right to strike from workers and the right to lock-out workers during labour disputes from management and replacing it with a fair system of compulsory arbitration when negotiations and mediation fail. It should also be noted that despite whatever legislation may be in place strong unions always maintain the ability to strike if the alternative measures are not applied fairly.
Legislation declaring public transit an essential service must include all of these factors if we are truly treating it as an essential service. It has to be a lot more than just taking rights away from workers.
While we are discussing declaring services essential for their environmental benefits, I would suggest that a comprehensive system of commuter bike routes also be declared an essential service that must be provided by all municipalities.
This is the third part of a series of blog postings on the National Capital Commission's Greenbelt Master Plan Review as it relates to mountain biking. The last posting will be my personal submission on Mountain Biking in the National Capital Greenbelt.
This link will take you directly to the Review of the 1996 Greenbelt Master Plan.
Managing Recreation and Mountain Biking
In this post we will look at the NCC document entitled Managing Recreation as well as other information on their web site relating to NCC policies on trails, cycling and mountain biking.
The document Managing Recreation states:
Over 100 kilometres of trails have been developed for recreational use in the Greenbelt (skiing, snowshoeing, hiking and birdwatching), and the Greenbelt Pathway is under development with links to the recreational pathway system (in the Capital region), the Rideau Trail (Ottawa to Kingston) and the Trans Canada Trail (across Canada). A number of recreational facilities such as campgrounds, riding schools, municipal sports fields, golf courses and two leash-free areas for dog walking can also be found in the Greenbelt.My understanding is that cycling is only officially allowed on the “recreational pathways” and not the “trails”. We will examine the document Biking Country to try and find a clear statement of that policy.
The Greenbelt Pathway
The Greenbelt Pathway is planned to be a continuous 56-kilometre recreational pathway that will provide a unique experience from Shirley’s Bay in the west to Green’s Creek in the east.
Its objectives are:
- to connect key visitor attractions and link with other pathways in Canada’s Capital Region
- to provide a unique rural experience along the Capital’s integrated Recreational Pathway Network
Canada’s Capital Region is home to one of North America’s largest networks of cycling pathways — the Capital Pathway network. More than 170 kilometres of recreational pathways link superb natural areas, parks, gardens, museums and attractions. The paths are great for cycling and many other activities such as walking, jogging and in-line skating. Come and fill up on fresh air!The Map of the Capital Pathway makes it clear that this only includes paved and hard packed surface pathways and not the natural trails in the Greenbelt.
We know that there is a lot of interest in off-road riding on Greenbelt hiking trails. On the other hand, section (16) of the NCC Traffic & Property Regulations states..."No person shall ride a bicycle on property of the Commission other than a driveway or on a bicycle path set aside by the Commission for the purpose...". While we have not actively tried to enforce this particular regulation, we do not condone the practice. There are long-term impacts on the trails and surrounding area, particularly rutting, trail erosion, trail widening as users veer off the designated route to avoid ruts and muddy surface, and destruction of adjacent vegetation. In the winter, we want to discourage bike riders who may travel across groomed ski tracks.I will be watching for further information on the Greenbelt Master Plan Review to be posted on the NCC web site and for notices of public meetings and will report them on my blog. I will now begin drafting my personal submission on Mountain Biking on the Greenbelt Trails.
