Winnipeg: where language, identity and history meet

 Posted on May 3, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

ViaRail exec Yves Desjardins-Siciliano and I took the same morning train from Saskatoon to Winnipeg. When we arrived that evening at Winnipeg’s Union Station, we were already inside the conference venue. Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano, clearly proud of this building and its heritage, led me to the large rotunda that faces Main Street. Tables, chairs and screens for breakout sessions had been set up under the high, pink dome ceiling. A production crew was busy testing sound and lights in the adjoining citizenship court. “A fitting space to talk about Canadian values, no?” asked Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano. The next day I would hear from Winnipeggers that what’s important to them is supporting the vibrance of multiple histories, languages and identities.

Perhaps it was my state of mind having just come from Saskatoon, or maybe it was just that Elder Gary Dano was that good a performer, but the song he sang moved me to tears.  Something about his voice and the ancient syllables of prayer reverberating against the limestone walls of English and French colonialists’ “gateway to the West,” made me aware of breathing the same air as everyone in the room. Each elder who has spoken at the #Canada150 conferences has emphasized honoring the water, land and air as nourishing us and nourishing our future. Dano made it seem possible that our very Canadian identity could become an honoring of those things.

Lawyer Aimée Craft built on the idea of these conferences as nourishing Canada’s future. She reminded the audience of not only to think seven generations forward but also to consider new ways of interpreting Manitoba’s treaties. Craft echoed publisher Deborah Morrison’s call to remember Manitoba’s many, multiple histories. Through Morrison’s eyes, I saw Manitoba as the site of Louis Riel’s resistance, of Nellie McClung’s mock parliament, and of the Winnipeg General Strike – in short as home to some of Canada’s greatest champions of human rights.

I was unprepared for the degree of French bilingualism in the room. Nor was I prepared to be struck, in Mariette Mulaire’s speech, by an accent I recognized. It was twenty miles from here that at age eight I first learned to identify as French-Canadian and to speak what I now understand is a Manitoban French. When I was little, I had no idea Winnipeg was as bilingual as it is, with streets named Goulet, Taché and Lagimodière, at its heart. The francophone tables were vibrant and full, as attendees from the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain and Festival du Voyageur spoke of celebrating Canada’s 150th not with new cultural institutions, but with renewed support for those that already exist.

Harold Westdal’s impassioned call to support a trans-Canada hiking trail spoke to the B.C. outdoorsiness in me: what a great idea! Curator Anthony Kiendl made me see, through the eyes of a Manitoba artist, the U.F.O. Landing Platform in St. Paul, Alberta that hosts have mentioned at every conference. Kiendl drove home how public art brings openness and playfulness to a civic questioning of official histories.

Finally, David Chilton shared his perspective on how good we’ve got it in Canada. His command? Quit complaining. Chilton’s straight-talking humour lightened everyone up for the breakout sessions but also prepared listeners for Roméo Dallaire’s more critical talk. Dallaire spoke of commemorative events as recognizing the price of 150 years of Canada’s stable democracy. Dallaire hoped that as a nation we will more maturely acknowledge the violent conflicts through which nation-states are formed. He insisted that we remember the sacrifices “in blood” of veterans and of First Nations peoples that established Canada as we know it. Dallaire’s parting words were to me as powerful and mindful of multiple histories as Elder Dano’s closing song, which, after Dallaire took his seat, rose up once more to touch the domed height of the station.

- Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic

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Saskatoon: new population boom and old treaty questions

 Posted on May 1, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

It’s dark and only hours away from May when the train arrives in Saskatoon. A blizzard is in full force. Blowing snow obscures the lines on the wide, flat roads as we head toward downtown.  When I look out the window of the stately Delta Bessborough in the morning, the sun is bright and the snow has disappeared. Sudden change, I will soon learn, isn’t just about the weather in Saskatchewan these days. From what I hear from speakers and attendees at the 2017StartsNow conference in Saskatoon, their city is changing quickly and the challenge leading up to 2017 is how to keep up.

“Saskatoon is booming,” says Trevor Forrest, executive director of Saskatoon Community Foundation, shaking his head with an air of shock. “You hear of new immigrants arriving in Canada, you understand that they go to Toronto, or Montreal, or Vancouver. We’re not used to people wanting to come here and stay. But now they do.” The Saskatoon establishment feels it has little experience dealing with diversity, says Forrest. One of the Foundation’s biggest supporters, Peter Zakrewski, can only nod. The challenge, they say, is building programs to integrate new locals into housing (the rental vacancy rate in Saskatoon is under 1%) and jobs.

One can sense the region’s growing pains in cultural developer Omayra Issa’s gentle chiding of Saskatoonians for holding onto an idea of Canadian multiculturalism that is more a practice of “tolerance” and inclusion of visible minorities rather than a curiosity about each other’s stories. Alika Lafontaine’s insistence on the need for indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians to come to better understandings around environmental sustainability and natural resources was underscored by his powerpoint presentation on identity and assimilation.

Meanwhile, those who spoke to the question of what to celebrate on Canada’s 150th birthday were focused on tried and true methods of memorialization. Darin Banadyga explained what worked at the Saskatchewan pavilion at the 2010 Olympics. Professor Stephen Kenny suggested we all read up and even reenact histories of confederation. Author Yann Martel stressed the point of finding a symbolic object – he suggested a chair – that could be “planted in the memory of time.”

When I went out into the Saskatoon streets I asked a group of three uniformed policemen what they thought Canada150 ought to emphasize. Murray, who was retiring that very day, said immediately that fostering understanding between cultures was the most important thing. “It would make our jobs easier. Everyone’s a Canadian like everyone else,” he said. “People need to get that.” I asked if that meant responding with understanding to the concerns being vocalized by indigenous communities in demonstrations. “When people start being disruptive that’s something else,” Murray said quickly.

Later, over drinks, two of my friends who have lived in Saskatoon for years laughed when I told them the policemen’s comments. “Caucasians in Saskatoon are about to become a minority,” one of them said, echoing what Gerry Klein of the Star-Phoenix says is a common conception in Saskatoon but one that there is little data to support. “What you’ve got to understand about Saskatoon,” said the other, “is that this is where Idle No More started. By four women from right here.”

It may be that Saskatoon, centre of an agricultural province and centre of strong cooperatives, a hometown that many young Saskatoonians couldn’t wait to leave, has much to teach other Canadian cities that have for decades been focused on the demands of new immigration at the expense of relations with urban and local First Nations. At the conference, people asked again and again how, for Canada’s 150th, they could showcase what Saskatoon offers to the whole country.  A city that models the reconciliation of a deep urge to memorialize and the reality of swift change would indeed be a gift to the whole nation.

- Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic

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Paul Shaffer’s Challenge to Canadians : Compose a song for Canada’s 150th

 Posted on May 1, 2013 by Carole Breton
JJ Thompson / medianeeds.ca

Paul Shaffer. Photo: JJ Thompson / medianeeds.ca

It was the City of Toronto’s turn to host the delegates for the CANADA 150 / 2017 STARTS NOW conference series. Over 180 people showed up last Friday to brainstorm ideas for celebrating the 150th anniversary of Confederation. The year 2017 is just around the corner, and if we want to get actively engaged, launch initiatives that bring Canadians together and even build new infrastructure, now is the time to start thinking about it. Let the conversation begin.

In the morning, several speakers took the stage to tell their stories and present their big ideas for the 2017 celebrations. As you can image, the topics were wide-ranging – from diversity, culture, infrastructure, and local/national history, to youth, First Nations, immigration and many other themes that unite us from coast to coast.

Paul Shaffer, musical director for Late Night with David Letterman, sang a few tunes at the piano to illustrate how Canada had left its mark on the international music scene. He reminded conference-goers that the hit song My Way was actually written by a Canadian – the native Ottawan Paul Anka. In discussing the song on Twitter, a friend pointed out to me that, as Canadians, we could sing “We do it our way” instead. Mr. Shaffer also threw out a challenge: that a song be composed for Canada’s sesquicentennial, as Bobby Gimby had done back in 1967 with Canada, A Centennial Song / La chanson du centenaire.

Who will take up this challenge? What other projects will take shape in 2017 to celebrate our country’s 150th? It’s up to each and every one of us to pitch in and work together so that the party will be one to remember.

The CANADA 150 / 2017 STARTS NOW conference series runs until June 27, with a wrap-up event being held in Ottawa. For details, please visit www.2017startsnow.ca.

- Carole Breton, Senior Advisor, Corporate Communications

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Canada’s Upcoming 150th: What Will We Celebrate?

 Posted on April 30, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

Tops of dark green spruce whiz past on either side of me as we head west. I’m in the last car, a dome car, on the Via train they call The Canadian and as we charge across the landscape, I’ve got a 360˚ view of grey sky and northern Ontario forest. I still can’t quite believe I’m here, barrelling along the tracks somewhere between Hornepayne and Longlac. The CBC has me travelling across the country for the next few weeks, asking Canadians one question: how should we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday?

In the dining car I meet Marg, a retiree from Nepean. She’s on her way to fauna watch in Prince Rupert. “Canada’s 150th?” she repeats. “When is that?”

“2017. Right around the corner, really, if you’re planning a birthday party for the whole country.”

“Oh,” she says. “True.” Marg suggests discounted train fares would be a great way to help Canadians see and connect with their country. But she hasn’t really given our upcoming birthday much thought.

Her travelling companion, Darlene, is on her way to visit her son and it hasn’t occurred to her to anticipate Canada’s next landmark birthday. Nor has it to Sima, Raj and Kunal, the family from Woodbridge who are headed to Vancouver.

Canada’s upcoming 150th hadn’t occurred to me either, frankly, until I was asked to speak at the inaugural 2017 Starts Now! Conference. Organizers asked me to reflect on Canadian identity since our 1967 centenary, to comment on whether we’ve moved much beyond the insularity Northrop Frye called our garrison mentality, on where we are now, decades after officially adopting multicultural ideals, and on where we should go with our sense of collective community.

The question of “how should we celebrate,” is – or at least, it can be – a question bigger than logistics. Its consideration means more than the organizing of 150-themed Canada Day events, more than simply where do we set up the outdoor music stage, beer tents and cops (though we should ask those questions pretty soon, too). How we should celebrate Canada’s 150th, and why we might make a big deal out of this milestone, is a question about what it is about Canada that’s worth reminding ourselves of, worth holding onto or worth reaching for.

“I’d like to see that national day care program we were promised,” says Deb, a longtime anti-poverty organizer, on her way to meet her brother in Kamloops. “I think that would be a great legacy to launch at our 150th.”

Nick is a blond, fresh-faced undergrad who has just finished his poli sci exams at Carleton. “How about senate reform?” he says, self-consciously, as though it could never happen. “How about moving forward from the last 150 years with fair, proportional representation in our government?”

Gisele, a brown-eyed woman from Sao Paulo, isn’t saying much as Nick and Deb talk politics. “How old is Brazil?” we ask her. She’s an aquaculture grad student who just did her fieldwork in St. John’s.

She considers. “Um . . . five hundred and thirteen,” she says. “We count from discovery.”

“What? Don’t you have a confederation or something?” I have to yell across the table because of the happy din in the meal car.

“Sure,” shouts Gisele, “but we don’t count it. That’s why I was shocked when I first heard that Canada was a hundred and forty-six years old! Canada is older than that!”

Both Nick and Gisele’s comments are reminders that what we will commemorate in 2017 isn’t 150 years of people living in what we now call Canada, or even 150 years of calling these lands Canada. It’s 150 years of a way of doing things that is always evolving. If Canadians counted from John Cabot’s arrival in 1497, we would be 520 years old already. If we count from the estimates of the First Nations’ oral histories, our age is anywhere from 13000 years old to simply incalculable.

A nation is an idea of ourselves. The ideals that we put into legislation with the British North America Act in 1867 were to “conduce to the Welfare of the Provinces and promote the Interests of the British Empire.” The language of our actual Constitutional Act, that gave us our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and our independence from the Queen’s authority, has only been on the books since 1982. If anything, our 150th is an opportunity to take stock, to think about what values have worked and what values we want to focus on.

What will we celebrate? It’s another way of asking, what do we like about ourselves? Who do we think we are? Are we plaid-wearing hipsters who swig microbrew in canoes at the cottage? Are we polite, unarmed baby boomers concerned with each other’s healthcare? Are we unapologetically business-minded bitumen frackers, potash purveyors and softwood lumberjacks?

As the train pulls into the station at Winnipeg, on the horizon the cold sun is rising over a building that looks like a massive metal turbine. It’s the as-yet-unopened Human Rights museum. The museum suddenly strikes me as a potent icon for the dilemmas we must confront over the next fifty years. So much money, energy and goodwill going toward celebrating human rights is clearly in line with Canadian values. The museum’s budget problems and its construction in the context of our nation’s current human rights record remind me of the challenge it can be to back up statements of values with action.

Nick, the eager poli-sci student, disembarks in Winnipeg. His Canada has always been post-Terry Fox, post- Trudeau and post-dialup internet. I’m heading on to Saskatoon, where I’ll meet up with the next group of civic leaders taking on the question of what we will celebrate four years from now. No doubt between now and the final conference in Ottawa I’ll have heard so many different perspectives and will have considered my own sense of what I value about being Canadian many times over. You can follow me as I wander, think and write between now and June 26th. It’s just the beginning of my journey.

 -Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic

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Canada 150/2017 Starts Now Conferences: A Feeling of Aspiration

 Posted on April 24, 2013 by Jackie Pichette

Jackie Pichette is a Research and Communications Officer with Simon Fraser University Public Square.  The CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW is a series of regional conferences taking place across the country developed to inform, inspire and spark spark local, regional and national conversations. Jackie attended the inaugural conference in Vancouver, BC, on Friday, April 5 and agreed to share her take on the event with us.

***

In four short years, Canada will celebrate its 150th birthday. To help mark this occasion, the Canada 150 Conference Series  is bringing citizens together in conversations across the country, asking: How and what do we want to celebrate in 2017?

Though they may seem like lighthearted questions, the answers have the potential to inspire significant change.

Canada has grown in many ways over the last 146 years. Railroads, highways and now technology have made our vast country an increasingly connected one. Canadian institutions have supported progress towards a just and healthy society. Our country’s ambassadors have contributed to international peace and progress, and our cities and towns have become places of new beginnings and hope for immigrants from around the world. Indeed, over the past 146 years, Canada has become a place to be proud of.

Unfortunately, some of our progress has been undermined. Over recent years we’ve seen an erosion of many Canadian social structures, our natural environment, and our sense of pride. This year, Canada lost its place among the top 10 countries on the Human Development Index, and our nation now emits more Greenhouse Gases per capita than almost any other. Although our dollar remains relatively strong, growing socio-economic inequality threatens the stability of our country’s social structures.

Our collective advances and setbacks, successes and failures, were top of mind among citizens at the Canada 150 Conference in Vancouver. In small discussion groups, we envisioned ourselves four years from today and considered what we’d like to be able to say.

The hope in the room was palpable. The ideas were inspiring. The dialogue was respectful and productive. In true Canadian style, folks at the Canada 150 Conference in Vancouver were interested to hear new approaches, and eager to solve the problems we face collaboratively. Ultimately, the feeling in the room was one of aspiration.

As the conferences move across the country, I am hopeful that more Canadians will join this conversation and resolve to pitch in to uphold and protect the future of our home and native land.

Let’s identify issues and get to work on solutions. Let’s use this time to ensure that, in 2017, we can celebrate the progress we’ve made since 2013.

To learn more about how you can participate in future events, visit  this website.

- Jackie Pichette,  Research and Communications Officer, Research and Communications Officer, SFU Public Square

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2017 Starts Now comes to Calgary

 Posted on April 18, 2013 by Sarah Carney

Calgary mayor, Naheed Nenshi, as well as 10 of Calgary’s most passionate, engaged and thoughtful figures from a diverse range of pursuits — including the arts, business, activism and academia — gathered for an inspiring day at the University of Calgary on Friday, April 12 for an exploratory discussion on how best to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017.

Click here to watch the video presentations from the Calgary event.

In the afternoon, participants from national associations, local groups, grassroots organizations and a volunteer Calgary-based planning committee called imagination 150 met to have a round-table discussion. As part of the conversation, delegates were asked a series of questions on how Canadians can celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation.

This event follows the inaugural conference that took place on April 5 in Vancouver at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel, where a dozen speakers presented an equally captivating array of topics and ideas about our country.

Sparking the conversation on local and national planning around Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation, the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conferences are organized by CBC/Radio-Canada, Community Foundations of Canada and VIA Rail Canada. Ideas and suggestions generated at the conferences will be compiled and presented at the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW summary event in Ottawa on June 27.

To watch the 2017 Starts Now conferences live in 12 cities across the county – or to watch archived videos of the speakers available following each event, visit www.2017startsnow.ca. Live tweet during the conferences and tell us what you think using the hashtag #Canada150. The next conference is Friday, April 26 in Toronto.

 - Sarah Carney, Project Manager for Canada 150/2017 Starts Now

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Les Rendez-vous de la Francophonie are back

 Posted on March 8, 2013 by Patricia Vincent

Once again this year, Radio-Canada is very pleased to be part of Les Rendez-vous de la Francophonie, to include events across the country starting on March 8. Joie de vivre is the theme this year, and festivities are tied into the Journée internationale de la Francophonie, held on March 20.

In Canada, close to 9.5 million people – mainly from Acadia, Quebec and Ontario, but also from the West and North – proudly celebrate the French language and ensure its vitality.

CBC/Radio-Canada is committed to helping French-speaking minorities outside Quebec achieve their full potential, while also supporting their development and fostering full recognition and use of French in Canadian society.

We therefore urge you to get in on this celebration of the French language and take part in the many events planned for your region. There’s something for everyone – musical performances, dictations, theatre, educational activities, film screenings, you name it!

Radio-Canada will participate in the following activities, among others:

Ottawa-Gatineau

  • Check out the show Est-ce qu’on parle drôle about colloquialisms used in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. Local comedians Julien Tremblay and Nadine Massie, together with French-language experts Jean Dumont and Carmen Leblanc, answer the question: Do our local expressions threaten the French language or do they help it evolve and stay vibrant? The program will air on Télévision de Radio-Canada Ottawa-Gatineau on Saturday, March 23 at 4:30 p.m., with a simulcast on the web.

Manitoba

  • Former students from Collège École Louis-Riel and Collège Jeanne-Sauvé share their views on the future of French in Manitoba. These young people attended the forum I speak French, pis toi?, held by Radio-Canada back in 2003. Through their personal accounts, we’ll learn about their experiences as French speakers 10 years later. The program will be webcast live on March 20 from 8 to 9 p.m., and air the next day on the local morning and drive-home shows, as well as Le téléjournal Manitoba.

Saskatchewan

  • The 25th annual Grande dictée, a Radio-Canada Saskatchewan initiative in tandem with the Service fransaskois de formation des adultes du Collège Mathieu, will air live on Première Chaîne at 6:30 p.m. on March 12.
  • On March 22, the drive-home radio show Jour de plaine will air live from the Fédération des francophones de Saskatoon gathering place, Le Relais, to celebrate its official opening after longstanding efforts to secure funding for renovations. An announcement will also be made during the show in regard to the Francothon, a fundraising event to be held on April 27, 2013.

British Columbia

Visit the Rendez-vous de la francophonie website, and find your own way to get out there and celebrate the French language in your region!

- Patricia Vincent, Executive director, Total rewards and wellness, Official languages co-champion

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CBC/Radio-Canada employees get set to go Google

 Posted on March 4, 2013 by Jacinthe Lacombe-Cliche

As CBC/Radio-Canada employees get set to go Google, Fred Mattocks gives us an inside look at what innovation means for the Corporation, its future and its services to Canadians.

Fred Mattocks is chair of CBC/Radio-Canada’s Technology Strategy Board and General Manager, Media Operations and Technology, for English Services. In Fred’s view, innovation should be for every CBCer to own, develop and share. Read his answers to our questions to learn more about his vision for a culture of innovation.

—–
Question:
Innovation means creativity, novelty, originality, inventiveness, discovery, and doing things that have never been done before. What’s your definition of innovation and how does it apply to CBC/Radio-Canada?
Answer:
Let’s start by saying that creativity is a state, while innovation is an act. In the context of CBC/Radio-Canada, innovation, applied to concrete situations, improves our ability to implement strategies, do our work, and serve Canadians.
—–
Question:
Innovation also means change, facing the unknown, adaptation, risks, mistakes, and turmoil. Why go that route, then? Isn’t it better to maintain the status quo, especially at such a challenging time for the Corporation?
Answer: 
Change isn’t optional. Our environment and business are changing, so we have to evolve and develop with them. Discomfort with change often comes when change is managed badly or when it doesn’t contribute to the success of the organization and its employees.
It’s also very human to feel uncomfortable with change, so we have to be careful about how we implement it. The challenge is to create energy and excitement around the idea of innovation.
For me, there are two types of innovation: big-i and small-i innovation. With big-i innovation, we find people who are superb innovators. This kind of innovation is very visible. Steve Jobs comes to mind as an example of a big-i innovator. The problem is that these people are fairly rare, and the kind of innovation they bring is so extensive that it requires massive change in very short order.
On the other hand, every employee can own small-i innovation. CBC/Radio-Canada is an incredibly rich organization, full of creative, smart, talented and committed people who all have the ability to innovate.
We need to create an environment where CBCers have permission to innovate, while equipping them with the tools and support to do so. And it’s becoming much easier to provide this support as we adopt new technologies that connect employees to one other.
CBC/Radio-Canada isn’t a company where day-to-day success relies on huge, groundbreaking changes. That said, we do need to keep up with Canadians and the marketplace. Our kind of innovation is much more embedded in everyday life.
In a perfect world, all CBC/Radio-Canada employees would see themselves as innovators, even if just in their own job, always asking: “Is there something I can do better or differently? Is there something else I’m not doing now that would help my group, my team, or my department?”
—–
Question:
Why is CBC/Radio-Canada’s move to Google and Rogers something worth talking about?
Answer:
The move to Rogers is about saving money and we should always be excited about that. The shift to Google is also about saving money, but there’s much more to the story.
Google is an ecosystem that allows people to collaborate with and connect to one other. Google tools are designed to be simple and accessible so that people without extensive training or preparation can access them in a straightforward way. I believe that if we embrace the Google ecosystem, it will have a transformative effect on the organization. Some things that have always been possible, but weren’t easy, will become second nature – such as talking to people you don’t normally talk to and connecting around topics more spontaneously.
Having a set of easy-to-use tools allows you to stretch outside your comfort zone. There’s nothing getting in the way of the idea, the creative impulse, or the desire to interact. Geography is no longer a barrier.
The potential that goes with innovation is meaningless if people don’t seize it. The great thing we’re seeing with the Google early adopters – the first 1,000 CBCers who volunteered to test out Gmail – is that they’re excited about what they can do.
The Rogers deal ties in with the Google system. Because we’re switching all of our mobile phones, we have the opportunity to select our handsets. Many people are on the Android platform, which is part of the Google ecosphere. With Rogers, we’ll have devices that easily connect to that ecosphere.
The big question is: How far can we go with this?
—–
Question:
Google already works for Celestica, Cossette Communication and the City of Edmonton. Why was Google also a good match for CBC/Radio-Canada?
Answer:
Google was selected based on a very complicated formula. We held a competition and Google won.
Google is a company whose products stress ease of use. There are over 500 million users out there who didn’t have to go to school to use Google and don’t have a support department when something goes wrong.
CBC/Radio-Canada is a creative company, focused on media products. We don’t want to spend our days wrestling with technology. With Google, we avoid the complicated features that only one to five per cent of the population might need. This keeps the system simple, low-cost and user-friendly.
—–
Question:
We hear that going Google is just the beginning. What’s next? What are our needs in terms of collaborative tools?
Answer:

Technology is becoming more and more pervasive. A few years ago, access to content was restricted. Content that used to reside on tape now resides on servers, which any employee can access. The other main change lies in production tools. Technology is making them increasingly simple to use, but they’re every bit as powerful as their more complicated counterparts. We’re on the verge of changing the journalistic tools we use to produce TV news across the country. We’re migrating from a variety of products to AVID Interplay Central – a tool of Google-like simplicity. As we move forward, ever-greater capability to produce and deliver on our m

- Jacinthe Lacombe-Cliche, Senior Writer, Corporate Communications, CBC/Radio-Canada

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Food for Thought: A Lunch with Lang

 Posted on March 2, 2013 by Monica Mei Chiu

Tweet, tweet! Last week, I was thrilled when CBC mentioned my @aimeluxury Twitter handle to be a guest blogger and share my experience at the Women of Influence Luncheon with Amanda Lang. As the designer and owner of Aime, a contemporary womenswear brand, I not only love dressing smart women, I love being in a room full of them. They not only inspire me for my future collections, but the exchange of ideas and energy at events for women by women is invigorating! I previously attended the Top 25 Women of Influence Awards, so I knew I was in for a treat with today’s aptly named luncheon for some food for thought fed by one of “Toronto’s 50 Most Influential People”.

Amanda LangOnce Amanda Lang took to the stage, she immediately charmed the sold-out room full of women (and a sprinkling of men) eager to eat up all of her witty words of wisdom. She served us an amuse-bouche of her new book “The Power of Why”. She had a meaty message behind the simplicity of asking “Why?” peppered with anecdotes that inspire. She challenged us to be like our once curious-child-selves and overcome the self-imposed fear of sounding ignorant as it achieves the opposite effect – the awareness and understanding needed in order to innovate. She reported on the unfortunate fact that Canada is a laggard in innovation due to the unproductive pool of talent. She encouraged us to have careers in industries that we’re passionate about so that it would excite us to be engaged, creative problem-solvers and to dream big. I personally cannot agree more and am in constant idea-generation mode of how to improve my product to make women feel beautiful. She says that our style of thinking must be fashioned, as the way you think is who you are. She implored the influential audience to allow their team to share their ideas freely and to encourage the asking of why so that Canada can be an innovation nation. By the end, my mind and belly was full from the lunch with Lang with plenty of lessons leftover to takeaway.

- Monica Mei, designer and owner of Aime and CYBF young entrepreneur

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Curiosity leads to innovation

 Posted on February 28, 2013 by Sarah Lue

In addition to being the senior business correspondent for CBC News and co-anchor of The Lang & O’Leary Exchange, Amanda Lang is also the author of The Power of Why, by HarperCollins Publishers. Since being released in October, The Power of Why has been challenging the way that Canadians view and engage with the world around them. Make no mistake – this is not your typical business book. Rather, it’s a collection of conversations, questions, case studies and personal anecdotes that inspire Canadians to reignite their curiosity and passion for learning. Earlier this week, we managed to speak with Amanda about her book, innovation and her passion for learning.

It seems that Canadians just aren’t as engaged as they should be at work. This is actually a very serious problem in Canada, where productivity has been on the decline for decades. Amanda reveals in The Power of Why, the answer to this pressing economic issue is innovation. Innovation is fueled by curiosity, which in turn powers productivity.

So, what qualities do you need to become innovative? “The two key elements that you need are engagement and curiosity…When you feel connected to what you‘re doing, it’s almost a natural impulse to want to change and improve.” Asking questions can often lead to discovering solutions to problems (some of which we may not have even realized were problems) and finding better ways of doing things. This is all at the heart of innovation.

When discussing Canadians and innovation, it’s almost impossible not to bring up Dragons’ Den. When asked about the impact that Dragons’ Den has had on Canadians, Amanda credits the show with helping to break down stereotypes that envisioned entrepreneurs as being heartless and driven exclusively by profits. “Dragons’ Den has really had a profound effect on Canadians. It has really humanized businesses and business people…and helped us realize that entrepreneurs are a lot like us. “Many are driven to find solutions to everyday problems that Canadians face and it all stems from their curiosity.

For Amanda, the opportunity to learn something new every day is invaluable and this is exactly what she gets to do here at CBC/Radio-Canada. Community events are another way that Amanda broadens her knowledge. When deciding on which events to attend, Amanda tries to select ones that have a special significance to her or will allow her to interact with a group that could benefit from learning more about the power of why.

Amanda Lang will be the guest speaker at an event hosted by Women of Influence on Friday, March 1 in Toronto. We’ll be sharing pictures from the event on Twitter and Facebook.

Below is a video on showcasing what some of Canada’s most successful had to say about Amanda Lang and The Power of Why.


 

- Sarah Lue, Blog host

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