Qatar: The world’s go-to mediator

Qatar is at the centre of efforts to mediate the Hamas-Israel conflict. How does a country of less than 3 million people, Qatar, become the worlds’ go-to mediator? This week’s Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Rear Vision podcast provides an explainer, and then some: Qatar has become the world’s go-to mediator, but what’s in it for them? […]

Conflict in my neighbourhood and on the high seas

This picture below is from a feature article in (UK’s) The Guardian last July. This is where I live. The breakwater walkway on the left side of the picture is a 10 minute walk from my James Bay neighbourhood residence in Victoria.  Across the waters rise up the Olympic Mountains. A beautiful landscape, except… The […]

Getting to Yes

Anniversaries abound this week. Today is July 4. In the “United States of America” it’s their Independence Day. July 1 was my country’s national anniversary, at least from the settler perspective. More personal for me is that today is my wedding anniversary. And, my partner and I are still together after 35 years! No matter […]

Committee of Care – a collective response

Not long ago an old collaborator friend contacted me. He wanted my assistance. He really is an “old” friend, being far along his life journey, in his 8th decade. Life had suddenly taken an especially rough turn for him. He knew I was now engaged in seniors advocacy work. I was able to provide him […]

10 things I’ve learned from facilitating family caregiver support groups

For the past 8 years, once a month, sometimes twice per month, I’ve been facilitating support groups for the Family Caregivers of BC . For the first 4 years those groups were co-ed groups. For the past 4,  I’ve been facilitating a men-only group.  Since the start of the pandemic the men’s group has been virtual, […]

Reflections on virtual co-facilitation of MERIT workshops in Mongolia

I was suppose to spend the month of March this year on assignment in Mongolia, with the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO), as part of the MERIT (Mongolia: Enhancing Resource Management through Institutional Transformation) project. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, it never happened. Fortunately, though, the assignment turned into a virtual one, getting done in June and […]

Data tells the stories that we just can’t see

For the last ten months, I’ve been coordinating, on a part-time basis, a program that provides advocacy services, for seniors. I also do a bit of the advocacy work, myself. The program operates out of a vibrant local community centre and serves seniors in five municipalities, including Victoria and Saanich. (Aside – as a veteran mediator, […]

Perspectives on Refugees

Listening to this weekend’s Sunday Edition show on CBC radio, I heard the host, Michael Enright interview Brian Bilston, the “Bansky of poetry”. One of Bilston’s best known poems in ‘Refugees’, in which he uses an unusual literary device, one in which the poem can either be read front to back, as is usual, or […]

Political Conflict Walking Tour in Belfast

I’ve been thinking of tribalism a fair bit lately, given ongoing public conversations among my American neighbours. It reminds me of another tribal conflict that I recently visited. Last month, I had the good fortune of travelling in Ireland. I’d never been to Ireland, before. My wife’s ancestry stems from there. Over the years, I’ve […]

Emotional Labour

Ever had to smile at work, even when you didn’t want to? Or, show empathy and warmth to someone you’re caring for, when you are at your wits’ end? Or, stayed silent when what you really wanted to do was speak up? I got my hand raised. All of these workplace actions involved ‘emotional labour’. […]