DOCSLIB.ORG

2010-11 Annual Report

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
2010-11 Annual Report Office of the Information and 2010-11 Privacy Commissioner of Alberta F M N O O O O I O D F Annual D A A I I R E C O E I A M S C I E I V N E R ReportO P N N I C R T F N E E I P S N S A M M F I O E O I R S N O C R C I I P E E Y I R A R S H N M E D I N I M T F C A A F N T C M H D O F M P C A D E T O I O E O I E N S O O O O C I O R O AC O F O C M D V F I F R T T I F D F S O N R C M C R E F I I N C A O P N M RI I D F N M I R E C O I F E O I A N O E F O O E E C T R D N T T M N I N A I A N C N O H N A Y D M R C I R R I D O N O M O Y M F A O I V C Y R A Y O M N N E A S N M R I P M P F R F R I N F R Promoting a society where personal F F R I C E I S S E A O M T N I R A E T A S A E E N E I N C P I M O A H A E O I I I C E M H A F O H M C R information is respected and publicS T A P Y A C O O N F O A A I A I A S F C I C D A E I T M D Y I E C R M E R T F I bodies are openA and accountable. R S I I M M O O E I N V F H I I M N M I O I P Y T I I D T F I N N T A O N N R I E O I F O F I I F M C T O Y A E M N E M T MM O C A N N I F O T C A S S O O F T N E V D O M O F R A F R O M C O R O I N E O M F V P C D I O N O I E C O H H T D I A A D E O R O F S C F M C S O F M S D I N H S A N I E I C E N H I F R O N A T RO N C F R D F M F F I N C O T V I O O N M I H N A M H E O R E F O I M E N E O E S E I T O S O A O I A E F E I A R S N N A N O N V C P I Y D F V I R O R T F F I V T I I P O O O SR I N N I I S C R O F I N E A O O F H O A C I O M O I C M R I S I S P I O P P H A M T P I A S O N I Y T M F N I M T T O Y S I Y F F I C F R C C T E M S D O S ST I T I R I O R I S P V R H T R A I A O I F E R N N N M O I I N I R R O P Y F V O N I F D I E Y S C N O M I F F E I O Y F O S I O S M A C V E A E A O O F V C E R F N F N S I E I M C M A O N D O O C F O C N T F E C C C O N E F T I S O R M O I T O V I V E T S V E A I C H I C C OI V C N D A R I D O F N H P F M M I C F I N P I E F O O S F O D T M IT I E N R T O A H E O E I O D O A I A S O O S E V Y T R I O A V E O I R P I A I I M H S S I E O I O A H E O I A A N V N N C H O C N T I C C O F M C R E F O R I C F T N E C R H A O T H O Y F T F E F I R H N F O N A E S M M N C O R T S N D D Y N P O E D T O M T M A A O C C Y O O F F C I T I I T I O I N A E C O N F N N O N I I M M M N H O F C R M F P S I FN C O O M A S A D F O C V F D F I F R F T M F M R P I E R O O P C O N N M O C T A M C T I N O F S C T C M I R C V T O E A A R E C I N I I C V O O F F F R E O S MR F O I F E V A VN D A O M C E I C O A O O N M F A N F O N Y A R R A F I C F S F O R E F N O O O N R O N V O I F O A N R I M I D N A F C I N T F M A N I F C R E A P I I O T R O N T F D I M A E R H H O A R A F P M P R I I E S F O T T F F N T O R E R I A C S F O E N O R O R O F O V M F O O R D Y V F E N N O N O C O H O O I E ON I H S C C R O A I F N O Y E N C N M O P O I F I C S M I I M S I E I H I E E N O E N Y S M A F F A I F Y T O I S N T E A A M D O D P C T F I I S E S S I R F R O M S C S O E T E Y M A A O E I R N I M C N R O A I N C D T C I I R D N A A O I I I N A O V E S R N R D M R D N F S F E O I N M I O S Y F E M F E C A O O O M R O F C F C C O I F I I M N M H S M V F N C A O S I E M I O D C R O M I I F O R R N N R I H I P I T F A A A F R I O S O O I S I I N O I M M C E R T A N F M I A T F R N S M E M I V E I M I F T R O C I N N A M M N O M V O C Y P P M T C N M R T I N I D T O H N E S N E Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta 410, 9925 ‑ 109 Street Phone: 780.422.6860 Edmonton, AB T5K 2J8 Fax: 780.422.5682 Email: [email protected] October 2011 www.oipc.ab.ca F M N O O O O I O D F D A A I I R E C O E I A M S C I E I V N E R O P N N I C R T F N E E I P S N S A M M F I O E O I R S N O C R C I I P E E Y I R A R S H N M E D I N I M T F C A A F N T C M H D O F M P C A D E T O I O E O I E N S O O O O C I O R O AC O F O C M D V F I F R T T I F D F S O N R C M C R E F I I N C A O P N M RI I D F N M I R E C O I F E O I A N O E F O O E E C T R D N T T M N I N A I A N C N O H N A Y D M R C I R R I D O N O M O Y M F A O I V C Y R A Y O M N N E A S N M R I P M P F R F R I N F R F F R I C E I S S E A O M T N I R A E T A S A E E N E I N C P I M O A H A E O I I I C E M H A F O H M C R S T A P Y A C O O N F O A A I A I A S F C I C D A E I T M D Y I E C R M E R T F I A R S I I M M O O E I N V F H I I M N M I O I P Y T I I D T F I N N T A O N N R I E O I F O F I I F M C T O Y A E M N E M T MM O C A N N I F O T C A S S O O F T N E V D O M O F R A F R O M C O R O I N E O M F V P C D I O N O I E C O H H T D I A A D E O R O F S C F M C S O F M S D I N H S A N I E I C E N H I F R O N A T RO N C F R D F M F F I N C O T V I O O N M I H N A M H E O R E F O I M E N E O E S E I T O S O A O I A E F E I A R S N N A N O N V C P I Y D F V I R O R T F F I V T I I P O O O SR I N N I I S C R F I O E N A O O F H O A C I O M O I C M R I S I S P I O P P H A M T P I A S O N I Y T M F N I M T T O Y S I Y F F I C F R C C T E M S D O S ST I T I R I O R I S P V R H T R A I A O I F E R N N N M O I I N I R R O P Y F V O N I F D I E Y S C N O M I F F E I O Y F O S I O S M A C V E A E A O O F V C E R F N F N S I E I M C M A O N D O O C F O C N T F E C C C O N E F T I S O R M CONTENTS I O T O V I V E T S V E A I C H I C C OI V C N D A R I D O F N H P F M M I C F I N P I E F O O S F O D T M IT I E N R T O A H E O E I O D O A I A S O O S E V Y T R I O A V E O I R P I A I I M H S S I E O I O A H E O I A A N V N N C H O C N T I C C O F M C R E F O R I C F T N E C R H A O T H O Y F T F E F I R H N F O N A E S M M N C O R T S N D D Y N P O E D T O M T M A 2 MessageA O C from the CommissionerC Y O O F F C I T I I T I O I N A E C O N F N N O N I I M M M N H O F C R M F P S I FN C O O M A S A D F O C V F D F I F R F T M F M R P I E R O O P C O N 7 Organizational StructureN 2010‑11 M O C T A M C T I N O F S C T C M I R C V T O E A A R E C I N I I C V O O F F F R E O S MR F O I F E V A VN D A O M C E I C O A O O N M F A N F O N Y A R R A F I 8 The Process: Request For Review/ComplaintC F S F O R E F N O O O N R O N V O I F O A N R I M I D N A F C I N T F M A N I F C R E A P I I O T R O N T F D I M A E R H H O A R A F P M P R I I E S F O T T F F 9 N Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner T O R E R I A C S F O E N O R O R O F O V M F O O R D Y V F E N N O N O C O H O O I E ON I H S C C R O A I 9 2010‑11F Overview N O Y E N C N M O P O I F I C S M I I M S I E I H I E E N O E N Y S M A F F A I F Y T O I S N T E A A M D O D P C T F I I S E S S I R 9 BreakdownF of Cases Opened in 2010‑11 by Legislation R O M S C S O E T E Y M A A O E I R N I M C N R O A I N C D T C I I R D N A A O I I I N A O V E S R N R D M R D N F S F 9 E Breakdown of Cases Closed in 2010‑11O by Legislation I N M I O S Y F E M F E C A O O O M R O F C F C C O I F I I M N M H S M V F N C A O S I E M I O D C R O M I I F O R R N N R I H I P 9 Breakdown on Non‑case Related Calls, Emails and Written Enquiries I T F A A A F R I O S O O I S I I N O I M M C E R T A N F M I A T F R N S M E M I V E I M 10 Financial OverviewI F T R O C I N N A M M N O M V O C Y P P M T C N M R T I N I D T O H E S N E 11 TheN Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP Act) 11 Review of the FOIP Act 12 Statistics 12 Consultations and Presentations 12 Open Government/Data 12 Requests to the Commissioner’s Office 13 Health Information Act (HIA) 13 Health Information Amendment Act (Bill 52) 13 New Custodians designated in 2010‑11 14 Outreach 14 Privacy Impact Assessments 14 New PIA Requirements 14 Investigation Report H2010‑IR‑002 15 Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) 17 Breach Notification Decisions 19 Case Summaries 20 Other Activities 22 Orders 27 Judicial Reviews And Other Court Decisions 32 Statistical Information 32 Table 1: Cases Opened 2010‑11 Fiscal Year FOIP, HIA, and PIPA 33 Table 2: Cases Closed 2010‑11 Fiscal Year FOIP, HIA, and PIPA 34 Graph 1: Total Number of Cases Opened – A Two Year Comparison 35 Graph 2: Total Number of Cases Closed – A Two Year Comparison 36 Table 3: Cases Opened by Public Bodies, Custodians, Organizations Subject to the Legislation, and Commissioner on Own Motion 37 Table 4: Percentage of Cases Closed by Resolution Method 38 Graph 3: Percentage of Cases Closed by Resolution Method 38 Graph 4: FOIP, HIA, and PIPA Non‑case Related Calls, Emails, and Written Enquiries 39 Financial Statements 53 Appendices 53 Appendix A: Cases Opened 2010‑11 Fiscal Year by Public Body, Custodian and Organization Type 56 Appendix B: Cases Closed 2010‑11 Fiscal Year by Public Body, Custodian and Organization Type 59 Appendix C: Orders and Public Investigation Reports Issued 61 Appendix D: Accepted Privacy Impact Assessments by Public Body and Custodian Type: 2010‑11 2010‑11 ANNUAL REPORT – OFFICE OF THE INFORMATION AND PRIVACY COMMISSIONER OF ALBERTA 1 MESSAGE FROM THE COMMISSIONER This will be my last Annual Report as Commissioner.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Nationalism and Globalization / Le Nationalisme Et La
    Editorial Board / Comité de rédaction Editor-in-Chief Rédacteur en chef Kenneth McRoberts, York University, Canada Associate Editors Rédacteurs adjoints Isabel Carrera Suarez, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain Daniel Salée, Concordia University, Canada Robert S. Schwartzwald, University of Massachusetts, U.S.A. Managing Editor Secrétaire de rédaction Guy Leclair, ICCS/CIEC, Ottawa, Canada Advisory Board / Comité consultatif Irene J.J. Burgers, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Patrick Coleman, University of California/Los Angeles, U.S.A. Enric Fossas, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, España Lois Foster, La Trobe University, Australia Fabrizio Ghilardi, Università di Pisa, Italia Teresa Gutiérrez-Haces, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico Eugenia Issraelian, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia James Jackson, Trinity College, Republic of Ireland Jean-Michel Lacroix, Université de Paris III/Sorbonne Nouvelle, France Denise Gurgel Lavallée, Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Brésil Eugene Lee, Sookmyung University, Korea Erling Lindström, Uppsala University, Sweden Ursula Mathis, Universität Innsbruck, Autriche Amarjit S. Narang, Indira Gandhi National Open University, India Heather Norris Nicholson, University College of Ripon and York St. John, United Kingdom Satoru Osanai, Chuo University, Japan Vilma Petrash, Universidad Central de Venezuela-Caracas, Venezuela Danielle Schaub, University of Haifa, Israel Sherry Simon, Concordia University, Canada Wang Tongfu, Shanghai International Studies University, China International
    [Show full text]
  • Writing the Terrain Travelling Through Alberta with the Poets Edited by Robert M
    WRITING THE TERRAIN TRAVELLING THROUGH ALBERTA WITH THE POETS EDITED BY ROBERT M. STAMP PRESS n O z XI INTRODUCTION 1 WRITING THE PROVINCE i Barry McKinnon, untitled 3 Dennis Cooley, labiarinth 4 Joan Shillington, I Was Born Alberta 5 Nancy Holmes, The Right Frame of Mind 6 George Bowering, it's the climate 7 Charles Noble, Mnemonic Without Portfolio 8 John O. Thompson, Fuel Crisis 9 Robert Stamp, Energy to Burn 2 WRITING CALGARY 13 Ian Adam, In Calgary These Things 14 George Bowering, calgary 15 Murdoch Burnett, Boys or the River 17 Anne Campbell, Calgary City Wind 18 Weyman Chan, Written on Water 19 Ryan Fitzpatrick, From the Ogden Shops 21 Cecelia Frey, Under the Louise Bridge 22 Gail Ghai, On a Winter Hill Overlooking Calgary 23 Deborah Godin, Time/Lapse Calgary as Bremen 24 Vivian Hansen, Wolf Willow against the bridge 25 Robert Hilles, When Light Transforms Flesh 26 Nancy Holmes, Calgary Mirage 27 Bruce Hunter, Wishbone 28 Pauline Johnson, Calgary of the Plains 29 Robert Kroetsch, Horsetail Sonnet 30 Erin Michie, The Willows at Weaselhead 31 Deborah Miller, Pictures from the Stampede 33 James M. Moir, This City by the Bow 34 Colin Morton, Calgary '80 36 ErinMoure, South-West, or Altadore 40 Roberta Rees, Because Calgary 41 Robert Stamp, A City Built for Speed 42 Yvonne Trainer, 1912 43 Aritha van Herk, Quadrant Four - Outskirts of Outskirts 48 Wilfred Watson, In the Cemetery of the Sun 50 Christopher Wiseman, Calgary 2 A.M. 51 Rita Wong, Sunset Grocery • 3 WRITING SOUTHWESTERN ALBERTA & THE FOOTHILLS 55 D.C.Reid, Drying Out Again 56 Ian Adam, The Big Rocks 57 George Bowering, high river alberta 58 Cecelia Frey, Woman in a potato field north of Nanton 60 Sheri-D Wilson, He Went by Joe 62 Charles Noble, Props64 63 Stacie Wolfer, Lethbridge 65 Karen Solie, Java Shop, Fort Macleod 66 Sid Marty, Death Song for the Oldman 67 Michael Cullen, wind down waterton lakes 68 Ian Adam, Job Description 70 Jan Boydol, Color Hillcrest Dead 71 Aislinn Hunter, Frank Slide, Alberta 72 r.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing Alberta POD EPDF.Indd
    WRITING ALBERTA: Aberta Building on a Literary Identity Edited by George Melnyk and Donna Coates ISBN 978-1-55238-891-4 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. It is an electronic version of a book that can be purchased in physical form through any bookseller or on-line retailer, or from our distributors. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university purchase a print copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] Cover Art: The artwork on the cover of this book is not open access and falls under traditional copyright provisions; it cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission of the artists and their agents. The cover can be displayed as a complete cover image for the purposes of publicizing this work, but the artwork cannot be extracted from the context of the cover of this specific work without breaching the artist’s copyright. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This open-access work is published under a Creative Commons licence. This means that you are free to copy, distribute, display or perform the work as long as you clearly attribute the work to its authors and publisher, that you do not use this work for any commercial gain in any form, and that you in no way alter, transform, or build on the work outside of its use in normal academic scholarship without our express permission. If you want to reuse or distribute the work, you must inform its new audience of the licence terms of this work.
    [Show full text]
  • Celebrate Alberta Arts Day at the Jubilee September 6 in Calgary
    Strong Communities August 29, 2008 Celebrate Alberta Arts Day at the Jubilee September 6 in Calgary Enjoy free daytime activities for the entire family and an evening gala featuring top Alberta artists Calgary... Make a date with family and friends to celebrate the arts on September 6 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, 1415 - 14th Avenue NW, Calgary. Experience a diverse range of creative and interactive arts activities, workshops and performances FREE from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Throughout the day, families can participate in dance workshops, sit in on readings by Alberta authors, listen to live music, learn how to create animation, view short films by Alberta filmmakers and much more. A thrilling evening gala of lively and eclectic performances from some of Alberta’s top artists, including the Alberta Ballet, Asani, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, The Swiftys and many more will take place on the main stage starting at 7:30 p.m. Three major awards recognizing outstanding contributions to the arts in Alberta will also be presented at the gala. Tickets are $15 and available through Ticketmaster. Group rates are also available. The events at the Jubilee are part of the Alberta Arts Day celebrations. For details on all the activities at the Jubilee as well as other Arts Day events across the province, visit culture.alberta.ca/artsday. Alberta Arts Day aims to increase Albertans’ access to the province’s vibrant culture, one of the goals outlined in Alberta’s Cultural Policy - The Spirit of Alberta. To learn more about The Spirit of Alberta visit culturalpolicy.alberta.ca.
    [Show full text]
  • Competitions 2021
    Alberta 2021 Literary Competitions 2021 To recognize and celebrate the highest standards of excellence in writing, the Writers' Guild of Alberta hosts or administers the following annual awards: Alberta Literary Awards (with categories in fiction, drama, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature) 2 Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award Howard O'Hagan Award for Short Story James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction 3 The Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize 4 The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize 5 The Golden Pen Award 6 Alberta Literary Awards The Alberta eLit rary Awards were created by the Writers' Guild of Alberta (WGA) in 1982 to recognize excellence in writing by Alberta authors. Entries are judged by independent juries recruited by the WGA. Submissions are evaluated on originality, creativity, and quality of writing, as well as an appropriate fit within a category. Prizes of $1,500 are awarded in the categories listed below. Please refer to the WGA website (writersguild.ca) for a history of the awards and more information about the authors for whom our awards are named. The submission deadline is December 31, 2020. Winners will be announced and prizes awarded in the spring of 2021. Submission Guidelines & Rules: Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama • Authors of all entries in the Alberta Literary Awards must • Awarded to a play written by an Alberta author published, have been a resident of Alberta for a minimum of twelve of scheduled for production or staged at a live reading in 2020. the eighteen months prior to December 31, 2020. • Plays submitted to the drama category may be one-act or • All entries must have been published or produced anywhere in full-length.
    [Show full text]
  • Biocritical Essay (Robert Kroetsch)
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Projects & Workshops Special Collections 1986 Biocritical Essay (Robert Kroetsch) Aritha van Herk University of Calgary Press The Robert Kroetsch papers : first accession. - (Canadian archival inventory series, no. 3). - Calgary : University of Calgary Press, 1986 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/43979 Essay Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca Canadian Literary Archives - Robert Kroetsch - Biocritical Essay Special Collections Robert Kroetsch Biocritical Essay by Aritha van Herk © 1986 Reproduced with permission Any attempt to bio-criticize Robert Kroetsch into position can only end in frustration. This writer distrusts coherent story, sees closure as a self-imposed death, mistrusts the author/himself(1) so much he over-glosses his own text. Not one of his works has managed to escape his own arm's length and after-the-fact commentary, but we must approach that commentary with doubt. There is no one metaphor, no one autobiographical detail, that can help us to fix this master of the art of deception, this trickster incarnate, this expert at the sleight of hand. Critical responses to his fiction and poetry range from outrage to awe; he has been praised as an innovator and damned as an overly intellectual adherent of the post-modernist school of thought. In a recently published conversation, his close friend Rudy Wiebe, responded to a deconstructionist remark with the exasperated words: "Bob, you're always horsing around with language!"(2) In Kroetsch's writing, words do not mean what they usually mean; language goes beyond signification and contains its own possibilities: "The person who becomes a writer is a person who starts to notice the language itself instead of what it signifies."(3) That concentration on the possibilities of language is perhaps the most telling aspect of Kroetsch's approach to literature, both fiction and poetry.
    [Show full text]
  • Movement Beyond Roads and Writing Beyond Fiction an Interview with Aritha Van Herk
    E KATERINA K OZLOVA Movement beyond Roads and Writing beyond Fiction An Interview with Aritha van Herk _____________________ Hotel Graf Zeppelin, Konstanz, Germany, July 8th, 2017 Ekaterina Kozlova: Canadian heroines and their way towards psychological free- dom were always the focal point of your writing. Like Judith Pierce in Judith and J. L. in The Tent Peg, Arachne in No Fixed Address embarks on a journey of self-discovery through Canadian landscapes. How does she come to terms with herself? Aritha van Herk: Arachne is a different kind of character, because I don’t think she ever stops being restless. Her disappearance at the end of the novel, which some people take as negative, and some people read as an escape, is actually a kind of recognition that in the landscapes of Canada she is a restless moving force and she will always embody the places that she passes through. Although she drives all over Western Canada, she keeps going home to Calgary, but she also can’t stop leaving. And that persistence of movement, which is itself a kind of Odyssean myth (even though I know, in the end he goes home, but who knows whether he stays there), becomes a kind of Odyssey of discovery for the parts of Canada that very few people know about. As for the course of her final movement north, where she is travelling, some peo- ple say, ‘Oh, it’s because she killed this man.’ But that’s all coincidence along the way. The episode in the mine, as well as the very strange women’s meeting in the Banff Springs Hotel are just continuations.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Calgary Aritha Van Herk Implicit Acts of Filth
    van Herk Implicit acts of filth University of Calgary Aritha van Herk Implicit acts of filth: the parodic virtues of cleanliness Abstract: From ‘the Wolf’ Wolfe in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction to the laundress in Kate Grenville’s Joan Makes History, the act of nettoyage is called into service as an inter- textual gesture toward decoding all that is virtuous (or not), all that is filthy (or not). As an inevitable repetition or agent of redundancy, complete with all the recursive energies of concealment and discovery, cleaning and the cleaner serve a parodic practice that has been entirely overlooked in its representation in various forms of narrative (fiction, film, and image). Parody may be, as Hutcheon claims, ‘a more restricted form, in pragmatic terms, than allusion or quotation’ (1985: 50), but it has also not been accorded the power that it wields in a quotidian presence, its gestural and recitative marking performing a contestation that is ignored because it is ‘unmarked’ (60). In short, its association with the erotic and the criminal, erasure and commodification, make nettoyage a transgressive site in disguise. Scouring and laundering’s ‘trans- contextualizing’ power resides in its invisibility, and its work as an ‘authorized transgression’ (Hutcheon 1985: 101) enunciates a persistent parodic presence in an aesthetically incognizant world. The play of disinfectant as part of Foucault’s ‘writing of things’ thus alludes to parody’s most powerful affect: its connection to the most ordinary and quotidian of gestures, doubled by cultural aesthetic and instructional pragmatism. Biographical note: Aritha van Herk is a novelist, critic and writer.
    [Show full text]
  • Aritha Van Herk Bawdy Bodies : Bridging Robert Kroetsch and Bp Nichol
    Aritha van Herk Bawdy Bodies : Bridging Robert Kroetsch and bp Nichol Review of International American Studies 5/1-2, 37-56 2011 FEATURES BAWDY BODIES: Bridging Robert Kroetsch and bpNichol The landscape is locked deep inside my body. Returning to the Battle River country, heart of the central Alberta parkland, I endure a painful arousal, the residue of those many thwarted couplings I knew as a young woman. It was the size of my desire that troubled me, the way it grew when I wasn’t looking. And waits now, to ambush my desertion. ************ e may not be big but we’re small’ is the mantra Aritha van Herk University of Calgary ‘Wfor Canadian humorist Stuart McLean’s variety show, Canada The Vinyl Cafe, and the motto for the record store that his fictional character, Dave, runs. The double-back of nega- tion for the catchphrase is as telling as the ironic definition that won the contest held on Peter Gzowsky’s popular radio show, This Country in the Morning in 1971; the call was sent out to complete a parallel to the phrase, ‘As American as apple pie’ by completing ‘As Canadian as — — —’. The winning answer still speaks volumes: ‘As Canadian as possible under the circum- stances’. These two aphorisms gesture toward the always ironic interface of Canadians in terms of size and influence, credibility and plausibility. Our determination to invert our own expanse and measurability results in a tautology of essence and existence. A Canadian is likely to mumble an embarrassed excuse that sounds something like ‘we may not be small but we’re big’.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Kroetsch and Aritha Van Herk on Writing & Reading Gender and Genres
    J'nan Morse Sellery Robert Kroetsch and Aritha van Herk o n Writing & Reading Gender and Genres An Interview Introduction Knowing each other as creative writers, teachers, critics, and performers, and both coming from families who immigrated to w e s t e r n Canada to farm in Alberta near the B a t t l e River, Robert Kroetsch and Aritha van Herk write about each other's intertextual allusions, disguises, and voices inviting us to remember other tales, expressions, and c u s t o m s that extend their stories with our o w n . In a consistent effort to avoid confession or autobiography, they keep the p e r s o n a l private and the public connected to texts and c o n - texts. They question the a s s u m p t i o n s of m a s t er narratives while leaving lacunae—of what goes without saying—with the i n t e n t to test and text themselves. In answering his own question of "how do we live a life and be a writer," Kroetsch suggests the writer has to make a b a r g a i n with him or her- self.1 Who does the writing, and who the living? Their stories implicate other stories revealing the c o m p l e x i t y of their writing lives. Their work emphasizes contemporary western Canadian themes a n d tropes of m a p s , geography, travel, landscape and how the m e n and women confront life in these physical and mythical territories.
    [Show full text]
  • The Instability of Gender: the Body at Unrest in Aritha Van Herk's (Geogra
    ERASMUS MUNDUS MASTER IN WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES The instability of gender: the body at unrest in Aritha van Herk’s (geogra)fiction(e) M. A. Thesis Author: Eva Pelayo Sañudo Main supervisor: Isabel Carrera Suárez Universidad of Oviedo Support supervisor: Carlotta Farese University of Bologna Approval signature: Isabel Carrera Suárez Oviedo, 24 May 2013 M. A. Thesis MS. EVA PELAYO SAÑUDO TITLE: The Instability of Gender: the Body at Unrest in Aritha van Herk‟s (Geogra)fiction((e) KEY WORDS: restlessness, unrest, body, space, gender norms. MAIN SUPERVISOR: Isabel Carrera Suárez 1. Spanish summary Este trabajo fin de máster se ha centrado en analizar los sujetos inquietos que protagonizan la obra de la escritora canadiense Aritha van Herk. Dicha inquietud responde a una primera recurrencia de viajes o continuo movimiento por parte de sus protagonistas. No obstante, mi tesis fundamental abordará cómo esta agitación en términos espaciales nos desvela también una agitación subyacente en términos corporales, motivada en particular por restricciones de género contra las que sus personajes han de enfrentarse en su vida diaria. Como consecuencia, mi investigación consta de un análisis de la conexión entre cuerpo y espacio, concentrándome en su mutua influencia; enfatizaré, sin embargo, la importancia concedida al cuerpo en todos los textos, que recogen el papel fundamental del mismo en desestabilizar y/o subvertir los mismos significados y normas de género que se le asignan. Se examinará principalmente, por tanto, la representación atípica o innovadora de esta agencia corporal, aunque se hace igualmente imprescindible reconocer la importancia de la perspectiva espacial que la autora incluye, puesto que su trabajo por esta vía alimenta de manera notable el énfasis en lo corpóreo.
    [Show full text]
  • Antimodernism in the Novels of Robert Kroetsch
    “MUDDILY HUMAN”: ANTIMODERNISM IN THE NOVELS OF ROBERT KROETSCH Bronagh Clarke, BA (Hons.), MA. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2007 Abstract For many years the novels of Robert Kroetsch have been canonized as paradigmatic Canadian postmodern and postcolonial texts. This thesis argues that Kroetsch’s texts are antimodernist works which reveal his reaction against modernity. I explore each of Kroetsch’s novels in chronological order, from the unpublished text When Sick for Home to his most recent novel The Man from the Creeks, arguing that Kroetsch’s novels should be viewed as texts that demonstrate his antipathy towards modernity, which is manifested in Kroetsch’s nostalgic idealization of the imagined organic wholeness of a world existing prior to modernization. Throughout this thesis I discuss the parallels between the writings of Robert Kroetsch and Marshall McLuhan, emphasizing the antimodernism that underpins their works. I argue that their antimodernism signals their participation in a tradition of the critique of modernity. By foregrounding the idea of the modernist critique of modernity, which comprises an important element of artistic modernism, I question the privileging of the qualifier “post-” in constructions of the Canadian postmodern canon. In foregrounding the antimodernism evident throughout Robert Kroetsch’s fiction, I interrogate the construction of Canadian postmodernism in his own works and those of other Canadian critics including Linda Hutcheon. Through my analysis of the recurring motifs of the wilderness and the rural environment in Kroetsch’s work, I locate his fiction within Western antimodernist tradition, interrogating cultural nationalist constructions of Canadian postmodernism as an autochthonous phenomenon.
    [Show full text]