Tried to make some telephone connections in the morning, but all meetings to take place on Friday so I did a little writing and then went downtown ( a short walk). Vancouver was Vancouver. It rained most of the day. I went to a Blacks Camera store to return the film that was of no value to me since I had lost my 35 mm camera. Richard received me at the City Square Blacks, and even though it was against the rules, he took back the film and gave me a full credit. Hooray for Blacks. Unfortunately for me I was not so lucky in returning my Nokia, Cantel telephone. I had purchased this set-up in Montreal, with the intention of having it be of value to me on this trip, and in particular I wanted to be able to use it for establishing an internet connection while on the road. Well, as you may have noticed if you have read about my travels, I have not been unkind in my referring to my communication systems. I shall continue. Radio shack would not take back the system because I was outside of their timeline which was said to be seven days (not their regular thirty day return policy which I have used in the past). Nor would the Cantel office upstairs in the Center take back the machine because they were an agency. To make a long story short, and to round out my dilemma, no one will take responsibility for receiving this product back and allow me to cancel my account. They are in good shape. They hold a $500 deposit. The service reps at the 800 number that they refer you to will not approve of taking the phone back, and I am stuck.

Enough said. Notwithstanding this absurd situation, and with the purpose of talking about issues of importance, I will leave the trivial and use this medium to get the conversation going on a more important issue with Cantel.

Now, I am not too clear on the specific numbers in this issue, but by my best guess, Cantel is in the process of being purchased by a US corporation. The method of this purchase is using a tax loophole, and I do mean loophole, whereby the purchasing corporation will receive a tax credit almost $100 million more than the purchase guarantee they had to provide. In short, the Canadian taxpayer, is providing $100 million of the financing for this US takeover unless, and I say unless, Canadians inform their representatives in Parliament to not approve of the tax deal that is being struck. Let the media moguls wrap their self righteousness indignation around this one. Please note, I was intending to write this piece before I was abused by Cantel.

While on the subject of money and tax loopholes, I want to bring forth another issue for discussion. When the banks upgraded their computer systems, they received Research and Development tax credits to the tune of almost $500 million dollars. The point is: what research and development did they do? Certainly research and development tax credits should be available to anyone who does genuine research and development, but installation of ATMs should not be eligible.

So much for my venting. To-day I talked with Lorenz von Fersen a cultural planner in the Office of Cultural Affairs, City of Vancouver. He was interested in the IPC 2000 program, and he also had some information on the Millennium Council of Canada. I did inform him that I was intimately familiar with at least three of the initiatives on the letterhead, two from the perspective of being a founding member (Ontario Council on Education with a Global Perspective, and the Global Foundation for Understanding), and one from being involved as a strong support player. (i Human project).

I also met with Larry Kuehn of the BC Teachers Federation and he agreed to look at our site and determine a possible connection.

Cathy gave me the car for the evening and the Film Festival was in town. I called to find out where the parties were and I found one - it was for Death by Clubbing or some such silly name. I went in that direction hoping to find another party in the neighborhood. Went to dinner at Brothers and had a great dinner - their smoked salmon with cream cheese jalopena peppers onion lettuce and those little green things that have a sharp taste, are somewhat soft, have no smell that I can remember. While having dinner I noticed all these beautiful women, and some beautiful men, going into this place called the Purple Onion. Valet parking, and right next door to the restaurant. Exclusive party sir, you must have a ticket. Perhaps if I talked with the host. I said. He introduced me to a beautiful lady that quickly put a red ticket in my hand and said. "For a drink". I said Don't you want to hear my story? Just go in you jerk I said to myself: objective4 was entry, or was it to get the conversation going. Anyway, it does not matter. After walking in three or four steps I ran into Annette Andrews who had planted herself in the power position in the room. I quickly recognized it as the power spot, and joined her. It turned out she works with my old friend Larry Goldhar of the Characters. SO we had a pleasant chat, being joined periodically by various souls that wanted to say hello. Two interesting people came by, and I cannot for the life of me remember their names. Then there was Susan who wants to help the project, and her friend Vince who is a busy writer director. Annette suggest I drop by the office before leaving town.

All in all a pleasant evening and off to sleep.