Archive for category Current Events
Tunnel Vision… If you’ve got it, you don’t “get it”
Posted by Calvin in Annoyances, Current Events, Politics on August 31, 2010
Sometimes, things people on Calgary city council say really bug the hell out of me.
For as long as I can remember, Calgary city council was always an old boys (and girls) club. The same old faces, making many of the same decisions, while doing nothing to actually try stimulating Calgary to make it a truly dynamic city. Calgary is stagnant, and for some reason, I seem to be the only person that thinks so.
Allow me to explain. I’m not a hater by any stretch of the imagination, on the contrary, Calgary is my hometown and as such it will always hold a special place in my memories, but that doesn’t stop me from saying with complete confidence that it has become stagnant and is far from the city I once remember. Council hasn’t made many (if any) moves to make the city more dynamic, the downtown still sucks, and many city provided services offer horrid value-for-money. Then there’s dumbass ideas like the Peace Bridge ($25 Million of OUR money for a bridge we don’t need? Up yours too Bronco & Co.)
That’s not the main point I wanted to make though. What I wanted to bring up is that Calgary International Airport is about the ONLY airport I’ve been to that, for a city of Calgary’s size, has public transportation service that’s worse than laughable. The 2 buses that come hourly is a feeble move. Closing off the road they use so that the airport authority can build their precious new runway, but not working on an alternative for the people that use transit to get to the airport is a move that is, by all respects, a practice in poor decision making. The excuse is that there isn’t enough people using it. Maybe if it were usable that wouldn’t be a problem (but we can’t necessarily trust the old guard to make common sense moves, now can we?)
That brings me to the airport tunnel. It’s something that has been making the rounds for a while, and something that many agree is needed to compensate for the loss of the link from Barlow to the airport because of the new runway. Hell, some have gone so far as to suggest we could try working out a way for the LRT to go to the airport through the tunnel too. All of this seems like common sense, and while many agree, there are some that, rather unfortunately, figure we don’t need it.
Alderman Bob Hawkesworth, currently the Ward 4 alderman, as part of his mayoral campaign is trying to circulate a petition to put a stop to the airport tunnel. Conveniently enough, it is said he voted in favor of that $25 Million bridge I mentioned earlier on. Talk about having your priorities straight… NOT.
Many of the other members of council do not appear from what I’ve gleaned to be running, though I’m certain many are. While I want to hold out hope that people actually get it, I know for many people that have been serving on Calgary city council (most of them for well over a decade), that hope is sadly misplaced.
If any of them end up reading this (I don’t particularly care either way), I’d welcome them to leave a comment. Talk to me, I want to know what’s going on with the people on this council. I didn’t vote for any of them when I was in Calgary, but there seems to be a great deal of arrogance causing a disconnect with the electorate, and we want answers.
Developing Fat Cats
Posted by Calvin in Current Events, Politics on August 1, 2010
Word broke on Twitter recently of a forum for mayoral candidates in Calgary to be held by Calgary Economic Development, with representatives of the convention centre authority, airport authority and tourism agency to be in attendance. No big deal, political fora are common in elections, right? Well, turns out this particular forum is open ONLY to members of these agencies, dealing a blow to the transparency that the electorate has come to expect of their candidates.
While I don’t dispute the importance of having the candidates know the agencies that will ultimately end up reporting to one of them, I do dispute the necessity of having it done behind closed doors in a manner that keeps the voting public from getting to know these same agencies. It’s not the mayor and council that these agencies end up reporting to, at the end of the day, it’s ultimately the people of the city. These people need to know these agencies are working for the good of not only the fat cats that they represent, but also the good of the people, many of whom have jobs that rely on these agencies. Should people not be able to find out about the function these agencies play if their very livelihood relies on them?
I, like many others, demand full transparency, and I would like to personally call on Calgary’s mayoral candidates to boycott this meeting until such time as the media and public are allowed to be in attendance.
UPDATE: Calgary Economic Development is reportedly going back to their board to reconsider the forum’s private nature. This will hopefully bring the transparency people expect.
Pride Worth Catching? Part 2: A comparison
Posted by Calvin in Current Events, Politics on June 2, 2010
I’ve had some more questions about my experience with public transit, particularly in Calgary. Given my travels across Canada, I have used systems in a number of cities, hence I feel it would be adequate to compare experiences across the country in relation to Calgary.
In these travels I’ve had the pleasure of using public transportation in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Trois-Rivieres and Saint John. Some experiences have obviously been far more enjoyable than others on a number of levels, but there are some things that Calgary could stand to learn from each.
My personal issue is with the value-for-money of the transit system. It’s been said that if fares go up, then service should step up and vice-versa, but to have it both ways is incredibly foolish and can cause reduced ridership (something Calgary has suffered of late).
An excellent example of a value-added transit system is Vancouver’s TransLink system (which I used heavily while in Vancouver working during the 2010 Winter Olympics). An integrated system more formally known as the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, TransLink provides bus and train service through Vancouver, the SeaBus commuter ferry to North Vancouver and the West Coast Express commuter train service. Given the cost of a single fare zone ($2.50), of which Metro Vancouver is divided into three, the access options for information (by phone, mobile web (including an iPhone App) and SMS) and services available throughout the fare zones, a one-zone fare in Metro Vancouver proves to provide more value for less cost compared to Calgary Transit (with much of Calgary fitting geographically into a single fare zone).
Another example is with the Trois-Rivieres transit system, the Société de Transport de Trois-Rivières, where while they are a smaller area with a higher fare ($3.00 to Calgary’s $2.75), they offer a reasonable level of service within respectable hours. One thing they do that I did like and wish was done more often is they published at what times past the hour the bus would run by the stop, i.e. x:15 and x:45. The information is available on their website (French of course), but is useful all the same. Another thing they provided at the time I was using the system was printed booklets with schedules and maps for ALL ROUTES, not just select ones.
While not quite as notable an example, Saint John Transit has done a reasonably good job of covering this wonderful New Brunswick city, save a couple areas, but they do offer one thing that Calgary Transit didn’t, which is a fairly reasonable degree of communication with their riders, including things like bookmarks being made available on the buses to notify of fare increases and releases in the newspaper and on the radio to keep people in the loop.
In effect, Calgary has much to learn in terms of communicating with their passengers, providing better communication of stop times, maximizing the level of service provided for money, making information accessible across more media than their (non-mobile) website and by phone, as well as stepping up with the safety with the system. The number of serious incidents on Calgary Transit over the last few years makes this an area that Transit and Calgary city council can ill afford to ignore.
This is of course assuming that the incoming council does a value-for-money audit and picks up on things that could be done to better ensure Calgarians are getting their money’s worth from a public transportation system that does not currently serve well for what is being put in through taxes and transit fares.
Operation: iPhone
Posted by Calvin in Current Events, Journalism, Wireless on April 27, 2010
If you follow tech news at all, you’re no doubt aware of the leak of the next-generation iPhone, a story that has been a big deal of late. Well, that story just took a seriously troubling turn.
Last Friday at approximately 9:45 PM Pacific Time, Gizmodo editor Jason Chen arrived from a night out with his wife, only to find that members of California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) had broken down the door of his house and were executing a search warrant (issued in San Mateo county superior court at 7:00 PM Pacific) at his home. According to an account by Chen, he was also subjected to a physical search for any weapons.
In the end, four computers, two servers, an iPhone, a Motorola Droid, mass storage media (thumbdrives, external hard drives), and personal identity info were seized. Included in the information seized was a letter from Gawker Media COO Gaby Darbyshire noting the search warrant was invalid under California’s shield laws, as Chen is a journalist under Gawker’s employ.
In a letter to the Detective that signed off on the inventory of property seized under the search warrant, Darbyshire notes that under the California Penal Code, the property should never have been seized, with other experts chiming in that it is also in violation of United States federal law. In light of the shield law defense put forward by Gawker, the search has come to a bit of a pause while the District Attorney’s office considers the defense, in light of reasons put forward by attorneys for Gawker/Gizmodo.
As to why the raid was executed when the Shield Law defense was possible, a spokesperson in the District Attorney’s office stated that the prosecutor in the case believed that the shield law defense did not apply in this case. The spokesperson had conceded that the pause of an investigation to explore a shield law defense after evidence had been seized was rather unusual. Whatever the reason the prosecutor had for believing the defense did not apply, the way events have unfolded gives the appearance that there were variables that were not considered when the raid was executed.
All of this has brought up the debate about whether bloggers are actually journalists. There is a precedent in California to say that this is the case (as noted in a note by Darbyshire), and some acceptance of the general notion is found in other jurisdictions further afield.
I’m not a lawyer, but it appears to me that there’s a couple of things potentially wrong in this scenario. Yes, the fact that Gizmodo paid for the leaked iPhone poses a problem, but there’s no reason why a seizure of computer equipment from a journalist was required when it’s been noted a subpoena would have been sufficient. Was it appropriate for Gizmodo to pay for the phone? Not really. Was it appropriate for a raid and seizure of equipment from a journalist on the story to be seized? Same answer.
Apple got their iPhone back. Why are we breaking down doors and raiding people’s houses over it?
Don’t Step in The Ponds
Posted by Calvin in Annoyances, Current Events, Politics on April 24, 2010
The Alberta Government recently approved applications by Fort Hills and Syncrude to build more tailings ponds to deal with the waste from their operations in the north of the province.
For those who don’t know what tailings ponds are, they contain the waste, or “tailings” from the upgrading of bitumen from the oilsands (a project that in and of itself has been nothing but trouble for the province and Canada as a whole). These tailings contain water, sand, silt, clay and residual bitumen, are highly toxic and pose a serious threat to wildlife and the greater environment, as they are too toxic to be returned to the water system.
The Energy Resource Conservation Board in Alberta ordered companies operating in the oilsands to clean up their tailings and keep the regulator updated with their progress, in light of a plan announced to have the land in a state where it can be reclaimed within 5 years of when tailings stop being deposited and other cleanup to occur over the next few years.
Despite this, there were two applications approved today that met the “spirit” of the plans.
I’m sorry, but the “spirit” isn’t quite good enough. These ponds and the larger oilsands program have been nothing but a black eye to my country, my home province and even my hometown.
I’m frankly tired of this. I’m proud to be a born and raised Albertan, but this program has been nothing but an embarrassment to the people of this province, never mind that critics always seem to be considered misinformed or crazy, most recently James Cameron, best known for directing the smash hit film Avatar was essentially told he was misinformed and was invited by our Premier, Ed Stelmach, to go on a tour of the oilsands and canoe down the Athabasca River, with the intent of showing him what the oilsands are all about.
You can put a bow on a turd, but at the end of the day, it smells just as bad.
Big Trouble on The Little Hill
Posted by Calvin in Current Events, Politics on April 17, 2010
There’s been a most intriguing string of events lately on Parliament Hill involving a former cabinet minister/member of the Conservative party caucus and her husband, a disgraced former Member of Parliament.
Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer have proven to be the source of quite a headache for the Conservative Party, with Jaffer, the former MP for Edmonton Strathcona having been arrested on charges of impaired driving and cocaine possession (he was later only convicted on the lesser charge of careless driving) and Guergis coming under fire of late for her husbands conduct, but allegations have also surfaced recently surrounding Guergis and Jaffer partying in what sounds like seedier atmospheres surrounded by prostitution and drug use, although those allegations are as yet unproven and could very well be false.
To make matters more interesting, the federal ethics commissioner was asked to look into the financing behind Guergis’ purchase of a home in Ottawa, although the reasoning for the commissioner to be asked to do so is unclear.
In light of all this, Prime Minister Harper accepted Guergis’ resignation from cabinet and ejected her from caucus pending an investigation by the RCMP, a move that has not happened since the Mulroney days.
While Guergis is to be presumed innocent, this could prove to be a very interesting, very trying time for her, Jaffer and the Conservative Party, which is coming under more fire from the opposition over this latest scandal involving high profile members of their caucus.
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