Work Life Balance Doesn’t Exist in Canada

A recent study by an Ontario college says over a third of Canadians spend 10 hours or more at work (though those hours also include the travel time to and from that work).

Everest College in Toronto claims Alberta has the most dedicated workers, with 44 percent of those surveyed saying they spend 10 or more hours per day on office related tasks. Manitoba and Saskatchewan tied at 39 percent, while Ontario and the Atlantic province came in at 38 percent. The west-coast is often mocked for it’s casual hippie-type lifestyles, but maybe that image is true, as only 28 percent of people surveyed from British Columbia said they spend 10-plus hours per day at the office.

Funny thing, when computers were just beginning to enter homes back in the 1980’s, futurists, technological gurus, and computer geeks everywhere were saying that those magic mechanical boxes of blinking lights and whirling noises were going to cut the amount of time spent at work. Some even boldly declared we’d have four-day work weeks by the dawn of the new millennium.

I should have known that was flawed, when 1999 rolled over into 2000, and although everyone was worried about the dangers of Y2K, the work week still was five long, laborious days.

Computers actually in more instances than not, INCREASED our amount of time at the office. They constantly fill our minds with emails, instant messages, and manage our overflowing voice-mails. Instead of walking over to our colleague’s desk to discuss that new report, we just send it through email – and in turn, that once 25-page report comes back to us through email, often hundreds of pages more, and requiring a read through.

Thanks to computers, we can work at home – many offices have secure networks you can link to, and our voice networks – run by computers – allow us to call into conference calls from anywhere around the world.

That also means we can be reached at anytime, anywhere by work. How many of you have taken your office-issued BlackBerry or other smart phone with you on vacation, only to find yourself reading and responding to work related emails?

And if your co-workers can email you even when you are on vacation, they can call you too. “Just email that contract to my BlackBerry, I’ll sign it right away.”

As the labour market continues to shift from an employee-based one, towards contract and temporary consultant-based, more people are burning the midnight oil at the office.

Companies generally don’t care if they burn out a contracted consultant, they don’t have to pay for your benefits, so if you get sick or develop psychological issues from being constantly under the gun, it’s no skin off their back. Need to take time off to deal with that overtime-related stress? Doesn’t bother your “employer” – contractors don’t generally get sick days, extended medical coverage, or other benefits, so it won’t cost your boss anything if you take it off. Worse still, consultants only get paid for the time they spend working, so anytime of is lost wages.

And as more and more full-time staff jobs are lost in the new economy, there are suddenly a whole lot more people willing to work those excessive inhumane hours, just to keep a roof overhead, and food in their tummies.

Statistics Canada’s employment numbers for this month weren’t very good – the Canadian government department which keeps tabs on these things says the economic recovery has slowed down, as thousands more full-time permanent jobs have disappeared, most likely forever.

This tosses fear into the working world, causing those with staff jobs to do whatever it takes – even if it means working more hours than are healthy – in the hopes that our employers will spare our jobs from the cutting block.

And so continues the cycle of constantly increasing working days, and shorter recovery times.

Time for a break . . . I think . . .

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The Real Humanitarian Thing to do is Often Just Say NO

Last week, a rag-tag cargo ship with almost 500 Tamils from Sri Lanka docked at a Canadian Navy base in British Columbia. The people on board were trying to sneak into Canada undetected, but thankfully our authorities were more than aware of their presence.

Many of the 490 people on the ship were sick, and carrying highly deadly and infectious diseases. Had they managed to cross into Canada undetected, they would have put many lives at risk.

They are all claiming refugee status, saying that they fled their homes because their lives were in danger.

Federal and local authorities are investigating as to whether the cargo ship is part of a people smuggling operation linked the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist organization which has been banned in Canada, the States and many other western countries.

People smugglers often lure poor people in third world countries to first world countries (such as Canada and the States), saying for a small percentage of their earnings, they will earn their citizenship. However, once here, these unsuspecting people find themselves working in prostitution, drug trafficking, weapons shipping, or as slaves to crime family members, for little or no pay.

Today, rumors spread as other cargo ships, crammed with men, women and children – there were 50 children on the ship that docked last week – are en-route to Canada, all aboard seeking illegal entry.

Canada is known for being very friendly to people from all over the world who want to call this place home. We rarely turn away anyone, so why then, would people who wish to live here try to sneak in?

Granted, the immigration procedure to get into Canada, as with most things run by the government, is a long and tedious process – as it should be.

We have to look out for ourselves – as the Canadian Border Patrol can attest too, letting in people who carry infectious diseases could cripple this country. 

Those who bring with them weapons banned here could endanger the lives of all around them. And then there are those who are terrorists or human traffickers, bringing people in to run their crime syndicates.

Clearly, there is more here than just rubber stamping everyone that claims refugee status into the country.

Granted not everywhere around the world enjoys the freedoms we have here, but that doesn’t make it right for unscrupulous souls to sell over-priced admission on cramped ships, to sneak others into the country.

Anytime you have to sneak into something, chances are it just isn’t right.

There are Canadian embassies the world over, even in war torn Sri Lanka where the latest boatload of refugee claimants originated. The right way to come to Canada, is through official channels.

You don’t barge into someone’s home unannounced, expecting to be welcome with open arms. Why should we expect any less from those seeking to come to our country?

The Canadian government should do the right thing – check on the medical needs of all those who were on the ship, to ensure their medical needs are looked after. And then, they should be sent back to Sri Lanka, and instructed on how to apply to come here the legal and proper way.

By doing this, we aren’t shirking our humanitarian responsibilities, yet we aren’t allowing others to walk over our openness and acceptance of others either.

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A Not So Happy Canada Day, Eh?

Tomorrow is Canada Day – July 1 – 143 years of our confederation. We’re not as old nor do we have the history of our big brother to the south – the US of eh, eh?

But we Canadians have a lot to be proud of.

Or we did.

Once upon a time.

Our population continues to grow – Statistics Canada, the federal government agency which keeps track of such things, tells us we’re now a country of over 34 million people. They also tell us that now 50 percent of our population wasn’t born here, and just over half of those people don’t speak either of our two official languages.

Wait a sec . . .

How can you go into someone’s home, take up roots there, and re-arrange the furniture without anyone minding?

That’s what has been going on in our home and native land, mostly in our large urban areas. There are streets in Toronto and Vancouver where if you don’t speak Chinese or Hindu, you won’t get very far – in fact you are made to feel uncomfortable intentionally.

If you ask the residents or business owners on those streets for directions, you’ll be told: “sorry, I don’t speak any English.” Funny though, they always speak perfect English when they tell you they don’t.

Newly settled parents to our great land even tell their kids not to play with anyone who’s not like them after school – they send them to special schools where all the kids are from families of their homeland, so during school they are free to do as they wish.

How unCanadian is that?

We warmly welcome newcomers to our great land, only to be given the shaft.
If and when we humble and polite Canadians mumble something about that being wrong, how it is best for all the kids in the neighbourhood to play together, the newcomers join forces upon us, using our own Human Rights and Freedoms laws against us, claiming we are in the wrong for discriminating against them.

Being the peace-loving, good natured and overly polite Canadians we are, we go back and sit on the bench, keeping it warm, hoping that one day the newcomers to our land will feel comfortable enough to break bread with and be our friends.

Problem is, the newcomers to our once great land are already quite comfortable, living their lives just as they did back in their native land, without you or me.

Essentially, they have already established their own country within our country.
They have setup their own culturally-specific schools, so that their kids will never have to mix and mingle with anyone outside their race or creed. They create their own restaurants, shops and businesses, hiring only others from their homeland, so they don’t have any misunderstandings with you or me. They read newspapers written for them, in their native languages, listen to music and radio stations in their native tongues – hell even good old CBC – Canada’s national broadcaster – is televising Hockey Night In Canada in Hindu so the newcomers can watch our game, without learning English or French.

You know something is amiss when Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry is replaced – period.

It isn’t just our national broadcaster, all government institutions and many big businesses are feeding the storm, making it one nasty beast.

The running joke used to be, in order to work for the Government of Canada, you had to like poutine on your hockey puck. In other words, you had to be fully bilingual, in both our official languages of English or French.

Not so any more – oh the federal government still hires fully bilingual people, but so long as you speak English OR French AND another language, they’ll almost certainly take you. Government brass love to brag about how they offer their services in over 120 different languages.

Not that those who come to this great land don’t deserve the same benefits as those who were born here. I’m sure whatever civil servant or politician came up with the notion of offering government services in a multitude of languages had the noblest of intentions.

However noble the initial intentions were, the trends and statistics clearly show that was one of many errors of judgement.

We’re being kicked out of our own country, slowly and silently by newcomers that just don’t want anything to do with Canadians.

Oh they’ll cry racism, and proudly hold up their citizenship cards – we give those things to anyone these days – another fault of our governmental policy.

But they are the ones being racist.

We aren’t the ones telling our kids not to play with their kids. We aren’t the ones not hiring people because they don’t look and sound like us. We aren’t the ones intentionally making others that don’t look like us or sound like us feel awkward or uncomfortable.

We’re just being typically Canadian, politically correct, peaceful, welcoming anyone into our homes, our schools, our workplaces – our lives.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so damn welcoming?

Happy Canada Day.

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G20/G8 Security Gone Too Far – To Remove Trees for Security

Living in Canada’s largest city is getting harder and harder these days.

Oh sure, Toronto, Canada is one of the most metropolitan cities in the world, and it shows. We have it all, from grocery stores open 24-hours-per-day, seven-days-a-week, restaurants serving up the cuisine from just about every corner of the globe, sporting stadiums for all the major events, lush green spaces, filled with – hey! Where’d the trees go?

The security company contracted out by the Government of Canada to provide security services during the G20 and G8 world leader summits in Toronto are now requesting trees be uprooted in the designated security zones, as they pose a security risk.

So far, they have had garbage cans, mailboxes, bicycle locking posts, and newspaper boxes removed, all while installing concrete barricades, ten-foot-high steel fences – did we mention the military snipers on the roof tops?

Businesses are being forced to close in the immediate areas surrounding the high security area – banks, theatres, restaurants, night clubs, even the Canadian headquarters of some big multinational corporations are all going to be shut down thanks to the added security.

And today, the security company announced that trees – yes TREES rooted in the ground – pose a security risk, because they could be uprooted and used against police.

Aside from the environmental concerns – the security company assures us they will have seedlings replanted after the event – just how ridiculously further must we go, to protect a handful of people for a mere 48-hours?

With all the security – estimates have put the cost to Canadian taxpayers at about $1 billion CDN just for the security alone – must they dig up harmless trees?

What’s next, declaring the air a potential threat, so they create an airtight dome spanning several city blocks, and higher than the highest skyscrapers?
Enough is more than enough.

With a billion dollars spent on security, if the heavily armed military, police and special forces personal on the ground can’t fight off an attacker digging up a tree, then we certainly aren’t getting our billion dollars-worth.

Let us stop to ponder this for just a second. Thousands of highly trained police, in armoured vehicles, with bullet-proof vests, armed to the teeth with high powered, armour piercing weapons, tear gas – did we mention the snipers on the roof -- versus some hippy with a tree branch. Gee, I wonder who’s going to win that battle? If the hippy wins, we have definitely been over billed for security services – I want a refund!

Well, at least for those of us that live in the suburbs, we’ll have a taste of downtown closer to home. Apparently sex trade workers – in non-politically correct lingo “hookers” – have told one media outlet they will be moving their – ahem “services” – north to the suburbs during the G20 and G8 summits, to avoid all the security hassles.

What an eye-opening relief that will be to parents taking their kids to daycare.
“Daddy, what did that woman mean when she asked if you wanted a good time?”

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Gee Canada Drops $1 Billion on G8 & G20

Property taxes in Canada’s largest city are rising, the country’s largest province is implementing a new combined federal/provincial tax in July, and many are still getting over the effects of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Yet today’s estimate of security costs to protect the G8 and G20 world leaders which will be in Canada for a mere 48-hours have topped the $1CDN billion mark.

The Canadian federal government says it’ll cost at least $930CDN million, but won’t release final dollar amounts until after both events, which are being hosted in Toronto, Ontario, and “cottage country” just north of Toronto, in Muskoka, Ontario.

It is expected security costs will actually be higher than estimates, due to threats and allegations from protest groups.

That’s more than double what it cost Canadian taxpayers to secure the entire 17 days of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Yes, it is important that world leaders have clear and concise communications – but can Canada afford to spend a billion dollars for a mere 48 hours, to keep these people safe?

At least with the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, much of the costs to secure it were recouped through tourist dollars – if anything tourists are being discouraged to come to Toronto during the G20 and G8 summits.

Much of the downtown core – the heart of the largest city’s entertainment and tourism industry – will be shutdown and off limits due to security concerns during the G20 and G8 summits. Just yesterday, the country’s largest university – The University of Toronto – announced it was ordered to close its downtown campus for the duration of the two-day summit, because it represented a security risk. At great expense to the educational institution, they will be putting students who live on the downtown campus up at hotels, as the campus will be sealed off tighter than Fort Knox.

Other tourist attractions, such as the CNTower, the Rogers Centre, First Canadian Place, numerous theatres, clubs, restaurants, bars, hotels, the major banking skyscrapers, and many other places right in the downtown core will be off limits to anyone who either doesn’t work there, have the right security clearances, or both.

Getting around Toronto and “cottage country” will be hell in late June, when the summits are to occur – roads and highways will be sporadically closed to ferry the high ranking world leaders to the various venues of the two summits.

That and the thousands of people expected to flock to both areas to protest the summits, the leaders, and their policies, don’t make for a tourist-friendly environment.

Would you want to take your next vacation amidst the screams and chants of an angry mob?

Well, maybe the protesters will at least spend some money while at the summits, to help offset the costs?

Wait a sec . . .

Aren’t most protesters twenty-something unemployed students with too much time on their hands?

Guess not.

Oh Canada – what a country.

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Ensuring Your Facebook Account Doesn’t Harm You

Over the weekend, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart expressed concerns in a newspaper story about the world’s most popular social networking site, Facebook.

Last week, Facebook changed the way its estimated 400-million members could share information – most without really knowing it. The thumbs-up symbol with the innocuous “like” next to it has been a familiar and easy way for Facebook users to positively comment on a friend’s posting on the social networking site.
But as of last week, that like symbol will not be exclusive to the Facebook domain – now anyone on any partnering Internet site can click that symbol.

For Step-By-Step Instructions on How to Protect Your Private Personal Information on Facebook, scroll down to the end of this article.

At first glance, it seems pretty harmless -- if you like something on your travels through cyberspace, what’s the harm in telling your Facebook friends?

But just by clicking that thumbs-up symbol you are automatically linking your Facebook account to that participating site’s, and the next thing you know, someone you don’t know has access to information all about you – from your name, age and sex, to your hometown, even your email address, and telephone numbers, if you provided that information to Facebook when you initially joined.

“I’m very concerned about these changes,” Stoddart says in the article. “More than half-a-million developers will have access to this data.”

Stoddart goes on to explain how unlike previously, where Facebook’s policies forced developers to delete this personal information within 24-hours, the new changes allow developers, and many other partner companies participating in the new “like” program, to retain personal information indefinitely.

Unscrupulous marketers could use this personal information for any reason beyond the traditional marketing of goods and services for sale.

It could increase the amount of scams, trying to lure unsuspecting Facebook users away from their hard earned coin. We’ve all seen those annoyingly obvious emails from some long lost relative in some third-world country, trying desperately to contact us about collecting an outrageously large inheritance.
Those scams may not be so obvious if the scam artists have obtained your personal information – in fact it could look very legitimate. All the worse – you voluntarily gave these scum bags your personal private information just by using Facebook’s “like” feature.

Other malicious uses could be to blackmail you, or to harass you, forcing you to pay up just to get those you willingly and without thinking gave your personal private information too, off your back.

Not that the partner companies are all bad seeds, but that could change. Partner companies can keep your personal private information forever – even when the company changes hands, or ceases to function.

Think a disgruntled employee can cause a lot of harm? What about a disgruntled employee with yours and millions of other Facebook users addresses, phone numbers, email accounts, and other personal information.

And it isn’t just those partner companies you have to worry about, Facebook isn’t exactly harmless either.

Last year, Stoddart accused Facebook of breaching Canadian privacy laws, by holding onto personal information from deactivated accounts. After a lengthy Canadian government probe, Stoddart’s office made a series of recommendations last July, to assist the American-based company in complying with Canadian privacy laws.

Almost a year later, Facebook has not complied fully with Canadian privacy laws. The recent changes only further complicate the issue, showing that profits over privacy, it is profits that win out at Facebook.

There hasn’t been any word yet from American legislators on Facebook’s privacy rules, and until then, it is up to you to take an active role in protecting your own personal information, or else “facebook” the consequences.

How To Protect Yourself

The best way is simply NOT to click on any thumbs-up “like” icons outside of the Facebook domain(facebook.com) – if you are not on Facebook, no matter how tempting, don’t do it!

As a further way to protect yourself, you should make sure your privacy settings prohibit anyone but those you want (such as your friends) to know your likes and interests. To change these settings:

1. Log In
Login to your Facebook account as you normally do, with your email address and password.

2. Go to the Privacy Settings
From the top-right, click the Accounts drop-down menu, and then select Privacy.
The Privacy Settings options appear.

3. Go to the Privacy Settings for Profile Information
Click the very first item from the top – Profile Information.
The Privacy Settings – Profile Information page appears.

4. Change the Privacy Settings Affecting Likes and Interests
The second item from the top – Likes and Interests – displays who can access your personal profile information every time you click the thumbs-up “like” button, regardless of whether or not you are on the Facebook site. Change this setting to what you are comfortable with from the drop-down menu to the right. For interacting with your Facebook friends, select Only Friends, or for total security (and what we recommend), you can select Customize and limit this to just yourself, or to specific Facebook friends.

5. Save Your Changes and Return Home
Click on the Facebook logo at the top-left to save your changes and return you to your Facebook home page.

You should go through all your privacy settings, to make sure you aren’t sharing personal private information with anyone you don’t feel comfortable with.

Just follow step two above to get to the privacy settings, and go through every single menu, choice and option – if you can select it, and change it – do so.

The most secure options (where available) are None or No One But Me but these will seriously limit your ability to interact with anyone on Facebook. A happy middle-ground is selecting Only Friends which limits the information being shared to only those you are friends with on Facebook, but if the option is available, select Customize and specifically choose which friends or groups of friends to share the information with (this option isn’t available for all settings, though it should be).

There are also settings under the Accounts section, from the Accounts drop-down menu which also affect how your image and personal information are shared with Facebook advertisers and partners.

By limiting these settings to restrict access to your profile, you are going a long way towards protecting the most important asset you have – yourself.

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What Canada’s Prime Minister Has In Common with Rosanne Barr

Many years ago, comedian Rosanne Barr offended many with her rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. She sang the American national anthem to kick-off a San Diego Padres baseball game in 1990, in her typically loud and obnoxious character. Her performance was intentionally meant to be a humorous take on the song, but it turned out to be more a serious lapse in judgment.

There are some things in life you should never play around with – and a country’s national anthem is one of those things.

So why is the Canadian government looking into changing that country’s national anthem?

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged in his speech from the thrown – the traditional way a new session of the Canadian Parliament begins – that he would “examine the original gender-neutral English wording of the national anthem.”

Of all the words which express the patriotism and sense of national pride for a country, are the words within that country’s national anthem.

The Canadian anthem – Oh Canada – is based on a 1908 poem, so it is dated.
But so too are most national anthems – countries aren’t created in a single event. The root histories of a nation’s early beginnings are the basis for most national anthems around the world.

Canada’s Prime Minister is desecrating one of our national symbols – our national anthem – by even suggesting it needs to be made more politically correct – which is the underlying cause of his concern.

The third line of Oh Canada is: True patriot love in all thy sons command. Prime Minister Harper claims his office has received many complaints from women’s groups about the sexist nature of this line.

Most though – including some women rights advocacy groups – believe the national anthem is fine as is. They assert that the Conservative federal government led by Prime Minister Harper should be focusing on the issues which have a greater impact on both sexes in the county.

"REAL Women requests the Liberal government in Ottawa to address the real problems Canadians face, especially economic ones, instead of dancing to the tune of a handful of chronically dissatisfied feminists," the right-wing women's organization said in a 2003 news release. The debate whether or not to modernize Oh Canada has been one of those on again, off again debates since 1990.

However, given the prime minister’s recent actions, he may be re-starting the debate about the country’s national anthem for less noble reasons. Last year, Prime Minister Harper stalled Parliament until it re-started just this week, claiming this delay would give the government the time it needed to determine the direction to take the country.

The Conservative government has been – well conservative – in their approach to governing, not really tackling any of the major issues facing the country. They do enact policies and programs to assist with the economy, the jobless, education, healthcare, national security and other issues, but they really haven’t taken any dramatic steps to resolve anything directly. Most of the Harper regime’s rule has been nothing more than band-aid type solutions, which cover the cut, but fail to repair the wound.

It has been suggested that the Prime Minister mentioned revising the national anthem as a diversionary tactic, to take public attention off of the real issues which the government is failing to address.

Whatever Prime Minister Harper’s intent, amending our national anthem for political correctness is no different than asking Rosanne Barr to sing it at a baseball game – a poor lapse in judgment, and the desecration of an internationally recognized national symbol of Canada.

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Vancouver 2010 – Canadian Media Censors Public Reaction to News Reports

The commercialization of censorship online is growing, making credible news outlets more resemble government controlled mouth pieces for the government. Nope, we aren’t talking about some Chinese government censored news outlet, we’re talking ones right here in North America – Canada to be exact.

Last week, people posting comments about the lack of Canada’s second official language – French – at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics on websites of major news organizations carrying the story. Suddenly, the words “COMMENT REMOVED” began mysteriously filling web space once held by someone’s comment.

From the Canadian government-owned and operated Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), to the privately held newspaper The Toronto Star, to many other big names in Canadian media, comments started disappearing.

Private companies have been retained by some media outlets to moderate the comments left on their web sites for what they call “illegal, invective, needlessly profane posts, or inanely offensive commentary.”

Granted, the ability for anyone, anywhere, at anytime to go online, and anonymously post whatever happens to pop into their head at the time of seeing something online can produce provocative, and possibly even offensive feedback.
But isn’t that part of what makes the free-for-all wild west of the Internet . . . well . . . uh . . . er . . . the Internet?

Yes, we’re bound to come across comments from people with less than a full deck of cards, and some of these comments may be just as far flung, and may even offend the majority of the population.

But who are we to decide what does and doesn’t appear on the net?

In the case of some of the major media outlets, looks like they didn’t want to answer that question either – they farmed out that mega-huge responsibility to a third-party company to do it for them. Maybe they figured if they weren’t directly involved in the so-called “moderation” of their websites, then they couldn’t be held accountable for the censorship which naturally would follow.

Which raises another sticky question – just who’s rules dictate what is and isn’t fit for public display? When you hire a third-party company to determine this, in many ways you give up the right to tell them how to do their job.

What if that third-party company has clients whose interests they want to maintain – say the International Olympic Committee?

Then even comments which may not really be all that offensive may be removed, just because they are negative comments about the Olympics.

Sounds very much like when China held the Olympics, and they banned media outlets, and actually cut off their Internet and phone access when they reported things which the Chinese government just didn’t like.

Funny, how when that happened, the first to stand up and scream about it were the very media outlets that suddenly lost contact with their news teams in China.

Now it appears the tables have turned, and it is the very same Canadian news media censoring people from saying anything bad about the Olympics here in Canada.

Perhaps the Canadian media needs to be reminded about their experiences in China during the last Olympics? But then again, the real victim is us all – because when the media starts to censor itself, the next logical successor to do the same, will be governments and other private corporations.

And then free speech won’t exist anymore, not online, not on the street, not anywhere.

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End of Snail Mail – Not Quite

Despite the increase in electronic forms of communications over the years, the price of so-called “snail mail” continues to rise in Canada and around the world.

Earlier this week, Canada Post raised increased the price for sending a first-class letter within Canada from 54 cents to 57 cents. Letters to our neighbours in the United States now cost a whole dollar (an increase of two-cents) and all other letters from Canada to any other country on Earth now cost an additional five-cents, for a price of $1.70.

Usually the free market determines the costs of goods and services within that market – so in theory, you’d expect the costs of sending physical letters to drop, as everyone – even the youngest of children – use more immediate forms of communications, such as email, instant message, chat rooms, even posting a comment or question on a publicly available Internet forum is faster than the postie.

Ah the postie – traditional Canadian lingo for the man or woman that drudges through the rain, snow, sleet and hail to deliver our letter mail.

Posties are a dying breed in a nation which was in large part built by ‘em. Back in the 1980’s, long before everyone except that creepy uncle no one wants to talk about but does had a computer in their home, the nation’s postal service, Canada Post, introduced something they called “the super mailbox.”

As Canadian cities, towns and villages continued burst beyond their borders, there simply weren’t enough men and women around to deliver the mail. So Canada Post created these giant “super” mail boxes – big honking metal containers housing several independently locked mail boxes, each one belonging to all the residents or businesses on a specific street or set of streets. Now, one letter carrier would simply go to the super mailbox, unlock the back, and put each letter in the appropriate slot for the person or persons named on the letter.

To check your mail, you merely wander up to this mammoth mailbox, unlock your specific slot on the mailbox with your key, and grab your mail.

These super mailboxes began popping up in new residential and business areas from the 1980’s on. The only place letter carriers deliver door-to-door anymore in Canada, are those areas which always had door-to-door delivery, long before the super mailboxes came to be.

But one would expect that even those areas may one day be subjected to the super mailboxes, as technological communications further entrenches itself into our already very wired lives.

Not so according to Canada Post – hence their reasoning for raising the costs to send letter mail. The Canadian Federal government owned postal service says it delivers to about 15 million addresses across the country, with an additional 200, 000 addresses added every year. The government owned company says its mail processing equipment has been stretched beyond capacity, so the additional funds from the rates increases will offset the costs of bolstering its ability to keep up with demand.

The lone facsimile machine has almost completely died a slow death, as it is quicker and easier to just attach your documents to an email message, and click send. You can even send that document via instant message depending on the program, and if that’s not an option, and if you know the person well, you can even send documents directly to their computer over a peer-to-peer application, which lets you connect to someone else’s computer directly over the Internet.
With all the electronic forms of communication becoming more mobile-friendly, you can not only send and receive emails from most mobile devices (like cell phones and smart phones) but you can often send and receive documents, view presentations, and more.

The one thing electronic communications hasn’t replaced, is where documents have to be the original, authentic, or legal forms, with actual signatures. Until that happens, I suppose we’ll still need posties and super mailboxes to deliver our mail.

That, and for all those items we order online on places like eBay and other online stores. Until they figure out a way to send me my new network hard drive electronically, or that cool LCD high-def television – we’ll still need someone to deliver it right to our front doors.

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Just Another Day in the Sandbox for Canada’s Parliament

Managing a country isn’t easy, which is why we hope those we elect into our governments are more than capable of doing the job.

Though if you’ve been watching Canada’s federal government the past few years, you might be shaking your head in disgust.

For the past few years, federal politicians in Canada have tried to resolve their differences by shutting down Parliament and calling snap elections. When elections weren’t called, the threats of them were held over our heads, as one political party claimed they just couldn’t work with the other.

The latest childish-acting out by Canada’s ruling party hasn’t forced an election, but might as well have, because it has a similar effect.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party has prorogued Parliament. This is what usually happens after an election, essentially wiping clean all un-passed bills or motions, allowing the politicians to start with a clean slate. Any bills or motions which weren’t voted on prior to the proroguing must be re-presented and voted on.

As proroguing usually happens after an election, we think nothing of it, because it allows the newly elected or re-elected government a chance to start the business of governing.

But when it is called in the middle of a government’s rule, there is reason to be concerned.

In this case, Prime Minister Harper’s government called the prorogue of Parliament because an economic statement they made alienated the opposition.
So, rather than trying to explain themselves, their actions and taking the enormous responsibility of governing seriously, they threw their hands up in the air, and decided to erase their controversial economic statement, so that they could start from scratch.

Just when you think the federal Canadian government has done the most childish thing unbecoming a group of professional politicians, there they go doing something completely different, but even more childish than before.

Makes you wonder just how far will these adults go, in their childish ways?

Far worse than embarrassing Canada on the world stage – which has already happened as we have seen by the reaction of many world leaders to Prime Minister Harper’s lateness for a photo opportunity during the last meeting of the G-20 – the other world leaders just laughed it off, in a “oh that’s just the bumbling Prime Minister Harper for you,” way – far worse than that, the business of governing constantly falls by the wayside. Things just don’t get done, because our federal politicians are too wrapped-up in their own childish antics, constantly trying to one-up the other, rather than doing the right thing.

And the right thing for any politician, municipal, provincial, state or federal, is to ensure the business of the government gets done.

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Flying Naked – Full Body Scanners Come to Canada

Canada’s federal Transportation Minister John Baird held a press conference yesterday, where he announced the installation of 44 clothing-penetrating, full body scanners at 11 Canadian airports within the next two-months.

These scanners create a three-dimensional image of a person’s naked body, allowing airport security officers to see you in your birthday suit.

Though not all passengers will be seen sans clothes. Considered an alternative to a physical search, Government officials say these devices will only be used on passengers 18-years-old and older, that security feels merit a secondary screening.

These full body scanners were already being tested in Kelowna, British Columbia, off Canada’s west-coast, and will now be in use at airports in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and in Vancouver.

At a cost of $250,000 CDN a pop, this is no small investment for the Canadian government, but since the Christmas Day attack aboard a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit, the Canadian government is following the lead of the American government and ramping up airport security.

Or is the Canadian government just doing what our American big brother wants us to do?

American authorities want Canada, and all other countries around the world, to do quite a bit to keep America safe.

Using clothing-penetrating full body scanners raises numerous privacy concerns – essentially it allows complete strangers to take and store digital images of you completely naked. Though Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart says she approved the scanners only on the condition that the security officer viewing these naked full body images be in a separate room, and never actually see the passenger being screened. She also demanded that the digital image would have to be deleted once the passenger leaves the airport.

However, there are no guarantees that the federal Privacy Commissioner’s conditions will always be followed. Once a digital image is created, it can be copied, moved and stored pretty much anywhere. Just because it is deleted off the originating machine which created it, doesn’t mean it is gone for good.

When these clothing-penetrating full body scanners were first announced in the U.S., one of the immediate concerns was naked images of celebrities “suddenly” being found online for sale on places such as eBay.

And you don’t have to be famous to end up naked on eBay – anyone could fall victim to this.

So far, this hasn’t happened, but then these devices are relatively new, just starting to make their way into American and Canadian airports.

One of the less discussed, but just as personally intrusive requests the American government is placing on all countries is the sharing of passenger information.
The American government has sent formal requests to countries which have airlines flying planes across American airspace, requesting personal passenger information -- even if those passengers will never land at an American airport.
This personal information includes full legal names, citizenship, birth date, and destination.

There hasn’t been any indication of what action – if any – American authorities would take having this information. They could advise or warn other countries and/or airlines of possible persons of interest. Or a more drastic action would be to ban specific planes from flying through American airspace if American authorities don’t like one or more of the passengers or crew. And American authorities have been vague with just how long they would keep this information, and for what purposes.

So far, Canadian and many European countries have refused to provide this information for their passengers – it’s been a year since the Americans made the request. But with increased security measures being taken worldwide because of the recent Christmas Day terror incident, the American government could begin demanding this information, restricting air travel through American airspace to airlines which comply.

This would create chaos at airports around the world, as flights were delayed or canceled completely because of the new American airspace restrictions.

And even with all these new security measures in place, we still will never be completely safe. As soon as a security measure is taken, you can almost guarantee someone, somewhere around the world is working on ways to bypass it.

The only real way to prevent terrorism is to stop it in its tracks. George W. Bush coined the phrase the “war on terror,” and that in a literal sense is what it is – a war.

Although former U.S. President Bush’s “war” was questionable – he and his team falsified documents to justify attacking Iraq, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (which he didn’t) and he sent troops to Afghanistan to “get Bin Laden,” but he never did, nor has anyone else.

The only real way to prevent terrorism is to win the war. Adding security at airports only challenges the terrorists to go further, and incites them to try harder. To win the war, we have to capture and imprison those who recruit, train and motivate people to do terrorist acts, and we have to capture and imprison those who have been recruited, trained and motivated to do these acts.

Until then, clothing-penetrating full body scanners and the sharing of personal passenger information may slow the terrorists down, but it will not stop them.

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