Conversations That Matter

Are Brexit and Trump the same thing?

Episode 90

Professor Lord Blunkett

What do Donald Trump and BREXIT have in common?

Conversations That Matter features Professor Lord David Blunkett who says the Donald Trump and BREXIT campaigns are filled with mis-information that is playing on the breakdown of voter trust in traditional politics. Blunkett says, “the world should be mindful of how the current mood can lead voters to consider wacky proposals and destabilizing opt-out mechanisms.”

He points to Trump’s “crazy wall between Mexico and the U.S. to keep out illegal immigrants” and the British Out-Campaign’s comparison of the EU to a Hitler-like “European State” as examples.

Blunkett was originally opposed to the UK joining the EU but says he has come to realize it is a, “marriage of economic, social and international survival.  The EU is an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries.” He goes on to say, “Britain’s exodus from the Union would be catastrophic. It would erode Britain’s substantial role in helping Europe deal with Islamic State terrorism, organized crime and mass migration.”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Generation Squeeze - Ep 89 - Conversations That Matter

Episode 89

Paul Kershaw - Generation Squeeze

Conversations That Matter features Paul Kershaw of Generation Squeeze says Vancouver is on the cusp of becoming a generational ghost town. “By that I mean the ability for a young adult to make their way in this region in any way that approximates what we thought was becoming the norm just a few decades ago is now further out of reach.” Kershaw says many are opting to leave and that he points out introduces a host of other problems, “ how over a few decades do you sustain the vibrancy of our economy and how do you keep an inter-generational space where you have young adults caring for their aging parents, you have aging parents caring for their grandchildren? These kinds of things are being squeezed.”“

Kershaw says the pressure on the housing market is complex, it includes a move from rural to urban and immigration, “That creates some pretty straightforward supply and demand factors.” And no where is it more expense in Canada than Vancouver, the average number of work years required to buy a house nationally is 12 years, in Toronto it’s 15, in BC it’s 16 and in Vancouver it’s 23 years of saving to afford a 20% downpayment on a home.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Conversations That Matter - Ep 88 - Sexual Assault and the Courts

Episode 88

Carol Baird Ellan - Sexual Assault and the Courts

Conversations That Matter features former Chief Judge of the BC Provincial Court says, “I don't see the Jian Ghomeshi case as a poster case for needs to change the system. Having said that, I don't think survivors are well-served by our current system for a number of reasons.”

Baird Ellan appreciates the outcry following the verdict in the first Ghomeshi case. She says “part of the reaction was because so many complainants are telling the truth. They need to be believed when they come in with the complaint, and when it's investigated, and when it's presented by the Crown. That all needs to be accepted and they need to be facilitated in presenting their evidence in the best way possible. The point where that doesn't function is in court. There's no presumption of guilt. There's no presumption of believability on the part of the complainant. She, usually she, but the complainant and the defendant come to the court with the same degree of credit; that's the requirement of the criminal law.”

Due to the adversarial nature of our courts it frequently comes down to the fact the best legal teams work for defendants with deep financial resources.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Conversations That Matter - Ep 87 - Brian Riddell - Where have the Coho and Chinook gone?

Episode 87

Brian Riddell - What happen to the Chinook and Coho Salmon?

Conversations That Matter features Brian Riddell on the mass disappearance of Chinook and Coho in the Salish Sea. Riddell says the number of fish that have vanished is extraordinary and he along with a host of other agencies on both sides of the Canada US Border are working to understand what is happening.

Riddell says it’s an environmental disaster with huge financial impacts, “when we talk about losing production from chinook and coho salmon, what we really lost was 90% of the catch and we lost about $750 million a year to local communities.”

The Salish Sea Marine Survival Project is identifying and cataloguing the issues and over the next five years will work with governments and NGOs to develop and enhance effective strategies to help revive these precious species.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Conversations That Matter - Ep 86 - Jeff Schulz - Immune System Reboot

Episode 86

Jeff Schulz - Immune Cell Reboot

Conversations That Matter features Jeff Schulz who is spearheading a Vancouver based company that wants to capture your healthy immune cells, freeze them and then give them back to you later if you get cancer or some other life threatening disease.

Schulz says their process utilize approved scientific therapies and treatments which will shorten the time from concept to delivery of immune cell treatment, “For the first time in cancer research, they're finding a way that they can really go after the cancer. So, it's not just something that kind of kills it. It's actually something that eradicates it from your system and takes your own t-cells, so t-cells are a part of your immune system and they're an active cell that basically identifies any foreign object in your body.”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Conversations That Matter - Ep 85 - Craig Ryan - B Corp

Episode 85

Craig Ryan - B Corp

Conversations That Matter features Craig Ryan on the B Corp movement. What is a B Corp you ask, according to Ryan, a B Corp is to corporations what LEED is to building design. It’s about ethics, sustainability and “And if your company is a certified B Corp that tells people your company has a purpose that is social and environmental as well as financial and that your company is more transparent, has stricter governance rules and is more accountable than the average company.”

Ryan points out the next generation of shoppers, workers and investors are saying they put purpose ahead of profits, “Millennials are a great example. Polls consistently show that a huge majority of them are looking for something in their job that is more meaningful than money to pay the rent. If you ask millennials what the role of business in society is, they'll answer, to create good for society.”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Conversations That Matter - Ep 84 - Gordon Gibson on Electoral Reform

Episode 84

Gordon Gibson - Electoral Reform

Conversations That Matter features Gordon Gibson who isn’t convinced we need electoral reform, “this is quite a disruptive process and could take a lot of our time. There are other things to worry about in our society. Is this something we need to look at? Because, after all, our current system's worked pretty well for a long time.”

Gibson goes onto say if the Prime Minister is determined to address electoral reform the process he’s proposing amounts to a conflict of interest. “My contention is very simple, we have a set of very basic rules in our society we call a constitution. There's the formal written constitution, there's the Charter of Rights, there's the unwritten constitution, the notion of confidence. You have to have the confidence of the House of Commons. The electoral system is a part of that unwritten constitution. And, it's a very special part and politicians have such a deep conflict of interest, that they should not be amending it.”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Conversations That Matter - Ep 83 - Jimmy Pattison on Expo 86

Episode 83

Jimmy Pattison - The Legacy of Expo 86

Conversations That Matter features Jimmy Pattison the CEO of Expo 86 who championed Vancouver’s entrance onto the world stage. The Transportation and Telecommunication Fair was a Class II specialized exhibition projected to attract 14 million visitors. It exceeded all expectations and in so doing transformed Vancouver’s place in the world.

In the lead up to the Fair the economy of BC was in the dull drums. Former Tourism Minister Grace McCarthy went to the Premier with an idea she believed would jumpstart the economy and boost our confidence. Making it happen was anything but easy, former Mayor of Vancouver Mike Harcourt actively campaigned against it. Labour uncertainty in the province and on the Expo site worried Pattison, “I recommended at one time to Premier Bennett, to not proceed with the fair, until we got the labor situation sorted out.”

Pattison says because the Cold War was still on, getting a representative mix of countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain was challenging, “we had to get the Communists there, and who were the communists? They were Cuba, they were Russia, and they were China. And of course we had to get the Americans there, actually which was one of the hardest things we did, was get the Americans.”

Thirty years later Expo 86 stands as the beginning of Vancouver’s transformation to an international city, one that is just starting to realize its full potential. The full story is still being written and decades away from being told.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Conversations That Matter - Ep 82 - Dominic Vogel - Cyber Security

Episode 82

Dominic Vogel - Cyber Criminals Target Small Business

Conversations That Matter features Dominic Vogel a cyber security consultant who says big businesses are doing such a good job of thwarting the efforts of hackers they have turned their attention to small business. Vogel says, “what's happened is that smaller and mid-sized businesses are being hit really, really hard. In fact for last year, for 2015, over 40 percent of all cyber attacks were focused on small and mid-sized businesses.”

Small business and a naive public are ripe for cyber attacks because neither pay enough attention to their online safety. Vogel says most people don’t protect passwords properly or change them frequently enough, install program upgrades, they use public wifi and make themselves targets other threats, he says “hackers go where the money is,  they focus their attention on the top five applications in use”.

According to Vogel the number one program under threat is email,  “the reason is most of your sensitive applications tie back to your email, like your online banking. If you need to reset your online banking, it generally will tie back to your email. Your email is sort of like your heart which everything ties back to that, that's why email is considered a sensitive application.”

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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

Conversations That Matter - Ep 81 - Sarah Deardorff- Miller on Forced Migration

Episode 81

Sarah Deardorff - Miller - Forced Migration

Conversations That Matter features Sarah Deardorff Miller of the American University in Washington, D.C. on the horrifying circumstances that have forced 13.5 million Syrians from their homes. More than six million people have been forced to flee fearing for their lives. 147 member states of the United Nations agreed people in fear of their lives can and will be accepted as refugees without prejudice regardless of race, sex, age, disability, religion or nationality.

No one foresaw the magnitude of the crisis in Syria and the profound impact it would have on Europe in particular. Miller says the situation is exacerbated by the strategic objectives of the combatants, “they are not just simply this byproduct of the conflict, but rather tools within the conflict as well, so displacement is happening as a strategy on both the rebels' side, and the Assad regime side.”

Accepting Syrian refugees in Europe is very different than in North America. Canada relies on the UN High Commission on Refugees to identify those people and families that meet our criteria for acceptance. Following a lengthy and rigorous vetting process by the UN, Security agencies, embassy staff and others refugees are then granted approval to come to Canada. Miller says, “all of these things are going into this really extensive process. Then, there's also medical screenings, there's some cultural orientation and more all of which plays into this long process.”

Miller points out that in the US, since 9/11 more than 800,000 refugees have been accepted and just three of them have been questioned or detained on suspicions of terrorism, two of which we’re focused on non-American targets. She points out refugees come seeking a safe and better life and the evidence demonstrates they are solid contributors to their new communities.

Conversations That Matter is a partner program with the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Join veteran Broadcaster Stuart McNish each week for these important and engaging Conversations shaping our future.

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