Thoughts on culture, education, and having been a Canadian in the US

On the way into work today, there was a story on the radio news about how Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox was rumoured to be appearing at a car auction this weekend instead of tending to his sick mother, his reason for not currently attending training camp.

“How is THAT newsworthy?!,” my wife asked. “Ah, I said, it’s because it’s baseball. Clearly, we’re not in Canada anymore.” Were something similar happening in the NHL, though, I could see it perhaps making the local news somewhere.

If only we could combine hockey and baseball, we might truly have a sport that could appeal to a wider range of North Americans.

But wait! Maybe “Clark, the Canadian hockey goalie” has the answer we never really knew that we’ve been waiting for….

Just finished the blurb for my TAP class next fall:

From Pucks to Parliament: Canada’s cultural landscape

If you ask the average American about Canada, you’ll find that most know very little about this mysterious land north of the US, labeled on most American maps as nothing more than “Canada.” In this course’s exploration of Canadian culture, we’ll “travel” from coast to coast to coast in our quest to learn more about the people, culture, politics, and history of Canada, the United States’ largest trading partner and one of its most important allies. Throughout our journey, we’ll be paying particular attention to Canadian literature, music, television, and movies.

This Residential TAP course will see most students living in Canada House, part of Living/Learning’s Global Village Residential Learning Community. This will also be a technology-driven, writing intensive course that will see you writing, blogging, and even podcasting about your new discoveries about Canada. The course will include a mandatory class trip to Ottawa, Canada’s capital, during which we will visit Parliament, the National Gallery and Museum of Civilisation, and, yes, even attend a hockey game.

For the duration of the course, each student will also be loaned an iPod loaded with Canadian music, audio books, and lectures connected to the topics we will be studying.

Paul Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and the Director of UVM’s Canadian Studies Program. Paul grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and has lived in Vermont since 2003. Although he enjoys living in Vermont, you’ll frequently hear him longing for Tim Hortons coffee and donuts and pining for the big sky of the Canadian prairie. His research areas include Canadian literature in both English and French and contemporary fiction. Although he spent his youth playing music instead of hockey, he’s a diehard Edmonton Oilers fan, having grown up in the heyday of Gretzky, Messier, Coffey, Kurri, and Fuhr.

Had a chance to watch a bit of the East Coast Music Awards last night on CBC. It really is amazing how much great talent there is out there, including Ron Hynes, Joel Plaskett, Measha Brueggergosman, Ashley MacIsaac, and, of course, Sloan, to name but a few. As often seems to happen whenever she’s involved, however, the most memorable moment came from the inimitable Mary Walsh:

Newfoundland and Labrador comedian Mary Walsh referred to the federal Conservatives as ‘the arse-lickers of Satan’ before introducing a performer.

(From the CBC’s report on the ECMA ceremonies)

I’ll take snow blogging over snow blowing any day. Still, it would have been nice to have had a snow blower at a couple of points in the last day or so. We had a record 24-hour snowfall yesterday and TWO full snow days for the kids and me. I’ve been working at home in between shovelling, shovelling, getting the kids dressed to get outside, shovelling, shovelling, helping kids get inside for hot chocolate, and more shovelling.

The amount of snow here is still hard to believe, but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. If you’re going to take a snow day, it may as well be a big one.

Having experienced the only day in the history of the U of Alberta where the entire university shut down because of the weather (I don’t think I’ve seen a storm like that one since), I can now add the Valentine’s blizzard of 2007 to the list!

We knew the storm was coming, but by 3 AM last night it had only just begun snowing. So, I figured I would definitely still be teaching today. By the time I looked out at 7:30 though, we’d already had about a foot of snow. I cancelled my classes early this AM, and by about 10 AM the university announced they would be shutting down entirely. Given that it took me about 90 minutes to clear the driveway this morning, I’m glad I don’t have to head in today and can work from home.

The snow and winds have not let up and, apparently, are only going to get worse today.

Snow day!

Where Are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools is an incredible online multimedia exhibit that accompanies a physical exhibit touring Canada right now. I’d like you all to spend some time here learning more about the legacy of the residential school system. There’s lots of important information here that connects to the works we’re reading, including the sections on intergenerational impacts, educational materials, and shared stories. Make sure to take the time to check out some of the video clips.

From the website:

This virtual exhibition presents photographs largely from public and church archival collections, from as early as 1880 to the 1960s. Aboriginal youth want to know about the experiences of their parents and grandparents, the stories that have not been told. It is hoped that this website will bring healing and restore balance in Aboriginal communities by encouraging children to ask, and parents to answer, important questions about their family histories.

The terrible conditions on many reserves today has been front and centre in the Canadian news in the last week or so, as they should be. The fact that “Save the Children” recently came to investigate conditions on reserves here says it all. My students and I have been talking a lot about this in my new course on First Nations writers and about Canadian attitudes towards First Nations peoples. We’ve just finished reading Thomas King‘s The Truth About Stories and one of the things he talks about in those lectures are the stories Canadians like to tell themselves about how we’ve learned from the past or how Natives are to blame for poverty/suicide rates/health issues/despair/crime rates/unemployment many communities are dealing with.



One of the stories we might like to tell ourselves is that the majority of non-Natives don’t actually believe this and really want to help. Yesterday, Phil Fontaine, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, did a live question and answer session on the Globe and Mail website. Reading through the questions and Fontaine’s overly gracious and patient answers to them, I couldn’t help but be shocked by some of the uneducated opinions of many readers who questioned such things as “why we should keep paying to help them.” Sigh.

Those questions and the comments posted later on the Globe’s website show just how far we still need to go in educating the average Canadian about the history of our treatment of the First Nations, what treaties are, and why problems like the ones mentioned above are so much more prevalent among Native communities in Canada than among non-Native ones. I’d like to tell myself the story that the people posting on the Globe and Mail site don’t represent the Canadian mainstream. The truth about that story, though, is that we all have a long, long way to go.

Fortunately, there are a number of great organizations who are trying to help. I’d like to see much more being done by the federal government and the school system to educate Canadians about this part of our history and of Canadian society today.

Phil Fontaine, by the way, will be interviewed on CBC’s The Hour on Feb. 9th. The Hour is turning out to be my “must-see TV” these days. Their archive of interviews is tremendous and well worth checking out.

Aside from being a fine place to live and visit, Edmonton leads Canada in recycling and composting, keeping a remarkable 60% of its waste out of the landfill system. Listen to this panel discussion from CBC’s The Sunday Edition (entitled “Why Can’t We be More Like Edmonton?”) on how other cities in North America might work to achieve similar targets.

Not a week goes by where I don’t wish that Chittenden county had a waste management/recycling program half as good as Edmonton’s…

My life is feeling a bit more like Groundhog Day these days, and I’m sorry to report that I saw my shadow today which indicates that my own personal winter seems destined to stay for longer than I’d expected. At any rate, I’m relieved by the the predictions of Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam. Their American cousin didn’t see his shadow, either. Who knew about all these other guys? (update: Don’t forget Claude the Cajun Crawfish either! Thanks to Heidi for that one…)

Of course, as Dr. Crazy’s blog reminded me today, it’s also the birthday of James Joyce and the 85th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses! Now that’s something well worth celebrating.

Of course, with it being Canada it involves a bet over a hockey game. Here’s CBC’s report on what happened.

As an admitted Internet addict and news junkie, it’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of things like the unveiling of the iPhone or the new NHL jerseys or to want to read more about the inspiring play of Sidney Crosby or the progress of the Tragically Hip‘s North American tour (they’re coming here in April!).

This truly remarkable video by Robert Thompson about some people in the US getting together to buy a poor family in China a water buffalo, to me, really puts into perspective some of the things we could be doing a lot more of on the Internet. I’m sure there are lots of companies out there who would rather we not realize that for the cost of an iPhone we could buy a water buffalo for a Chinese family or change the lives of people on the other side of the world in equally remarkable ways. The internet is turning out to be a remarkable tool in doing just this. Look, for instance, at what KIVA is up to…

Take a look at this informative page from Heifer International’s website to see lots of small things we can do at home, too, to start helping the world.

(I found this video today via Tim Lauer’s great Education/Technology blog. I’ve now subscribed to the feed from Robert Thompson’s blog as well.)