Acadia faculty on strike
Armchair Olympians can’t wait to watch every second
Acadia University’s 350 professors, librarians, archivists and instructors went on strike Feb. 1 after rejecting a contract offer from the university late the night before.
The Acadia University Faculty Union (AUFA) said on Twitter at 10:15 p.m. on Jan. 31 that after presenting a “comprehensive offer” to the university’s negotiating team on Jan. 28, the response from the university two days later was that it would not be presenting a counter-offer at that time.
The union said when an offer finally did come during the afternoon on Jan. 31, it “was a small counteroffer that does not reflect a serious engagement with AUFA’s proposals.”
The union said the offer received didn’t include commitment to growth in the tenure-stream complement, would alter which faculty are considered part of the fulltime group by including deans who do not teach, and has a salary freeze for the first year before raises of one per cent, one per cent and 1.5 per cent over the four-year contract.
The offer also proposes a process to improve equity and diversity that is “overly complex and unworkable,” the union said.
The university has said the union’s proposal would add millions to its budget and is too expensive.
In a post on its website at 7 a.m. on Feb. 1, the university announced the cancellation of classes.
The post to students from provost and academic vicepresident Dale Keefe said other campus operations continue, and the university will take “every reasonable measure to support you during this time, including providing core services and resources.”
He said that “while there is currently disagreement on what the final collective agreement contains, both parties ultimately want the best
Jill MacKinnon, a registered nurse in Charlottetown,
P.E.I., is the ultimate Olympics fan.
“I booked vacation for the entire Olympics and I have been working shift work for almost 16 years, so I am prepared for late night/all night viewing due to the time change," she says.
"It’s pretty safe to say, when I am not sleeping, I will be tuned into the Olympics. And the TVs at the gym will have them on, and I can stream on my phone anytime I’m not home. Technology has made it so easy to tune in at any time."
Jan Zettler is a middle school teacher from Kentville who also loves the entire Olympic experience.
“I love that we come together as a country to celebrate and to cheer on our athletes. I love how we unite as a family on the living room couch to catch up on how the day has gone for our athletes," she says.
While she hopes Canadians will bring home medals, for Zettler, it's about much more than that.
"It is just as exciting to watch the athletes' journeys throughout the Games."
The Winter Olympics are her favourite, because “it gives a little sparkle to what can easily become a long Canadian winter," she adds.
"There are moments of great joy, as well as heartbreaking ones, and I love how, as Canadians, we are there to support all of our athletes," Zettler said. "Athletes train sometimes for years in the hopes of being chosen to represent Canada and I am an armchair Olympian from the opening to closing ceremonies."
FAVOURITE SPORTS
Zettler says her family loves to watch all of the events and it is hard to pick a favourite.
“We love the fearlessness of the ski jumpers and the artistry of freestyle skiing, as well as the sheer panic watching the bobsled, luge, and skeleton athletes willingly throw themselves down an icy track," she says.
She admits to not knowing too much about snowboarding, but “will still watch and cheer for Liam Moffatt."
If Zettler had to pick a favourite, though, she would narrow it down to women's hockey and curling.
An international multi-sport festival.
Beijing, China. Feb. 4-20.
Events in 15 disciplines across seven sports. Opening ceremonies – Feb. 4 at 7:30 a.m. Atlantic.
Canada’s contingent includes 215 athletes with the oldest being curler Jennifer Jones (47) and the youngest being snowboarder Brooke D’Hondt (16). All 10 provinces and one territory will be represented by an athlete. Nova Scotia has four Olympians (snowboarder Liam Moffatt, women’s hockey players Blayre Turnbull and Jillian Saulnier plus Alex Grant from the men’s hockey team). All-time medal leaders – Norway with 368 medals has won the most medals all-time at the Winter Olympics.
The next Winter Olympics will be held in 2026 in Milan, Italy.
“We watched the curling Olympic trials and were beyond excited that an East Coast team will be representing Team Canada in men's curling. Go Team Gushue," she says.
Her own daughter's interest in hockey – Claire Zettler is a goalie – means the family is very supportive of female hockey in general. Local pride will also have them cheering, she said.
“We are so proud that two Nova Scotians have been selected to our Team Canada hockey team, Blayre Turnbull and Jill Saulnier," Zettler said. "My daughter was lucky enough to have Blayre Turnbull's father as a coach for two years so we will be cheering Blayre and her teammates on."
MacKinnon, meanwhile, enjoys the sports that are featured at X Games the most: slopestyle, snowboard and ski cross, halfpipe and big air.
“I also enjoy moguls, figure skating, hockey, curling, short track, bobsledding
– let’s just say I don’t like watching luge, biathlon and cross-country skiing. Every other sport is fair game," she says.
FAVOURITE OLYMPIANS
For these Olympics, MacKinnon has a long list of athletes she'll be watching closely.
"Mark McMorris, Mikael
Kingsbury, Charles Hamelin, Keegan Messing, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirer, Chris Spring, Laurie Blouin, Marie-Philip Poulin, Justine and Chloe Dufur-Lapointe," she lists.
For past Olympics, she cites Hayley Wickenheiser, Usain Bolt, Alex Bilodeau, Kurt Browning, Tonya Harding, and Midori Ito as favourites.
One of Zettler’s favourite Olympians of all-time is Canadian winter and summer Olympian Clara Hughes.
“She showed Canadians that with a lot of hard work and dedication, anything is possible. She has also become an amazing spokesperson for mental health campaigns," Zettler says.
She also acknowledges curler Sandra Schmirler as one of her favourite Olympians.
“She won gold for Canada at the 1993 Nagano Olympics, the first year curling was a medal sport."
For these 2022 winter Olympics, Zettler says Turnbull and Saulnier will be two athletes her family will be rooting for. She will also “be cheering for Team Gushue and for their alternate, Marc Kennedy, who is not only an incredible curler but who was also kind enough to send my son one of his jerseys for his birthday last year."
And a little love story on the curling side will make it interesting to watch as well.
"Of course, who wouldn't be excited to watch engaged Olympic curlers Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman compete? Here's hoping their Olympic experience has a storybook ending."
FAVOURITE MEMORY
MacKinnon has been watching the Olympics since she was six, so she has many memories of the Games. But the 1994 men’s gold medal hockey game stands out for her.
“It was a Sunday and my family went to church every Sunday. Canada was playing Sweden and mom was at can work on is to try and get their energy costs down,” she said. “In order to keep your
(ice rental) rates down, you really have to keep working away at a big expense like electricity.”
Work on the latest project is expected to begin in the next couple of months but is dependent on securing the supplies to do the work.
The $24,150-project is being cost-shared by the arena ($8,100), Municipality of the County of Annapolis ($8,000) and the provincial Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage ($8,050). us to start getting ready for church," MacKinnon recalls.
Then Sweden tied up the game late in the third period, and all bets were off.
"Dad announced that we weren’t going to church. The game went into overtime, then a shootout, and then a sudden death shootout," she says. "Canada may have lost that game, but we skipped church to watch it."
She adds that the 2014 women’s hockey gold medal game was also pretty epic.
“Had it been played on a Sunday, it would have been another skipping church game."
Zettler’s favourite Olympic memories include watching Canada's men's and women's hockey teams win gold medals on Canadian soil during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, seeing Elizabeth Manley come back to win silver in figure skating during the 1988 Calgary Olympics, and "giggling as Jon Montgomery celebrated his gold medal skeleton win with a beer," she says.
She adds her “heart melted watching Alexandre Bilodeau celebrate becoming the first Canadian ever to win a gold medal on Canadian soil by pulling his brother Frederic from the crowd.
“But I was also so proud to call myself Canadian when our cross-country skiing coach Justin Wadsworth gave a Russian athlete a spare ski so he could finish the race in Sochi."
Those stories, Zettler adds, make the Olympics so special.
"The Olympics are about so much more than the sports themselves."
“The Lawrencetown arena has been home to a lot of kids,” said Coun. Brian (Fuzzy)
Connell, who remembers playing there when he was about seven years old. “It’s a small arena, but when you talk to the individuals that play in that arena, they love it.”
Roscoe said they have received funding from the Village of Lawrencetown and the federal government to complete previous projects.
“We’ve been really well supported,” she said. “We’ve certainly been appreciative of all the backing.”
Roscoe said arenas are expensive facilities to run, “but if a community loves what they have, they’ll work at it.”