Colin Everard The Guardian Angel

Wednesday Night #806

Close to forty guests gathered around the Nicholson's dining room table on Wednesday evening, August 13, 1997, many of whom worked in the world of aviation. They came to dialogue with special guest Colin Everard, whom they knew personally or by reputation, but to the rest of us, meeting him was a an extraordinary, delightful experience.

Colin Everard

After being introduced, Mr. Everard spoke about his book, "The Guardian Angel: A Voice in the Wilderness", his personal account of an remarkable career in international service which stretched from locust control to research into Sleeping Sickness, then to ICAO where he most recently served as Chief of Field Operations for Asia and the Pacific. The book is to be launched shortly in Montréal at ICAO headquarters, and will be sold in Westmount by the Nicholas Hoare book shop on Greene Avenue. The precise soft-spoken account of his book kept the audience spellbound, each person present totally convinced that this was one that had to be read. As for Colin Everard the person, his openess, candor and logical accounts made without being in the least judgmental, put the room at ease, setting the tone for discussions on several topics discussed in the same tolerant manner, making this a Wednesday evening, one without equal. Apart from the fascinating account of his book, Colin Everard came across as a totally honest human being, seeking what is right for humanity with the recognition that each of the earth's inhabitants deserves to be treated with the same dignity and understanding that we reserve for ourselves.

We felt privileged to be part of this extraordinary evening.

Safety in the Air

 With the increase in world passenger and cargo air traffic, projections call for an average of one airline crash per week in ten years, somewhere in the world. ICAO is very concerned about air safety. It establishes standards and provides technical assistance, but must rely on the sovreignty of the individual nation for their enforcement. Implementation of these standards is an internal political matter. It requires money, and is not always accorded the priority it deserves because of more pressing basic needs. Even where travellers are taxed and aircraft manufacturers contribute to the maintenance and installation of air-safety infrastructure, some developing countries find that it is more important to divert this money to non-aviation safety related purposes. Air safety in North America for instance, adheres to much higher standards than in some developing countries. With a global sattelite system, air-safety becomes more global, but costly to each individual country.

Finance

 Canadian banks want to change the rules in order to position themselves to grow stronger in the international market. Large bank profits is not that bad and makes for a stronger banking system.

 The American banking system has been much better for small and medium size business than the Canadian one.

Stock Market

There was a difference of opinion on this topic. Some guests believed that we are reliving 1928, when Calvin Coolidge praised the U.S. economy, just before the 1929 crash. Others compared the situation to U.S. in 1917, when there was a drop and then rapid recovery and growth. It was pointed out that we are on the cusp of a new era, with the elimination of the deficit and reduction of the national debt. This augers all for the economy and the stock market in the near term. DTN pointed out that the indicators had seriously broken the 'uptrend line' and that we are in for big slide in the next few days.

Politics

 Peter Trent offered an update on the decision by the Conference of Suburban mayors to leave the Union of Québec Municipalities (U.M.Q.). He referred to the "tyranny of the ruralities" in the U.M.Q., where the vote of tiny rural municipalities carries the same weight as that of larger urban ones. In the current dispute over the distribution of the proposed downloading by the provincial government, the mayor pointed out that years of favoring the rural communities has resulted in an average municipal tax bill there of $568 compared with that of $2,388 of urban communities.

 On the provincial scene, the glitter seems to have worn off the current government. This is normal. Any government, when newly-elected gets much attention, while the opposition is ignored by the news media. After a few years, the reporting tends to get more balanced and people begin to listen to both sides.

 There was some disagreement as to whether the forthcoming Supreme Court decision on a unilateral declaration of independence would favour one side or the other, but it is certain that the decision will be a political one. It seems evident however, that if there is a clear no vote in the next referendum, sovereignty will be put on the back burner for the next twenty years, but the French fact will not go away, and we will have to live with the differences between the various Québec cultures.

•  - "The nightmare in my mind is the danger of the experience in Czechoslovakia, because people went to sleep, leaving it to the politicians."

•  - "Independence is a will of a people regardless of laws. This is what happened in Pakistan. The dream is a French-Canadian dream."

•  - "The problem with Canada is too much space between the people."

•  - " Regardless of the result of the referendum, the Anglophones and their institutions will eventually disappear as they did in Québec City."

• - "Ask an Anglophone how they feel about the death of Lauzon and Tougas. We show a difference."

  Finally, the room was suddenly brought back to reality with the

  following quote:

• - "Everybody is in the process of saving themselves. Nobody knows what the answer is, but the average person just wishes that the thing would go away."

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Although we were four and a half hours into the evening, when we broke up, everyone felt a reluctance to leave, milling around, chatting and continuing to exchange ideas.