Hot Tubbin' For Justice

After a residence breakfast at Carleton, we head to a small facility in an area of social housing to meet with the Community Housing Corporation. We talk about sustainable housing and like most communities in Canada, affordable and social housing is very hard to come by.  Ottawa Community Housing Corporation It was a nice day and Denis, alumni 2004 arranged for us to experience the Ottawa green belt at Mer Bleu or "the bog." In the middle of the city we go for a walk in a bog for about 25 minutes. Denis gives us a great presentation using a large stick to draw the city of Ottawa in the dirt. He draws a small half circle which represents Ottawa proper, then another semicircle and that is the greenbelt - an area of the city that is left for nature. The last semicircle represents the outskirts (where places like Kanata and Orleans are). After the walk in the sun it's off to a meeting with the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC).  As the ...

Another early morning (I sound like a broken record) takes us to Glengarry Fine Cheese on Lancaster. It's kind of a nice drive because this is the little town where very good friends of mine got married a few years ago. We get to the cheese shop and we're early. At the end of this conference we are to make a presentation and we've decided as a group to inject some humour into ours and create an 80s training montage - why am I telling you this? Well because we used all of our extra time on this day to film scenes. We all lined up on the grass and did sit ups and push ups while our MLO yelled at us military styles. Anyway, back to cheese. We meet with the proprietor and learn that this business has been in the family for a while and she has brought her experience in import/export to her business and has created a successful, sustainable product. We pick up some curds and are on our way to Hawkesbury. Hawkesbury is the third most bilingual town in Ontario with about 70% of...

Early morning again and it’s a team effort – coffees at Starbucks and breakfast sandwiches from Timmy Ho’s. Breakfast of champions! Then we have a long drive to Mountain where we are going to meet with the House of Lazarus, a community organization that runs a foodbank, thrift store, recycle depot. The woman who runs this place is a firecracker – she’s supercommitted to the organization and introduces us to the mayors of South Dundas and North Dundas. We get a tour of the food bank (which is small) where they let people pick their food rather than get preset packages. We learn that 30% of their patrons are working poor and like other communities in Ontario, manufacturing and mining were the 2 large employers and when they left town, people had to travel way outside of the area to find work. As shitty as the situation sounds, there is hope here. She works with public, private and social partners exemplifying a McKinsey “trisector athlete.” All of the money that she raises goes into trai...

Up at the asscrack of dawn again we’re treated to a beautiful view of the lake and dinner in the dining hall at Hotel Kenney. We meet with the hotel manager who tells us about the challenges of the area and like all of the other folks we’ve met so far, she’s passionate about what she does and the community she lives in. There's a charm to being somewhere that hasn't changed and then staleness for the same reason - it's a question of balance and equilibrium.... Anyway, breakfast is fast and it’s off to CFB Kingston to meet with senior military personnel from the 1st Division to talk about leadership in the Canadian Forces. We are met by Colonel Spike Hazelton who gives us a very progressive view of the military and like the Toronto PD, the face of the armed forces is changing. He’s candid, friendly and very experienced.   It’s a quick change of clothes for us in the parking lot as we’re told that at our next stop no dresses, skirts, shorts or sandals allowed. That means we a...

6:00am – oof, early but they made us breakfast burritos! Yes! Our first stop is to meet with Brian and Donna Findlay of the West Ben Community Arts Festival. We pull up to site in Campbellford and there is this GORGEOUS barn structure. Donna meets up at 8am with a smile and gives us a little rundown of the coming schedule. We learn that they host artists like Oliver Jones and then they next night might be the high school stage band, then the community chorus, then an opera singer from Europe. Early morning stroll to the Campbellford Barn As we’re crossing a very dewy lawn, a melody of a piano concerto meets us. Brian is inside playing and the sounds of the piano, coupled with the setting of the barn in the middle of the countryside is amazing. Inside the barn is made of gorgeous wood and there are theatre seats that have been collected from different theatres that they have repurposed for their facility. The décor is made from different community members – scarecrows from the...

Today marks our final hours with Ontario 1 – after the meeting with the Deputy Police Chief of the Toronto Police Department – O2 is on our own. A quick walk to the TPD takes us to the meeting with Deputy Chief Jeff McGuire. We have a quick chat about the sustainability of the police force and the new recruiting initiatives that are taking place. The face of the Toronto PD is changing to reflect all the diversity of the city so it's interesting to hear how there is an increase in women, ethnicities and First Nations recruits. We then take a turn and start talking about the G-20. I appreciated the time with Chief McGuire but I couldn't help but realize as soon as this topic came up all we’d get were sound bites. Ah well, I found the conversation about the changing face of the police force more engaging and interesting. Next up was a trip to Scarborough to the East Scarborough Storefront. The facility is nothing to look at – it looks like a big shoebox. We are immediately gre...

The program has been very intense...for your pleasure, Ontario II's teaser for our presentation on Friday! http://vimeo.com/43986607

Toronto is Vancouver’s older brother. You know, just a little more sophisticated, a little more eclectic, a little more urban, a little more experienced…just not as good looking. I love Vancouver but the vibe of Toronto is electric. I’ve visited as a tourist and this time I feel like I got the insider’s scoop – where I finally saw the real Toronto (once we got there). We left Halifax at 6am, caught the flight to Toronto (a bit of a hiccup with the airline delayed us in Ottawa for about a half hour or so). Once we got there we hit the ground running. Something cool – we had our own chartered TTC bus – awesome, union bus drivers taking us around the city! Holla! We stop at Toronto City Hall (a protest was just starting as we walked in – some of us left wing rowdies wanted to join in). We went straight into the City Council chambers and met with the Chief City Planner and had a quick presentation about what Toronto’s civic priority is…transportation. I got to sit right in front of Mik...

So, after a long and intense day of speakers it was time for the trek out to Chester to the Risley estate for a Nova Scotian kitchen party. We board the bus and I end up sitting next to the Military Liaison Officer for the New Brunswick study tour. We end up chatting about the Canadian Forces. This experience is really amazing because if not for this conference I wouldn’t have the chance to ask questions of the men and women serving in the military. I am happy to know that the Canadian government does take care of our military folks –I know that American troops, especially Army troops, are not compensated very well. I learn about military life and what it’s like for a young family – I imagine he was around the same age as me. We talked about his experience overseas and learned that we have military stationed all over the world not just in Afghanistan. The drive itself was a little long but once we got to Chester it was interesting. We went down a dirt road (in a massive articulated...

Well, adjusting to this weird time zone (4 hours ahead of Vancouver) in Halifax has been a bit of a challenge. I had grand plans of going for walk this morning but got around to sleeping in and repacking one of my suitcases. After I spent the morning getting ready, I went downstairs and picked up my conference bag, jacket (weird sizing - oh well) and binder. Then I went and dropped off my small suitcase with my clothes for the Ottawa Gala and had lunch with my study tour comrades. After brief introductions we broke off and went to the pre-conference session lead by Maxime Boilard (Olympic Canoer) and Barbara Oberleitner both alumni from the 2008 conference.  They were amazing - Maxime's comparisons to paddling and leadership were so...relevant. I had just received news that my application for health and wellness funding at UBC had been approved - and it was based on my success dragon boating. So I proposed putting together a dragon boat in the Library to build both physical fitne...