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How big food companies can do more to create healthier food environments
Healthy eating is challenging in our current food environment in Canada. When delicious, attractive, unhealthy foods are promoted, priced, and placed for easy access and consumption, it contributes to the suboptimal eating patterns among most Canadian adults and children. The food industry has a role in the World Health Organization’s...
The metaverse could change our religious experiences, and create new ones
New technologies have always informed and changed our religious experiences. Listening to early radio broadcasts in the 1880s was experienced by many as religious because radio voices seemed to come from some other dimension. Séances became wildly popular at the time because it was thought by some that radio had opened a door to the spirit world. Today, religion is experiencing new transformations. The information-rich, image-laden character of the internet can provide new ways to understand and explain religious activity. Although participation in formal religious activities is declining in some parts of the world, new technologies will continue to inform our...
Representing Gaza: Artists are using social media-based comics as resources and resistance
Comics and graphic narratives have long been used to document the events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both by people visiting and reporting on the region, as well as by Palestinians and Israelis. Prominent texts include comic book artist and journalist Joe Sacco’s Palestine, a detailed and visually chaotic account of the artist’s visit to Gaza and Sarah Glidden’s How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, a travelogue detailing the cartoonist’s experience as a Jewish-American tourist in Israel. There is also Guy Delisle’s Jerusalem, a story about living in Israel as a French-Canadian ex-pat, Palestinian artist Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi, a historical...
Canada is falling behind its peers in terms of living standards — can it catch up?
Canada, once admired for its robust economic health and high living standards, now faces a worrying decline. The nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth trails its peers in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), while Canadian workers clock more hours for less output. Business investment is shrivelling while government expenditure is ballooning, creating an unhealthy fiscal cocktail. The health-care system in Canada is also lagging behind its European counterparts. The legal system has grown expensive and slow; the justice system is also experiencing a chronic under-staffing crisis. Young Canadians, feeling dissatisfied, have reported low happiness scores...
Professional sport commissioners are fighting to preserve league integrity amid gambling scandals
Integrity is the word on the lips of every professional sports league commissioner as investigations into gambling unfold and punishments are handed down. Players, coaches and other personnel associated with sport organizations are expected to uphold high standards of conduct and integrity to make professional sport worthy of the public’s time and money. CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie referenced integrity when he announced in late April that defensive lineman and three-time Grey Cup champion Shawn Lemon had been suspended indefinitely. Lemon was found to have engaged in sports wagering while he was a member of the Calgary Stampeders, even betting on a...
Divorce rates are falling: Are Canadians too poor to break up?
Why did Al and Peg Bundy from the sitcom Married… with Children never get divorced? After all, they were rarely happy and constantly arguing. Maybe they felt they were the best they could do for each other — a middle-aged homely shoe salesman and a stay-at-home mom with two kids. They cared for each other, but they also hated each other deeply. And neither ever cheated, despite having the opportunity. However, what if the Bundys lived in Canada today? Would they have stuck it out together or gotten divorced? Common preconceptions would have us believe that half the people who get...
Historic Haida Nation agreement shows the world how to uphold Indigenous rights
The recent agreement reached between the Haida Nation and the government of British Columbia — called the Gaayhllxid/Gíihlagalgang “Rising Tide” Haida Title Lands Agreement — marks the first negotiated settlement in Canada to recognize an Indigenous nation’s jurisdiction over its traditional territory. The agreement has been welcomed by First Nations leaders in B.C. as a significant breakthrough in the recognition and protection of the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples. The agreement also serves as an inspiration to Indigenous Peoples across Canada and around the world who share the common struggle to restore a viable and sustainable land base. Historic. Inspiring. But also...
University campuses should be places of peacemaking, not venues for proxy wars
Since the October 2023 attack initiated against Israelis by Hamas, a surge in violence has engulfed not only Gaza but also the occupied West Bank and Israel. The war Israel launched against Gaza has resulted in the loss of 34,000 civilian lives, including an unknown number of humanitarian workers, journalists and United Nations staff, according to the Hamas-run health office in Gaza. Tensions have been exacerbated globally, with counter-terrorism and extremism experts flagging a rise in antisemitic hate crimes and anti-Muslim incidents, and the potential for nations like Iran or Russia to exploit the situation. As a scholar of conflict resolution who...
Game changer: A labour group in Québec is pushing for a province-wide video game workers’ union
Two labour organizations in Québec, Game Workers Unite (GWU) Montréal and the trade union Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), have announced they’re partnering for a union drive. Their goal is an ambitious one: to create a province-wide union for workers in the video game industry. Québecers are likely familiar with CSN for its pivotal role in last winter’s mass labour action — one of the largest in Canadian history — involving 560,000 workers from the Front commun and the Fédération Autonome de l'Enseignement. As a union federation with more than 300,000 members, 1,600 affiliated unions and a century of experience, CSN...
Ottawa’s efforts to modernize regulations fail to prioritize public safety over profit
The federal government introduced a recurring annual regulatory modernization bill in 2019 covering all regulatory agencies, including energy, agriculture, transportation, health and telecommunications. The proposed legislation is currently in consultation with businesses, industry associations, academics and Canadians about key components of the bill’s latest version, including granting federal regulatory bodies the power to set up what are known as regulatory sandboxes and incorporation by reference mechanisms (IBR). Regulatory sandboxes allow companies to try out different regulatory approaches that aren’t fully compliant with existing regulations. IBR permits federal regulators to simply refer to another document created outside the standard regulatory framework with the same...
How to find more information about a drug that your doctor prescribed
You’ve just been given a prescription for a new drug from your doctor. Your doctor told you why she was prescribing the medication, gave you its name and some information about common side-effects. Your pharmacist is also available to help you use the medication properly, but you want more details and general information. You’d also like to know things such as how quickly the drug was approved by Health Canada, whether there have been any recent safety warnings about the drug, how the drug compares to other medications for the same condition and what information Health Canada took into consideration...
How to celebrate Mother’s Day every day to boost moms’ and kids’ well-being
Mother’s Day is coming up soon, and many will be celebrating moms, grandmothers and other maternal figures in their lives. Whether biological or adoptive, moms have an important hand in shaping our identities and guiding our moral compass throughout our childhoods. Although Mother’s Day is an occasion to celebrate mothers, we don’t often hear about the considerable benefits this kind of appreciation can bring moms — benefits that can trickle down to the entire family. Based on my research and those of other psychologists, here are some tips for celebrating moms on Mother’s Day, and every day, to enhance well-being...
Digging into the colonial roots of gardening
Spring came early this year. It’s getting warm, and spring flowers like daffodils and tulips, as well as magnolia trees and cherry blossoms have pretty much come and gone. Many of you have probably already done some spring clean-up in your gardens or community spaces. Maybe you’re thinking about what you’ll be planting this year. On this week’s Don’t Call Me Resilient podcast, we decided it was a perfect time to revisit one of our most popular episodes from last year about the complicated, colonial roots of gardening. In this episode, we explore how colonial history has affected what we...
Loblaws boycott: What consumer psychology can tell us about the success of consumer activism
Loblaws has found itself at the centre of public frustration due to soaring food prices. Canadians have expressed their discontent on social media, venting about the high cost of groceries at grocery stores like Loblaws. Loblaws has reported rising profits and seen its stock value climb over the past year. The planned boycott, organized by a Reddit group with 75,000 members called “Loblaws is out of control,” aims to reduce grocery prices and increase food security for Canadians. Their list of demands includes having the company sign a grocers’ code of conduct and reduce food prices by 15 per cent. The founder...
Debunking myths about community housing: What governments and the public should know
Canada’s Housing Plan is pledging an ambitious multilateral approach to build more housing, faster and cheaper, for diverse groups. It includes noteworthy new funding programs and policies to preserve and expand community housing, including social, non-profit and co-operative housing. Read more: Housing co-ops could solve Canada's housing affordability crisis After decades of homeowner-centred policies, the new Tenant Protection Fund and Renters’ Bill of Rights commit more protections for tenants from excessive rent increases, forced evictions and other threats...
Paris 2024 Olympics: How the Games are being used to marginalize the most vulnerable
Athletes from around the world are gearing up for the 2024 Summer Olympics that are being held in Paris this year. While the Games are often billed as a beacon of global unity, they have historically marginalized the most vulnerable communities in host cities. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) routinely makes grandiose claims about its commitment to humanity. Looking over the Olympic Charter and the IOC’s guiding philosophy of “Olympism,” it’s hard not to be struck by the organization’s promises, however empty they may be. It states: “The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development...
The health-care crisis won’t be solved without addressing the elephant in the room: Staff workload
Excess workload has been identified as a root cause of the current health-care crisis in report, after report, after report. Excess workload for front-line staff like nurses contributes to fatigue, burnout, medical error and staff quitting. After heroically working under decades of austerity policies, nurses are burned out and the health-care system is in collapse. If automakers took the same approach to workload management, not a single car would roll off the line with all five wheels properly connected (did you forget the steering wheel?). Excess workload lies at the root of the health-care crisis in Canada today and...
Revitalizing Toronto’s downtown core after COVID-19 greatly benefits the city and the region
Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering aftereffects of the pandemic. Yet after more than four years of pandemic-related challenges and reverberating consequences, we still do not have an answer to the question: How should the city move forward? The concentration of offices, jobs and people in downtown Toronto benefits more than the city: Toronto’s economy anchors the regional economy. If Toronto falters, the region does too. If leaders wait too much longer to address the myriad impacts of hybrid work on the city’s downtown office core, the city and region’s future is...
Why DEI in Canada struggles to uplift Black people
Canada has a long history of trying to show that we are better than the United States when it comes to race relations. Yet, we also struggle with many of the same racial challenges. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Indigenous racism and anti-Black racism continue to be the daily realities for many Canadians. As Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has become the latest culture war battleground in the United States, much of that same rhetoric has found its way to Canada. In 2023, some argued DEI and anti-racism training lead to the death of a Toronto principal. Others have suggested DEI statements...
Controversial ‘Steal from Loblaws Day’ is not just illegal — it won’t foster meaningful change
Posters declaring May 12 the first annual “Steal from Loblaws Day” began popping up across Toronto the last week of April. They have since spread, and have been sighted in Atlantic Canada as well. The appearance of these posters has sparked intense discussions both online and offline. While some appear to support it in the face of perceived corporate greed, others have condemned the promotion of theft as unethical and illegal. The appearance of these posters coincides with calls for a boycott throughout the month of May. However, it’s important to note these two events are not connected: the organizers of...
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