The Globe and Mail had a story this morning that caught my eye. To combat the use of cell phones by students in his school, Steve Gray, the principal of Port Hardy Secondary School, purchased a cell phone jamming device. The students figured out within a couple of days that something was interfering with their cell phones and quickly organized a demonstration. The principal eventually gave in and turned off the device.

At first pass, jamming cell phones in the school might seem like a not unreasonable solution to the problem. Students shouldn’t be using their cell phones in class, so if their phones are jammed it shouldn’t affect them.

The problem is that cell phone jamming devices are illegal in Canada under sections 4 and 9 of the Radiocommunication Act. Specifically, Section 4(2) states:

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, distribute, lease, offer for sale or sell any radio apparatus, interference-causing equipment or radio-sensitive equipment for which a technical acceptance certificate is required under this Act, otherwise than in accordance with such a certificate.

Section 9(1)(b) states:

9. (1) No person shall

(b) without lawful excuse, interfere with or obstruct any radiocommunication;

Anyone who violates either section 4 or 9(1)(a) or (b) or who “without lawful excuse, manufactures, imports, distributes, leases, offers for sale, sells, installs, modifies, operates or possesses any equipment or device, or any component thereof, under circumstances that give rise to a reasonable inference that the equipment, device or component has been used, or is or was intended to be used, for the purpose of contravening section 9” is …

guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable, in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both, or, in the case of a corporation, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars.

The principal claims that he didn’t think it was illegal to operate the jammer. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.  He now knows that it is illegal to operate or even possess a cell phone jammer, but he’s quoted in the article as stating “I’m going to hold onto it and hope the regulations follow reality.”

Industry Canada needs to immediately confiscate the device and fine the school board for breaking the law by both having operated the device and possessing it.

And the students need to respect the rules established by their school and turn their phones off when they’re in class.

Or you can watch it here.

A tip o’ the hat to XUP for giving me the idea for this!

Yes, it’s time to set your clocks an hour forward (except if you live in Saskatchewan or a couple other parts of North America where they’ve come to the conclusion that daylight saving time is pointless). At 02:00 Sunday morning it will magically be 03:00. Fun, eh?

The theory is that we will save energy, but I still have yet to read anything that says this actually takes place. As I mentioned last year, I have read things that indicate that energy consumption actually goes up. And accident rates tend to be higher in the week after the clocks are set forward. Not exactly a win-win situation.

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2009 is a bad year for you if you suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia because there are three Fridays the 13th, with two of them one month after the next, which happens again in 2015 and then not until 2026.

In fact, the only time you can have three Fridays the 13th is when there’s one in February and then only when it’s not a leap year. I wrote about the lore surrounding Friday the 13th back in June 2008 in case you’re interested.

So, if you are superstitious about Friday the 13th, please throw salt over your shoulder, tap doorways three times before passing through or whatever other steps you follow to ward off the bad luck.  As for me, I’m going to the pub.

Today is Darwin Day.

Darwin Day is celebrated around the 12th of February every year in honour of the birth of Charles Robert Darwin. As you probably know, Darwin came up with the theory of evolution, which is widely, but not universally, accepted as explaining how species adapt and evolve. The Theory of Evolution has itself evolved from Darwin’s first musings. A century and a half ago when he wrote On The Origin of Species, he didn’t know about DNA and genes, but he could see patterns that were transmitted from parent to child. He talked about natural selection and the effects it has over time.

People who believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible have no place in their world for the Theory of Evolution as their world was created a little over 4000 years ago in 7 days. But there are a lot of people, including a lot of scientists, who are comfortable with their religious beliefs yet believe in the Theory of Evolution because it is based on scientific process.

Darin has written an excellent piece about Charles Darwin, the Theory of Evolution and other scientific theories that have enough evidence that they should be called “laws” that’s worth checking out.

A tip o’ the hat to Wikipedia for the caricature called “A Venerable Orang-outang”, depicting Charles Darwin as an ape that was published in The Hornet, a satirical magazine, on March 22, 1871.

In recognition of the fact that the OC Transpo strike is over now that the ATU has ratified the agreement to go to binding arbitration I’ve removed the little anti-ATU 279 logo that’s been gracing the header picture of my blog the last few weeks.

O’Brien said when the federal government began to move forward with the legislation it was obvious that the strike was over. (CBC story)

So, it seems that with the very real threat of being legislated back to work, both the city and the ATU 279 decided to send the dispute to binding arbitration. Of course, the strike isn’t officially over until both sides ratify the agreement, but it’s probably not in the interest of either side to not accept it.

Assuming they do, an arbitrator will come up with a three-year contract that covers wages, benefits, sick leave and contracting out. CBC reports that the mayor said “the city and the union are still very far apart on scheduling, raises, bonuses and benefits.” Hopefully the arbitrator will recognize the principle that management has the right to manage and return control of the schedule to the city where it should be.

In any event, it’s probably going to take people a long time to get over the strike. Other transit strikes have resulted in significant drops in ridership levels that can take months or years to return to pre-strike levels. I wonder how long it’ll take for ridership levels to return to “normal” this time.

Hopefully, there won’t be any incidents of violence towards the drivers when the buses get back on the road.