Author Archives: Michael K. Barbour

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About Michael K. Barbour

Michael K. Barbour is the Director of Faculty Development and a Professor of Instructional Design for the College of Education and Health Sciences at Touro University California. He has been involved with K-12 online learning in a variety of countries for well over a decade as a researcher, teacher, course designer and administrator. Michael's research focuses on the effective design, delivery and support of K-12 online learning, particularly for students located in rural jurisdictions.

Remembrance Day Virtual Race – Michael Barbour: Fundraising Page

My Story…

Samuel Barbour served as a Gunner (GNR) in “A” Battery of the 59th (Newfoundland) Heavy Regiment of Britain’s Royal Artillery during World War II. Along with his regiment, he fought through Belgium and into Holland, before the “Fighting 59th” were the only Allied heavy artillery that crossed the Rhine River into Germany when they were selected to take part in the Battle of the Rhine and the attack on Bremen. Following the war, my grandfather returned to a more quiet life in Newfoundland as a fishing boat captain.

During the annual Remembrance Day services at the local school one year, an English teacher spoke about my grandfather. “Every year on this most special day he dons the blue beret and navy jacket adorned with medals – the recognition of his service, courage and bravery. He and his beloved wife make the journey down the hill to our school. When they arrive, faces wreathed in smiles, they bring a card with a beautiful and thoughtful message of thanks and a gift for our students.”

I joined the Royal Canadian Legion to honour my grandfather and to proudly stand next to him in our Legion uniforms at remembrance events. This is the second year I have participated in this race to remember him.

Donate to help Michael raise money for Remembrance Day Races’s fundraising campaign.

Last chance for Thanksgiving! Plus: Making middle-class multiculturalism

An item from one of our fellow Canadian organizations in the Bay Area.


Canadian Studies Announcements
In this issue:
  • Canadian Thanksgiving is this Saturday – last chance for tickets!
  • Book talk next week: Making Middle Class Multiculturalism
  • In the news: Canada marks first-ever “National Day of Truth and Reconciliation”
  • External event: The 2021 Election’s Implications for Canadian Foreign Policy
  • Call for papers: ACSUS 2022 26th Biennial Conference
  • Call for papers: The Clean Water Act and Lake Champlain Basin
4th Annual Canadian Family Thanksgiving
October 9 | 5:00 pm | Alumni House, UC Berkeley | Purchase tickets here
Don’t miss your chance – join us this Saturday for our annual Canadian Thanksgiving dinner! Join us and our partners at the Digital Moose Lounge for a special meal celebrating the Bay Area’s Canadian community as we meet together for the first time since the pandemic. Mingle with your fellow SF Bay Canadians while enjoying entertainment and a delicious boxed turkey dinner. There will also be special prizes, including a raffle of Air Canada tickets! The dinner will take place outdoors and will observe all relevant public health measures.
Tickets are selling out fast, so buy yours today through the Digital Moose Lounge.
We’re also looking for volunteers to help staff the event. A limited number of half-priced tickets are available to volunteers; please contact us for more information.
UPCOMING EVENT
Book Talk: Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism: Immigration Bureaucrats and Policymaking in Postwar Canada
October 12 | 12:30 pm PT | Online | RSVP here
In the 1950s and 1960s, immigration bureaucrats played an important yet unacknowledged role in transforming Canada’s immigration policy. Their perceptions and judgements about the admissibility of individuals influenced the creation of formal admissions criteria for skilled workers and family immigrants that continue to shape immigration to Canada. Bureaucrats emphasized not just economic utility, but also middle-class traits and values such as wealth accumulation, educational attainment, entrepreneurial spirit, resourcefulness and a strong work ethic. By making “middle-class multiculturalism” a basis of nation-building in Canada, they created a much-admired approach to managing racial diversity that has nevertheless generated significant social inequalities. Migration expert Jennifer Elrick will discuss insights from her forthcoming book examining the topic.
Jennifer Elrick is an assistant professor of sociology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Her research interests lie in the area of state classifications (in censuses and immigration policy) and their relationship to social stratification along the lines of race, gender, and social class. Her work is multi-national in scope, focusing on Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
IN THE NEWS
Canada Marks First “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation”
September 30 was Canada’s first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Originating from the Indigenous-led grassroots campaign known as “Orange Shirt Day”, the new commemoration honors survivors of Canada’s residential school system as well as the children who perished in the schools.
Canada’s residential schools operated for over a century, and were intended to forcibly assimilate Indigenous people into European-Canadian society. Attendance was compulsory for Indigenous children from 1894 to 1947. Children were intentionally separated from their communities, with the goal of eliminating Indigenous cultural practices; meanwhile, within the schools, they endured neglect, deprivation, and abuse.
In 2013, Indigenous writer and residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad established “Orange Shirt Day” on September 30, to promote awareness of the system’s impact on Indigenous communities. Webstad had arrived at the school wearing a new orange shirt, which was taken from her on arrival: it now symbolizes “stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.”
After several high-profile gravesite discoveries at former residential schools brought renewed attention to the issue earlier this year, the Canadian Government officially recognized the commemoration as a national statutory holiday called “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation”. Public commemoration and acknowledgement of the devastating impact of the system on Indigenous families and communities is vital to the reconciliation process.
EXTERNAL EVENT
Conversations on Canada: Solo Canada? The 2021 Election’s Implications for Canadian Foreign Policy
October 6 | 11 am PT | Online | RSVP here
The 2021 Canadian election included debates over just a few international relationships and issues, mainly China, climate change, and the evacuation of Kabul. On these issues and more, the relationship with the United States is important: border restrictions, COVID, Buy American provisions, USMCA implementation, Enbridge Line 5, and the extradition of Meng Wanzhou. On a growing range of issues Canada is looking for a partnership with the United States, but Canadians increasingly wonder if they are talking to themselves and if Americans are listening.
Dr. Christopher Sands, director of the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute and a Canadian Studies Program board member, will address these challenges in a conversation moderated by Dr. Christopher Kirkey, director of the Center for the Study of Canada and Institute on Québec Studies, SUNY Plattsburgh.
Call for Papers: ACSUS 2022 26th Biennial Conference
Deadline: November 1, 2021
In celebration of the its 50th anniversary, the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) will host its 26th biennial conference, March 24-27, 2022, in Washington, D.C. The conference is open to all proposals with a significant Canadian focus. ACSUS welcomes papers and panel proposals from graduate students, professors, independent scholars,
and practitioners on all diverse and critical perspectives related to the theme, ‘Canada: Near and Far’. How is Canada perceived and portrayed from outside its borders, and by the international community? How is Canada understood by its expatriates? What role do non-governmental agencies around the world play in shaping Canada’s relationships with the world? What is ACSUS’s role in these larger questions? Proposals that touch on these themes through diverse and critical perspectives are especially encouraged, though, as always, submissions on all subjects addressing Canada and Canadian-American relations are welcome.
For more information on proposal guidelines and for submission information, please visit the conference’s website.
Call for Papers: The Clean Water Act and Lake Champlain Basin: Origins, Implementation, Impacts
Deadline: December 31, 2021
The Institute on Quebec Studies and the Lake Champlain Research Institute at SUNY Plattsburgh, in partnership with Groupe d’études et de recherche sur l’international et le Québec (GERIQ), École nationale d’administration publique (ÉNAP), and Observatoire sur les États-Unis, Chaire Raoul-Dandurand, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), are co-organizing a two-day authors’ workshop to investigate and review the 1972 U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA), and the implementation and impact of the Act on the Lake Champlain Basin. The goal is to produce a book volume with a leading university press.
This scholarly research colloquium and publication initiative – to be held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the CWA – will bring together social scientists, applied scientists, and leading practitioners from the United States and Canada. They invite single-discipline, multidisciplinary, comparative, and applied case study proposals that offer original perspectives.
For more information, please read the call for papers here.
Canadian Studies Program
213 Moses Hall #2308
Canadian Studies Program | Univ. of California, Berkeley, 213 Moses Hall #2308, Berkeley, CA 94720

Purchase a wreath and be part of the 2021 National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa

This opportunity may be of interest to individual members.


Purchase a wreath and be part of the 2021 National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa

The National Remembrance Day Ceremony will continue to look a little different this year. With a limit on participants, the public is discouraged from attending in person but are encouraged to watch on Facebook Live and participate in the Two Minutes of Silence from home.

Since there are no spectators this year, we are asking the public across Canada to help us fill the space around the National War Memorial with 800 wreaths.

You and your family or business can be part of this visual representation that honours all of Canada’s Veterans.

How to order:

lest we forget wreath full

Order your wreath by November 1, 2021 by filling out this form.
E-mail the form to PnRWreaths@legion.ca.

System requirements:

Cost and other information:

✔️One 20” diameter wreath with a “Lest We Forget” ribbon is $150.00 plus tax.
✔️All proceeds will go towards The Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Fund in support of Canada’s Veterans and their families.

Once your wreath is ordered, it will stay at Legion House in Ottawa until Remembrance Day, when staff will pre-position it at the National War Memorial before the ceremony begins.

Your name will also be included on The Royal Canadian Legion’s National Remembrance Day Ceremony website, unless otherwise noted.

Wreaths will be respectfully removed from the National War Memorial the following day.

For those wishing to lay a wreath at a local ceremony please contact your local Legion branch

Theme announced for 80th National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Commemoration

Note that this service will be streamed.  Information available below.


NEWS RELEASE

Date: October 1, 2021
Contact: Emily Pruett, 808-226-4100

 

HONOLULU – Pearl Harbor National Memorial, Navy Region Hawaii, and Pacific Historic Parks have announced the theme for this year’s National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Commemoration: Valor, Sacrifice, and Peace. This year marks the 80th commemoration of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the subsequent entry of the United States into World War II.

The goal of the commemoration and supplemental events is to ensure that future generations will understand the valor and legacy of those who perished and those who fought throughout the war. The commemoration also highlights the importance of the peace that brought a reconciliation that continues to create a better future for all.

If you are:

  • World War II Veteran or Pearl Harbor Survivor, or know of one interested in attending, please complete this on-line form by 5 pm HST October 31WW2 Veteran and PH Survivor Form
  • A member of the media interested in credentialling information, complete this on-line form by 5 pm HST October 31: Media Credential Form.
  • An educator or lifelong learner looking for educational and interpretive resources, the event organizers will host virtual programming from November 29 – December 8 at www.pearlharborevents.com. This programming; Beyond Pearl Harbor: Untold Stories of WWII, will explore a broader story of the WWII experience.

Members of the public please be advised that plans for public access to the commemoration events are still being determined. More information will be shared at: www.nps.gov/perlwww.facebook.com/PearlHarborNPS, and www.pearlharborevents.com when it becomes available.

The USS Nevada, USS Utah, Main December 7 Ceremony, and USS Oklahoma Ceremonies will all be live streamed and captioned for those interested in attending from the comfort of their own homes. Information and live-streamed events will be shared at: www.nps.gov/perlwww.facebook.com/PearlHarborNPSwww.facebook.com/NavyRegionHawaii and www.pearlharborevents.com.

We are monitoring the coronavirus situation and will continue to assess the impacts to the 80th National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day commemorative events. For your safety and the safety of our veterans, we will provide updated guidance on attendance and safety measures in the coming weeks on our website: https://www.nps.gov/perl/planyourvisit/covid19-safety.htm