Amid his party’s plummeting polling numbers, Progressive Conservative Premier Jim Prentice needed to re-connect with voters and rebuild trust for his party during the leaders debate last night.

Instead, he told the only woman on stage that “I know the math is difficult…” in a discussion around tax increases. Very soon after #MathIsHard started trending in the province and NDP leader Rachel Notley was able to remind viewers that this is the leader who doesn’t want Albertans to “worry their pretty little heads.”

There’s an adage that governments typically lose elections, rather than opposition parties win them. In this case, I think Prenctice just lost it and Notley has a truly unexpected chance to win it.

For more on the debate, read Don Braid’s analysis in the Calgary Herald.

It’s not so much the parents who bother me in this story as the Canadian Teachers Federation, the local school councils, and particularlu the Edmonton Journal who all give far greater space to these conspiracy theories than to sound science and expertise.

Out of the 17 paragraphs in her article, journalist Andrea Sands gives just two for a response from Health Canada. She even repeats tired arguments that the World Health Organization thinks wifi is caucing cancer in children. In fact they have studied the issues and have conculded the opposite. With respect to mobile phones:

A large number of studies have been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use.

and low-frequency electromagnetic fields:

…there are no substantive health issues related to ELF electric fields at levels generally encountered by members of the public.

and wifi and base stations:

Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects.

For more on the anti-wifi industry in Canada, see Bad Science Watch’s 2012 position paper.

I’ll leave the last word to Paula Simons, a fellow journalist at the Edmonton Journal:

Why are human beings – especially that subset of humanity known as parents – so bad at assessing risk? Why can some sorts of parents shrug off or dismiss the known risks of deadly infectious diseases such as polio and whooping cough – and then fret over the largely imaginary, unproven “dangers” of WiFi? No, we can’t insulate our children from every possible harm. But surely, we can do more to protect them from the dangers of scientific illiteracy and modern-day Luddite-ism.

Low and behold, the defendant in the case, Ladislav Mihaly, emailed me with a follow up request for help.

My name is Ladislav Mihaly, and I am the Engineer who won the case Ladislav Mihaly vs. APEGA.

I do not intend to publish my opinion regarding the Tribunal decision and fighting APEGA over the Internet as they do with me. I am writing you this E-mail, because you probably could help me to start a discussion or challenging AL GORE, APEGA and all the scientist of the World. I want to show to people that the whole theory about Human effect on climate is only spam and has nothing to do with carbon dioxide. My evidence is very clear and simple calculation. Also I want to prove that the ethanol fuel is generating around 1.8 times more carbon dioxide as the regular hydrocarbon based fuel. I already many years ago wanted to publish my evidence, but all the Canadian Universities, APEGA and Government just ignored my new development. In case if I could publish my calculation, I could prove that my Engineering skill and education level is farewell above the recent scientist level. I would like to ask you to take the position of the moderator, to avoid dirty and unhealthy discussion over the net. The calculation is only small part of my scientific study and development, but could lead to suspension of Nobel prize for Al Gore.

Please let me know if you are ready to hand this kind of open and public discussion.

Thank you in advance.

Ladislav Mihaly

Yep, our persecuted foreign engineer has a “evidence” that climate change is not human caused. This, despite the position of the overwhelming majority of the world’s climate scientists.

So while I maintain my position that Mihaly’s complaint was valid and that his application for certification should be evaluated on its merits, I can’t say I’d be cheering for him to be certified any time soon (even though climate change denialism is rampant among engineers – here’s an enlightening survey of APEGA members).

The 67 page decision is available on the APEGA website.

So what happened?

Ladislav Mihaly was trained in (then) Czechoslovakia  and earned two Masters degrees in engineering. He applied to APEGGA to register as a professional engineer in 1999. APEGGA required Mihaly to pass a standardized engineering ethics exam (NPPE) complete three confirmatory exams and take or pass an engineering economics equivalent exam. Mihaly failed his first attempt at the NPPE and missed the makeup exam do to a car accident.

He requested a reactivation of his application in 2002, and only then claims to have been made aware that his degrees were not considered equivalent to even a bachelors in Alberta. Mihaly argued with APEGGA that his experience should allow him to waive the make-up courses and exams, as any graduate ten years out of college likely has little time, energy, or even ability to pull the random skills out they learned in college (does anyone remember how to integrate by parts). He subsequently failed his NPPE again and APEGGA withdrew his application for not writing the exams within an allotted period.

In 2006, Mihaly tried again (not being certified by APEGGA would mean that he could not work as an engineer, many in that situation end up in minimum wage and entry level jobs – think of the foreign doctor or professional driving taxis). With an updated CV, APEGGA still requested he complete the three confirmatory exams and economics course. They also rejected his one year of experience at a Calgary gas company as insufficient. He refused to write the required exams and in 2008 filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

In evaluating the credentials of foreign applicants, APEGA uses a few different criteria:

1. If they’re familiar with the university and consider it equivalent to an Albertan school, you simply take the ethics exam.
2. If they’re familiar with the university but think it’s missing some aspects, you are required to take make-up exams/courses and the ethics exam.
3. If they’ve never heard of your school, you take all the make up exams/courses and the ethics exam.

APEGA judges schools based on global “foreign degree” lists, which it shares with similar professional bodies across North America (who all have roughly similar accreditation procedures).

In coming to their decision, the Tribunal wrote:

[180] In any event, I do find that certain requirements for licensure made of Mr. Mihaly perpetuated disadvantage thus constituting substantive discrimination… The imposition of additional exams or requirements without appropriate individualized assessment or the necessary flexibility, restricts the ability of immigrants to work in their respective professions and continues to perpetuate disadvantage in these groups. … While I understand that the imposition of policies to ensure competency and safety in professional fields may be necessary, the nature of certain policies imposed by APEGGA on immigrants such as Mr. Mihaly with foreign credentials, appear too restrictive and categorizes immigrants, not based on individual assessment, but rather on the country from which qualifications were received.

…

[201] In my view, this process [of using foreign degree lists], which relies mostly upon secondary sources of information and global criteria, is a poor substitute for directly assessing the education of IEGs who come from different countries. Such an assessment has the potential for significant inaccuracies and has very significant effects on foreign trained engineers.

…

[211] The problem with requiring the FE exam for all candidates is that it is a one size fits all approach without taking into consideration an individual’s background, specific training and experience.

The exam is compared to a case where a competent female firefighter lost her job after a “run 2.5 km in 11 minutes” test was introduced.

The decision notes that APEGA’s “individualized assessment” is mainly a review of documents to decide what exams to give the applicant. It only looks at transcripts, resume, references, and lacks a full view of the applicant’s history, leaving it ill-suited to judge their competency. The law governing APEGA requires it to “correct a perceived academic deficiency,” yet it does this solely by assigning exams. No specific interventions or efforts to help an applicant are provided, despite the “integrative approach” specified in law.

In paragraph [222], the decision notes that despite taking the National Professional Practice Exam (NPPE) three times and failing, APEGA provided little more than a study kit. No effort was made to train Mihaly nor were alternatives suggested.

[223] The approach here is again a one size fits all approach like that taken with the FE exam. This approach is particularly unhelpful to foreign trained engineers who need assistance in understanding APEGGA process and its requirements.

APEGA argued that with 68,000 members and 1500 international applications per year, additional efforts would be too onerous on APEGA (similar arguments form the basis for their appeal). But the tribunal argues that given APEGA’s own numbers, only 375 applicants per year would require individual consideration – a not prohibitively large number for a group as wealthy as APEGA.

Mihaly asked for no specific remedy from the court, except for noting his possible monetary losses due to his inability to practice as an engineer. Nevertheless, the tribunal awarded him $10,000 in damages from APEGA and demands that APEGA fully consider Mihaly’s qualifications and aid him in developing any lacking skills.

My thoughts on the case

Engineers tend to be conservative and resistive to change. APEGA has an important role to play in the safety of Albertans and no one is arguing for a relaxation of standards for engineering certifications. The current system aims to put the onerous on foreign applicants to prove their competency, while engineers trained in Alberta schools benefit from a more straightforward path. Discrepancies will always exist though between jurisdictions with different priorities, so some test must be applied.

In its current state, the tribunal found that APEGA did the least it possibly could in judging foreign applicants. It relied on second-hand standardized rankings of international schools, gave standardized tests to applicants, and offered little to no help in studying for those tests. Those with inadequate training are required to take make-up courses, which ignore potential on-the-job experience that might make up for any gaps.

The tribunal is not calling on APEGA to throw out their standards or even radically change them. Simply to take into account individual circumstances with honesty and integrity. By blanket-assessing all foreign applicants into a minimal number of possible paths, and without providing support to those who require it, APEGA puts barriers in place for applicants from less wealthy countries.

These barriers may not be insurmountable for all but their existence is a form of discrimination and having made no effort to remedy it, I side entirely with the Tribunal.

Broader comments

In almost every court case I read of in the media, the issue tends to get parsed down to sound bites. In this case a racist professional association versus a lazy foreigner who didn’t want to jump through the proper hoops.

The truth is always much more complicated than that though. I just wrote over a thousand words on a case that spans 67 pages. And in that case a lot of detail is fleshed out.  And in almost every case, I find myself in full agreement with the judge’s reasoning. When you go through the arguments, considered logically and based on the principles of fundamental human rights, it should at least be understandable, if not agreeable.

And of course, it doesn’t surprise me in the least that APEGA has acted in this way and intends to appeal the decision, having dealt with similar organisational inertia in my protest of the Iron Ring ceremony (which involves the same people but is not officially a part of APEGA). Hopefully this brings about some discussion amongst the membership and puts some pressure on APEGA to consider how to develop more inclusive procedures.

Few predicted any chance of him losing his position in yesterday’s election and perhaps the only shock was the size of his victory, with 74% of the city voting for him.

Meanwhile, Edmonton saw a heated race as popular incumbent Steve Mandel opted to retire on a high note (rather than be unseated like most of his predecessors). Three councillors stepped forward to challenge for the seat, with Don Iveson’s ‘policy wonk’ campaign taking over 60% of the vote in the end. Iveson’s campaign drew on his time at the University of Alberta and engaged a number of my friends.

Both mayors have promised to slow urban sprawl by investing in urban density, mass transit, and bicycle lanes. This approach is familiar and popular in Vancouver, where Gregor Robertson is equally popular.

The results aren’t too surprising for anyone who closely follows Alberta politics. Despite the province’s tendency to vote overwhelming for Conservative provincial and federal parties, the cities tend to be more liberal and many mayors of both major cities have been further to the left than their provincial and federal colleagues.

Meanwhile, a right-wing slate of candidates for Airdrie’s city council was rejected in favour of the incumbents.

And congrats to my aunt who was re-elected to the Rocky View Municipal Council.

Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, Alberta MLA Mike Allen was charged in the summer with prostitution while on a trip to St. Paul, Minnesota. He left the governing Progressive Conservative caucus and currently sits as an independent.

He has been consulting with his constituents on whether to resign his seat and has attracted the support of an unlikely source:

…sex workers in Mr. Allen’s riding of Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo want him to continue as their MLA.

The press release also states “that his activities in Minnesota would be lawful, private and welcome in Alberta, where Sex Workers are pleased to consider respectful requests for personal services.”

Finally, perhaps as a nod to the small-c conservative spirit of much of Alberta, they close:

Most Alberta Sex Workers function successfully as Independent Small Businesses. They demand that their occupational choices be respected.

Chubb was asked in 2011 about a proposed anti-homophobia policy at the Edmonton Public School Board (which was passed). As head of the school, Chubb stated in an interview about his school:

It’s not that we are anti-gay in any way, shape or form. We just need to be able to articulate the moral element to all Christianity … and our Christian community is not able to accept that homosexual acts are not immoral. If you don’t feel comfortable with your children in that kind of milieu, don’t send your students here.

It’s worth noting that since 2004 Meadowlark Christian School has been operated as an Alternative Program within Edmonton Public School Board. This means that despite parent’s paying up to $1,600 in tuition for their child to attend, the school still receives public funding and can discriminate against staff and faculty who aren’t Christian enough. Furthermore, it means that Chubb’s 2011 comments represented a desire to violate a proposed policy of their own school board.

When asked by local blogger Daveberta about the comments, Chubb argued the views were those of the parents and that

My position now, as it was then, is that you cannot legislate belief. I am a firm advocate for freedom of speech and conscience. I staunchly defend those who are discriminated against in any way.

Perhaps Chubb was just doing his job but the argument that “some” students should not be sent to some schools offered by the Public School District only highlights the discriminatory nature of permitting faith-based schools within a public system.

Edmonton voters, it’s up to you to push for a secular school board. Get informed and vote wisely.

One such front group in Edmonton, Alberta offers a program called “WAIT! Let’s Talk Sex!” to local schools, with a strong emphasis on abstinence-only based education. Education that has been demonstrated time and again to fail students, leading to higher rates of dangerous sex, teen pregnancy, and sexually-transmitted infections.

The program is designed to fit the provincial curriculum for grades 7 through 10 and they claim to have reached 14,000 students in Edmonton and area. Edmonton’s ostensibly secular public district has about 80,000 students and lists the centre as an “approved vendor.”

There is a petition circulating to get Edmonton Public Schools to bar these ministers from proselytizing to students and to instead teach comprehensive sexual education, as mandated by the Alberta curriculum.

Sign and share it now.

If you live in Edmonton, make sure you contact your Public School Trustee candidates and have them pledge to keep Edmonton Public Schools secular.

(H/t Luke Fevin)

Keep it up!

And when I say “we,” what I really mean is you. I’m looking for people to take up some of these projects so I can proceed with the things I already have on my plate! If you are interested, contact me;I’ll provide more details and introduce you to the people you’ll be working with. If you’re not interested, I’ll have to let these opportunities slide, and that would be a shame. So show some interest, people!

This is a summary of the suggestions I brought up at the CFI meeting on Thursday, July 18, 2013.

Aron Ra

• He is speaking in Toronto in September, date to be announced.
• Pending Nate’s approval (to be sought prior to making further arrangements), we would need to cover his travel, accommodations (he is willing to billet), and it would be very helpful if we could offer him a modest honourarium, enough to cover incidentals (taxi, meals, baggage claims, etc.) and to help offset lost income.
• I am happy to be Aron’s liaison and driver, and I anticipate the usual suspects will mobilize to make this event happen.
• We might like to collaborate with CFI Vancouver and the Greater Edmonton Skeptics Society on this, to make this a “Canadian tour” and to share expenses.

United Coalition of Reason

www.unitedcor.org

“The United Coalition of Reason is a national organization that works to raise the visibility of local nontheistic groups all over America. Nationally, we do this by conducting campaigns which highlight the fact that non theists live in every community across America. Locally, we do this by promoting informal cooperation among local groups, hosting local coalition websites, training group leaders, and funding publicity campaigns.”

• Per our discussion in the meeting, these are the folks who do billboards and bus ads!
• Vancouver is the only Canadian city represented – we can’t have that!
• Fred Edwords has offered to visit Calgary and Edmonton to help set up Coalitions in both cities. We need to identify and engage an appropriate representative in Edmonton.
• This is a good volunteer opportunity for someone who can do website updates in a timely manner and is connected (or wants to connect) with the various groups in and around Calgary.
• For more information:  http://www.unitedcor.org/national/page/start-local-coalition.

The Secular Coalition for America is seeking Canadian participation

www.secular.org

• Two years ago, when Sean Faircloth was Executive Director, I was invited to attend and participate in their Bi-Annual Summit and Lobbying Day. David Niose is now President and Edwina Rogers is now Executive Director. I also attended and participated in their Bi-Annual Summit and Lobbying Day this year. Awesome organization,tackling many issues common to Canada.
• Edwina recently approached me about the possibility of starting up a Chapter, and I told her I would help make that happen. This is an excellent opportunity for someone interested in participating in Canadian politics to align with an experienced,effective lobbying group. And with Harper running things, we clearly need this. 

Camp Quest

We’ve been talking about doing something like this in Calgary for years, and with all the great venues within driving distance of here, what better place? Let’s make it happen!

• Due to rapid expansion the wonderful folks at Camp Quest cannot help us directly, but they have offered us access to all the relevant materials to set up our own.
• It is useful to keep in mind that one of my contacts says volunteering for this requires a substantial year-round time commitment. He also reports that it is very rewarding and worthwhile.
• One year lead time is required, so it’s already time to start scoping venues, checking availability, and putting together a team to help make this happen in 2014!

Garage Sale (CFI Fundraiser)

• I still have donations from last sale.
• Sunnyside School Fall Fair is being held on Saturday, September 28, and I recommend we do the garage sale on the same day (as was done coincidentally for our first garage sale; this will be our second). My house is across the street, with a garage that opens onto the street in a popular, pedestrian-friendly inner city district.
• Need volunteers to receive and field donations, make signage, price items and put them on display in an appealing manner, etc., beginning AT LEAST TWO DAYS IN ADVANCE. 

Other things:

Note the amazing t-shirt I was wearing at the meeting! When I tabled at the American Atheists conference as a representative of Atheist Alliance International, I ordered too much merchandise. If you’d like anything, I can get the following items for you:Atheist Alliance t-shirt, Atheist Census t-shirt, Secular World t-shirt(limited edition – tagline is now “a positive voice for global atheism,” see photo) for $20 each; white AAI-branded water bottle for $28, shown here:http://www.zazzle.com/atheistalliance+gifts. Note that these prices are lower than those posted on the website. I also have “circle-A” atheist pins in gold, silver and bronze tones for $7 each. Let me know by August 15, and I’ll have them sent to me. I will also include with your order a back-issue of Secular World magazine.

Light the Night Walk

Don’t forget to join the Foundation Beyond Belief Calgary’s Light the Night team, or sponsor one of our team members: http://pages.lightthenight.org/2013/FBB. The walk takes place on Saturday, October 5, at Eau Claire.

 

Christine Shellska

Atheists tend to be a very skeptical bunch – at least those who participate in online communities, so when an email arrives in my inbox titled “AtheistCensus Mailing List – Action Required” when I never signed up for such a thing, my skeptisense gets tingling.

Thank you for your interest in www.atheistcensus.com. We are reaching out to the world and getting atheists and agnostics on the same page. Please opt in to receive our emails on our progress.
Your address: [email protected] has been subscribed. Click Yes, I want to join! to confirm your subscription. If you did not intend to subscribe, simply ignore this message and your e-mail address will be removed from our records.
You can cancel your subscription or change subscription preferences by clicking the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of any e-mail message we send to you in the future.
Thank you again for joining.
Sincerely,
AtheistCensus

---

This email was sent by AtheistCensus, PO Box 4567, Edmonton, Alberta T6A2Y7 , using Express Email Marketing.
Express Email Marketing has a zero-tolerance spam policy. Please report spam by clicking here

On seeing this, I sent a reply to [email protected] – the default reply address – and later to [email protected] – the email listed on their website.

I did not complete your survey and am not ready to be included in your database. Please remove my email and tell me how you obtained it.

Your website mentions "We are committed to 100% transparency," yet you include no names as to who registered your domain, or how you plan to use "90% – funds atheist & agnostic organizations and promotion" without working with existing atheist and humanist organizations that have done decades of legwork on secular issues and community building.

One may even think your website is little more than a religious attempt to simply catalogue as many atheists around the world as possible.

Ian Bushfield

This was 4 days ago, and I have yet to see a single response.

A bit of Googling returns a self-published press release from Lucas Matheson of Edmonton, bragging about the “Official Launch” of Atheistcensus.com as well as a somewhat spammy Twitter account. There is also a blog post by Leo Tarvi that is as equally skeptical as I am about the purpose of this site.

This entire story is quite similar to on from last year where an American pastor made news for calling for a “national registry” of atheists.

I haven’t signed the census for a few reasons:

• The hypocrisy of claiming to be 100% transparent but yet providing no information about who’s running the page
• The claim that 90% of their funds will go to “atheist & agnostic organizations and promotion” lacks any credibility as no one knows this guy, especially when they also claim not to be affiliated with “any external parties”
• There’s no incentive or benefit. With my local groups, I help build an actual community. With blogs, I communicate to others. All this does is give some pseudo-anonymous guy my email address.
• Despite being active in the atheist community in Edmonton for 3+ years, I have never heard of this Lucas Matheson.

Overall, it’s far too sketchy and lacks any effort to actually build a real (online or offline) community. It’s a perhaps novel idea, but otherwise it seems like little more than a marketing gimmick.