Derek Burt's Weblog - Politics category

A retarded act

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:32:01 GMT

Mockery in any form, or for any purpose or directed at anyone, especially those least able to defend themselves, is neither funny nor acceptable.

In the spirit of Seth and Amy, really? No form of mockery is funny or acceptable? Why wait for Big Brother or some Islamic terrorists to take away all our freedoms, when morons like him are willing to have us voluntarily give them up.

As my high school English teacher used to say, I would classify the entirety of Mr. Shriver's editorial above as a completely retarded act.

I will soon be a criminal

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:06:11 GMT

... and so will pretty much everyone else in Canada.

The Canadian DMCA as recently tabled this week in the House of Commons will make criminals of us all. Share files online? Get ready to pay or go to jail. Unlocking the cell phone you paid for? Get ready to pay or go to jail. Encrypt your e-mail to have some semblance of privacy? Get ready to pay or go to jail. Buy a CD or DVD and then copy it to your iPod? Get ready to pay or go to jail.

The DVD player in my house is on a Linux-based computer that uses an open-source DVD player. Soon, everytime I watch a DVD (that I legally bought from a store and OWN) in my house I'll be committing a Federal crime.

Please help stop this insanity. Write your MP and join the Facebook group. I've done both - it takes two minutes.

Please put my money back in my wallet, Mr. Prime Minister

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:44:52 GMT

From a comment on John Murney's Blog:

My family farm planted barley anticipating higher barley prices with the dual desk marketing option. Now, we are facing scary future - a worthless product.
Producers might want to consider taking the CWB and Friends to court for lose-of-income as witnessed through the stockmarket.

The modern "peasants' revolt" should be staged in the courts.

The legal argument staged on behalf of the CWB was more about saving urban paycheques than helping farmers.

In the same spirit (and the same spelling and grammar mistakes) ...

My family purchased energy income trusts anticipating higher prices with the Conservative election promise to never tax income trusts. Now, we are facing scary future - a worthless retirement fund.

Canadians might want to consider taking the CPC and Friends to court for lose-of-income as witnessed through the stockmarket.

The modern "peasants' revolt" should be staged in the courts.

The political argument staged on behalf of the CPC was more about chasing ghosts than helping Canadians.

Breakout Session notes from the Saskatchewan Youth Summit 2007

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:18:33 GMT

Notes from the breakout sessions are now online. In particular, you can view the notes from my morning session entitled "Youth Friendly Work Places or the notes from my afternoon session entitled "Saskatchewan in 2020".

Take them with a grain of salt, as the guy was basically just writing down everything people said, but have fun trying to figure out which one were my suggestions or comments ;)

The Aftermath of the Saskatchewan Youth Summit 2007

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:09:53 GMT

While the formal "work" of the summit ended in the afternoon on Saturday, that wasn't the end of the days events. When I returned to the convention centre, the upper ballroom was transformed into a pretty damned cool sight. The place had been redecorated in the vein of a trendy lounge. I was very impressed and later learned in the speeches that a set designer had been hired to give the place its look. I got myself a drink and then settled down at a table with some girls from another CEP local (one of whom swore up and down that she had met me at a training course the year before, even though I haven't been on training outside the company in a very long time) and a few boys from the videographers for the event, 306 Productions (note the clever name!). The food was decent hotel fare and the speeches were excellent as well

We were graced by the presence of His Honour the Honourable Dr. Gordon Barnhart, and he spoke at length about a variety of subjects mostly focused on life-long learning and his passion for governance and citizenship. It was the first time I had to the opportunity to hear him speak for any length of time and was really impressed by him. The last speaker of the evening was Pat Atkinson, the Minister of Advanced Education and Employment, the department that put on the event. She mostly thanked the organisers (who did a great job, btw) but also talked a little bit about why we were all in the room. She had a great line when she said, "we're not here to say that Saskatchewan is perfect." It's clearly not, but it was refreshing to hear someone like that talk with a little candour. I was also surprised to hear her encourage folks to leave the province – no, it's not what you think. She told a story about how she left the province as a young person and that the experience made her realize what she had back at home in Saskatchewan. She encourage us to travel and see the world and that if we left the province to realize that we would be doing so because we could, not because we had to. I'm not sure why her words stuck with me but I think it has to do with the fact that I have lived and worked outside the country and I can relate to what she is saying. You can gain a lot of perspective by stepping outside your box and seeing what's out there, both positive and negative. I really wish this government would have done the same recently, and they will too after they get voted out.

After the speeches, that was it for the formal program. There were bands and music all night long, but I had an early morning ahead of me so I didn't stay very much longer for the show. It could have been fun!

So, what can I tell you regarding my thoughts about the summit overall?

First and foremost, I think the organisation of the conference, while not perfect (could it ever be?), was as close as anyone could ask it to be. Given the timeframes involved from the idea to the concept to the execution, I can't say anything less than I was absolutely impressed with the skill of the entire team involved. All the bases were covered, from the great facilities down to the willingness of those involved to do whatever they could to accommodate us over the weekend. What also perhaps impressed me most was the passion that the organisers had for not only putting on the event, but the passion they had for their vision of giving youth a voice.

What was the goal of the summit? I think the goal of the summit was to bring together a large and representative group of Saskatchewan's young people on a scale not done before for the purposes of having them dialogue and network and to begin a conversation about the future of our province. In that sense, the summit was an unqualified success. I learned a hell of a lot in one short day about what young people are thinking in and about this province. It also dawned on my that most of what they were talking about was quite a bit different from the way the baby boomers in our land see the world. The question is, what happens next?

More and more in my career and my personal life, I've been trying to focus my activities into getting results. No matter what anyone tells you, the true measure of any person's success is what they are able to achieve. Trying and failing more often than not is often a big part of the process, but ultimately if you don't have any tangible results in the end you have to ask yourself whether you had set appropriate goals to begin with and whether you did what was needed to achieve them. What tangible results will come of this summit? The answer is, quite honestly, none. The sessions we participated in were of the warm and fuzzy type, lots of vague questions, statements, and expressions but nothing in and of itself very useful. We didn't get much time to work on anything, either. Does this mean it was a waste of time? I don't believe so. These kinds of preliminary activities are always a necessary process – a necessary beginning to something larger. At first it might not seem that we got anything real done, but what we did do was take that first baby step. The real results will come from the activities that will happen after the conference. There were a lot of political and business leaders in the crowd, and from what I could see most of them followed Calvert's lead when he told his Ministers to shut up and listen during the summit. The next step in this process will be the report on the event at the end of the month.

Was this whole thing worth taxpayer's hard-earned dollars? I am still struggling with the whole idea but the bottom line is that things cost money. Some people might struggle with the fact that the government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a conference when thousands of people in the province are living below the poverty line, but I've found over the years that it's impossible to think that way. Money can be a very abstract thing; it is simply one of the primary ways we associate value with our time and effort. It costs money for people live, work, and get together for things like the summit. That's just the way it is. Our challenge is to make sure that something comes of it.

I can only hope that something does come of this. Yes, we have to step up to the plate as youth to shape our future, but I don't believe the preaching from the plenary wrap-up that each of the stakeholders must share equal responsibility for continuing the work of the summit. To suggest that each demographic has an equal responsibility for the issues of the day is ludicrous. The fact of the matter is that the leaders of today – I'm talking specifically about the senior leaders of government, business, and labour - the baby boomers, are the shoulders that the future of the work begun at the summit rests on. It is up to them to give us a voice, to listen, and to act, where appropriate, because it is they who hold the true power to make things happen and make them happen quickly, because we do not have time to wait. I'm looking to the government in particular to take on this initiative, either with regard to the issues and recommendations raised in the summit or taking steps to take the work of the summit and turn it into concrete plans for action. If they don't, then the whole thing will have been just a lot of hot air. The value of this conference rests not with what happened, but what the follow-through will be.

We are in a time of unprecedented and I think largely unpredictable change here in Saskatchewan. The next five to twenty years will likely see the biggest changes that our province has seen since the introduction of socialism to the province 70 years ago. The only thing that we know for sure is that things will change and that we must incorporate change into our daily life. This emergency of change at all levels in our society is the most pressing issue facing us as a people today, and I look to our senior leaders to move away from their culture of entitlement and respond accordingly. That is not to say that we as youth won't help. We will soon need you to throw that torch from your hands. The sooner you realize that your hands are failing, the sooner we can get started.

Wrapping-up the Saskatchewan Youth Summit 2007

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 00:26:35 GMT

The first speakers for the afternoon were Scott Carson and Brad Zakreski from Storm Applied Technologies. It was pretty funny since I'm pretty sure I took a few classes with Brad back in the day at university. The focus of their speech was an overview of the process they went to create the Eco-Party Dragon Boat tours of Wascana Lake. Then, they had the balls to do a SWOT analysis of Saskatchewan with a ton of cabinet members in the audience - I was pretty impressed with that.

The second speaker was Jason Louttit, who was in all honesty either not a great speaker or wasn't good at coming up with material for this summit. Maybe it's just the fact that I just finished watching an episode of Bullshit! about self-help and motivational speakers, but he managed to talk for 15 minutes about pretty much nothing.

Once the speakers were finished, we went through the results of our sessions with the two ladies from the morning. I typed fast and furiously to document what they put on the screen but honestly I couldn't keep up so I don't have all the information - read at your own risk because all mistakes are mine. They will be posting a report on the website once they compile all the information so you don't have to rely on my bad typing, but I thought it was important to get it up here to get you folks thinking about what went on and maybe motivate you to participate in any future activities that come out of this.

Let's see what we've done ....
Here is a SAMPLE of the dialogue...
Since we have a collective responsibility to achieve RESULTS from today's dialogue, think of how you could contribute to making these recommendations come alive in the area you know best ...
Youth Friendly Work Places
- Group Statement: Provide flexible benefits for today's young workers
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - advertise flexible options offered through engaging current employees
  - Municipalities
    - support businesses by providing resources and incentives
  - Youth
    - take action and become involved to affect change
  - Labour
    - engage and involve youth in committees and activities
  - Government
    - Set the standard by being an example as a preferred youth employers
  - Training Institutions
    - offer flexible, accessible education and training options
Youth Friendly Work Places
- Group Statement: Create additional flexible training and development opportunities
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - create partnerships with labour, government, EI and training institutions to expand mentorships, internships, co-op placements and permanent entry level positions
  - Municipalities
    - fund training seats with a return for service commitment for the sponsored position
  - Youth
    - volunteer to expand your experience
    - take initiative and be open to taking risks
  - Labour
    - facilitate the entry of youth into the workplace and award seniority to intern positions
  - Government
    - expand funding to internship and co-op opportunities
    - continue to expand training initiatives
  - Training Institutions
    - creating partnerships between education and employers
Cool Communities
- Group Statement: Build the technological infrastructure and increase accessibility to technological innovation
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - utilizing new technologies as much as possible
    - invest in research and development of new technology
  - Municipalities
    - invest in the infrastructure through initiatives such as matching grants
  - Youth
    - engagement of technology through teaching those with less technological skills and through the early adoption of new technologies
  - Labour
    - enabling organizations to hire youth through programs such as designating a portion of positions for youth
  - Government
    - fund the expansion of the technological infrastructure in the province
  - Training Institutions
    - provide training for the development of technological skills in rural and urban areas
    - provide training in technological fields which correspond with the business climate
Cool Communities
- Group Statement: Make our communities cooler and safe by focusing more on neighbourhoods
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - supporting programs through sponsorships and partnerships (i.e. Recycling, festivals, etc.)
    - selling local products
  - Municipalities
    - make our communities more pedestrian and cyclist friendly
    - increase co-operative housing
    - vibrant downtown cores
  - Youth
    - take action, be involved in the political process at all levels (speaking up to elected officials, voting, etc.)
  - Labour
    - encouraging members to be involved in the community (i.e. Lending organizational expertise
  - Government
    - increase resources in the form of money, human resources and infrastructure
    - consulting and connecting more with young people and providing more opportunities for them to participate
  - Training Institutions
    - integrate services more into the communities so that they are not so segmented
Inclusive Saskatchewan
- Group Statement: Make access to education more inclusive
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - provide mentorship programs in the workplaces
    - implement mandatory diversity training
  - Municipalities
    - provide easy access to communication within different segments of the community (eg. Youth groups)
  - Youth
    - getting involved and through communication
  - Labour
    - including representative workforce language in collective bargaining agreements
  - Government
    - stop fighting about jurisdictional boundaries (i.e. who pays for what).
  - Training Institutions
    - Derek can't type that fast
Inclusive Saskatchewan
- Group Statement: Create an integration strategy for new residents in transition to employment
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - assessing the needs and communicating them to government and communities
    - funding commitment for retention and support of new employees
  - Municipalities
    - simplification of transitional processes to make more citizen-centred (i.e. housing, daycare, schools)
  - Youth
    - create connections between new and existing residents (i.e. a buddy program
  - Labour
    - creating mechanisms which allow youth to contribute ideas and effect change
  - Government
    - increase access to the communication of current programs
  - Training Institutions
    - Derek can't type that fast
Making It Happen
- Group Statement: Create a small scale / low-risk entrepreneurial program that is accessible to different ages / skills levels and a more diverse group of people
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - provide free advertising / promotion of the program
    - provide resource people and mentors
  - Municipalities
    - identify entrepreneurial opportunities
    - provide resource people
  - Youth
    - participate in programs, be available for focus groups, surveys, mentorship and succession
  - Labour
    - identify areas of opportunity
    - provide funding for scholarships
  - Government
    - funding or subsidization of programs
    - promote / market the program within the province
    - staff the program and report on its results
    - can promote this as a life-long education to other stakeholders
  - Training Institutions
    - to provide space and infrastructure to make something like this happen
Making It Happen
- Group Statement: Build on the Sask Youth Summit by having yearly meetings and continue the online discussion forum
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - sponsorship of the summit and the opportunity fair
    - providing mentorship or apprentice opportunities
  - Municipalities
    - youth advisers on board or city council
    - help distribute information about the summit
  - Youth
    - take it to your community, spread the word
    - research and participate
  - Labour
    - participate and spread the word through their membership
  - Government
    - advertising, awareness
    - continue to provide funding
  - Training Institutions
    - to teach leadership and research skills
    - have on-campus groups pre- and post- conference
Saskatchewan in 2020
- Group Statement: Saskatchewan becomes a world centre for excellence in environmentally driven social and economic development
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - invest in communities, harness the energy and potential of our environmentally and socially aware youth
  - Municipalities
    - combine resources to reduce environmental impact and barriers to growth
  - Youth
    - encourage each other in the places that we work and study to become part of the longer term solution
  - Labour
    - move beyond wages as a primary concern in collective bargaining in an effort in better understand and articulate the role of its membership
  - Government
    - rebuild infrastructure to encourage environmentally drive social and economic development
  - Training Institutions
    - Derek can't type that fast
Saskatchewan in 2020
- Group Statement: Foster a life-long education system that is inclusive and adapts to the needs of local communities
- Recommendations:
  - Business
    - acknowledge the value of a wide variety of experiences
  - Municipalities
    - create partnerships opportunities to meet local demands
  - Youth
    - take responsibility to inspire and communicate ideas to each other
  - Labour
    - promote civic engagement and professional development
  - Government
    - make education more accessible for all individuals, families and communities
  - Training Institutions
    - Derek can't type that fast
Where do we go from here?
- Report will be written containing a complete synopsis of all the ideas / recommendations created in the breakout
- Today is only a start
  - we all have a shared commitment to building a better Saskatchewan
  - we all have a shared responsibility to act upon the recommendations both just reviewed, and contained in the report.

That's all for the meat of what happened today. As you can probably tell from my postings, I didn't have Internet today, so I had to type and crank this stuff out back at my hotel. I am now on my way back to the convention centre to enjoy a banquet and a meal before hitting the sack and heading to the bus depot super early in the AM to get back to Regina

When I return, count on some follow-up thoughts from me ... in the meantime, have any thoughts of your own?

The Afternoon of the Saskatchewan Youth Summit 2007

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 23:19:48 GMT

This session was a lot more focused than the first one that I went to, which was surprising given the fact that there was a lot more diversity in the opinions that were offered. The idea behind this session was to talk about what Saskatchewan should be like in 2020. We went through a brainstorming session and identified a few core ideas that came out of that, specifically things like sustainability and value-added services. We ended up after some debate coming to a core statement around which we based our recommendations to the stakeholders:

"Move forward passionately and collectively to build innovatively an inclusive community and self-perpetuated (value-added) low (no, sustainabile!) impact economy."

Wow, is that ever a jumble of words, but I'm proud to say I had quite a bit of input into the matter. There were a lot of very motivated and passionate people in the room and it was good to have some mostly-civilised brainstorming into what we want this place to be in the future. There were some crazies in the crowd but we all ended up mostly in the right direction, which was good to see.