Harper Tells High School Kids That Education is Not a Priority

Well it seems that Stockwell Day was a little too eager in his new post, and has dropped the axe on a high school in Smith Falls that maintains a Lest we Forget education centre.

The Canadian Council on Learning had been under Charles McVety's radar for some time, so he no doubt zapped them; but why Smith Falls? And why a program to encourage young people to learn about our military history?

I thought they were all about the military.

And the reason they gave these young people?

"... providing education is not deemed a priority."

Can you believe it? Yet they can give four million dollars to build a library in a private school and another faith-based centre got almost half a mill for an indoor soccer field.

Lest We Forget forgotten by feds
By EARL McRAE, Ottawa Sun
January 20, 2010

What began as a class project has become a national success story — Library And Archives Canada government website That’s right. A huge national success story.

Why then has this government — that claims to passionately care about our military and its honourable history that too many Canadians shamefully know so
little about through an indifferent educational system — decided to kill that which began as a class project and become a national success story?

The national success story is called Lest We Forget.

Nice going feds, you’ve forgotten. You can now remove the boast from the LAC website. The sour stench of success. Last Friday the feds, who care about our military and its honourable history, served notice to LAC that as of March 30 the Education Centre at LAC on Wellington St. from which educators have co-ordinated the Lest We Forget program for thousands of visiting high school students from across the country — including Ottawa and area — will be permanently shut down.

Says Blake Seward, the former Smiths Falls high school history teacher who created Lest We Forget six years ago as a class project that has become a national success story: “The reason they (government) gave for closing the Education Centre is that providing education is not deemed a priority.”

Priority? Excuse me? Our high school kids accessing and learning about Canada’s military heritage, and exploits of individual soldiers, through the voluminous public documents and records at LAC is not deemed a priority? I see. Can you spell constipated bureaucratic bulls--t?

The large conference room at the Education Centre was perfect for the students who, with teachers, would arrive in large groups, and enthusiastically interact with one another verbally; the room designated only for them over the several hours of learning.

“Over a thousand students from across Canada have visited since September,” says Seward, 44. “There are 1,500 requests right now. There will no longer be on-site visits in the conference room for secondary students to conduct primary and secondary research.

“They will have to work in the reference room (sharing it with the general public) which from an educator’s perspective, does not work because you cannot talk or work with students in that room.

“It’s a library. Talking in there, the students among themselves in their research and with their teachers, all necessary, would be like a cannon going off. You’d be told to shut up.”

For the Education Centre, says Seward, students through the Lest We Forget program are given priority, their requests expedited.

“The closing of the centre means that school requests will be moved into the eight-month backlog of requests for material from the general public, which again from a teacher’s perspective does not work.”

Blake Seward, educator, innovator, has had a long and deep interest in Canada’s military history. A great uncle was killed at Passchendale in the First World War. Lest We Forget focuses on our soldiers of that long ago war of which so little is known or understood by our students who should know.

“As our veterans move on in ever increasing numbers each day,” says Seward, “our direct link to the Second World War will become as remote as is our current state with the Great War. The students co-ordinate with universities that have adopted the Lest We Forget project.

“These secondary and post-secondary students are the custodians of our military history, and we are dependent upon their engagement to keep that memory alive.
“The military history of Canada is a proud one and the memory of the sacrifice made by men and women in the service of our country must remain in the forefront of our collective consciousness,” Seward says.

Do you have anything to add, Stephen Harper? Blake Seward does: “This effectively kills Lest We Forget.”

Contact McRae at earl.mcrae@sunmedia.ca or leave a message at 613-739-5133, ext. 469.

Stalking Michael Ignatieff at Concordia University

As promised I will be stalking ... er, following Michael Ignatieff during a time when many pundits will be suggesting he's on vacation.

Yesterday, he visited Concordia university and impressed on the students that education will be our best natural resource in getting the country back on track.

At a time when Harper's Reformers are denouncing Canada's educated as 'university types' and 'elites', he is stressing the importance of learning.



Ignatieff sets sights on students
A Montreal stop; Fixing unemployment is job No. 1: Liberal chief
By HUBERT BAUCH,
The Gazette
January 13, 2010

Federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said yesterday his priority when he summons his caucus back to work in Ottawa this month will be to come up with constructive suggestions for the next federal budget to be presented when Parliament resumes sitting in early March.

But he added he will not set any absolute conditions in advance for its passage, an indication the Liberals are reluctant to force a federal election this spring triggered by a defeat of the budget, particularly since they have a major policy conference scheduled for late March.

Ignatieff was in Montreal on the second leg of a cross-country speaking tour, during which he will be angling for the youth vote by speaking primarily to university students. Yesterday, he spoke before audiences of several hundred at both HEC (École des Hautes Études Commerciales), the Université de Montéal's business school, and Concordia University.

In a session with local reporters, he said the budget's most pressing concern should be to bring down current high unemployment caused by last year's recession.

"I think the key file is unemployment. We're in a situation where unemployment is present - at 8.5 per cent - and double that among young people. We think there are all kinds of things a smart government can do to make it easier for employers to take on labour, to take on young people, and it's in that area that we'll have proposals."

For the moment, however, he had nothing specific to propose. Rather, he said he and members of his caucus will meet with experts to work out concrete suggestions.

"I don't want to scoop myself at this point. I want to give us time when we get back to Ottawa on the 25th to work on specifics. It's one of the positive things an opposition party can do, and we'll be doing that."

Ignatieff's speaking tour is being run in conjunction with a new Liberal advertising campaign roasting Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his year-end decision to prorogue Parliament until March - characterizing it as a democratic travesty.

Yesterday, he seized on a comment by Harper in an interview that the poisonous atmosphere in Parliament of late is undermining confidence in the Canadian economy.

"It was the funniest thing I've heard in politics in a long time. The idea that the exercise of democracy causes instability is ridiculous."

He said Harper appears to have a fundamental problem with accepting legitimate constraints on his power as prime minister.

"He'd like the calm quiet of total authority, but that's not how our system works. I accept our institutions and the democratic constraints in our system."

Ignatieff's message to his university audiences is that higher education is the key to Canada's future prosperity in what will have to be a knowledge-based economy staffed by people in school today.

"Our prosperity in years to come will be based on intellectual property, not natural resources," he told his Concordia audience. "The future of our prosperity lies between your ears."

He said the top priority for Canadian governments in coming years must be to give every Canadian a first-class education. "Until we achieve that, we will not have an equal society, we will not have an efficient society."

Ignatieff also urged his student audiences to overcome the current widespread cynicism and disillusionment with the political process, deploring the fact that in last year's federal election, which saw a record low turnout, only one in five young Canadians eligible to vote for the first time turned up at at the polls.

He said a low turnout favours parties with a narrow, committed base. "Some of my adversaries are only too happy to have you stay home. That way they can get their base out and they get to drive the bus. My response is to give you something to vote for."

My Joe Canadian Today is Dr. Kirsty Duncan for Winning the Knowledge Millennium Award

My Joe Canadian award today goes to Liberal MP Kirsty Duncan for winning the prestigious Knowledge Millennium Award. We've had four years where our government refers to academics as 'University types', and has a science minister who doesn't believe in science.

We need intelligence brought back to government. We need a Liberal majority if we hope to move this country forward.

Ms. Duncan makes me proud to be Canadian. And she's a woman. That will really get Harper's shorts in a twist.

So her name is Kirsty and ASHE IS CANADAIN!

Statement by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff on the awarding of the Knowledge Millennium Award to Dr. Kirsty Duncan, MP
November 26, 2009

OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff made the following statement today regarding the Knowledge Millennium Award:

“Congratulations to my colleague, Dr. Kirsty Duncan, on winning the prestigious Knowledge Millennium Award.

“This award is presented annually to an individual who has made a significant mark on theme of the Global Knowledge Millennium summit. This year’s theme is emerging health threats – and Dr. Duncan has been recognized for her contribution to research on flu pandemics. A Nobel laureate herself, she will stand amongst six other Nobel laureates who previously won the award.

“As Liberal Public Health Critic and Member of Parliament for Etobicoke North, Kirsty’s knowledge of influenza pandemics has helped educate the Canadian public on the risks associated with this year’s H1N1 flu virus. As we have all seen in her tireless work, she is more than deserving of this award.

“Dr. Duncan has made Canada proud as she travels to India to receive the award, where she will also address conference attendees at the 7th Global Knowledge Millennium Conference.

“On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our Parliamentary caucus, I congratulate Dr. Kirsty Duncan on her distinguished work to protect the health of Canadians and people around the world.”

More Joe Canadian Award Winners:

1. My Joe Canadian Award Goes to Ria Hart from Barrie Ontario

2. My 'Joe Canadian' Award Today Goes to Parminder Singh

3. My 'Joe Canadian' Award Today Goes to Rick Hillier and the Project Hero program

4. My 'Joe Canadian' For Today is Justin Trudeau for Engaging Youth in Politics

5. Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez is My 'Joe Canadian' for Today

6. My 'Joe Canadian' Award Today Goes to Mark Holland and His Work on the Gun Registry

7. My Latest Joe Canadian Award Goes to Richard Colvin