tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/acadia-university-3560/articlesAcadia University2023-01-26T16:55:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962752023-01-26T16:55:01Z2023-01-26T16:55:01ZWhy labour strife at universities should concern us all<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506202/original/file-20230124-22-qpndqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C20%2C7008%2C4637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research suggests labour strikes at universities get scant media coverage, both in Canada and the United States. In this December 2022 photo, graduate student instructors and researchers picket at University of California, Berkeley. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/Terry Chea)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities are important public institutions. The education of students and the research undertaken on campuses have a broad impact throughout our economy and society. In Canada, a significant portion of university budgets also comes from government. </p>
<p>In smaller cities and towns, universities are often among the largest employers in addition to serving as important community hubs. Perhaps nowhere has this impact become more apparent than Sudbury, Ont., where — as the province of Ontario’s <a href="https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/specialreports/specialreports/LaurentianUniversity_EN.pdf">auditor-general reported</a> — mismanagement at Laurentian University led to significant job losses and disruption to the local economy.</p>
<p>Given the public significance of the university sector, the increasing labour unrest that we are seeing there should be of concern to all citizens.</p>
<h2>University labour strikes</h2>
<p>In 2021-2022, a record six faculty associations were on strike in Canada, at <a href="https://www.caut.ca/latest/2022/02/acadia-university-faculty-association-strike">Acadia University</a>, <a href="https://www.caut.ca/node/11115">Concordia University Edmonton</a>, the <a href="https://www.caut.ca/node/11263">University of Lethbridge</a>, the <a href="https://www.caut.ca/node/10783">University of Manitoba</a>, the <a href="https://www.caut.ca/node/11263">University of Ontario Institute of Technology</a> and <a href="https://www.caut.ca/latest/2022/03/academic-staff-universite-sainte-anne-strike">Université Sainte-Anne</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-and-school-strikes-across-canada-are-about-workers-rights-and-protecting-education-as-a-public-good-194148">University and school strikes across Canada are about workers' rights — and protecting education as a public good</a>
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<p>While faculty union contracts are typically negotiated for three or four years, the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led many universities to negotiate <a href="https://www.caut.ca/sites/default/files/facts-and-figures_2022-06.pdf">shorter “rollover” agreements</a> that extended previous contracts, usually for a year or two, with their faculty unions. </p>
<p>Many of these are now coming up for negotiation, as are the normal-length contracts that were signed prior to the onset of the pandemic. </p>
<p>According to the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the result is that <a href="https://www.caut.ca/sites/default/files/caut-annualreport-2022-english_0.pdf">more than one-half</a> of faculty unions in Canada are in collective bargaining this year. </p>
<p>Given the numbers, it would not be surprising if 2022-2023 sets a <a href="https://www.caut.ca/latest/2022/08/august-newswire-record-number-strikes-past-spring-more-come-mixed-approaches-covid">new record</a> for the number of faculty strikes. There have already been two strikes in Canada: CUPE 3912, representing teaching assistants and part-time faculty at Dalhousie University, and CUPE 3906, representing similarly classed employees at McMaster University.</p>
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<h2>How the public understands issues at stake</h2>
<p>Contract negotiations can be difficult for many reasons and the public is <a href="https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/tv-news-covered-british-royal-visit">often in the dark</a> about the issues that ultimately lead to a strike.</p>
<p>While this may be true for any strike, it’s especially true in the academic sector. As faculty members who were involved in union communications during our strike at Acadia University in February 2022, we developed an appreciation of the challenges of getting information to the public. </p>
<p>Independently of our union work, we decided to explore more systematically how faculty unions get their message out when contract talks break down. </p>
<p>We have interviewed more than a dozen members of faculty union communications teams at five of the six universities that were on strike last year. </p>
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<p>The members we spoke to reported that, despite the significance of universities as public institutions, there was relatively little mainstream media coverage of their strike (and therefore little broad public attention). </p>
<p>We also compared coverage of strikes at Acadia University at the <em>Halifax Chronicle Herald</em> (the largest newspaper in Nova Scotia) in both 2022 and 2007.</p>
<p>We found that the paper ran only six stories about the recent strike during the four-week work disruption. By contrast, the <em>Chronicle Herald</em> ran 17 strike-related stories or columns during a three-week faculty strike at Acadia in 2007. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/tv-news-covered-british-royal-visit">analysis of media coverage</a> of the strike at the University of California indicates that this is a broader problem within the academic sector as a whole. Specifically, three weeks into the largest academic strike in United States history, the mainstream media had provided scant coverage. </p>
<h2>Little critical analysis</h2>
<p>Our participants also reported that what little coverage exists tended to <a href="https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2008v33n4a2071">be limited</a> <a href="https://canadiancoursereadings.ca/product/a-crisis-of-representation/">in scope</a>. </p>
<p>Much of it merely <a href="https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/dalhousie-faculty-association-votes-in-favour-of-strike-if-agreement-can-t-be-reached-1.6198337">parroted news releases</a> written by the two opposing sides (“the union says A; the administration says B”), with little critical analysis of either’s claims. </p>
<p>They also noted that the focus was often disproportionately on differences in salary proposals, even when salaries were not listed by striking union members as a particularly significant issue.</p>
<p>These limitations in media coverage likely stem <a href="https://greystonebooks.com/products/no-news-is-bad-news">from changes</a> to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X06298889">media landscape</a> over the last couple of decades — in particular, the collapse of traditional revenue models for mainstream media outlets and the corporate consolidation and downsizing that has resulted from that. </p>
<p>The result is media outlets that assign reporters to produce content while investing minimal time and resources.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/canadian-journalism-in-decline-fewer-permanent-jobs-less-security-122588">There are fewer</a> securely employed journalists, and they are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canada-journalist-stress-study-1.6466217">stretched thinner and thinner</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/instead-of-mourning-local-news-try-paying-for-it-88553">Instead of mourning local news, try paying for it</a>
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<h2>Turning to social media</h2>
<p>To compensate for the lack of detailed coverage in the mainstream media, our research shows that faculty unions are increasingly turning to social media to try to get their message out about key bargaining issues. </p>
<p>These include issues like working conditions of part-time faculty, the need for improved diversity among tenure-track faculty, improved transparency in university governance and class sizes and other students’ learning conditions. </p>
<p>However, unions’ social media messages are primarily targeted at their members and students. They cannot replace the in-depth coverage of complex, enduring issues that is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2012.683273">purview of mainstream media</a>.</p>
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<p>Our ongoing research suggests that important reporting came from outlets that operated at a smaller scale, both geographic and financial. </p>
<p>For example, strike participants at Université Sainte-Anne, three hours from Halifax, commented on the important, if limited, coverage from the <em>Tri-County Vanguard</em> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/YarmouthVanguard/">based in Yarmouth, N.S</a>. </p>
<p>The <em>Vanguard</em> sent a reporter to cover the early days of the union’s seven-week strike, whereas the larger English-language media outlets mainly covered the strike when faculty travelled to Halifax or in its final weeks. </p>
<p>Even in those final weeks, CBC Nova Scotia — based in Halifax — relied on photographs submitted by striking faculty rather than sending journalists to the picket lines in Church Point, N.S. </p>
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<img alt="People walk by two newspaper boxes in downtown Toronto" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Legacy newsrooms in Canada have struggled and downsized.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Frayer</span></span>
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<h2>Beat reporters a rarity</h2>
<p>Coverage of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association strike was more in-depth <a href="https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/history">in the independently owned</a> <em>Winnipeg Free Press</em>, which, unlike many newspapers, still has an education beat reporter.</p>
<p>The importance of local and independent media in disseminating information about faculty union labour disputes is <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2020/local-news-is-being-decimated-during-one-of-its-most-important-moments/">another aspect of the crisis</a> in <a href="https://ppforum.ca/publications/mind-the-gaps/">the media</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423922000737">landscape</a>. </p>
<p>As university labour disputes continue, information about faculty associations’ positions and their analyses of why these issues matter can often be found on their social media platforms </p>
<p>In the longer term, however, effective coverage will require policy support for local, independent media outlets, as well as effective professional support for people reporting on labour and education beats that are critical to the public interest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Biro is a member of the Acadia University Faculty Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Hayes is a member of the Acadia University Faculty Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel K. Brickner is a member of the Acadia University Faculty Association.</span></em></p>Labour unrest at universities is a matter of public interest. That’s why support for local, independent media outlets to provide in-depth coverage of university strikes is so important.Andrew Biro, Professor, Politics, Acadia UniversityJoseph Hayes, Associate Professor, Psychology, Acadia UniversityRachel K. Brickner, Professor of Politics, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1961042022-12-21T20:08:06Z2022-12-21T20:08:06ZShould you answer a call to crowdfund our under-resourced teachers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502233/original/file-20221220-13-vpj8cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=114%2C13%2C1418%2C1004&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quinta Brunson, creator and actor of the show 'Abbott Elementary,' uses TikTok to fundraise for school supplies. Although it's a sitcom, it's talking about the real-life needs of under-resourced teachers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Quinta Brunson for ABC)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/should-you-answer-a-call-to-crowdfund-our-under-resourced-teachers" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In an episode of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15715994/"><em>Abbott Elementary</em></a>, the sitcom about a group of teachers in an under-resourced Philadelphia school, novice teacher Janine takes to TikTok. The joke is that she needs to use TikTok to fundraise to get her classroom much needed school supplies.</p>
<p>Although played for laughs in <a href="https://www.emmys.com/shows/abbott-elementary">this award-winning</a> show created by Quinta Brunson, one education <a href="https://theeducatorsroom.com/abbott-elementary-the-dreaded-teacher-wishlist/">blogger</a> wrote: “In tonight’s episode … we learned the lesson that all teachers know — schools are underfunded, and [supply] wishlists have the ability to make teachers REALLY happy.”</p>
<p>Actually, crowdfunding for schools in real life can provide immediate and necessary resources. There is even early research to say that crowdfunding leads to better learning outcomes for students. </p>
<p>In this season of giving, that is something to think about as you decide where to put your money.</p>
<p>Although individual donations cannot compensate for the structural conditions of general underfunding and inequitable funding of public schools, a crowdfunded teacher’s classroom may have better outcomes than one that is not.</p>
<h2>Diverse learning needs</h2>
<p>One study from California showed how extra funds from teacher crowdfunding efforts allowed teachers to run projects that fully address the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437211033536">diverse learning needs of their students</a>.</p>
<p>Another study shows how educators’ crowdfunding efforts are linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2020.0968">higher test scores</a> for students, even when the crowdfunding is unsuccessful.</p>
<p>However, any benefits of crowdfunding in education should not gloss over the fact that there is a systematic lack of public support for public education teachers. <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/public-education-funding-in-the-us-needs-an-overhaul/">This is especially relevant for the most under-resourced schools: those that serve low-income communities,</a> both urban and <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1286832.pdf">rural.</a></p>
<p>This is part of the broader crisis in public education.</p>
<h2>Pervasive under-resourcing of schools</h2>
<p>To meet the needs of their students and classrooms, educators in the United States have been paying out-of-pocket or using private sponsors to pay for books, <a href="https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/teachers-paying-ed-tech-pockets-survey-finds/">software</a>, pencils and paper, classroom decorations, prizes, snacks and even <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/teachers-pay-out-of-pocket-to-keep-their-classrooms-clean-of-covid-19-teachers-already-spend-on-average-450-a-year-on-school-supplies/">cleaning supplies</a>. </p>
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<img alt="A teacher seen sitting at a desk cutting things with a laptop behind her on a desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501688/original/file-20221218-26-qlfedr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1219%2C3842%2C2703&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501688/original/file-20221218-26-qlfedr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501688/original/file-20221218-26-qlfedr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501688/original/file-20221218-26-qlfedr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501688/original/file-20221218-26-qlfedr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501688/original/file-20221218-26-qlfedr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501688/original/file-20221218-26-qlfedr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A teacher sits in her classroom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/out-pocket-spending-school-supplies-adds-strain-educators">According to an estimate by the National Education Association,</a> 90 per cent of teachers spend money on their students. This year, many will spend an average of US$820, which is a $500 increase since before the pandemic.</p>
<p>No wonder educators are turning to crowdfunding sites, like <a href="https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/michigan/19-michigan-educators-chosen-for-clear-the-list-campaign">Amazon Wishlists</a> and DonorsChoose, the not-for-profit crowdfunder which makes “it easy for anyone to <a href="https://www.donorschoose.org/about">help a teacher in need</a>.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tiktok-is-more-than-just-a-frivolous-app-for-lip-syncing-and-dancing-podcast-182264">TikTok is more than just a frivolous app for lip-syncing and dancing – Podcast</a>
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<p>In a sign of support for teachers, as well as to take a stand on the dismal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12210">state of funding for education in the U.S.</a>, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) <a href="https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-fulfills-400000-donorschoose-requests-school-supplies-teachers">donated $400,000</a> to educators through DonorsChoose in March 2022. </p>
<p>At the time of the donation, AFT President Randi Weingarten said: </p>
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<p>“We’re spreading hope and expressing gratitude to teachers and school staff who’ve sacrificed so much to ensure a better life for our children and our communities. And we’re also shining a spotlight on decades of underfunding and the urgent need to invest in our kids and the schools they attend.”</p>
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<h2>Job satisfaction is dropping; strikes are increasing</h2>
<p>The teaching profession was already facing challenges before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic intensified stressors on educators and the public school system. Similar to Canada, teachers in the U.S. face <a href="https://files.epi.org/pdf/165729.pdf">low salaries</a> as well as inadequate resources for academic programming, <a href="https://okpolicy.org/support-staff-pay-raise-and-restoring-cuts-is-key-to-improving-oklahomas-schools/">support staff</a> and social supports. Staffing shortages among teachers that began prior to the pandemic are now reaching <a href="https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2022-10/29302-solving-educator-shortage-report-final-oct-11-2022.pdf">crisis</a> levels. </p>
<p>Contributing to these challenges is the fact that public schools are increasingly sites of <a href="https://idea.gseis.ucla.edu/publications/educating-for-a-diverse-democracy/publications/files/diverse-democracy-report">political conflict</a>, as conservative activists and state legislatures take aim at, among other things, how to teach about race and LGBTQ+ rights and contest books stocked in classrooms and libraries.</p>
<p>Among public educators, job satisfaction is low. </p>
<p>As a testament to the dissatisfaction of educators being asked to do too much with too little, 2022 saw another <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/why-teachers-are-going-on-strike-this-fall-and-what-could-come-next/2022/09">wave of strikes</a> among K-12 teachers’ unions. </p>
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<img alt="Striking education workers seen with picket signs walking on a sidewalk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501686/original/file-20221218-20-g9ikip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501686/original/file-20221218-20-g9ikip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501686/original/file-20221218-20-g9ikip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501686/original/file-20221218-20-g9ikip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501686/original/file-20221218-20-g9ikip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501686/original/file-20221218-20-g9ikip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501686/original/file-20221218-20-g9ikip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teachers from Roosevelt High School in Seattle picket during a strike over pay, mental health support and staffing ratios, September 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jason Redmond)</span></span>
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<p>Strike demands include pay increases; resources for academic programming; smaller class sizes; investment in counsellors, nurses and social workers; and addressing <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/teacher-strike-columbus-ohio-air-conditioning-students-rcna44849">hot and poorly ventilated classrooms</a>, among other issues. </p>
<p>Educators also continue to leave the profession. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/out-pocket-spending-school-supplies-adds-strain-educators">report</a> from the National Education Association identifies under-resourcing and the expectation that educators will spend their personal money as factors driving educators away from the profession.</p>
<h2>Public school system needs investments</h2>
<p>Canada is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/provinces-should-act-fast-to-avert-a-teacher-shortage-now-and-after-covid-19-154930">seeing educators leaving the profession</a> and increased strike mobilization. In both countries, these are signs that the people doing the critical work of education feel that their conditions of work are unsustainable. </p>
<p>The benefits of a good public education system include a healthy community and democracy and therefore we need to ensure that students have access to them. Crowdfunding is one solution to help fill immediate resource shortages. At the same time, we also need to demand policies that make necessary investments in our public schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196104/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel K. Brickner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gifting teachers through crowdfunding sites may make an immediate difference but can’t compensate for underfunding and inequitable funding of public schools.Rachel K. Brickner, Professor of Politics, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1657892021-11-10T15:16:33Z2021-11-10T15:16:33ZWhy are babies going hungry in a food-rich nation like Canada?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431095/original/file-20211109-17-1nj4al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C8%2C1894%2C1218&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Whether they breastfeed or use formula, food insecure mothers are struggling to feed their babies. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Hessam Nabavi/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/why-are-babies-going-hungry-in-a-food-rich-nation-like-canada" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Jean, a 24-year-old mother of two, said: “People don’t think there’s hungry kids out there [in Canada].” She would like us to know “there definitely is.” </p>
<p>More than <a href="https://proof.utoronto.ca/food-insecurity/">1.2 million children in Canada live in food-insecure households</a>, including babies of the families as well. In Nunavut, that number is higher than any other part of Canada. Many of the children in food insecure families go hungry: parents often need to cut the size of meals, or skips meals altogether. </p>
<p>The first 1,000 days of a baby’s life is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22952">most important time for growth and development</a>. There are special and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/food-nutrition/prenatal-nutrition-guidelines-health-professionals-iron-contributes-healthy-pregnancy-2009.html">costly nutritional needs for both mother and baby such as increased iron and folic acid for mothers</a>, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canada-food-guide/resources/infant-feeding/nutrition-healthy-term-infants-recommendations-birth-six-months.html">vitamin D for breastfed babies, and commercial formula for those not breastfed</a>. But for many, this is also a time of diminished incomes. </p>
<p>People have often said to me that even the most undernourished women can successfully breastfeed and that the real cause of infant food insecurity too much access to infant formula. This misses the point I’m making.</p>
<p>At the heart of infant <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/175174415X14101814953927">food insecurity in Canada is poverty and food access, which disrupts maternal eating and infant feeding habits</a> regardless of how and what babies are fed. </p>
<p>To really understand infant food insecurity, one needs to listen to mothers. While researching my book, <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/out-of-milk"><em>Out of Milk: Infant Food Insecurity in a Rich Nation</em></a>, I spoke to many mothers, those who were breastfeeding and those who had opted to use formula. Their stories reveal how poverty and food insecurity are disrupting their eating and infant feeding habits. I recount some of their stories here; all of the following names are pseudonyms.</p>
<h2>The breastfeeding paradox</h2>
<p>When breastfeeding works, it is praised by the mothers we spoke with as the ideal healthy and secure food system. Some mothers said they were drawn to breastfeeding because of health benefits and the high cost of food. Lorraine explained: “There is no risk of cross-contamination, it’s there, it’s ready, it’s the right amount, it’s the perfect food.” </p>
<p>Erica said: “You know your baby is never going to go hungry. You don’t have to worry about where you’re going to get food and where the money is going to come from.” </p>
<p>Yet the most food-insecure mothers stop breastfeeding after one or two months. Some never start. For them, breastfeeding is a non-sustainable food system. This is referred to as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/175174415X14101814953927">breastfeeding paradox</a>.” It means that those that can least afford to stop breastfeeding <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.170880">are actually more likely to do so</a>. </p>
<p>The reasons include the struggles of daily living: lack of practical support, insufficient public services and poverty brought on by inadequate income supports. A mother’s own lack of food is at the root — and like any food system, the system breaks down when producers are not supported.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417866/original/file-20210825-13-1r24eqa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=75%2C117%2C5543%2C3622&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman browses infant formula at a grocery store." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417866/original/file-20210825-13-1r24eqa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=75%2C117%2C5543%2C3622&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417866/original/file-20210825-13-1r24eqa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417866/original/file-20210825-13-1r24eqa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417866/original/file-20210825-13-1r24eqa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417866/original/file-20210825-13-1r24eqa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417866/original/file-20210825-13-1r24eqa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417866/original/file-20210825-13-1r24eqa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mothers least able to afford infant formula are more likely to rely on it to feed their babies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mary said: “I don’t know if what I was producing was really enough, nutrient-wise, if it was … healthy enough for him, giving him what he needed. Plus, in order to be able to produce milk, the mother needs to be food secure, and you don’t have that all the time. You still have to buy food for yourself to keep yourself healthy and the price of fruits and vegetables and proper meat is really high.”</p>
<p>Another mother, Sally, challenged the idea that breastfeeding is free, saying: “It might be cheaper than formula feeding but it still costs.” </p>
<h2>Inadequate access to formula</h2>
<p>When breastfeeding fails and infant formula is not affordable, the outcomes are tragic. </p>
<p>Unlike <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/about-wic">other developed countries</a>, Canada has no government-provided infant formula for low-income mothers. The reasons are, at a minimum, twofold: One, there are concerns that <a href="https://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/dca-dea/publications/pdf/ppsb-ppsam-eng.pdf">supplying free formula will affect infant feeding choices</a>; and two, Canada doesn’t use food as a form of welfare benefits for anyone.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417684/original/file-20210824-16536-1v68mcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman feeds a baby with a milk bottle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417684/original/file-20210824-16536-1v68mcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417684/original/file-20210824-16536-1v68mcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417684/original/file-20210824-16536-1v68mcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417684/original/file-20210824-16536-1v68mcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417684/original/file-20210824-16536-1v68mcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417684/original/file-20210824-16536-1v68mcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417684/original/file-20210824-16536-1v68mcf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Without income supports, struggling mothers resort to using watered-down formula and buying it second-hand online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This, on top of a failed social safety net, leaves families struggling to feed their babies with limited options. Parents can look to food banks, <a href="https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i1.230">but infant formula may not be consistently available, if at all</a>. Reasons for its scarcity are embedded in the nature of food charity, which is marked by inconsistent donations, and more specifically, beliefs in Canada and elsewhere that <a href="https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/Provision-of-formula-milk-at-food-banks-Unicef-UK-Baby-Friendly-Initiative.pdf">formula provision in food banks may put breastfeeding and babies at risk</a>. </p>
<p>When we allow food insecurity to disrupt breastfeeding, or make formula inaccessible with the intent to protect breastfeeding, it punishes already struggling mothers.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381818/original/file-20210201-13-1g0n3ld.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/ca/podcasts">Click here to listen to Don’t Call Me Resilient</a></span>
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<p>Unsurprisingly, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4864964/baby-formula-under-lock-and-key-as-thefts-rise-say-winnipeg-retailers/">infant formula is now one of the most shoplifted items</a>, leading some retailers to keep it locked-up. </p>
<p>Desperate mothers are <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/out-of-milk">turning to online platforms</a> like Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji to get second-hand formula, which is sometimes already opened.</p>
<p>Heather said: “You take what you can get. It is a matter of being able to feed the baby at all.… We sold stuff. Stole stuff. Stole it to sell it and stole formula from the store. Whatever we had to do to feed them we did it — I am not proud of it but my kids are still alive.” </p>
<p>Mothers sometimes resort to watering-down formula to make it last longer and introduce solids and other liquids early when there is no formula to be found. These survival tactics show the lengths families must go to find food.</p>
<h2>A nutritious diet is expensive</h2>
<p>Most low-income families with babies who receive federal maternity benefits or income assistance cannot afford a basic nutritious diet. If they tried, according to <a href="https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00306-5">our research</a>, they would likely be short hundreds of dollars each month, whether they breastfeed or use formula. </p>
<p>According to many mothers, no matter where you live in the world, poverty and food insecurity is a threat to maternal and infant health. The consensus among mothers we spoke with say the solutions lie in their economic security. </p>
<p>Yes, breastfeeding is a robust physiological system and malnourished mothers can breastfeed. But we need real upstream policy solutions that ensure mothers and their babies don’t go hungry in the first place. Canada needs adequate social welfare that protects sustainable breastfeeding and ensures that non-breastfed babies have access to food. </p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/98b5cd5f-0305-4650-9bdf-731605667fb7?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lesley Frank receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Research Nova Scotia, and Acadia University. She is affiliated with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - Nova Scotia as a Research Associate and Steering Committee member of Campaign 2000. </span></em></p>With the high cost of infant formula, food-insecure mothers who cannot breastfeed are struggling to feed their babies.Lesley Frank, Tier II Canada Research Chair in Food, Health, and Social Justice, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1617662021-06-07T18:13:10Z2021-06-07T18:13:10ZTo create a better work environment after COVID-19, we must truly hear employees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404682/original/file-20210606-23-1vbw9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C2187&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man heads past a clothing store where mannequins sport face masks in Halifax. Retail workers, long-term care workers and teachers say the media has failed to reflect their pandemic experiences.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the third wave of COVID-19 hit Canada and the benefits of <a href="https://canadiangrocer.com/hero-pay-fading-away">the short-lived hero pay</a> had long passed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-year-of-covid-19-has-illuminated-the-urgent-need-for-paid-sick-days-154224">workers’ advocates made renewed calls for a paid sick leave policy</a>. </p>
<p>In Ontario, where the third wave was particularly devastating for working-class and racialized people, advocates pointed out that while many workers from these communities were disproportionately deemed “essential,” they were also the least likely to be able to access <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-sickness-benefit-paid-sick-leave-1.5872913">paid sick leave benefits</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Workers manufacture cardboard petitions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404870/original/file-20210607-28173-9hohd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404870/original/file-20210607-28173-9hohd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404870/original/file-20210607-28173-9hohd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404870/original/file-20210607-28173-9hohd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404870/original/file-20210607-28173-9hohd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404870/original/file-20210607-28173-9hohd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404870/original/file-20210607-28173-9hohd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers manufacture partitions made from cardboard and chipboard material in Mississauga, Ont., during the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Media coverage of the pandemic has focused public attention on these and other important workplace issues, such as the <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/burning-out-remote-workers-report-paying-a-price-for-increased-productivity-1.5427741">opportunities and challenges of remote work</a>, the impact of the pandemic on <a href="https://www.chatelaine.com/news/task-force-women-economy-canada/">women’s</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/longterm-female-unemployment-1.5935882">employment</a> and the health and safety of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-peel-region-covid-19-essential-1.6030283">essential workers</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/survey-shows-some-bosses-are-using-the-pandemic-as-an-excuse-to-push-workers-159417">Survey shows some bosses are using the pandemic as an excuse to push workers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As we hopefully near the end of the pandemic and collectively consider how to transform the workplace in ways that are safer, more equitable and humane, it’s important that the voices and experiences of essential workers are heard.</p>
<p>While media coverage has been crucial in fuelling public discussions about the workplace, our research shows that there’s a disconnect between the way media covered work issues during the pandemic and the stories workers felt were important for the public to understand. </p>
<h2>Survey of workers</h2>
<p>During the first wave of the pandemic, <a href="https://sociology.acadiau.ca/well-being-and-work-in-ns-during-a-pandemic.html">our research team</a> conducted a survey of three groups of essential workers in Nova Scotia — long-term care workers, retail workers and teachers. </p>
<p>Our survey focused primarily on how working conditions had an impact on their health and well-being, but because essential workers were receiving more media attention, we also asked participants to reflect on how the media covered their occupations. </p>
<p>We asked survey participants if the media focused on the most important issues of their work, and 69 per cent of participants responded “no” versus 31 per cent who said “yes.” Broken down by group, retail workers were the most likely to say that the media was not covering the most important issues (75 per cent) followed by teachers (70 per cent) and long-term care workers (58 per cent).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graphic showing responses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404325/original/file-20210603-13-azizvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404325/original/file-20210603-13-azizvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404325/original/file-20210603-13-azizvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404325/original/file-20210603-13-azizvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=191&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404325/original/file-20210603-13-azizvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404325/original/file-20210603-13-azizvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404325/original/file-20210603-13-azizvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Breakdown by sector of those who responded ‘No’ to the question: Did the media focus on the most important issue of your work?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When asked to describe how they felt about media coverage of their work, some participants expressed gratitude. One long-term care worker told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I think some of the coverage has been good and it has brought to light the ‘gaps’ in the system and how some of the most vulnerable people in society are treated and prioritized.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, about half of the open-ended responses stated that coverage was incomplete, one-sided or that the tone became more critical over time. For example, some long-term care workers felt that coverage focused disproportionately on residents, ignoring workers: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They have focused on the impact to residents but have not talked about the tremendous work the staff did in LTC facilities in NS to keep everyone safe. The staff were viewed as the carriers [of COVID-19] and would be blamed publicly if an outbreak occurred.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A paramedic walks around an ambulance at a nursing home." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404684/original/file-20210606-28232-et9r39.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404684/original/file-20210606-28232-et9r39.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404684/original/file-20210606-28232-et9r39.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404684/original/file-20210606-28232-et9r39.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404684/original/file-20210606-28232-et9r39.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404684/original/file-20210606-28232-et9r39.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404684/original/file-20210606-28232-et9r39.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A paramedic walks around an ambulance at Northwood Manor, one of the largest nursing homes in Atlantic Canada with 585 residents, in Halifax in May 2020, where dozens of residents died of COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Retail workers, teachers</h2>
<p>Retail workers noted that media coverage was largely silent on what some saw as unnecessary risks to their health. According to one participant:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They show us as these lifesavers and glamourize us when in reality, we’re risking our health and safety so Karen can buy Doritos and ice cream at 10 p.m.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teachers noted that they were often portrayed as complaining, whining or lazy, especially when they expressed concerns about working conditions. As one teacher commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It has been interesting to see praises sung as the extent of our jobs was discussed, and then to be referred to in a negative light as we look for clarification of safety measures for returning to school.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our participants’ frustrations with media coverage of their work during the first wave of the pandemic underscore the importance of intentionally including workers’ experiences in public dialogue about the economy and public policy. </p>
<p>After all, workers’ lived experiences are not interchangeable with broader questions about business and the labour market, nor can we understand workers’ experiences through a near exclusive focus on policy. Ignoring workers’ experiences leads to missed opportunities for understanding how policy and working conditions can improve. </p>
<h2>Blaming the benefits</h2>
<p>As a case in point, some Republican governors in the United States recently attributed labour shortages in the food services and hospitality sector to <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/05/14/gop-governors-reject-extra-federal-unemployment-payments">overly generous COVID-19 unemployment benefits</a> provided by the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/american-rescue-plan/">American Rescue Plan.</a></p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Joe Biden signs a bill at his desk in the Oval Office." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404685/original/file-20210606-21-a0i8t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404685/original/file-20210606-21-a0i8t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404685/original/file-20210606-21-a0i8t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404685/original/file-20210606-21-a0i8t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404685/original/file-20210606-21-a0i8t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404685/original/file-20210606-21-a0i8t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404685/original/file-20210606-21-a0i8t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. President Joe Biden signs the American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House in March 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While economists rejected that connection, <a href="https://www.mississippifreepress.org/12527/breaking-point-restaurant-workers-push-back-amid-unemployment-benefit-crackdown/">worker-centred media coverage</a> provided important insight into why workers were turning away from food services. </p>
<p>In post-pandemic Canada, media will also play a crucial role in shaping public understanding of labour conditions. If we’re committed to creating a future of work that is safe and equitable, workers themselves must be a central voice in the stories that media tell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161766/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elisabeth Rondinelli receives funding from Acadia University/ SSHRC Small Institution Grant. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel K. Brickner receives funding from Acadia University / SSHRC Small Institution Grant. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:rebecca.casey@acadiau.ca">rebecca.casey@acadiau.ca</a> receives funding from Acadia University/SSHRC Small Institution Grant.</span></em></p>In post-pandemic Canada, the media will play a big role in shaping public understanding of labour conditions. A future of work that is safe and equitable requires the voices of workers.Elisabeth Rondinelli, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Acadia UniversityRachel K. Brickner, Professor of Politics, Acadia UniversityRebecca Casey, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1476202020-10-27T14:09:02Z2020-10-27T14:09:02ZHow teachers’ union activism helped shift the U.S. election debate on education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365111/original/file-20201022-23-155av65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C104%2C5334%2C3011&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teacher activism in the U.S. has helped pushed the Democratic party towards renewed investment in public education. Children listen as former president Barack Obama campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Oct. 21, 2020, in Philadelphia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/ Matt Slocum)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the fight for the U.S. presidency, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has positioned protecting students, educators and getting schools open safely with smaller classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic as “<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?475377-1/joe-biden-remarks-reopening-schools-covid-19">a national emergency</a>.” On Sept. 2, he praised educators for their “grit,” and recognized their concerns for students.</p>
<p>Biden’s praise reflects his kindergarten to Grade 12 education plan, which calls on the federal government to “<a href="https://joebiden.com/education/">provide educators the support and respect they need and deserve” to and “start investing in our children at birth</a>.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xG4q4mrFaME?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden’s education plan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In both tone and content, Biden’s plan <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-08-18/trump-biden-education-policy-election">represents an evolution in the focus of American education policy</a> and a departure from recent commitments of Democratic and Republican parties emphasizing school accountability through testing and expanding publicly funded, privately operated charter schools. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Canada, the challenges of reopening schools during COVID-19 have prompted suggestions that it’s time to think <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice-is-a-better-way-than-the-public-school-pandemic-panic">about “school choice”</a> through charter schools or <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/agar-its-time-to-talk-about-school-choice-in-canada">through school voucher</a> programs. Voucher programs provide parents with government grants, normally taken out of the general public school budget, that they can use for tuition at a private school. </p>
<p><a href="https://behindthenumbers.ca/2014/06/04/public-education-reform-lessons-from-the-united-states-on-what-not-to-do/">As I have argued</a>, Canadians should not ignore American experiences of expanding such kinds of schooling. </p>
<h2>Heavier federal role</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos speaks at the Phoenix International Academy, a charter school, in Phoenix, Oct. 15, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matt York)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the U.S., states are primarily responsible for education policy. But the federal secretary of education establishes <a href="https://www.ed.gov/">policies on federal financial aid for education and distributes and monitors related funds, as well as collecting data, disseminating research</a> and ensuring <a href="https://www.waldenu.edu/online-doctoral-programs/doctor-of-education/resource/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-role-of-us-secretary-of-education#:%7E:text=The%20Secretary%20of%20Education%20Is,Department%20of%20Education%20in%201980">schools from pre-kindergarten to post-graduate institutions “comply with federal … laws governing funding and discrimination</a>.” The federal government began to play a role in kindergarten to Grade 12 education with the passage of the <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/education/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-of-1965/">Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965</a>. </p>
<p>The act provided federal funding to states to support school districts with concentrations of poor students. The ESEA has to be reauthorized every five years, and subsequent presidents have expanded its scope through changes: for instance, to provide resources for educating students with disabilities or to address perceived challenges like gaps in student achievement.</p>
<p>In the late 1980s, concerns over student achievement led to the <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/diane-ravitch/the-death-and-life-of-the-great-american-school-system/9780465097999/">emergence of an education reform movement</a>. This movement emphasized standardized testing to hold schools accountable when students didn’t make adequate academic progress and the expansion of school choice through publicly funded, privately operated charter schools. </p>
<h2>Fractures in U.S. ‘education reform’</h2>
<p>Support for education reform was bipartisan in the U.S. Beginning in 1988, presidents used reauthorizations of the ESEA to emphasize greater accountability. Presidents <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html">George W. Bush</a> and <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Barack Obama</a> went farthest to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/the-nations-main-k-12-law-a-timeline.html">mandate testing and support charter schools</a>. </p>
<p>Since the late ‘80s, presidents have been careful not to explicitly attack the teaching profession. But some state and local politicians (particularly Republicans) were quick to place the blame for so-called failing schools on <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/christie-teachers-union-deserves-punch-in-the-face-120913">teachers’ unions</a>. Some media then followed suit, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/10/03/three-time-covers-show-how-american-attitudes-about-teachers-have-changed">focusing coverage</a> on “<a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20081208,00.html">bad teachers</a>.” This dismissal of professional educators’ expertise, combined with cuts to education budgets, <a href="https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/the-prize/9780544810907">created openings for philanthropists to influence policy</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People carrying placards." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers, parents and students line up to protest for higher school funding and teacher pay in April 2018 in Phoenix before a teacher strike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Biden and other candidates distanced themselves from education reform priorities and called for renewed investment in public education after decades of austerity. </p>
<p>My research into their platforms shows explicit support for <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/reinvest-in-public-education/">raising teachers’ salaries</a>, <a href="https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/public-education">collective bargaining</a> and <a href="https://issues.juliancastro.com/people-first-education/">equitable educational opportunities for all students</a>. </p>
<p>Biden and many Democratic candidates have close personal connections to public education: Jill Biden, for example, has a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/19/jill-biden-plans-to-return-to-her-day-job-even-if-she-becomes-first-lady.html">doctorate in education and teaches at a community college</a>. But the shift among Democrats is also a response to the rise of education activism in the U.S. over the past decade, led by a more militant teachers’ union movement. It’s had some success refocusing public attention on what students and teachers need to succeed.</p>
<h2>A decade of education activism</h2>
<p>The Chicago Teachers’ Union’s (CTU) three-week strike in 2012 was a watershed moment. The CTU developed a bargaining platform, “<a href="https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/Chicago%20Teachers%20Union%20report_0.pdf">The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve</a>,” focused on student needs for a well-rounded curriculum, support services and fully funded schools. </p>
<p>To generate support for the platform and a possible strike, <a href="https://labornotes.org/store/jump-start-your-union">CTU leadership organized members and built relationships with parents, neighbourhood organizations and faith groups</a>. Other <a href="https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1564-6">teachers’ unions adopted CTU’s method of focusing demands on how schools ought to care for the whole student</a>.</p>
<p>After the CTU strike, <a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/618-more-than-a-score">the movement against high-stakes standardized testing</a> gained momentum. Critics drew attention to instructional time lost to testing, how testing narrowed the academic curriculum and problems using test scores to evaluate teachers and schools.</p>
<h2>Moratorium on expanding charter schools</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a suit at a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called for a moratorium on expanding charter schools in 2016. Derrick Johnson, NAACP president, at a Boston news conference, Dec. 12, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Steven Senne)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2016, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called for <a href="https://www.naacp.org/latest/statement-regarding-naacps-resolution-moratorium-charter-schools/">a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools</a> until they were subject to the same regulations as traditional public schools. Despite criticism for this stance voiced by some <a href="https://educationpost.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-naacps-stance-on-charter-schools/">education advocates in Black communities</a>, the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2017-07-27/naacp-again-calls-for-moratorium-on-charter-schools">NAACP renewed this call in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>Teachers’ activism reached a high point in 2018, when over <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/red-for-ed-movement-teachers-unions-covid-19">375,000 educators took part in work stoppages</a>. Teachers went on strike in <a href="https://beltpublishing.com/products/55-strong-inside-the-west-virginia-teachers-strike">West Virginia</a>, <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2955-red-state-revolt">Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona</a>, Colorado and North Carolina. </p>
<p>With broad public support, they demanded restoring funding to reverse declining wages and student resources and cuts to curriculum. When United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) went on strike in 2019 for “<a href="https://www.utla.net/sites/default/files/UTLA_SLASDFINAL.pdf">The Schools L.A. Children Deserve</a>,” a major concern was the impact of charter schools on funding for traditional public school schools. </p>
<p>Among UTLA’s supporters were Senators Kamala Harris, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/berniesanders/posts/i-stand-in-solidarity-with-utla-teachers-in-los-angeles-who-went-on-strike-today/2093366217385038/">Bernie Sanders</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1084852094794907650">Elizabeth Warren</a> — all eventual contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1084862005767557120"}"></div></p>
<h2>Why Canadians should care</h2>
<p>Expanding charter schools and school vouchers, along with pressuring schools to accelerate standardized testing haven’t been a silver bullet for fixing problems in American public schools. </p>
<p>Rather, they contributed to the rise of a robust movement of educators, teachers’ unions and community and political allies who support a well-resourced public school system that both meets the needs of diverse students and values educators as professionals. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-funding-is-needed-for-student-well-being-not-only-coronavirus-safety-rules-140818">School funding is needed for student well-being, not only coronavirus safety rules</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Canada has a long history of teachers’ union activism. Teachers in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/1534959/b-c-teachers-strike-the-timeline/">British Columbia</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/teachers-work-to-rule-job-action-contract-dispute-union-nstu-1.3870651">Nova Scotia</a> and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6420752/ontario-4-teachers-unions-job-action/">Ontario</a> have engaged in job actions since 2014. </p>
<p>As COVID-19 pressures provinces to re-think schooling, and as teachers’ unions continue to underscore the <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/08/31/news/ontario-teachers-unions-file-health-and-safety-complaint">perils of underfunding for both teacher and student health</a> and wellness, we should watch to see if the activism of Canadian educators and allies becomes even more dynamic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel K. Brickner has received funding from the Harrison-McCain Foundation. She has been a member of Educators for Social Justice-Nova Scotia and is currently the Chair of Democrats Abroad-Atlantic Provinces. </span></em></p>The push to expand charter schools in the U.S. contributed to a robust movement of teachers’ unions and allies demanding a well-resourced public school system.Rachel K. Brickner, Professor of Politics, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413222020-07-12T11:25:41Z2020-07-12T11:25:41ZAcid rain and mercury legacy decreases the number of loon chicks in Ontario lakes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346470/original/file-20200708-3983-lb5o6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=182%2C106%2C3986%2C2458&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario loons are raising fewer chicks each year now than they did in the 1980s.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gathered around a crackling campfire, a flat calm on the lake, the sunset’s brilliant orange reflecting off the water, you hear a haunting cry echo through the trees. It’s the call of the common loon, a sound synonymous with the boreal wild. </p>
<p>To some people, the loon is a treasured part of cottage life. To others, loons represent a wilderness they long for in an increasingly urban, indoor and online existence. </p>
<p>But a new analysis of decades of research shows that pollution and other human activities are threatening the survival of this cherished symbol of northern summers.</p>
<h2>Declining chicks</h2>
<p>Each summer, for the past 38 years, thousands of volunteers across Canada have taken part in the <a href="https://www.birdscanada.org/bird-science/canadian-lakes-loon-survey/">Canadian Lakes Loon Survey</a> managed by Birds Canada. They monitor loons and their chicks to help scientists, like me, understand the long-term health of common loons and the health of the lakes they live on.</p>
<p>The data show that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139724">number of chicks raised per loon pair has decreased in Ontario between 1981 and 2018</a>, a <a href="http://www.ace-eco.org/vol8/iss1/art1/">trend seen across southern Canada</a>. </p>
<p>These trends are alarming because loons tell us a lot about the health of our lakes, and declines in loon chick numbers suggest that lake conditions are also deteriorating.</p>
<p>Right now, loon populations are stable, but declines in the number of loon chicks could forecast future declines in the number of loon adults. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344157/original/file-20200625-33528-1glay0g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344157/original/file-20200625-33528-1glay0g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344157/original/file-20200625-33528-1glay0g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344157/original/file-20200625-33528-1glay0g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344157/original/file-20200625-33528-1glay0g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344157/original/file-20200625-33528-1glay0g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344157/original/file-20200625-33528-1glay0g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Common loon reproductive success declined in Ontario between 1981 and 2018, at times dropping below the level needed to maintain a stable loon population (0.48 chicks per loon pair, shown by the horizontal green line)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kristin Bianchini)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers measure loon reproductive success by looking at the number of six-week-old chicks produced per pair each year. By six weeks, loon chicks are about two-thirds the size of an adult loon and have a far greater chance of evading hungry predators, like snapping turtles, bass and bald eagles, and making it to adulthood. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343601/original/file-20200623-188911-5xc1j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343601/original/file-20200623-188911-5xc1j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343601/original/file-20200623-188911-5xc1j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343601/original/file-20200623-188911-5xc1j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343601/original/file-20200623-188911-5xc1j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343601/original/file-20200623-188911-5xc1j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343601/original/file-20200623-188911-5xc1j3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Common loon adult with chicks over six weeks old.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kristin Bianchini)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1980s, loons raised a little over 0.8 six-week-old chicks per pair, per year, on average. Now they raise a little less than 0.6. This may not seem like a huge decrease, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.2193/2006-551">other studies</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2193/2008-093">estimate</a> that if the rate of chick production falls below 0.48 chicks per pair per year, then the number of loon adults may also start to fall. </p>
<p>Our study shows that Ontario may be on its way to dipping below the 0.48 threshold.</p>
<h2>Acidic lakes</h2>
<p>Why are loons raising fewer chicks? Well, it’s complicated. </p>
<p>The production of loon chicks can be affected by many overlapping threats, including <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4161786">shoreline development</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3801308">boating activity</a>, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/auk/article-abstract/135/3/788/5148950?redirectedFrom=fulltext">harassment from biting black flies while loons are nesting and incubating their eggs</a> and <a href="https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70156088">being eaten by bald eagles</a>. </p>
<p>My research has found that loon chick numbers are declining faster on lakes with higher acidity and mercury levels.</p>
<p>Decades ago, large amounts of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) were released into the atmosphere by vehicles and industrial processes, like metal smelting, manufacturing and oil refining, and the burning of fossil fuels. These chemicals caused acid rain and made many lakes acidic. </p>
<p>Acid rain was a big problem in eastern North America. Because of how SO2 and NOx are transported in the atmosphere, more SO2 and NOx were deposited in the east than the west. As a result, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/F08-110">more lakes were acidified in places like Ontario than in western Canada</a>. </p>
<p>Acid rain releases toxic metals, like aluminium, into lake water, which can interfere with the way that fish gills function. This can lead to decreased fish growth, reproduction and survival, which ultimately means there are fewer fish in highly acidic lakes. Fish can be depleted to the point where <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v123i2.693">loon chicks do not have enough of the food that they need to grow and survive</a>.</p>
<p>Mercury can also decrease the reproductive success of loons. Because loons eat fish, they are at the top of a lake’s food chain. Every time one animal eats another, the pollutants in the prey accumulate in the predator. Mercury can build up, reaching high levels in top predators, like loons. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mercury-decline-in-seabirds-due-to-diet-not-emissions-controls-86724">Mercury decline in seabirds due to diet, not emissions controls</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>High mercury concentrations essentially make loons bad parents. They incubate less, they feed chicks less and, as a result, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-007-0167-8">raise fewer chicks</a>.</p>
<p>Although we’ve reduced our acid rain and mercury emissions, many lakes were so severely damaged by acid rain that they are still acidic, and it may take many more decades for these lakes to recover. Likewise, mercury can stick around for a long time in the environment. </p>
<p>We also think that climate change may be making things worse for loons. In acidic lakes, warmer temperatures allow more mercury to enter the food chain. This means that with global warming, a larger dose of mercury flows up the food chain and into loons — and boom — you get fewer chicks.</p>
<h2>How can we help loons?</h2>
<p>A great way to get involved with future loon conservation efforts is to become a member and support <a href="https://www.birdscanada.org/">Birds Canada</a>. If you want to contribute to future loon research, you can also participate in the <a href="https://www.birdscanada.org/bird-science/canadian-lakes-loon-survey/">Canadian Lakes Loon Survey</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346468/original/file-20200708-19-1e2mc21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346468/original/file-20200708-19-1e2mc21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346468/original/file-20200708-19-1e2mc21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346468/original/file-20200708-19-1e2mc21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346468/original/file-20200708-19-1e2mc21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346468/original/file-20200708-19-1e2mc21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346468/original/file-20200708-19-1e2mc21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A loon nesting on the edge of a lake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jody Parks/Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cottagers and those who live on lakes can do a lot of other things to make their properties loon friendly:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Let native wetland plants grow along the shoreline to provide shelter and food for chicks. </p></li>
<li><p>Slow down and minimize your boat wake, especially when approaching the shore, to avoid washing out loon nests and separating small chicks from their parents. </p></li>
<li><p>Keep lakes clean of garbage and fishing lines to avoid injuring birds and attracting predators. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Finally, if our hypothesis about the effects of climate change on mercury and loons is correct, then reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change may also help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristin Bianchini is supported by Mitacs through the Mitacs Accelerate Postdoctoral Scholarship. Her work is also funded by Birds Canada through the Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Program, Acadia University, SC Johnson, and The Bluff's Hunting Club. </span></em></p>As fewer chicks survive, the eerie call of the loon could become more elusive in Ontario.Kristin Bianchini, Postdoctoral research fellow, biology, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1343642020-03-30T17:27:33Z2020-03-30T17:27:33ZLa Francophonie a 50 ans. L’héritage mitigé de l’organisation internationale<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323822/original/file-20200329-146705-e6hdff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Le premier ministre du Québec, François Legault, discute avec Louise Mushikiwabo, secrétaire générale de la Francophonie, le 11 juin 2019 à Québec. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">La Presse Canadienne/Jacques Boissinot</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Le 20 mars 1970, il y a 50 ans de cela, les représentants de 22 pays se sont réunis à Niamey, au Niger, pour créer l’Agence de coopération culturelle et technique, un organisme international dédié au dialogue entre les nations francophones. Ses objectifs et structures ont évolué au fil du temps jusqu’à donner naissance, en 2005, à l’actuelle <a href="https://www.francophonie.org/">Organisation internationale de la Francophonie</a>.</p>
<p>Le 20 mars est la Journée internationale de la Francophonie, et le mois de mars est le Mois de la Francophonie. Mais ces occasions de célébrer une langue commune et le dialogue culturel viennent avec un héritage mitigé.</p>
<p>Certains observateurs voient dans la Francophonie une <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/francophonie/2018/08/27/37006-20180827ARTFIG00220-alain-mabanckou-associe-la-francophonie-a-une-politique-de-colonisation-detournee.php">forme de néocolonialisme</a> qui a contribué à protéger le rayonnement international de la France et à promouvoir la culture de la métropole au détriment des cultures locales. La France a toujours soutenu activement les événements de la Francophonie, et ce, même en Amérique du Nord. Depuis les années 1970, le Québec utilise la langue <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2019.1650785">pour affirmer son influence politique</a> au-delà de ses frontières.</p>
<p>L’héritage de la Francophonie a beau être mitigé, ce n’est pas une raison pour rejeter ses principes en bloc. En examinant les initiatives menées localement par certaines personnes – dans le Vermont, par exemple –, il est possible de mettre l’accent sur des aspects moins francocentriste de l’organisation. C’est une façon de promouvoir la bonne volonté et le dialogue dans un monde où il y a de plus en plus de frontières.</p>
<h2>Immigration et bonne entente</h2>
<p>Dans l’est de l’Amérique du Nord, la France a transcendé les frontières politiques. Après 1840, des Canadiens français <a href="https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/qf/1980-n37-qf1207544/51588ac.pdf">ont émigré du Bas-Canada (qui deviendra le Québec) vers les États-Unis</a> en grand nombre (probablement plus d’un million en un siècle). Ils ont ensuite construit des institutions culturelles pour assurer la pérennité de leur identité ethnique dans le nord-est du pays.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1226&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1226&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1226&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joseph Denonville Bachand, un des premiers partisans du rapprochement des communautés francophones au-delà des frontières nationales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">La Tribune, Nov. 9, 1938</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Joseph Denonville Bachand est l’un d’eux. Il traverse la frontière canado-américaine en 1902 et établit son cabinet dentaire à Saint-Johnsbury, au Vermont. Bachand soutient les activités en langue française dans son État et demeure en contact avec le Québec. Loin de limiter ses intérêts aux organisations ethniques, il se lance dans une campagne en vue d’obtenir un siège au Sénat de l’État. Les candidats étant nombreux, il n’est pas élu.</p>
<p>Ce n’est que partie remise, car en 1937, Bachand décroche une fonction enviable lorsque le <a href="https://learn.uvm.edu/aiken/about-george-aiken/">gouverneur George Aiken</a> le nomme président de la Commission du commerce extérieur et intérieur du Vermont. Bachand devient l’architecte d’une cérémonie de bonne volonté comme on en a rarement vu dans l’histoire des relations canado-américaines.</p>
<p>Le 12 juin 1938, des fonctionnaires des deux pays se réunissent dans le village de Stanhope, au Québec, situé tout près de la frontière. Ils y inaugurent le monument de la Bonne Entente, une pierre commémorative qui vise à sceller l’amitié et à ouvrir le dialogue entre le Québec et le Vermont. Bachand et Aiken, présents aux côtés de dignitaires québécois, soulignent notamment l’importance de cultiver des intérêts commerciaux communs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Une coupure de journal montrant une autre réunion de « Bonne entente », en août 1938, au Vermont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sherbrooke Daily Record, Aug. 3, 1938</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>La culture comme lien</h2>
<p>Je présume que Bachand, qui se dit le pionnier de la survie culturelle francophone dans le Vermont, a une vision différente de l’événement. Il est convaincu que les immigrants peuvent remplir leurs obligations civiques et contribuer à leur pays d’adoption tout en préservant leur héritage. Les Vermontois anglophones n’accueillent pas cette proposition avec une grande ouverture : beaucoup d’entre eux réclament un <a href="https://vermonthistory.org/journal/71/vt711_205.pdf">américanisme qui efface les cultures minoritaires</a>.</p>
<p>Les Vermontois francophones se trouvent dans une sorte de désert politique et social. Mais Bachand tente de changer les choses. Ses excursions au Québec et son travail pour la cérémonie de bonne volonté de 1938 montrent qu’il considère qu’une relation internationale plus forte, s’appuyant sur des ancrages culturels communs, pourrait assurer la reconnaissance et l’acceptation des Vermontois francophones.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Les efforts de promotion des relations entre francophones de Joseph Denonville Bachand, avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, sont antérieurs à la création de la Francophonie, qui fête son 50e anniversaire en 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rutland, Vermont _Daily Herald_, Jan. 13, 1959</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>L’événement à la frontière ne s’est pas produit en vase clos. Les représentants du Québec et du Vermont commencent à se réunir sur une base annuelle. <a href="https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/view/12036/12880">Les idées continentalistes</a> sont de plus en plus fortes dans les cercles intellectuels des deux côtés de la frontière, mais, au Québec et au Vermont, il y a des raisons de croire qu’une langue commune offre des avantages qui transcendent l’économie.</p>
<p>Malgré l’inauguration du monument de la Bonne Entente, les efforts des francophones sont vite éclipsés par des préoccupations plus vastes et plus urgentes avec le début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Pourtant, lorsque l’Allemagne nazie lance son invasion de la Pologne en 1939, Monsieur Aiken, le gouverneur du Vermont, se trouve encore une fois au nord de la frontière canadienne avec son <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_du_Qu%C3%A9bec">« lieutenant québécois »</a>. Bien que l’intégration continentale se poursuive lentement pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les initiatives de moindre envergure sont reléguées au second plan.</p>
<h2>Vers une nouvelle Francophonie</h2>
<p>La vision culturelle de Bachand reste inachevée lorsqu’il se retire de la vie publique en 1959. Il meurt en mars 1970, trois jours avant la création de l’Agence de coopération culturelle et technique, et quelques années avant un renouveau de l’affirmation ethnique dans les communautés franco-américaines. Il est alors une figure oubliée.</p>
<p>Depuis ce jour, de nouveaux pionniers ont utilisé la langue française pour jeter des ponts par-delà les frontières sous toutes leurs formes. Le mouvement souverainiste québécois <a href="https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/74/">a inspiré certains Franco-Américains</a> à agir localement pour la préservation de leur patrimoine. Plus récemment, des habitants du Maine <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/03/27/521648929/in-maine-a-common-language-connects-french-canadians-african-immigrants">ont tendu la main à des immigrants africains</a> et les ont accueillis dans leur langue. Il y a trois ans, la ville de Burlington, au Vermont, a reçu des représentants du Québec <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/cas/vermontresearch/francoconnexions">lors d’une conférence</a> où on a su conjuguer le commerce et la culture.</p>
<p>Lors de cet événement, le procureur général du Vermont, T.J. Donovan, a rappelé aux participants que la marginalisation que les Franco-Américains ont connue à une certaine époque avait refait surface, mais cette fois, avec d’autres groupes minoritaires comme cibles. Le vent du nativisme souffle à nouveau sur le monde, évoquant la montée des mouvements racistes d’avant la guerre dont Bachand a été témoin.</p>
<p>Le monde francophone a l’occasion aujourd’hui de se trouver un nouveau rôle et de prendre une distance avec le néocolonialisme et l’homogénéisation culturelle. À partir d’un désert social et des franges du monde francophone, l’œuvre de Bachand nous fait voir la valeur de l’action individuelle et d’un dévouement assidu pour transcender les frontières.</p>
<p>Les langues et l’enseignement des langues sont des outils puissants menant à la <a href="http://querythepast.com/journee-de-la-francophonie-exeter-nh/">compréhension mutuelle</a>, à la bonne entente. Les gens peuvent et doivent réclamer ce pouvoir, quelle que soit leur langue préférée. Aujourd’hui, plus que jamais depuis les années 1940, le dialogue entre les personnes de bonne volonté doit compléter et modeler les préoccupations du pouvoir étatique.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134364/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Lacroix ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>En ce mois du 50ᵉ anniversaire de la Francophonie, il est temps de réfléchir à l'histoire inédite des connexions françaises à travers la frontière canado-américaine.Patrick Lacroix, Instructor in History, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1335682020-03-22T12:21:21Z2020-03-22T12:21:21ZOn its 50th anniversary, the Francophonie can find new purpose despite mixed legacy<p>Fifty years ago, on March 20, 1970, the representatives of 22 countries met in Niamey, Niger, to form the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique, an international body dedicated to dialogue among French-speaking nations. The agency’s goals and structures shifted over time until in 2005 it became the present-day <a href="https://www.francophonie.org/">Organisation internationale de la Francophonie</a>.</p>
<p>March 20 marks Francophonie Day and March itself is <em>le mois de la Francophonie</em>. But these opportunities to celebrate a shared language and cultural dialogue come with baggage. </p>
<p>Some observers see in La Francophonie <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/19/emmanuel-macron-challenged-over-attitude-to-frances-former-colonies">a form of neocolonialism</a> that has helped to protect France’s international influence and promoted metropolitan French culture at the expense of local inflections. Even in North America, France is active in supporting Francophonie events; Québec, too, has used language <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2019.1650785">to assert political influence</a> beyond its borders since the 1970s.</p>
<p>The Francophonie may have a mixed legacy but there is no need to reject its principles wholesale. By looking at grassroots efforts led by determined individuals — in Vermont, no less — we can de-emphasize the France-centric qualities of the Francophonie. That way, we might foster good will and dialogue in an increasingly bordered world.</p>
<h2>Immigration and ‘bonne entente’, or good will</h2>
<p>In eastern North America, French has thoroughly transcended political boundaries. After 1840, French Canadians <a href="https://iehs.org/transplantation-of-french-canada-challenging-immigration-history/">emigrated from Lower Canada</a> (later Québec) to the United States in ever-rising numbers — likely more than a million over the course of a century. In the northeast, they built distinct cultural institutions that would ensure the permanence of their ethnic identity.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1226&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1226&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321773/original/file-20200319-22632-1fh8t9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1226&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joseph Denonville Bachand, an early proponent of bridging French communities past national borders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(La Tribune, Nov. 9, 1938)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Enter Joseph Denonville Bachand who, in 1902, crossed the Canada-U.S. border and established his dental practice in St. Johnsbury, Vt. Bachand supported French-language endeavours in his state and continually reached back to Québec. Far from confining his interests to ethnic organizations, he launched a campaign for a state senate seat. He ultimately lost the primary in a crowded field.</p>
<p>Still, Bachand’s moment came. In 1937, he obtained his long-desired sinecure when <a href="https://learn.uvm.edu/aiken/about-george-aiken/">Governor George Aiken</a> appointed him chairman of the Vermont Commission of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Bachand became the lead architect of a good will ceremony whose likes had been few in the history of Canada-U.S. relations.</p>
<p>On June 12, 1938, public officials from both countries gathered in the rural hamlet of Stanhope, Que., located in sight of the international border. There they dedicated the <em>Monument de la Bonne Entente</em> (Good Will Monument), a stone marker that cemented renewed dialogue and friendship between Québec and Vermont. Bachand and Aiken were present alongside Québec dignitaries. The Vermont delegates in particular noted the importance of cultivating shared commercial interests.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321775/original/file-20200319-22602-1mauw6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A newspaper clipping showing another ‘good will’ meeting, this one held in Vermont in August 1938.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sherbrooke Daily Record, Aug. 3, 1938)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connecting through culture</h2>
<p>I presume that Bachand, who called himself <em>the</em> pioneer of French cultural survival in Vermont, saw the event differently. He lived out the belief that immigrants could fulfill their civic obligations and contribute to their adoptive country while retaining their heritage. Anglo-Vermonters did not meet that proposition with perfect equanimity: many demanded <a href="https://vermonthistory.org/journal/71/vt711_205.pdf">an Americanism that erased minority cultures</a>. French Vermonters remained in something of a political and social wilderness — as Bachand himself had been.</p>
<p>He hoped to change that. His excursions to Québec and his work on the good-will ceremony of 1938 suggested that a stronger international relationship, growing from shared cultural anchors, might ensure the recognition and acceptance of French Vermonters.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321776/original/file-20200319-22627-1kckykl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A stalwart of Francophone relations, Joseph Denonville Bachand’s work prior the Second World War pre-dated the Francophonie, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Rutland Vermont Daily Herald, Jan. 13, 1959)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The event at the border did not occur in a vacuum. Representatives from Québec and Vermont had begun to meet on an annual basis. <a href="https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/view/12036">Continentalist sentiments</a> were growing in intellectual circles on both sides of the boundary line. But, in Québec and Vermont, there was reason to believe that a shared idiom could yield benefits that would transcend economics.</p>
<p>Despite the dedication of the <em>Monument de la Bonne Entente</em>, those efforts were overtaken by larger, more urgent concerns, namely the Second World War. Yet, when Nazi Germany launched its invasion of Poland the following year, Vermont Governor Aiken was again north of the border in Canada with his “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_lieutenant">Québec lieutenant</a>.” Though continental integration continued slowly during the Second World War, smaller efforts were overshadowed by the conflict.</p>
<h2>Towards a new Francophonie</h2>
<p>Bachand’s cultural vision was left incomplete as he retired from public life in 1959. He died in March 1970, three days before the creation of the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique, and a few years before a revival of ethnic affirmation in Franco-American communities. He was already a forgotten figure.</p>
<p>Since then, new pioneers have used the French language to build bridges across borders in all of their forms. Québec’s sovereignty movement <a href="https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/74/">inspired some Franco-Americans</a> to act locally for the preservation of their own heritage. More recently, some have <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/03/27/521648929/in-maine-a-common-language-connects-french-canadians-african-immigrants">reached out to African immigrants</a> in Maine and welcomed them in their own tongue. Three years ago, Burlington, Vt., hosted Québec officials at <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/cas/vermontresearch/french-connections-franconnexions">an event</a> that seamlessly blended commerce and culture.</p>
<p>At that event, Vermont Attorney General T. J. Donovan reminded attendees that the historic marginalization of Franco-Americans has reappeared, now with other minority groups as targets. The winds of nativism are again sweeping around the globe, a dark reminder of the pre-war wall-building that Bachand witnessed.</p>
<p>The francophone world now has an opportunity to find renewed purpose and to break with difficult questions about neocolonialism and cultural homogenization. From a social wilderness and the supposed margins of the francophone world, Bachand’s work points to the value of individual agency and relentless dedication to bridging borders.</p>
<p>Language and language education are powerful pathways to <a href="http://querythepast.com/journee-de-la-francophonie-exeter-nh/">mutual understanding</a>, to <em>bonne entente</em>; people can and should reclaim that power, whatever their preferred tongue. Now, more than at any time since the 1940s, there must be dialogue between people of good will to complement and mould the concerns of state power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Lacroix does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On the month of the Francophonie’s 50th anniversary, it’s time to think about the untold story of French connections across the Canada-U.S. borderPatrick Lacroix, Instructor in History, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1187962019-06-20T22:26:37Z2019-06-20T22:26:37ZWhy Canada’s single-use plastic ban could help the environment and wildlife<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280027/original/file-20190618-118535-1vvd5w4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=140%2C59%2C4780%2C3209&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plastics at a recycling depot in North Vancouver, B.C. in June 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canada recently announced a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/plastics-ban-trudeau-mckenna-1.5168828">ban on single-use plastics</a>. Items like straws, cotton swabs, drink stirrers and Styrofoam fast-food containers and cups will be banned by 2021. </p>
<p>But even as the list of countries that have made similar pledges grows, including all those in the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/eu-parliament-backs-ban-on-single-use-plastic-products/a-48088221">European Union</a>, some researchers have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.02.003">framed the plastic pollution problem as a distraction</a> that undermines action on more severe planetary threats such as climate change and biodiversity loss. </p>
<p>As researchers who study plastic pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss, we feel that we simply do not have the luxury of tackling environmental issues one at a time. We need continued momentum on all fronts to address the growing list of threats to planetary health.</p>
<h2>First steps towards a circular economy</h2>
<p>Growing concern about plastic pollution has led to ground-breaking, global agreements. Canada, Italy, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the European Union signed on to the <a href="https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/G7-leaders-sign-plastics-pledge/96/i25">Ocean Plastics Charter at the G7</a> in 2017, in Charlevoix, Que., pledging to find ways to curb plastic pollution. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-international-plastics-treaty-could-avert-a-silent-spring-for-our-seas-90990">An international plastics treaty could avert a 'Silent Spring' for our seas</a>
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<p>Now, in addition to banning single-use plastic items, the federal government wants companies that manufacture plastic products to take <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2019/06/10/canada-ban-harmful-single-use-plastics-and-hold-companies-responsible-plastic-waste">responsibility for recycling their plastic waste</a>. The latest announcement by Canada is part of a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/eu-parliament-backs-ban-on-single-use-plastic-products/a-48088221">global movement</a> to address the worldwide plastic pollution problem. </p>
<p>Although phasing out avoidable single-use plastics will not eliminate all plastic pollution, it is an essential first step. Replacing single-use plastics, many of which are not recyclable, with better alternatives will be an important part of building a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.02.014">circular economy</a>. </p>
<p>Better management of plastic waste is another important part of the solution. Recent <a href="http://www.basel.int/Implementation/LegalMatters/BanAmendment/Overview/tabid/1484/Default.aspx">amendments to the Basel Convention</a> have established a legally binding framework that will improve the capacity of approximately 180 countries to prevent, minimize and properly manage marine plastic litter, for the benefit of the environment and human health. Given that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.03.036">80 per cent to 90 per cent of marine plastic litter comes from land-based sources</a>, reducing waste generation at its source and improving waste management is a big step in the right direction.</p>
<h2>Not a distraction</h2>
<p>Some researchers have criticized attention to the plastic pollution problem, calling the issue a distraction from other global threats. But a decision to tackle plastic pollution does not limit our ability to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103552">also fight climate change and biodiversity loss</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280034/original/file-20190618-118539-1g3xcct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280034/original/file-20190618-118539-1g3xcct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280034/original/file-20190618-118539-1g3xcct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280034/original/file-20190618-118539-1g3xcct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280034/original/file-20190618-118539-1g3xcct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280034/original/file-20190618-118539-1g3xcct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280034/original/file-20190618-118539-1g3xcct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plastics wind up in waterways, lakes and oceans — and may be ingested by fish, birds and other animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/snemann2/7825968422">Bo Eide/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>There is no evidence to support a claim that global efforts to address plastic pollution have undermined progress made on other issues. Given current international agreements in place to address these important global environmental threats — the Paris Agreement and Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Targets — it is unlikely that governments will be seen to fulfil their environmental obligations simply by phasing out avoidable plastics. </p>
<p>Strategies to address plastic pollution can help to fight climate change and biodiversity loss, indirectly. <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/science.1260352">Stemming the flow of plastics into the environment</a> will reduce biodiversity loss of the more than <a href="https://litterbase.awi.de/interaction_graph">2,000 species</a> that have ingested plastic, become entangled in it or had their habitats smothered by it.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-teen-scientist-helped-me-discover-tons-of-golf-balls-polluting-the-ocean-109769">A teen scientist helped me discover tons of golf balls polluting the ocean</a>
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<p>Plastic is derived from petroleum, and its incineration contributes to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.04.260">greenhouse gas emissions</a>. Greenhouse gas emissions from plastics could reach <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0459-z">15 per cent of the global carbon budget by 2050</a> if current plastic production trends continue. In Europe, plastic production and the incineration of plastic waste emits <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2018:28:FIN">an estimated 400 million tonnes of CO2 per year</a>. Reducing production of new plastics will reduce plastic pollution — and curb greenhouse gas emissions. </p>
<p>Finally, improved awareness by the public about how plastics can impact wildlife and ecosystems can <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-shouldnt-be-a-straw-man-environmentalist-100303">increase awareness about other global threats</a> and helps highlight the underlying causes of overconsumption of natural resources by a rapidly growing global population. It is clear that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.10.001">increased public awareness of plastic pollution</a> has helped motivate government responses to changes in policy to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.02.048">mitigate plastic pollution</a>.</p>
<h2>Keeping threats in perspective</h2>
<p>It is important to keep global planetary threats in perspective. However, it is counterproductive to pit one issue against another. </p>
<p>Rather than debating over how to share allocations of the funding pie, we ought to collectively argue for why emerging issues should be met with additional resources.</p>
<p>The actions by governments, corporations and individuals to mitigate and manage plastic pollution should be applauded, rather than framed as a distraction. Plastic may be convenient, but there is nothing convenient about plastic pollution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Robert Walker receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Mallory receives funding from many organizations, notably from Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, for a variety of projects including plastics in wildlife, hydrocarbons and other contaminants in wildlife, effects of fisheries bycatch on birds, effects of agricultural activities on bird colony size and distribution, mobility and levels of toxic metals in natural and artificial wetlands, land use practices and upland bird populations, etc. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Avery-Gomm works for Environment and Climate Change Canada. In the past, she has received funding from the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada for research related to plastic ingestion in seabirds. </span></em></p>The global focus on plastic pollution isn’t a distraction from other planetary issues.Tony Robert Walker, Assistant Professor, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie UniversityMark Mallory, Professor, Department of Biology, Acadia UniversityStephanie Avery-Gomm, PhD candidate, School of Biological Sciences, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/925622018-07-31T21:57:31Z2018-07-31T21:57:31ZAll-you-can-eat landfill buffet spells trouble for birds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228120/original/file-20180717-44103-ln4lbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A research study found that most of the debris in gulls' stomachs is plastic -- exposing the birds to high levels of chemical contaminants and potentially limiting their reproductive success. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among all the types of waste we generate, plastic tends to pose the greatest problems.</p>
<p>Plastic has helped save lives — in the form of medical equipment, for example. But plastic has also become common in places where it is unnecessary. Do we really need disposable cups, knives, straws and forks? </p>
<p>These single-use products lay scattered across my university campus and drift throughout the city. Once in the environment, plastics pose chemical and physical risks to marine and terrestrial environments — and the animals that live there. These risks can be seen in marine birds like gulls.</p>
<p>Gulls are common birds that are often found in places where there is also plastic waste, hence they are good indicators of debris. Most previous gull studies have not looked closely at what types of debris gulls ingest, and those that have were unclear or inconclusive. </p>
<p>So, last year we decided to take a closer look.</p>
<h2>Urban gulls</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.popsci.com/seagull-garbage-eating-plastic-litter">Our research on debris ingestion</a> focused on gull species that — despite being the main species at landfill sites and urban areas — have not been widely studied. </p>
<p>We studied the stomach contents of 41 birds, belonging to three gull species — Great Black-backed gulls, Herring gulls and Iceland gulls. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229497/original/file-20180726-106496-p1f18i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229497/original/file-20180726-106496-p1f18i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229497/original/file-20180726-106496-p1f18i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229497/original/file-20180726-106496-p1f18i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229497/original/file-20180726-106496-p1f18i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229497/original/file-20180726-106496-p1f18i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229497/original/file-20180726-106496-p1f18i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Herring gulls are generalists when it comes to food. They eat fish, but also eggs and garbage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>The majority of the 284 pieces of debris we picked out of the gulls’ stomachs were plastic (59 per cent). They were larger and heavier than the debris seen in other studies, possibly due to the bird’s proximity to an urban area. Because <a href="https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.hergul.03">gulls can regurgitate indigestible items</a>, it’s possible that the birds had eaten more debris than we found. </p>
<p>The debris ranged from pellets the size of a needle point to whole pieces of plastic such as a cheese wrapper, or other debris such as glass. The majority were single-use items.</p>
<h2>Plastic effects</h2>
<p>Despite the plastic, glass and cardboard products they had ingested, the birds in our study appeared to be in reasonably good health. </p>
<p>However, other gull studies have found that eating garbage can <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.1675/063.039.sp105">limit the bird’s reproductive success</a>. Among gulls, garbage consumption has been linked to <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/15092-plastic-seabirds-albatross-australia/">poor egg quality and lower hatching and growth</a> success of chicks. </p>
<p>Even though gulls have the ability to regurgitate materials, they may be exposed to high levels of chemical contaminants such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-dipper-our-canary-in-the-coal-mine-for-polluted-rivers-26068">polychlorinated biphenyls</a> absorbed by plastics from the environment, or <a href="https://www.popsci.com/bpa-free-plastic-bad-for-human-health#page-2">bisphenol A</a> an organic synthetic compound often in plastic products. </p>
<p>These compounds cause <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1675/063.039.sp115">egg mortality</a>, can lead to the birth of a greater proportion of female birds and contribute to decline in bird populations. </p>
<p>Other birds, including albatross, cannot regurgitate indigestible debris. The material can become lodged in their digestive tracts and obstruct the passage of food. This can lead to poor health, poor reproductive success and even death. </p>
<h2>Refuse, re-use</h2>
<p>As long as waste-management facilities are readily available and accessible, debris will continue to end up in natural environments. </p>
<p>The open access aspect of landfill facilities allows for lightweight debris to spread, entering water bodies and causing further debris exposure for marine species. Through this exposure, birds like gulls are able to swallow plastic debris or become entangled in it. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-clean-up-our-universal-plastic-tragedy-98565">How to clean up our universal plastic tragedy</a>
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<p>Improving landfill facilities is only one part of several necessary changes. Individuals also need to make more environmentally conscious choices. </p>
<p>We can buy fewer plastic products or items in plastic packaging. We can also refuse single-use disposable plastic items such as straws, plastic bags, Styrofoam containers and so on.</p>
<p>These seemingly insignificant decisions would collectively visibly reduce plastic waste and our overall garbage footprint — and put less waste into landfills and into the mouths of birds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Seagulls have no qualms about sifting through dumps for scraps. But this buffet comes at a cost, filling their stomachs with plastic, glass, metal and even building materials.Sahar Seif, Undergraduate Student, Carleton UniversityJennifer Provencher, Postdoctoral fellow, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.