Ron's & Paul's Excellent Adventure to Montreal

Paul and I decided to go to Montreal on Monday and Tuesday last week (May 29 & 30) and here are some of the pictures we took:

This is Paul enjoying breakfast on the train to Montreal. It was an early morning start (6:40 am), but the breakfast in Business Class was worth it! 

Paul posing in front of the large departures and arrivals board in Montreal's Central Station. This is the largest train station in Canada and is still the main hub for passenger transportation by rail in Canada.

Our first stop was Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral. The church is located at 1085 Cathedral Street at the corner of René Lévesque Boulevard and Metcalfe Street, near the Bonaventure Metro station and the Central Train Station.

My attempt to take a picture of Paul inside the church was a dismal failure, as illustrated by the result here. Not enough light.

 As we continued walking, we came across some interesting sculptures, that we decided to imitate.

Here's Paul's version.

This is mine.

 In Place d'Armes in Old Montreal, we encountered these contemporary statues called The English Pug and the French Poodle by Montreal artist Marc-André J Fortier. The dogs appear eager to meet, but the woman and the man disdain one another. The woman faces the bank (the Bank of Montreal's Head Office) with her nose turned up at business, while the man faces the church (Notre Dame Cathedral) with his nose turned up at religion

This is Montreal in a capsule. English versus French, business versus religion and all solitudes keeping their masks on. But the dogs, perhaps representing children or the new generation, just want to play. Perhaps it's appropriate that they are located at the centre of what used to be the city's financial centre just a short distance from Old Montreal's night life.

This is Paul balancing the heaviest free-standing bank vault on his head. When the Banque Nationale built their head office in Place d'Armes. they built the vault above ground, visible from all sides. Unlike bank vaults built everywhere else, this one is impossible to tunnel into.

This is Ron poking that miniature lady to get out of the way in front of the Bank Of Montreal's Head Office. Ron's first job was working in the office building (built much later) attached to this branch.

The Bank of Montreal (Banque de Montréal) was established in 1817, making it Canada's first bank. The first branch was built here on Rue Saint-Jacques in 1819. This Pantheon-like building was built by John Wells in 1847, 20 years before Confederation.

Paul and I posed in the lobby of the bank.

More walking in the narrow streets of Old Montreal.

Eventually we found Montreal's Old City Hall. It is located between Place Jacques-Cartier and the Champ de Mars, at 275 Notre-Dame Street East in Old Montreal.

In 1967 Charles de Gaulle, the president of France, gave his “Vive le Québec libre” speech from the building's balcony.

 A building on Ste Catherine that we found had an interesting electronic display.

We finally managed to find an open bar to have a pint from a local brewery before we caught the train to meet my sister Gloria for lunch.

 This is the commuter train we caught at the Bell Centre to get to Pointe Claire.

On the train.

Lunch with sister Gloria at the pub beside the hotel we were staying at.

Dinner with my friend Brendan at Le Bistro in Pointe Claire Village.

After a busy and exhausting day, we were both ready for bed.

The next day, we were ready for more:



This Paul on the observation deck on top of Place Ville Marie - one of the best vantage points to see the whole city.

This was in the underground mall underneath Place Ville Marie, part of Montreal's extensive network of underground tunnels and connections, which makes getting around downtown in inclement weather much more pleasant.




We visited the Hotel Bonaventure at the top of Place Bonaventure to see their indoor / outdoor heated pool. It's much more impressive in winter when you can get into the pool indoors and then swim outside when it's freezing cold. The evaporating water keeps you warm and toasty in the pool - I'm speaking from personal experience!

No one was swimming today - perhaps because of the rain.

Paul posed beside the statue of Maurice Richard just outside the Bell Centre.

Paul inside the Bell Centre:

Paul in the sports bar at the Bell Centre. Note the chandelier made from hockey sticks. 

Our visit to the Peel Pub, which had moved a bit south on Peel from it's original location north of Ste. Catherine.

We stopped at the Deli Planet in Central Station for a quick beer before boarding our train back to Ottawa.

The food on the return train trip was as good as our breakfast the day before. We finished our trip watching the 2nd episode of the original Star Wars Trilogy, "The Empire Strikes Back." Paul has never seen the films before and just discovered that Darth Vader is Luke's father.

All in all, it was a fun trip. Paul is a very enjoyable travel companion and we had a great time.

Bora Bora Free Vacation Scam

Wow! You just got a Facebook message saying you could win a free vacation to Bora Bora. The message will have something like the following text:

We're flying one person off to the Bora Bora along with 3 friends staying in one of our 5 star villas + $3,000 spending cash.The winner will be announced on 5th Sep!

Want to win? Simply follow the steps below to enter the competition:

Step 1) Like this Page
Step 2) Share on your wall (Very important)
Step 3) Click the "Sign Up" button on our page!

One share will be chosen at complete random!

Winners will be selected based on their wall post.
Thank you for joining. More power!

Sorry, it's a SCAM.

Legitimate companies running contests do it for the publicity, yet there is no name of the airline from which you will have to get airline tickets and no name of the resort where you will spend the vacation. Why would ANY company do this and remain anonymous?

The scam is almost identical to one that was recently put on Facebook as an American Airline (yes they forgot the "s") promotion. (See http://www.hoax-slayer.com/american-airline-free-tickets-facebook-scam.shtml). The  pictures used in that scam AND HERE are from the Four Seasons Bora Bora (see http://www.bespoketraveller.gr/en/destinations/australia-south-pacific/tahiti-french-polynesia/four-seasons-bora-bora).

So why, you may ask, would scammers go to all of this trouble just to collect Facebook likes? In fact, a Facebook Page with high numbers of likes is a valuable commodity.

Once it has gained a lot of likes, such a Page may be used to launch survey scams, which can earn the scammers money via dodgy affiliate marketing schemes. The Page may also be used to launch other types of scams, or promote the owner's suspect products or services to a large potential audience.

Alternatively, the now like-heavy Page can be sold on the black market to unscrupulous Internet marketers. The new owners can re-purpose the Page to further their own nefarious goals.

Scams like this one are very common on Facebook. Scammers have created fake pages promising free tickets and trips from several major airlines. Be wary of any Facebook Page that promises valuable prizes such as airline tickets, vacations, or luxury cars just for liking, sharing, or participating in online surveys.

Do not like or share this information. It's a scam.

Fraud Warning - NOTHING IS FREE!!!

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Have you been a victim of this "free tickets" scam? We all like free stuff and when a "coupon" appears in our email or on Facebook offering free stuff, we are all tempted to take advantage of the offer, As in this illustrated example, information is scarce, so you click on the coupon and it tells you that YOU ARE A WINNER and there are only a limited number left (in this example, on 144 left). 

HARD CODING:

Oddly enough if you go back to the website after completing the survey, there are still 144 tickets left. After analyzing the source code, I can confirm that the message "144 tickets left" is HARD CODED and will never change. Here are some other hard coded data:

Comments are HARD CODED and fake:

• Eunice Garza: wow great !
• Bryan Odum: It was busy at Cineplex today. It seems like many people have won these tickets.
• Bruno Pinho: Great entertainment.
• Jason Caesar: Yeeess, i will be there with my friend #Juliette.
• John Brooks: Thank you, Cineplex.
• Wallace Porter: Aah my family loves Cineplex.
• Deleon Sandra: My Husbands favourite place.
• Brenda Vaughn: thank you Cineplex.
• Sabrina White: Who would have thought I could win free tickets from cineworld. (I thought they were from Cineplex?)

Note that I copied all these comments from the SOURCE CODE, they were never entered on the website as real comments.

What should make you suspicious this offer is fake?

First off, the coupon itself:

1. Note that this is a CINEPLEX coupon, which is a CANADIAN COMPANY ONLY, yet the small text says that tickets are valid in AMC THEATERS ONLY IN THE USA.
2. There are a few AMC Theaters in Canada, but CINEPLEX is the much larger chain and has no connection to AMC. 
3. The coupon has no expiry date. All legitimate coupons ALWAYS HAVE AN EXPIRY DATE.
4. Note the phrase "to celebrate 30th anniversary." According the Wikipedia, Cineplex was founded in 1999, 17 years ago. It would only be celebrating it's 30th anniversary in 2029.

The website:

1. A quick check of the WHOIS Domain Registration database shows that the website that this coupon links you (winndixiecard.com) to is registered in Panama, not Canada.
2. There is only the "survey" at this website, no HOME page, ABOUT page, etc., although at the top of the page there appear to be links to other pages.
3. The links at the top of the page "Contact - Free Tickets - Careers" are fake. None of them are hyperlinks that open other webpages. They're just added to make you think there is a complete website there, when there isn't.

Here is what the first webpage looks like:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Why would any company ask such mundane questions that provide them with virtually no useful information - and give away 5 free tickets to boot which will be a serious financial drain on the company. Note that if you never receive the tickets, there is no contact information for you to use to contact the provider.

So what just happened?

1. You clicked on the link and answered the questionnaire, then clicked submit. 
2. As a result, the survey collected your answers in a database in Panama, along with other information that would have been automatically embedded in your reply like your email address, your Facebook address or your messenger address.
3. While you can't be certain how this information will be used, you may suddenly start receiving a lot of unsolicited emails, Facebook requests or messages, and these will be trying to entice you with more fraudulent offers.

What about Malware or Viruses?

This scam has been used successfully with theater chains in the UK and USA. In those particular cases, the survey part did not upload malware (like viruses) to the user's computer, although that is still possible depending on the code used. However, malware WAS UPLOADED when the user clicked on a link to redeem the coupon, which was sent to the user shortly after completing the survey.

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK TO REDEEM ANY COUPON FOR FREE MOVIE TICKETS FROM THIS OFFER.

Finally, a warning from Cineplex's own CONTACT US webpage:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

For future reference, nobody on the Internet gives anybody something for nothing. There are no free airline tickets, luxury cruises, iPhones, laptops, or free movie tickets, unless you enter a legitimate contest offering these as prizes. Companies do not give out massive freebies without a lot of publicity ON THEIR OWN WEBSITES. Be skeptical. Read all offers carefully and, if in doubt, just say NO CLICKING - NO DEAL.

The Trans Canada WIFI Highway - A Proposal

I just posted this comment on the CRTC's "basic telecommunications needs" topic page (see:http://consultation.crtc.gc.ca/en/consultation/40/how-can-it-be-ensured-canadians-basic-telecommunications-needs-are-met).:

We are moving to a wireless world. As the capacity and speed of wireless systems increases, I can see a world in the near future where companies abandon their expensive and difficult to maintain wired systems and switch to wireless only. I don't see replacing cooper wires with optical fibre to the home as a long-term solution.

The future will be wireless. High-speed wireless internet will dominate, and we will all switch again to a different platform to use exclusively in connecting Internet, TV, phone and other services. The existing service providers will aggressively protect their turf to keep the customer bases they have now, and that means the high cost for those services will just be transferred to this new paradigm. Many would like to promote existing wireless technology currently used for cell phone and mobile data as the future wireless connections for TV, Internet and home phone.

It doesn't have to be this way. If the federal, provincial and municipal governments considered the Internet Highway as vital as the existing road highways then new wifi infrastructure costs could be more effectively controlled, and the infrastructure would belong to and benefit all Canadians.

Internet connections in the home would be made directly from one's computer to a government high-speed wifi connection close by. Companies like Aruba (owned by Hewlett Packard) are already selling outdoor wifi systems they claim to have speeds up to 2.5 Gigabits per second (see:http://www.arubanetworks.com/…/ne…/access-points/330-series/). It would be easy for municipalities to install these systems everywhere on the top of power poles or light standards, and local residents would be able to connect without any cables running to their homes or be forced to buy or rent any modems.

Companies like Rogers and Bell could still provide services like cell phones, but would be relegated to content providers for the TV and movie products they own and license. This would truly bring in a pick-and-pay system where "all-you-can-eat" systems like Netflix would compete side by side with single show/movie rent/own systems like Apple TV. This system is more in line with what customers truly want. By controlling the delivery system (wireless wifi everywhere), governments could eliminate the oversight regulation of content and leave it up to the consumer to pick and choose what they want to watch. This is the only system that makes any sense moving forward.

Years ago, the federal government connected almost every school and library in Canada with Internet fibre optic cable connections (CANARIE system). Upgrading and deploying local rural and neighbourhood wifi connections to that backbone would truly make Canada one of the few countries in the world with inexpensive high-speed internet available everywhere. This, in my opinion, is the most valuable infrastructure project that this or any future government could undertake to transform the Canadian economy.

Because many rural residents have been under-serviced, they, instead of high-population municipalities, should be placed on the priority list for this new service. This would mean that residents in Plaster Rock NB, for example, would finally be able to get the true high-speed internet service that has been denied them because both Bell and Rogers have decided that offering the high-speed internet and additional TV channels, that the rest of us enjoy, is not cost effective in this rural community.

As municipalities that have done this have found (See CBC article:http://www.cbc.ca/…/…/fast-fibre-optic-internet-arrives-in-m...), average cost to the consumer comes in at $50 or less for unlimited Internet at fibre optic speeds. This service could easily handle Internet, TV, home phone and other services, like security alarm systems. Subsidies for low income families could lower that price to as little as $10 per month. But the most important thing is that the system would not be driven for profit and the only shareholders would be the Canadian public who would also be the primary beneficiaries of such a system.

We would never ask private companies to build and maintain the Trans Canada Highway. Why would we ask private companies to build and maintain our Trans Canada WIFI Highway?

Are Cable TV or bundle bills out of control?

Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cable-tv-internet-bills-discounts-customers-savings-1.3514746

CBC News interviewed me last week for a blog posting that appeared on their website this morning. I'm much happier with this article and am featured more prominently than I was in the Marketplace program. Overall, it's a good article on how to manage your bills for TV, Internet, Home Phone and Cell Phone.

I also hold clinics at The Good Companions Seniors Centre in Ottawa to look over bills with seniors on a 1 to 1 basis. Appointments are limited. You can reserve your spot by calling 613-236-0428.

As always, your feedback about the article is welcomed.

Are Donald Trump's supporters all just lemmings?

Originally broadcast in 1985 at the Superbowl, the Apple “Lemmings” commercial is undoubtedly the worst commercial of all time, in stark contrast to Apple’s “1984” Superbowl commercial the year before which is often called the greatest commercial of all time.

In Apple’s commercial, supporters blindly following their leader, and everyone in front of them, to their death as they blindly plunge over a cliff, until one follower stops and takes off his blindfold to see what’s happening. While the message in Apple’s commercial is about computers, it is not hard to convert this argument to politics and suggest that the lemmings are following Donald Trump to their ultimate doom. In Canada, we might make the same suggestion about Kevin O’Leary.

The triumph of Trump is that people are exhilarated by his aggressive, bombastic, provocative and outrageous style – the content of his speeches seem almost irrelevant to his followers. If he has not yet insulted every minority group in the United States and the citizens of every other country too, give him time. The Presidential election will not be held until November 8th, 2016. For a fire to continue spreading, it is necessary to find fresh fuel after the old fuel has been completely consumed. Mr. Trump will be ignored if he continues to rant about the same thing over and over again, so he has to find new targets to inflame his passion and get the kind of media attention he craves.

Politics in the US, and in Canada too, have been stuck in this “same old, same old” mold for generations. We are all tired of talking heads saying the same things over and over again, and breaking promises after elected. We are cynical about the control that powerful interests continue to maintain in the offices of power. We are tired of living in a surveillance state where police dispense justice on the streets, and we are helpless to stop them in spite of being able to record the details of their abuse. While Trump doesn’t address any of the real problems Americans face, the presentation of his message is so bizarre it is actually attracting a broad range of the population who somehow feel he would bring that brashness to a Presidency that could fix all these things. Have they forgotten that the current President will not even be able to nominate a Supreme Court Justice because of opposition in the Senate Chamber?

Americans, as well as Donald Trump, seem to believe that the President runs the country by himself, and that there is no negotiation or compromise. According to just a few of the insane promises Mr. Trump has made without any consideration to legislation difficulties, he would instantly ban all Muslims from entering the USA and would build a wall between the USA and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. In fact the more you listen to the raving American, he is sounding less and less like a Democrat (or like someone who believes in a Democracy) and more and more like someone who wants to be a dictator. Actually, strike that – if he’s willing to get in public spats with the Pope and declare infallibility in everything he says, he might as well run for the position of God.

By the way, you can see the whole Apple “Lemmings” commercial at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGJ0mp4kRVo.

Sexting – just say no: It is never okay!

Perhaps it’s just my generation. I cannot get my head around sexting. When I was a teenager, the closest we came to sexting was with Polaroid pictures. People who tried to take pictures with conventional cameras, often had their developed pictures and negatives turned over to the police, who then charged the amateur photographer with breaking “common decency” laws. Of course these pictures did receive unauthorized circulation from the minimum-wage employees who ran off extra prints at the print shop, before calling the police, and then secretly sold them to their friends or customers. Those pictures did get out there – kind of like what is happening with sexting today.

But with Polaroids, it was different. This was a playful activity between two consenting adults (or one adult who was trying to impress another adult). The Polaroids were almost never duplicated since that would mean creating a negative and then risking exposure by the clerk doing the prints from that negative. This meant there was one, and only one original and no copies. On breakup of a relationship, the person who did not want their naked bits shown to others would demand the pictures back. The pictures were returned, no copies existed and therefore no possible future embarrassment. If return of the photos was problematic because both parties appeared in compromising situations, then a mutually witnessed destruction, like burning all the Polaroids, could also provide closure. But no weapons of mass destruction exist for digital pictures conveyed by sexting, and so potential participants should just say, “No!”

In a UK article, “Teen girls, sexual double standards and ‘sexting’: Gendered value in digital image exchange” (Ringrose et al.), the authors end the report by asking, “What would it mean for us to live in a world where teen girls could unproblematically take, post or send an image of their breasts to whomever the wished” (Ringrose et al. 320)? In a world were teenage boys collect and trade pictures, like my generation used to trade baseball cards, a feminist stance is not going to fix this. If the nude pictures are out there, they are going to get traded and collected.

The report “Sexting as a media production: Rethinking social media and sexuality” (Hasinoff) tries instead to understand why teenagers and adults sext and also addresses the matter of consent. The author argues that “If social media content producers have ownership over their private images, then the focus of sexting safety campaigns should clearly be to reduce unauthorized distribution” (Hasinoff 460). Reproduction or distribution of these images then becomes a matter of copyright violation, but enforcement would become difficult and costly.

Sexting becomes a messy problem when the party (usually men) who demands the pictures (usually of women) decides to use them in ways that were not consented to at the time they are sexted or afterwards. The pictures become embarrassments and the “distributors”, usually only concerned with raising their own popularity currency, happily collect and trade more pictures of more women. Unfortunately there is never just the original and no copies, and a ritualistic bonfire to destroy them all is not possible.

The safest bet, as stated earlier, is just say “No!” No sexting, no pictures, no embarrassment. But I will send you an amusing picture of me (fully clothed) and my zen-cat, and you can think of me and smile whenever you look at it. And I promise you I will never ask you to sext me – and if it happens by accident (and I have heard of cases where teenage girls accidentally did sext pictures to their father), I promise I will completely delete the message, pictures and block and de-friend you to prevent it ever accidentally happening again.

Works Cited: 

Hasinoff, A. A. “Sexting as Media Production: Rethinking Social Media and Sexuality.” New Media & Society 15.4 (2012): 449–465. Web. 

“Teen Girls, Sexual Double Standards and ‘Sexting’: Gendered Value in Digital Image Exchange.” Feminist Theory 14.3 (2013): 305–323. Web.

It's over

Malcolm Mayes cartoon - The Edmonton Journal

“The most Important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said”. The Canadian electorate spoke loudly on Monday electing a majority Liberal government thus ending the rule of the Harper Government. Canadians were ready for a change, and that desire for change affected everything in this election. It’s not what the Conservatives said that influenced people, unless their intent was to get the voters to vote for other parties. Let’s look at some of these messages.

“Justin Trudeau is just not ready.” This is an odd argument to make. We can also add “Does he have the experience to be Prime Minister?” and “He’s way in over his head.” The first time any candidate gets elected Prime Minister they are going to be inexperienced, yet Canada has survived. While the Conservatives focused on trying to make Justin Trudeau look inexperienced and even foolish, people engaged with the candidate on a personal level. They liked him, so the questions backfired producing selective perception, with the viewers decoding these messages in a globally contrary way. As a result, the voters answered the questions in a positive way, not with the negative conclusions the Conservative Party thought they would:

• “Justin Trudeau is just not ready” became “Justin Trudeau is ready to be Prime Minister.”
• “Does he have the experience to be Prime Minister?” was answered with “He does have the experience to be Prime Minister.”
• “He’s way in over his head” changed to “He’s NOT way in over his head.”

At the end of the campaign the Conservative Party tried to focus on the tax increases the Liberal Party would have to bring in once elected. It was done with a bit of theatre with someone counting out the thousands of dollars it would cost while a cash register “dinged” in the background. It was supposed to make people afraid of tax increases, but this too missed the mark. The message was that the Liberals will start spending again to build infrastructure and create more jobs. After almost ten Conservative years of neglecting infrastructure and with cuts to services and programs, the Liberal party was a refreshing change. The Conservatives were telling us that they’re not done yet with all their cuts, in spite of some paltry promises to bribe taxpayers with their own money. The Liberals, on the other hand, were saying they would spend and even run a deficit for three years to get Canada back on track. For voters who had lost their jobs, or suffered from the closure of government offices, this was a refreshing change and the Conservatives supplied a nice visual to confirm this.

Now that the election is over and the Liberals have a majority government, and now that Steven Harper has resigned, the Conservative Party has purged their website of all election rhetoric and negative ads. But the ads and messages still survive on the Conservative Party of Canada Facebook page. As we all know, pictures and video live forever on Facebook. The attempt to induce electors to elect Conservatives out of fear did not work.

Democracy is the process of making your voices heard and being able to communicate with those in power. This is a lesson the incumbent, Stephen Harper, forgot. His loyal base was still there, but he forgot to count the 3 million extra votes of the people who wanted change, like students. This is a perfect illustration of why every vote DOES count, and a good argument for NOT using negative ads.

Works cited

Image used: Mayes, Malcolm. “Malcolm Mayes cartoons for October 2015”. The Edmonton Journal Website”.  http://edmontonjournal.com/gallery/malcolm-mayes-cartoons-for-october-2015. Web. 20-OCT-2015.

Quote used: Drucker, Peter F. “Leadership”. Reader’s Digest Treasury of Wit and Wisdom. Eds. Wertheimer et al. Montreal: The Reader’s Digest Association (Canada) Ltd., 2006. 199. Print.

Hawk, Ad. "Conservatives' Trudeau attack ads worked, but maybe not 'forever'". CBC News Website - Politics Webpage. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-attack-ads-trudeau-conservatives-1.3270164/. Web. 20_OCT-2015.

Conservative Party of Canada Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/cpcpcc?fref=ts/. Web. 20-OCT-2015.

What about jobs?

Men reading the want ads in Toronto during the Great Depression

As I was listening the the election rhetoric from last night’s CBC broadcast, it seemed to me that the messages are becoming much more personal and are moving away from discussions about jobs and the economy. All three parties claim they will improve the economy and produce more jobs for Canadians, but in a Free Trade economy, I doubt if that’s even possible any more.

In a recent blog posted on Motley fool, titled “Made in America? Not Exactly for These 5 Popular Products”, the author is lamenting that products identified as American are not really made in the USA. These include:

1. Levi Strauss: the manufacturer now makes most of it’s high-quality Levi’s jeans overseas, but it has not diminished the popularity of the brand.
2. Apple: It’s no secret that almost all of Apple’s iPhones and iPads are made in China.
3. Nestle: Nestle now owns Gerber’s and virtually all that baby food is now made in places like Poland, Venezuela, and Mexico
4. Jared: Rawlings baseballs used in virtually all the Major League Baseball games are now made in Costa Rica, not in the United States. Most of the baseball bats used by the MLB, The SamBat, are made in Canada.
5. Mattel: Barbie dolls are all made in China.

If large American companies cannot stop the expatriation of American jobs, how can smaller Canadian companies resist the trend if they want to compete? We’ve already seen this happening even when there are no off-shore manufacturing facilities to lower costs. Bigger corporations simply gobble up smaller ones and then, because of the economies of scale, reduce costs and often also raise prices, and there’s little we can do to stop this especially if the company has a monopoly or a near monopoly in the marketplace.

For example, we have no more major Canadian beer companies. Molson Breweries, the company that gave us a beer named “Canadian” was established in 1786, but in 2005 it was merged with Coors to form the Molson Coors Brewing Company, and the worldwide head office was moved to Denver Colorado, although the Canadian Division is headquartered in Montreal. The Labatt Brewing Company was founded in 1847 but it too was taken over by Belgian brewer Interbrew and is now part of Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Tim Hortons, the quintessential Canadian company, which first appeared in Hamilton in 1964, was most recently merged with Burger King, which is controlled by 3G Capital who are majority shareholders of Burger King. Tim Hortons was previously owned by Wendy’s, another American burger chain. The Canadian government insisted the head office remain in Canada and so Burger King shut the offices in Dublin Ohio to move their American headquarters to Oakville in Canada.

We have become consumers who like cheap and our economy is controlled by companies whose sole purpose is to “drive up shareholder value”. Investors can no longer earn 20% or 30% investments from bank interest or bonds or the old mainstays of investments like oil companies. So they are branching out into areas they would never have even considered before.

Take for example the recent takeovers in the pharmaceutical industry. In the Wall Street Journal Article “Pharmaceutical Companies Buy Rivals’ Drugs, Then Jack Up the Prices”, one company, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., increased drug prices by 212% to 525% overnight. The costs of manufacturing these drugs had not changed - just the owner. The price increases were more driver by shareholder greed to pay out higher dividends, than they were for any other business need. Other companies doing the same thing are included in this article.

The point I’m trying to make is that full-time, well-paying jobs are quickly disappearing in Canada and the United States as more and more companies use these behaviours to improve their bottom lines. It’s not that the jobs couldn’t stay in Canada, or that the products couldn't be sold at the same prices they sold for before the takeovers. It would just mean that the investors and wealthy shareholders would have to wait longer to build up their obscene cash piles instead of cashing in right away and then moving on to other targets.

Isn’t enough enough? Shouldn't we be taxing the excess profits and dividends that these tactics are creating? Shouldn't we be closing the loopholes that corporations and wealthy individuals use to avoid paying these taxes?

When all the good jobs have been exported from Canada and the United States and all that’s left are the service jobs at Tim Horton’s and Walmart, who are going to be the customers that shop there? We’ll be left with a society of the poor, the vast majority, who will only be able to afford to shop at the Dollar Store and Goodwill, and the ultra-wealthy who will be shopping at Starbucks, Holt Renfrew, Nordstrom’s and Tiffany’s. The huge disparity will create discontent and conflict. Some theorize that this forcing of people into unemployment and then trying to over-tax them, but not taxing the wealthy to pay their fare share, are the type of events that led to events like the French Revolution. In order to create a just and fair society, we need to achieve a better balance between the rich and poor and find a way to provide hope and survival to the middle class, and allow that group to thrive and even grow.

Works cited:

James, William (photographer). "File:Men reading the want advertisments for jobs, Melinda Street.jpg". Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Men_reading_the_want_advertisments_for_jobs%2C_Melinda_Street.jpg/. Web. 1919. This image is available from the City of Toronto Archives, listed under the archival citation Fonds 1244, Item 526.

Williams, Sean. “Made in America? Not Exactly for These 5 Popular Products”. Motley fool website. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/17/made-in-america-not-exactly-for-these-5-products.aspx/. Web. 18-OCT-2915.

"SamBat: The Original Maple Bat Corporation". SamBat website. http://canada.sambat.com/. Web. 18-OCT-2015.

"Molson Brewery". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molson_Coors_Brewing_Company/. Web. 18-OCT-2015.

"Labatt Brewing Company". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labatt_Brewing_Company/. Web. 18-OCT-2015.

 "Tim Hortons". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hortons. Web. 18-OCT-2015.

"Burger King". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King. Web. 18-OCT-2015.

"3G Capital". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G_Capital. Web. 18-OCT-2015.

 Rockoff, Jonathan D. and Silverman, Ed. The Wall Street Journal Online. "Pharmaceutical Companies Buy Rivals’ Drugs, Then Jack Up the Prices". http://www.wsj.com/articles/pharmaceutical-companies-buy-rivals-drugs-then-jack-up-the-prices-1430096431/. Web. 18-OCT-2014.

"Valeant Pharmaceuticals". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeant_Pharmaceuticals/. Web. 18-OCT-2015

 "French Revolution". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution/. Web. 18-OCT-2015

Interviewing Paul

When I agreed to do some interviews for the new CUSS blog, Humans of Carleton, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Fortunately my classmate Paul Campbell - the fire-breathing undergraduate - agreed to be my guinea pig. The experience was rewarding and fun and I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't.

The first thing we agreed on was the use of a recorder. I made a few notes to get Paul's name spelled correctly and some contact information so I could check facts, but then we just talked. I asked questions as they popped into my head, but I also had a vague roadmap of what I wanted to cover.

I wanted to tell Paul's story - how he got to Carleton. I asked him about growing up, his family, his personal relationships. He told me about is work, his hobbies, his passions. We spoke for over an hour just getting to know one another, and I found myself really enjoying the conversation - even forgetting I was doing an interview.

Fortunately, everything was recorded and after our meeting the real work began. as I listened to the recording, I began to see a story and created a mental outline of where the story would start and finish. My first draft was very rough, but had the basic structure and the seeds that would grow into the final story.

I kept re-writing and revising. At the time of the interview, Paul was not dating but, since then, he has started a relationship so that was one of the paragraphs I revised before posting the final article. I also verified my facts with Paul and my mentor, Owen, proofread the copy for any grammatical or other composition errors.

Interviewing someone is a tough writing assignment. There's a certain amount of planning and thinking about what questions you're going to ask. I had to ask myself questions like: "What is the story I'm going to tell here? What will people find interesting? How can I treat the person I am interviewing with respect and write an article that they will like too?"

Editing the information was also difficult. Paul was very open during our discussion and shared so many wonderful anecdotes and personal experiences. It was difficult to leave some of them out of the article but it was also important to try to make the article flow and not get sidetracked. In the end any interview article will be a compromise of what to keep and what to leave out. I think the result is a good compromise.

After I finished, I was apprehensive about whether other people would like what I wrote. Most importantly Paul did like it. When I'm writing, I tend to keep wanting to revise the language, paragraph order, style, etc., but at some point I just have to say "enough is enough" and stop.

I enjoyed the interview. Being an interview reporter is a tough job, but it is also rewarding. Being able to take a large amount of data and then distilling it into a meaningful story was a great creative outlet for my writing. I hope I'm lucky enough to find other interview subjects as interesting and as fun to interview as Paul.

Works cited:

Finnigan, Ron. Original photograph. Private collection. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

Finnigan, Ron. "The Fire-Breathing Undergraduate". Blogger website.  Rondyn Musings. Rondyn Musings. Web. 20 Oct. 21015. <http://rondynmusings.blogspot.ca/2015/10/the-fire-breathing-undergraduate.html>.  

Chuck Norris Stares Down His Books

Chuck Norris stares down his books.

On Wednesday, I wrote my mid-term for Philosophy. In an earlier post, I lamented the fact that I had lost all my notes, which are still locked up inside my iPad thanks to a recent Word update from Microsoft that causes that app to crash every time I open it. Feeling a bit discouraged, I was walking through the tunnels at Carleton, when I saw this wall painting and took some inspiration from the artist.

While the satirical comment indicates the Chuck Norris "doesn't read books", the reality for University students is that there is a lot of reading and note taking. Losing all the notes you've taken in a school term has happened to others, but the information will not come back by "staring down" the books. You have to open them and read them again and again. The image is also appropriate in a digital age where more and more books are now downloaded. In the future we might even say "we download them to our embedded memory chips until we get the information we want". I wonder what that type of memory crash would look like?

Software didn't use to be that way. I know because I was a software developer that designed point of sale systems and databases, and my software was thoroughly tested before it was installed. Thirty years ago, memory and storage were expensive commodities and if you found bugs you had to re-write the whole program since there was no space to just put in a patch. The program had to fit in the available, non-expandable memory, usually about 4K worth on the first machines I worked with.

Cheap memory, unlimited storage, faster processors have all made programmers lazy. Instead of taking the time to manually write out programs on coding sheets, as we used to, then having them key-punched, then compiling and debugging them, programmers type code directly into terminals without any organized flow-charts or documented plan. This type of coding is analogous to traveling to a destination by car without a road map or even a gps - just a general instinct of the compass direction you wish to take and what the final destination should look like. The chances are your journey will not be as smooth as you would like.

We rely on media of all types to be delivered by working technology every day. We can't watch TV if the cable service is down. We can't surf the Internet if the modem can't connect. If our computer or tablet crashes, we lose everything saved on the internal hard drive. More and more we rely on our electronic media connections to stay informed, stay in touch and stay up to date with personal information stored in our digital filing cabinets. Banks and utility companies no longer send us printed statements - we get digital copies instead. Requesting paper copies results in a charge.

What worries me is the growing laissez-faire attitude of government towards corporations that continue to market incomplete and buggy software. No one is held accountable and it's only a large consumer outcry that spurs large corporations to respond. Most of the time they work quietly in the background, patching errors when they find then on a priority list they dictate. In my case, I've heard little about when the issues will be resolved. In the meantime I'm storing multiple copies wherever I can, and trying to rely less and less on Microsoft for the software I use on a day to day basis.

The Fire-Breathing Undergraduate

Blowing fire

On Carleton Campus

One of this year’s First Year Undergraduates is a fire-breathing, unicycle-riding juggler! His name is Paul Campbell and this 18-year old (turning 19 in January) comes from a circus family. He has been performing in his father’s circus company, Circus Delights in West Carleton, since he was twelve years old, although he began his training when he was only ten.

Paul is currently pursuing a degree in Social Work and lives with his cousin in Kanata, a much shorter commute than the one from his family home in West Carleton. He grew up with three older siblings, two sisters and a brother, and his parents also sheltered foster kids that were younger than him. Paul refined his listening skills and developed compassion for the young children in his parents care, and this experience was the inspiration for pursuing Social Work. Paul had considered Cognitive Science in High School, but he decided he had much better people skills than math skills.

Primary education for the youngest Campbell was an unusual one compared to the schooling most of us received. Paul was home-schooled from grade 4 through 7 before he returned to the public school system in grade 8. During these four years he followed the Ontario Curriculum on his own developing advanced research and note-taking skills that he is now finding invaluable at Carleton. Despite not making friends his age at school during those four years, Paul was heavily involved in soccer and hockey and had many good friends from those sports. In the winter, Paul’s father would make an ice rink in the backyard and he would play hockey with his brother after school and on weekends.

Paul’s experience as a performer had challenged him to develop a gregarious, out-going personality despite his inherent shyness. He made many friends in high school and was well-liked by his peers. He continued playing hockey. Growing up playing with baby and adult elephants, lions, and tigers gave him the skills to easily handle much bigger players on the ice.

In the winter, circus performing slowed down, allowing Paul to concentrate on his studies and practice more new tricks in the family’s over-sized garage / barn. But when summer rolled around, Paul the performer was raring to go. He never had trouble with summer jobs as his dad’s circus company continued to grow, and Paul was featured at corporate events, private parties and at virtually every busking festival in the Ottawa region.

Recently Paul traveled across the United States with an American circus company, Culpepper and Merriweather, and developed quite a loyal following on their Facebook page. His typical day started at 5:00 AM. Performers, like Paul, are also part of the manual labour that unpacks all the gear, sets up the big top and rides, and then has to get ready for his own performance. He usually didn’t get to bed until midnight, but then had to get up at 5:00 AM the next morning and start all over again, but he loved it. An added benefit was that he never felt so fit as he did at the end of that gig.

At 5 feet, 6 inches and 136 pounds, Paul is in pretty terrific physical condition. In addition to practicing his routines almost every day, he also does yoga and meditation at least four times a week. He could run circles on a unicycle around the rest of us while juggling lit torches! Need I mention that the ability to juggle things, like class schedules, mentor meetings, study and PASS groups, shopping, laundry and all the other undertakings of university life is a required undergraduate skill?

One of the biggest advantages of being an accomplished performer who has been gainfully employed since the age of twelve is that Paul is able to completely finance his own education from his savings. He pays his own rent, food and tuition and, because he plans to continue busking and performing until he graduates (and even beyond graduation) he feels he will be debt-free by the time he graduates.

It should be no surprise that Paul loves professional hockey, although it might surprise other Ottawa residents to learn his team is the Montreal Canadiens, not the Senators. This is a passion he inherited from his father and brother, who are also big fans. In addition, his family shares a lot more than just hockey. Paul describes his father as his hero and his brother as his best friend. In comparing a picture of himself at ten to one of his father at the same age, he tells me they could be twins. He has a great relationship with all his family and sees his father as a brilliant man who he could trust with anything. His mother is a kind, generous and loving person who would do anything for her family. His whole family is adventurous and fun-loving, and he relishes every outing together.

Paul is currently in a relationship which was recently posted on his Facebook page. He met his current girlfriend at the Kanata bus stop and they have been dating ever since. As a professional busker, he learned that flirting with females sometimes resulted in bigger tips and, if they were reluctant to drop some money into the collection hat, he’d use the line, “If you don’t have any money, you can always leave your phone number.” But in truth Paul is less of a flirt and more of a romantic who likes to hold hands and cuddle in front of the TV.

Tattoos and piercings are rampant among the performers in Paul’s profession, but the most radical thing he has ever done is sported a Mohawk haircut a few years ago. He hasn’t completely ruled tattoos out, though, telling me that he might get one with a unicycle, a man, and a bunny tattooed over his heart. A bunny? Yes a bunny. When his dad first started his circus business, he would go to children’s parties with his unicycle and a bunny. After doing tricks on the cycle, his Dad would make the bunny appear out of a magician’s top hat. The tattoo would be an homage to his father and the origins of his circus life.

Who would have thought that riding a unicycle, juggling and breathing fire would prepare someone so well for university life? Paul has this enthusiastic intensity that’s contagious. He has the imagination, dedication and commitment to set the world on fire. Breathing fire helps.

Paul's Mohawk

Practicing on a unicycle

Practicing juggling 6 balls

Playing with a baby lion

Practicing breathing fire

Juggling and unicycling with a friend

Works Cited

Photograph of Paul "On Carleton Campus" - photographer Ron Finnigan, used with permission of the owner.

All other photographs used are from Paul Campbell's Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/paul.campbell.921?fref=ts/. - used with permission of the owner.

"Culpepper & Merriweather Circus".Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/Culpepper-Merriweather-Circus-120717653417/. Web. 17-OCT-2015.

"Culpepper & Merriweather Circus".Web page. http://www.cmcircus.com/. Web. 17-OCT-2015.