Looking back on the FLICK OFF Express, I can say for certain that it generated some memories that will not be soon departing my top of mind.

The FLICK OFF Express traveled across Ontario, and I with it, as we made stops at 4 major university campuses, being UWO in London, York in Toronto, Queens in Kingston and finally Confederation Park in Ottawa. Spending 4 days with some of the most brilliant environmental minds of our generation such as Dr. David Suzuki, Dr. Faisal Moola, Jose Etcheverry and Dominic Ali from the David Suzuki Foundation, along with Sarah Harmer, Gill Deacon, and the musical talents of The Constantines and Spiral Beach was, in itself, a pretty inspiring experience. What spoke to me the loudest out of the whole deal though was the fact that there are people whose unbridled passion for the environment far exceeds anything that I could possibly generate.

That being said, they rubbed off on me a little bit. Dr. David Suzuki was by far one of the most intense people I've ever met, and the biggest things that I took away from the tour was that we can change the world. But it's going to take a whole lot of action. It's not just about your own personal recycling habits. It's about getting to a sustainable economy to ensure a sustainable ecology.

Here's a video recap of the trip, with Dr. Suzuki speaking in Ottawa and other highlights of the trip:

Be sure to check out our YouTube channel as well for another video of the FLICK OFF Express tour.

Today is "Take our kids to work" day in Canada, and if you can remember the experience as I can, it is a day where grade 9 students accompany a parent or family member or friend to their job for a day.

Between 1:30pm and 2:30pm, I hosted a group of grade 9 students to talk to them about what RBC is doing to relate to students, things like RBC p2p, RBC Bankbook (Our facebook group) and various other initiatives.

We've spent the 2nd half hour writing a blog entry together, and this is the result...

Planning for the Future

In speaking with the group today at take your kids to work day, we talked about about goals for the future and what happens when you get to the end of high school and beyond.

It's apparent by Aziz's comment, "studying hard and getting a high paying job is to me" and by Sophia's comment about being about "how much university costs" that students are quite forward thinking.

"When you're in grade 9, not really thinking about stuff like that, it's in the back of your head, and you're not really thinking about it, but you still have to get prepared for it." says Anthony, who is also concerned about future transportation costs, "like your first car, and paying for car insurance".

When asked about how they will afford the costs of university, Eric advised that he would "look to [his] parents" while Caroline noted that "government and bank loans are available to help students out".

We talked about where students would get their advice. "I think school is a good way to get advice. Going to your guidance councelor really helps" Kortney advised. "I would look towards my brother, because he's 8 years older than me and he knows what it's like." says Adrian, seemingly not concerned. "Your parents have already been there and they would be a good place for advice as they might tell you what to do and what not to do" mentioned Anthony, to which Aziz threw in "and it helps that they're bankers too!"

All in all, I would say that these students are well prepared to look towards the future, and know where they need to go to get information about their finances.

If you think back to where you were in grade 9, what were your major concerns about the future?

Day three ended on a great note with a very exciting rally at Queens University where we were thrilled to see the most attendance of any rally so far!

We're now in Ottawa, preparing for what should be the most exciting rally so far. We're joined by Dr. David Suzuki. I can't really add anything to that statement. David boarded the train to Ottawa and spoke with students who won the RBC FLICK OFF Campus Challenge, where he challenged them to become active (or more active) on the issues surrounding the environment.

Dr. Suzuki was intense, to say the least. His every word, quick to leave his mouth, with a certain sharp note that pierces through one's psyche and filled everyone with passion. And while his every enunciation was speedy and intense in delivery, I felt the passion, conviction, and years of experience that backed every sentence and word.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing David speak to a large audience here in Ottawa at 2:30pm on this wonderful sunny autumnal afternoon, because it will innevitably fill me with greater passion for the cause that is the environment.

Dr. Suzuki's message is much more about collective group action, much like FLICK OFF, and while he does advocate that individuals should give their all, he insists that the collective will create changes at all levels of leadership within our country.

The time to act is NOW, he insists, not in some distant future. Act now! FLICK OFF!

Join the rally today at Confederation park in Ottawa at 2:30pm!

Day 2 of the FLICK OFF Express tour was a great one! Jian Ghomeshi took the stage with power and passion and drew in a pretty significant crowd. The weather was cold and windy, but it did not dampen the spirits of anyone in attendance.

The RBC Blue Water Project street team exchanged another really significant amount of plastic water bottles for our fantastic aluminum ones, saving hundreds of thousands of probably plastic water bottles from every hitting their hands.

We're now on location at Queen's University getting ready for the Kingston Ontario version of the rally. On the train ride over to Kingston, we were joined by 6 students from York University who got the opportunity to be on the train because of their involvement in environmental and sustainability activities on their campus! They got involved, and it paid off, as does any involvement in environmental issues.

We'll be staying in Kingston tonight and hanging out with all of the band members from the Constantines and Spiral Beach, as well as our Emcee Gill Deacon, and a whole group of amazing people from the David Suzuki Foundation! Tomorrow morning, we'll be on our way to Ottawa for our final stop on the FLICK OFF Express at Confederation Park near the University of Ottawa.

The show starts at 2:30pm and runs for about an hour and a half! The shows have been amazing thus far, and you'd be crazy to miss all the action! Come out and see us, or join our Facebook event!

Here's the video from the first day of the FLICK OFF Express tour!!

We're on site at UWO getting ready for the big rally at 2pm in front of the University Community Centre (on the concrete beach!) I was just outside speaking to students about bottled water and participating in a bottle exchange where students trade in their plastic water bottles for some really sweet RBC Blue Water Project stainless steel bottles!

While we wait for the rally to begin, I've been hanging out with some of the awesome people who are on the tour with us... Gill Deacon, Sara Harmer, and most recently .

José is an expert in renewable energy and was extremely passionate in speaking to me about the importance of obtaining our leaders' support to implement a renewable energy solution NOW!

If you can make it out to the rally at any one of our four campuses, this is a great way to do just that! We'll be calling on our nation's leadership to make those changes now, while spreading the message that we can do our part too!

FLICK OFF!

It's shortly before 7am on this (hopefully) marvelous Wednesday morning, and I will be leaving soon to board the FLICK OFF Express to London, Ontario. I have my camera ready, and my laptop batteries fully charged and I'm ready to get out onto the train and join the tour!

I'll be posting videos of the trip, rallies, and various awesome campus activities as they take place so that you can see them here if you can't make it out to one of our four Ontario campus stops!

While you're waiting for the action to begin, be sure to check out this really sweet vid of David Suzuki telling you why you and your friends should FLICK OFF! as posted by Andrea, our FLICK OFF Express blogger!

Keep checking back often, and be sure to comment on all our blog entries! (We love the comment love!)

Quite some time ago, Henry Gordon-Smith wrote a blog entry entitled “No Signature Required”, about not being required to give a signature when making purchases on his Visa card under 25$... Well, more changes have come along for Visa cards. Mainly…Not having to sign for any purchase!

The new technology, for which you may have received a new Visa card, is called “Chip and PIN”, and it will be rolling out to all cardholders in the next few months, regardless of which bank or financial institution you deal with. While some people have been told that they don’t have to worry about it for years to come, the future is closer than you might think.

What’s chip and PIN anyways?

Essentially, your Visa card ends up with a microchip (no, not the stuff left at the bottom of the chip bag!) and you end up with a PIN, much like you would have for your debit card. Instead of swiping the card and signing the slip, you would “dip” the card into the handheld portion of the PIN pad and leave it there as you enter your PIN… Voila! Transaction complete!

I went to a store, and there was no dipping happening.

Well, ok, so the future is not 100% right now… According to Tim McGaugh, RBC’s head of chip card payment innovation, working on the Chip and Pin project (I keep wanting to type chip’n’dip… Sure does taste better!), only about 25% of merchants have the Chip and Pin card readers. The remaining 75% still have a normal, old school card reader, where the card is swiped and a signature is still required - but that too is changing fast as more chip terminals are rolled out across this land .

For any store that doesn’t have dipping going on, carry on with the same old method.

I didn’t get a PIN, but my card has a chip

Chances are, if you have a chip in your credit card, you were sent a mail-out with info on what your PIN is. Now, if you’re like me, you probably stashed it away in the junkmail pile, or lost it, or didn’t read through the litany of documents that came with your card. (Hey, I forgive you, we all do it.)

To find out what your PIN is, go into your nearest branch, and ask them. Yep, that’s it.

Now I’ve tried dipping my chip, but waitresses/store clerks/(insert profession of choice here) get confused!

Yeah… Not everyone knows about it... But, armed with your superior chip and pin knowledge, you can educate them on the nuances of master chip usage…

1.Dip Chip into Pinpad
2.Upon being prompted for PIN, enter pin (tip: don’t pull your card out until the machine tells you to!)
3.Obtain receipt and walk away (with your awesome purchase, of course!)

Here’s the process with sweet picture goodness: Chip and Pin migration

Remember, as with any PIN technology, don’t give away your PIN!!!

Europe has been using this technology for many years, but here in North America, Chip and Pin will inevitably make credit card transactions safer, because it’s a whole lot tougher to copy information on a computer chip than it is to copy a magnetic stripe on any other sort of card… Cheers to the future of easy payments!

Keep an eye out for contactless payment in the near future too! (Where you wave your card past a reader and it automatically receives the info – no signature OR PIN required…for smaller purchases only.!) Oh wait, there’s one more -instead of waving your credit card, you wave your cellphone at the reader because your phone has been loaded with the Visa payment chip – that’s coming soon too!,

On Sunday, June 29th, Kate and I attended Toronto’s 2008 Pride Parade! The parade route took us west on Bloor, from Church to Yonge Streets, then south on Yonge to Gerrard Street, and back eastward toward Church. According to CTV.ca, somewhere near 1 million people turned out to watch as the colourful marchers made their way down the streets of Toronto.

RBC’s employee group, P.R.I.D.E. committee (Proud RBC Individuals for Diversity and Equality), came out in droves! We had a super awesome Flatbed truck, decked out with the loudest sound system that the generator could power (and from the sounds of it, it must have been a powerful generator), complete with an awesome DJ spinning some great tracks!

The atmosphere was astounding! As an RBC Employee, I was very proud to be a part of this. It was quite the sight to see over so many proud RBC employees wearing the same thing, and marching in unison for equality!

RBC P.R.I.D.E. is a fully supported within the organization and embodies the values of RBC. (Diversity, Integrity, Teamwork, Service, and Responsibility)

RBC has long been a supporter of the LGBT community in Canada and has made donations to many LGBT organizations. Recently, I was at an LGBT Youth Panel that discussed the challenges and opportunities to support our youth as they are coming out. At the end of the panel, RBC’s Dave McKay, group head of Canadian Banking, presented Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes with a cheque for 25 000$ in support of the Triangle Program, Canada’s only LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender) classroom.

If you made it out to the Parade, let us know what you thought of the music, and our super-awesome (imho) truck, and the parade in general!

Happy Pride!!!!!!

RBC p2p got an interview with Apache Indian... Check it out as we ask him the hard-hitting questions, and see him reveal a possible remix of the classic "Boom-Shack-a-lak"!!!!!! Also, some clips of his performance at RBC Desifest. The crowd went wild, we went wild, now hopefully you will too! Enjoy!

RBC p2p will be at RBC Desifest tomorrow, blogging live, right next to the RBC BlueCarpet. Come down and see us and take in some of the music! The event takes place Saturday, May 31st 2008, at Toronto's Dundas Square. We'll be talking with some of the hottest artists on the scene and getting an inside look at what goes on! We'll be posting live videos of the event right here!

We'll be talking with Apache Indian, RBC Desifest's headlining act! If you're not familiar with Apache Indian, you may remember a few of his hit songs, like "Boomshackalak"! Our video interview can be seen here along with footage from the concert.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for some amazing Toronto event coverage, be sure to check out our adventures at Vancouver's RBC Desifest!

12:30pm

It’s Nathan, Kate, Zach and Michel and we’re at DESIFEST in Toronto; everything is great, absolutely great. The weather’s great, the food smells delicious (worth coming just for the food) and all this cultural stuff is off the hook. There’s so much going on it’s almost overwhelming. Come by RBC Desifest at Yonge and Dundas Square and pay us a little visit, meet all of the performers (if you can nab them) and hang out with all of the sweet people that are taking everything in.

Come on down to Dundas Square to see it for yourself! If you can’t make it down here in person, take it in on the RBCp2p.com website and be sure to drop by http://www.desifest.ca/toronto/live to catch a live feed from the event!

5pm

We're having a great time here, despite some technical issues that have occured throughout the day! We've got everything back up and running, and we're up and producing videos!

For our first video, Kate thought that we would get a look at who was at Desifest, and we met up with some people from all over the world! Have a look! There's more to come!!

5:45pm

Kate also had an opportunity to interview some of the dancers from the Sri Sanskriti Dance Academy. Check it out!

6:30pm

Kate and Zachary are revving up for the coming day's events - before the rain hit! Plenty of people here, right from the start!

7pm


This is Sole Power from Toronto; they're some pretty animated performers, and they take it beyond just the stage (we just saw all four of them shuffle by under one little umbrella). So You Think You Can Dance better watch out for Sole Power...

7:25pm

Nathan had a chance to speak with Jay DeaLa... Here's what he had to say:

8:02pm

Zach just interviewed Avalla Connection, another one of the performers here at RBC Desifest! The rain wasn't keeping the people away and now that it has stopped, massive crowds are forming to take in the sights and sounds!

8:55pm

Kate had a chance to interview Meditating Minds Entertainment on the RBC Blue Carpet! We've got amazing access here at RBC Desifest, and we're talking to the hottest artists, established and up-and-coming on the desi scene... Stay tuned for more!

9:09 PM

We're bushed, but we're trucking on. We clearly need to eat some spicy curry or down some mango lassies if we're going to last for another couple of hours. All the entertainment's been great and we've had front row seats all day. Apache Indian is playing right now, so we're going to run and see if we can catch the rest of his act. If you're going to be in downtown Toronto tonight, come to Dundas square - there's a ton of people here! Also, the after party starts the moment Desifest ends, so if you still have some energy to burn, check it out for sure.

9:45pm

Little Empire just performed here at RBC Desifest, and it was quite the show! They then made their way to the RBC Blue Carpet where they were interviewed by Nathan! Here's the footage from the interview:

10:45pm

We've had an amazing time here at RBC Desifest 2008! We really felt the culture and buzz here, so much so that Kate, dressed in her South Asian garb had a henna design imprinted on both her arms by Christine Thomas. Check out the video of this amazing art form:

We're working on getting the Apache Indian footage together, and it will be up on the site soon!! We interviewed Apache Indian at our Toronto blog headquarters yesterday, and saw him perform to an insanely rambunctious crowd here at RBC Desifest!!

We're looking forward to being here next year! Signing off for the evening, and heading to the RBC Desifest afterparty...

Your Bloggers, on the scene:

Nathan, Zach, Kate and Michel

Click here to see our interview with Apache Indian!!

In my last blog entry about Corporate Social Responsibility, I talked about what the commitment to philanthropy looks like from a corporate perspective... Numbers and business model, and the supporting reasons for large corporations making such donations.

When I met with the great team over at the RBC Corporate Citizenship, I also asked them specifically about the RBC BlueWater Project, the initiative to donate a total of 50 million dollars over 10 years to water related causes, specifically to watershed protection and access to safe drinking water.

Why Water?

My initial assumption had been that Water is blue... RBC's corporate colour is blue (and gold)... It was a perfect fit... But the well went so much deeper! (Apparently bad water jokes are now the norm over at the Corporate Citizenship office.) We talked for quite some time about why water was selected and it seems that it was a pretty long decision process... Here's what I noted down:

• By virtue of being large, corporations are expected to be all things to all people. While it's often difficult to do this, they do need to take a greater responsibility to try and meet those needs, to be a good neighbour and be involved in the community they live in.
• RBC needed to find something that was relevant to most people, where they felt that support was needed, and the money that was being set aside would be put to good use on real and impactful social initiatives
• It needed to be a cause that was important globally, but also locally relevant, as RBC is both global and local in their approach. (We have some form of representation in 41 countries)
• People needed to understand the cause (I'm not sure that people would "get" a donation to Bacon Addicts Anonymous(I need to break the habit))

So, water made sense... Even if people aren't aware of water issues (Which many Canadians aren't), if you tell someone that the next time they turn their tap on, nothing is going to come out, people seem to understand.

I talked about water shortages in the southern parts of the US a few months back. I thought that that was where the problem ended for the western world... Now, I've been reading about farmers in western Canada who are going through a critical water shortage. The problem just keeps hitting closer to home. For weeks now, I've been seeing articles in the national newspapers about water shortages here, titles like "The Next Walkerton?" there... Overall, our water situation seems pretty sketch.

I'm hoping that in the coming weeks, I'll have some further opportunities to take a look at what the impact watersheds have on the situation (and really, what a watershed is!!), and how our drinking water is being affected by various things...

Meanwhile, what's your take on water?
Do you tap it or bottle it?
Do you foresee a future where you turn your tap on and nothing comes out?
Or even worse, how would you deal if you were under a constant boil-water advisory?