The Maple Leaf Lounge

[Timewalker]

Well, they don't specifically target us, but rather they've cut funding to programs and facility use that we've taken advantage of in the past, making it much harder for us to do anything. For instance, they would often advertise our events, usually with a sign right outside their office, which would in turn let park attendees know that something was happening in the park. But now that no longer will happen according to new park rules. We can't even mention that we're doing anything on social media. If we do anything at all, it has to be unofficially and without their help, and done on the down low.

Also we've for several years had a big outreach event happen in september/october that would attract a huge crowd in a rather big and popular park along with good speakers. It's been very successful for many years. One year we had Bob McDonald. The park was hoping to get designated with a special dark-sky status at one point, but now all that is up in the air, and there is no indication of the event happening at all this year.

But yeah, it is regressive of them, and to be honest, it feels rather reckless with no forward thinking at all.

Astronomy education tends to suffer under certain types of government, as they either consider it pointless fluff or they find it more convenient to have a dumbed-down populace that lacks science literacy. Some teachers won't teach it because the Big Bang clashes with their religious notions.

Just a couple of days ago I saw a meme in a Cosmos group on FB stating that there are more hydrogen atoms in a molecule of water than there are stars in our solar system.

It took a few people 30 seconds to a minute to parse this out, but most of us either immediately or soon nodded our agreement that yes, of course this made sense.

But then one idiot started carrying on that galaxies are really solar systems because they have stars, and another idiot stated that there are NO stars in our solar system.



I'd wonder if it's a recent thing that there are people who don't know that the Sun is a star, but am reminded of an old Jeopardy! episode in which the answer was "It's the nearest star to Earth."

Nobody got it right, and one woman got the vaguest, dimmest expression on her face and guessed, "Omega?"

Alex Trebek was surprised, and said in an "everyone knows this" tone of voice, "It's the Sun!"

 

[Owain Taggart]

It's not specifically about cutting astronomy funding, as it never was under their purview. It's more about the loss of funds overall and how the park system has ended up treating activities in the parks overall, which in turn has indirectly affected how we've been able to do things. Which IMHO is going to end up hurting them in the end. It's just frustrating watching it all erode, along with the support we used to have.

 

[Avro Arrow]

But yeah, it is regressive of them, and to be honest, it feels rather reckless with no forward thinking at all.

So at least it's on-brand for the Ford government, then.

But then one idiot started carrying on that galaxies are really solar systems

They must've been a fan of the old 70s Battlestar Galactica.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm just thinking of the experience I had as a student teacher in the fall of 1981, with a split Grade 3-4 class. The teacher asked if I wanted to teach a class solo, and what subject. I said science, and asked what she was planning for astronomy.

She said she hadn't been intending to teach anything of astronomy. So I said I would. Thank goodness for Cosmos, as I had all this wonderful Carl Sagan stuff to use as part of the presentation (the Cosmos calendar had some gorgeous images in it).

The hard part came when the kids wanted to know how the universe started. What do you tell kids when their regular teacher is right there, listening and evaluating, and you know she's a believer because she makes the kids - and ME - stand for the Lord's Prayer every morning.

This was the year before the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so I didn't yet have the ability to tell her that I wouldn't be praying with them and not risk a bad evaluation if she decided to be spiteful about it. A year later and she couldn't have touched me for any reason regarding religion.

Oh, and this was in a public school.

 

[Avro Arrow]

The hard part came when the kids wanted to know how the universe started. What do you tell kids when their regular teacher is right there, listening and evaluating, and you know she's a believer

So now I'm curious, what did you do?

 

[Owain Taggart]

So at least it's on-brand for the Ford government, then.

Yep, pretty much. This has been a disappointing goverment.

 

[DEWLine]

The Ford regime means to disappoint everyone in Ontario who has even a gram of basic intellect and decency. Their latest outrages are aimed at safe consumption sites.

 

[Timewalker]

So now I'm curious, what did you do?

I tap-danced around it very carefully, with the "some people believe this, and the astronomers have observed that." Above all, I did my best to be neutral about it. It may seem like a copout, but people need to understand that this woman had the say over whether or not I'd be allowed to continue in the B.Ed. program.

She could have given me a negative evaluation for any reason, and I didn't want to risk the possibility that she could be that petty and spiteful. I didn't have the Charter protections that atheist student teachers/full-fledged teachers have now. I did express my anger over this to the instructor at the college who was in charge of our practicum placements. There wasn't anything he could do, of course, but he'd take my feedback and maybe do something about it for the next batch of student teachers.

If she hadn't been so pushy with her religion - she wouldn't even let me opt out of prayers quietly, nooOOOooo - I'd have just given them the Big Bang theory, no 'beliefs' required.

 

[Marc]

The Ford regime means to disappoint everyone in Ontario who has even a gram of basic intellect and decency. Their latest outrages are aimed at safe consumption sites.

oh come on.

Anyone with a half a brain should know that setting up a drug consumption site close to schools or where children are is not good move.

There's a safe consumption site on the route I take when walking into the downtown core and I see the people hanging around there all the time so I can understand why parents would be concerned when they've got little kids going to and from school going past similar locations.

So if they had set them in different location they wouldn't be in this situation.

We're also getting a treatment centre which has been championed by our conservative MPP who secured the funding, because safe consumption sites need to go hand in hand with treatment efforts to get them off the drugs.

 

[HotRod]

oh come on.

Anyone with a half a brain should know that setting up a drug consumption site close to schools or where children are is not good move.

There's a safe consumption site on the route I take when walking into the downtown core and I see the people hanging around there all the time so I can understand why parents would be concerned when they've got little kids going to and from school going past similar locations.

So if they had set them in different location they wouldn't be in this situation.

We're also getting a treatment centre which has been championed by our conservative MPP who secured the funding, because safe consumption sites need to go hand in hand with treatment efforts to get them off the drugs.

Yeah, I'm no fan of Ford, but he's absolutely correct on this issue.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I love how admission to the Fort York museum is free. I learned a lot up there.

Sure, maybe I shouldn’t have been there in the first place (Americans, after all, were the bad guys back then) but, hey, I got over it.

srsly, I honestly had no idea that my people were the bad guys back then. I thought it was just a matter of the British burning down D.C. I didn’t know it was retaliation for US invading Canada.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I love how admission to the Fort York museum is free. I learned a lot up there.

Sure, maybe I shouldn’t have been there in the first place (Americans, after all, were the bad guys back then) but, hey, I got over it.

srsly, I honestly had no idea that my people were the bad guys back then. I thought it was just a matter of the British burning down D.C. I didn’t know it was retaliation for US invading Canada.

Wait, whut? Do they not teach the War of 1812 in American schools?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Wait, whut? Do they not teach the War of 1812 in American schools?

Yes, they do, but it looks like I could stand to learn a little more. So maybe it’s a good thing that I went up there after all.

 

[Owain Taggart]

srsly, I honestly had no idea that my people were the bad guys back then. I thought it was just a matter of the British burning down D.C. I didn’t know it was retaliation for US invading Canada.

You learned not to mess with us.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You learned not to mess with us.

…This is true.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I understand that it's pretty much a footnote in American history, but for Canada, it was a huge deal. It wasn't even a War that we wanted to get dragged into. It dates back to a time when Vermont was still a Republic, and the thought was that if they snuck through to Quebec City, first by taking over Fort Ticonderoga from the French, that they could easily take it. And you can thank Benedict Arnold for that. The journey they took through the swamps would make for an interesting movie, to be honest.

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[Mr. Laser Beam]

On a lighter note, this is the 10th anniversary of the time I first came to Canada.

Originally it was just a matter of the SkyDome being on my bucket list of ballparks. But I fell in love with this country practically as soon as I got off the plane.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I love how you keep calling it the Skydome, its original name vs Rogers Centre. I'll never call it Rogers Centre You're one of us.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Now I know what “Let’s Go to the Ex” means!

srsly, I like the CNE very much, I had a great time, and I should have done this a long time ago.

I go home tomorrow morning, and I will miss this place. Just wait till next year!

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ottawa's also had the SuperEX, otherwise known as the Central Canadian Exhibition, but the last time they had it was in 2011.