by Michael P. Robinson
Bayeux Arts
2021/$24.95/320 pp.
In You Have Been Referred Michael Robinson shares some 30-plus tales from his unique and storied careers working in energy regulation, community consultation and with various NGOs. A Rhodes scholar, member of the Order of Canada and former CEO and president of Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, Robinson takes readers across the northern hemisphere, from the shores of Haida Gwaii to encounters with a post-perestroika Sami community. Along the way, he’ll (temporarily) lose his future wife in a friendly game of slahal, bribe Russian guards with cigarettes and be led through the secret entrance of a subterranean burial cavern.
The tone in these stories alternates between profound, sombre reflections and lighthearted, avuncular anecdotes. This shifting can keep readers guessing until the end of any given chapter what mood Robinson wishes to impart. While this mostly serves to whet anticipation, the segues between chapters are at times jarring. For instance, one story ends with the author stargazing with a woman he’d been courting, only to have the next chapter begin with an explanation of how he met his future wife, a completely different woman.
Despite such small hiccups, the episodic nature of the memoir is easily digestible. It could be read piecemeal, though such a level of engagement runs the risk of obscuring the larger theme of cultural openness presented by the whole of the text.
Accounts of community consultation and communication with Indigenous peoples are a highlight, providing insight into the on-the-ground realities of the negotiations between energy companies and those whose land they sought to use. In one section, Robinson recalls in detail the excoriation he received after a presentation to the Dene on PolarGas’s Mackenzie Valley pipeline, in which the company’s failure to consult the First Nations meant they had, among other things, unintentionally proposed to build a gravel pit on a local cemetery and place disruptive infrastructure in an arctic char spawning area. After a painful post-presentation tongue-lashing by a member of the Dene, George Barnaby, Robinson recounts Barnaby’s words: “Don’t lose heart because of this day. Learn from this experience. You will notice that I didn’t say we opposed your pipeline; I just said that we are angry with your arrogance so far. That doesn’t mean you cannot learn and improve your ways. The challenge you face is to earn our respect and confidence.”
Robinson clearly took this advice. You Have Been Referred features many edifying tales of cross-cultural communication that leave one feeling hopeful that all people, no matter their background, can find common cause with one another.
—Andrew Guilbert is a journalist and student-at-law in Calgary.
