The Yin-Yang of Life

Heather Margaret Robertson will go down in Canadian history as the representative plaintiff in, and driving force behind, two class action suits that set a precedent in protecting the rights of freelance writers. The legacy she leaves us, following her death on March 19th, her 72nd birthday, is multi-layered. It includes not just the 16 or more books she wrote, grounded in cultural and geographic history, and her prolific writing for major newspapers, magazines and CBC-radio work. Her legacy, moreover, resides in her generosity to fellow writers throughout her professional life.

Her accomplishments speak for themselves. But, who was Heather Robertson, the person? The deeper questions to ponder are, how and why do certain individuals become standard bearers, manifesting qualities that can teach us about what really matters?

Individuals such as Heather Robertson – who focus on the larger good rather than their own success, and who choose privacy and personal dignity over blowing their own horns endlessly – are those heroines (and heroes) who too often depart this world unheralded altogether, or without being appropriately recognized in the national news media.

Close to two weeks after Heather’s life ended, locating mainstream news sources which paid attention to the loss of one of Canada’s most courageous writers has been a challenge.

Those omissions perhaps do not matter to the departed individual. What I suggest, however, is that they are our loss, collectively as a society, and individually at a soul level. How do we rise to who we can be, without examples of authentic heroism? Where do we learn about those individuals who fought the battles that had looked impossible, and won?

The most well-known public battles, which Heather took on with fierceness and tenacity, were the legal fights against huge media corporations in two class action law suits that she led. In doing so, she won millions of dollars to benefit hundreds of freelance writers.

These cases included Robertson v Thomson (which went to the Supreme Court of Canada), followed by a second class action settled out of court, and popularly known as Robertson 2, in which she took on several other large media corporations together. The issue was the reproduction of freelance writers’ published work on electronic databases – for corporate owners’ profit – without permission or reimbursement to the original authors.

These two battles continued through 15 years of her life. Think about it.

As her close friend Elaine Dewar identified, in a recent phone conversation, to do so called upon Heather’s inner resources of “courage, grit and all kinds of patience. There were lots of points where we didn’t know whether we’d win or not, and it was a constant source of worry for Heather.”

I had a glimpse of the stamina and endurance required by Heather to get through the tedium, the uncertainty, not to mention the offensive arguments from the Thomson corporation’s army of lawyers. They exhibited a willful ignorance in regard to how the electronic database exploitation violated, and undermined, the ability of writers to earn a decent livelihood.

For I sat in the court room every day of that first legal case, in a row further back, watching, listening, and consciously giving my energetic presence to support Heather. She never forgot, and expressed her gratitude in our occasional future encounters.

Important to mention is that her two stalwart friends, and fellow award-winning writers – Elaine Dewar and June Callwood – also were present. They sat on each side of Heather every day in that court room, and stood by her through everything.

The victories, by the way, won against these media corporations, was not simply about money. For Heather Robertson, winning was about the principles of fairness and giving respect. Heather’s own compensation from Robertson v Thomson was a mere $5,000.

This revelation is given on Slaw, Canada’s online legal magazine, in a blog post by lawyer Simon Chester, a few days after Heather’s passing. He also praises her diligence as a highly informed and proactive plaintiff.

Regrettably, neither The Globe and Mail nor The Toronto Star have yet shown the courtesy to provide any journalistic acknowledgment of Heather’s passing, to date.

Among the few news sources that were quick to do so The Winnipeg Free Press was the first. Indeed, this newspaper is where Heather began her vocation as a professional journalist. CBC-Radio One’s program As It Happens acknowledged her passing later the same day.

Where she and her husband Andrew Marshall have lived for many years, King Township, Ontario, the local York Region news also acknowledged it. A previous York Region interview with Heather, in 2012, more descriptively revealed her passion for history, and her years of local volunteerism to promote interest in it.

“Firebrand” – the title saying it all – is an outstanding feature interview with Heather Robertson, published in the Ryerson Review of Journalism‘s Winter 2012 edition. Regan Reid’s article gifts us with chronological highlights from her life, that help us understand Heather’s strong character and early influences that shaped her life’s pursuits.

To honour Heather in my own bricolage of gathered facts about who she was more fully as a person, I also have inserted three photographs. The first photo (above) shows Heather more formally, elegant yet reserved. The second photo brings a smile to my face; for I see a sparkle in her gaze, a glimmer of the inner person, relaxed and joyful in natural settings. The third photo (below) shows Heather’s grace and dignity, despite the affliction of cancer.

A lot of detective work was needed, to cobble together Heather’s extensive achievements, and to discover the many awards. Even the Wikipedia entry does not name all of them.

One award missing on Wiki, for example, is the 2011 NMA Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, bestowed on Heather by the National Magazine Awards Foundation. Its online awards page for her includes a list of accolades from fellow writers.

Heather also was honoured by fellow writers in receiving the 2011 Graeme Gibson Award from The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC), and the 2003 Lawrence Jackson Outstanding Achievement Award from the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC), formerly called Periodical Writers Association of Canada). She was a founding member of both national writers’ organizations.

Heather generously gave her time to many individual writers, including me 25 years ago. That’s why I was there for her in that court room. And, yes, I was fortunate to be one of the hundreds of freelance writers who benefited financially from both class action suits.

She also graciously accepted my invitation to participate in one of several public forums that I organized on media literacy at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre Forum in the 1990s.

That public forum “Is Diversity of Expression Under Siege by New Technologies?,” sponsored by PWAC, was moderated by then Metro Morning, CBC-radio host Andy Barrie. The Forum panelists included Heather, veteran journalist Doris Anderson, internet expert Jim Carroll, and Even Solomon, then an expert in new media and social impact, one of CBC Newsworld‘s news anchors, and current host of “Power and Politics.”

A few days ago, yet another recognition of Heather Robertson’s life appeared in The Winnipeg Free Press (WFP), which speaks to why she received awards from fellow writers (on top of a number of book awards). The fact that respect does come full circle is evident by Gordon Sinclair, Jr.’s WFP article titled “Writer’s best legacy: respect for her peers.”

Mr. Sinclair’s article is deeply touching; for he relates some details from her early life, her noteworthy feisty spirit, a spirit that nourished Heather’s capacity to survive through a series of cancers in the later years.

Remarkably, given these very private battles, Heather produced one more book, titled Walking into Wilderness: The Toronto Carrying Place and Nine Mile Portage (2010). It received an unusual award, the first of a new Speakers Book Award, established in 2013 by Ontario Legislative Speaker Dave Levac.

Heather’s passing in her sleep may appear to be sudden and unexpected. Yet, given the battles that she had fought so courageously for so long, perhaps the still, small voice within said: “It’s time, Heather. You have done enough. Be at peace now.”

She departed this world without fanfare, without further suffering, yet with her dignity intact. She did it her way.

God bless you, Heather, for everything you were and everything you contributed in this earthly world. We will not forget.

PHOTO CREDIT: (top photo only) Aaron Marshall

POSTSCRIPT: Finally, on April 3rd online (April 4th, print edition), a feature obituary appeared in The Globe and Mail, contributed by freelance journalist David Hayes.

Freedom of expression – do you take it for granted? If so, think again, and be aware of economic and political forces that, slowly and steadily, have been chipping away at the capabilities of, and outlets for, our independent thinkers and contributors to cultural production throughout Western society. As a Canadian, I will focus on what is happening in Canada, although similar trends undoubtedly are unfolding elsewhere, because of globalization.

First of all, more than twenty years ago, media corporations began to swallow up independent news media producers in larger and larger mouthfuls. Many freelance journalists were silenced, and even staff journalists – up to recent weeks in Canada – continue to lose jobs in major newspapers. The result is the deterioration of journalism.

Secondly, the Canadian federal government in 2007 and 2008 initiated major cuts to the arts and related cultural industries that, once again, diminished our cultural production. Creative professionals use all forms of cultural media, not limited to news, yet also nonfiction and fiction writing, theatre, dance, music and a range of visual art forms that include documentary and dramatic film. Several schools of training were forced to close, as well as various archives, or forcibly shrunk for lack of funding.

Third, universities have been going down a controversial road of increased corporate financing of departments that influence choices of research, even prior to the severe 2008 economic downturn. Consequences of the latter, however, included loss of major private sector endowments, hence, fewer tenured and more sessional professors, larger classes, and a growing tendency to use doctoral students to teach under-grad courses.

Fourth, adding to how our historical archives already are compromised, the latest blow by the hand of Canada’s federal Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper is the muzzling of Canada’s science research community. (See my 2013 post “Freedom of Expression for Public Scientists is Vital.”)

The muzzling continues. Linden MacIntyre, one of Canada’s outstanding investigative journalists, on CBC-TV’s fifth estate episode aired January 10, 2014, opened a window onto examples of significant long term environmental research in Canada now terminated.

What shocked me, in watching fifth estate, not only are the terminations themselves (immediate without notice). But, moreover, the contempt exhibited towards individual federal scientists who had dedicated a lifetime to their respective fields of knowledge and, worse, have been denied access to their own life’s work.

My outrage barely begins to describe what I think of Harper’s actions, which are not simply ideological, but are, in a word – ignorant. His actions, moreover, are dangerous to the sustainability of a well-informed, truly democratic society, and undermine the human and environmental health of a nation state that formerly won international acclaim.

Harper, during his years as Canada’s Prime Minister, has distorted truth, obfuscated facts, censored debate in our parliament, even proroguing it when convenient to his ideological trajectory of single-minded industrial economic development that dismisses serious existing and future environmental concerns.

Well, at this point, you might be asking: Now tell us what you really think?

Actually, I want to communicate here some shared concerns of fellow Canadians from their responses by organizations and in news stories that recognize what we are losing. For there is a ripple effect from this unconscionable destruction of knowledge.

Let me point out, first of all, that the actions of Harper are more than a critique of partisan politics. The fact is, not all Conservatives agree with him.

For example, I read one recent comment on a news website by a person who identifies himself as a member of the Reform Party when Harper was one of its leaders; but today he feels betrayed, and writes: “We now have one of the most autocratic, secretive, and environmentally unfriendly governments in history.”

Another critic of Harper’s actions is Tom Sidden, a former federal fisheries minister in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government. As a 2014 CBC News online post reported, Sidden introduced many of the environmental protections that were taken out of the act in 2012. Note Sidden’s response to one of the latest actions by Harper:

“I call it [closing libraries] Orwellian, because some might suspect that it’s driven by a notion to exterminate all unpopular scientific findings that interfere with the government’s economic objectives,” Sidden told CBC.”

A recent press release by The Writer’s Union of Canada (TWUC) emphasizes the national tragedy of Harper’s closing of federally established research libraries across Canada. For example: “The legacy of a century’s research into Canada’s most vital resource – water – has been dismantled and worse, in some cases, discarded.”

The Professional Writers’ Association of Canada (PWAC), in which I have been a member for 30 years, identifies several examples of losses to our collective knowledge as Canadians. The press release emphasizes: “Freedom of Expression and Access to Information are two principles that must apply to any healthy civilized democracy. Its press release includes a cautionary note:

“What emerges is a clear pattern: the deliberate downgrading of knowledge itself and a refusal by our own government to allow us to access it.”

Access to information is becoming more difficult not just to scholarly researchers, yet also for all Canadians, which violates a right stated clearly on a federal government website: “Every person in Canada has the right to request access to government records… This right is essential to foster greater government accountability and transparency.”

A person, therefore, could reasonably ask, what happens when information not only is difficult to access, but no longer exists?

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), in its “2012/2013 Review of Free Expression in Canada” reported: “The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is at the bottom, with a grade of `F,’ singled out for its zeal in muzzling scientists and keeping critical research findings from Canadians.”

In the above-mentioned fifth estate episode on CBC-TV, Peter Ross, cited as Canada’s only marine mammal toxicologist, points out that in the spring of 2012 the federal government closed the Department of Fisheries contaminants program, dismissing Ross and 55 of his colleagues across Canada.

Tom Duck, professor of Atmospheric Science at Dalhousie University, helped found the world-renowned Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL). But, similarly, in 2012, the budget was cut, his research stopped, and most of his colleagues left the country to find other work.

The above examples, and others, are outlined in CBC’s online news story that refers to the content of the televised episode of fifth estate, “Silence of the Labs.”

The Canadian Science Writers Association (CSWA) is not alone in denouncing the Harper government as “Orwellian.” Its press release contrasts Canada’s current federal government with previous governments which encouraged federal scientists to openly discuss their work with the media and public. Commenting on federal politicians today:

“As the journal Nature, one of the world’s top science journals put it, the Harper government’s policy is a “Byzantine approach to the press, prioritizing message control and showing little understanding of the importance of the free flow of scientific knowledge.””

This CSWA website, moreover, provides a long list of articles of concern published from sources that include the international press. The world is watching.

In closing, the December 2013 Bulletin of the Canadian Association of University Teachers/Association canadienne des professeures et professeurs d’universite (CAUT/ACPPU) is also worth reading. The bulletin mentions a CAUT report that provides insight why government actions reducing basic research in recent years have serious consequences.

To sum up, how will this pattern of limiting, censoring, and erasing, Canada’s scientific research affect us in the near future as citizens, and for current and future generations of science students and professionals?

Do you wonder what types of research no longer can be studied in Canada’s universities? What types of jobs will be available for the next generation of scientists? Can we expect another brain drain?

How can we protect the imperiled health and safety of our nation’s natural environment, without fuller and deeper awareness that is our right in a democracy?

Be worried, be outraged – and take action to demand a stop to Harper’s path of destruction.

Remember. The vitality of a democracy resides in the active participation of its citizens beyond, yet including, in whom we place our trust as political decision-makers.

Happy New Year, and let us make it so.

CARTOON CREDIT: Pascal Elie, Canadian cartoonist

Looking out upon yet another snow squall from the window of my farmhouse office I am reminded, as I am each day, how much human life depends on the forces of the world of Nature. Indeed, deepening my appreciation of the natural world is one of the primary reasons why I chose to relocate from a metropolis seven years ago and live immersed in the countryside, surrounded by fields and woodlots inhabited by a variety of wildlife. Late December rudely awakened many thousands of Canadians – particularly in the cities – to the darker forces of Nature. The onslaught and aftermath of ice storms altered the tranquil vision of `white Christmas’ as a celebratory event characterized by the gathering of families and friends to share store-bought and home-made gifts.

Gifts of a different type, I suggest, also are being offered to us – as teachings – whenever what provides comfort and convenience disappears, suddenly, and the activities to which we have become accustomed are sorely disrupted.

In the spirit of Christmas, at the best of times, for me the teachings are remembrance, gratitude and kindness. So I believe it is, as well, in these uncertain times.

Remembrance of loved ones who have departed to the world of Spirit is an important element of celebrating life. The sharing of storied memories about family members and dear friends no longer with us is one of the sacred practices that establish bonds among family relatives and deepen other relationships that we cherish.

My friend Kevin Hart, who is a United Church pastor for the Saugeen First Nation community, told me about a special `Blue Christmas’ service that he would be offering, as a separate event prior to the customary Christmas service. For the special Blue Christmas gathering, he invited two traditional First Nation spiritual elders, a husband and wife, who each would contribute rituals to honour those who have crossed over, and also the surviving family members.

For the Blue Christmas service – aside from my friend’s chosen sermon – the First Nations woman would offer a drum song, while her husband prepared a ritual fire outdoors and keep vigil there. During the religious service participants could safely express their grief, and then place their tear-filled tissues into a bag. In the closing ritual, this bag would be placed in the sacred fire, for each person’s sorrow – energetically and symbolically – to be released to the Creator through the upward wafts of smoke.

Gratitude is another teaching, even as it is interwoven in the web of remembrance, namely, remembering to be grateful at all for everything – and everyone – who contributes to our well-being. At the best of times, how do we measure our well-being?

Do we get swallowed up by the exchange of material goods in our consumer-driven society, and express gratitude only for the “presents received” or instead, more importantly, for the “presence of” caring individuals?

As for the teaching of kindness, to whom do you bestow kindness? Is your generosity limited to a select few individuals, or sometimes include total strangers, locally and globally?

Can you recall particular moments in life when you received unexpected kindness, possibly from a total stranger? I invite you to see one of my own stories in a blog post a year ago titled “Spiritual Teachers Among Us in Unexpected Places.”

My first cousins have a tradition, practiced among the adults through many years. Instead of exchanging gifts with each other, they give money to their respective selected charities at Christmas season. This year, for example – to my delight – my cousin Patti donated money to my portal page on the Canadian Red Cross website for the Typhoon Haiyan Appeal. All donations are anonymous, so that I only found out when she told me at the Christmas Day gathering at her home.

Throughout December I focused my volunteer energy on fundraising for the Philippines. My previous blog post outlines the film event that I organized.

Despite a car accident while distributing 100 flyers in two rural counties, I continued to do so, white-knuckled, in a much smaller rental car (and without snow tires). Sadly, when the event day arrived, only three people showed up, likely because of a pending snow squall. Regardless, I pursued further fundraising in emails, directing potential donors to my portal page.

Social and environmental recovery, as well as economic, is long term for the Philippines. The catastrophe, of course, went off the news radar, superceded by ever-unfolding news stories, from the passing of Nelson Mandela (one of the great heroes of our time) to the more recent news of extreme weather events closer to home for Canadians.

Yes, Christmas this year for many Canadians was upsetting, understandably, when both the exchange of gifts and the presence of loved ones was disrupted, even terminated, by severe ice storms across several provinces. As well, in Alberta, a number of families still remain without homes, after record-breaking floods that happened months earlier.

Kindness, nevertheless, is a human possibility through all that befalls us, and a quality that bonds the human family. Indeed, the kindness of folks towards each other during this destabilizing extreme weather – close to home and across the world – could be the most notable, remembered gift from this 2013 Christmas season, long after it has ended.

At this historic moment, I genuinely believe that we are called to a transformation of consciousness, a societal transformation that needs to develop from the grassroots seeded by the human heart rather than be bureaucratically imposed from above, the latter merely limited to political and economic expediencies.

We are fully capable of doing so. What essentially is required from each of us is an act of will as well as a caring heart. Forget finger pointing, and blaming, various levels of authorities in regard to their limited resources. Yes, we can speak out and demand better.

Yet, what fundamentally is required to address the enormity of our uncertain planetary future is to take back more personal responsibility, such as wiser choices in our lifestyles, developing our humanity more fully, and more actively caring about each other and the life support system of the planet – to safeguard the future for the children to come.

En route in driving several hours from my cousin’s home to my farmhouse, I dared to stop in a large shopping mall to look for long underwear. Usually I avoid shopping on Boxing Day like the plague. Could I cope with the throngs of people packing the aisles of stores to get a good deal? I just wanted more woollies for the next power outage (which I confronted sooner than anticipated upon arriving home that same night).

News reports told us how thousands of Torontonians remained without power for a week. Thousands more folks, regardless, were populating the malls on Boxing Day, weighted down with numerous bags of goodies. I wondered how many of them were grateful simply to have a roof over their heads; for I could not help contrasting the excesses of a North American mall with the destitution of the Philippines people.

Who among the shoppers had extended their well-being to strangers, locally or globally, through donations or volunteerism in the weeks and days leading up to Christmas, or perhaps during other seasons, if at all?

In a recent email I was delighted to hear from an affluent friend who spent two days serving holiday meals to older street men. He wrote: “It was humbling to see their pleasure at a plate heaped high with food and other treats.” Although this friend characteristically downplayed his kindness with the subject title “Humbug time,” he genuinely has a good heart. He shows it through a simple act of caring for him yet one which has a profound outcome for the destitute recipients.

In other words, my friend’s act of caring represents the spirit of Christmas that can be carried forward into the new year, and be expressed in a multitude of ways. They range from types of outreach to improve the well-being of the homeless in our midst to engaging with the wider world, and assist the restoration of a sustainable existence for fellow members of our human family whose lives have been devastated by natural, and industrial, disasters.

As a closing note, I do not know how much longer my own portal page will continue online. Whether going there or directly to the Typhoon Haiyan Appeal page of the Canadian Red Cross, please know that the names of any willing donors are anonymous and protected. Alternatively, I appreciate that your heart might be more closely aligned to other causes.

Hope resides not in what the new year brings to us yet rather what we bring to the new year, in co-creating a more loving world together.

PHOTO CREDITS: Ice storm in Toronto taken by Aaron Vincent Elkaim, The Canadian Press; and Typhoon Haiyan image by Erik de Castro, Reuters.

How do you experience yourself responding to a visual image of what looks like a boundless field of prairie grasses bent over by the force of the wind, against a similarly infinite expanse of the wide open sky? Does it look bleak, isolated, even threatening, with no human shelter in sight? Would you feel vulnerable standing in such a field? Would you sense absence or presence of life? Conversely, would you feel a sense of freedom in such openness, that anything is possible under the warmth of the life-giving sun? Would you instinctively sense that there are forces of life unseen, both in the world of Nature and within your own being?

The prairie scene in the flyer below shows the scene of a transformative day in the life of Everett Soop. He walked into that field, carrying in his heart the wound of isolation, and the bleakness of life. Yet he later walked through that field home again, not just to his physical homestead. But, more importantly, he carried an awareness of the unseen force of life awakened within him, to confront a life of adversity that formerly felt overwhelming. My film Soop on Wheels illustrates Everett’s perseverance to transcend adversity in the timeless and universal `hero’s journey’.

Such is the tenacity of the human spirit that the people of the Philippines are called to awaken within themselves, to confront unspeakable devastation. For, regardless, they too must call upon their inner strength to survive, indeed, to prevail, following Typhoon Haiyan.

They cannot rebuild their lives alone, however, whether outer or inner. As a human family, we all are called, sooner or later, to give our loving support to each other wherever the need arises on our small yet fragile planet.

Aside from our prayers, donations are essential to help people rebuild their lives, to restore homes and communities, to assure the availability again of clean water and nourishing food, to heal not just wounded bodies yet, moreover, traumatized souls and hearts broken from losing loved ones and everything familiar to them.

I will add a few more insights to this blog post in the coming days. First of all, however, I continue to spend most hours travelling locally to post flyers in the public spaces of many towns in two rural counties.

For people who cannot attend my above-mentioned event, the Canadian Red Cross has set up a portal page on its website for my film event. I invite you to consider making a pledge there.

Please know that you can make donations to this portal page up to, but not including, December 23rd. The Canadian federal government then is matching all donations made to charities such as the Canadian Red Cross that are submitted up to December 23rd.

Meanwhile, thank you so much to folks who are considering donations, and who already have expressed their compassion and generosity to help the people of the Philippines in this most challenging time of need.

Please Note: Every penny of donations at my event, and also given through my portal on the Canadian Red Cross website, will go to the Typhoon Haiyan Fund.

The donation box on my blog post here already existed, and is separate, intended to help me with my private circumstances.