Union Negotiations - It's the entertainment value!

Today,  the CS-Group of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada posted Contract Negotiations Update #16. We have been without a contract for 11 months (a pittance really, in the grand scheme of things).

Many issues are on the block - Contracting Out, Severance Pay, IT Service Consolidation to Shared Services Canada, Training, and of course, Pay. Don't be fooled. It is ALWAYS about the pay. No matter what they tell you, it is ALWAYS about the pay. Union members will sell each other's souls for the right pay raise. I've seen it happen. I'll see it happen again.

It's ALWAYS about the pay.

The Bulletin is publicly available.

But, in fun and for the amusement of my PIPSC Union Brothers and Sisters (and I can hardly contain the chuckles as I write that), I have prepared a redux of sorts, of the bulletin contents.

My friends, I give you Bargaining Update 16 - A trip through the ages...

	How they think this sounds...	How it plays in Musgravetown...
Treasury Board:	Hark! What for doth though labour, and in turn, desire recompense?	Now Byes – was you fellers tinks you gets paid for anyway?
CS Bargaining Team:	Do not place trial on our temper, cozening villains! Retrieve the elder scrolls from conclaves of past fortnights! There remain a decimal by thrice of charges and countenance – What say you?!	Don’t temp me Townie! Go get me dem books from dat last Bingo game! Be quick afore I knocks you upside da head! Dere’s tirty odd tings you ain’t said nuttin’ bout yet!
TB:	We grow weary of your deadening oration. What of our contrary proffer?	Stop barkin’ your lies bye, you’re givin’ me a migraine! You ain’t heard a ting we said anyways!
CSBT:	From this day forth, there shall not be usurpation of coined tasks. This land cannot abide the trespasses of interlopers!	Dose buggers from Fortune better get gone! Dems our jobs ere, buddy!
TB:	We entertain no congress that would have you stripped of profit. Must we sully parchment with such distrust?	Gwan my son – s’pose a fella’s word no good no more, Wha?
CSBT:	And what of those travellers from untold lands? We would count them as ourselves – will their conflict spoils be honoured? Forsooth! Nay will earth be ceded to mute scurrilous cries!	Now, we got buddies comin from Hermitage, down da Bay, see. You gonna treat dem same as us? Cause we ain’t givin’ up nutting to nobody by da Lard Tunderin’!
TB:	Fortune has forsaken our meagre terra firma! You must not tax our tender!	Da Arse is out of ‘er! You can’t squeeze codfish from a turnip!
CSBT:	Our requitement will only be known at the hour of our luxury –delivered naught in vindicant atonement to your pleasure’s demand! We shall reconvene in 6 weeks hence – by the Fates!	We’ll tell ya what we wants, and when we wants it – and not a minute before! Be at the Ballfield – 3:30 – after school – Dere’s gonna be some bloody racket buddy! Oh My Son – Lookout!!!

I may have abandoned some of the details, but I think mine has a better ring to it.

What do you think?

The Quiet of Dawn - Solitude

Here in Nova Scotia, there is a small fishing village just outside of Halifax. Its quaintness is in stark contrast to its fame. It is often advertised as the most photographed location on Earth. It is of course, Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Now, having grown up in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada (I grew up on the large island portion of the province just across the Gulf of St. Lawrence from Nova Scotia), Peggy's Cove is a familiar site for me. Newfoundland and Labrador has a 400+ year history of hardy settlers clinging to the rocks that form the Newfoundland shore, eeking a living, harvesting food from the unforgiving North Atlantic Ocean. Fishing has been a way of life in Newfoundland ever since 1497, when Giovanni Caboti (John Cabot) nearly "ran aground" upon the abundant codfish that was plentiful enough to feed the British Empire until "the end of time".

Peggy's Cove, like so many other fishing villages in Atlantic Canada, has had a long history of success and failure. And like all other fishing villages, has seen more than its fair share of tragedy. The tragic loss of SwissAir flight 111 in October of 1998 off the coast of Peggy's Cove was handled with an immense amount of reverance and efficiency by the residents of the area. Not only because they understand loss, but also because they had seen it so often that the residents have almost a defacto standard operating procedure that takes over in these circumstances. A loss of life at sea is the same whether the victim fell from the sky or fell overboard. The scale was larger of course, but the impact had been experienced so often by the communities along this shore, they were immediately able to provide the appropriate atmosphere for the recovery to begin, and for the visiting families to grieve.

Of course Peggy's Cove, and the iconic lighthouse that stands on the rocky point at that sea / land boundary, is most famous because it is a beautiful landscape in a poetic setting, and within a 30 minute drive from Nova Scotia's capitol city. Its accessibility has as much to do with its fame as does its terrain and history.

The typical tourism photos of Peggy's Cove show a Lighthouse standing in solitude against a sometimes violent sea with wide, big blue sky painting the background. Absolutely stunning. Truly.

However, the reality of a trip to Peggy's Cove is anything but solitary. In summer, throngs of tourists crowd the rocks in all directions from the lighthouse. Tour buses take over the parking lot which itself is already full of vehicles from every imaginable corner of North America, at least to judge by the license plates. Each person looking to glimpse that lonely lighthouse staring bravely into the crashing waves as it protects vessels from the rocks and outcrops that lurk beneath the water. Those looking to capture a unique view of the Peggy's Cove or the lighthouse may find themselves requiring more patience than anything as they try to sneek in photos between swarms of migrating tourists.

But in February of this year, early one very cold Saturday morning, I drove out to Peggy's Cove at around 5:00 AM. It was cold. very cold. Snow on the rocks, ice in the parking lot. But my vehicle was the only one there. I got out of the car, took my camera and tripod, and wandered out to the rock lip just between the lighthouse and the sea.

I waited. The cold was biting. I did dress warmly, but the cold was invasive nontheless. Shaking it away I watched the dark blue sky turn lighter, and then the reds and fire-breathing orange of the sunrise began to consume the sky.

Though I had my camera setup, I turned it off. I wanted to enjoy this moment. My first and only moment at this ocean playground by myself. This sunrise was for me. And I had no intention of sharing it with anyone. It was mine. Greedy as that may be, I make no apology. I was lost in a moment in time with no beginning and no end. Did it last 15 minutes? Did I stay there for 2 hours? I really have no idea. I waited until the colours of the sky transited to the more neutral powder blue of a cold Nova Scotia winter day. Made all the colder by the intense wind chill experienced at Peggy's Cove. At that point I packed up my camera, returned to my car, and headed home.

For the first time since I arrived in Nova Scotia nearly 10 years ago, I enjoyed my own solitary sunrise, and I rode the winds of that morning. I had found my quiet of dawn, and I can relive it at nearly any moment I choose by simply closing my eyes. I finally see the magic of Peggy's Cove.




It should be noted: Tourists I have witnessed rarely give the ocean the level of respect it deserves. Get too close, it will turn on you. Most underestimate what too close is. Some have paid for that mistake with their lives.

Music and Photography - The Places I Like to Hide

I love music. More than simply a background cacophony of contemporary compositions, for me music is a blanket in which I wrap my soul. If I am denied for too long, I truly do become uncentred. I lose a compass that has guided me from an awkward, socially isolated teenager to a personally strong and confident adult.

As a musician, I have found a way to express my deepest fears and most hopeful wishes. Express them widely in the open for any and all to hear, while keeping the context of those dreams and nightmares locked in private thought.

Photography is another manner of expression of vision and thoughts. Through my lens, I see a world that sometimes escapes my ever wandering eye. By isolating my sight to the tunnel vision of my lens, I can see an image that, in a physical sense, is nothing more than the interception of light patterns as reflected by an object. But for the eye it is a canvas that captures every stroke of light painted, every laugh expelled, every tear shed, and every emotion expressed. Indeed, sometimes it is through the lens that I gain a larger view of what surrounds me.

These are the places where my mind lives. These are the places in which I hide. They are not physical, but they do provide my mind's shelter. The doorway I run through in the night...