Gary Dale
Encyclopedia
Gary Dale was born in Fort St. John, British Columbia
, Canada, on October 1, 1952. He spent the first nine years living in a small Rocky Mountain village called Trutch, mainly identifiable by its mile number (201) on the Alaska Highway. In 1961 he moved with his family to Dawson Creek, British Columbia
and in 1963 to Toronto, Ontario.
In the fall of 1967, his family moved north of Highway 401 to what became their final home.
Dale moved out on his own in 1973 and had a variety of addresses in Toronto, Oshawa and Kingston before settling in to downtown Toronto in 1978. In 1985 he moved to his current house in Scarborough.
Dale is currently married to his second wife. They have two daughters (hers from a previous marriage).
, where he excelled scholastically, making the school's Reach for the Top
team in his Grade 11 year when Grade 13 students were still allowed. He scored well the University of Waterloo
's Junior and Senior mathematics contests, was president of the Chess and Bridge clubs, founded the model rocketry club, and was elected to the Students' Council in his senior year. He graduated in 1971.
While never a star athlete, he did skip his mixed curling team to the Tam Heather Junior Championship in the 1970/1971 season - the last year the league curled at the Tam O'Shanter Golf Club in Agincourt (the facility burned down later in the year and was rebuilt without curling ice).
Dale initially studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto
but later switched to Industrial Engineering. He regularly attended protests, both for student rights and against wars like the one in Vietnam. He graduated with a B.A.Sc. in 1976.
programming language, that became widely used across the province - even helping others win awards for the systems they developed using it. He later became an Open Source
advocate and introduced a number of open source products to the OPS. He continued promoting Free and open source software
after leaving the OPS. Dale officially left the Ontario Public Service at the end of 2005 to pursue a career providing consulting services for not-for-profit groups in the Greater Toronto Area.
Local 508, Dale became involved in opposition to the Social Contract
through the Union/Community Action Coalition which arranged most of the protest events in the GTA. He was chosen to portray Bob Rae
in the Public Services Coalition's float in the 1993 Labour Day Parade. His impromptu attempt to sit in the reviewing stand (where the Ontario New Democratic Party
(NDP) leader would normally be) made the front page of the three Toronto dailies on September 7, 1993. Dale later also served on the executive of Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Local 504.
In 1993 Dale founded FaxLeft
, a free fax distribution service operating in the Greater Toronto Area. It distributed faxes for the various social justice, labour, community, arts, faith, environmental and other groups to approximately 650 groups and individuals. Eventually funded by the Ontario Federation of Labour
, the (then) Labour Council of Metro Toronto and York Region (now the Toronto & York Region Labour Council) and the Metro Network for Social Justice, it ran from two computers using four telephone lines to send out 10 - 15 pages daily, seven days per week.
Although he shunned personal publicity, including a request for an article about him for one of the Toronto weekly papers, he did appear on Barrie Zwicker
's Skylight program on Vision TV
to talk about FaxLeft and fax networks.
The amount of personal time it took to keep FaxLeft running became too much by 1999 and efforts to move the service from Dale's home to a location where it could be run by volunteers were unsuccessful. FaxLeft ceased operation on August 31, 1999.
In 2003 Dale was briefly the editor of Montage, the Toronto & Southwestern Ontario Mensa
magazine. Although under his editorship the quality of the magazine went up, advertising revenues increased and costs went down, disagreements with the Board soon led to his departure.
For the 2003 provincial election
, Dale was nominated to run for the Ontario New Democratic Party
(NDP) in Scarborough East
and received 12.3% of the vote, almost twice the NDP's 1999 result in that riding despite the province-wide drop in NDP support.
One humorous incident in the campaign came when Dale was accused by the Ottawa edition of Frank Magazine
of cheating on his GO Transit fares. Dale responded with a witty reply suggesting the writer may have been taking advantage of the recently relaxed marijuana laws. He also produced his pass to show that he was indeed a paying customer. The magazine printed his letter and a picture of his pass.
This was followed by nominations as a federal New Democratic Party
candidate in the 2004
and 2006 elections
in the new riding of Pickering—Scarborough East
. The NDP did substantially better than it had in any recent elections in the area, moving from an "also ran" to being in the double digits.
In 2004 Dale also joined the Muslim Canadian Congress
(MCC) and later the West Hill - Highland Creek Lions Club. He quickly joined the board of both organizations. In 2005 he helped found the Scarborough Health Coalition. In 2006, Dale became a founding board member of the Canadian Muslim Union
when it split from the MCC.
During the period 2003 to 2006, Dale made several television appearances including election debates on CHEX TV and the local community channels and discussions on Muslim issues on Tarek Fatah
's "Muslim Chronicle" broadcast on Omni Television
.
In 2008 he joined the board of the Toronto chapter of Fair Vote Canada
after having joined in 2003 and being active in the 2007 Ontario referendum on electoral reform.On October 5, 2009 he represented FairVote Canada in a panel discussion on proportional representation on iChannel
's @issue program. In 2009 he was also elected Vice-president of the Toronto Chapter. In April, 2010 he was elected to the National Council. Dale became the Toronto Chapter President following the resignation of the incumbent in May, 2010.
Fort St. John, British Columbia
The City of Fort St. John is a city in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Peace River Regional District, the city covers an area of about 22 km² with 22,000 residents . Located at Mile 47, it is one of the largest cities along the Alaska Highway. Originally...
, Canada, on October 1, 1952. He spent the first nine years living in a small Rocky Mountain village called Trutch, mainly identifiable by its mile number (201) on the Alaska Highway. In 1961 he moved with his family to Dawson Creek, British Columbia
Dawson Creek, British Columbia
Dawson Creek is a small city in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. The municipality of had a population of 11,529 in 2009. Dawson Creek derives its name from the creek of the same name that runs through the community. The creek was named after George Mercer Dawson by a member of his land...
and in 1963 to Toronto, Ontario.
In the fall of 1967, his family moved north of Highway 401 to what became their final home.
Dale moved out on his own in 1973 and had a variety of addresses in Toronto, Oshawa and Kingston before settling in to downtown Toronto in 1978. In 1985 he moved to his current house in Scarborough.
Dale is currently married to his second wife. They have two daughters (hers from a previous marriage).
Formal education
Dale attended Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate InstituteSir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute
The Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute is a secondary school located in Scarborough, Ontario at 2300 Pharmacy Avenue. The school was opened in the fall of 1964 when there was only farmland around it, and as the population in the area grew, so did the school...
, where he excelled scholastically, making the school's Reach for the Top
Reach for the Top
Reach for the Top is a Canadian game show in which teams of high school students participate in local, provincial and eventually national trivia tournaments...
team in his Grade 11 year when Grade 13 students were still allowed. He scored well the University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
's Junior and Senior mathematics contests, was president of the Chess and Bridge clubs, founded the model rocketry club, and was elected to the Students' Council in his senior year. He graduated in 1971.
While never a star athlete, he did skip his mixed curling team to the Tam Heather Junior Championship in the 1970/1971 season - the last year the league curled at the Tam O'Shanter Golf Club in Agincourt (the facility burned down later in the year and was rebuilt without curling ice).
Dale initially studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
but later switched to Industrial Engineering. He regularly attended protests, both for student rights and against wars like the one in Vietnam. He graduated with a B.A.Sc. in 1976.
Business career
After a series of jobs in the private sector, Dale began a twenty year career in the Ontario Public Service (OPS). He developed a programming application framework, using the dBASEDBASE
dBase II was the first widely used database management system for microcomputers. It was originally published by Ashton-Tate for CP/M, and later on ported to the Apple II and IBM PC under DOS...
programming language, that became widely used across the province - even helping others win awards for the systems they developed using it. He later became an Open Source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
advocate and introduced a number of open source products to the OPS. He continued promoting Free and open source software
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
after leaving the OPS. Dale officially left the Ontario Public Service at the end of 2005 to pursue a career providing consulting services for not-for-profit groups in the Greater Toronto Area.
Public career
In 1992, while serving as president of Ontario Public Service Employees UnionOntario Public Service Employees Union
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is a trade union that represents about 120,000 employees in the broader public service of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The current president of OPSEU is Warren "Smokey" Thomas. Prior to Thomas OPSEU was headed by Leah Casselman. Casselman was the...
Local 508, Dale became involved in opposition to the Social Contract
Social Contract (Ontario)
The Social Contract refers to a 1993 initiative of the provincial Ontario New Democratic Party government of Bob Rae to impose austerity measures on civil service...
through the Union/Community Action Coalition which arranged most of the protest events in the GTA. He was chosen to portray Bob Rae
Bob Rae
Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
in the Public Services Coalition's float in the 1993 Labour Day Parade. His impromptu attempt to sit in the reviewing stand (where the Ontario New Democratic Party
Ontario New Democratic Party
The Ontario New Democratic Party or , formally known as New Democratic Party of Ontario, is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. It is a provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. It was formed in October 1961, a few months after the federal party. The ONDP had its...
(NDP) leader would normally be) made the front page of the three Toronto dailies on September 7, 1993. Dale later also served on the executive of Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Ontario Public Service Employees Union
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is a trade union that represents about 120,000 employees in the broader public service of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The current president of OPSEU is Warren "Smokey" Thomas. Prior to Thomas OPSEU was headed by Leah Casselman. Casselman was the...
Local 504.
In 1993 Dale founded FaxLeft
FaxLeft
FaxLeft was a free distribution service operating in the Greater Toronto Area from 1993 to 1999. It started as a communication tool for the Union/Community Action Coalition that had formed to oppose the Social Contract announced by Bob Rae in the spring of 1993.At the time fax machines were the...
, a free fax distribution service operating in the Greater Toronto Area. It distributed faxes for the various social justice, labour, community, arts, faith, environmental and other groups to approximately 650 groups and individuals. Eventually funded by the Ontario Federation of Labour
Ontario Federation of Labour
The Ontario Federation of Labour is a prominent federation of labour unions in the Canadian province of Ontario. The original OFL was established by the Canadian Congress of Labour in 1944...
, the (then) Labour Council of Metro Toronto and York Region (now the Toronto & York Region Labour Council) and the Metro Network for Social Justice, it ran from two computers using four telephone lines to send out 10 - 15 pages daily, seven days per week.
Although he shunned personal publicity, including a request for an article about him for one of the Toronto weekly papers, he did appear on Barrie Zwicker
Barrie Zwicker
Barrie Wallace Zwicker is a Canadian alternative media journalist, documentary producer, and political activist. He is most famous for his documentary work, which has dealt primarily with 9/11 conspiracy theories.-Biography:...
's Skylight program on Vision TV
Vision TV
VisionTV is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that broadcasts multi-faith, multicultural, and general entertainment programming aimed at the 45 and over demographic....
to talk about FaxLeft and fax networks.
The amount of personal time it took to keep FaxLeft running became too much by 1999 and efforts to move the service from Dale's home to a location where it could be run by volunteers were unsuccessful. FaxLeft ceased operation on August 31, 1999.
In 2003 Dale was briefly the editor of Montage, the Toronto & Southwestern Ontario Mensa
Mensa International
Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test...
magazine. Although under his editorship the quality of the magazine went up, advertising revenues increased and costs went down, disagreements with the Board soon led to his departure.
For the 2003 provincial election
Ontario general election, 2003
The Ontario general election of 2003 was held on October 2, 2003, to elect the 103 members of the 38th Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada....
, Dale was nominated to run for the Ontario New Democratic Party
Ontario New Democratic Party
The Ontario New Democratic Party or , formally known as New Democratic Party of Ontario, is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. It is a provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. It was formed in October 1961, a few months after the federal party. The ONDP had its...
(NDP) in Scarborough East
Scarborough East
Scarborough East was a Canadian electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1968 to 2003, and was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to 2007, and on Toronto City Council....
and received 12.3% of the vote, almost twice the NDP's 1999 result in that riding despite the province-wide drop in NDP support.
One humorous incident in the campaign came when Dale was accused by the Ottawa edition of Frank Magazine
Frank (magazine)
Frank is a bi-weekly Canadian scandal or satirical magazine published since 1987 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.A separate publication in Ottawa, Ontario, of the same name was published from 1989 to 2004 and then revived from 2005 to 2008...
of cheating on his GO Transit fares. Dale responded with a witty reply suggesting the writer may have been taking advantage of the recently relaxed marijuana laws. He also produced his pass to show that he was indeed a paying customer. The magazine printed his letter and a picture of his pass.
This was followed by nominations as a federal New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
candidate in the 2004
Canadian federal election, 2004
The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...
and 2006 elections
Canadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...
in the new riding of Pickering—Scarborough East
Pickering—Scarborough East
Pickering—Scarborough East is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004....
. The NDP did substantially better than it had in any recent elections in the area, moving from an "also ran" to being in the double digits.
In 2004 Dale also joined the Muslim Canadian Congress
Muslim Canadian Congress
The Muslim Canadian Congress was organized to provide a voice to Muslims who support a "progressive, liberal, pluralistic, democratic, and secular society where everyone has the freedom of religion." The organization claimed to have 300 dues-paying members prior to its 2006 split.-Origins:It was...
(MCC) and later the West Hill - Highland Creek Lions Club. He quickly joined the board of both organizations. In 2005 he helped found the Scarborough Health Coalition. In 2006, Dale became a founding board member of the Canadian Muslim Union
Canadian Muslim Union
The Canadian Muslim Union is a registered not-for-profit corporation in Canada.The CMU was started on August 20, 2006 following an unsuccessful attempt to resolve deep divisions in the Muslim Canadian Congress board...
when it split from the MCC.
During the period 2003 to 2006, Dale made several television appearances including election debates on CHEX TV and the local community channels and discussions on Muslim issues on Tarek Fatah
Tarek Fatah
Tarek Fatah Urdu: طارق فتح is a Canadian political activist, writer, and broadcaster. He is the author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State published by John Wiley & Sons. In the book Fatah challenges the notion that the establishment of an Islamic state is a necessary...
's "Muslim Chronicle" broadcast on Omni Television
OMNI Television
Omni Television, corporately styled as OMNI Television, is a Canadian television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications. It consists of the company's conventional television stations in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta which are licensed as multicultural stations...
.
In 2008 he joined the board of the Toronto chapter of Fair Vote Canada
Fair Vote Canada
Fair Vote Canada is a nonprofit, multi-partisan advocacy group for electoral reform in Canada. It is active both federally and in those provinces where there are efforts to reform the first-past-the-post electoral system that is used in Canada...
after having joined in 2003 and being active in the 2007 Ontario referendum on electoral reform.On October 5, 2009 he represented FairVote Canada in a panel discussion on proportional representation on iChannel
Ichannel
ichannel is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Stornoway Communications. Its programs focus on public, social and current affairs...
's @issue program. In 2009 he was also elected Vice-president of the Toronto Chapter. In April, 2010 he was elected to the National Council. Dale became the Toronto Chapter President following the resignation of the incumbent in May, 2010.
External links
- Elections Canada - 2006 general election results
- Elections Canada - 2004 general election results
- Elections Ontario - 2003 general election results
- Canadian Muslim Union
- Pickering-Scarborough East NDP
- West Hill - Highland Creek Lions Club
- ElectionPredictions.org
- Fair Vote Canada
- Fair Vote Canada - Toronto Chapter