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The Book List – last updated on 17-May-2012.
Student: A Generation Hobbled By Debt
The New York Times published an article today entitled A Generation Hobbled By Debt (May 13, 2012). in it the student Kelsey Griffith asserts that no one told her she would be paying $900/month on her $120,000 student debt after graduating. Setting aside the unlikelihood of that omission, how does anyone make it through university without understanding that debts have to be paid, and large debts require large payments to service them? If this is the level of thinking with which students graduate, they should be asking for their money back.
Post-Secondary Education in Quebec
Simply helping graduating high school students fill out college or university application forms significantly increases the numbers who go.
The Globe and Mail carried an article by Ross Finnie and Richard Mueller yesterday, discussing the cultural and socio-economic issues surrounding the current Quebec post-secondary tuition fee demonstrations. Their point is that despite fees in Quebec being significantly less than in other provinces, attendance at post-secondary institutions is far lower than in elsewhere. Clearly cost is not the issue. They make the point that further education needs to be part of the fabric of society so that as children grow up they expect, and are expected, to go to college or university. High schools can help in this regard. They then suggest that “simply helping graduating high school students fill out college or university application forms significantly increases the numbers who go (on to further education)”.
This floors me. If high school students cannot handle this task on their own what hope is there that they could benefit from further education?
Daniel Paul O’Donnell, professor of English, University of Lethbridge wrote to the editor:
I see that my good friend and colleague Richard Mueller has discovered that you can get some students into university simply by helping them fill out the application forms (Tuition Isn’t Putting It Out Of Reach – May 2). While I congratulate him and his research partners on finding a way of increasing the postsecondary participation rate, I hope he’ll steer those particular students to a competing university.
I couldn’t agree more!
Michaëlle Jean is the People’s Pick for CBC Chair
The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has announced the results of its straw poll for People’s Pick for President of the CBC.
I just cannot get behind this and I am shocked that the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean has won this vote. A pretty smile is not what is needed here and I think she would be out of her depth. I was a supporter when she was Governor General of Canada but she has not shown – to me – that she has the cojones required to be Chair of the CBC. The Harper Government would do well to select her if it wants to continue its death by a thousand cuts of the CBC.
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting People’s Pick For President 2012
The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has put up a list of potential candidates for President of the CBC, a post that is filled by political appointment of the government of the day. The list is presented for members of the public to indicate their choice for President, before the government makes its announcement.
In all likelihood the present Harper (Conservative) government will appoint someone who will further their apparent goal of stifling the CBC and eventually making it irrelevant. The fear is that this person will work from the inside to further the government’s cause either by actively eviscerating the CBC or by being unable to stand up to the government on behalf of the CBC.
The CBC Mandate is set out in the 1991 Broadcasting Act.
…the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as the national public broadcaster, should provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains; …the programming provided by the Corporation should:
- be predominantly and distinctively Canadian,
- reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions,
- actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression,
- be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and circumstances of each official language community, including the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities,
- strive to be of equivalent quality in English and French,
- contribute to shared national consciousness and identity,
- be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose, and
- reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada.
My personal view is that the CBC’s new streaming Music channel on the internet is outwith this mandate to the extent that it plays anything other than “Canadian content”.
The slate put forward by the Friends of CBC is as follows, listed in my own preferential order:
Joe Clark: a distinguished Canadian statesman, businessperson, and university professor, and former journalist and politician. He served as the 16th Prime Minister of Canada and was the last leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1998 to 2003.
He has the experience and insider knowledge to do battle for the CBC and as a Tory Prime Minister should be able to deal with the present government better than anyone else on the slate.
Ujjal Dosanjh: a Sikh Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as 33rd Premier of British Columbia from 2000 to 2001 and as a Member of Parliament from 2004 to 2011 including a stint as Minister of Health from 2004 until 2006. He has been a vocal opponent of violence and extremism.
A feisty man with excellent values, used to fighting for what is right. His political background is strong.
Ivan Fecan: a retired Canadian media executive. Fecan was the president and CEO of Baton Broadcasting and its successor CTVglobemedia from 1996 to 2011, and CEO of the CTV Television Network from late 1998 to 2011. After a two year stint working for NBC as their vice-president of creative development he became director of television programming for CBC Television in 1987. Some of the shows that Fecan ushered in during his tenure at CBC include Degrassi High, Road to Avonlea, The Kids in the Hall, Royal Canadian Air Farce and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
While obviously well versed in broadcasting in Canada my concern would be a lack of political experience.
Jocelyn Coté-O’Hara: a senior executive in the telecom and IT fields. She served with distinction in a number of high level positions in the Government of Canada and is an active member of many community, voluntary and trade organizations. She was named Woman of the Year by Canadian Women in Communications and is a Member of the Order of Canada.
I don’t know this lady but the women I have known with this sort of background have not put up with any nonsense.
Mary Simon: the President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national organization representing Inuit from Nunavut, Nunavik in Northern Quebec, Nunatsiavut in Labrador and the Inuvialuit region of the Northwest Territories. Ms Simon was born in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Quebec, on Nunavik’s Ungava Coast. She has devoted her life to achieving social justice for Inuit nationally and internationally, with a particular focus on children and youth, and the preservation of the Inuit language. In the environmental, economic and political arenas, she has been a leading advocate for Inuit cooperation. She began her career in the early 1970s as a producer and announcer with CBC Northern Service.
I have heard of this lady so she must have made waves somewhere along the way. A good mixed background for this position.
The three remaining people on the list are also-rans’s for this post, in my view. Now is a time for a strong, feisty person with lots of political and management experience.
Herménégilde Chiasson: a noted Acadian poet and playwright, and a professor at the Université de Moncton. He was the 29th Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick between 2003 and 2009 and served in many positions with Radio-Canada earlier in his career.
We are long past the days of having the luxury of someone from the Arts running the CBC. We are fighting for our lives here and need to fight fire with fire.
John Doyle: a television critic for The Globe and Mail newspaper whose opinions about the CBC are humourous and often withering. He has written a number of books about his early life in deeply conservative rural Ireland.
I love John Doyle’s writing in the Globe & Mail and I’m always interested in what he has to say about television but he is not the man for this job.
Michaëlle Jean: a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada from 2005 to 2010. Jean was a refugee from Haiti — coming to Canada in 1968 — and was raised in the town of Thetford Mines, Quebec. Jean worked as a journalist and broadcaster for Radio-Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as well as undertaking charity work, mostly in the field of assisting victims of domestic violence. Jean is currently the Special Envoy for Haiti for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and Chancellor of the University of Ottawa.
Overall a fairly good Governor General but clearly without the guts to stand up to this Prime Minister.
I encourage you to visit Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, register a People’s Vote and perhaps throw the organization a few bucks to help them in this fight to protect the CBC.
