The Gerrard Report

Saturday evening September 22, Manitoba Liberals gathered for a "working together" dinner at the Punjab Cultural Centre in Winnipeg. Kevin Lamoureux, MP for Winnipeg North, gave an impassioned speech to those present - talking about the opportunity Manitoba Liberals have in the upcoming 2020 election, and the need for Manitoba Liberals to do well provincially to get our province in a better direction. Dougald Lamont, Manitoba Liberal leader and MLA for St. Boniface addressed the audience to talk about the successful by-election, the building that is happening within the Manitoba Liberal Party and the growing sense of optimism about our future. The Winnipeg Banghra Club members provided a spirited dance performance.

We need to move quickly and effectively to better help those with learning disabilities in Manitoba.  This was the message that came from five panelists at our recent (Sept 23) Forum on Learning Disabilities.   Sean Gander, Manager of Services for New Directions for Children, Youth, Adults and Families spoke of the incredible difference it can make to a person with learning disability to receive effective help.  Dr. April Buchanan, a psychologist specializing in helping children with learning disorders, spoke of the need to have a proper assessment to identify the specific learning disability, and the need to make such assessments more available.   Jennifer Young, President of the Manitoba Association of Resource Teachers spoke of the progress being made in educating new teachers about learning disabilities.  Tess Nguyen, Manager with STEPS2WORK, an organization which helps those with learning disabilities find employment, spoke of their success in helping individuals with learning

This morning Dougald Lamont and I attended Habitat for Humanity's Women of Distinction Speaker Series.   Dr. Gigi Osler, the President of the Canadian Medical Association was the keynote speaker (top photo).   She spoke of the importance of ensuring diversity in the backgrounds of doctors in Manitoba and in Canada.   It was good to see Theresa Oswald at the breakfast. 

April 29, 2018 I hosted a Forum on the Future of Primary and Secondary Education in Manitoba at the River Heights site of the Corydon Community Centre.   I introduced the Forum with four quotes which illustrated the need for this Forum and started the discussion.   " We need to prepare kids for their future not our past."  Dr. Richard Maniuszko "Education is one of the defining ways to create a climate for innovation and growth for this city and this province." Lloyd Axworthy " Canada must grow its human capital.  Better education and training are key here. " IISD Report " Our educational systems must be retooled to maximize  these needed skills and attributes: strong fundamentals in writing, reading, coding and math; creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration; grit, self-motivation, lifelong learning habits; and entrepreneurship and improvization at every level."  Thomas Friedman Rebecca Chartrand, Exe

On May 2, 2018 Naomi and I hosted a workshop at our home to talk about the pivotal importance of solar power in Africa.    With a shortage of energy in many communities in Africa, people continue to cut trees in their area and burn firewood to cook food.   This can be replaced with solar power so that trees and forests can grow and sequester carbon, helping the local and the global environment.    We explored the situation together with Manitobans who have come from different parts of Africa.   Our leadoff speaker was Mussie Tesfagiorgis , who is on the Academic Staff at the University of Winnipeg.   He began by saying that deforestation is a big issue, indeed a paramount issue in Africa with forest resources being drastically depleted.   A major cause of the deforestation is the increase in population, the increase in agriculture and the increase in livestock grazing.    As the number of people has increased, the livestock population has increased accompanying the deforestatio

Saturday Sept 1, I joined members of the Igbo community in Winnipeg, to celebrate the colourful New Yam Festival at Kings Drive Park.  The festival was organized by the Umunna (Igbo) Culltural Association of Manitoba.