What do Human Rights mean to you?

A video that I made for a school project researching the question "what do human rights mean to you?" I interview many people of different backgrounds for this project and tried to include a mix of teenagers and adults.

I hope that you enjoy the video!

What do Human Rights mean to you? from Isaac Wurmann on Vimeo.

Thanks so much to everyone who I interviewed!

GELA Prison Committee Book Sale

The GELA (Greater Edmonton Library Association) Prison Committee works with the Edmonton Institution for Women in their library.

All the proceeds from this book sale on this Saturday and Sunday will go towards the Edmonton Institution for Women.
I'll be there, so you should come out too!

L53 Every Victim Matters Art Show

This evening was the opening of the Latitude 53 art show called Every Victim Matters. This art show featured the art work of over 60 Edmonton area youth (aged 12-24). The works of art addressed different topics such as poverty, violence and peer pressure to go with National Victims Awareness Week.

A classmate of mine, Rebecca, had a piece of art in this show. Her piece of art was called "Victim Words."

What I found interesting was that some pieces of art showed the environment being destroyed. This showed that not only can humans be victims, but the environment is a victim as well.

Did You Really?!

Did you really, M. Bredeson?!

Today I received a letter from M. Bredeson, the Executive Correspondence Officer for Stephen Harper in response to my letter to Harper regarding the detention of Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay for Amnesty International's Write-A-Thon. In the letter it read:

"Dear Isaac:

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to acknowledge receipt of your recent correspondence regarding the detention of Omar Khadr at Guanatanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Thank you for writing to share your views with the Prime Minister. You may be assured that your comments have been carefully received by this office.

Yours sincerely,

M. Bredeson

Executive Correspondance Officer"

But did you really, M. Bredeson? Or is this just what you tell everyone? Personally, I'd like to see some proof that my comments have been "carefully reviewed by this office."

Young Artists for Haiti - Wavin' Flag

Here's a great version of K'Naan's song Waving Flag performed by many young Canadian artists in support of Haiti.



It's great to see artists such as Sam Roberts, Serena Ryder, Hawksley Workman and so many other great Canadian musicians come together to perform this wonderful song for Haiti. My one disappointment was at the end... where Justin Bieber got to sing the last line!

For You, Mr. Stelmach...

Well apparently premier Ed Stelmach hasn't seen any pictures of the approximately 1, 600 ducks that died after landing in a Syncrude tailings pond in northern Alberta. Somehow this seems impossible as these pictures have been on the front page of pretty much every newspaper in Alberta, and video footage of the ducks dying has been shown on pretty much every news station in Alberta.

Well here you go, Mr. Stelmach. Here are the pictures that you have somehow missed while going about your daily life. Here is evidence showing how the oil sands are destroying our environment, in more ways than just climate change.

The picture was taken of a duck actually in the tailing pond, shortly before it died.

To learn more about this topic, please visit the article in the Edmonton Journal about how "Stelmach hasn't seen duck images". Sheesh... really Stelmach?

A Morning at Boyle Street

Last Friday I spent my morning at Boyle Street Community Services in downtown Edmonton. I volunteered there in the Youth Department for my community service hours that I have to do for school. It was a very interesting and eye-opening experience and I will definitely volunteer there again.

Boyle Street is an inner city service that works to connect people living in poverty with the things that they need. Social workers there work with people who are often ignored, face discrimination and have been marginalized by the larger society. I volunteered with the Youth Department because a friend of mine, Matt McCoy, works there.

I started volunteering there at 9:00 AM, right at the beginning of the day. I was first sent to work on organizing pamphlets that help people with what they need like staying healthy, legal resources, and other important things while living on the street. Many of the pamphlets were running low, so I went to StreetWorks to collect more copies of pamphlets. StreetWorks is an organization in Boyle Street that does a needle exchange, but that also publishes pamphlets and other information sources in a way that is understandable to the people who need the information the most.

Later, I went on rounds with some social workers at Boyle Street to check to make sure that all of the people who came there were doing okay. We walked around in the central area and outside the building to make sure that nobody was doing drugs on the property as well. It was very interesting to talk to the people who came there, and who worked there. I talked to one person who was a sort of "counselor" for the people, and he seemed to specialize in aboriginal people who went through the residential schools. He said that he likes to think of the people who come to Boyle Street as part of the community and then help people find ways out of doing drugs or alcohol.

It wasn't a very busy day at Boyle Street I was told by Matt, especially not in the Youth Department. So, for the final minutes of my visit there, I found myself playing the piano and guitar with the community. It was quite interesting to see some hidden talents in people that one might not have expected.

In all, it was a very interesting and eye-opening experience. I was perhaps a bit hesitant at first to volunteer at Boyle Street, and I didn't really know how things would work, but in the end everything worked out fine. I will definitely not hesitate to volunteer there again in the next few months.

To learn more about Boyle Street Community Services, visit their website.

A Night of Freedom

Last night was the "Freedom Ball", an event at the Art Gallery of Alberta organized by the Edmonton Public Library to celebrate Freedom to Read Week. First of all, I do not think that they should have used the word "ball" to describe the event. I had imagined it as being a lot more free (pardon the pun) where one could wander about the art gallery and then also listen to the DJs and watch presentations. Instead, it was very structured and it was held in a sort of presentation room in the basement of the art gallery. However, it was still very excellent, just not exactly what I had expected!

We got to the event at 8:00 PM (one hour after it actually started) in the middle of the concert of the rap/hip-hip band called the People's Poets. The People's Poets were excellent, and in the end we ended up buying their CD. They are from Chile, but they now live in Edmonton and they write and rap about social justice issues and consider themselves as "raptivists". I was even pleasantly surprised to hear an excerpt of one of Che Guevara's speeches as a part of one of their songs!

Visit the People's Poets website to listen to some of their songs online.

After the People's Poets, there was the presentation of the "Freedom Movie". This was a movie filmed by various people around Edmonton. It was a compilation of interviews of citizens of different backgrounds answering questions such as "What does freedom mean to you?" and "What do you think you take for granted?".

It was very interesting to hear what people had to say in response to those questions. What was also interesting to see was how open people were to respond to the questions.

In all, it was a great night and I thought it was a great activity to celebrate our freedom to read! Perhaps next year though, just don't use the word "ball" to describe it.

My Top 10 Canadian Singles

Last weekend's episode of CBC's The Vinyl Cafe featured the host, Stuart McLean listing off his top 10 Canadian singles of all time. Stuart McLean said that he was asked to come up with this list by Bob Mersereau, who is an arts journalist and author of the 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums.

Today, I am going to present you my list of the top 10 Canadian singles of all time. Many factors were included in coming up with this list. Of course how much I like the song is a factor, as well as the amount of impact these songs have had on the Canadian music world. What I also considered in choosing these top 10 singles were how "Canadian" these songs and artists were. So here we go...

Number One: Heart of Gold by Neil Young off of his album Harvest (1972). This song if probably Neil Young's most well known song, and his album Harvest was listed as number one on Bob Mersereau's top 100 Canadian Albums list. Here's a video of him performing this song live in 1971, when this was still one of his new songs! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh44QPT1mPE

Number Two: A Case of You by Joni Mitchell off of her album Blue (1971). This song is probably one of Joni Mitchell's most famous songs, and was in fact number two on the top 100 Canadian Album's list. Here's a link to a video on YouTube of her performing this song live (it's pretty quiet, but it's a great quality recording!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZioxCg20I&feature=related

Number Three: Wheat Kings by The Tragically Hip off of their album Fully Completely (1992). This was the first song that I ever heard by The Tragically Hip and it is a truly Canadian song that speaks of the vast prairies. Here's a great live, acoustic version of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JjX-F7AFso

Number Four: Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen off of his album Songs of Love and Hate (1971). I've always loved this song by Cohen, and it's one of my favourite's by him. Here's a great live version of this song from 1979: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrMR9lEeJEU

Number Five: Body’s in Trouble by Mary Margaret O’Hara off of her one and only album Miss America (1988). Mary Margaret O'Hara is truly amazing! She has released only one album, yet that album is up there in the top Canadian Albums list, and you could probably count the number of performances that she's done on two hands! I was lucky enough to see her perform live at the Edmonton Folk Fest a few years ago. Here's a link to the music video for this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z14wPTz6PdY

Number Six: Record Body Count by Rheostatics off of their album Melville (1991). I was introduced to Rheostatics a few years ago, and this was the first song that I heard from them. It's short, but great! Here's the promo video for this song (the quality's not too great): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_j7FUGV22I&feature=related

Number Seven: Hallelujah covered by k.d. lang off of her album Hymns of the 49^th Parallel (2004). This is an absolutely amazing, and probably the best cover of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah. Hallelujah is Cohen's most covered song. Here's a live version of her singing this song in 2005. She also sang this song during the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE

Number Eight: My Favourite Chords by The Weakerthans off of their album Left and Leaving (2000). I first saw the Weakerthans perform at the Edmonton Folk Fest a few years ago and they instantly became my favourite band! I love this song because it's very simple, but also very great! Here's a link to listen to this song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkBMpngSy3Y&feature=related

Number Nine: Underwhelmed by Sloan off of their album Smeared (1992). For some reason, Sloan seems to me like a truly Canadian band. This was the first song that I'd ever heard by this Halifax band. Here's a link to a video of the band performing this song on a TV show in 1992: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4VfIGhw4-I&feature=related.

Number Ten: Through and Through and Through by Joel Plaskett off of his album Three (2009). This is the most recent song on my list. I was lucky enough to interview Joel Plaskett at last year's Edmonton Folk Fest and this is probably my favourite song by him. It's a real "road trip" song, and it has a great music video! Here's a link to the music video for this song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlNvx2Zl_0M

So those are just my top 10 Canadian singles of all time, or at least from 1971 to 2009. If you have any other ideas or if you'd like to share some of your favourite Canadian singles, just comment at the bottom.

So long for now!

Happy Freedom to Read Week!

That's right, this week is the annual Freedom to Read Week, a week to celebrate freedom of expression and to encourage Canadians to think about intellectual freedom. This week is celebrated all across Canada with many events in majour cities.



Freedom to Read Week is very important because even in Canada in 2010, many books are still being challenged and being banned in many libraries across the country. As I looked at a list of books that were challenged or banned, I noticed that many famous books that are used in teaching or books that are now celebrated as classics are in these lists. For instance, books such as To Kill a Mockingbird (by Harper Lee), The Catcher in the Rye (by J.D. Salinger), Lord of the Flies (by William Golding), Of Mice and Men (by John Steinbeck), many novels by Mark Twain and the list goes on and on. Even some quite modern books and series that many children and teenagers read have been challenged such as J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, and Philip Pullman's the Golden Compass and the other two novels in that trilogy.

Even many magazines and newspaper have been asked to be banned from many libraries across the country. The magazine Maclean's was challenged in 2007 for being "islamophobic" after publishing an excerpt from the book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. The Edmonton newspaper VueWeekly has also been challenged many times.

It seems as though the main reasons that books are found offensive by some people are centered around religion and sexuality, and books are mainly reported by parents who are worried about their children reading books about those topics. I disagree with the banning of books because I think that people should be able to choose what they read, and if you don't believe in what a book is writing about, then just don't read it! It's as simple as that! I especially do not agree with books being banned simply because parents do not want their children to read about topics such as homosexuality or atheism. Challenging books like that seems extremely ignorant and parents who challenge books like that probably shelter their children too much from the rest of the world that they do not believe in.

All around Canada events are being held to celebrate Freedom to Read Week. Here in Edmonton, one main event being held is the Freedom Ball which is being held by the Edmonton Public Library at the Art Gallery or Alberta. This event is on February 27th and to learn more about it, visit EPL's web page about it. To learn more about Freedom to Read Week, visit their website and to see a list of books that have been challenged or banned, visit their list of "challenged books and magazines." I might be going to the Freedom Ball this Saturday and if I do, I'll be sure to write about it on my blog. But until then, Happy Freedom to Read Week!