Shame on UN for Censoring Gun Sculpture.

I am most amazed that the United Nations, of all the institutions in the world, would succumb to pressure to censor art about the “Art of Peacemaking: the Gun Sculpture” by Edmonton artists Sandra Bromley and Wallis Kendal.  It is even more ironic when you consider the nature of the UN event in Vienna where the Gun Sculpture was displayed.  The UN Academic Council was meeting on "New Security Challenges" and
having speakers on the UN and the Media. (sic).

Sheila Pratt of the Edmonton Journal broke the story on the front page yesterday.  Congratulations to the Edmonton Journal for giving this important but not conventional story such prominent display.  Others have picked it up including the Montreal Gazette and the CBC, amongst others, with more interest being shown all the time.
I am very attached to this piece of art and have helped promote it in my own way for the past few years. I have helped bring it out of storage and brought it back from Europe for a display at The Works festival in Edmonton a few years ago. I am mostly interested in finding a permanent home for it...even considered the UN headquarters in New York, but with this development by the UN – you have to think twice.

The Gun Sculpture is one of the best examples I know of art doing its job. In no small part this piece tells us something about the human condition, ourselves and provokes strong reflecting reactions. By doing so, it becomes effectively controversial in a number of ways...all of them positive from my point of view.

The Chinese delegation at the Vienna International Centre was offended because a couple of the Gun Sculpture related photographs showed Tibetan victims, but did not reference any direct Chinese involvement with the victims. The Chinese delegation to the UN event objected to officials and insisted the Gun Sculpture be removed. The fact that the UN partially capitulated to such political pressure and removed the photographs of victims that forms an integral part of the exhibit is absolutely alarming. It makes you wonder what they were thinking especially since China was not singled out and this artwork has been displayed all over the world without similar incident.

The message of the Gun Sculpture is critically important.  It is in the form of a prison cell and made up of 7000 thousand of decommissioned weapons from handguns, to AK- 47s, to ammunition and landmines.  It challenges “accepted ways of thinking” about violence and “acts as a catalyst that makes (people) respond to the suffering” these small arms weapons cause for so many people in the world.

We need more artists like Bromley and Kendal and artwork like the Gun Sculpture to provoke our thinking and to make us reflect on our values, beliefs, perceptions and attitudes. I hope the artists get a formal apology from the officials at the UN, including those who made this decision to censor the Gun Sculpture.

Free speech is not free and if we are not aggressive in using it and vigilant in protecting it – we will lose it. The UN censoring of the Gun Sculpture is a shameful example of the erosion of free speech.

I hope this story has legs and others start to help to ensure this story travels around the world.  We need to get the Gun Sculpture message out and deplore the kind of violence and suffering these weapons are causing in so many places, in so many ways to so many people. 

We also need to get the message out about the place of art in illuminating this kind of core message about violence, suffering and aggression in the world. You would expect more support from the United Nations for endorsing that kind of core message and more respect for art as a way to communicate it, at least one would like to think so!  This shameful example of capitulation and censorship is not the kind of action we would or should accept from the United Nations.  They need to be more accountable and thoughtful about their role and responsibility on these core issues too.

Please forward this blog post around.  Share it with as many people as you can who care about free speech, the role of art in our society and who decry institutionalized censorship.

Alberta Needs to Design a New Future for Itself

Nice to see the op-ed in yesterday's Edmonton Journal written by economist Todd Hirsch.  Todd is turning into a first rate public intellectual with his op-ed writing.  Now he and Rob Roach of the Canada West Foundation are planning a new book on the creative economy entitled Re-writing the Code: Changing Canada's Economic DNA.  I am looking forward to it.


With all the changes happening in the world it is imperative for Canada - and Alberta especially - to shift from a virtually sole focus on a resource extraction economy into a more  right-brained economy and society.  The Dave Hancock Inspiring Education initiative as Minister of Education has been a step in the right direction.  The new Literacy Policy and framework for Alberta is now established and needs life breathed into it as a key part of this shift in consciousness.

I have been involved with others in a new initiative that addresses this overarching concern about the future of Alberta in a series of public dialogues entitled Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta.  I encourage you to visit the site and see what we are up to in this effort to influence the future direction of Alberta.

The Premier's Council for Economic Strategy has a discussion paper out that starts to reshape the thinking around Alberta's future too. The Council is focused on six key questions:

1. What must Alberta do to earn a global reputation as a responsible energy producer and natural resource steward?
2. How can we ensure the Alberta of the future has a robust, stable economy and fiscal position?
3. What steps can Alberta take to create new wealth through knowledge and innovation?
4. How do we ensure we have the healthy skilled and engaged citizens needed to drive innovation and sustain prosperity?
5. How do we ensure Alberta's urban and rural communities are vibrant, supportive and inclusive?
6. How can we engage more strategically with the rest of Canada and the world?

All of these question integrate into each other - which is a good thing,  We need a robust and vibrant discussion amongst Albertans on each and every one of them.  There is a place to share your thoughts on these and other concerns with the Premier's Council here.  I strongly recommend you engage and exert some influence on the future of Alberta in this way.  I will be engaging on these questions over the next weeks through this blog and my public speaking opportunities.

Congratulations James Rajotte MP On Your Stand for the Long-form Census

Here is why I like James Rajotte and think he is one of the quality Conservative MPs we have, and for my money, the best Conservative MP in Alberta. He will pay a price for this breaking ranks from the Prime Minister's Office position on the long form census.  But isn't that what representative democracy is supposed to be all about?

Isn't good public policy supposed to emerge from a robust and informed public discussion of the issues by Canadians?  Are we not supposed to be able to assume we can then depend on a public policy decision to be taken that is based on evidence and the applied practical wisdom from those to whom we grant our consent to govern us.  Anyone in Canada seen that happen much lately, especially since Harper has been in power?

The scary top down command and control unilateral politically motivated decision making by Prime Minister Harper is wrong, reckless and abusive - especially to his Cabinet and Caucus.  It is no good governance and no way to run a country, especially one like Canada.  There are stronger words that get used in private by many Canadians when reflecting on the political style of Mr. Harper, including fascist.  I think that is a little strong but one starts to wonder the more we see how he actually operates and behaves with the levers of power.

Harper's position on the census means we institutionalize ignorance about much of what we need to know about who we are as a people in this country.  Such institutionalized ignorance and refusal to allow Canadians to become informed leaves Harper the political room to ignore facts and impose even more of his own beliefs on the country.  He could then be more reckless and abusive with his political power, and do so with even great impunity from his duty to serve the greater public interest instead of his own personal political aspirations.

We need an election in this country sooner than later. We need to make some real changes as citizens and voters in how we want our democracy to work in our interests and not just for the interests that serve the Prime Minister's agenda.

When and What Will the Next Alberta Election Be About?

I get a strange feeling the Stelmach government is easing into the election prep stage known as The Red Zone. That is where not much happens in governance because they don’t want to make political mistakes. With the rise of the “pungent and pink” Wildrose the current government, if not in the Red Zone, it is definitely concerned about the Wildrose “pink zone” of election readiness.


I don’t think we will have a snap election in Alberta but I would not count on Stelmach waiting until March 2012 as stated earlier. Alberta is mindful of many external forces influencing its election timing. For example there is potential for a federal election late this fall or next spring. It may happen over the next budget or, depending if Harper thinks he can get a majority, he will engineer his own defeat. The midterm US elections will be watched carefully by the Stelmach government for policy trends that impact energy policy and oil sands development.

Then there are domestic concerns about election timing. The Stelmach government had an approval rating of 12% in a recent survey of Albertans. The economy is apparently recovering but is it due to the billions of provincial and federal government stimulus money or is it authentic economic growth at play? Are we into a slow and steady economic turn around or a double dip recession? Too early to tell yet and economist are pointing in every direction, as usual.

Then we have the volatility of politics to consider too. There is change in the air in Alberta these days. And what form that will take is still unclear. Albertan’s self –image from environmental pressures and negative PR is eating away at our pride of place, our self-confidence and our self-esteem. Albertans are clear that oil sands are critically important to our future prosperity. But they are now questioning themselves and their government about how well this resource is being developed and managed.

The lack of faith in the leadership in any of the current political parties is another measure of volatility. We recently asked a random sample of over 1000 Albertans which political leader they trusted most to manage the growth in the Alberta economy. The results brought a sharp focus on the general disaffection Albertans have with the current crop of political leaders. Only 4% picked the NDP’s Brian Mason. Some 9% trusted Liberal leader David Swann. As for The Wildrose and Danielle Smith only 19% would put their management trust in her. Premier Ed Stelmach of the PCs garnered a scant 23% who said they trusted him the most to manage Alberta’s growth. Here is the kicker – 45% of us said we mostly trusted none of them to manage the growth of the Alberta economy. That survey outcome speaks to potential for serious political change but begs the question – change to what alternative?

Now add in the right-wing conservative political culture war that is raging in Alberta between Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Alliance Party. With Ted Morton’s move to Minister of Finance and Enterprise he is doing the next budget for the spring of 2011. We can expect his ideological fingerprints will to be all over the economic and fiscal policy direction of Alberta by next year. Kevin Libin has a very insightful and telling column in a recent edition of the National Post on the Morton factor in Alberta politics and policy directions. I recommend you read it.

If Kevin is right in his observations about Minister Morton, and my comments he quotes about Minister Morton from 2006 are still valid (and Morton himself says they are) then we have another fly-in-the-ointment political dynamic that will influence the election timing.

What if the PCs become less progressive and more Morton-like conservative between now and the next election? What if the defacto election battle on the right is between the Sorcerer Morton and Smith, his former Apprentice from the Calgary School? Where does that leave Stelmach? Where do progressives go given the current anemic political alternatives they are being offered? What does the next Alberta look like if only the radical right and reactionary left show up to vote?

We need a viable progressive political alternative in Alberta. The current situation is untenable for any thoughtful Albertan who sees a positive balanced role for responsible, accountable, open and honest government. Reboot Alberta is not a political party but it is a way to influence and shape any new or existing political party. We need to show the powers that be and any that want to be that they must move towards a more inclusive and effective approach to a more contemporary political culture that reflects the next Alberta instead of trying to perfect the past.

Efforts are afoot for staging Reboot 3.0 in late October to look at a more activist approach to bring the progressive agenda and voice back to Alberta politics. Stay tuned for more information here and to join the Reboot Alberta citizen's movement go to http://www.rebootalberta.org/

Time for Alberta Progressives to Become Activists Again.

UPDATE JULY 16  HERE IS A LINK TO SOME COMMENTS ON THE IDEA OF PROGRESSIVES BECOMING ACTIVISTS FROM THE LIBERAL PARTY OF ALBERTA BLOG AND WORTH A READ:
http://albertaliberals.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/reaction-to-the-cooperation-ads-a-sample/

I have been talking with leaders and others of the progressive parties as a result of David Swann's letter and "Let's Talk" advertisement as Leader of the Alberta Liberals.  I have also spoken at length with Dave King, fellow Reboot Alberta Instigator about the framing and intent of the Swann initiative.  Dave and I agree whole-heartedly about what are the limitations of the Swann suggestions but also about the potential for something to happen.

Here is the recent blog post of Dave King's that captures where my head and heart is at.  I am away next week but on my return I think you will see Reboot Alberta offering to host a gathering that will become a place for progressive politics and progressive political action to be discussed and action plans put forth by aspirational and actual political people - partisan and otherwise.

Stay tuned.  In the meantime if any of this interests you encourages you or makes you want to get involved in designing and defining a progressive political culture for the next Alberta...go to Reboot Alberta and sign up.