February 19, 2009

It's Thursday, February 19th.

Ottawa is celebrating the arrival of Barack Obama this morning. The culmination of the revelry will be a symbolic, "Yes We Span" march across the Laurier Bridge.

Currently ... Maybe it's just as well he won't actually see any of this.

This is The Current.

Obama & Dirty Oil

Obamamania is sweeping the streets of Ottawa today. But in the Alberta oil patch, pulses are racing for a different reason. There's an enormous amount of anxiety about what the new U.S. administration will mean for the future of the oil sands.

The United States is Canada's biggest energy market by a wide margin. And much of what we send them comes from the oil sands. And while the Bush Administration saw the oil sands as a key part of its energy security strategy, President Obama campaigned on finding clean, green energy and weaning the United States off less environmentally benign sources such as the oil sands.

Terry Tamminen has a special insight into Barack Obama's thinking on the oil sands and the energy industry. He's an adviser to President Obama's transition team. He's also a long-time environmental advisor to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he's the author of Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of our Oil Addiction. Terry Tamminen joined us from Santa Monica, California.

Guantanamo Bay Talk Tape

One of the things on U.S. President Barack Obama's Ottawa agenda is a meeting with Liberal Leader, Michael Ignatieff. And one of the things Mr. Ignatieff says he'll raise in that meeting is the case of Omar Khadr, the only Canadian being held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Within days of taking office, President Obama began dismantling Guantanamo Bay. First, he suspended the military trials being held there. Then he announced the detainee camps would be closed within a year.

But all of that is easier said then done. And once you get inside, it turns out that Guantanamo Bay is a much more complicated place than you might imagine. The CBC's Susan Ormiston was in Guantanamo on Inauguration Day ... the day this latest chapter began. And she joined us in our Toronto studio.

Guantanamo Detainee Rehab

A few minutes ago, we touched on the many challenges involved in actually closing the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Among them ... what to do with the 244 men still there. There's a very good chance that many will end up back in the country from which they came from. And that has sparked a search for ways to reintegrate those men into their former homes ... as well as ways to rehabilitate men who hold extremist views.

Christopher Boucek has been studying those efforts. He is an Associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and he was in Washington.

Letters

Our Friday host Sheila Coles joined us from Regina for our weekly look at the mail.

Today in the mail bag:

Layoffs:

In the three months from November to January of this year, 235,000 jobs were lost in this country. In an economic climate such as that, worries about paying the bills or finding work are creating a lot of stress. Monday on The Current we asked whether companies have an obligation to minimize the emotional or financial damage to employees being laid off. And we heard from Kevin O'Leary -- chair of O'Leary Funds and also one of the dragons on CBC TV's Dragon's Den. He aired some decided views and in return, there were many decided views in the mail.

As more companies and businesses in Canada downsize - more and more people like the ones who wrote us are dealing with the harsh reality of being laid off.
It was the experience of watching many of her friends lose their jobs during the dot-com meltdown of the early 2000s that inspired my next guest to come up with a creative concept for those who had recently recieved their pink slips. Her idea: throw them a party.

Today Pink Slip Parties are popping up all over North America and have become a popular social and networking forum for both employees and potential employers.
We aired a clip with some sound from one such party that took place a couple months ago on Wall Street from a report by the New York Post.

So... now, the woman behind these out-of work-minglers is Allison Hemming. She's the founder of an internet consulting firm, The Hired Guns . She is also the author of the book, Work It! We've reached her in New York.

Al-Jazeera:

This week, Al Jazeera English is taking its application to the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission -- the CRTC -- proposing the network be carried by cable companies in this country. The network gained acclaim for its coverage of the conflict in Gaza, as the only television network covering both sides of the conflict. Tuesday on The Current, we spoke to Tony Burman. He is Al Jazeera English's Managing Director. He is also the former Editor-in-Chief of CBC News. This interview prompted some of our listeners to respond with their views.

Last Word - Signed Sealed Delivered

We ended the program today with one more note about the man who is everywhere today. During the race for the Presidency, one of Stevie Wonder's hits became a campaign staple for Barack Obama. And next week, President Obama will be honouring Stevie Wonder ... with an award from the Library of Congress and a concert at the White House. We gave the last word to Stevie Wonder with his song, Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours.