Depuis 1967, année du centenaire de la Confédération, de nombreux épisodes de crise politique et de difficultés économiques ainsi que les événements internationaux ont contribué à la transformation de la société canadienne et continueront de façonner son avenir. En tenant compte de ces diverses difficultés et opportunités rencontrées dans le passé, à quoi ressemble l’avenir du Canada? Dans Réfléchir sur notre passé pour aborder notre avenir, des diplomates, des politiciens, des chercheurs et des personnages en vue dans le domaine des droits de l’homme, dont Phil Fontaine, Michaëlle Jean, Ellen Gabriel, Paul Heinbecker, Bob Rae, Jean Charest et David Suzuki mettent en commun leur sagesse et leur expérience des événements qui ont marqué l’histoire du pays au cours des cinquante dernières années. Réfléchissant au rôle complémentaire à la Chambre des communes du Sénat au Canada, ils examinent des enjeux clés comme la condition des peuples autochtones, les obligations imposées par la Charte des droits et libertés, la reconnaissance des deux langues officielles et les référendums sur l’unité nationale. Les collaborateurs abordent aussi la transformation de l’économie dans un monde numérisé et un système planétaire, le rôle du Canada sur la scène mondiale à une époque de tension croissante, le flot accru de réfugiés, les changements climatiques et l’incertitude entourant l’avenir de l’Arctique, la concurrence scientifique et culturelle sur le marché international et l’avenir de la démocratie parlementaire. Corrigeant les fausses idées à propos du rôle actuel du Sénat et donnant le contre-argument à une réforme radicale du Sénat, Réfléchir sur notre passé pour aborder notre avenir propose de riches perspectives et un aperçu fascinant de l’évolution probable du Canada au cours des prochaines années.
Since 1967, the centennial of Confederation, numerous political crises, economic challenges, and international events have helped to transform Canadian society, and will continue to shape its future. Taking these various challenges and opportunities of the past into account, how does the future look for Canada? In Reflecting on Our Past and Embracing Our Future diplomats, politicians, scientists, and human rights leaders including Phil Fontaine, Michaëlle Jean, Ellen Gabriel, Paul Heinbecker, Bob Rae, Jean Charest, and David Suzuki have come together to share their wisdom and experience of events that have marked the country over the last fifty years. Reflecting on the role of the Senate in Canada as complementary to the House of Commons, they consider central issues such as the condition of indigenous peoples, the obligations of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the recognition of two official languages, and the national unity referendums. Contributors also discuss the transformation of the economy in a globalized and digital world, the role of Canada on the world stage at a time of growing tension and an increasing flow of refugees, climate change and the uncertain future of the Arctic, scientific and cultural competitions on the international market, and the future of parliamentary democracy. Correcting misconceptions about the contemporary role of the Senate, and providing a counterargument for radical Senate reform, Reflecting on Our Past and Embracing Our Future offers rich perspectives and fascinating insights about Canada's likely development in the coming years.
"Your Mindful Compass" takes us behind the emotional curtain to see the mechanisms regulating individuals in social systems. There is great comfort and wisdom in knowing we can increase our awareness to manage the swift and ancient mechanisms of social control. We can gain greater flexibility by seeing how social controls work in systems from ants to humans. To be less controlled by others, we learn how emotional systems influence our relationship-oriented brain. People want to know what goes on in families that give rise to amazing leaders and/or terrorists. For the first time in history we can understand the systems in which we live. The social sciences have been accumulating knowledge since the early fifties as to how we are regulated by others. S. Milgram, S. Ashe, P. Zimbardo and J. Calhoun, detail the vulnerability to being duped and deceived and the difficulty of cooperating when values differ. Murray Bowen, M.D., the first researcher to observe several live-in families, for up to three years, at the National Institute of Mental Health. Describing how family members overly influence one another and distribute stress unevenly, Bowen described both how symptoms and family leaders emerge in highly stressed families. Our brain is not organized to automatically perceive that each family has an emotional system, fine-tuned by evolution and "valuing" its survival as a whole, as much as the survival of any individual. It is easier to see this emotional system function in ants or mice but not in humans. The emotional system is organized to snooker us humans: encouraging us to take sides, run away from others, to pressure others, to get sick, to blame others, and to have great difficulty in seeing our part in problems. It is hard to see that we become anxious, stressed out and even that we are difficult to deal with. But "thinking systems" can open the doors of perception, allowing us to experience the world in a different way. This book offers both coaching ideas and stories from leaders as to strategies to break out from social control by de-triangling, using paradoxes, reversals and other types of interruptions of highly linked emotional processes. Time is needed to think clearly about the automatic nature of the two against one triangle. Time and experience is required as we learn strategies to put two people together and get self outside the control of the system. In addition, it takes time to clarify and define one's principles, to know what "I" will or will not do and to be able to take a stand with others with whom we are very involved. The good news is that systems' thinking is possible for anyone. It is always possible for an individual to understand feelings and to integrate them with their more rational brains. In so doing, an individual increases his or her ability to communicate despite misunderstandings or even rejection from important others. The effort involved in creating your Mindful Compass enables us to perceive the relationship system without experiencing it's threats. The four points on the Mindful Compass are: 1) Action for Self, 2) Resistance to Forward Progress, 3) Knowledge of Social Systems and the 4) The Ability to Stand Alone. Each gives us a view of the process one enters when making an effort to define a self and build an emotional backbone. It is not easy to find our way through the social jungle. The ability to know emotional systems well enough to take a position for self and to become more differentiated is part of the natural way humans cope with pressure. Now people can use available knowledge to build an emotional backbone, by thoughtfully altering their part in the relationship system. No one knows how far one can go by making an effort to be more of a self-defined individual in relationships to others. Through increasing emotional maturity, we can find greater individual freedom at the same time that we increase our ability to cooperate and to be close to others.
