Gandhi-King Memorial

Gandhi-King Dinner features African American Advocate

By William Doyle-Marshall

Professor Gary Warner of McMaster University who heads an Ad hoc Committee in the City of Hamilton, retired from the university in 2006 following a span of exciting changes during which time he has been recognized many times for his efforts in the field of education and providing community service. Speaking recently with the Trinidad Guardian, he was proud that he has been able to see his career evolve in different directions having been hired initially as a Seventeenth Century French Literature Specialist in July 1967. Apart for a two year period when he took time off to work in Sierra Leone, Professor Warner has spent his career within the confines of the academic world of this major Hamilton, Ontario educational institution.

Growing up in Trinidad he listened to Trinidadian students from McGilll University, University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia talk about their studies and that sowed the seed in his mind that Canada is a place he should explore. So he came to Canada after graduating and living in France for seven years to apply for a job in his field of specialty and he was hired.

Daryl Davis, author, musician, advocate

“Living Gandhi and King Today: Transforming Hate” is the theme for a March 22 dinner at the Hamilton Convention Center, engaging Professor Warner’s attention. African-American Daryl Davis, author, musician and actor will deliver the keynote address. Following there will be a question and answer session and a musical interlude.

Warner and some colleagues who have been associated with the Gandhi Peace movement in Hamilton, Ontario associated with McMaster’s Center for Peace Studies got together in 2008 to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the assassination of Gandhi and the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Because both men’s names are so associated and it was 100 years of their combined assassination they agreed that an event should be held to represent their qualities in terms of peace, human rights, non-violence and associated values. Reverend Samuel Billy Kyles who was on the balcony with Dr. King when he was shot, was the featured speaker at that function.

Daryl Davis plays the piano

This year the committee is bringing Davis, who faced racial discrimination as a child and undertook a dangerous project that involved meeting with and questioning members of the Klu Klux Klan to understand why they hated people of African heritage. He represents the notion of the event’s sub title “Transforming Hate”, says Professor Warner. “Even when there seems to be unbridgeable and chasms between people; when there is hatred in our communities, it is possible to reach beyond those chasms and establish a human contact. That is what Daryl Davis did at no small physical risk to his own life,” the scholar explained.

Professor Warner’s efforts have resulted in numerous awards like the Order of Canada and being named Hamilton Citizen of the Year in 2005, St. Mary’s College, his alma mater recognized him about six years ago and he has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of that institution. His picture is on the wall with other distinguished people who graduated from St. Mary’s College. He still cherishes growing up in the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago and attending its good schools like St. Mary’s, Queen’s Royal College and Presentation College. “I happen to have gone to a really great school and when I think of the people I sat in class with, it was really a wonderful experience and I had a wonderful education in Trinidad.

March 21, 2013

new Grenada debt reduction plan

Comprehensive debt reduction Plan for Grenada

By William Doyle-Marshall

  “We cannot turn around this country over night. We cannot turn it around by ourselves. There are thousands of people in our country who are hurting at this time: single female parents without work; youths without hope, some without skills; parents who cannot send their children to school because they do not have the means to pay the bus, to provide food for them to eat.”

 Grenada’s newly elected Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchel left this message with his nationals in the Greater Toronto Area last Friday. He was here on personal business and took the opportunity to talk with them about recent political developments back home. He promised not to do as was the tradition to blame the previous government for everything that went wrong. But it was difficult to avoid what he described as Grenada’s financial plight where the Tillman Thomas government sold state assets to pay salaries.

  Dr. Keith Mitchell, Grenada's Prime Minister

  Unity, economic development, education, the country’s health system and the generation of young people were among issues the Prime Minister said are high on the agenda. Dr. Mitchell promised to embark on a comprehensive debt reduction initiative. He read to the gathering a note from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.  The note, according to the Prime Minister, states the Government of Grenada is moving swiftly to address the heavy debt burden as part of the broader general strategy to stabilize the macro economic conditions and improve the country’s growth outlook.

   “When you reach the point of selling state national assets to pay salaries, you are in real trouble,” Dr. Mitchell stated. He asked his listeners to try having a business and selling parts of it every month to pay workers. In a short period of time there would naturally be no business. The previous government in its own wisdom, unfortunately so, close down the parliament for seven months therefore could not borrow and to keep itself in office, the only thing it could have done was to sell assets. The government unfortunately sold all the shares in the telephone company, the shares in the Grenada Breweries were sold and all the shares in Grenlec – the only electricity service. That is a burden to the population because of the high cost of electricity, making it uncompetitive for Grenada to do serious business in the region. All those things were done with no announcements to the population. “We are now finding out the details of those. And we have to put the facts before the population as to the state of the finances of the country,” Prime Minister Mitchell disclosed.

   The NNP Government is looking at its embassies abroad and assessing the personnel and performances. Dr. Mitchell said his team would be looking at government’s resources to be able to meet representation. There will be a leaner budgeting for Foreign Affairs. “Until we have the resources to be able to have several staff abroad to represent the country, we cannot continue,” he disclosed. The Prime Minister has personal difficulty when he sees a hospital without basic medication; when people are literally being told to go and die and yet government is supporting a massive overload outside there. “In some cases we cannot justify it. In conscience I have a problem. With the challenges we are facing financially, we have to move to deal with that problem. When the resources are available then we could have as much as we wish to have,” he explained.   The Prime Minister confessed being distraught as the country is nearly losing a generation of young people. As a result he promised that the NNP Government is going to spend much resources as possible to ensure that the Ministry of Youth will be one of the most aggressively run ministries in the country. “The young people expect us. Whether it is the area of training, scholarships, job creation, rehabilitation,” he added.

     Dr. Mitchell recalled choking up at church the Sunday following election as he thought about the young people he saw during the election campaigns. “I could not keep myself up. They expect us to save them. You cannot send your children out and have them go to university outside and come back home with tremendous success educationally – masters’ degrees – and for three years not a job. In some case you tell them ‘is not we that send you’.

   The Prime Minister emphasized they are the children of Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique -- our future.”  It’s wrong to classify them as NDC children and NNP children, Dr. Mitchell continued.

  He was emphatic that the NNP cannot run a government that does not show enough empathy for those who are hurting. Government is supposed to be there for all citizens but government must zero in on the vulnerable in the society – those who need us the most, he affirmed. “If we fail to do that we are preparing an unjust society and we’ll pay a heavy price for that,” Dr. Mitchell concluded.

student skills needed for Mining Industry

MINING INDUSTRY ON YOUR RADAR

By William Doyle-Marshall

“Mining. This is a very powerful word yet most of us know very little about it. Strangely the only association we have with it is tragedy. Workers being trapped in mines or people narrowly escaping with their lives following some disaster, then of course there is the other consequence of selfish employers doing not enough for miners who work beneath the surface for man hours daily. These scenarios are the ones we associate with mining.”

Hardly do we ever hear of the billions of dollars the mining industry accounts for. We hardly ever hear that some of the services that governments provide are paid for with mining taxes. And even further in most communities we almost never of parents encouraging their children to consider the mining industry where they could be employed gainfully.

Papua New Guinea exhibitors at PDAC2013

Afghanistan booth at PDAC2013

While I am not one who travels along the negative path, I must confess that the recently concluded Prospectors and Developers of Canada Association convention downtown Toronto opened my eyes to these attributes.

Over 30,000 people from 125 countries, for a second consecutive year attended the International Convention, Trade Show & Investors Exchange. With 30,147 investors, analysts, mining executives, geologists, government officials, students and international delegations, the Convention remains the world’s premier event for the mineral industry.

"We are so proud of the tremendous success of the PDAC 2013 Convention,” said Executive Director, Ross Gallinger. “The level of excitement and interest in the mineral exploration and development industry continues to be strong, and the Convention has once again provided an outstanding program that attracts government, industry, financial institutions and Aboriginal communities."

“We are actually one of the richest countries when it comes to mineral endowment in the whole world. We are inviting prospectors and developers and investors to take advantage of the exciting opportunities,” said Oliphant Godfrey Oliphant, deputy minister in the South African Ministry of Mineral Resources who was among convention attendees. He came to strengthen his country’s relationship with the mining community. A major part of his presence was to state his country’s exciting story of mining.

Glenn Nolan, President of the Association told delegates about efforts to invest in the next generation of talent. Its student programmes are building awareness by delivering exceptional programmes and services to students. Mining Matters, a PDAC supported organization has educated more than 500,000 students and teachers across Canada about the industry. A student industry mineral workshop was part of the convention as well. It provided hands-on instruction, built skills and connected geo-science students to the industry.

Student membership in the organization grew 50% last year and student participation at this year’s event was at an all-time record high as well. Nolan announced there is a continued need to find more talent. Working with government, industry and educators is vital to improve the supply of skilled individuals in the sector to continue Canada’s leadership position internationally.

Joe Oliver, Minister for Natural Resources announced that the Government of Canada had updated the Exploration and Mining Guide for Aboriginal communities. This will further facilitate greater participation of Aboriginal peoples in the benefits of new resources projects in Canada. The guide was developed by his department in partnership with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, the Mining Association of Canada, the Canadian Aboriginal Mining Minerals Association and PDAC. The guide helps Aboriginal Canadians to better understand the mining cycle. It is also used by Canadian companies operating abroad.”

He told the opening ceremony of the convention “With more than 200 active mines in Canada producing more than 60 different metals and minerals, the sector is a key economic driver in dozens of rural, remote and Aboriginal communities across the country.

Canada’s mining industry broke records in 2011 for exploration spending, production and exports, delegates heard. Canada remained the world’s top destination of mineral exploration attracting 16% of budgeted spending. Close to 60% of the world’s publicly listed companies are listed here on the Toronto Stock Exchange or the Toronto Venture Exchange.”

Few countries are generating national resource projects on the scale or pace of Canada, Oliver disclosed proudly. Over the next ten years as many as 600 major projects worth more than $650 billion will be on the way or planned, creating a once in a generation opportunity for Canadians, the minister reported.

The federal government’s goal is to ensure that Canada remains the best place in the world in which to do business. “We’ve listened to industry stakeholders and through measures such as the Foreign Affiliate Dumping Rules introduced in Canada’s economic action plan 2012, we are working to ensure that Canada’s system of international taxation achieves an appropriate balance while protecting the tax base and maintaining Canada’s position as a leading jurisdiction for exploration and mining companies,” Oliver stated.

Now in its 81st year, the Convention is more diverse. A number of events including the CSR Event Series, Aboriginal Program and Investors Exchange garnered overwhelming support. More elected officials attended the convention than in previous years.

March 9, 2013