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34.12 Renewing Contacts with Coal Miners' Union, Summer, 1992







34.13 Yellowknife Mine Strike and Deadly Bombing, Sept. 1992 (1 of 2)

After a strike vote, the executive of Local __ of the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers (CASAW) announced a strike in response to the issues of In May, 1992, the day before the strike was scheduled to begin, employers at Royal Oak Mines locked out the miners. 237 members of CASAW picketed the gates throughout the summer of 1992. Anxiety and divisiveness escalated when management brought in "replacement workers". These were novice minors which of course the strikers called scabs. They were inexperienced and engendered unsafe working conditions. Months of tension marked by violence followed as strikers clashed with security officers and replacement workers.

The divisiveness spread to Yellowknife's larger community of 15,000. Later in the summer there were many threats made and several incidents of violence.

On 18 September, 1992, nine scab workers were killed in an underground explosion. People felt the blast kilometres away from the mine. Investigation revealed that it had been caused intentionally by a bomb.

The N.W.T. Supreme Court awarded $10.7 million in damages to the widows of nine men killed by a bomb during a labour dispute at Yellowknife's Giant Mine, blaming the mining company and the union almost as much as the man who laid the explosives. The bomb was apparently set in the mine shaft to scare workers from crossing the picket lines. Striking miner Roger Warren was convicted on counts of second-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. He confessed to the crime but later recanted. The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted is looking into his case.

The strike finally ended 16 November, 1993.







34.14 My Art of the Period





      Works of art are of an infinite solitariness,
      
and nothing is less likely to bring us near to
      
them than criticism. Only love can appprehend
      
and hold them, and can be just towards them.
      
                         Rainer Maria Rilke

Paintings

    

This painting was inspired by the St. Andrews, Blanagask, 
    and Aberdeen golf courses (respectively) in Scotland.
    








      


    


This painting was inspired by ruined churches in Scotland.
    




This watercolour was inspried by Dunnottar Castle in North-Eastern Scotland.




This painting was inspried by the Polish flag.

The Feminine in Nature

eARTh Exhibit

Coinciding with my working on "Towards An Ecozoic Curriculum", I was putting
together an exhibit full of my environmental art. This was entitled "eARTh".

Along with this exhibit, I also included images taken from space --which I found to be very beautiful. Below are two images as examples. On the left a conventional map of the Ganges River delta (Bangladesh), and on the right a Landsat satellite photo image of the same area. Below is an enlargement of the latter, showing the beauty of the details. These and other Landsat images can be seen by clicking on the image.




Another example is shown below. This one is based on a map of the geological structure of a borderland region of Eastern Wales (King Arthur country).






34.13 Phrase Animee Finally in Schools (7 of 8)

My software project, "Phrase Animee" was finally approved by the Ministry of Education for distribution to schools after a process of eight years. See chapters 28 through 33. In the OESS and TVOntario catalogs the software was described as follows:

    Phrase Animee



    • Computer: G.E.M.S. ICON system
    • Author: David Fletcher
    • Subject Area: French as a second language; French Immersion
    • Grade Level: Primary and Junior Division
    Phrase Animee is a program that helps students increase their French vocabulary and create simple French sentences in an interactive way. Using pictures and animation to graphically illustrate the meaning of each noun and verb in its dictionary of over 200 words, students can learn at their own pace, according to their skills, abilities, and imagination.

    Phrase Animee is divided into three main parts. The first four activities present an introduction to the nouns in the program. The next three allow the student to create simple noun-verb-noun sentences and see them animated by the computer. The last four activities test the students by presenting them with an animated sequence and then challenging them to construct or choose a sentence to describe the animation.

    Phrase Animee has two modes: guided, where the computer automatically controls the student's progress according to pre-set progression and regression thresholds; and student choice mode, where the student controls their own progress. Students can access Phrase Animee from Task Space, OESS, or Personal Space.

    Teacher options allow the teacher to set the vocabulary for 25, 50, 100, or 200 words, set the game parts to be played, and set the progression and regression thresholds. Student results and progress through the various levels of the program are saved. Comprehensive information including the activities played, date, time, word or sentence and number of correct / incorrect responses, is saved to help teachers diagnose individual needs.







34.14 Application to OISE Doctoral Programme

Application to OISE Doctoral Programme

Acceptance into the doctoral programme was dependent on three things. First, I had to have an excellent academic record. Secondly, I had to be recommended (sponsored) by an OISE professor. This was usually the professor who would become one's supervisor. In my case, this was Edmund Sullivan. He sponsored my application. Thirdly, I had to write a proposal.

My Ed.D. Proposal

Leonard Scholarship Re-newed

My Leonard scholarship was dependent on two things. First, I had to do well academically each year. My doing well in my FEUT courses and earning the B.Ed satisfied this academic requirement. Secondly, I had to be recommended by a member of the board, and then approved by the board of directors following a personal interview. Keeping food relations with one member of the board, and the personal interview before the whole board, became an on-going aspect of my university experience. At this time, they were pleased that I was going into the teaching profession more seriously by starting a doctoral degree program in Education.



34.15 Politics and Society During This Period

Westray Mine Disaster, 1992

On 9 May, 1992, Nova Scotia's Westray coal mine collapsed killing 26 miners.



34.16 Culture, Books, Films, TV During This Period

Books Read

Amongst the books that I read during the period, the ones that in hindsight had a lasting impact on me were as follows:
  • "Slow Flows the Don" by M. Sholokhov --a novel about Cossacks during post revolutionary civil war of 1920th in Russia. Cossacks were known as most loyal population to Czar and monarchy. The book reveals their customs, habits, and beliefs.

Films Viewed

Amongst the films that I saw during the period, the ones that in hindsight had a lasting impact on me were as follows:
  • "Thelma and Louise" (1991)

TV Viewed

Amongst the television programmes that I saw during the period, the ones that in hindsight had a lasting impact on me were as follows:
  • "Seinfeld",
  • "",

"Seinfeld" (3 of 8)

"Seinfeld" deserves special attention because of its significant impact on my life, my teaching, and on society itself.

Internet

This was the year that the internet really took off as the world wide web brought together millions of computer users.

Other Social / Cultural Influences

Amongst the television programmes that I saw during the period, the ones that in hindsight had a lasting impact on me were as follows:
  • "Caravan"



34.18 Summary, Conclusions,
Connections, Goals,
Omissions, and Regrets

34.18.1 Introduction

34.18.2 Summary

34.18.3 Conclusions

34.18.4 Connections

34.18.5 Goals

Any consideration of specific goals, should be seen in the light of my mission statements.

34.18.6 Omissions and Regrets

The bulk of this chronicle concerns things planned, experienced, written, won, acquired, painted, accomplished, etc. This section concerns those which were only desired, thought of, considered, not completed, lost, and perhaps regretted.


34.17 Health: Nasal Polyp

34.17.1 Introduction

34.17.2 Nasal Polypectomy, August, 1992

The period ended in August, 1992, with the best and the worst. The best was that Joanna and I had had a great time in the United Kingdom and I was returning to Toronto to start (the next week) my first well-paid, stable, permanent job. (see teaching with TDSB at TSS in the next chapter). The worst was that the reason I was returning a week before starting school, rather than the day before, was that I was scheduled for a polypectomy. This was done by Dr. El Masri at East General Hospital under full anaesthetic. One of the uncomfortable aspects was that it was scheduled for that day, but because of some emergency I was bumped. I had to wait for ten hours on a guerney in a cold hallway. By the time I went into surgery I was exhausted. After that I don't remember anything. I woke up with a pain in my nose and that was about it. I still had bandages on when I started teaching at TSS.






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1992 to 1994

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