Canada’s Holy Day

It has often been asked in our increasingly secular culture if anything is holy anymore. Canada is a fairly secular country, although different from the secularism in other countries. It is not so much an outright lack of faith here as is pushed by radical groups in the United States or Europe, but simply more private. People aren’t afraid of being religious so much because of public embarrassment, but rather because we’ve been taught not to be so outright about it.

So in this odd culture of ours, do we still have any holy days left? There are only a few days left that are public celebrations of some solemnity. I would say that there are only really 3 days left that really make people stop and think with the rest largely having become days off without much thought given to the purpose of the day. Those 3 days are Canada Day, Christmas, and Remembrance Day.

Canada Day does make people think a little bit about the history of our country, but still ends up being more a day of parties. It’s not too surprising, as Canadians are not really that patriotic compared to many other countries. With Christmas, you can bring up a long list of the reasons Christmas has been largely forgotten in favour of consumerism and, in some cases, outright greed. Even so, the reason for the season is still widely known and celebrated in many places.

And then there’s today, Remembrance Day. Out of all the days of the year, this is really the only one that is so universally celebrated. Not just that though, it is also socially acceptable and even encouraged to participate and remember this day through poems such as In Flanders Field, the playing of the Last Post, and the wearing of the ubiquitous red and black poppy. Citizens are encouraged to attend ceremonies in many cities across the country.

CBC, the national broadcaster, always has live coverage of the ceremonies from the National War Memorial in Ottawa. To someone who only knows the stereotypes of Canada, they may actually think that this ceremony seems almost un-Canadian. In a country sometimes uncomfortable about patriotism we have soldiers and the Governor-General in full uniforms, and in a country uncomfortable about public religion we have chaplains invoking God and the Bible in prayer, and in a country that is sometimes not so sure about how we still relate to Britain we sing God Save the Queen.

And while you might have some disgruntled people who might complain (you always do), it is still considered a faux pas to criticize any of this. While we might not be in favour of war, the whole country by and large believes in the need to honour the soldiers who fought and died. It is one of the only things that is still considered sacred in this country. Today is the only day that is not just an ordinary day with a slightly different theme, but is truly set apart by everyone.

That is what makes Remembrance Day Canada’s Holy Day.

The Uncomfortable Side of Democracy

Today’s Edmonton Journal re-printed an op-ed from the NYT, a very uncomfortable look at the results of the revolution this past spring in Egypt. It’s not something that is brand new, but is something that has been happening for a while. The last while has seen several attacks on Coptic Christians in sectarian violence.

This brings to the front one of the more uncomfortable sides of the fall of dictators: can this new muti-national and multicultural state survive? And for those who like bonus questions: How long do you try and keep it together? The first question was looked at in this article by a professor at Catholic University of America.

The second question is one that is especially important in this day and age, and the example are numerous. They include Russia and Chechnya, Scotland and the United Kingdom (not to mention the question of Northern Ireland), the EU itself (because of the financial near-ruin of several members), and of course Belgium. The issue is also being felt quite a bit across Europe due to the influx of Muslim immigrants, who seem to be at the very least challenging (not  necessarily actively. More in the sociological sense) the status quo of fairly uniform ethnic backgrounds in many European countries.
In the case of Belgium, the informal consensus seems to be that the best case is for the Flemish half to separate from the Wallonian half (with that half possibly joining France, according to Wikipedia). Belgium is still, as of today, without a formal government from an election over a year ago due to disagreement between the 2 halves. A government is apparently coming soon.

Another recent example of this is the Sudan. The Christian South recently separated from the Muslim North. Of course, people now hope this will lead to peace in the Sudan at least. If you consider it peace when you don’t want to kill your neighbour because you decided to never work with them or even (preferably) see them again. The “success” is that two new countries are now lined up along the religious lines that divided the one original country.

The US doesn’t seem to be an example of this, but will it become this? The US is for all intensive purposes already fractured into regions, and the truth is that no one seems to be satisfied with how things are going. Christians don’t think that Judeo-Christian values are followed enough, while secularists argue that they hold too much sway. And the best case scenario seems to be that both sides stay unsatisfied, and that the status quo holds.

Is Canada exempt from this? Well, things are pretty quiet right now. As in the US, as long as the status quo doesn’t undergo too much of a shift, things should stay quiet. That doesn’t mean that everyone will be satisfied though, and a slow, small set of changes could probably go ahead without too much protesting.

Solutions? Some (they know who they are) would inevitably bring up religion as the problem. Not to get too much in that, but Absolute Relativism simply seems to have become it’s own decentralized faith/spirituality as a thinly-veiled attempt to deflect criticism that they are being hypocrites (the fact that “there are no absolute truths” is an absolute statement is only the tip of that iceberg).

I don’t have the answer, and someone who says they do probably has one that is too idealistic to ever work. I’ve often wondered if it would simply be best for countries to split up if they can’t seem to work together, following the example of the Sudan. I would be the first to admit that any peace that comes is largely artificial, but since we as a society have decided (rightly) that war is not an ethical option it seems to me that even artificial peace would be the better choice over continued conflict. On the flip side, and large number of smaller and smaller sovereign entities doesn’t seem like a real good idea either (especially accounting for economies of scale losses). Or will each region of the world decide to do either or, with smaller peaceful countries spring up some places while other continue to have larger, possibly unstable ones.

Big questions, and no right answers. These have to be decided by ordinary men and women either on their own or after considering arguments from the political leadership. That is why we call democracy the least-worst choice. It’s the only system that seems to be most successful when everyone is at least a unhappy.

Quebec Said What?!

Well, today’s day … something of the campaign for the May election. All I know is that there’s a painful month to go before we can all stop pretending we care so much about politics and the government can go back to whatever it does when it’s not election time (I know there’s something they do, but it didn’t seem to happen much the last few years).

So, today’s big announcement is from the Conservatives. If they win, they’re pledging to underwrite (co-sign?) the loan for the Lower Churchill Hydro project in Labrador. Now, when it comes to renewable electricity, hydro is the only one reliable enough to act as a baseload plant, so hydro is always a good thing.

Well, except if you’re Quebec. See, Quebec is mad. Ok, I need to qualify that statement because it seems like Quebec is always mad about something. They’re mad because the project intends to build a power line directly to Nova Scotia and on to the US, bypassing anything possibly owned by one Hydro Quebec. The Quebec government is made that it’ll cut into their profits from exports into the States.

Why is Hydro Quebec so profitable? It probably has a bit to do with the Upper Churchill hydro project, which has a capacity of 5,428 MW and is one of the largest power plants in Canada. Hydro Quebec exclusively gets to buy the electricity. Or better put, they effectually get to steal it for a quarter cent per kWh ($0.0025/kWh) and sell it into the New England market for 15 to 19 cents per kWh. At 15 cents, they’re making 14.75 cents per kWh, which is a mind-blowing profit markup of  5,900%. That’s not highway robbery, that’s the sort of markup you would expect from the mob. But, I digress.

Gilles Duceppe is angry (although when is he not?), and (I kid you not, this is right from the CBC) said it’s “a ”slap in the face” for Quebec and said it was using federal tax dollars to unfairly advantage one region”. Yep. The guy from Quebec, who exists for the sole reason of trying to get as much money for Quebec from Ottawa as humanly possibly by threatening to separate every 10 minutes, is complaining about money going to another province. April Fool? Nope, apparently Quebec feels it’s just more privileged than the rest of us.

I think I speak for most of western Canada when I say “it’s about time someone stood up to Quebec”. Quebec receives $5.6 billion in equalization payments. Students in Quebec pay the lowest tuition, but only if you’re a Quebecer. Engineering Students in Quebec pay $2067.90 for a full year (non-Quebecers pay ~2.5x as much). I paid $3106.08 for 1 term last semester, so over a full year I pay 3 times as much as someone in Quebec.

Seriously, the whole separatist thing is getting old. If you want to go, then go. But we know they don’t actually want to, because they loose out on all the money they’d get. I think it’s high time someone calls their bluff.

Now I don’t have anything against Quebec or the people live there. Quebec (as New France) was the foundation of Canada. Canada grew out of Quebec. But after a while, the whining just gets old. Quebec is like a spoiled kid who’s learned that if he screams loudly enough his parents will just give him whatever he wants. Except Quebec is around 400 years old now. Quebec is the quintessential poster boy for why parents should discipline their children (but that’s a completely different topic).

Remember Canada, only 31 days to go.

Ignatieff’s First Slip

Ignatieff made an announcement in todays campaigning, and he of course calls it “revolutionary” (I guess he borrowed Steve Jobs’ speechwriter).

So, the idea is that student’s will now get $1000 RESP a year, which will replace the current education and textbook tax credit. Now, technically speaking it is an increase. With the education/text book credit, you get $400 for every month for education and $65/month for textbooks as a non-refundable tax credit. At the normal 8 months, that $3720, which at the non-refundable tax rate of 15% works out to $558. So, technically it’s $442 more.

That’s about the only good news for Iggy though. The first problem is that the new credit comes as an RESP, and the old one is at taxes. For students, that means that you’re going to have to pay more income tax at each paycheque or pay extra at tax time. For someone like me who’s currently working, this means I’m going to have to contact my HR department and have them deduct more income tax to make up for the fact that I’ll have less credits (almost $4000 less credits, which for me is 2 paycheques worth). This is already becoming a headache.

Secondly is the idea that the old system is a tax credit. That means you have to actually make money above the basic personal exemption (~$10,000 federally) to actually claim it. Which means that you actually have to be a productive member of society. In fact, the people who will be able to take the most advantage of the new credit is people who don’t work. So that means rich people and slackers, not the poor people Iggy claims this will help.

Thirdly is the problem with the limit. Iggy’s promising $1000/yr for 4 years, for a max of $4000. Iggy is trying not to, but he’s wearing his professor hat. And although the image people are trying their best, it gives him that Ivory Tower elitist feeling. The idea of the 4 year degree is disappearing. Especially in Engineering you see people stretching out to 5 or 6 years, because it helps people not to go completely insane. For those people, they now get the short end of the stick as the credits dry up after 4 years. The worst part of this idea is for people who go into graduate school. Using the classic example, these are the people who are going to cure cancer. And they’re getting told that they don’t get anything anymore. You’d think this would come from someone who would want to promote private research above public, but in this case it’s the Liberals, so I’m thinking that this was not well thought out (no surprise there, it’s an election).

Fourthly is that this is going to hurt parents. One of the best parts about sending kids to university is that they are able to transfer (to a maximum of $5000 a year) credits to their parents. It’s almost a scam really. It’s one of the ways parents get to enjoy some benefits of the kids going to university. And under Iggy’s plan, it’s gone. The transfer happens on schedule 11 of the income tax form, and with no tax credit there’s no more transfers.

Revolutionary? Maybe the same way we call it the Iranian “Revolution”, as in things getting worse. This is a loosing proposition. So why will people like it? The same reason people like it when the GST gets cut. Every economist in the country called it a dumb idea, but people love it. Because people want things now now now, not sometime later. We live in an instant gratification society; it’s no surprise that Iggy would try to exploit that.

Taking a New Plunge

People who know me probably know that there’s one thing that I complain about a lot: my internet. I’m in a building that only gets Telus internet. It’s a monopoly plain and simple. And we’re students, so you know that they don’t actually care about us. Oh boy, what a story.

It seemed to start fine last Fall, but only a month in the uptime was, well, terrible. We’re talking about wired DSL internet using a phone line. The technology is over a decade old; there’s no excuse for them to not have nearly perpetual uptime. I was with Shaw and little Access Communications on other work terms (both over old fashion coax Cable), and I never had a problem with either of them (ok, Access internet went down for a couple days. Due to a planned outage when they were upgrading their hardware. Which going by the small towns I saw in the area, was a satellite uplink. Which they managed to make more reliable than DSL in a major city).

The first Router/Modem they gave me (a Siemens or something) basically crapped out in mid-November. The tech guy who came out said that some of those are just defective (yep, not a lot of confidence in Telus at this point). So, they gave me a 2Wire, which I’ve seen before. It’s … better. Marginally. The internet still seems to go down for no reason sometimes, and the thing just lies sometimes that it is connected when it’s not. The only good thing I can saw about Telus is that they’re Customer Service is pretty good, but the fact that I’ve used it enough time to say that is embarrassing.

I would jump to Shaw in a minute if they offered it in the building. I would walk to Shaw (which is in the West end near 178 Street I believe) if that would get service from them. My only other option? Mobile internet through a wireless provider. Well, we all know that we in Canada pay more for wireless than any other Western nation, so the prices were predictably terrible ($60-$70 for 5GB? Are you kidding!?).

Except 1, That new guy in town, Wind Mobile.I happened to be looking and saw that they were offering an unlimited data plan promotion for $25/month for 12 months, and $45 regular. Just for comparison, my Telus High Speed plan is going to up to $39 this fall after the promotion I got on is done.

So, I said “let’s try it”. So I’ve got myself a new Wind data stick and plan (and paid nothing up front with their tab-thing) and a pretty cool new 3G router from Futureshop (because I had $30 in Christmas gift cards and nothing to spend them on). If you asked me a week ago, I wouldn’t have even known there was a such a thing as a 3G router because it’s not an area I usually browse in.

So, the return policy on this is 14 days, so I’m going to take the next 2 weeks to see if this can effectively replace my Telus service, including a trip to Vancouver mid-next week (which also happens to have a Wind Zone). So far the results are very promising (and got better when I didn’t have my Fido phone right next to the 3G Modem, which I’m guessing interferes with it because my speed shot up when I moved it).

Is this For Science? No, science would be interested if it’s possible (which is it). I’m doing this For Engineering, because I’m interested if this is feasible. So, this should be a pretty fun experience.

Tax Time, 2010 Edition

No, that is not actually a typo because of course we do our taxes now for last year. Everyone hates tax time, so last year I did up some spreadsheets that mirror the tax forms but did most of the repetitive calculations.

So, I’ve modified my spreadsheets from last year to reflect changes in the tax forms, and did governments ever go wild with some of the changes. There are a few extra line deductions and separations of CPP/EI based on employment or self-employment, and then there’s some weird changes like the relegation of donations to Schedule 9 (from Schedule 1). The Government of Saskatchewan went a little crazy, adding a page and a half of extra line credits/deductions (half the boxes are literally “add or subtract the last 2″).

I also managed to get an Alberta form done this year. Also done this time: spellchecking (so no deductions for “texbooks” this time around).

So, they’re sitting in a webdirectory for anyone who’s interested.

Health Plan, 2010 Edition

We all remember the health plan that got passed at the U of A a couple years ago. Luckily, it includes an unlimited opt-out, which means that you can drop the absolutely terrible coverage and save about $200. Of course, the only thing is that you have to remember to opt-out.

So, to that effect I’ve been doing a little monitoring and checking up to see when they’ve decided that will be this year. The dates are officially posted on both the SU website and the plan website now. So, the opt-out date starts on Wednesday, September 1st (a little less than 2 weeks from now) and ends on Tuesday September 21st (which also happens to be the add/drop deadline).

So, for those who have no need of plans or who don’t feel like having one or who want the money back, remember to opt out. The opt out occurs at the plan website (specifically this link). So, set you alarms or mark your calendars or do whatever it is you do to remember that date.

When Did Parents Get So Gullible?

Today’s post should be filed under the “man, are they stupid” section. The story comes to us from the CBC where parents in Ontario are complaining that Wi-Fi at schools is making their children sick. The silliness factor is so large that the story even managed to make Slashdot.

I don’t even need to give my own analysis, I’ll just pull some of the paragraphs that apparently serve as “proof” in the CBC story. Let’s start here:

The parents complain they can’t get the Simcoe County school board or anyone else to take their concerns seriously, even though the children’s symptoms all disappear on weekends when they aren’t in school.

Or how about:

“These kids are getting sick at school but not at home,” he [Rodney Palmer of the Simcoe County Safe School Committee] said.

Or how about this gem from the provincial NDP:

“There is enough anecdotal evidence from parents that this is worth looking into.”

Where on earth did these people go to school? Anecdotal evidence is called “anecdotal” because it’s absolutely and utterly worthless. There are people out there who have anecdotal evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, that Obama wasn’t born in America, and that Elvis is actually alive, but we all rightly laugh at them because we know that they’re crazy. In real science, you need to have research, facts, experiments, verifiable and repeatable methods, not “little Timmy was sick at school today therefore it’s Wi-Fi’s fault”. The only evidence presented is by people who chooses to ignore the fact that correlation does not equal causation (also know as the “correlation fallacy”, also known as “you fail science forever”).

Second point, which was raised on Slashdot, is why not at home? Do these people live in neighbourhoods where nobody has Wi-Fi? Considering that most ISPs now offer free wireless routers/modems, I highly doubt it.

So, why aren’t people figuring out the obvious answer: kids hate being in school. We’ve all been there, and everyone knows that kids will do anything to get out of school at elementary age. The reason they are fine at home or on the weekends is because they’re not at school, not because they’re not around Wi-Fi (and most likely they are around Wi-Fi and probably don’t even know it).

The most important question here: Why are parents and adults stupid enough to fall for something like this?

Update: Winter U-Pass and Co-op

So, it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve last talked about this. I mentioned that I emailed Stephen Concini (the assistant director of co-op) though to ask him about student working in winter and what they should do about u-pass fees. The email got bounced around a bit (it was nice of them to cc me on the conversation), and I finally got this answer today from Martin Coutts (the AVP of Finance & Supply Management Services):

[R]egarding the question below about the Winter 2011
term, I have now confirmed with our Fees Division that if the only
outstanding amount on a student’s account is the Winter Term U-Pass fee,
the normal installment fee will not be charged.

That is quite a surprise to me because I fully expected that we’d have to pay and then get refunded, but I guess with the amount of people this could affect, they decided to make a concession. So unless I’m reading this completely wrong, I guess that for us that for us in co-op (I can’t say if this affects others as my question only concerned co-op students working in the winter term) in the winter term, we’ll be able to hold off paying the winter u-pass fee without being charged an instalment fee (I believe it’s $40). I would guess (as it’s not clear) that if someone ends up working in the Edmonton area that they’ll be required to pay the fee by the winter fee deadline (which is January 31, 2011), or that the fee will be withdrawn upon confirmation from the co-op office that the student is outside the Edmonton area (if that is the case).

A further email from Stephen Concini to all co-op students may be forthcoming to explain this. I would think so at least. We’ll just have to wait and see.

University Updates

So, a couple things have come to the attention of students in the past few weeks.

First, Stephen Concini (the assistant director of co-op) sent everyone out an email confirming the change to the rules for opting out of the U-Pass that I talked about 2 weeks ago. They have set up an email address that 1st work term students at least can use if they are outside the Edmonton area for this Fall (or any others that are). I tried emailing the co-op office to see what was recommended for those working in the Winter, but have yet to receive a response.

After last week, a friend of mine on student council managed to dig up the relevant section too:

2.01. Subject to Articles 2.02 to 2.05 hereof, inclusive, every Student other than an Exempt Student shall be required to participate in the U-Pass Program for each School Term, and shall be assessed a U-Pass Fee, on the terms and conditions set forth herein.

2.02. Only the following Students may opt out of the U-Pass Program:

(d) a Student who, pursuant to official University regulations, policies or
procedures (as may be amended from time to time) respecting registration
and fees assessments, has the option of being assessed the athletics and
recreation fee or the health services fee by the University, and who is:
(i) in a cooperative work experience program or work internship who
is registered only in one or more courses designated as “Work
Experience” for that School Term, and who is also
(ii) fulfilling their course requirements outside the boundaries of the
Municipalities for the majority of that Schol Term

A second major change is to the ITS electives that all engineers must take (for environmental engineers, that is the last year). Apparently people have had trouble finding an approved class with space, so an extended list has been approved. The old list (from 84.6.1 of the Calendar) had only ENG M 403, 405, HIST 391, STS 200, SOC 366 or 363 as approved electives. The new list expands that to EAS 294, ENG M 403, 405, HIST 115, 391, INT D 361, PHIL 265, 366, 375, STS 200, SOC 366 or 363.

It has not been specifically stated if this is a permanent change or a temporary one, but it seems to me that it is a permanent one.