Final Thoughts

When I first discovered that I would have to quit my job and move back to Ontario, I was devastated. The first thought that entered my head was: "Well, that was a waste of a year". I immediately regretted that thought however, because it really wasn't a wasted year. Yes, the year was wasted in terms of getting my husband and I any closer to our long-term goals, including both of us finding employment in the same geographical area. In addition, living apart from your spouse for more than 12 months (with no end to the madness in sight) does put a great deal of stress on the relationship. But this past year was anything but a waste.

The Center for Aquaculture Technologies Canada Team

In terms of the value these last 14 months have added to my career, I have gained more experience working with CATC than during the last 5 years. I have had the opportunity to develop new skills, obtain training on new equipment, work on a variety of method development projects which have added significant depth to my skill set. Thankfully, I have also had the chance to work with excellent people. Not only are they excellent at what they do, but they are truly a great group of people with whom to share an office & lab space. 

I am also thankful to have had the opportunity to bring a little bit of UNB to PEI. We UNB grads have a tradition of engaging in meetings of the Behavioural Ecology and Evolution Research Society (B.E.E.R.S.) on Friday afternoons. In addition, I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn about and sample hand crafted micro-brews from a friend's private collection. I do hope that the tradition will live on! 

CrossFit PEI

My relatively short time spent living in PEI has also had other fantastic consequences. For example, I had the wonderful luck of finding a truly phenomenal group of people at CrossFit PEI in Charlottetown. I can think of no better way to get to know a group of people than through communal suffering through gruelling CrossFit workouts!

I have grown very fond of my new CrossFit family and value the friendships made, the coaching and programming. In all my years of CrossFit, I have seen more gains in the past 12 months than ever before which I credit to the team at CFPEI. In particular, I would like to thank you for convincing me to compete. The competition group training during the Sunday torture sessions will be missed.

Not only has this group helped me acclimatize to my new surroundings after a move, but they have also welcomed me into their community with open arms.  After seeing the battles that some of you have faced in the past year and the strength with which you have faced those challenges, I am confident that I will try to do the same and that this is only a road bump as I forge forward. 

Due to my fondness for the 90's, I will end my final blog post with some words inspired by Baz Luhrmann:

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it

The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists (Science, it works - bitches). Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis other than my own meandering experience, I will dispense this advice now:

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind... You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.  In 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you (or at least I'm hoping that will be true!) 

Don't worry about the future. I'm trying to convince myself that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind. Like when you wake up to a frozen tree draped across the roof of your car on moving day.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.
The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself. And we all know that I do not support running! 

Stretch, and definitely go to Corina's mobility class. She will teach you things that can change your life. Seriously.

Get plenty of calcium and fish oil. Be kind to your knees because as some of my friends have come to learn, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. You can't control the outcome of every situation, so just roll with it.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can, especially at CrossFit. Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it. What your body can do is the most important thing, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. You are better than that.

Understand that friends come and go. But there are a precious few, who you should hold on to. Those are the people who will open their doors and hearts to you after years of not seeing each other.  

Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it. Advice can be offered or requested but either way, life lessons are always there if you pay attention. 

But trust me on the sunscreen.

MC Signing off as I am no longer on Island from away! 

RANT - Part 4: The Formal Rejection

*WARNING* The contents of this blog post may include profanity, anger and frustration. The opinions presented are solely mine and admittedly are somewhat biased. You are encouraged to come to your own conclusions.

And this is how the story ends:

An entry-level constable position finally opened with the Charlottetown Police Service. So my husband submitted his application in November 2013 and after two months of waiting, we received an official letter of rejection in the mail last week. The rejection letter was very surprising considering that he meets (or exceeds) all of the qualifications of the position as listed in the job advertisement yet he wasn't even considered for an interview.

As mentioned, I am pretty biased in my opinion that my husband is a qualified candidate for the position of entry-level police constable. He is after all, already a police constable. But I'm not the only person who thinks that he is a good candidate. First of all, he was hired by a police service in Ontario and since then has received two awards for policing excellence. So clearly, his current employers feel that he meets the standard. He graduated from police college near the top of his class, and has since continued his eduction by becoming a certified scenes of crime officer and breath technician. He is presently a member of the tactics and rescue unit and has five years of policing experience behind him. In addition, he has a university degree and second language training, as well as five years experience in the Canadian Forces (and was the recipient of a mention in dispatch for his actions while deployed to Afghanistan). I don't believe that it is a stretch to say that this is a solid candidate and a candidate who is worthy of an interview.

I'm not implying that Charlottetown Police should have hired my husband immediately without considering other candidates. In fact, I am sure that there are other strong candidates who also applied for the position. I also understand that the hiring committee may be suspicious of his intentions; they should ask questions like “Why is someone from an Ontario police service applying here?”, “What are his motivations for wanting to move to PEI?” and “Will the candidate stay for the long term?”.  I both understand and respect the need for this line of thinking and I think that these questions should be touched on in the interview to get a feel for the candidate's “personal suitability”. However, there was no interview, he was simply rejected and I still curious to learn the criteria by which this decision was made.

Even more frustrating is the fact that the service has an agreement with the union which states that a short list of up to 10 qualified candidates will be created from any open competition such as this. This short list will be valid for a period of 12 months following the competition and additional openings within that period will be filled with candidates from the list. We thought that such an agreement would work out to our advantage because although we weren't expecting to get an offer of employment for the first open position with the service, we did feel confident that if he was interviewed that he would make the short list. Considering there are a handful of current serving members who are scheduled to retire in 2014, we anticipated that he should qualify for at least one of the upcoming new-hires. However, because Charlottetown Police did not interview him for the current opening, he will not be making the short list for future employment opportunities. As such, any opportunities which may become available between now and March of 2015 will be closed to the public and candidate selection will come from the internal list. The result for us is that it may be another 24 months (or more) before a position opens to the public for which he would be eligible to apply. Considering we have already been living in different provinces for 13 months while waiting for this opportunity, the prospect of having to wait another 24 months before another opportunity presents itself is very daunting.

The official rejection letter which we received in the mail was on a CPS letter head and was signed by the chief and his deputies. In the letter it was noted that over 50 applicants applied for the position and that although my husband didn't make the cut for an interview, that they wished him the best of luck in his future endeavours (how nice). I had some difficulty accepting the rejection without even an interview, but I was really pissed off about the content of the letter itself. The secretary tasked with writing the rejection notice either did not know how to use Microsoft Office or simply didn't have enough interest to bother proofreading the document. The letter contained a number of spelling and grammatical errors. In my opinion, grammatical and spelling errors on an official document are unacceptable. 

In an attempt to ascertain the reasoning behind the decision to exclude a qualified candidate from the interview process, my husband has contacted CPS to follow up and request any feedback which they may be able to provide in the hopes of improving his application for future opportunities. He has yet to hear a response.

 

http://lauralaurapicturedrawer.blogspot.ca

With the inability to qualify for any future opportunities with CPS until March 2015 and the statement from SDP indicating that they only hire internally, it is now evident that our future will not be in Eastern Canada. We are simply unwilling to continue to be separated by 2000 km for another two (+) years. Our future will be in Ontario. Without the chance to live with my family, there is no reason for me to stay in PEI. I really believe that this entire situation is fucked. Yeah, I said it - this is fucked. I apparently live in a naive world where I believe people should be judged on their skills and qualifications. Since that would apparently does not exist, I will have to quit the job for which I have spent a decade in training. I will be quitting a job that I love, in a place that I love living. I will have to return to unemployment and fight the several hundreds of applicants who apply for a single open position in Southern Ontario. If I do manage to find employment in Ontario, I will likely have to commute long distances in horrifying traffic just to get there. Locally, Souris High School will lose a volunteer coach, Wrestling PEI will lose an officials development coordinator and my company will be burdened with trying to find a replacement. And sadly, I will be leaving behind a number of wonderful people who I have come to love spending time with during the past year. 

Interestingly, we are not the only couple facing employment challenges on the East coast. I just received a message from one of my friend who along with her husband, left Eastern Canada 8 years ago for job opportunities in Northern Alberta (as there were few opportunities in Eastern Canada at the time). Now that they have work experience under their belts and a young family, they are trying to relocate to Eastern Canada to be closer to their extended family. Less than 24 hours ago, her husband interviewed for a position in Nova Scotia. During the interview, the hiring committee told him that although the competition was advertised as "open" to applications from the public, that they only hire managers from within the organization. He was advised that they were obligated by labour laws to at least interview him as he met all of the minimum and asset qualification, but that they like to keep these managerial jobs for "in-house" applicants. As such, it was suggested to him that although his qualifications and experience were that of a manager, that if he was really interested in living in NS, that he should reapply as an entry level engineer (for significantly less salary). So apparently, we are not the only ones who are facing these challenges.

RANT - Part 3: Xenophobia & the PEI Political Landscape

*WARNING* The contents of this blog post may include profanity, anger and frustration. The opinions presented are solely mine and admittedly are somewhat biased. You are encouraged to come to your own conclusions.

As we waited for a position to open up with Charlottetown Police, I began to notice what I can only describe as bizarre behaviour going on all around me.

I began to try to get involved in the community. I started to attend public meetings about local issues. On a number of occasions, I found that no one wanted to hear what I had to say when I tried to offer my opinion. Each time I would get up to speak, I was shut down by the others in the room who only wanted to know where I was from. It should be noted that these people wanted to know where I was from ORIGINALLY, because it was obvious to those in attendance that I was not a "local" as my opinions and views did not parallel theirs. On one such occasion, when I admitted that I was from Moncton, the response was: "Leave our Island, we don't want your kind here"! I wondered what "my kind" was? As far as I could tell, "my kind" was a born and raised Maritimer of Acadian descent, who can trace back family lineages to what is now Eastern Canada for over 400 years. Blew my mind.

Even when not expressing my somewhat progressive opinions about local issues, I still seemed to encounter some resistance among others who I met. On one occasion, I met a paramedic to whom I explained that I had previously worked as a dispatcher for ambulance in Ontario. Before I even had to opportunity to explain that it had been a part-time position to earn some income while I finished my PhD, this individual cut me off and very confrontationally said, "Don't ask me for information about how to get a dispatch job in PEI. We're not hiring outsiders. Good jobs like that are reserved for locals". This type of conversation also arose when discussing how my husband planned to apply for the next open position at Charlottetown Police. Again, I was very confrontationally advised that outsiders shouldn't be "coming in and taking all the good jobs away from locals".

Some of the contacts I have made in PEI's biotechnology sector have also noted that they have witnessed evidence of local bias. In fact, one person told me a tale about participating in an employment survey where they were chastised by a provincial government representative for recruiting the majority of their scientific staff from "off Island". I would argue that a provincial population base of only 140,000 doesn't have a whole lot of depth from which to draw candidates with highly specialized training.

Emigration in large numbers is the reality faced by many Eastern Canadian communities. But seemingly, no other province is being hit quite as hard as PEI. If the articles written for the Charlottetown Guardian or posted on CBC.ca are any indication, the province of Prince Edward Island is apparently haemorrhaging young residents. This past summer for example, local farmers were faced with a lack of labour force available to harvest crops because many general labourers are leaving for better paying jobs in Alberta. The Guardian reported that as the Island workforce continues to diminish, the province has no choice but to immediately turn towards immigration to compensate for a skilled worker shortage. By attracting young professionals to the province, the economy will benefit as these people will need housing, they will be contributing to the taxation-base and they will likely have children, adding to population growth. In my opinion, candidates being considered for jobs should be judged on their qualifications, skills and suitability for the job, and NOT based on the geographic region from which they originate. I think that hiring from "off Island" can both benefit the companies in need of skilled labour and benefit PEI natives by contributing to the local economy. But that's just my two cents.

RANT - Part 2: The 1st indication that there was something fishy about PEI

*WARNING* The contents of this blog post may include profanity, anger and frustration. The opinions presented are solely mine and admittedly are somewhat biased. You are encouraged to come to your own conclusions.

Unexpectedly, the spring of 2013 came and went without an open position being posted with the Charlottetown Police Service. So we called our CPS contact and were reassured once again that positions would open up, but we would have to wait until the fall of 2013. We were living in different provinces at the time and were not excited for this process to be extended any longer, but we were still optimistic that the pay off would be worth the wait.

In the meantime, an open position was posted with the Summerside Police Department. Minimum qualifications listed were: (1) Graduation from Atlantic Police College or equivalent, (2) Valid drivers licence and (3) No prior criminal record. The asset qualifications for the position were: (4) University graduate, (5) Second language training, (6) Prior policing experience and additional police training. In terms of meeting those requirements, Check, check and double CHECK! So although this position would mean a significantly greater commute, we thought that it would be worth applying for considering that a long commute would be better than living in two different provinces. Additionally, we thought it was good experience to interview with a PEI police service, to get accustomed to the types of question which would be asked in preparation of the desired job with CPS.

Considering all of the minimum and asset qualifications were met, we never expected what came next. Weeks came and went, there was no contact from Summerside PD. We were concerned that the application had not been received - this was because the job notice explicitly stated that applications would only be considered if sent electronically to the HR department at a particular E-mail address. But the E-mail address provided on the job notice was not a valid address! We ended up searching out the appropriate E-mail address for the HR department on the City of Summerside web page instead. When we hadn't heard back about an interview, we assumed the application had not been received because it just didn't make any sense that an experienced candidate would not be offered the chance to interview. So we tried calling the HR department to no avail. No one ever answered the phone or returned calls to the messages left. In an act of frustration, an E-mail was sent to a rather high up member of the SPD inquiring about the open position. What was received was a jaw-dropping response: "Only those who qualified for an interview were contacted and we usually let local boys have the first go at these types of jobs". There it was in print, the first evidence of employment bias.  

Spring turned to summer and the RCMP announced that they were reviving the "Lateral Transfer Program for Experienced Constables". Thinking this was an ideal opportunity, an application to the program was submitted. It didn't take long to be contacted and great news! The RCMP wanted to accept the lateral transfer. There was only one little detail of concern - they wanted to post us to Northern Alberta. When we explained that the reason for applying was to try and get a posting in Eastern Canada, close to my job, our concerns were met with laughter. Eastern Canada, eh? The only posting the RCMP send officers to in that part of the country is Labrador. We were told that if we signed on for a 5 year posting to an isolated Northern Labrador community, that there was a chance we could be posted to PEI sometime in the future. Armed with that comforting information, it didn't take long to decide that the RCMP would not be a viable option.

Effectively, we were putting all our hopes into Charlottetown Police. And why wouldn't we? We had been advised by high up that people were scheduled to retire, that positions would be opening and that experienced candidates were desired. As we waited for a position to be posted, summer turned to fall and then to winter.

RANT - Part 1: The Beginning of a Futile Journey

*WARNING* The contents of this blog post includes profanity, anger and frustration. The opinions presented are solely mine and admittedly are somewhat biased. You are encouraged to come to your own conclusions.

The various governments of the Maritime region are often quoted as saying that the one of the largest roadblocks encountered in terms of economic prosperity of the region is the number of people who leave these provinces looking for work elsewhere.  The result is often an ageing population putting great stress on few resources, and a reduction in the number of young professionals contributing to the taxation base, starting families and contributing to population growth. This is our story.

I am a Maritimer, originally from New Brunswick. I grew up in Moncton and spent 8 years in Fredericton both working and pursuing two degrees at UNB. When I could not find work in the area, I left as many Maritimers do, heading west to Ontario to pursue a PhD (in the hopes of making myself more employable). My husband, although originally from Ontario, spent a number of years living in New Brunswick while working with the Canadian Forces. We both love the Maritime region and have wanted to find an opportunity to move back to the area.

We were optimistic that opportunity would come when I completed my PhD. Considering that a PhD is a great deal more specific, and that a choice of employment location may not be within our control, we assumed that I would find a job in my field. And as an experienced police officer, my husband would be able to find employment in the same geographic region because most communities have police services (whether it be National, Provincial, Regional, or Municipal police services). In reality however, we were not prepared for what the next 12 months would bring.

Before completing my PhD, I was lucky enough to find employment with a great company. A company which was expanding, the job was in my specific field of study, and best of all - the company was located in Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island to be specific. My husband and I do not take risks without first investigating the opportunity and weighing the pros and cons. As such, we travelled to PEI in the fall of 2012 to meet with the company of interest and also to investigate the potential for employment in the policing field. Because of the size of PEI, we realized that we would be limited in terms of policing opportunities. Namely, there are municipal services in both Charlottetown and Summerside in addition to RCMP detachments throughout the Island. We were not worried however, because once an opportunity presented itself, it seemed illogical that a police service would not at least interview an experienced candidate. Reality, is in fact a bitch.      

Without mentioning names, I will state that in the fall of 2012 we met with someone very high up in the chain of command at the Charlottetown Police Service. At that time, this individual lead us to believe that experienced constables were encouraged to apply to the service and that these candidates were often successful because of the added experience and training they brought with them. It was also indicated that there were a number of retirements scheduled for 2013-2014 and that they were planning to hire as early as the spring of 2013. Following this positive experience and with this knowledge in mind, we decided that I should accept the position and that moving to PEI was an acceptable risk. So I quit my part-time job in Guelph, packed up my car, said good bye to my husband and began my journey eastward in February of 2013. At this time, I figured that it would be only a matter of months before a job would open up and my husband would soon be joining me in PEI.

Intruder Alert!

Normally, I write about things that have happened to me. Although I was not directly involved with this event, apparently it is entirely my fault. According to my husband, if I hadn't moved the dogs to PEI and had instead left them with him in Guelph, this situation could have been prevented.

Although I moved to PEI in February of 2013, my husband remains living and working in Guelph while we wait as patiently as possible for a job opportunity to open up for him on PEI (it's only been 264 days, but who's counting?!). As he works rotating shift work with frequent last-minute shift, we decided that the dogs would be better off with me in PEI because I work regular 8 hour days. Not to mention that we knew the dogs would love living at the beach!

The huz was trying to get some sleep after a long night shift. Sometimes, it can be difficult to sleep during the day due to noise coming from the street, the school next door or from our neighbours. So when he tries to sleep during the day, there can be a lot of background noise which he has learned to tune out. On this day however, after being asleep for about 4 hours, he was disturbed by a noise which sounded different from the usual background noise. This sound appeared to be coming form INSIDE the house. (Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, doesn't it!)    

He woke, waited and listened .... and heard nothing. He thought perhaps he had just been in a very realistic dream. Just as he rolled over and was about to go back to sleep, he heard the noise again. Perplexed, he sat up in bed, straining his ears to try and figure out where the noise was coming from. He heard the noise again, followed by the jingle of something brushing against his keys which had been left on the kitchen counter. This could mean only one thing, the noise was indeed coming from inside the house! So he jumped out of bed and strode quickly to the kitchen, expecting to find some cracker attempting a B&E (you can blame this rash conclusion on the day job).

Much to his surprise, rather than finding a person in the kitchen, he found a large grey squirrel! The presumptuous squirrel had invited himself into our kitchen by chewing a rather large hole in the screen on the kitchen window. Then, he helped himself to a loaf of bread on the kitchen counter. Rather than ripping the bread bag open as he did to the window screen, the resourceful squirrel managed to take the twist tie off of the opening of the bag and crawl his way inside. He managed to consume 3 slices of bread and was working on his forth before he woke up the occupant of the house!

This stealthy squirrel wan't the least bit pleased by the fact that he now had an audience and therefore, proceeded to have a tantrum. Not only was he vocalizing loudly, but the squirrel began running laps around the kitchen in panic, knocking over dishes in the drying rack, boxes of cereal that were perched on top of the fridge, and scattering apples from a bowl on the counter top. The huz tried to escort the squirrel to the side door, failing miserably. The squirrel opted instead for running back into the house, into the living room and began climbing the walls. Finally, after multiple attempts at herding the squirrel, the huz trapped him in the front porch where the secret squirrel was able to escape to the outside world without further incident.

The huz however, was not impressed as he now had to throw out the bread, clean up all the items which had been knocked over, and fix the hole in the window screen. How is this my fault? I was wondering the same thing. Apparently, if the dogs had remained in Guelph, the squirrel would not have ventured into the house. (Because our Labrador Retrievers are such good guard dogs!) Since I have the dogs with me in PEI, it's my fault that the squirrel got in and caused such a mess! I certainly had a good chuckle upon hearing the story, but I feel that blaming my present geographic location for this mess is very much "Man Logic". As I see it, even if the dogs had been in the house, the squirrel may still have thought that the loaf of bread was too appetizing to pass up. And if the secret squirrel had gained access to the house, the dogs may have caused an even bigger mess trying to chase it around. I guess we will never know.    

My Accident Prone Chocolate Lab

As someone who studies genetics, I can tell you that the different colors of Labrador retrievers (black, chocolate and yellow) are primarily caused by a handful of genes. Everyone jokes that chocolate labs are the "crazy" ones. As if one of those few genes which influence color also codes for "craziness" or "hyperactivity". I refused to believe that statement, opting for the idea that dogs themselves are not inherently bad, that there are only bad owners. Now that we have both a black and a chocolate lab, I am not as certain about my view.

Riker has been "Special" since the moment we brought him home. He's a happy boy, but sometimes he gets hyper-focused on a particular person or object. The result of this behaviour has been hilarity and injury (those two things normally go together, right?). We are at the point now where I want to keep a post on a whiteboard stating: "Number of days Riker has been injury free: _____". At the time of writing, the answer to this fill-in-the-blank statement is only one.

Riker is the kind of dog who gets so focused on getting in the car that he can't wait for the tailgate to open fully and smashes his head off it as he jumps in the back of the car. This pup has ulcerated his eye by running full speed into a stick, ripped a nail off at the base while chasing a tennis ball, hyper-extended his left forelimb, jumped out of a car window while driving, launched himself off a flight of 7 stairs without touching any on the way down .... and the list goes on. This week however, there was a new injury.

I am not exactly sure how he managed to knock out a premolar, but it happened. We went to the beach at lunch for our regular walk. As usual, I was throwing a stick so hyper Riker would burn off some energy in the water. This retriever is very "stick-focused". At one point, he returned with the stick and when he dropped it at my feet, I noticed that it was covered in blood. I took a look in his mouth and found a gaping hole where a tooth should have been. To make matters that much more exciting, I could see that some of the tooth was still there and had been broken off just below the gum line. Obviously, this required a visit to the veterinarian to have the remainder of the tooth extracted before it caused an infection.

And this guy just doesn't slow down. He never stops. Even after knocking his own tooth out, he kept pestering me to throw the stick again and again. There will be no more sticks for this dog! There is a new beach toy - a soft, floating toy to satisfy his retrieving instincts. I am left wondering, does one of these 3 genes that are responsible for color in the chocolate morph of the Labrador Retriever also contribute to the potential to be accident-prone?

The best comment I have received to date about Riker was the following: "I really hope he makes it to his next birthday" Just another day in the life of Riker the chocolate.