Sometimes, you come across opposing politicians exhibiting civil constructive dialogue and you go, wow – I didn’t know that was possible. From a recent exchange in Canada’s parliament, involving members Charlie Angus and Sean Fraser (Minister of Housing), on the topic of funding for homeless: Now, if we could get the same level of civil […]
The Trust Menu: A constructive response to broken trust and damaged relationships
May 17, 2024 by · Leave a Comment
Qatar: The world’s go-to mediator
March 11, 2024 by · Leave a Comment
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
October 17, 2022 by · Leave a Comment
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 […]
Reflections on virtual co-facilitation of MERIT workshops in Mongolia
August 3, 2020 by · 2 Comments
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 […]
Perspectives on Refugees
October 20, 2019 by · Leave a Comment
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 […]
