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photo of David Dobrosky, Snr. VP of Customer Contact Centres at Scotiabank with Mayor of Cornwall

CFN -CCEOC Inc. today announced their Contact Centre Employer of Choice Platinum level 2012 designation for Scotiabank Customer Contact Centres inCalgary, Cornwall, Toronto and Halifax.

“We are extremely proud to be recognized as an employer of choice across all our Centres in Canada,” said David Dobrosky, Senior Vice President of Customer Contact Centres, Scotiabank. “Our people are our greatest strength. They are dedicated to building a great workplace, enabling us to deliver exceptional customer experiences each and every day.”

The Platinum designation marks the first multi-site assessment for Scotiabank’s four Customer Contact Centres. This is the fifth Platinum award for the Toronto Contact Centre and the second for both Calgary and Cornwall. The Toronto Contact Centre first reached Platinum status in 2007 and has the highest continuous CCEOC ranking of any Canadian financial institution. In 2011, Scotiabank received the CCEOC Five Year Achievement Award.

“This is an outstanding accomplishment for Scotiabank,” said Jeff Doran, President of CCEOC Inc. “Scotiabank’s dedication to continuous improvement towards building an employer of choice workplace inspires employees and positions the Bank as an industry leader. Their focus on employee needs has had a profound effect on satisfaction, passion, pride, engagement and performance. The Platinum level certification also provides a real competitive advantage for attracting, retaining and motivating top talent.”

Scotiabank’s Customer Contact Centres are dedicated to:

·                     Building a culture of support, growth and employee engagement

·                     Delivering practical advice and excellent service to Scotiabank customers

·                     Diversity, community engagement, teamwork and personal and professional development

·                     Being a great place to work and grow

The CCEOC award is the industry standard for recognizing and branding people centric contact centers. Through the CCEOC assessment, a contact center can quickly determine if they meet the qualification standards and, depending on survey scores, can achieve Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum ranking. Contact centres that achieve CCEOC designation receive a certificate, are profiled on the official CCEOC corporate web-site www.ccemployerofchoice.com and are promoted through various print and electronic news channels. The CCEOC designation is valid for 12 months.

About Scotiabank 
Scotiabank is one of North America’s premier financial institutions and Canada’s most international bank. With more than 77,000 employees, Scotiabank and its affiliates serve some 19 million customers in more than 55 countries around the world. Scotiabank offers a broad range of products and services including personal, commercial, corporate and investment banking. With assets of $637 billion (as at January 31, 2012), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (BNS) and New York Exchanges (BNS). For more information please visit www.scotiabank.com.

About CCEOC Inc.
CCEOC Inc. specializes in building world-class, people focused cultures. Since 2004, CCEOC has been delivering the Contact Center Employer of Choice® Certification and Development program for regional, national and international contact centers.

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Any condo or commercial building on the parking lot east of Civic Complex/Aquatic Centre would ruin the view from the former Si Miller arena property, and lessen it’s market value.  The City is trying to sell this site today.

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The arena site rises up as it rolls northward to First St. E.  In the middle of the site, the view to the south is striking.

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It looks directly onto the parking lot in question with the river and treed Cornwall Island in the background.  In the foreground, the beige curling club is almost hidden by trees, and big trees stand in front of the Civic Complex.   To the east, lots of Legion Park green space is visible behind the French monument.  The slanted glass walls of the Aquatic Centre just sparkle in the sunshine,  and a large bed of bright yellow flowers enhances the United Way thermometer.

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Imagine the southern view from a spiffy 10-12 storey condo on the arena site! Residents on the east and west sides of this tower would have green space and river views too.

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The city’s pro-development waterfront committee is preparing for June public meetings regarding their plan, which is the second nutty thing they have done in two years.  At their first meeting, they halted a $30,000 redesign of the most easterly portion of Lamoureux Park located just east of the marina.

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The redesign to make the park’s fabulous river views more accessible by car has been in the planning for years.  To this end,  five mature trees from a downtown construction site were relocated here at city expense. Our old committee called this park Lookout Point or Pointe

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Maligne Lookout and felt it could become a tourist attraction with terrific views even on winter days.   (Pointe Maligne was the name for the Cornwall region from 1600 to 1825 and it appeared on river charts and tickets issued by Montreal shipping firms.)   Win or lose their parking lot project, you can be sure the current waterfront committee members who never saw a blade of grass they liked will want to chop those five trees down and build private condos at Lookout Point!

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Gerry Flaherty - Cornwall

(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)

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There’s a long history of toilet humour in comedy, and some of it’s fun.  It’s interesting watching Dwight and Jimmy develop as comic talent right from their basement lair in Cornwall Ontario.

The boys roll Sunday nights at 7 PM with repeats available via podcast.

I visited their studio Sunday night to catch some of the mayhem and hijinks.    Please note this video is not for kiddies unless they’re practicing for the next remake of the Bad News Bears!

VIDEO WARNING PROFANITY – CUSS WORDS – GUARANTEED TO OFFEND

DON’T BLAME US IF YOU CHOOSE TO CLICK!

In a town bereft of much original culture it’s fun to see where  Jimmy and Dwight will go.   Right now they’re hoping to get some of the fans to kick in some cash so they can get more equipment and be more professional.

Funny radio commercials, reading odd and wacky news stories, but mostly dropping F bombs and insulting just about everyone with their brand of offensive and usually border line comedy is the specialty of JDwhenever broadcast Sunday nights at 7 PM EST.

You can check out their website by clicking HERE.

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“… the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”

                                                                         Franklin D. Roosevelt, April29, 1938

In 2003, the American political scientist Laurence W. Britt published in the magazine Free Inquiry an article entitled “Fascism Anyone?” (Free Inquiry, Spring 2003-Volume 23, No. 2) After studying the political system of seven countries that have experienced periods of political dictatorship (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Spain under Franco, Portugal under Salazar, Greece under Papadopoulos, Chile under Pinochet and Indonesia under Suharto) the political scientist concluded that despite some differences, all these regimes have 14 common characteristics:  Powerful and continuing expression of nationalism, Disdain for the importance of human rights, Identification of enemies/scapegoats as unifying cause, Supremacy of the military/avid militarism, Rampant sexism, A controlled mass media, Obsession with national security, Religion and ruling elite tied together, Power of corporation protected, Power of labor suppressed or eliminated, Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts, Obsession with crime and punishment, Rampant cronyism and corruption and Fraudulent elections.

Let me add one more characteristic of totalitarian regimes to those identified by the author:  The contempt for democratic institutions which are nevertheless used for the establishment of the totalitarian regime.

What struck me the most after reading the article was the resemblance to the characteristics of Canadian politics since January 2006 and even more since May 2011, when the Conservative government became a majority government with less than 40% of the votes cast. It is not difficult to find concrete examples for each of the 15 characteristics mentioned. I will content myself in mentioning a few, leaving readers the opportunity to complete the list as they please:

Two times prorogation of Parliament to avoid votes of non-confidence and loss of power; changing the operating rules of the Committees of the House of Commons; overspending to exalt nationalism celebrating the War of 1812; budget cuts and the elimination of organisations dealing with human rights, identification of socialists, liberals, progressives and environmentalists as enemies of the nation and the national interest; reckless spending, in times of economic crisis, for military equipment and military interventions abroad; control of the mass media and access to information and retaliation against those who criticise the government; excessive laws justified by the need for national security; close relationships with leaders of various religions and their use for electoral purposes; anti-union legislation and the weakening of the legislation protecting workers; many legislative changes in favor of companies and corporations and against the common good and the environment; illegal elimination of the Wheat Board in favor of big landowners and big US grain companies; control of scientific information produced by government employees and the elimination of many scientific and cultural organisations; adoption of several laws relating to criminal offenses in a context where crime rates are down; legislation addressing judicial independence by requiring judges to award predetermined sentences; thousands of partisan nominations and corrupt behaviour by government officials (among others ministers Bev Oda, Peter MacKay, Tony Clement and Christian Paradis); concentration of decision-making in the hands of the  Prime Minister and Cabinet members to the detriment of the Members of Parliament; a unique lack of transparency in Canadian political history; fraudulent electoral behaviour (suppression of votes with illegal phone calls, illegal voting, financial opacity).

The majority of Canadians identify democracy as being the opportunity to vote freely and choose among candidates nominated by various parties, those who will represent and speak on their behalf for a period of time, usually four years.  The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ensures a wide range of other rights which are taken for granted and considered immutable. We are convinced that those to whom we have delegated our power to decide are worthy and defend the common good and the general interest of our country. Unfortunately, the reality is very different and we risk having a rude awakening.  History is full of examples but we still think that this can only happen elsewhere, not in Canada.

Nevertheless, since 2006, Canada has entered a period of profound political and social changes. These changes have been very gradual and they have been supported by an extraordinary propaganda machine that would be the envy of any totalitarian regime. Under the influence of this propaganda and overwhelmed by our daily problems (job security, consumption and debts) we are convinced that those to whom we have temporarily delegated our powers are defending our interests and those of our country. The reality is that since 2006 the opposition parties, each in turn and for partisan reasons, have been accomplices in these changes. Since the Conservative Party has had a majority in Parliament (with only 40% of the votes) the progressive forces, representing over 60% of the population, have continued their division and internal fights and thereby fostered the changes.

Under the Conservative government, Canada is formulating and implementing an all-new form of dictatorship, the democratic dictatorship.  The lack of leadership and unity of progressive forces makes even sadder the establishment of the new Canadian political regime.

For now, the only good news is that all the dictatorial regimes have eventually failed and democracy has triumphed over tyranny.

Corneliu Kirjan
Free-thinking Citizen
Cornwall, Ontario

(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)

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He’s a regular on a local radio station covering sports, as well as a sports columnist in newspaper, but his passion is history; especially local history that led to him spending nearly three years to complete his book:   Constable Davey; A Future Lost which is available locally and online via his website:   www.Thomracine.com

I had a chance to catch up and chat with Mr. Racine at Island Ink Jet over a sampling of Kopi Luwak Coffee!  Here is the video which you can crank up to 1080 DPI for best viewing quality!

As his days with badge and gun come to an end it should be interesting to see what’s in store for this Cornwallite….

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Question

Hello Captain.  I am not a pilot, but I find aviation fascinating. I have been reading your weekly column with interest. My question is;  how does a pilot know when to start the descent from cruising altitude to land at destination airport ?

Question asked by Carlos.

Answer

The most efficient way to descend an airplane is to stay at cruising altitude for as long as possible, then reduce engine thrust to idle and descend all the way down to a runway, without increasing engine thrust. At idle power, jet engines produce little thrust and consume ten times less fuel that at cruise power.

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So the airplane basically glides toward the airport. Airliners have a relatively small wing compared to gliders, but they are aerodynamically very clean, so they can fly fast and consequently glide quite well.  A typical glide ratio of an airliner is approximately 18:1. That means that for every 18 feet of forward movement the airplane will descent one foot. This ratio translates to 3 nautical miles for every 1,000 feet of altitude loss.  If an airliner is cruising at 35,000 feet, to be able to land at an airport at an elevation close to sea level, the pilot must start the descent 105 Nautical Miles, or 190 kilometers from the airport.

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A pilot can easily make this mental calculation. There are however several factors that complicate this formula and the pilot has to make appropriate adjustments. Modern airliners have computers that can make this calculation very precisely, based on data entered by the pilot into the computers and on actual wind and environmental conditions.  The computers help the pilot to fly the airplane more efficiently, burning less fuel and thus also reducing emissions.

A bit more about Captain Dan:

Captain Dan Baz enrolled in Flight School at the age of 16.
He has completed studies in Aircraft Engineering and Master of Business Administration. He has been at the controls of many different types of aircraft, from single engine Cessnas to large intercontinental jets on global routes.

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Over the last four decades he has flown thousands of hours up in the blue sky.

Have a question for the Captain ? Send it to Captain Dan Baz captaindanbaz@yahoo.com Every week a question from the readers will be selected and answer posted in this column.

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If you wish to share your photo or video with our Viewers email us at info@cornwallfreenews.com

CFN – The Glass Blowing Place & Chillax Café had its grand opening Saturday, 19 May and Liberal MPP (Glengarry–Prescott–Russell) Grant Crack was there to cut the ribbon, glass ribbon that is.

Here you can see the process that the glass blowers went through to get this glass ribbon.

In the front of the glass blowing studio is a café and retail store where you can purchase some of the wonderful glass art produced there as well as other art produced by local artists. You can come in and have a cup of fresh roasted coffee, study the glass artistry and even observe the glass blowers at work. Courses in glass blowing are available on site if you want to try your hand at handling molten glass.

In the picture below you can see Chris Van Zanten, Heinz Kaswurm (a non-glass blowing partner), MPP Grant Crack, Eric Covington, Gian Paolo BAstianello and David Paterson hamming it up for the camera.

More information about The Glass Blowing Place can be found on their web site:

www.glassblowingplace.com

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The reason I say this is that there is nothing more exciting to watch than citizens gathering and expressing a need to be heard, no matter what the issue. This collective power is known as the spirit of unity. Unity is the spiritual characteristic that is essential in order to create a better world.

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Is it possible that one of the reasons that citizens do not vote is that our political system is based on a divisive model and uses force to achieve its aims? Unification and divisiveness are opposing forces. If we want to create the Cornwall and S D and G that we envision we will have to consider how to organize in a unifying manner and use our power for the collective good. Beavergate was an excellent example of the use of the power of unity in order to protect an ecosystem.

For the past 25 years, or longer, the City of Cornwall has trapped beaver populations in Guindon Park. Five years ago one citizen, Wyatt Walsh, started complaining about this practice. This year the City hired a trapper who set several Conibears, or body gripping traps with the mission to kill a family beavers that had taken up residence in the park. The City succeeded in its mission.

Several weeks ago the issue hit the headlines of CFN and became a matter of interest to several people and one in particular took the lead in order to get a resolution to the problem. This woman’s name is Rebecca Sorrel. I met her on Facebook through the Cornwall, Ontario page and became her friend. I tracked the story and took a personal interest because of my love for animals in general and my concern for the human impacts on the environment in particular.

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We are re-engineering the area and it concerns me that there does not seem to be a comprehensive vision what we want to end up with. When our great-great- grandchildren are born. what will they be looking at in terms of their environment: concrete or green spaces?

Rebecca has such a vision which she shared with me  in a social setting. I got the distinct impression that I was speaking to a woman of great capacity who is shaping up to be a community leader on a mission. The virtue that stands out the most powerfully from Rebecca is her humility. She told me over and over again that she is a nobody! Isn’t that incredible? How many of us would introduce ourselves and tell the other person that we are a nobody?

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She then proceeded to tell me that the only reason she stood up for the beavers was that she wanted to be the mother her daughter Calysta thought she was. I thought that this motivation is a sign of an extraordinary individual because Rebecca knows that Calysta is already a very powerful woman. She does not look at her as a child. After all we are raising adults, not children.

Rebecca is using a powerful spiritual principle in her maternal role. She begins with the end in mind. She has a vision and so she works backwards to make sure that the vision is realized. As a result, when Calysta is an adult she will be telling the world that she did all these great things because she had a mother who showed her the way. That is such a wonderful affirmation of the power of love, dedication and truthfulness – so much more powerful than the opposing ideology which rules through force, aggression, oppression and other destructive means. We need to bring balance into this world.

Here’s a song dedicated to the citizens who support Beavergate from Tina Turner, a Canadian icon and woman of substance:

You can reach me at spiritmatters9@gmail.com

 Shirley Barr lives and works in Cornwall Ontario since May 2010 and is a member of the Baha’i community.

(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)