Enter Jake MacDonald, playwright.

His appropriately-titled comedy drama The Cottage looks at this Canadian conundrum in the round, and from a perspective three decades in the making. It premieres April 24 at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.

Although this is his first stage play, MacDonald [BA/71] has built a highly successful career as a writer since he abandoned his master’s degree to live on a houseboat in Minaki. His novels, short stories, magazine articles and film scripts are all set against the backdrop of the Canadian Shield with characters who reflect how people behave once they’ve left their structured, socially-constrained life in the city.

The wilderness, as MacDonald tells it, is “where all bets are off.”

He sat down with UM Today to talk about his play and the larger question of what happens to us when we escape to the woods every long weekend.

WITHOUT GIVING TOO MUCH AWAY, CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT THE COTTAGE IS ABOUT?

It’s Labour Day weekend. An aging matriarch and her kids gather and during dinner she says “OK, listen, this might be my last visit to the cottage, I’m not getting any younger.” The kids implore, “oh mom, you’re going to outlive all of us” etcetera. She says “nevertheless I want you to take over the cottage and I want you to figure out how you’re going to do that this weekend. There’s only one rule: no fighting, no arguing.”

AND SO BEGINS A VERY CANADIAN PROBLEM.

Yes, because when people inherit cottages it’s famous for tearing families apart. In fact, I heard a guy on CBC Radio who’s an expert on this and his advice was to not do it. Sell it, split the dough and get your own places. It’s very difficult to live under the same roof when you’ve all grown up and gone your separate ways.

Another element to the story is how the cottage experience is uniquely Canadian, and how important it is for Canadian people and our culture to have some sort of connection to the wilderness. I don’t think the average American would care about whether they know how to pitch a tent or paddle a canoe or clean a fish. There’s subcultures in the U.S. that care. But I think Canadians have a national pride in knowing their way around the outdoors. Cottages are a symbolic way of connecting to the wilderness and the outdoors. I think that’s part of what people will take away from the play too. It’s a salute to the importance of the outdoor experience for the Canadian identity.

DO YOU THINK WE BECOME DIFFERENT PEOPLE WHEN WE’RE “IN NATURE”?

It’s an important part of our personal value system so one can argue that you feel more complete when this stuff’s pulled together. Randall, the play’s main character, says she’s a better version of herself when she’s at the lake. If you take the idea that, for the most part, life is lived on a mundane, day-to-day level then to get out there and be her ideal self, she’s living on a higher level. So Randall’s preoccupation is “what if I just moved here? What if I just never left?” She wants to live the rest of her life on the ideal plane. It’s the ideal vs the pragmatic and those two things are on a collision course throughout the play.

Jake MacDonald

YOU’VE SPENT MOST OF YOUR LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS OF THE CANADIAN SHIELD. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT HUMAN NATURE FROM THIS?

I found living in Minaki to be like Noah’s Ark. You have one of each kind of person all trying to get along with each other. Small towns really are good for meeting and getting to know people well who are from different walks of life.

AND GOOD FODDER FOR STORYTELLING.

That’s right. It wouldn’t be typical, even in Winnipeg, to talk in depth off duty about what it’s really like to be an ER doctor, for example. But in a small town, the doctor is the one you’re staying up late with at night finding out about their work, or the town cop, or the local trapper or whatever. You get to know these people and you realize a lot of your stereotypical ideas don’t hold up. Everybody knows lawyers are conniving. But wait a minute, I know about 10 or 12 lawyers and none of them are like that! But that’s the stereotype against the reality of it.

CAN YOU GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU USE THIS IN YOUR WRITING?

The older brother (in The Cottage) is a bit of a bombastic fellow who’s pleased with himself. He’s a dentist, he’s got lots of money, he’s got a young girlfriend and he’s a bit of know-it-all. There’s different ways to play him. You could play him as a straight-ahead bombastic fool so when he says “look, I just want want’s best for everyone” everyone will go “oh yeah, sure”. Or he could say it with a little extra layer of irony which makes him more of an interesting character. He knows. There’s more self-knowledge there.

TYPICALLY, THE ONUS IS ON THE WRITER TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES. IN THEATRE, YOUR WORDS ARE TAKEN OFF THE PAGE AND ACTED OUT BY SOMEONE ELSE. HOW HAS IT BEEN, SEEING YOUR WORDS AND IDEAS PERFORMED?

The collaborative process at RMTC is to come up with all kinds of ideas. I either say that’s not gonna work and this is why or I don’t like that but this is a good idea. There’s a scene in the play where Randall and her mom are eating breakfast and her boyfriend unexpectedly shows up – which is complicated because she’s having a fling with a local guy at the lake.

In my initial script, they just walk in and she goes “so nice to see you honey!”. But one of the actors suggested her brother says “OK close your eyes” and he puts a bandana around her eyes and then the boyfriend walks in and goes “surprise!”. It’s just a little touch but one of the reasons why that’s a great idea is I’m a person who writes stories on the page – but that’s a visual device. Anytime you can act something out – they’re actors – let them act it out. It takes a bit of work or time to get used to the idea of doing things physically so people can see it happen without getting told about it happening.

For tickets to The Cottage, please visit the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre website. 

Hindle [BSc(Hons)/00, MSc/02] – an assistant professor of biology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas – studies seals, sea lions, and hibernators who thrive in extreme conditions, in an effort to understand how humans can overcome our own physiological challenges. Earlier this year, she received an Honoured Alumni Award from the U of M’s Faculty of Science.

For World Wildlife Day, UM Today spoke to Hindle about what we can learn from some of the cutest animals in the sea.

WINNIPEG IS THE FURTHEST AWAY FROM THE OCEAN AS YOU CAN GET. HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN THESE MARINE ANIMALS?

Actually, we have a couple of really iconic diving mammals right at home in Manitoba. I had a chance to begin my studies working with diving muskrats while at the U of M. We have so much water in our province and I suppose I grew up loving our lakes and rivers. Working with marine animals later in my career was not as big a jump you might expect.

HOW DID THE U OF M SHAPE YOUR PATH IN SCIENCE?

U of M was instrumental in allowing me to gain a broad foundation of knowledge. Research was interesting and accessible within my undergrad program. As I moved into a graduate degree, I learned to think about research questions to understand how animals thrive within their ecosystems, using a combination of lab and field approaches. This integrative style of thinking has continued to define my research.

THIS YEAR, WORLD WILDLIFE DAY IS FOCUSING ON MARINE SPECIES TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THEIR IMPORTANCE TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. CAN YOU GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THEM?

One very interesting thing we have learned is that marine mammals are natural ocean explorers. When you think about it, I guess it is not that surprising! So, instead of traveling around the ocean ourselves taking measurements of water quality and content, some research groups have started to deploy miniaturized ocean monitors onto the backs of seals. These animals then travel to important ocean hotspots, teaching us both where they are and carrying instruments that will collect data about the water conditions there.

AS CLIMATE CHANGE PRODUCES MORE EXTREME CLIMATES AND WEATHER EVENTS, ARE YOU LEARNING ANYTHING THAT COULD HELP HUMANS ADAPT?

One thing that humans do very well is to modify our own environments when conditions are not optimal. That is a really powerful method of adaption. I worry most about how other species all over our planet will be forced to move or adapt. I truly hope that we can address some of these upcoming problems with new, green technologies.

AS SOMEONE WHO’S PARTICIPATED IN ASTRONAUT TRAINING, YOU KNOW THAT SPACE IS ALSO AN INCREDIBLY EXTREME ENVIRONMENT. HAVE YOU LEARNED ANYTHING FROM ANIMALS THAT COULD HELP US IN SPACE ONE DAY?

Absolutely! One example is that hibernating animals can teach us quite a lot about how to survive long-duration spaceflight. These animals seem to be able to resist muscle and bone atrophy while they are dormant throughout the winter. These are difficulties that astronauts face when they are away from Earth’s gravity for long periods. If we can understand some of the genetic and physiological strategies of hibernators to protect their bones and muscles, we may get clues that will help to keep astronauts healthy.

YOU CLEARLY KNOW MORE ABOUT MARINE ANIMALS THAN THE AVERAGE PERSON. WHAT OTHER COOL FACTS DO YOU BRING OUT AT PARTIES?

Elephant seals can hold their breath for over two hours. Seals can follow the wake trails of swimming fish using just their whiskers.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST MEMORABLE ADVENTURE SO FAR?

 I have worked with seals and sea lions from the North Pacific all the way to Antarctica. It’s hard to pick just one memorable moment… any experience where you get to just watch the animals do what they do best in their natural environment is pretty special. My most memorable experience is of a species that I wasn’t in the field to study. While tracking seals near the edge of the sea ice in Antarctica, a small group of killer whales approached us from the open water. They spy-hopped right up out of the water to get a closer look – they were watching us as much as we were watching them. In hindsight I realize they were likely considering if it was possible to eat us for dinner. I suppose in hindsight it was also a defining moment for me as a developing field leader that taught me a key lesson in taking a measure of the safety of my team. But since no one was eaten in the end, most of what I remember now is how amazing it was to get such a close look at the apex predator of the local ecosystem.  

Such is the invisible, yet highly-skilled, art of the film editor and Sanders [BA/67] is one of the best in the business.

His deft hand is behind such Hollywood notables as Coraline, A Dangerous Method, and 16 of David Cronenberg’s films including A History of Violence.

UM Today spoke to Sanders in Toronto about the secrets to success in film and an editor’s influence on the final product.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN FILM?

It was actually at the U of M on a film called And No Birds Sing. There was no film studies department at the time but I had met a couple of guys from Toronto who were working in the film business. They came back to the U of M to do a film because that was the vogue in those days and persuaded UMSU to spend money on a film instead of a musical which they usually did.

An English professor named Victor Cowie wrote the script and the guys I knew helped direct it. I talked my way onto it and became the clapper/loader in the camera department, loading the magazines. Which of course I’d never done but they taught me to do it.

On the second day, the first assistant cameraperson didn’t show up so I had to do that, and I didn’t know how to do that either. But that’s the secret when you’re starting out in the film business: say you can do everything, then when they ask you do it, try. If I didn’t know how to do something – which was quite often in those days – I’d find somebody to ask. You have to have some sort of talent for it, but that’s pretty much how it still goes.

WHEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT MOVIES, THE DIRECTORS, ACTORS, AND COMPOSERS GET A LOT OF THE ATTENTION. RARELY ARE THE EDITORS MENTIONED. DO YOU FIND IT DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN WHAT YOU DO?

When people don’t understand how a film is shot, they don’t understand what I have to do. If they’re in the business, they know the value of it. Otherwise, people haven’t a clue.

It’s easy enough – give me half an hour in the cutting room and I could show somebody – but it’s pretty hard to explain. When a scene is covered from six or eight angles and eight, 10 or 12 takes per angle, you have to find the performance. It’s your job to help the director realize their vision and to protect the actors by making the best of their performance.

Finding performance is the fun part, and it’s the hardest. I think I can probably do 98 per cent of it in my sleep but it’s the other two per cent that’s really hard and keeps me interested.

HOW DO YOU SERVE THE DIRECTOR’S VISION WHILE STILL BEING A CREATIVE INDIVIDUAL?

Well, it’s difficult. Like anybody else who does something creative you develop your own certain ways of doing things and it becomes a style. But I mean, you have to serve the film. I get the first cut and I cut it the way I want it, then show it to the director. That’s the most spontaneous time when I can try things and do what occurs to me. I have learned to listen to my intuition so for me, it’s all feel. If it feels good, it’s good.

A lot of that first cut will stay. Even if the director puts his or her stamp on it, they’re still working from what they shot and basing it on what I’ve cut the first time.

It takes years to put a film together and generally costs millions of dollars. One of the things I especially like about editing is at some point they just leave it with me and my assistant and go away. And I have these millions of dollars in my room. I enjoy that! 

EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT TASTE IN MOVIES. IS IT A CHALLENGE TO WORK ON GENRES YOU DON’T CARE FOR, OR GET INVESTED IN CHARACTERS YOU DON’T LIKE? 

It’s easy for me to get invested in the characters. It was a problem when I first started because I’d become so emotionally involved that I regretted the director changing anything. I had to tell myself “this is not my movie.” I’m involved in it emotionally, but it’s not mine. I had to learn that pretty quickly.

I don’t mind what’s in a genre; I’m focused on if it’s good. If the script is good and there’s a good cast in place – I try and make sure those things are in place before I say I’ll do something – then you will become invested in the characters because you’re sitting in a room with them every day for months. They become quite real.

DO YOU EVER MEET THE ACTORS OR DO THEY ONLY EXIST FOR YOU ON SCREEN?

We used to see them a lot more when we had screenings every night – Jeremy Irons came quite a lot. I go to the set every so often just to show my face. I got to know Viggo Mortensen quite well because we did three movies. I’ve gone to Chris Walken’s house. I’ve been to Martin Sheen’s house.

Most actors I’ve met are quite pleasant if a bit crazy. But that’s the industry. We all say to ourselves at one point “well, it’s better than having a job!” 

YOU’VE PREVIOUSLY SAID THAT “AMBIGUITY IS NOT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS IN MOVIES MUCH ANYMORE.” WHY IS THAT? WHAT VALUE CAN AMBIGUITY BRING?

There are so many movies where the ending is dictated by the studio either to be happy or tied up, or setting up the next movie in the franchise. I personally don’t care if anything is tied up; I argue generally for ambiguity. I like it, especially when you come out of a movie thinking “what’s going to happen to those characters next?”

IT CREATES DISCUSSION.

Yeah, and if there isn’t, there’s not much point. Sometimes I read comments about things that I’ve done and it’s always really interesting because some people have absolutely no clue what we were trying to do. But that’s fine, they get out of it what they get. Some director, it might have been John Huston, said to a critic: “You’re the ornithologist and we’re the birds.” And it’s true. You do something and it’s like a painter or writer or anyone else – you do what you do for the reasons you do it and then somebody else looks at it and finds meaning in it that possibly you never thought of.

Mean Dreams had a very ambiguous ending and the director and I had completely opposite thoughts of what was going to happen to the characters after the movie was over. They were trying to get to the California coast and I said ‘yeah, as soon as they get there they’ll be on the street.’ And the director was completely convinced they would be happy. We had no arguments about how the film should end, we just had completely different ideas about what would happen after.

For decades, the Holocaust educator has made it her life’s work to bolster curriculums and contribute to international resources so that the genocide of the Second World War is never forgotten or repeated.

January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945 – a day set aside by the United Nations to commemorate the Holocaust.

UM Today spoke to Jarniewski [BEd/93, CertTrad/02] from her office in Winnipeg about the importance of honouring this day in the face of growing acts of intolerance around the world.

UM TODAY: YOUR PARENTS WERE BOTH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS, WHICH CLEARLY GAVE YOU AN INTIMATE PERSPECTIVE ON THIS HISTORICAL EVENT. WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO MAKE IT YOUR MISSION TO HELP EDUCATE OTHERS?

JARNIEWSKI: My undergraduate degree at the U of M was in Education with a minor in Judaic Studies. As I began to work with students, it became very apparent to me that many of them knew very little, if anything, about the Holocaust. In fact, some had never met a Jewish person before encountering me as their teacher. I quickly realized how important it was to promote and engage in Holocaust education.

IS THERE A PARTICULAR LESSON THAT YOU THINK IS CRITICAL FOR PEOPLE TO LEARN?

The most important thing in my opinion is that indifference or silence is equivalent to complicity. Unless we speak out, especially given the rise of extremism and hate today, we risk having history repeat itself. Sadly, “never again” rings hollow.           

THERE’S BEEN A MARKED RISE IN ANTI-IMMIGRANT, ANTISEMITIC, AND NATIONALIST SENTIMENTS AROUND THE WORLD. IT MUST BE PARTICULARLY DISTRESSING FOR HISTORIANS LIKE YOU TO WATCH, KNOWING WHAT SUCH MOVEMENTS HAVE LED TO IN THE PAST.

The rise of populism, nationalism, and hate are very worrisome. Scholars (and even graduate students) in some countries are being harassed and/or threatened for writing or speaking about the complicity of their countries during the Holocaust. Holocaust distortion is becoming as much or more of a problem than Holocaust denial. The intense anti-immigrant sentiment in some countries and the hatred for and false characterisations of certain groups bear chilling parallels to the situation in the 1930s and 1940s. Therefore, it is more important than ever to remind people of what happened in the not-so-distant past and of the importance of speaking out on these issues.

YOU ARE DOING THAT NOW, AS PART OF THE CANADIAN DELEGATION TO THE INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE ALLIANCE. CAN YOU TALK A BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?

I serve on the Academic Working Group (AWG) and the Committee on anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial. Both groups are working very hard to preserve the historical narrative and to fight against attempts to distort it. The Committee on anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial elaborated and adopted the first intergovernmental definition of anti-Semitism, which has now been adopted by several countries and institutions within those countries. Recently, Western University became the first Canadian campus to adopt the definition. The definition is very important as it provides examples of what anti-Semitism is, and what it isn’t. 

IS THERE A PROJECT THAT YOU’RE ESPECIALLY PROUD TO HAVE BEEN A PART OF?

The adoption by the Plenary in Bucharest in 2016 was a particularly important moment for me – I felt history was being made. This year, the AWG asked its members to participate in a project which outlines anti-Semitic measures and legislation in our 31-member countries since the beginning of the 20th century.  I completed and submitted the research on behalf of Canada, which included the quota system for Jewish students at the School of Medicine in the 1930s and 40s.

SOME HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS ATTENDED THE U OF M, AS STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS, WHICH YOU CAPTURE IN YOUR BOOK VOICES OF WINNIPEG HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS. WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO TELL THEIR STORIES?

A local survivor felt strongly that their stories should be preserved in a format that would be widely accessible, especially to local students. We felt that reading about men and women who live or had lived in Winnipeg would make history more “real” to them.

As I was writing the book, it made me so sad to think about the suffering these wonderful people had endured. In many cases I had known them for years. Some provided me with old family photographs and seeing these photos which portrayed what they had lost were in many ways as upsetting as the horrific photos we see of the suffering and destruction.

IN YOUR OPINION, WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE AN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR THE HOLOCAUST?

In the Jewish community, we have Yom Hashoah (in the spring) which commemorates the Holocaust. However, an internationally acknowledged day encourages more than just commemoration and reaches a broader audience. Resolution 60/7 of the United Nations, which established International Holocaust Remembrance Day, encourages the development of educational programs to help prevent future acts of genocide. The resolution also condemns “without reserve” all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur.

While many of the UN member countries continue to engage in Holocaust denial and distortion as well as promoting anti-Semitic rhetoric, the day is observed solemnly and respectfully in many countries. I see this as an important weapon in the fight against Holocaust denial and distortion and a means of preserving the historical record. 

WHAT ARE SOME PRACTICAL WAYS PEOPLE CAN HONOUR THIS DAY?

The Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre partners with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and this year’s theme is “the music of remembrance”. There are free events on January 27 and 28 (visit FFFHEC’s website for more information).  If you can’t get out to an event, I would suggest going online to the Visual History Archive and viewing one of the more than 52,000 testimonies.

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial and the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial are the only two National Historic Sites of Canada located outside our country’s borders.

Elvina Mukhamedshina [BSc/16], a student in the Faculty of Education, was stationed at both sites over the past two years working as a student guide for Veteran’s Affairs Canada.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, UM Today spoke to Mukhamedshina about experiencing an important part of Canada’s war story.

MOST CANADIANS ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE BATTLE OF VIMY RIDGE, AND OUR SOLDIERS’ SUCCESS THERE. BEAUMONT-HAMEL REPRESENTS A DARK MOMENT IN OUR HISTORY. WHAT HAPPENED THERE?

July 1, 1916 is one of the bloodiest days in Commonwealth history; we lost over 60,000 men in one day. Along the front line, the Newfoundland Regiment suffered the second-highest casualty rate: 87 per cent of the Regiment was destroyed within half an hour. Beaumont-Hamel is a memorial to that Regiment’s sacrifice.
 
There were a lot of logistical problems. The Hawthorne Ridge mine exploded at the wrong time and ended up giving the Germans a warning of the impending attack. The range of the machine guns was too short so they didn’t hit the German line. Forty per cent of the shells never exploded, so that’s why a hundred years later you still find shells out in the fields.

The ‘danger tree’ at Beaumont-Hamel. // Photo by Elvina Mukhamedshina

There’s a tree that’s called the “danger tree” because a lot of bodies were recovered from there. It was the only tree out in the field, and for the Newfoundlanders it served as a landmark. When things were exploding and the visibility was so poor, they gravitated towards the tree to catch a breath and recover. They didn’t realize that for the Germans it was also a landmark: machine gunners cross-fired towards it so there was a high casualty rate around the tree.
 
At that point, many survivors would’ve been turning back, but not everyone made it because they carried these huge backpacks. On their backpacks they had little metal triangles that reflected the sun because their back lines wanted to see who their men were. But the problem is when you’re turning back, you become a target for your enemies. For Newfoundlanders it was a very, very tragic day.

IS THERE A PARTICULAR SOLDIER WHOSE STORY HAS STUCK WITH YOU?

I always mention Tommy Ricketts. He was only 15 when he joined the Newfoundland Regiment and he received the Victoria Cross at age 17. When they were fighting in Ledeghem, Belgium, there was a moment when the Newfoundland Regiment was almost destroyed and Tommy decided to take it upon himself to outflank the machine gun that was in the field firing on them. He ran alone across the field and was able to take down the machine gun and by doing so he was able to rescue his platoon and capture some German prisoners. He won the Victoria Cross for that. After the war, he went back to Newfoundland and became a pharmacist but he never ever talked about the war; it was a topic he never wanted to discuss again.
 
I share that story because he survived and he was so young but he never wanted to talk about it. Everyone is out there celebrating but for him it’s not a victory, it’s not a celebration. It shows you that dark side of war.

WHEN YOU TELL VISITORS THESE STORIES, HOW DO THEY RESPOND?
 
A lot of people leave with tears in their eyes. There was one soldier from Denmark who came to Beaumont-Hamel with his friends and at one point he couldn’t go further. He was so emotional. He was telling me how these are his brothers – they’re different ethnicities and nationalities and culture but they’re his brothers because they fought for peace. He fought in Afghanistan and he was saying how awful it is that we’re still fighting, that we still haven’t found a balance in the world where we can solve these issues with diplomacy, without having to shed blood. At the end, he gave me his regiment badge which I have now in one of my diaries.
 
It’s such an amazing experience giving tours. You’re suddenly connecting all these people from different corners of the world with different experiences. Because it was a world war, we were all affected.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TODAY’S SOLDIERS AND THOSE FROM 100 YEARS AGO IS THEIR AGE. YOU MENTIONED TOMMY RICKETTS WAS 15 WHEN HE JOINED. WAS THAT TYPICAL?

They were supposed to be 18 to join the army though many of them weren’t. There was this whole propaganda “you’re going to go to war; you’re going to do great things; you’re going to see the world; you’re going to kill the enemy and then come back home a hero”. Many of them fell into that. If they saw their friends or brothers going they all went. It was this big adventure. I always tell the teenagers on my tours “you guys always want to travel and go to Europe, to backpack and see the world and for them it was that same deal.” It was that kind of opportunity so they went and they didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into.

Mass graves at the Langemark German Military Cemetery in Belgium. Photo by Elvina Mukhamedshina

AS A GUIDE, WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU LEARNED ABOUT THE WAR THAT PEOPLE DON’T NORMALLY THINK ABOUT?

We took tours to Belgium as part of our training which included visits to the German cemeteries which is a whole other story … you walk in and each headstone marks a mass grave with nine to 18 soldiers buried there. It makes you feel so, so sorry for those men because even on our tours we’re encouraged not to use the word “enemy”. You don’t get to choose when you’re just born into country. They wanted to help, to live up to their motherland’s expectations. They had families at home, and they wanted to come back to marry or travel or become a doctor – but they never had a chance. It’s just unfortunate that they were in that situation. 
 

We’re all people and we all want to live in peace. Nobody wanted this war and I don’t think people realized where it was going to lead. They didn’t realize the consequences of what they’re getting themselves into. A lot of these people were pawns and just victims of bigger political ideas.

YOU GOT INVOLVED WITH VETERANS AFFAIRS AS SOON AS YOU GRADUATED. WAS THERE ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR U OF M EXPERIENCE THAT HELPED YOU BE A GREAT GUIDE?

I was always involved in leadership opportunities on campus. I volunteered at Student Life and in my second year I was captain for Orientation. As a captain you’re kind of taking people around, giving them a tour of the university, so I guess that was my first guide experience.  I was also one of the co-chairs for a Canadian conference in student leadership and worked with Mini U for a long time. The communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills that I gained through those experiences allowed me to take the leap.

Trenches at Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial.

THIS REMEMBRANCE DAY MARKS 100 YEARS SINCE THE FIRST WORLD WAR ENDED. HOW DO WE KEEP ALL OF THIS IN PERSPECTIVE A CENTURY LATER?

I think it’s so important for people to one day visit these memorials and see it for themselves. Being there, living the history, connects you from past to present. It’s a reminder to remember those men that fought for our future. If we don’t have Remembrance Day – if we don’t have people wondering and asking questions – then it’s almost like they died in vain. What did they fight for? Why did they sacrifice their lives? They decided to fight, they stepped up. The least that we can do is remember. The least that we can do is to study the history and take away the lessons from those conflicts so that we don’t repeat them in the future.
 
Being a student guide really reinforced my desire to go into education, to work with people and share my passion. As cheesy as it sounds, I tell my guide family we’re kind of little messengers of peace. We carry pieces of that experience with us no matter where we go. We will always be promoting remembrance.
 
Of the 1,119 graduates and undergraduates from the U of M who served in the First World War, 140 died in action and as a direct consequence of the war. Military honours were awarded to 267.

Decades later, Campbell [LLB/08] has turned this schoolyard discovery into a legal career which has taken her from Robson Hall to Oxford. Now, as a lecturer in law at the University of Birmingham, she is exploring how the international human rights system can best respond to gender inequality and poverty.

To mark Canada’s inaugural Gender Equality Week, UM Today spoke to Campbell from across the pond.

UM TODAY: WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO ENGLAND TO STUDY AND THEN TEACH?

CAMPBELL: When I graduated from Robson Hall, I worked as a lawyer for the Province of Manitoba. Then I started to get intellectual itchy feet. As a lawyer, you have to play by the rules—and this can require a lot of ingenuity and creativity—but as an academic lawyer you can think deeply about the rules are constructed and propose new rules. 

I decided to do an LLM at the University of Edinburgh for the adventure of studying overseas. I really enjoyed taking a comparative perspective on gender equality and wanted to continue with my studies. I decided to apply to University of Oxford, so that on my death-bed, I would know that at least I had tried to go to one of the foremost universities. I was incredibly fortunate to be accepted to do a DPhil at the University of Oxford under the supervision of professor Sandra Fredman.   

Meghan Campbell.

HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN GENDER EQUALITY?
 
My interest started early when my parents encouraged me to do well in math and other subjects at school and only in reading did I realize that the world was deeply structured around gender power imbalances.
 
At law school, we were taught Gosselin v Quebec, where the Supreme Court of Canada held that drastically reducing social assistance benefits to those under 30 was not in violation of the right to equality in The Charter. This seemed intuitively wrong. Human rights are for everyone, not only the wealthy and the privileged. The interpretation and understanding of human rights needs to account for different experiences, including how poverty acts as obstacle to equality. The professors at Robson Hall were incredibly supportive and encouraged me to follow this intuition into legally sophisticated arguments.   
 
I initially wanted my doctoral studies to focus on the role of the right to equality in redressing poverty. Professor Fredman channelled this idea to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. And this sparked my career in studying gender equality and international human rights law.
 
THOSE ARE BOTH VERY BROAD AREAS. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF HAVING ONE INFLUENCE THE OTHER?
 
A good example is the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). A majority of the world’s states have committed CEDAW so at the international level, states have a legal obligation to eliminate discrimination and achieve women’s equality in broad areas of life including civil, political, economic, social and cultural. The UN human rights accountability system develops the legal obligations and provides best practice guidance to the world’s state. The Committee that monitors CEDAW has been influential. It’s guidance on gender-based violence has been adopted by apex courts all over the world including India and the European Court of Human Rights.
 
Unlocking the potential of CEDAW to redress women’s poverty therefore provides a blue print that can influence states all over the world and marks a path forward for using human rights to tackle women’s poverty.  
 
YOUR RECENT RESEARCH HAS FOCUSED A LOT ON THIS AREA; CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE AVENUES YOU’RE EXPLORING ON THE ISSUE OF WOMEN’S POVERTY?
 
I just finished an article advocating that rural and northern life should be included as a ground of discrimination under The Charter. This could have a significant impact on women in Canada and around the world, as the empirical evidence shows that rural women are more disadvantaged than urban women and urban and rural men. Including rural and northern life as a ground of discrimination can empower rural women to hold the government to account for laws and policies that perpetuate rural disadvantage.
 
My next research project is focusing on how the duty of cooperation contained in core UN human rights treaties can redress the extraterritorial aspects of poverty. The acts and omissions of states can perpetuate poverty far beyond their borders. There is very little accountability for this cause of poverty. States have agreed to cooperate to realize socio-economic rights but this legal obligation has been overlooked in the evolution of human rights law. As women disproportionately rely on socio-economic rights, understanding how the duty of cooperation can strengthen their protection, this project has strong implications for the future protection of women’s rights.
 
GIVEN CANADA’S HISTORICAL TIES TO ENGLAND, HAVE YOU FOUND THAT THERE ARE SIMILARITIES IN THE WAY GENDER INEQUALITY IS BEING ADDRESSED BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES? ARE THERE DIFFERENCES?
 
There are marked similarities between the two countries as both are grappling with women’s disproportionate amount of unpaid care work, unequal pay, gender-based violence and high rates of poverty. Both countries have an active civil society committed to improving women’s lives and the governments in both countries are pursuing innovative methods to redress these inequalities including mandatory pay transparency and inquiries into violence against women.
  
The biggest differences between the U.K. and Canada in protecting women’s rights are due to the different constitutional structure.  The U.K. does not have a codified constitution. The constitution is spread among different pieces of legislation and constitutional conventions. As a result, the courts do not have the power to strike down legislation. Instead, the UK courts declare that the legislation is incompatible with the human rights legislation and the impetus then shifts to Parliament to correct this incompatibility. In Canada, the right to equality is entrenched in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and courts can strike down laws that violate women’s rights to equality. So the biggest differences are more in terms of legal structure and judicial review of women’s rights than the substantive content of gender equality. 

Such is the norm during the summer months in Rankin Inlet, where Brown [BA/10, MNRM/16] works for the Government of Nunavut as Acting Director of Nunavut Parks and Special Places.

After falling in love with Inuit culture and the lifestyle of Northern Canada during her undergrad, Brown moved to Nunavut once her masters was complete.

In anticipation of Canada’s Parks Day on July 21, we’re featuring alumni like Brown who live and work in our nation’s parks, historical sites and special places; alumni who get to call these Canadian treasures their “office”.

UM TODAY spoke to Brown about the challenges and the beauty of living in Canada’s North from her office facing the northern edge of Hudson Bay.

UM TODAY: WHEN WE FIRST CONTACTED YOU IN MAY IT WAS -1 AND SNOWING IN RANKIN INLET. NOW, IT’S 17 DEGREES. THAT SEEMS PRETTY WARM FOR THE NORTH!

Yes, people think that it’s always a vast frozen wasteland up here. Things thaw! And the landscape here is so diverse. At certain times of the year you can be walking along and see flowers of all colours: hot pink, bright yellow, crisp white, and then a little bit further along everything is covered in berries and you can just eat blueberries to your heart’s content. The landscape changes so quickly; you just round the next hill and you’re in a completely different kind of space.

There are no trees here except one area in Katannilik Territorial Park, which is near Iqaluit. There’s this little microclimate where they have willows growing and they’re about seven or eight feet tall. You’re like “what, why is this here?!” But that’s the Soper Valley – it’s beautiful!

DO YOU GET TO EXPLORE A LOT OF NUNAVUT, AS PART OF YOUR JOB?

Everything in Nunavut is dictated by the season and the weather. The winter is planning season so I’m in the office, but summer is completely different. Last year, for example, I had the opportunity to visit Qaummaarviit Territorial Park.  In order to get there we had to take a boat across Frobisher Bay and when you’re out there you might see pods of narwhals and belugas go by and all the shorebirds are flying overhead. It’s so beautiful, everything is rock and beautiful water and this big beautiful blue sky.  Qaummaarviit is an island so when you eventually make it out you’re stranded for a time when the tide goes out so you get to explore. My friends tease me and say my job is just picnics and boat rides!

SO WHAT EXACTLY DOES YOUR JOB INVOLVE, OTHER THAN ISLAND HOPPING?

In Qaummaarviit, we were there to do a cultural landscape resource inventory. We were looking at what the cultural resources are: archeological sites, wildlife areas, or harvesting areas where Inuit or people living in Nunavut might go and fish or hunt. We map what the resources are and that helps us define our master plans. What the boundaries of the park should be or the zoning. 

Exploring Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park. // Image from AMY BROWN @rock.water.sky (Instagram)

DO YOU DO THIS FOR ALL THE PARKS IN NUNAVUT?

There are 22 communities in Nunavut and our long-term goal is to have one park adjacent to each community across the entire territory. We work very closely with the Regional Inuit Organizations, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the park advisory committees, and the public to develop parks in a way that makes sense to the communities that we serve.  Sometimes there’s a strong preference for a wilderness park with very few amenities. Or maybe they want a park more closely associated with the community where there’s a day-use area or a lake to go swimming in. Another option is a historical park which would showcase some of the archaeological or historical features associated with the different regions.

For example, Iqalugaarjuup Nunanga Territorial Park was established to showcase the connection between Inuit and migrating caribou herds. Last year, during our Parks Day event, a passing caribou herd (roughly 100,000 animals), changed course and passed directly through the park.  Community members were concerned that vehicle traffic and public activities in the park would startle and potentially harm the animals. So the road leading into and out of the park was closed to allow the herd to pass by safely. In some cases this stranded park visitors in the park for several hours, but it was generally accepted that this was the best course of action to safeguard the herd, which is a food source for so many families that practice traditional subsistence hunting.  We now have plans in place to shift the Parks Day event to either before or after the herd migrate close to the park, to ensure the herd’s safety.

WHEN YOU WERE A U OF M STUDENT, DID YOU EVER IMAGINE YOU’D BE NAVIGATING CARIBOU HERDS IN YOUR CAREER? HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO MOVE UP NORTH?

Not really! When I did my undergrad, there was a travel study course offered by the Department of Native Studies and the Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources. They took a group of students to Pangnirtung, on Baffin Island, and we spent six weeks immersed in an Inuit community. We camped behind the town; met with elders almost daily for language classes; they took us hunting; we learned how to sew seal skin.

It completely opened my eyes to a Canadian experience that I knew nothing about. It resonated with how I wanted to live my life, so after I graduated and saw there wasn’t much resource development happening in southern Canada, I looked north. There was a position available so I said to my husband, “What do you think? Are you up for an adventure?” And he said yes. We moved up here in October 2016. 

LET’S TALK ABOUT LIFE UP NORTH. IT MUST BE VERY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT WE’RE ACCUSTOMED TO DOWN SOUTH.

Every community is a fly-in community. The Government of Nunavut provides staff housing for most positions so I live in a row house that’s connected to five other units that have teachers and nurses and other government workers living there. Our house is about six feet off the ground with fencing around the bottom to keep polar bears out. I’ve actually never seen a polar bear in town but I know they’re around so it’s just a precaution so you don’t step off the front step and feel an arm reach out and grab you.

In the winter time my husband and I walk wherever we go but there are roads here, lots of trucks. Rather than using a vehicle in the summer, we bought a quad because it’s much more versatile. The landscape in Rankin is very flat so we can drive on the roads in our quad but also go inland to see the caribou migrate, or go fishing, or out to people’s cabins.

There’s a lot of subsistence hunting here so when you walk through town it’s not uncommon to see caribou or even polar bear hides being stretched out on wood frames outside of people’s homes. Or caribou antlers left out for the dogs. Something I find quite interesting is to be walking along and seeing an entire muskox head with the horns and everything just waiting to be cleaned!

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FOOD?

Amy with Arrow the husky pulling home a sled full of food mail. // Image from AMY BROWN @rock.water.sky (Instagram)

We have three grocery stores up here but typically me and my husband order online from certain companies in the south, and they ship it up to us. There’s a separate section at the airport here where food mail comes in. We load up our sled, and we’ve taught our husky to pull it home on his harness. Food mail is more for fresh produce. For dried goods, we organize a sea lift. It’s like doing a big Costco run – you buy for the year – and certain companies will put it in a crate and make arrangements to go by train to Montreal, then by ship up to us. As long as you have some forethought you can get almost anything up here.

A lot of people pursue subsistence hunting. My husband and I don’t have the skills but we have been very blessed to receive traditional foods from our friends, neighbours and colleagues: muskox roast, ground caribou meat, or freshly caught geese.  We have learned to fish, and have been rewarded with some very tasty lake trout and arctic char.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE NEW FOOD THAT YOU’VE DISCOVERED?

The catch of the day after mussel picking. // Image from AMY BROWN @rock.water.sky (Instagram)

One of the most rewarding experiences of my life was learning when, where, and how to mussel pick with some of my Inuit coworkers. The Government of Nunavut encourages offices to have a cultural day on the land. The idea is to promote Inuit culture and traditions and share those with people who aren’t necessarily from here.  

We travelled to the coast and spent the day plucking mussels off rocks hidden underneath kelp, racing the tide to select the largest ones only exposed at the lowest of tides. I felt so proud of myself for collecting all these mussels, learning how to spill the sand out and clean them. Taking them home and making a beautiful meal out of something I harvested myself was a really rewarding experience.

DO YOU FEEL ISOLATED?

Life in Nunavut is different that it is in southern Canada. There aren’t the same amenities as those I used to take for granted.  We only have a handful of restaurants in town. Do I miss being able to sit in a café and chat with my friends? Of course. But living in the north makes you resilient. You adapt to thrive. There’s no sense dwelling on things that are out of reach. Instead, you need to make your own opportunities. What me and a group of friends do is have a themed dinner party once a month. If one of us says, “oh I really wish we could go for a falafel tonight” we might do a falafel-themed dinner, or Chinese, or Thai.

Some women I know missed their regular yoga practice. So they rented the school gym three nights a week and started their own ‘yoga studio’. The isolation provides opportunities to be more creative.

JULY 21^ST IS CANADA’S PARKS DAY. WHAT DO YOU WISH CANADIANS KNEW ABOUT OUR NORTHERN PARKS?

How accessible Nunavut’s Territorial Parks are!  Many of our parks are located within proximity to one of Nunavut’s communities.  In some cases, visitors can rent a truck or ATV and travel by road or maintained trail to the parks, where they will find amenities such as emergency shelters, tent platforms, outhouses, fire pits, and picnic tables.  Iqalugaarjuup Nunanga Territorial Park, located on the outskirts of Rankin Inlet, can be accessed by road between May and October. Visitors are often surprised to find a sandy swimming lake filled with children, interpretive walking trails, and a pavilion equipped with a wood stove and BBQ.

To see more photos about work and life in Nunavut, check out @umanitoba on Instagram on Friday, July 20. Amy will be taking over the U of M’s account for the day to celebrate Canada’s Parks Day.

Such is the life of an archeologist, and Deck [MA/89] is one of two working for Parks Canada at their Winnipeg office, excavating at historic and Indigenous archeological sites.

In anticipation of Canada’s Parks Day on July 21, we’re featuring alumni like Deck who live and work in our nation’s parks, historical sites and special places; alumni who get to call these Canadian treasures their “office”.
 
UM Today caught up with Deck at home in Winnipeg as she prepares for her next excavation in the Northwest Territories.
 
UM TODAY: MOST OF US KNOW WHAT AN ARCHEOLOGIST IS, BUT YOU ALSO SPECIALIZE IN PALEOETHNOBOTANY. CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT THAT IS?
 
DECK: Paleoethnobotany is the study of plant remains, which can enhance our understanding of the material we recover from an archeological site – what season of the year people were there, the types of plant resources they were utilizing and recovering tiny artifacts that we cannot recover during excavation. 
 
For example, from wood charcoal that we find in fire pits we can identify what species of wood is preserved in charcoal and that can tell us people’s cultural selection of wood use, the changes in the environment over time, and all kinds of cool things.
 
I did my honours thesis on charcoal analysis, and that’s actually why I came to the U of M for my masters. At the time, there were only two professors in Canada who did paleoethnobotany, and only one doing charcoal – Dr. Tom Shay. I was his last graduate student. I was so fortunate to have him as an advisor; he was incredibly supportive and I learned a lot from him.

Deck photographing wooden artifacts from the 18th century at Prince of Wales Fort.

 WHAT’S BEEN YOUR MOST REMARKABLE FIND?
 
There’s too many to mention! Everything from a burnt maize cob to a scraper with fish residue that was more than 5,000 years old. I have had such wonderful opportunities. What I’m interested in is not a “goody” but discovering what life was like hundreds, thousands of years ago. 
 
A lot of people think of treasure when they think of archeology, and some people really like finding a fancy ceremonial piece. But I get excited about butchered bone and what it means. For me, it’s all about the stories that go around it. What did people do every day? What was their technology like? How did they interact with other groups of people?
 
When I was at Prince of Wales Fort, we found these barrels that had a rectangular hole cut into the side and a little nail at the top. We couldn’t figure out why somebody would do that.
 
Then I read the book that James Isham – Governor of Prince of Wales Fort – wrote in 1743 called Observations on Hudsons Bay. In his book he draws a vermin trap. They had trouble in the winter with foxes getting into their stores to eat their food. So they would put three barrels in a circle and cut a hole in the middle where they mounted a pistol. Then, a string was tied to the trigger which hooked on to a nail at the top of the barrel and also went to the bait in the middle of the circle. When the fox took the bait it got shot from three directions.
 
To see the drawing and then actually find one of these things discarded in the ramparts was pretty cool.  Oh, there’s so many cool things we’ve discovered at Prince of Wales Fort. 

YOU’VE BEEN IN THE FIELD FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS. WHAT’S THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION YOU HEAR ABOUT ARCHEOLOGY?
 
That we dig for dinosaurs.
 
My brother also said to me years ago: “You have the most selfish job. You get to go on these adventures and recover this stuff and then it sits in a building and no one gets to see it.” That’s kind of true, but I’ve tried my entire life not do that and really share what we find. It’s everybody’s.
 
I feel it’s really important to work with Elders, the Knowledge-Holders, from the communities that are connected to the places that we go. We can excavate artifacts and we can do the Western Science analysis of that material but to really put it into context and understand what life was about, you have to work with Elders. A lot of times the artifacts will bring back stories and you get a more meaningful connection. That’s what I find exciting: to make it all relevant.

Consulting with Elder Elijah Panipakoocho at Sirmilik National Park.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT SOME OF THE STORIES YOU’VE HEARD?
 
A couple of years ago I got to work in Sirmilik National Park, which is in the high arctic on the Northwest Passage.  Elder Elijah Panipakoocho from Pond Inlet was with us, and I got to spend a week working with him recording traditional knowledge stories and cultural features on the landscape. Who doesn’t like to talk to their grandparents and hear stories about the past? It was like that with him.  
 
We were excavating a traditional Inuit sod house and he had lived in one until he was 14. All we have is the foundation of these sod houses and he would map the outline and go: “Well, here’s a meat cooler, and a porch. This guy had two wives, there are two sleeping platforms.”
 
He shared amazing stories about how sod houses were constructed, the types of activities he did as a child, and the medicinal uses of plants and animals. There is a little layer beneath a seal’s skin before the muscle that would be used as Band-Aids and medicine. My God, I learnt so much from that man! This was a known archeological site and there were so many things that people hadn’t identified which he did – these rock features were puppy enclosures, this change in vegetation on the land was a blubber storage area.
 
It really drives home the fact that we need to work with people. He brought to life the landscape, features and artifacts with his stories and taught me more than I could have ever hoped to learn through archeological investigation alone.
 
IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE ALWAYS LEARNING NEW THINGS AND VISITING NEW PLACES. IS THERE ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR JOB THAT YOU FIND CHALLENGING?
 
It’s hard work and very labour-intensive when you’re excavating soil. I did a trail survey last year where we were walking 12 kilometers for multiple days plus doing our work and it was really hot.
 
When we go up North, we’re taking helicopters or float planes so we’ll work straight through, sometimes for 10 days. You don’t know when you’re going to have a bad weather day and not be able to get back so there’s just a small window of time to get the project done.
 
But I’m so lucky – it never gets dull or boring; it’s a constant adventure. I get to go to places that I never would if I didn’t do this job, and I get to experience nature and wildlife in a setting that I never would. At Prince of Wales Fort we have to cross the Churchill River. We get in a boat and the beluga whales follow us across. Before we get to work, the site is cleared for polar bears. Grizzly bears, polar bears, black bears … there’s always bears where we’re working.
 
THAT SOUNDS DANGEROUS.
 
I have definitely worked where there have been some scary bear moments. In Churchill, we have bear monitors who work with us. They’re watching us because we work with our heads down. If there’s a bear, we’ll go into a safe place and if they have to, they’ll chase them with quads to keep them away.
 
One of the quirky things when you’re up North is you don’t talk about them, you don’t say “bear”. If you call them, they will come. So people have different funny names for bears: “The Unmentionables”, “The Big Guy”, those kinds of code names.
 
IF YOU COULD LEAVE BEHIND ONE THING FOR AN ARCHEOLOGIST TO FIND 1,000 YEARS FROM NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
 
Oh, that’s a tough one. I can’t think of one thing I’d leave behind because I think the technology will be so different. Perhaps they will be looking at DNA signatures of where people were, instead of old journals handwritten on paper. 
 
I’ve seen people do it, though. If we’re revisiting a site that other people have worked at, some archeologists leave a coin with the year on it. I’ve been at a site where an archeologist has left behind a little plastic shovel and pail at the bottom which is kind of funny.
 
JULY 21ST IS CANADA’S PARKS DAY. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO ENCOURAGE CANADIANS TO VISIT OUR NATIONAL PARKS?
 
You don’t have to go far. We have so many national parks and historic sites that it’s easy to find one that’s close to you. Or, if you have the opportunity to travel across provinces, try and integrate a national historic site into your trip because they’re all different – they’ve all been designated for different reasons – and you’ll just get a better appreciation.
 
A lot of the parks I really like, up North, aren’t as accessible. In Manitoba, Riding Mountain National Park is a fabulous place to visit. They have a bison herd there and there’s the lake, lots of trails. The east side of the park is quite different from Wasagaming, the town-site.

Surrounded by snow-capped Rockies and catching the occasional glimpse of bears (with frequent sightings of elk), Dupuis [BSc/02] makes this picturesque drive every day as Visitor Experience Manager for the Lake Louise, Yoho, Kootenay Field Unit.

It’s one of many roles he’s held over a 20-year career with Parks Canada, taking care (as he describes his responsibilities) of Canadian treasures.

In anticipation of Canada’s Parks Day on July 21, we’re featuring alumni like Dupuis who live and work in our nation’s parks, historical sites and special places; alumni who get to call these Canadian treasures their “office”.

UM Today spoke to Dupuis from his office overlooking the tallest mountain in Lake Louise: Mount Temple.

UM TODAY: WHAT DO YOU DO, AS A VISITOR EXPERIENCE MANAGER?

DUPUIS: Visitor experience in national parks is basically the public-facing staff who you see in uniform serving Canadians and visitors from abroad in all of our locations. That includes campgrounds, gates, visitor centres, call centres, and some of the shuttles we’ve been running here in Lake Louise.

It’s a big team. It kind of sounds like I’m out there greeting people but I’m not, I have a team of just over 200 people who work for the Visitor Experience team in Lake Louise, Yoho, and Kootenay. I do my job by making sure the teams have the tools and resources to serve visitors. I also work with my colleagues in other functions to make sure the front of house is in good shape and visitors respect the environment when they come to the parks

HOW DO YOU DEFINE A GOOD VISITOR EXPERIENCE?

It’s kind of difficult to define because every experience is unique. Everybody comes with their own values and perceptions of things. One of the things we learn at Parks Canada is to really understand visitors and the science behind their behaviours. Why they choose to come to parks and how we get them to care about these places so much that they want to protect them for future generations.

As staff in Parks Canada, we’re pretty much all passionate about the outdoors and comfortable outdoors but when you look at the general public as a whole – it is often not the case.

LOTS OF HIKING IN FLIP-FLOPS, THAT SORT OF THING?

We see that all the time here in the Lake Louise area. Flip-flops or regular street footwear are appropriate for a leisurely stroll along the Lake Louise lakeshore, but proper hiking footwear is advised for any hikes in the area.

The phenomenon of Instagram and sharing photos on social media is something that we’re definitely seeing increasing, too. People want to get to certain locations but they’re maybe not as prepared as they should be. The beauty is really attractive, “We gotta go there!” but they don’t know what tools they need to get there. Sometimes it’s not the right footwear or not enough water, or not knowing how far the actual hike is and being well prepared. That’s one of our main messages for people: plan ahead. Some of these places are beautiful, but be ready for it.

Dupuis skating on Two Jack Lake in Banff National Park, with Cascade Mountain in the background.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN SOMEONE WHO LIKES TO BE OUTDOORS EXPLORING NATURE?

Yes, I love the outdoors and I get that from my father. I grew up in St. Pierre Jolys, just south of Winnipeg and almost every weekend in the spring and summer my dad would take us fishing to Nopiming and various places in the backcountry. That’s where I got my love for the outdoors.

SO IT WAS NATURAL TO GO INTO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, BUT WHY PARKS IN PARTICULAR?

The first course I took at the U of M was Environmental Science 101 with Gordon Goldsborough. Just seeing his passion for two things: the environment (taking care of it and being conscious of everything you do) and his passion for history. Parks Canada doesn’t just protect nature but also our cultural heritage and he really represented that. In my every day work I often think of how he approached things.

I’m lucky enough to take care of Canadian treasures for Canadians. That’s how I see my job. Canadians own these places, or have them in trust, and I’m entrusted to make sure they’ll be here forever.

ARE THERE CERTAIN THINGS YOU FOCUS ON?

Visiting and connecting to a place is very important to people. If you visit a place, you’re way more likely to want to protect that place. If I just say “do you want to protect such-and-such National Park?” you’re like “Well, I have no idea what that is, I have no connection to it.” But if you’ve been there, you understand this is worth protecting and you become an ambassador and an advocate for those special places.

The other thing I’m interested in is how we work with Indigenous peoples and present their stories in our various places. I’m a Métis from just south of Winnipeg; it’s something I’m very proud of. At Parks Canada, we are leaders in developing important relationships with our Indigenous partners to better protect and present our heritage places.

Elk in Canmore.

YOU MUST SEE A LOT OF BEAUTIFUL PLACES ON THE JOB – WHAT’S ONE OF THEM?

Last year we started our daily traffic program. There’s a lot of congestion in Lake Louise, so we have traffic flaggers plus a shuttle. The key thing that we didn’t have was a dedicated channel for them to communicate. I was fortunate enough to go on top of Mount Hector in a helicopter to help install the antennae for the new radio channel.

The helicopter dropped me and the radio tech off and then it went away so it was just us and the quiet … besides the cordless drill drilling the antennae into the side of the building. Mount Hector in Banff National Park overlooks the whole Lake Louise area and the Icefields Parkway and it’s just amazing. That was my job and I was like “really, I’m getting paid to do this?!”

HOW ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO VISIT THE PARKS, WHAT KINDS OF EXPERIENCES HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO GIVE THEM?

My favourite was when I worked as a Park Interpreter and I was guiding a group on the Boreal Trail in Riding Mountain National Park. The father was in a wheelchair – it was a wheelchair accessible hike but it had grown in and the grass was getting long so I helped push the gentleman so he could access the trail. We got to the far bridge and we saw a moose eating in the marsh not too far away from us. It was amazing to be able to have him out there on the trail, but seeing him and his family enjoy that moment will stay with me forever.

JULY 21^ST IS CANADA’S PARKS DAY. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO CANADIANS TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO EXPLORE OUR PARKS?

Explore your backyard. As a Canadian, it’s everybody’s place to enjoy and get closer to their heritage. From history to nature, the more you know about it, the better position as a society we will be to protect these places for generations.

She has star power, undoubtedly, and uses it, as a media executive and television producer, to push for social change.

While the Cannes Film Festival made headlines last week for putting the spotlight on gender equality, Michalchyshyn [BA/89] has spent her 25-year career championing for women and other underrepresented talent in the film industry.

“As a producer I ask who are the lead and supporting roles,” she recently told a panel at IFF Panama on gender parity. “If women are attached to minor roles or demeaning roles without substance, I throw it in the trash.”

UM Today caught up with Michalchyshyn at home in New York to talk about the part she plays in driving change within the film industry.

UM TODAY: HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH FILM IN THE FIRST PLACE?
 
MICHALCHYSHYN: My first big job was launching a women’s film and video festival in Winnipeg called RE:VISIONS through the Winnipeg Film Group. It was true even then that women’s films were hardly being seen, but we showed Orlando, this amazing Sally Potter film with Tilda Swinton, and people were buzzing. That really gave me a taste of “oh I love programming”. I loved being a curator; I loved working with artists and filmmakers; I loved organizing people and their work.
 
It was a great foray into working for the Women’s Television Network (WTN), my first programming job when I was 25. Within a year I was given a pretty senior level of responsibility for programming a network which I’d never done! Kind of winging it! I did that for seven years.

I got to produce a series of short films for women called Shameless Shorts. It was a half hour weekly of curated shorts from all over the world – animation, documentary, scripted, sometimes a little bit of experimental. Programming that series introduced me to a lot of inspiring female filmmakers, producers, writers and directors.
 
SO RIGHT OFF THE BAT, YOU WERE PROMOTING WOMEN IN FILM. HAS THAT ALWAYS BEEN AN INTEREST OF YOURS?

It has. I’m a lifelong feminist; I’ve always been interested in the women’s art movement, the film movement,  and I’m very involved in progressive art advocacy and action in the sense of advocating for talent that just needs some support. That’s why you’ll see a lot of my projects have women as producers, writers, directors, at least in some capacity.

I grew up in a very progressive liberal household and we have many socially-oriented family members on the Michalchyshyn side – one’s a theologian. Although there is a bit of a joke in my family that I’m the one in the private sector who’s going to make money and build the house everyone is going to retire in in the south of France … while everyone else is working in civil and social justice type positions!

BUT YOU’RE USING YOUR POSITION TO CREATE CONTENT THAT INSPIRES SOCIAL CHANGE – THAT’S WHAT YOUR NETFLIX SERIES, BOBBY KENNEDY FOR PRESIDENT, IS ABOUT, RIGHT?

There’s this story that’s intriguing about Robert Kennedy. The Kennedys are a very special family in history, obviously; in America, beloved, and the most studied. But there has never been an exploration of Robert Kennedy’s political life and his transformation into social justice and civil rights. This documentary follows his transformation and what could have been – imagine if he had not been tragically killed. I believe that he would have won the nomination and gone on to win the presidency. We might have a very different political situation today, had that happened.

This project helped open my eyes to the importance of being involved; democracy is not a spectator sport. I became a U.S. citizen. It was motivated by trying to vote in the 2016 election, which I did, and then also by this work I was doing.

BOBBY KENNEDY IS ALSO IMPORTANT FOR ANOTHER REASON: THE NUMBER OF WOMEN INVOLVED IN MAKING IT. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR QUEST TO MAKE YOUR DIRECTORS, WRITERS AND TALENT LIST 50/50?

I really believe in this and I have for a long time. I love working with progressive men, don’t get me wrong, but I’m a big supporter of the inclusion rider.  You need it in every position and all departments like camera and grip. It’s hard work to bring women into these positions because traditionally it’s very male but it’s really important.

In my business we’re creating master lists we can share with other producers. It’s a very collaborative exercise. So if I’m looking for a grip, or a lighting person – I ask for the list of women in New York, or L.A., wherever. Dawn Porter and I did that on Bobby Kennedy. We would just consciously say “OK, women. Let’s look at the list.” We got very, very, strong women in key creative positions like story editors, DoP, producers, and camera. Sometimes you just have to reach a little further and do a little more work.
 
THIS 50/50 PRINCIPLE HAS EXTENDED TO YOU, THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, AS WELL. FOR YOUR NEW CBC SERIES, CRAWFORD, YOU WENT 50/50 WITH CREATOR MIKE CLATTENBURG. CAN YOU DESCRIBE HOW THAT CAME ABOUT AND THE REACTION?

It was kind of breakthrough. I think everyone was shocked because Mike’s the creator, showrunner, director, producer and I’m the EP. There was no negotiation, no back-room-agent-managing, we would just sit down and go: “whatever you make, I make”. We share everything – decision-making, transparency – and I think, if you talk to him, it’s been a refreshing experience because we are very equal. You don’t exert energy on the negative side, which is battling and negotiating, but energy on the positive, which is creating.

I don’t think it’s that crazy but in the producing world, there are codes and silos and often producers don’t reveal stuff with directors and vice-versa. People were surprised, especially the lawyers, managers and agents who are used to lots of negotiating. All I would have to say is: “Mike and I are 50/50 – go talk to him” And he would say “yep, we’re 50/50”. It’s unconventional, but he’s been a great partner. We had a blast and fingers crossed Crawford does well!