Conversations That Matter

Ep. 4, Democracy & The Media: Does Diversity Strengthen or Diminish Democracy

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau likes to say, “Diversity is our Strength”

Is it? What does he mean when he says that and does diversity strengthen or diminish democracy? The answer is complicated, it starts with an open invitation to full participation in citizenship and a collective willingness to do the necessary work. Work that includes ongoing discussions about overarching values, ideals and goals such as human rights, justice, equality, individual freedom and access to opportunity.

Lost in the discussions pertaining to immigration and the acceptance of refugees is the responsibility of those of us who are already here to enlighten, inform and educate newcomers about what is expected of them as participants in society. 

Together, and from within individual communities, we, yes, the royal we, need to share what is expected of citizens and landed immigrants, what it means to participate in democracy, what it means to be an informed voter.

So how are we doing here? Canada grants full access to participation, this we do well. We say we believe in diversity but we can’t stop there. We need to do a better job of educating and demonstrating that for our democracy to strengthen - everyone must embrace one another’s rights. And we must defend each other’s rights. If I have the freedom to express my opinion then I have an obligation to defend your right to do the same and so on.

Martin Luther King, writing from his jail cell in Birmingham Alabama said, We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied up in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly, This is reciprocity.

The Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, Seattle, established a Diversity, Citizenship, and Global Education Consensus Panel. The Panel’s goal was to develop a set of design principles and concepts that develop or renew citizenship education programs that reflect both diversity and unity and that prepare people to become effective citizens in a global context.

We invited Zool Suleman, an immigration policy consultant and a powerful civil rights champion for immigrants and refugees to join us for a Conversation That Matters about Unity in Diversity.

Ujjal Dosanjh: Is Canada Becoming More Racist?

Ep 175 Ujjal Dosanjh

Is Canada becoming more racist?

 

The discussion around race in the United States has turned nasty—build a wall, travel and immigration bans, deportations all aimed at keeping “others” outside of the country. Internally, tension between black Americans and police continues to escalate with deadly consequences. Latinos and Muslims are subject to one verbal or legal attack after another.

 

Then came the Charlotteville riots. The “Unite the Right” rally turned violent when a man rammed his car into counter-protester leaving one woman dead and dozens injured. A police helicopter monitoring the riot crashed, killing two police officers.

 

The President of the United States made matters worse when he refused to condemn the violence. The escalation of racial tension lead to white supremacist rallies across North America including one in Vancouver. It begs the question—are we following the United States and becoming more racist?

 

Former British Columbia Premier Ujjal Dosanjh says no, we are not. He points to the fact that, “racism has become Presidential in the U.S., but not Prime Ministerial in Canada.”  

 

We asked Dosanjh to  join us for a Conversation That Matters about racism in Canada.

 

Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue presents Conversations That Matter. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for an important and engaging Conversation about the issues shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of this program, www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Adam Kahane: Collaborating with the Enemy

Ep 174 Adam Kahane
Collaborating With The Enemy
If living in a participatory democracy means getting involved, one of the first obstacles lying in wait is the other people, also wanting to participate, with different viewpoints that range from sympathetic to wildly controversial.

Dislike and distrust can run rampant. Arguments inevitably break out. Civil discourse turns into civil war with no solutions in sight. How then do you find the path toward solutions that benefit everyone? Traditionally it has been a top-down approach. Leaders go through the motions of listening to their constituents. Political agendas and special interest groups exert pressure to push ideologies, corporate needs, and profit margins. What we end up with is a complex system of legislation that takes a team of lawyers to understand. The average citizen is left frustrated and feeling like they cannot make a difference.

We also know it isn’t working well. Housing, jobs, homelessness, the opioid crisis, land claims and even traffic are being politicized. The solutions are messy, at times ineffective or worse, compound the problem.

What then? It's easy to point fingers and blame others, to find an enemy and fight against them. Adam Kahane, a conflict resolution specialist who has worked on seemingly intractable global crises such as the civil war in Columbia and the turmoil in Guatemala, points out we have to set aside the hierarchical approach and learn to accept that finding solutions requires a shift to collaborative thinking.

We asked Adam Kahane to join us for a Conversation That Matters about a model of collaboration with people whom we disagree which leads to outcomes that improve lives and meet the needs of the people who need solutions the most.
Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue presents Conversations That Matter. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for an important and engaging Conversation about the issues shaping our future.
Please become a subscriber and support the production of this program, www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Valerie Lemmie: Is Democracy Under Attack?

Ep 173 Valerie Lemmie

Is Democracy Under Attack?

 

Is democracy under attack? Have we let the people we elect off the hook? Are you involved in the decision-making process or are you merely a compliant customer who is being managed?

There’s no doubt about it, we are polarized over the role of government in our lives. Is the role of government to create opportunities for markets to thrive or is it to create environments for people to thrive? The tug of war between the left and right rages on while the balance point between these two perspectives appears to have been lost.

Where you come in does not end at the ballot box. We all have a responsibility to speak up, get involved and work with the public officials we elect and employ to ensure they work on our behalf.

Valerie Lemmie of the Kettering Foundation, a Washington DC-based democracy watch organization says you and I are what democracy is all about. We asked her to join us for a Conversation That Matters about our role in governance.

 

Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue presents Conversations That Matter. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for an important and engaging Conversation about the issues shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of this program, www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

David Dodge: Can the Canadian Economy Keep Trading Above Its Weight?

Canada has a 570-billion-dollar infrastructure deficit. Yes, that's right, a whopping 570-billion dollars. So what? Who cares?

Well, that infrastructure is made up of roads, bridges, tunnels, terminals, power generation plants, hospitals, schools and more related to our ability to care for and educate people as well as move products. Without them, our ability to get our products to market diminishes and we restrict our ability to remain an active participant in the global economy.

Canada is, after all, a small economy trading well above its weight.

We’ve been able to maintain that position because we could get our products to market, a market that was just on the other side of the 49th parallel.

The world is changing, trade agreements are in flux or nixed before they start. The global market is rapidly swinging towards Southeast Asia. If we can’t get our products to that market we run the risk of a stagnant economy at best, a sinking one at worst.

What does that mean for the Canadian economy in 2018 and beyond? We asked former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge to join us for a Conversation That Matters about his positive short-term forecast, and his concerns over the long term.

• Category

  • News & Politics

Pennefather - Etienne: Vancouver and France collaborate on Virtual Reality

Ep 171 Patrick Pennefather & Etienne Farreyre

Vancouver is virtually a VR Centre of Excellence

 

When you think of Virtual Reality, what comes to mind? Most likely it’s new tech, mostly to be used for the entertainment industry. But in reality, that’s only scratching the surface of the possibilities that VR, AR and MR present. The future of education, medicine, video games, communication, and a thousand and one other platforms, are changing and they’re adopting an augmented reality component.

Enter Etienne Farreyre and Patrick Pennefather. One is a representative from France, who has taken a deep interest in the Vancouver tech scene and our growing VR community. He has paired up with our guy from the Emily Carr Digital Media Centre here in Canada to instigate discussions around international relationships in this age of communication, technology, and Virtual Reality.

The possibilities are endless, with simulated surgeries for medical students, to spending time in the same virtual room with people around the globe. To talk about where we’re at in this rapidly ever-changing world, potential collaborations between France and Canada along with Vancouver’s place in the augmented reality development world, we sat down with Etienne Farreyre and Patrick Pennefather for real a Conversation that Matters on video about Virtual Reality.

Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue presents Conversations That Matter. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for an important and engaging Conversation about the issues shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of this program, www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Colin Ross: Hydromorphone - A User's Story

Colin Ross

Hydromorphone: A User’s Story

 

Heroin, Fentanyl, Carfentanil are all deadly drugs when the dose exceeds your body’s ability to metabolize them.

 

Anyone who uses these opioids knows the risks and they point out that won’t stop them from using. The need for the drug overrides caution. Withdrawal is painful and extremely hard to achieve if you are living on the streets, scrounging for food and trying to scrape together the 25 to 35 dollars a day you need to support your habit.

 

In BC Hydromorphone is available to a limited number of chronic heroin users. The SALOME and NAOMI trials provided evidence that treatment is effective in stabilizing users.

 

The BC Centre for Substance Use recently issued guidelines that are a continuum of care that include counselling, detox, withdrawal management services and the administration of injectable and oral treatment through medication.

 

Colin Ross is fortunate, he has been an addict for about 20 years, now he’s receiving hydromorphone two times a day. A treatment he says allows him to stabilize and consider the future. We sat down with Colin for a Conversation That Matters about the opioid crisis, the hydromorphone IV treatment program, mental health, housing and the potential he hopes to realize.

 

Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue presents Conversations That Matter. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for an important and engaging Conversation about the issues shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of this program, www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Dr Norman Doidge: The Brain that Changes and Heals Itself

The Brain That Changes and Heals Itself

 

Our brains are so complicated neuroscientists are still only at the beginning of understanding how that grey matter inside our skulls works.

For centuries the brain was completely misunderstood. Then as we started to unlock the myriad regions and elements of the brain a range of theories emerged about how it worked. Most have been set aside as neuroscientists introduced Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to map our brains.

Over the past 25 years, fMRI’s have reshaped our understanding of the brain. One important discovery has been how flexible and adaptable it is. Dr Norman Doidge has been at the forefront of discovering the power of the brain to adapt and change because of its plastic nature.

Neuroplasticity, in other words, is the ability to form and reorganize synaptic connections in response to learning, experience, disease and following injury. We asked Dr Doidge to join us for a Conversation That Matters about our remarkably adaptable brains.

 

Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue presents Conversations That Matter. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for an important and engaging Conversation about the issues shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of this program, www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Charles Gauthier: Alleyway Revitalization

Alleyway Revitalization

Re-Imagine Alleys in a major city for just a minute.

 

Can you do it?

 

They’re generally grungy, dark, dank places that you never want to enter let alone think about.

 

Well, think again, Ackery’s Alley and Alley Oop are two back lanes that have been transformed from forgotten spaces where - during the day -the trash gets picked up and deliveries are made - and - at night are the stomping grounds of dumpster divers, drug users and sex trade workers.

 

In downtown Vancouver there approximately 240 alleys - that’s about 180-thousand square meters of publically owned land. Reclaiming those public spaces in an ever-expanding city is a needed improvement.

 

Yes, you heard that right - public space. And I know you’re asking for whom?

 

Well you and me and Korean pop-stars.

 

You may have seen the YouTube sensation where the K-Pop group ‘Twice’ used the refurbished Alley Oop as one of it’s Vancouver backdrops. When I wrote this intro there were just shy of 76 million views.

 

Density is forcing us to find space, but more importantly, it’s forcing us to be innovators in the creation of liveable space.

 

We sat down with Charles Gauthier of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association to ask him what was the motivation for this project, why it’s important and what the value is to all of us who call the city home - not just the businesses he represents.

 

We also talk to Alexandra Kenyon of the design firm HCMA, why did they leap at the opportunity to donate their services to this project? What does it say about the way we’re reshaping downtown.

 

And we also sat down with Alex Beim, the artist who sees revitalized alleys as a way to get people to actually interact and talk to one another for a Conversation That Matters about alleyways as public spaces.

 

Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue presents Conversations That Matter. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for an important and engaging Conversation about the issues shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of this program, www.conversationsthatmatter.tv

Dr. Ken Rockwood: Geriatric Assessment and Frailty Index

Ep 166

Dr. Ken Rockwood

Geriatric Assessment and Frailty Index

 

By 2030 one in four of us will be over 65.

 

Today about 16% of Canadians are over 65. Currently seniors use about half of the health care budget.

 

Looking to the future those numbers are not sustainable.

 

We know the main reason for the disproportionate use of the health care system by seniors is because of frailty. Can anything be done to change the impact frailty has on the health care system?

First of all it is important to state - frailty is not a natural consequence of aging. Frailty is the intersection of age related decline with chronic diseases and conditions. Most importantly it is associated with many poor outcomes like falls, cognitive impairment, hospitalization, admission to long term care and death. Sounds complicated and it is but what is encouraging is  that we are learning more about how and when it happens and how to prevent it.

Researchers in Canada are considered world leaders in frailty and none is better known that Dr. Kenneth Rockwood from Dalhousie University. He is the inventor of multiple health care tools to diagnose frailty which are used around the world. He is considered the leader on frailty and frailty prevention we asked Dr. Rockwood to join us for a Conversation That Matters about  changing what we know about frailty and how we treat it.

 

Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue presents Conversations That Matter. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for an important and engaging Conversation about the issues shaping our future.

Please become a subscriber and support the production of this program, www.conversationsthatmatter.tv