Monthly Archives: October 2014

The First Nations and Canada has had many disagreements, and while there’s things such as the 1969 White paper to protect the Indians, there are many gray spots that disagreements can continue to occur.

In 2013, BC Hydro has a 7.9 billion Site C dam plan that requires them to negotiate with the First Nations. The dam would flood and ruin wildlife habit and ecosystems. This will greatly affect the First Nations, and BC Hydro hopes to negotiate a compensation for the amount of change it will cost the First Nations.

However, in 2014, “First Nations chiefs to stage Site C showdown“, and this means that they will reject BC Hydro’s plan. If they do end up rejecting the plan and not allowing BC Hydro to come in, this not only means that their plan will be unsuccessful, but also mean that future business plans will also have a high chance of rejection. If the First Nations will no longer take money for compensation and stood their ground on not letting the land be industrialized. Future business plans related to First Nation property may be affected, and this can cause a major external conflict as opportunities of expanding in this area may be impossible.

Sources: First Nations Article, BC Hydro Article, Image

Many of us students work part time. Why? Because there’s flexible hours, and we can easily work a few hours a week so that we can earn some extra cash to go to either our tuition, textbooks, or just as allowance.

But is that the case for all part-time workers? In this Globe and Mail article, it talks about a woman who is working part time to keep up with her basic life necessities and save a little for her retirement. What happens when her employer decide to give her unsteady hours? Sometimes she’ll get 15 hours a week, sometimes 12, sometimes even less!

Employers likes part time workers. It saves them the money that health benefits and plans needs to use for full time workers. Having part time workers helps with their scheduling too. It is easier to have flexible part time workers scheduled throughout the week rather than having full time workers dead set on certain hours of the day.

However, this poses a big impact on workers who’d rather prefer full time jobs with stable hours. These part time workers depend on this job to make a living, while employers have the right to randomly cut these employee’s hours just because it doesn’t fit with the shop’s schedules. I think that something should be done to ensure that part time workers also have the right to have a certain amount of hours per week, so that people like Ms. Hasselhoff, and many other workers like her have a guaranteed amount of income for a part time worker.

Sources: Article,

Although laws have be implemented to prevent the disabled from being discriminated in the work forces, it is inevitable that they will get judged when working, mostly because of their granted exceptions when working. For example, less responsibility, better working hours, etc.

In this article from the Globe and Mail,  a worker recently disclosed their disability, and noticed that their manager has been acting differently around them. Even though their manager did not do anything to affect their work, they noticed that their manager’s attitude towards them has changed. The manager seem to have looked down on them even though they haven’t been doing anything wrong. The manager has been making negative comments about their performance after they knew that the employee has a disability.

Why is it so hard to treat disabled workers the same as normal workers? I understand that sometimes you will have to work around the employee’s disability, like giving them more flexible hours, but does that mean that the employee has a easier job? Does that mean that the employee is working any less harder than any other employees in the company? I think that managers should look at an employee’s performance on neutral grounds based on their actual level of performance instead of already having a judgement on their performance beforehand. All employees should be treated fairly based on what they can do, not what they cannot do.

Sources: Article, Image

Nathan Lo’s blog

My comment:

Nintendo has been part of mine, and I assume many others of the same generation’s lives. As more innovative technology is introduced, Nintendo has been struggling to keep up with the younger generations’ higher demands of newer technology that Nintendo used to be able to provide. Although I’m not a huge gamer, I’ve noticed that Nintendo’s products have been getting less and less attention because of its lack of new ideas. I remember when I was younger and Nintendo came out with the DS, everyone was rushing to buy one. However, even though they are coming out with new versions of it, the idea of the DS is now old and not very attention-grabbing.

Personally, I think that Nintendo needs to step out of their comfort zone and stop building on their already developed technology. They need to come up with newer products that will catch the public’s attention, something that is different from what all the other gaming companies’ products. Although they are behind now, I believe that because their brand name is still well-known, it will not be hard for Nintendo to step up their game and win back their customers.

Sources: Image, Blog post