On November 5, 2001, Dr. Andrew Bagby was murdered in a parking lot in western Pennsylvania; the prime suspect, his ex-girlfriend Dr. Shirley Turner, promptly fled the United States for St. John’s, Newfoundland, where she announced that she was pregnant with Andrew’s child. She named the little boy Zachary.
I first saw Dear Zachary by filmmaker Kurt Kuenne (Andrew’s childhood friend) at the Calgary International Film Festival.
Just got an email from Kurt where he mentioned this important news. I hope the bill get some serious considerations by the parliament of Canada.
Mr. Scott Andrews (Avalon, Lib.): moved for leave to introduce Bill C-464, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (justification for detention in custody).
He said: Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise here today to introduce my first private member’s bill for the protection of minor children of persons who are accused of a serious crime. This has been an issue in my area for a long time. There was an inquiry on this on Zachary Bagby Turner. This Sunday, there will be a documentary on CBC at 10 p.m. eastern time that outlines the story and the history behind this bill.
It is a pleasure to introduce this bill, and I look forward to having it debated here in the House of Commons.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
P.S. After you watch the film (there are spoilers), you can check out my interviews with Kurt (audio) and Zachary’s grandparents (video), David & Kathleen Bagby in this site.
Here is my Skype interview with Eric after the screening where we talked about some of the issues related to how children are affected by war (child solider, effects and harm of girls).
I had wonderful time watching May Charters & Mark Hug’s film Lovers in a Dangerous Time, a Canadian film set and shot in the beautiful Creston, BC 6 years in the making. The story speaks me and I care about what will happen to the characters as I watch the film. I hope you will enjoy the film as much as I did.
You can read more about the film in a previous blog entry here. Here is my interview with May and Mark after the screening.
I had a great time chatting with Eric Howell, writer-director of the wonderfully made and heart-gripping short film Ana’s Playground: “an allegory about the moment when a child is forced to choose between ideology and humanity while living and playing in a dangerous war environment.”
I am a Calgarian living in the electoral district of Calgary-Glenmore and I, like many other Calgarians, cast my vote in the Sept. 14th by-election in Calgary-Glenmore.
I have never doubted Elections Alberta’s ability to administer open, fair, and impartial elections until yesterday.
I was honestly shocked when I saw Mr. Paul Hinman and his agents actively campaigning and greeting voters at two different polling stations in possible violations of Alberta Election Act (section 135), after being warned it is illegal the first time.
Here are links to two videos I recorded of Mr. Hinman campaigning at polling stations in Calgary-Glenmore,
While Mr. Hinman was campaigning at Nellie McClung Elementary School, I’ve been informed that Mr. Hinman was told by Elections Alberta officials that campaigning at polling stations were not allowed and Mr. Hinman left as a result.
The surprising thing to me was that Mr. Hinman was later found campaigning *again* at a different polling station, this time at Louis Riel School polling station at around 6:28pm, with another of his agent.
It lead me to question if political candidates and their agents in Alberta are actually above the law? Or if the Alberta Election Act is simply a powerless piece of “decorative paper” that candidates can totally disregard without any meaningful consequence or punishment?
May I know what is the penalty for breaking election law like what I suspect Mr. Hinman might have done yesterday? If there is a fine or punishment, is it meaningful enough that offenders cannot simply take it as “cost of election“? Small enough that some illegal street racers can treat the few hundred dollars fine in speeding tickets as a “cost of city street racing“?
The irony is that Mr. Hinman is now MLA-elect for Calgary-Glenmore and is joining a legislative body that is supposed to draft and update laws! Including laws like the Election Act which he and his agents seemed to have willfully broken.
I have copied Ms. Lori McKee-Jeske, Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Alberta and Mr. Marc Mayrand, Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada for their information and in hope their collective wisdom may assist in this matter.
Please kindly acknowledge and confirm receipt of this official complain to Elections Alberta.
And I look forward to hearing form you and reading the investigation report of the suspected Election Act violations by Mr. Hinman.
Please also kindly advise what will the appeal process be if I find I am unable to agree with Elections Alberta’s investigation report and/or decision.
Best Regards,
Kempton Lam
Calgary-Glenmore
P.S. Mr. Westwater, I am cautiously optimistic after reading what you said to Calgary Herald, Sept 14,
“You cannot talk to electors at the poll in any circumstance, whether they’re lined up inside or outside the school or wherever it is located,” Westwater said, adding that campaigning is also not allowed at entranceways or parking lots outside polling stations.
I will reserve my judgement until I read Elections Alberta’s official investigation report and decision.
P.P.S. The content of this post has been sent to the three recipients as an email and posted here as an open letter for the record.
*******
8:54am Sept 16, 2009 Update:Elections Canada, Enquiries Unit,
“We acknowledge receipt of the electronic message you sent to Elections Canada on September 16, 2009. Your message has been forwarded to the appropriate directorate.”
9:27am Sept 16, 2009 Update: Elections Alberta, Drew Westwater, Director of Operations and Communications,
“I acknowledge receipt of your complaint, dated September 15th at 11:20 p.m., regarding the campaigning activities of Mr. Paul Hinman during the by-election in Calgary-Glenmore, held on Monday, September 14th, 2009. Elections Alberta will review your complaint and advise if any violations of the Election Act have occurred.”
My Toxic Baby is a new documentary film by Min Sook Lee. One mother’s search for safe, sane and affordable ways to raise her child (Song Ji) in a toxic world. The film is having its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept 11th. For more info see this TIFF page.
I had a very enjoyable phone interview (mp3) with Min Sook to talk about My Toxic Baby. In the interview, we talked about topics like diapers & EC (Elimination Communication, i.e. taking your babies to pee or poop instead of letting him/her do it in the diapers), breast feeding, organic food vs processed food, the toxicity in babies’ toys & clothing, and living space.
If you get a chance, I highly recommend you checking out Min Sook’s My Toxic Baby as I think you will find it insightful and enjoyable to watch.
Doug has divided $100,000 An Acre into chapters like “The Visionaries”, “The Opportunists”, “The Mavericks”, “The Executives”, “The Builder-Entrepreneurs”, “The Planners”, etc. Each chapter features a few key people in the category. The few pages devoted to each person reads like a fascinating mini-biography with the person’s involvement in the Land Development Industry in Alberta.
In the phone interview (mp3), Doug and I were able to talk about a few of the people covered in the book.
Visionaries:
Ellis Vee (E. V.) Keith,
Ralph Scurfield (an elementary school teacher turns home builder),
Ed Davis (at one point, Ed had 34 acres of land in downtown Calgary near Eau Claire), and
Bob Orr (his Engineering Homes was one of the largest and world leader of manufactured housing components (walls, roofs, etc) in the 60s).
Edmontonians: Sandy Mactaggart, Jean De La Bruyere and Maclab Enterprises
Mavericks: Bill Jager (I am curious as I live in a Jager home).
The Ghermezians (Rezoning for West Edmonton Mall).
The Executives: Mike Rogers (+15 system in Calgary). People in “The Executives” section are the ones that Doug knows the best as he was one of them.
Builder-Entrepreneurs: Eric Weidman (built the first condominium project in Canada, which happened in Edmonton of all places)
If you are curious about the stories of the people who were key in the development of communities in Calgary and Edmonton, or if you are anyone working in fields remotely related to the Land Development Industry, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of $100,000 An Acreand learn from it. Have a look of the table of content and the first few pages.
Doug spent 36 years in land development, which gave him an inside view of its history from a developers perspective. During his career, Doug worked for four development companies and one land development consulting company in Calgary and Edmonton, with a short stint in Toronto. He has chaired both the Calgary and Edmonton chapters of the Urban Development Institute, and served as president of the Alberta division – the only member to have held all three posts.
I am in the middle of a few projects at the moment so it will take me some time to do the needed processing and research to finish and post the interview. In the mean time, if you are anyone remotely working in the field of Land Development Industry, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of $100,000 An Acreand learn from it. Have a look of the table of content and the first few pages.
Doug spent 36 years in land development, which gave him an inside view of its history from a developers perspective. During his career, Doug worked for four development companies and one land development consulting company in Calgary and Edmonton, with a short stint in Toronto. He has chaired both the Calgary and Edmonton chapters of the Urban Development Institute, and served as president of the Alberta division – the only member to have held all three posts.
To make the Skype audio interview more enjoyable to you, I’ve edited the interview for length and also eliminated some dead air, silence and noise. (For example, I was a bit confused about the Prize solution submission process and got a nice explanation that I ended up removing for length reason.)
Given that the “BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos” team has been contacted by Netlflix to check their code and documentations, so BPC’s likeliness of winning is pretty high, how do the The Ensemble team members see their experiences in the Netflix Prize competition?
I personally think both BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos and The Ensemble are developing and creating some cutting edge technologies. While the participants may not fully realize it yet, but their efforts are now part of some ground breaking computer science history!
Once the prize award/money has been settled, I hope both teams will consider writing up technical papers to share the insights they gained. And may be even share their software code under a suitable GNU General Public License or something like that.
Finally, I hope you’ve enjoyed the interview as much as I in conducting it. And I want to thank Lester, Joe, Ces, and Bo again for a wonderful chat.
I first saw and was deeply touched by Chris Landreth’s Oscar-winning animated documentary Ryan and the documentary Alter Egos (a film about Ryan and Chris) in the 2004 Calgary International Film Festival. And I wrote a blog entry in 2007 in memory of Ryan’s passing.
So it was my great pleasure to chat with Chris to talk about his new film “The Spine”. The following are the three parts of my Skype interview with Chris.
All of the animations in “The Spine” were key framed (no motion capture). So “motion capture” seems to be quick and easy. Why don’t Chris like it? What are the trade-offs in Chris’ mind?
The Spine (2009) uses Maya V8.5 for modeling, animation, visual effects and some rendering and Bingo (1998) used Maya V1.0. Chris talks about how he feels about some of the changes over the years.
Nov 17, 2009 Update: The Spine wins in Portugal, “The Festival Internacional de Cinema de Animação, also known as Cinanima, has just awarded its Grand Prize to The Spine!!” Congrats Chris!
I attended a great master class with Ron Moore, Battlestar Galactica writer & executive producer, at 2009 Banff World TV Festival. The following is my one-on-one interview with Ron after the master class talking about,
influence of the original BSG series and the style of the show
how the actors/actresses affect the writing of their characters?
As a long time customer of Memory Express, a Calgary based computer store (now a chain of stores), I’ve been long curious of the growing and continuing success of the company. It is my pleasure to try to explore and shine some light on its success story which actually started 12 years ago in June of 1996 by the four Ngo brothers – Minh (the eldest), Yet, Hien, and Ut (the youngest).
In the following video interview clips, you will hear Minh share many stories, his insights and advices. Without giving much away, including how frugal (I mean **seriously** frugal) the brothers were when they started their business, the effort they put in to serve one particular out of town customer in the early days, and may be most importantly how hard working they have been and over the years.
The beginnings of Memory Express. The win-win working relationship with other computer stores in town in the beginning. The secret of the “Express” in Memory Express. The surprising story of their first desk and first computer (hint: they were truly “priceless” (free, in a surprising way, big smile)).
From the days of only selling notebook computer memories to branching out and selling other products. The fascinating story of how they learn to build and start selling computer systems. The strategy and philosophy behind growing Memory Express.
Five Calgary artists emerged from bed Monday $10,000 richer, thanks to a new arts award sponsored by the Alberta Lieutenant- Governor.
Calgary filmmaker and animator Anne Koizumi, theatre director Simon Mallett, multi-media artist Chad VanGaalen, installation artist Robin Arseneault, and painter Christine Cheung were selected along with singer/songwriter Colleen Brown, composer Aaron Gervais and violinist Andrew Wan of Edmonton, sculptor Dawn Deterando of Red Deer and novelist Sherry Coffey of Athabasca as the initial recipients of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Foundation’s emerging artists awards.
[...] Each winner receives a cheque for $10,000, with no stipulations as to how they can spend it.
I had planned to watch a different movie last night but as I was lining up to watch the Ed Harris directed Western Appaloosa, I changed my mind and decided I would watch “Touching Home” right after the screening of Appaloosa. I changed my mind because the directing/acting twin brothers Noah & Logan Miller did a wonderful job promoting their film and I have a soft spot for new up-and-coming filmmakers. And I enjoyed their film and appreciated their first time film making effort.
Here is a synopsis of the film from CIFF (emphasis added),
Touching Home is a coming of age story about a homeless father struggling to make amends with his twin sons as they pursue professional baseball. It is a courageous and honest portrayal of a family fighting to overcome the pain of wasted years and the crushing forces of addiction.
When Clint Winston (Noah Miller) loses his athletic scholarship and Lane Winston (Logan Miller) is released from the Minor Leagues, the brothers return home to work with their father Charlie (Ed Harris), an outcast living in his truck in the woods. Alcohol and gambling have stripped Charlie of his dignity, self-respect, and a relationship with his sons. An homage to the forgotten working class, the film showcases Ed Harris at the height of his powers.
Three months after their homeless father died in jail, twin filmmakers, Logan and Noah Miller cornered Ed Harris in an alley outside of the Castro Theatre in San Francisco and pitched him their autobiographical movie, Touching Home. Nine days later Harris called them and said he wanted the role.
I saw many Calgarians cried and were deeply touched after watching the documentary “Dear Zachary” last night. (Read and hear my interview with the documentary filmmaker Kurt Kuenne. Note: You can get in touch with Kurt via his contact info on his page. He reads and appreciates your messages.) And it was my honour to interview David & Kate Bagby after the screening and Q&As. Here is the video.
Note: If you wish, you can try to reach the filmmaker Kurt Kuenne via the contact info in his website.
P.S. Justice and legal system is a complex and technical subject area that is beyond the limited scope and time that I can spend in crafting this blog entry. Suffice to say that while I think Canada’s legal system does a good job, but from time to time we do have cases of injustice where innocent Canadians were put into jails for a long time or even labeled as child killers.
I was deeply touched by Kurt Kuenne’s documentary “Dear Zachary” (site contains background detailed information about the case & documentary which some film goers may not want to know before watching the film). Note: You can get in touch with Kurt via the contact info on his page. He reads and appreciates your messages.
It is a film and journey that I won’t forget any time soon. The film’s subject is the late Dr. Andrew Bagby, Kurt’s friend since age 7. Andrew was murdered by an ex-girlfriend. And the film also deals with the twists and turns of dealing with the killer.
Dear Zachary has drawn standing ovations at film festivals and created heaving rollercoasters of emotion wherever it has played. This love-letter video documentary by Kurt Kuenne has been garnering tears in theatres since its debut at Slamdance.
Constructing a diary to Zachary (an unborn boy who will never get to meet his murdered father) the filmmaker (and childhood friend of the victim) takes his camera around the globe to give the child a perspective on his dad’s heritage. The jaw-dropping revelation and trigger for this film’s power is that the child’s mother is the prime suspect in his father’s death. As her guilt seems more and more clear, and Zachary’s birth gets closer, Andrew’s courageous parents take centre stage as the heroic grandparents struggling to control their boiling, conflicted feelings and focus on giving the boy the nurturing he deserves – while still pursuing justice for the loss of their son. Dear Zachary packs a whallop audiences won’t soon forget, and the plot twists in this all-too-real film rival the dramatic weepies of Hollywood.
P.S.Spoiler alert: I was deeply touched by the human dilemma that David and Kate Bagby (parents of Andrew and grandparents of Zachary) had to face.
During one of the scene, with the infinite wisdom granted by hindsight, David expressed his willingness to do something extreme. To me, while totally disagreeing with that approach and view to justice, I choose to see that scene as the showing of the infinite love that a grandpa was be willing to do, disregarding his own personal life and liberty.
This story is a deeply personal story told by the filmmaker Kurt, and David & Kate Bagby, and everyone else involved. I am grateful that this story was told and I hope a reasoned discussion and debate will lead to better laws in Canada.
Read the Turner Review & Investigation, the most comprehensive look at the evidence of the case, conducted by Peter H. Markesteyn, M.D., F.C.A.P. and David C. Day, Q.C., commissioned by the Child & Youth Advocate’s office of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Posted by kempton 
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