light

Downtown Calgary (Alberta, Canada)

***************

Thursday Challenge

Next Week: PATH (Road, Highway, Street, Trail, Sidewalk, Railroad Tracks,...)

U of Calgary "totalitarian regime"?

CALGARY, Alberta, November 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U of C is again attempting to censor student members of the campus pro-life club by threatening them with arrest and sanctions for non-academic misconduct (including the possibility of suspension and expulsion) if they do not comply with an order to turn Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) displays inward. GAP is a graphic exhibit which includes photographs of unborn babies who have been aborted.

U of C lawyer Paul Beke addressed a letter to pro-life club members which said, "The university has the right to control what people do on its private property," and stated that the university wants the display set up so "passersby could avoid the displays if they were to wish."

.... Stephanie Gray of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, commenting on the university's attempt to censor the pro-life club said, "There is an important principle of free expression on campus at stake here. Universities should not be allowed to censor controversial, unpopular or minority viewpoints. If the University of Calgary can censor GAP (on the basis of anonymous complaints from people claiming to be offended), this will have direct implications and consequences for all persons on university campuses throughout Canada (not to mention the state of free expression off-campus)."

"Can you imagine them making this demand (turning the displays inwards) of animal rights activists or those who protest the genocide in Darfur?" Gray asked.

Read entire...

Related:

Calgary Herald - "No good reason to squelch this debate"

World Net Daily "College threatens pro-life students with arrest"

Calgary Campus Pro-Life Club from where you can download pdfs of the threatening letter sent to the club and the club's response.

Center for Bio-Ethical Reform which sponsors the GAP Project.

View the 24 signs which make up a GAP display.

Quotes from people who have viewed the display.


Is there anything the layperson can do about this? Since education is a provincial responsibility, you might want to contact your MLA (if you live in Alberta):


- Search for your Alberta MLA by postal code

- Write the appropriate government minister

If you'd like to write your member of parliament (federal) find out who your MP is and the contact information here.

puppets shivering in the park

When Paul lists the things he's suffered for the gospel, I don't think he mentions freezing temperatures. He surely would have if he'd had any experience in Grande Prairie, Alberta at the end of August.

My friend Maralee Dawn (ventriloquist, minister to children) is there right now, doing a series of evening outdoor meetings sponsored by one of the local churches. Her blog this morning tells of last night's frigid temperatures and winds that nearly blew over the speakers. Two hundred were there despite that. Many made decisions for Jesus!

I just checked today's weather forecast for Grande Prairie. If anything it's even colder (predicted low of plus 3 - brrr) a veritable early winter! (Where's global warming when you need it?!)

Join me in praying for my friend, that even the cold and wind will work for God's glory - or that He will create a little pocket of warmth right over that park.

earth

Approaching Calgary, Alberta

***************

Thursday Challenge

Next Week: SPRING (Leaves on Trees, Baby Animals, Green Grass, Flowers, Sunny Days, Melting Snow,...)

easter pysanka

I've been saving this beautiful Vegreville pysanka statue / weather vane for this season. Here it is today -- a week before Good Friday.

We stopped in Vegreville on our trip through Alberta last fall to photograph this largest pysanka in the world. It was put up in 1974 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the RCMP and to celebrate the cultural diversity of the Vegreville community. Hubby, standing at its base, gives an idea of its size.


Pysanka are traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs. They are made with chicken eggs using a batik process, where wax, funneled through the tip of an instrument that's as fine as a pen, provides a resist to many baths of dye. The end result is amazingly intricate and colorful.

My husband is of Ukrainian descent and his mom had her own collection of pysanka -- not made by her, though.

For a detailed description of the process and explanation of what the colors signify, visit "Art of Ukrainian Pysanka" by artist and muralist Patricia Buzo of -- Patricia's Palette.

For a collection of hand-made pysanka that spans years, check out Luba Petrusha's Annual Collections gallery. Click on each year (top) to view the collection of that year's pysanka. Absolutely stunning!

"A system part Kafka, part Stalin"

Words Ezra Levant used in his opening statement to describe Canadian Human Rights Commissions.

In the YouTube he makes his opening statement, then goes on to answer the commission examiner's questions.



Hat tip: Muslims Against Sharia Law

Sign petition "A Free Dominion Against HRCs"

go for a walk!

Saturday night after the recent writer's conference I attended, I mentioned to hubby that there was nothing I'd like to do more than take a walk - especially if it could be beside the Saskatchewan River. But though he had scouted Edmonton during the day, neither of us had a clue about where to find access to the riverbank. We did eventually go for a walk that night. But it was in the West Edmonton Mall (hardly as pastoral as a river, but it was a walk!).


Imagine my joy the next day, though, when we visited my niece and she asked, would we like to go for a walk along the riverbank. Would we?!



A few days later, we walked along that same river in Saskatchewan with my brother and his wife. The riverbank here is much wilder than within the Edmonton city limits. But to our surprise, we found that civilization is encroaching. A whole new development is in the making on the hilltops with roads already built and lined with signs giving the plot numbers and names of owners. Only one house was built but another one was in the making. It felt strange to be hiking around on the rough cow-pie-strewn paths and hillsides, then to look up and see the long arm of a cement conveyer contraption hard at work. The people who live there will have this view.


The next day another brother took us on a walk to Beaver Creek -- a stream that feeds into the South Saskatchewan.


The area around Beaver Creek is criss-crossed with footpaths and is maintained as a conservation area by the Meewasin Valley Authority. It was a perfect place to walk on a crisp fall morning.




So don't spend the beautiful days of autumn inside missing summer. Go for a walk. All the better if you can do it beside a river or stream. But of course if you can't find one, there's always the mall.

light

Galaxyland
(Amusement Park in the West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Alberta)

*************

Thursday Challenge

Next week: THANKFUL (Family, Children, Home, Friends, Good Food, Beautiful Things,...)

back!

We're back. We arrived home yesterday from our two-week fall holiday. It was a fabulous autumn trip ...

past rivers,

(Photo: Wire Cache rest stop on the North Thompson River, Hwy 5 North - B.C.)

lakes

(Photo: Uppper Arrow Lake, Nakusp, B.C.)

and mountains

(Photo: Nearing the mountains west of Fort McLeod, Alberta)

all the while enjoying lots of this.

(Photo: Colorful hillsides between Merritt and Hope, B.C.)

I'll share a bit more in the days ahead.

(Thanks to all who prayed for my workshop presentations in Edmonton on the 29th. They went just fine, though of course I can always think of ways they could have been improved... if there's ever a next time.)