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September 21 Usama (Osama) bin Laden committing blasphemy - catch the vid before it goes bye-byeI hope to publish the large second half of the post on Naming al Qaeda affiliates within a few days. But there's an instance of Usama (Osama) bin Laden's committing an instance of blasphemy you may want to see for yourself beforehand, because You Tube will take it off within the next couple of days. I couldn't in good conscience view the video and ignore the fact that it clearly promotes hate and violence towards Americans at 2:06 into the video, where Usama bin Laden begins to narrate an outrageous story which he attributes to CNN, about an unnamed American soldier who, bin Laden claims, admitted to killing non-combatants as a matter of policy. (Sorry, no, I am not repeating the details here.) Appalling as that is, that's not the part of the video where bin Laden commits blasphemy, however.
At 7:13 into the video, bin Laden commits blasphemy when he refers to the Prophet Muhammed (SAV) as "the infallible one," in the course of suggesting to his listeners, (from 5:00 onwards), that to disagree with bin Laden is the same as disagreeing with the Prophet. I will cite the relevant Islamic references in the "Blasphemers" section of that main Naming blog-post; but, for now, know that the Prophet never claimed to be perfect. Perfection is an attribute reserved for God in Islam. Moreover, the Quran sets out one serious spiritual error the Prophet incurred, and his subsequent chiding from the Divine. See section 11 of my web-page: http://fakirscanada.googlepages.com/sacredbooksselections for the relevant Quranic sura.
As for the video where bin Laden commits blasphemy, it is here: The Manhattan Raid 6, at least for the next couple of days. I've just checked, and as of this writing, it's still up.
I've already got the last of that series banned, the Manhattan Raid 10. You can see some back-and-forth between me and the owner of the video in earlier blog-posts in this counter-terrorism series:
September 10 Encana Pipeline Bombings - The Threat Letters, (and comments)I'm working hard on doing one blog-post on the Naming aspect of the counter-terrorism series, together with the names I consider to be most effective with respect to al Qaeda and its affiliates, and its dark prophet, Osama bin Laden, with respect to making an impression on jihadists and potential jihadists, as well as evidence to support those Names, including but not limited to: 'The Blasphemers,' 'Idol-worshippers,' 'Narcissists,' (which last Name is really the inner aspect of which the previous Name is the external manifestation), and 'The Sorcerer.' I am also preparing a companion video with what I fondly hope will add to the viewer's understanding of how to Name jihadists. I'd hoped to be finished by September 11, so as to perhaps ruin that day for one or two jihadists - but once again, I've underestimated how much time a project is going to take.
And then, I can't resist responding to requests. Like this one: "please do an update on the B.C. Encana pipeline bombings."
Sigh.
I don't know of any significant updates, per se, if one has kept up reasonably well with the mainstream media on this.
The best source of information is the B.C. RCMP: http://bc.rcmp.ca/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=531&contentId=10463&languageId=1
And on that site, you can find two threatening letters directed at Encana and sent to the Dawson Creek Daily News, one last October, and one this past July. The RCMP evidently believe that the two letters were written by the same person.
Here is an interesting analysis of the most recent letter:
And about all I can add to the above is my own comments on the letters, for what that's worth to anyone:
Okay, the first thing that strikes me is the change in the scope of demands from the Oct/08 letter to the July 09 letter. The demands in the Oct/08 letter are much narrower, and, in theory, at least, susceptible of being complied with. The demands in the July 09 letter, on the other hand, are, in a word, impossible to meet - and the letter-writer knows it, because the quality of his grammar and spelling tells me he's had some education and he's not the dimmest bulb in the package, either.
So what does that dramatic change in the scope of the demands, and the movement from 'possible' to 'impossible' tell us? Quite a lot, in my opinion: His sense of self is becoming increasingly grandiose; and, he's getting off on the attention. He probably reads every one of the media reports on the bombings over and over. He doesn't want it to end.
And that tells me something else, which I had suspected from the beginning: if the letter-writer is in fact tied to the bombings, then the bomber is not an unhappy farmer; because, if he was, then his demands would have remained 'possible' (at least in theory) to meet. (Granted, compliance with his demands was never more than a theoretical possibility.)
I strongly suspect the bomber doesn't live in the immediate area. I note that many of the bombings happened around holidays, when people are on the move, and it's easier for a visitor to come and go without exciting comment. Moreover, there are changes between the first and second letters which indicate to me that the writer's mental state is deteriorating, and you'd think someone in the area would notice signs of increasing derangement in one of the residents; (and maybe mention the fact to the cops, if only to get the cops off their backs, which, according to the media reports, is an issue for some residents):
In the second letter: the writing is shakier; more sentences run on into each other; letters such as the capitol 'F' are strikingly malformed; the language is more vehement; of course the change in the character of the demands which I've already mentioned is the most striking sign; and, there is a significant difference in the pattern of the spacing between the letters in the words, between the first and the second letters. In another person, the increasing spacing between the letters in the words could indicate an increasing openness psychologically. In the letter-writer, however, it says to me that his control over his external manifestations is of a rigid, artificial kind, - and it's slipping.
If I was in the RCMP investigation, I would want to be looking really hard for outside connections to the areas around the bombings. Because, if an investigation stalls, it's not about cooperation, it's about approach and a locked-in mindset. If we're on the side of the righteous, which the police are in the case of the Encana bombings, and we push and push - and no answers are forthcoming - then it must be that either we are asking the wrong question(s) or we are looking in the wrong direction(s).
September 02 Some people....thought for the day [paraphrasing W. Somerset Maugham, who meant to say it, in "Flotsam and Jetsam," p. 67. Collected Short Stories, Vol. II.]:
Thought for the day:
Some people improve unbelievably upon further acquaintance.
 "Taking all the time it needs"
- photo by Steffen Hausmann , courtesy of wikipedia August 31 Blasphemer, part 1: Names that hurt al Qaeda and other terrorists in the Name of AllahIn my last post, I talked briefly about the importance of affixing to your adversary names that are true, and that work against your adversary's interests.
It's very important that the names you give your adversary be accurate, for these reasons:
1. 'Good' cannot use evil methods - or it inevitably becomes evil itself.
2. Lies and slander belong to the Devil, whose name, 'Satan,' means 'slanderer,' 'adversary,' 'accuser.'
3. One of the most powerful epithets you can bestow upon an enemy is that of 'liar;' but if you are one yourself, then how will the world distinguish you from your enemy?
I also discussed the importance of being able to define the epithet 'terrorist' in an effective and elegant format. Later, we will go deeply into the art of making that particular name 'stick' to bin Laden wannabes; but we are not going to begin the series of Names with it, for two reasons: (1) It is not, from the perspective of the militants themselves, the deadliest of names; and (2) attempts to date to stick them with it have been so ineffective, that they have become well used to parrying its effects.
As I said, "liar" is one of the most effective names to hurl at an enemy; and the deadliest of its variants to an enemy who claims to act in the cause of any religion except Satanism is that of "blasphemer."
Therefore, "blasphemer" is the first of the names we are going to look at that can hurt al Qaeda and others who commit terrorism in the name of Islam or Allah.
What is blasphemy? Most people think of it as an irreverent use of sacred names, such as we are wont to do when we hit our thumb with a hammer. And that is blasphemy; moreover, it can become a serious spiritual problem for the person who swears frequently - and then wants to invoke the same name in prayer.
Yet there is a lot more to blasphemy than that.
Salmon Rushdie's Satanic Verses will come to the mind of many. Certainly, the book is blasphemous, and, as I remarked here: http://fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/04/tarek-fatah-chasing-mirage-and-salman.html not just against Islam either, a fact which has been ignored by Western commentators, for some reason (probably because they couldn't bring themselves to actually read the atrociously-written book all the way through). Rushdie, however, is actually one of the least dangerous types of blasphemers, because his blasphemy is open and easy to see, for all who love truth.
What is blasphemy, in essence?
It is the mockery of things sacred: God, religion, sacred acts, holy persons, turning their real significance upside down.
In my previous post, I drew a symbol of blasphemy well known as such in the Western world - although few would be able to say why it is blasphemous.
When the pentagram's single point is at the top of the symbol, it represents the mastery of reason, intellect, soul and spirit over the carnal passions, 'lower' emotions, and our physical natures. When the pentagram is pointed downwards, however, it represents the enslavement of our 'higher' natures, soul and spirit, by our lower natures. It symbolizes a human who has become a living act of blasphemy, wherein the sacred has been stamped into the mud of a 'lower' nature rendered unnatural in its essence by virtue of its false elevation into 'god' status by egoism: the living death of narcissism, self-worship.
So that we're clear on what blasphemy is, let me give a few more examples. I said that it involves the mockery of sacred things. This includes the perversion of sacred duties. The obligations entailed by parenthood, for example, are sacred duties. One of those is the obligation to work to keep one's child safe from harm. Any act by a parent which makes a mockery of that obligation, which involves deliberately putting one's child in the way of harm, is not only illegal; it is an instance of blasphemy. A fast-food worker who spits into the hamburger of a customer is not only committing a crime, he/she is committing an act of blasphemy, because, to prepare food and serve it to others are sacred duties - even when done in commercial settings.
Marriage may or may not be a sacred act. There may be pragmatic and civil reasons for getting married that have nothing to do with the spiritual. But a marriage entered into under false pretences, where one party thinks the marriage is a spiritual union and the other party is merely pretending that it is, amounts to an act of blasphemy on the part of the pretender. (Prince Charles' marriage to Diana comes to mind.)
Blasphemers always end up hurting themselves and the people around them.
But the form of blasphemy most dangerous for mankind as a whole, the most insidious and the least forgivable, is the state of false-prophethood.
It is this form of blasphemy that the Christian Bible is talking about when it refers to "sinning against/blaspheming against the Holy Spirit." It is to knowingly promulgate false claims about the sacred, especially, under the guise of "guiding" people spiritually. It is also the claim to be acting in the interests of the sacred, when one is really acting against it.
False prophets are the closest thing the Devil has to emissaries in this world. They enjoy a degree of protection (with permission from God) for a limited period, by means of the one power the fallen angel still has: the power of the lie. (Their seeming immunity may seem unfair while it lasts, to their victims, but Hell is for such a long time; and if we'd ever had a taste of it, we would be slow to wish it upon another human being.) They get every chance to repent of their evil.
The over-arching influence of false prophets is always profoundly destructive, physically and spiritually.
False prophets of the last century include but are not limited to: Adolph Hitler, the Reverend Jim Jones of Jonestown, and Osama bin Laden.
Of those three, the wickedest one is Osama bin Laden. I know it may not seem that way at this point in time, especially to survivors of the Holocaust; but that is because most of us still do not understand the extent of his poisonous spiritual influence - not only upon recruits to al Qaeda-affiliated groups - but also upon the rest of us, in the form of our enhanced capacity for hatred.
Osama bin Laden's real spiritual agenda includes the destruction of Islam, by making it the most reviled of the world's major religions. Look around you, folks, and tell me he isn't succeeding.
In fact, causing a major religion to be reviled and disgraced has been a strategy repeated three times by the Devil over the past hundred years, first with Judaism in Germany, which led to the slaughter of six million innocent civilians, then, with Catholicism, by means of perversion and hypocrisy, and now, with Islam, thanks to mass murderers who claim to be acting in its name.
I put the Shahada, the Islamic Creed, slanting downwards in the center of the reversed pentagram I drew in the previous post, to symbolize what al Qaeda has done to Islam.
In my next post, I will consider the evidence that al Qaeda and its affiliated groups are blasphemers against God and Islam.
 Dante and Virgil in Hell [witnessing the fate of a hate-monger],
by William Adolphe Bouguereau (1850), courtesy, wikipedia
August 29 On the strategic importance of defining 'terrorist'In another blog-post on terrorism, I criticised Yoram Schweitzer and Sari Goldstein Ferber for not having once, in a lengthy paper devoted to the subject of suicide terrorism, defined the words 'terrorism' or 'terrorist:' http://fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/07/yoram-schweitzer-and-al-qaedas.html
We are fools, if we allow our adversaries to define the rules/parameters of engagement with us or to name us.
The first rule in war: be the one to define the rules/parameters and to do the naming.
Within the strategic principles connected with the first rule of war, there is this one: Be the one to define the enemy. Fix your enemy's identity by means of a name which is accurate, which distinguishes him/her from yourself, and which works against his/her interests.
The striking failure on the part of western powers to stick their jihadist adversaries with the name 'terrorist' has allowed al Qaeda and related groups to partially stick the same epithet, and that of another one, 'aggressor,' to those powers, and to persuade potential supporters that they, militant jihadists, are acting in self-defence when they attack, and are doing no worse than western governments do in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Here, on the YouTube channel of an al Qaeda supporter, (see my comments on him attached to my Aug. 16 post: http://fakirscanada.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!BCDFFB6F4CF5AAB!1081.entry )
you can get a very good idea of how that failure to effectively define al Qaeda is working out:
The play-lists on that YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ASSAHAB888 reveal al Qaeda's awareness of its vulnerability to negative naming. Most of the videos are concerned with negating the aspect of naming that counter-terrorists have been successful in sticking to al Qaeda: deliberate murder-ers of civiians. The intense preoccupation al Qaeda shows via its media mouthpieces with removing nega-tive (and accurate) public perceptions of itself, supports my contention in this post that it is critically important to affix to terrorists an identity that works against them.
Here is a brief look at the problems associated with the prevailing conceptions of the word 'terrorist:'
1. In her paper, De-legitimizing Terrorism, the terrorism specialist Anne Speckhard says: "By most generally accepted definitions, (1 - 3), terrorism involves the targeting of civilians, by non-state actors, in an effort to strike fear in a wider audience - one that is substantially greater than the victim group them-selves [sic] (often making use of media amplification) - in order to influence the target government to change its policies and practices." [page 02]
First, the above definition plays into the hands of al Qaeda with respect to the USS Cole bombing, which was not, strictly speaking, an attack on American civilians, unless one really wants to stretch the meaning of the word 'civilian.'
Second, Speckhard's definition does not allow for the naming of terrorist states, such as Iran is rapidly and blatantly becoming.
Third, its description of the terrorist agenda: "influencing the target government to change its policies and practices," is too general. In fact, terrorists are always looking for a particular kind of political change from their targets.
Fourth, Speckhard's definition is too inelegant and too lengthy to have real power as an epithet for bin Laden wannabe's.
Therefore, I propose to use my own definitions of 'terrorism' and 'terrorist,' for the duration of this series on counter-terrorism:
Terrorism is the threat or use of violence with a view to extorting changes in the form of political concessions from another entity.
A terrorist is anyone who threatens or uses violence with a view to extorting changes in the form of political concessions from another entity."
My definitions contain all of the necessary elements, and nothing that is unnecessary.
Al Qaeda: bombs, books and blasphemy August 25 Contact info requests for Dennis EdneyI've had a number of requests lately for Dennis Edney's email address, in part, no doubt, because the Harper government has decided to be a pill and waste our tax dollars on a Supreme Court appeal of the Federal Court order to request Omar Khadr's repatriation, and in part, no doubt, because Nathan (Nate) Whitling, the Canadian lawyer who did a great deal of the work on Omar Khadr's legal victories in Federal and Alberta courts, doesn't make a point of holding forth to the press.
If you send me a message via this site, (see top of main page), and I can confirm that you are a member of the press, then I will send you his email address forthwith. If you are not a member of the press, then I will forward your request directly to Dennis, to do with as he sees fit. August 16 "Special Request post re al Qaeda - so, where is it?"The answer to that is, no, my angst of the previous post is not the primary cause for the delay, although I am still keenly feeling that.
But I am used to carrying on outwardly, regardless of inner angst.
No, the specific reason for the hold-up is this: I posed some questions this evening to the person who requested the post series; and I am waiting for a reply, before I begin to publish the post...
"Patience,' said George Gurdjieff, 'is the mother of virtue. If you have no mother, how can you be born?"
Peter Ouspensky's wife said that the measure of what you can bear is the measure of your 'being' in a spiritual sense.
Ambrose Bierce said that "meekness is really uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worthwhile." Of course, he also said that "patience is a minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue" - which suggests that his own level of 'being,' that is to say, his level-of-inner-togtherness and freedom-from inner contradictions, was not very high.
Wikipedia is quite informative on the subject of patience. Have fun reading that, eh? while we wait...
August 28, 2009 update: I expect to start publishing the post on terrorism late tonight.
Kerala Fisherman, by: Challiyil Eswaramangalath Vipin from Chalakudy, India courtesy, wikipedia August 14 Prelude: Ragnarok and the False Prophet, Osama bin LadenHeimdall, the far-seeing Guardian of the Principles,
caught up with Loki the Liar; and the Gods bound
the Blasphemer, chained his children: Hel, the
Wolf and the Serpent - until the End of the Age:
A heart turned to stone, hate-inflamed, rules
an ice-cold reason, forks the tongue, frees
Loki: Ragnarok has begun.
Law and Order sound the Warning; Insight girds for War
with the Big-Time Lie, the parent of it, and Disorder.
But Entropy wins in the main: most hearts don't want to be saved.
It's easier to hate than to wake. Now, another false prophet woos
a world undreaming, even, how his poison drips in their veins, too.
Oh, the irony! Ten thousand years - they still don't see why
the Liar's Name is 'Adversary!'
Why do I try to stem the coming tide?
Love and hate are choices we make: it's easier to hate than to wake.
Reason alone cannot put him out of business. And yet, we are,
some of us, doomed to try...not even, really, knowing why...
 Heimdall at Ragnarok, sounding Gjallahorn.
(Original picture by Lorenz Froelich, courtesy of Wikipedia)
August 06 Photos of YouTube Duck Shooters Wanted by Sask LawWe interrupt our irregularly scheduled blog-casting to bring you this special update on the now-infamous three men who cruelly gunned down hordes of ducks and ducklings in either Saskatchewan or Alberta, and then posted their acts on YouTube. I used screenshots and PhotoFiltre to extract photos of the men from the YouTube video, which was re-posted by a concerned citizen after the culprits took down the video and closed the account. Here are the photos, and the story:
and if the three duck killers would like to discuss their rights to privacy with me, they should feel free to send me a letter through this site, - along with a return address, eh?
August 08, 2009 update, 4:28 PM, MST: This just in, as of seven minutes ago. The three duck killers have been arrested. The Government of Saskatchewan credits "the unprecedented public reaction" to the killings for the tips which led to the arrests:
August 01 Special-Request, updates, Outline of part 3I am carrying out a special request from a sibling: a three-part blended series on counter-terrorism and 'undue spiritual influences,' ie. possession and the phenemona of black magic. The first part of this series was, as requested, a look at the difficult posthumous reputation of the priest and exorcist, Father Malachi Martin: http://fakirscanada.blogspot.com/2009/07/life-and-times-of-exorcist-fr-malachi.html The second part, which started out as a review of the 2005 paper by Yoram Schweitizer and Sari Goldstein Ferber on "Al-Qaeda and the Internationalization of Suicide Terrorism," turned into something more than a mere review: http://fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/07/yoram-schweitzer-and-al-qaedas.html and really prepares the ground for the third part, which will be forthcoming on this blog within a few days.
The third part will address the following:
1. Definitions of: terrorism in the name of Islam, Islamists, jihadists, terrorists, al Qaeda, al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.
2. Why have calls to Muslim leaders to "unite and defend their religion," as Schweitzer and Ferber put it, against the predations of terrorism in the name of Allah been so ineffective?
3. How does the attempt to place the chief burden on Muslim leaders to come up with an "ideological response," (Schweitzer & Ferber) against terrorism in the name of Islam play into the hands of al Qaeda and its "affiliates," and other terroristic groups?
4. A comparative look at the processes of radicalization and possession.
5. An examination of the early life of Omar Khadr and his brothers, within the contexts of radicalization and possession.
6. A comparative look at how the processes of radicalization and possession play out in jihadists and in victims outside of the jihadist/terrorist context.
7. What is needed, in terms of an "ideological response," to combat the pernicious influences of radicalization and possession ?
8. Where does the real hope lie in defeating al Qaeda and other terroristic groups, on a psycho-spiritual level?
9. Help and resources.
So, as you can see, this is a project on a much greater scale than that of my last major project, one that also came up rather suddenly: Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception? So I trust nobody will mind if I help myself to another week (September 18, 2009 update: make that, 'another three months') or so, to get it done?
August 02, 5:40 PM (MST) update: What I understand my sibling to be essentially looking for, here, is: (1) a road to the means of 'fixing broken machines,' ie. terrorists; and (2) turning former terrorists into agents of the state against their former comrades - drawing on my own life experiences, knowledge and research, within the context I have outlined above.
My sibling's faith in me is touching. If I could actually deliver that, I would merit a Nobel Peace Prize; but, 'family' is 'family,' - so I'll try my best. July 20 B.C. pipeline bombings, hard times and witches...In another and briefer post on the six bombings of the Encana gas pipeline near Dawson Creek, B.C., I offered some thoughts on a theory, (ie, set of guesses), which I will develop more fully in this post. (see also): http://fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-two-bits-worth-on-northern-bc-pipe.html
My theory/set of guesses is this:
There is more than one person involved in the bombings.
The people involved may have differing reasons for joining together to commit the bombings.
If motivation is the critical defining factor in assigning the term 'terrorism' to the bombings, - then it is vitally important for investigators not to assume that all of the players are involved with the same (terroristic) motive: "the threat or use of violence to extort changes in the form of concessions from another entity."* This point is really critical, because violence can also be used to court respect or favours from a third party not directly involved in the violent acts, as for example, in Mafia hits that are a means of making one's reputation.
This point occurred to me while I was looking over the media reports of the bombings, because, for me, what has stood out in those reports is the really remarkable and widespread hostility towards the RCMP investigators whose job it is to identify and subsequently bring to justice the bombers and any assistants they may have had.
I sketched out some of the instances of that hostility in my earlier post on the subject:
and I won't repeat here what I said there.
In addition to the outright hostility, upon which I will expand in a moment, there is a remarkable report in the Edmonton Journal of what amounts to an example of a more covert form of hostility: the mayor of Dawson Creek is reportedly highly "doubtful" that the RCMP are going to be successful:
IMO, this is an extraordinary public position for a mayor to take in the matter of a serious criminal act: "I don't believe the police will solve the crime."
I'm reminded of my four-month stay in Cave Junction, Oregon, back in the late eighties, just before I moved to Austin, Texas. Cave Junction was wildly eccentric, even by my standards. The only bookstore around for sixty kilometres catered to witches. The area abounded with survivalists, many of whom combined that perspective with meth production. The only two candidates for sheriff both had previous criminal convictions.
What's the connection, you ask, with Dawson Creek? Well, the attitudes towards law enforcement officials are strongly reminiscent of those prevalent in Cave Junction at the time I was there: marked hostility and distrust, - even to the point of being reflected in public officials in public reports; reports of jokes about the bombings down at the local town gathering-spots. Bombs are only a matter for levity in the minds of those who feel a sneaking sympathy for the bomber(s).
The individual who both crystallizes that hostility and emphasizes it the most in his public remarks is one Andrew Nikiforuk, a self-proclaimed environmental activist who has spent more time than most of us would care to, thinking and writing about the Alberta enviro-terrorist, Wiebo Ludwig. In a recent article by Charlie Smith at Straight Talk: http://www.straight.com/article-166854/andrew-nikiforuk-encana-pipeline-attacks-are-not-ecoterrorism
Nikiforuk makes a curious set of remarks. He says first that the Encana bombings are not eco-terrorism. How does he know that? Because, he says, he doesn't know any environmentalists who are "handy with dynamite." Then he goes on to state that he thinks the culprit is a very angry landowner or farmer who "has been mistreated by the regulator or by the company." He goes on to liken the gas wells to a "child molestor" in the community. Finally, he says that the bombings amount to "sucide bombings."
Charlie Smith's article goes on to emphasize Nikiforuk's intimate knowledge of the area and the latter's extraordinary claims of extreme tensions between the RCMP and the community:
Nikiforuk was in the immediate vicinity of the most recent two bombings just a few weeks prior, and Nikiforuk claims that the RCMP have been seriously harassing the community with their investigation by, horrors! sitting in "the back yards" of the nearby farmers.
Speaking personally on that last point, if there was a bomber in my neighborhood and a cop wanted to spend the night at my place, I'd cheerfully put up the spare bed for him/her, with blankies and breakfast in the morning, - instead of bitching about his/her presence....
On to the next topic, Hard Times:
(Well, 'next' if you're not a cop in Dawson Creek, that is.)
The NY Times has a good blog going on how to survive the tough economic times:
I am in the process of collecting more on this topic for an extended post. I've been poor a lot in my life, and I'm good at surviving, so I would like to share what I've learned: hopefully others won't have to learn the hard way as often as I had to.
Finally, recent blog updates I hadn't yet got around to posting on this site:
*The definition is mine - do you like it?
 June 13 Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception?This post is a direct response to a letter I received last month from Alberta Advanced Education & Technology Minister Doug Horner, a letter written, he indicates at the request of Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, after I sent both men a link to a previous post on Grant MacEwan College and the Auditor General's 2009 report. (I gather from Horner's letter that he wouldn't have bothered to write me if he hadn't been pushed to do so by Ed Stelmach. No surprise there, considering the tone of his previous letter to me in 2007. More on that in a little while. I have also done a new video in response to Doug Horner's latest letter. The Name of the video is the same as this post: Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception?
I'll start by setting out the references in the video and then flesh it out with commentary and additional material.
The Folder to the left of this blog where I am storing the references for the video, Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception?
is named Grant MacEwan College a Culture of Deception . In it, I have uploaded the following records, for the convenience of readers and viewers of the video:
03. October 10, 2008 Minutes of the Grant MacEwan College Board of Governors' regular public session
04. October 26, 2006 Minutes of the Grant MacEwan College Board of Governors' regular public meeting
05. October 11, 2007 Minutes of the Grant MacEwan College Board of Governors' regular public meeting
Those are the main new references. I will provide the URLS for others as I start adding commentary to this post.
In addition, my original "MacEwan Report," to which I occasionally refer in this blog-post, may be found, together with the references cited in it, in the the folder named 'MacEwan Report,' to the left side of this blog.
Alberta Advanced Education and Technology Doug Horner's May 07, 2009 letter to me, Marnie Tunay, written, he indicates, at the behest of Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, regarding Grant MacEwan College and Alberta Auditor General Fred Dunn's concerns , is one for the how-stupid-do-they-think-I-am file.
In April 2009, I wrote a blog-post regarding Auditor General Fred Dunn's stated concerns and Doug Horner's dismissive response, about the "tone at the top" of Grant MacEwan. I sent a link to the post to Doug Horner and to Ed Stelmach, and I told them I wasn't going to let the story be forgotten.
In his reply, Horner assures me that the very fact of the Auditor General's report and recommendations means that, yes, Virginia, there is "accountability" at MacEwan. He also assures me that the College is working to address the issues in the AG's report.
Let's start by examining his first assurance. His exact words are: "The Auditor General's findings and recommendations are evidence that the audit process is effective and ensures the accountability of Alberta post-secondary institutions."
There are two claims in that sentence:
1. The Auditor General's audit process is effective.
2. The Auditor General's audit process ensures the accountability of Alberta post-secondary institutions.
Neither claim has enough truth in it, as we shall see.
1. The claim that the Auditor General's audit process is "effective" begs the question: effective in what way? His stated role (page 01 of his April 2009 Report) is to "identify opportunities and to propose solutions to improve the use of public resources, and improve and add credibility to the government's reporting. And AG Fred Dunn carries out that role in his April 2009, very well. He makes a number of recommendations and sharp criticisms pertaining to MacEwan (which we shall examine in detail later on in this post.) On page 83 of his report, he says: "We reported the internal control weaknesses [at MacEwan] from our financial statements audits to management, so they can assess and investigate if if the weaknesses may have resulted in fraud occurring." [emphasis mine] And then, Fred Dunn goes on to spell out what his team hasn't done as part of its mandate at the College: "We did not assess or investigate if fraud occurred." [emphasis mine] He then concludes: "In our view, the weaknesses increase the risk of fraud or other inappropriate activity."
I think most people tend to assume that an audit is effective if it determines whether or not fraud took place. But Dunn is saying that a fraud investigation was not part of his mandate. His mandate was only to determine the degree to which the College was open to fraud - and his conclusion was that the College is very vulnerable on that score. It is, he says, up to the College administration to investigate whether or not fraud actually took place.
To summarize: The Auditor General's report is very effective in determining and reporting on strengths and weaknesses. It is not at all effective in determining whether or not fraud took place in the College.
On to assertion number 2 in Horner's letter:
2. "The Auditor General's audit process ensures the accountability of Alberta post-secondary institutions." This is the assertion that qualifies Doug Horner's letter as being a political flim-flam - of the brassy, how-dumb-does-he think-I-am variety? For starters, let me remind the reader that Horner's letter was written in response to my previous post on MacEwan and the AG's report: Promises, promises, from Grant MacEwan College execs to the OAG [Office of the Auditor General] - in which said post I slammed Horner for dismissing out of hand the AG's reported concerns about "the culture" and "the tone at the top" of Grant MacEwan. So clearly, Horner doesn't pay much stock to what the Auditor General says, and yet, he's telling me that it is the Auditor General who "ensures accountability." Of course, as Horner knows, the AG can only report - it is up to the College and, ultimately, to Minister Doug Horner to heed the AG's report. Moreover, as I said above, the audit process cannot "ensure" that there is no fraud - because that's not part of its mandate.
Now that we've established the reality that Horner's assertions are in any case of doubtful validity, we are ready to examine the particulars of MacEwan's current reporting issues, within the context of the College's recent reporting history, with a view to answering the questions that Doug Horner simply dismissed out of hand: How valid is the Auditor General's concern about the culture at Grant MacEwan? If an auditor says, as the Edmonton Journal reports the Auditor General as having said, "I am concerned about the culture within that organization [MacEwan]," then it is reasonable to infer that the "culture" in the impugned organization may be hostile to accountability in some sense; in other words, the culture may be such as to foster behavior that decreases accountability rather than increasing it. We call such a culture 'a culture of deception.'
The response of the College to Auditor Fred Dunn's harsh criticism has been, so College spokesman David Beharry says, to "establish a Presidential task force" and to hire an "independent" auditor to "look at the school's current practices." [Excuse me, but didn't the independent Auditor General just finish taking a good "look at MacEwan's current practices?" Sounds to me like somebody's shopping around for a second opinion.]
Doug Horner's response to Dunn's report and remarks is to (1) dismiss the Edmonton Journal's suggestion that perhaps MacEwan has a leadership problem; and (2) promise to "raise the Auditor General's concerns" at the next meeting of Alberta college executives, to ensure, thereby, that the college execs "will take another look at their controls." How very reassuring - not.
My new video on this topic, Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception? is a companion video to this blog. It goes into the specific causes for the Auditor General's concerns, which I won't address here, as I've cited in the video the pages I've quoted, from the AG's report, and the Report is available on this site. What I want to address here more deeply are the causes for scepticism I touched on in the video - scepticism regarding the assurances from the College and from Doug Horner that all is basically well at MacEwan; and that the current leadership will take effective and timely action to address Fred Dunn's concerns.
Why should the assurances that all is well or soon will be at MacEwan, from: Advanced Ed Minister Doug Horner; College spokesman David Beharry; MacEwan President Paul Byrne and the rest of the Board of Governors, be received with scepticism?
Reason 1. The evident discrepancies between what the Auditor General claims in his report and said in a news conference that he has told MacEwan executives over the years - and what MacEwan Governor and Audit Committee Chair Harold Kingston says he was told by the Office of the Auditor General.
On page 02 of the Auditor General's April 2009 Report, AG Fred Dunn points out that previous recommendations his Office made to MacEwan executives, regarding "staffing and systems information issues" "and its internal control weaknesses" have still not been satisfactorily addressed:
This isn't the first time that MacEwan's "system information issues" have made the news. In my original report on variances and anomalies in MacEwan's public reports, I discussed the fact of the leaks of students' confidential financial data in 2002 - 2003 and again in 2006, as reported by the Edmonton Sun, as well as the lack of objective data to support MacEwan VP Finances Brent Quinton's claim to the Alberta Legislature's House Accounts Committee in October 2007, that "policy development" had been done "to enhance security of information assets." [page 37]
On page 81 of the AG's April 2009 Report, Dunn states that "significant weaknesses in inventory and petty cash" have been unresolved since September, 2007," and he then expounds upon that point. Contrast Dunn's remarks with MacEwan Audit Chair Harold Kingston's version of how the September, 2008 meeting with "the OAG" went, given to the Board in the October 10, 2008 Board Meeting Minutes: [page 02, section 2.2] "Kingston summarized the September 25 exit meeting with the Office of the Auditor General. He observed the OAG is satisfied with MacEwan progress on the passed [sic] year's items." So, if Kingston is to be believed, the "Office" of the Auditor General was "satisfied" in October 2008, - but, if the Auditor General is also to be believed, then the latter was highly dissatisfied a mere several months later (since that April 2009 report wasn't written overnight).
Well, capricious, much? Who's a cranky ol' auditor, then?
Except, that, frankly, there are other grounds for scepticism when it comes to the Governors' published versions of issues at the College, and some of those grounds particularly relate to Harold Kingston.
Leaving aside, for the moment, the grounds for being wary in general of what the MacEwan Board of Governors has to say regarding its accountability challenges, there is also, for starters, the discrepancy between Kingston's characterization of the 2006 exit conference with the OAG, and that of Chief Financial Officer Brent Quinton's characterization of the 2006 conference, one year later:
On page 3, s.3.3 of the MacEwan Board's October 26, 2006 Meeting Minutes, Kingston says that the College received "a clean audit" [one of Kingston's favourite phrases, I've noted] from "the Auditor General." Yet, one year later, on page 6, s.4.2 of the MacEwan Board's October 11, 2007 Meeting Minutes, Brent Quinton notes that "The [2007] exit conference with the Auditor General showed significant improvement from last year's feedback." [emphasis mine] So, the 2006 conference was "clean" - but the 2007 conference showed "significant improvement" over the 2006 conference? What's 'cleaner than clean'? Sounds like a detergent commercial. Bottom line: somebody wasn't telling the whole truth about the 2006 exit conference.
Then, there's Kingston's previous dismal history with respect to attendance at the Board's six regularly scheduled meetings. I outline just some of that history, together with that of other chronic absentees John Brick and Tim Melton, and regular no-show Robert Seidel at Academic Governance Committee meetings, on page 20 of my 2007/08 private citizen's report, the "MacEwan Report." Even when I first complained about the non-attendance records to Advanced Education Minister Doug Horner in February 2007, (see page 02 of the MacEwan Report), nothing changed - and it wasn't until I published my updated Report on this site, that the Governors Harold Kingston and Tim Melton started showing up for all the meetings. (Robert Seidel continued to be a regular no-show until the end of his tenure last June.)
(As of this writing, the Board Meeting Minutes show that Kingston showed up for the first four meetings in the 2008/09 fiscal period. The Minutes for the April and May Board meetings have not yet been published and probably won't be until September or October 2009. The publication of the Board minutes usually lags at least three months and usually more than that, after the meeting took place.)
July 10, 2009 update re Board Meeting Attendance: The minutes to the April 07, 2009 Board Meeting are now available: MacEwan Board April 07, 2009 Meeting Minutes Guess who wasn't there? Actually, Kingston wasn't the only one. A third of the Board didn't show up.
The relevant point about Kingston's previous dismal attendance history is: Can a person who apparently had to be compelled by bad publicity to show up for six, just six, regularly scheduled meetings over the period of ten months, - meetings for which he receives an "honorarium" from the College - (meaning, 'from us, the tax-payers who primarily fund the College'), can such a person be relied upon to give an accurate accounting of events that took place within the purview of his duties with respect to those meetings - or even to know what really occurred?
In addition to the concerns particular to Kingston, there are the concerns which apply to all of the Grant MacEwan College Board of Governors over the past few years, (with the exceptions, I would say, of: the student Governors, who are probably helpless to make a real difference in how the Board does anything, and the staff members, who probably wouldn't dare to speak up against anything the President or the "public" members, such as long-time Tory supporter and former Tory fund-raiser, Board Chair Eric Young, did or said.)
One "Performance Measure" on which the Governors have a long history of fudging the facts, is 'student satisfaction' at the College.
My 2008/08 Report on Grant MacEwan College goes into this issue in detail, for the years 2005 - 2007, inclusive, on pages 22 - 24, inclusive.
For example, the Governors have a recent history of fudging the stats on student satisfaction in one of the reports that they must submit annually to the Ministry of Advanced Education (formerly, Alberta Learning). The name of the report is the 'MacEwan Strategic Plan and Budget Strategies,' and every year, the Governors have to produce and submit a new one, which takes into account the next four fiscal years. (The fiscal year of the public colleges runs from July 01 to June 30 of the following year.)
Let's take a look at what they've said in that document, over the past three fiscal periods:
The College Student Satisfaction Surveys are published bi-annually; the last two were published in 2007 and 2005. This means that the only published source for 2006 satisfaction data available to the Governors was the MacEwan University Transfer Followup Report 2006, pub. March 2007. That document states on page 17 that "student satisfaction with the overall quality of their education" among university transfers was "88%." However, the Board's 2008 to 2012 Strategic Plan states on page 13 that "91%" of university transfers were satisfied with the overall quality. The 2008 to 2012 Strategic Plan was published in May, 2007, three months after the 2006 University Transfer Follow-up Report.
How many students were satisfied in 2007 with the overall quality of their education?
According to the MacEwan 2007 Student Satisfaction Survey, pub. January, 2008, "33% were very satisfied and 48% were satisfied." The rest were "neutral or dissatisfied." (page 09)
But the Governors' Strategic Plan 2008 to 2013 spins those figures, claiming on page 14 that 81% were "fully satisfied," - and it even cites the 2007 Survey - so, clearly, the Governors knew or should have known that the 2008 to 2013 Strategic Plan was telling a wee fib.
The Governors' 2010 to 1014 Strategic Plan Budget makes the same claim regarding students satisfaction, on page 12. But the 'wee fib' gets stretched considerably in the Annual Report which is produced for public consumption rather than for the Ministry of Education. The MacEwan 2007/08 Annual Report to the Public claims on page 24 that, according to the "2006/07 Student Survey," "student satisfaction was 95%." On the same page, the Governors claim that "student satisfaction in 2004/05 was 96% according to the 2004/05 Satisfaction Survey."
The reality? Page 07 of the MacEwan 2005 Student Satisfaction Report states that "80% of the students were satisfied/very satisfied and the rest were neutral/dissatisfied."
But credit for the biggest whopper on student satisfaction goes to Governor Paul J. Byrne, President and CEO of Grant MacEwan College. The October 18, 2007 Minutes of the Alberta Legislature's House Accounts Committee session report on page PA-223, (page 17 in your browser), that Paul Byrne told the Committee that student satisfaction was "98%." No year is given or source - but it doesn't matter, because, no matter what year we look at or what published source - it just ain't true, not by a long stretch.
And Byrne is the head of the College's new "task force" set up by him to deal with the Auditor General's concerns. Isn't that reassuring.
(More on Byrne a little bit later in this post.)
And now, a word about Eric Young, the Chair of the Board of Governors, formerly the head of Northlands in Edmonton. I don't like the guy - and here are the reasons why:
I think he's a weak Chair, if for no other reason than the fact that he was evidently unable to persuade 30% of the Governors to show up for board meetings over the course of his terms as Chair - until I motivated them by publishing the MacEwan Report, which called out the culprits on page 20. The Governors showed up when Janet Riopel was Chair of the Board of Governors at the College. Moreover, I can't help wondering if Young's history as a former President of the Tories' fundraising arm, the Progressive Conservatives Association of Alberta, isn't a big reason for Doug Horner's evident disinterest in the concerns expressed by the Auditor General or myself over the years. As an enlightened woman, I also take great exception to a coarse remark he is quoted as having made at a MacEwan fund-raiser, the 2006 Mad Hatter's Ball. Nick Lees, of the Edmonton Journal, quotes Young as having "quipped there was lots of goosing and peckering going on" at the Ball. ["Hats Off to...", Nick Lees, Edmonton Journal. April 12, 2006. page B.3]
However, having said all that and taking into account the reporting issues which apply to all of the public Governors and to Paul Byrne, - I know of no accountability issues that are particular to Eric Young. What his problem is, I don't know. Maybe he's just not in control at the College. I think that's a distinct possibility.
And speaking of Big Whoppers, the College has sold a few in recent years on the subject of enrolments [enrollments]. Leaving aside for the moment the ones for which MacEwan spokesman David Beharry's department, Communications and External Relations, must be specifically held responsible, here are the ones which cast doubt on the willingness of the Board of Governors to tell the truth in matters of accountability:
The MacEwan Annual Report 2006/07 states on page 11 that: "16, 430" credit students were enrolled, 17,554 non-credit students were enrolled, and there were 5,877 Sports and Wellness Centre clients" - making - get this: a grand, (I use the word advisedly], a grand total of "50,199 clients served." Somebody, get those people an adding machine! Typo or not, it is an inexcusable error, at best. Twelve people sit on that Board. Not one of them caught a whopping anomaly like that?
And Doug Horner can't believe Auditor General Fred Dunn is worried about the "tone at the top" and the "culture" at the College.
 Sadly, there's more:
On February 23, 2007, the Edmonton Journal published an interview with MacEwan President Paul Byrne. The article states that "Paul Byrne is responsible for... 42,000 students." [Career path for MacEwan CEO a long and winding... Nick Lees, Edmonton Journal, Feb. 23, 2007, Final Edition, page B.3] [See two paragraphs down for the actual figures].
This claim of "42,000 students" is for the same fiscal period covered by the MacEwan 2006/07 report discussed in the preceding section. On February 15, 2008, Nick Lees told me in an email that he was sure he had checked the accuracy of the statistics in the article with Paul Byrne, before the article was published.
I also think that blame for the fact that the College's Strategic Planning Dept. turned a blind eye to a false claim it published but did not write on 2006 enrolment statistics, must be ultimately laid at the doors of Board Chair Eric Young and President Paul Byrne. A promotional sheet titled "Fact-sheet: Economic Impact of Grant MacEwan College," claims that "34,544" credit and non-credit students were enrolled at the College in 2006. The "Economic Impact" fact-sheet was published in August, 2007.
Yet, two other Strategic Planning "Fact-sheets," one published in September, 2007, and the other one, published in November, 2007, and a "MacEwan Profile," pub. July 2007, all state that the correct numbers for 2006 were "16,575 credit students" and "17,250 non-credit students," which, for those without a calculator handy, adds up a total of 33,825 credit and non-credit students - not "34,544."
For more on public reporting issues pertaining to the Board as a single entity, browse through my 'MacEwan Report,' which you can download in word or PDF, in this folder to the left of the blog: MacEwan Report , where you can also access the references cited. A very small number of references, such as newspaper reports, are not included in that folder, but they are indexed in the report with complete access information. If you have any difficulties or questions, please don't hesitate to contact me, via this web-site, or via my email address: fakirscanada@shaw.ca .
Next up, in the look at accountability issues: no, it's not Paul Byrne. And the reason it's not, is that quite a number of the reporting anomalies that Byrne signed off on, were or should have been, prepared by the guy whose name has figured most prominently in my materials on the College: VP Finances/VP Corporate Services/Chief Financial Officer - Brent Quinton.
Let us begin with what I said in the video, about discrepancies between what the Auditor General has said, and what Brent Quinton has reported as being the feedback from "exit conferences" with the Office of the Auditor General (OAG):
On page 94 of his April 2009 report, AG Fred Dunn says, "We noted more errors, totalling about $1.7 million. The College had expensed them...but should have capitalized them. Of this amount, the College adjusted the financial statements for $856,000."
Quinton's version of the feedback from the OAG is quite different. On page 2 of the October 10, 2008 Board Meeting Minutes, Quinton is quoted as having "advised" the Govenors that "the OAG's notation related to classification of capital expenses" "related to an item of low materiality on which the OAG's office provided late notice to the College." - as if it was somehow the AG's fault that MacEwan Finances had screwed up. And, "low materiality?" $1.7 million? Maybe if your last name is Trump.
On page 81 of the AG's April 2009 report, Dunn states that he first discussed "significant weaknesses" in MacEwan's internal controls and a forensic investigation with management in "September 2007." Here's how Quinton tells the story: On page 6 of the October 11, 2007 MacEwan Board Meeting Minutes, Quinton is quoted as having told the few Governors who showed up for the meeting that "The exit conference with the Auditor General showed significant improvement from last year's feedback." So, the AG's "significant weaknesses" were really a "significant improvement" from 2006?? Just how bad was the 2006 feedback from the AG? Except that Harold Kingston said...oh, never mind - let's move on...
In any case, I doubt that Alberta Advanced Education and Technology Minister Doug Horner thought that the 2009 feedback from the Auditor General was a "significant improvement," - On May 06, 2009, - one day before Horner wrote his most recent letter to me, House Accounts Committee Chair Hugh MacDonald cited that feedback as a primary consideration for his rejection of Horner's Bill 27, which would have significantly increased Horner's control of research funding in Alberta. Hugh MacDonald and I had previously had a little email back-and-forth about Paul Byrne's claim to his committee in 2007 that 98% of students at MacEwan were satisfied. See page 24 of my MacEwan Report for the details of that chit-chat.
Back to Brent Quinton. My 2007/08 MacEwan Report details a very long list of anomalies and variances in the public reports of MacEwan, dating from 2001 through 2005, with a focus on the 2005 fiscal period and some updates through 2007. With the exceptions of the stats on student satisfaction and enrolments, at the root of most other issues is some report on financial data, - the responsibility for the preparation of which lies with Quinton.
For example, there is a $2 million-plus discrepancy in revenues in the 2005 MacEwan report to the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency. (see page 08 of the MacEwan Report. Remember, both the Report, in PDF or word format, and the evidence cited in that report may be found in the MacEwan Report Folder, to the left of this blog.)
Paul Byrne signed off on that discrepancy. But in all likelihood, it was Brent Quinton who prepared the report. I know this, because MacEwan Policy D7010 says on page 2, section 2.2.10, that "The Chief Financial Officer is to be the sole authorized agent to draft, for necessary College signatories, all taxation, grant, or other financial statements, reports or documents."
Probably, neither Paul Byrne nor Cathryn Heslep, who signed off on numerous and significant discrepancies in those reports to the Revenue Agency (see the MacEwan Report for details and evidence), ever read the reports before they signed off on them.
Oh, sure, they should have read what they were going to sign. But seriously, if your Finance Guy is standing right there, waiting for your signature, isn't it human nature, and particularly Canadian, to not want to offend him by appearing to be 'checking his work?' Of course, it is.
As for the provincial reports, MacEwan's law firm, Reynolds, Mirth, Richards & Farmer, filed the ones that don't have any issues of credibility. As for the others, Quinton filed those; and I discuss those in a previous post that is mostly concerned with those records: Update on MacEwan Report and Hadis i-Erbain .
No, where the real issue of accountability for those messed-up reports and the many other financial issues lies with the Board and with Paul Byrne is: why would you keep a guy like Quinton around, who makes close to $200 K a year, and is clearly not doing an acceptably good job of managing the Finance Dept? Personally, it makes me wonder what Quinton's hold is, over the Board and over Byrne; or is it a case of "birds of a feather?"
It's my tax dollars those people are pissing away in half-a-million-dollar-writeoffs - I want to know what their problem is - and, above all, I want to know why Doug Horner seems to be asleep at the wheel. And, judging from Hugh MacDonald's blunt remarks in the 2nd reading of Bill 27, I'm not the only one who's worried on that score.
(I like 'blunt.' I do like MacDonald. I regret that Alberta doesn't have more public servants like him and Fred Dunn.)
Next in our consideration are reporting issues pertaining to ubiquitous College spokesman David Beharry, de facto head of Communications & External Relations at the College. Beharry's department is responsible for the publishing of such "official College publications" as the Annual Reports and the Calendars, among others.
Beharry's department has repeatedly published claims about student satisfaction, and claims about enrolments, that are not supported by the facts. For example, page 90 of the "Think MacEwan" 2008/09 promotional Calendar claims that in 2006, "39, 362" students were enrolled. As we have previously seen in the section above on another piece of promotional material, "Economic Impact..." the correct stats appear to be considerably less than that: 16,575 credit students and 17,250 non-credit students.
Communications & External Relations was still insisting, as of January 30, 2009, that "95% of the students were satisfied with the overall quality of their education in 2006/07." As we have seen previously, according to the 2006/07 Student Satisfaction Survey, the true number was "81%."
Beharry's credibility with respect to these two "Performance Measures" is such as to fail to fill me with confidence regarding his assurances that the College is working on resolving the Auditor General's concerns.
Last, but not least, the fact that Auditor General Fred Dunn's budget has been repeatedly cut by the Stelmach government, which had promised greater accountability and transparency before it was elected - does not inspire confidence in the Stelmach government's own "tone at the top" and "culture."
There is an old saying that "fish begin to stink at the head." At the end of the day, the buck for accountability at Grant MacEwan stops with Doug Horner and Premier Ed Stelmach. If there's a serious problem at the top in Western Canada's largest tax-payer-funded College, then it is probably symptomatic of a larger problem in government.
I am sceptical that the College will resolve its 'reality challenges' any time soon. I predict that it will take enrolments that continue to fall, and continued drops in donations, to catalyze real change at MacEwan. Hell, if the Auditor General can't get them to get it together, then there's no hope of "significant improvement" in any form except more pretty promises from "the top."
Personally, I feel concern about those three "forensic investigations" at the College mentioned in the Auditor General's April 2009 report; and I suspect from his comments that he does, too. I really hope those investigations are targeting people who merit them.
And I hope this post and the companion video to it, Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception? will be of use to people who are considering getting involved with the College or its top administration in any manner.
May it be of benefit to them, and to the tax-payers of Alberta.
September 16, 2009 update: Of some relevance to my concerns about "forensic investigations" at MacEwan, and of possible interest to anyone considering employment with MacEwan is an article from the College's own student newspaper, Intercamp, which boldly states that Mark Mahl, the former athletics director at Grant MacEwan College, was fired without cause. I'd heard of the case and touched upon it briefly in my original 2008 report on the College.
 AMEN May 01 Omar Khadr PostsMay 08 Breaking News: Canada will appeal the order to request the repatriation of Omar Khadr. Here is the first of a series of articles, no doubt: Government will appeal Omar Khadr order . Like I said, Omar Khadr has no luck at all:
http://fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/02/life-and-times-of-omar-khadr.html and, as Dennis Edney has recently pointed out, Stephen Harper really hates to be told what to do: http://fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/04/to-stephen-harper-and-lawrence-cannon.html
I have done a number of original posts on Omar Khadr, together with a substantial number of documents. I have decided to make a list here of the main ones: and I will also find a home for the list of posts and materials later today when I have more time, probably under the 'Omar Khadr Records' folder to the left of this blog:
April 28 updates: A Pragmatic Plan for Harper and Cannon re Omar KhadrObviously, Stephen Harper and Lawrence Cannon still don't know what to do about Federal Court Justice James O'Reilly's ruling, released on April 23, that the former must request the repatriation of Omar Khadr from Barack Obama.
Since Harper and Cannon are still dithering, they must be open to suggestions from any and all, even from me. I haven't seen any concrete pragmatic proposals from anyone else as yet. Therefore, I have taken the liberty of stepping in with my own proposal:
Also, in my last set of updates, I neglected to mention a brief update to Selections from the Beautiful Names of God and His Prophet .
Have a nice day, people. April 21 Promises, promises, from Grant MacEwan College execs to the OAGOn account of the April 20, 2009 news story on fraud at Bow Valley College in Calgary, Alberta, a number of people have shown up here looking for the Alberta Auditor General's statements regarding Grant MacEwan College. His report is freely available to the public:
Alberta Auditor General's 2009 Annual Report and you can find the information on Grant MacEwan College on page 2, and pages 81 - 87 inclusive.
Happy reading - and may it profit you, because the budget of the Auditor General, Fred Dunn, has been sharply reduced by the Tories; and Doug Horner is more interested in playing with his Technology portfolio than he is in accountabilty at Alberta's Advanced Learning Institutions: see the Fakirs Canada report on reporting anomalies and variances at Grant MacEwan College and updates to the report on Grant MacEwan College .
You know it's gotta be bad at the College, when even the Edmonton Journal says "MacEwan College is riddled with weaknesses in its internal controls that expose it to fraud and error" - because the Journal and the College share the same law firm, Reynolds, Mirth, Richard and Farmer , - said to be a major player in free speech and defamation litigation. [April 30 update: the afore-cited link now goes to the correct URL - my apologies for the error - and for the length of time it took me to notice it.]
The Edmonton Journal also quotes Fred Dunn, the Auditor General, as saying "I am concerned about the culture within [Grant MacEwan College]" - and Dunn also had a whole lot more to say in that article by the Journal. Maybe somebody will listen - now that Fred Dunn has said it. (Hope springs eternal.)
April 22, 2009 update: Time to abandon all hope that anything is going to change at Grant MacEwan College. Here's Alberta Advanced Education Minister Doug Horner thumbing his nose at Alberta Auditor General Fred Dunn's "damning" report on the College - just the same as he did when I sent him my report on Grant MacEwan College in 2007. In response to Fred Dunn's voiced concerns regarding "the culture" and "the tone at the top" at Grant MacEwan College: Doug Horner says "Well, that's his opinion."
Yeah, well, that's the opinion of the guy we tax-payers pay to worry about things like that.
But at least I know it was nothing personal when Doug Horner told me to get lost:
 (See original letter from Horner in 'MacEwan Report' Folder, Ref. 150)
Note how Horner tells me the financial statements of Grant MacEwan College and the Grant MacEwan College Foundation are "audited by the Office of the Auditor General each year" - as though the Auditor General's opinion would count for something - when the truth is that it counts for nothing.
In a story like this, we can sense the meaning and the power of the passage in John, New Testament [Christian Bible], where Jesus refers to the devil as "the ruler of this world," a "liar," a "blasphemer" who "never took his stand on the truth." [John, 12:31 - 12:44]
And we can see the truth of the Biblical saying: "Verily, the wicked flourish like the green bay tree." Or, in more modern language: "Scum rises to the top."
Personally, considering in-your-face false statements that that Grant MacEwan College Board of Governors and other executives continue to make regarding student satisfaction at the College - supposedly an important point of accountability at the Ministry of Advanced Education, - together with all of the findings of anomalies, variances and errors in the financial operations over the years by the Office of the Auditor General and by myself: I think that only steadily shrinking enrollments (enrolments); significant losses of qualified staff; and sharp reductions in donations are going to finally starve out the real obstacles to accountability at Grant MacEwan College - because the real culprits don't give a hoot if the College is destroyed - before they lose their cozy little niches and fat pay-checks.
"I am mindful of all that you do" God says in the Quran, and, "God is the best accountant."
"The mills of God grind slow but exceeding small." [Friedrich von Logau]
Kudos to Journal reporters Darcy Henton, Keith Gerein and Edmonton Journal publisher Allan Mayer for having the journalistic integrity and the courage to pursue this important story against, I have no doubt, the wishes of powerful interests.
June 16, 2009 update: I have just completed a post: Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception?
and a companion video Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception? (the video) done in response to a letter from Doug Horner regarding this blog-post.
April 18 A Story, A Parable and Some UpdatesHerein are: a story about communication in spirit; a parable on a Turkish saying: "You never really know a person until you have crossed him/her;" and some updates.
First, the updates:
The update of my review of Anthony (Tony) Blake's book, "The Intelligent Enneagram," to be found here: http://fakirscanada.googlepages.com/regardingtheenneagram
was sparked by an email I received from him regarding the first review I did. That email and the review also form part of the parable set out below in this post.
I have new blog-posts:
April 23, 2009 update: The April 23 Federal Court order to request Omar Khadr's repatriation - and the welcoming committee awaiting his return (and thanks to Dennis Edney for sending me a copy of the Federal Court's order to request Omar Khadr's repatriation .)
April 26, 2009 update: I have updated that post above, regarding the April 23 Federal Court order by Justice James O'Reilly regarding the repatriation of Omar Khadr, with references to email exchanges I had with Dennis Edney, which, in my opinion, shed light on Dennis Edney's real opinion of the many Christians who are supporting his efforts to get Omar Khadr back. Those emails are stored in the 'Omar Khadr Records' Folder to the left of this blog in both Word and PDF format. (If you don't see the folders, click on 'Fakirs Canada' at the top of this page and you'll pull them up). It has taken me over a month to decide to release those emails. I was very reluctant to publish private correspondence. But I realized today that if I was one of the many people, especially, one of the many Christians, presently mobilizing in support of Omar Khadr's repatriation under the auspices of Dennis Edney and his repatriation plan, then I would be very interested in seeing the contents of those emails.
A Story About Communication in Spirit
I spent the long Easter weekend in Lethbridge, Alberta, with my ten-year-old daughter, Zehra, my sister and our grandmother, who is suffering from very advanced Alzheimer's disease. An email from the nursing home had motivated us to change our original plan to meet in Lethbridge in May, together with other relatives, to celebrate Grandma's 100th birthday.
Zehra was keen to go, to see Mom's hometown, the great-grandmother she'd never met before, and to spend time with her highly regarded aunt.
I had been estranged from my grandmother since before Zehra was born. I knew she no longer recognized my sister, with whom she had always been close, or even her own daughters. I had been told she could no longer speak at all; and I expected little by way of a response from her to our visit.
Her eyes were blank, and she nodded unceasingly, a manner of a nod that had been a trade-mark gesture of hers all her life.
I stood before her and introduced myself and Zehra. Her eyes sharpened for a few seconds, and her gaze settled on my daughter. Although her gaze was still blank, I suddenly had the feeling that she was interested in Zehra.
At first, Zehra was shy and reticent. Prodded gently, she began to carry on as best as she could a one-sided chat with the great-grandmother who was a total stranger to her.
We took turns feeding Grandma.
And at some point in that first visit, the three of us: Zehra, my sister and I, all sensed without knowing how we did so the presence of a strong emotion in the room that had no manifestation accessible to our five senses: a great happiness that we had come to visit.
In our last visit with Grandma that weekend, my sister and I sensed the presence of another emotion: sadness. Sadness that we had to see her in that state, and sadness from the understanding somehow that this visit was a 'good-bye' visit.
Those were the first times I have ever felt a communication from anyone in the family into which I was born and with which I am not close, that did not come to me through any of my five senses. Those 'messages' from my grandmother's spirit motivated and enabled me to transcend the estrangement and to pray for my grandmother for the first time in years.
A Parable: You never really know a man until you've crossed him
Case in point: I had written in an offhand way to a man I don't know at all, Tony Blake, author of "The Intelligent Enneagram," and bye-the-bye mentioned that I had done a review of his book, which may be read here: http://fakirscanada.googlepages.com/regardingtheenneagram
together with an update done in response to Tony's email to me regarding my original review.
(My emails with Tony may be read in full at the end of this story.)
Here is his reaction to my original review:
"Dear Marnie
Your review is pretty bad and I guess it may be partly because you do not have a scientific background. Those who do recognise the significance of the cup of water example, because in science one looks for very simple cases to clarify phenomena. It was a pleasure for me to have in JGB [John Godolphin Bennett] a guide who was well-versed in science and had attempted to transform the work ideas into physics! I never knew Mary [Cornelius] very well and felt her husband [George Cornelius] to be a bit of a nut-case (I think she had a thing for JGB and settled on George as a second-best). Still, they were both great fun. Your point about my connection with the Gurdjieff work is very interesting because it is true I am not a main-liner or believer though, I hope, endlessly appreciative of G's genius. Perhaps another factor is that I never got on with the women in the G - JGB line. Elizabeth [wife of John Bennett] used to remark on it. As Dushka [a daughter of Gurdjieff] said to me the women never felt comfortable with the men's concern with the ideas. I celebrate the diversity of the people who find meaning in G's ideas. As G said, 'In the fourth way [of spiritual development, the 'way of the sly man'], there are many teachers'. Each has his own line. As JGB remarked to me once, each has his own style and Shah [Idries Shah] for example treated the work as a joke.
I'll try and remember and pass your comment on to Karen [Karen Stephano, who runs Blake's institute, Duversity].
Best"
On my page regarding the enneagram symbol I have addressed Tony's comments pertaining to my review of his book.
Herein I wish to address the rest of Tony's email, mainly in the context of what his comments reveal about him:
I lived with George and Mary Cornelius during the summer and fall of 1986, in Cave Junction, Oregon. Tony's characterization of a man he hadn't seen for many years prior to that period as a "bit of a nut-case" is harsh and unfair. If George was eccentric, there was method to it. He was clear-eyed and plain-spoken. George and Mary were loved by many students of the Gurdjieff teachings, including the formidable Annie Lou Staveley (may she rest in peace), James Tomarelli, currently the only publisher of most of the Gurdjieff-related books, and Saul Kuchinsky, well-known for his development of systematics theory, who sent me to the Corneliuses (may he rest in peace), and many others who flocked to visit them when I was there. I learned much about 'timing' from Mary. George had a razor-sharp eye for opportunities to bring me face-to-face with my psychological 'blind spots.' They were two of the most unsentimentally caring people I have ever met.
With respect to Idries Shah, a well-known proponent of Sufism in the West, Tony allows us to think that it is John Bennett who has said that "Shah treated the work [of spiritual development] as a joke." Yet it was Bennett who handed over to Shah the large property in England called Coombe Springs, to do with as he saw fit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Bennett
But the Corneliuses and Idries Shah are among the departed, and if you are not already familiar with their names, then you are unlikely to be terribly interested in my remarks concerning them. So let us move on to examine what Tony's remarks reveal about Tony:
What strikes me most about his comments is that he gratuitously insults and belittles people who shared his spiritual heritage to greater or lesser degree - people who are dead! There is a striking heartlessness in his "Still, they were great fun." Only his use of the past tense indicates awareness that he is talking about the dead - not visitors who have come for a day and gone home again.
There is no indication of any capacity for empathy in Tony's email. I had mentioned to him that I had heard stories about him from Mary, with whom I had stayed for four months. There is no indication that he gave a moment's thought as to how I was likely to react to put-downs of people who had taken me into their home.
Nor did any inner sense of discernment clue him that he was perhaps being probed by me: "I've talked about your book online...brace yourself, it's not altogether flattering....Too bad we're never going to meet....I've always been curious about you...."
In my original review of his book, I said that I wondered whether or not it was still true that "Tony's heart was still waiting to be touched by the work."
I'm not wondering about that anymore. Moreover, Tony himself says in his email that he is "not a believer in the Gurdjieff work [of spiritual self-development]." And on that score, who are we to disbelieve him?
The emails that preceded Tony's, above:
Marnie: “Hello, Tony, by odd coincidence your email about the duversity event in the UK came a day after an acquaintance of mine (who says he's met you a few time at Sherborne), posterized your image. This may or may not http://hiddenrecess.ning.com/profiles/blogs/violinist-in-the-metro?id=2018168%3ABlogPost%3A8519&page=2#comments”
Tony: "Most disappointed that I could not find the image at the url you posted!"
Marnie: Hi Tony: try this: http://hiddenrecess.ning.com/profiles/blogs/violinist-in-the-metro?id=2018168%3ABlogPost%3A8519&page=1#comments
for which he thanked me: “Thanks for this fun thing. The site does not give your side of the conversation though!”
I replied: “Glad you liked it, I thought you would.
"That's because James pissed me off and I left the site - unwittingly dragging out all my comments with me when I closed my account. I wouldn't have left if I'd known what was going to happen with that - I would have just sulked in a corner. They're Beshara and post-Bennett Sherborne people, mainly. They're okay. Did you tell James you like it? He'd be very pleased to know it.
"You and I met once, for about five minutes, at Claymont, in the fall of 1993. Andy Moyer introduced us. I was on my way to Turkey, we talked briefly about how hard it was to pack one's life into a couple of suitcases. No, I don't expect you to remember.
"I remember you, because I'd heard of you for years from various people including Andy and lots about you from Mary Cornelius with whom I stayed for four months in Oregon, (may she rest in peace).
I've read your book, The Intelligent Enneagram, and I talked about it on a web-page of mine: http://fakirscanada.googlepages.com/regardingtheenneagram
"Brace yourself, it's not an altogether flattering set of comments, but, since I'm talking to you here, I'd feel remiss in not owning up to my handiwork.
"We don't seem destined to meet again. Too bad, I've always been curious about you.
"I wish you all the best, and if you happen to think of it, you might tell Karen that "hot pepper" says 'hi' - it will drive her mad all day, until she can think of whom she gave the nickname to, so many, many years ago....
Bye bye, now, Tony.
Marnie Tunay"
April 05 Don't you just hate anonymous back-stabbers?Don't you just hate anonymous back-stabbers - and the journalists who pander to them? To say that Omar Khadr's (former) lead lawyer William (Bill) Kuebler is "ego driven and manipulative" is pretty much the same as saying that "he is a lawyer." But to say that "Kuebler did not work with anybody" and "he has attacked everybody" is clearly defamatory. This story by Colin Perkel on the firing of Bill Kuebler has already spread all over the Net, including Toronto's Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090404.wkhadr0404/BNStory/politics/COLIN+PERKEL ,
and my hometown's Edmonton Sun: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/04/04/9005641-cp.html , among many others. The article also casts serious aspersions on Bill Kuebler's integrity, said which aspersions I decline to quote here. There is no worse libel for a lawyer. Colin Perkel should be ashamed of himself. He doesn't even have the grace to provide one shred of anything resembling provable facts on which the claims could be said to be fair comment. I hope Kuebler sues his ass - and that the slinking back-stabber who made the aspersions is forced into the light.
 (The Globe and Mail version of Colin Perkel's article on the dismissal of Omar Khadr's lead lawyer is also noteworthy for its revelation of the public split in the views of Omar Khadr's self-appointed Canadian lawyers, Dennis Edney and Nathan (Nate) Whitling, on the dismissal of Bill Kuebler - and for its description of the source of some of the defamatory statements as being a "legal source familiar with the situation." I'm guessing the "legal source" is not a tort specialist - unless lawyers get special libel dispensation that I don't know about.)
Not that Perkel's piece is the first time a legal beagle has cast aspersions upon Bill Kuebler's handling of Omar Khadr's case. See here for a short history of the infighting between Dennis Edney and William (Bill) Kuelber
Photo of William (Bill) Kuebler, courtesy of his assistant, Rebecca Snyder, source: wikipedia
July 16, 2009 update: There is little doubt now that the Colin Perkel's "legal source" for the derogatory comments about Bill Kuebler was Dennis Edney, who is quoted as having made similar remarks in an article widely disseminated over the Net today: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/07/15/khadr-csis015.html March 27 New At MacEwan: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
As the above picture summarizes: the good new thing at Grant MacEwan College is the publication at long last of its 2007/08 Annual Report. The report is available online at the College: Grant MacEwan College Annual Report 2007/08 although, if you check out the link on the same page that supposedly leads to the College's "most recent annual report," then you will still, as of this writing, get the download URL for the 2005/06 Annual Report: MacEwan's "most recent annual report" . I guess it must be a year fondly remembered at the College, relative to the present one. Also very good, the College seems to have stopped telling tales about its enrolments.* The bad thing about that 2007/08 report is that it repeats the same tired old fiction about student satisfaction at the College. Here's a snap look at the claims made on page 24 from the 2007/08 Annual Report (p. 26 in your PDF reader): And here is the data from the "most recent bi-annual Satisfaction Survey" published as of this writing, as you can see for yourself: MacEwan's Most Recent Student Satisfaction Survey namely, the 2007 Survey, published in January 2008. From page 9 (19) of that survey: So, as you can see, the Board of Governors's latest claim regarding student satisfaction is just not tenable. I suspect they know this, because I note they have not repeated the claim in their advertising supplement in last Sunday's Edmonton Sun, although they have done so in the past (see my report and/or "Recent Patterns" video.) Yesterday's unfortunate stabbing at the downtown campus: Stabbing at Grant MacEwan College on March 26, 2009 is just one of a number of recent security issues at MacEwan. The College's Student Newspaper, Intercamp, recently reported on Allegations of racism at Grant MacEwan College. And although a College web-page says that a forum on security issues was held "in response to" the published reports of the racism complaints ; a follow-up on the forum in question published by Intercamp makes it clear the forum was not in response to those complaints, although a number of other security issues were evidently addressed. Intercamp has also recently reported on complaints of anti-semitism at MacEwan . In addition to those most recent security issues, my report on variances and anomalies in Grant MacEwan College's public reports addresses 2002 and 2006 security lapses pertaining to students' personal and financial information at the College, as reported in the Auditor General's reports and the Edmonton Sun; and my report also examines claims made in late 2007 by College CFO and VP Corporate Services Brent Quinton, regarding those lapses, to the Alberta Legislature's Public Accounts Committee (see page 37 of the report.) *(See my report on the College in either of the two MacEwan Report Folders to the left of this blog, for MacEwan's unfortunate history - or a quick summary in the YouTube videos: URLS in the links to the left of this blog. Also, available as downloads from the Videos folder, especially for the convenience of viewers from countries such as China which have banned YouTube.) June 15 update: See my latest post and video regarding Grant MacEwan College and the Auditor General's April 2009 reported concerns: Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception? July 02 security update: Smoke from a shorted out electric panel in MacEwan's downtown parkade empties two campus builidings. March 21 Quick Political Shots updateJust a couple of quick political shots whilst I toil away dutifully on the Peter Martin Post, a MacEwan update and some translations:
March 14 Thought for the dayThought for the day:
Sometimes, it doesn't pay to be too subtle.
 March 14, 2009 Marnie Tunay Fakirs Canada
March 08 Omar Khadr legal issues: blog update, by requestAt the request of Michael Pilgrim [see last set of comments here: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/03/04/raphael-alexander-on-un-resolution-62-154-thou-shalt-not-criticize-islam.aspx#comments ]
I have summarized and addressed questions and comments raised by him and other NP commentators, as I understand those to be from Michael on the above thread and one other: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/03/07/robert-fulford-islam-and-the-problem-of-the-sacred-word.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage .
That summary of the legal considerations may be found here: http://fakirsca.blogspot.com/2009/03/michael-pilgrims-questions-on-omar.html
August 22, 2009 update:
Here is a list of recent posts I've done regarding the facts, evidence and law concerning Omar Khadr's case:
March 07 Martin, Malachi and Peter, MacEwan update (sort of)I have done a post on a subject near my heart: Father Malachi Martin (may he rest in peace) , with selections from his book, "Hostage to the Devil," links to free downloads of interviews with him and some personal comments, which also foreshadow what kind of content is yet to come in my extended post on Alberta Justice Peter Martin.
In other news, I note with interest that Grant MacEwan College has yet to publish an Annual Report this year. The Annual Reports are normally published at the end of January or by the end of the first week of February at the latest. In fact, the Grant MacEwan College web-site is still featuring the 2005/06 Annual Report as the "latest Annual Report:" 2005 - 2006 Annual Report of Grant MacEwan College
Gee, I hope it was nothing I said about the College.
By the way, the College is looking for loads of people if you're interested. Actually, they usually are, these days.
I also see that the latest "Fact-sheet" published by the "Communications and External Relations" department at MacEwan, headed up by David Beharry, is repeating one of the same false claims about student satisfaction in its February 2009 "General Statistics" Fact-sheet that I rebut in my video: Recent Patterns in Grant MacEwan College Reporting Anomalies
I am reminded of a time during my four years in Texas, when I had tracked down a 'property manager' who had absconded with several thousand dollars in rental revenues belonging to my employer. When I confronted the man with his false statements, his expression didn't change. He merely repeated the statements over and over, until I gave up trying to wring the truth out of him and focused on tricking him into giving back part of the money (don't ask.) I remember looking into his eyes and for the first time in my life, being struck by a sensation that "no one was at home" behind those eyes. He was totally focused on his own lies. He wasn't really seeing me at all. His eyes were like sharks' eyes, I remember thinking.
The college's curious attachment to a falsity that isn't working for them reminds me very much of that encounter in Texas.
July 17, 2009 update: See my June 13 blog-post: Grant MacEwan College: a Culture of Deception?
August 02, 2009 update: I have done a post on the difficult posthumous reputation of the exorcist, Father Malachi Martin: The Life and Times of the Exorcist, Father Malachi Martin February 25 Blog update: The Life and Times of Omar KhadrWhy none of the facts pertaining to Omar Khadr's repatriation matter, none of the efforts on his behalf, matter anymore -
and why Omar Khadr isn't coming back to Canada - ever:
February 22 Truth detection online (where to find it)This is just a brief note to say that I was provoked three times in the past week to address the issue of how can we detect the truth of a matter in online conversations. The last time was yesterday on myspace. So last night, I (once again) dropped the dream of a good-night's sleep, and set out a three-part introduction to the topic. Part One is on the blog of the forum that triggered the post: http://www.myspace.com/fakirscanada Anyone can access it - you don't have to be a member. It addresses some fundamental considerations. Part Two is more abstract, exploring the application of pattern detection to a strategy for arriving at truth-insights in situations where 'hard' data is insufficient to support one-off relationships with 'logical' conclusions. Part Two is on the Fakirs Canada Newsvine column here: http://fakirscanada.newsvine.com/_news/2009/02/22/2463570-who-are-you-really-talking-to-online-part-two and it is open to the general public. Part Three is a new thread on the http://www.wondercafe.ca/ to open the issue of truth detection online up for conversation and sharing. The thread is on the "Social" forum; here is the URL: http://www.wondercafe.ca/discussion/social/who-are-you-really-talking-online-part-three You won't be able to access Part Three unless you join wondercafe, but it's not hard to do. Anyone can join, and you don't have to be an adult. |
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