tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/trent-university-1693/articlesTrent University2023-11-23T21:59:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2177642023-11-23T21:59:03Z2023-11-23T21:59:03ZRevisiting the Williams Treaties of 1923: Anishinaabeg perspectives after a century<p>One hundred years ago this November, the governments of Canada and Ontario signed treaties with <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/williams-treaties">First Nations of the Chippewa of Lake Simcoe (Beausoleil, Georgina Island and Rama) and the Mississauga of the north shore of Lake Ontario (Alderville, Curve Lake, Hiawatha and Scugog Island)</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100029000/1564415701529">The Williams Treaties (1923)</a>, also known as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gtjUUTCJVQ">the Williams Treaty</a> (named after <a href="https://grasac.artsci.utoronto.ca/?p=2169#">Angus S. Williams</a>, the provincial negotiator) pertained to over 20,000 square kilometers of land in exchange for a one-time cash payment of $25 per person. </p>
<p>Since then, the signatories have shared how they were forced to <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1542370282768/1542370308434">sign the treaties, without lawyers, during one-day negotiations, and never were told about the loss of hunting and fishing rights</a>. </p>
<p>Oral histories from treaty educator <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2018/11/21/williams-treaty-settlement-looks-huge-in-headlines/">Maurice Switzer,</a> and former Alderville chief and community historian <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl9nRtPslM4&t=1s">Dave Mowat</a> now consider the Williams Treaties as <a href="http://education.historicacanada.ca/files/104/Treaties_Printable_Pages.pdf">being among</a> the worst treaties in Canadian history.</p>
<p>A 2018 <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/williams-treaty-reconciliation-1.4910558">agreement between the Williams Treaties First Nations and the governments of Ontario and Canada</a> settled <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/lament-for-a-first-nation">litigation about land claims and harvesting rights</a> in the region. But the seven First Nations continue to grapple with the legacy of empty promises and ongoing questions.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560565/original/file-20231120-28-p42dv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map with varied colour zones showing a roughly pacman-shaped periwinkle area representing Williams Treaties territory surrounded by blue areas to the left and bottom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560565/original/file-20231120-28-p42dv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560565/original/file-20231120-28-p42dv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560565/original/file-20231120-28-p42dv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560565/original/file-20231120-28-p42dv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560565/original/file-20231120-28-p42dv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560565/original/file-20231120-28-p42dv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560565/original/file-20231120-28-p42dv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Williams Treaties areas seen in periwinkle blue colour, extending from the left side of the map, at Georgian Bay, and from the bottom of the map, at Lake Ontario. Detail from ‘First Nations and Treaties’ Ontario government map.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://files.ontario.ca/iao_community_wall_map_en_2019-08.pdf">(Government of Ontario)</a></span>
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<h2>Includes some Greenbelt lands</h2>
<p>The Williams Treaties cover <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1360941656761/1544619778887">lands between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River, and along the shore of Lake Ontario up to Lake Simcoe</a>.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the seven Williams Treaties First Nations again asserted that lands will continue to be protected <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/chiefs-of-ontario-greenbelt-vote-1.6949826">despite the provincial government’s plan to develop the Greenbelt,</a> which overlaps in the southern parts of the territory. </p>
<p>Chief of Alderville First Nation, Taynar Simpson, explained the cultural importance of these lands, and that development could “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/chiefs-of-ontario-greenbelt-vote-1.6949826">damage water systems and wetlands that supply groundwater, reduce flood risks and improve climate resilience</a>.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘In Our Words - Williams Treaty’ video from First Nations, Métis & Inuit Education Association of Ontario.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Encroaching on Indigenous lands</h2>
<p>When the Williams Treaties were signed in 1923, the impacts of colonization had already existed in Anishinaabeg territory for more than a century. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontarios-long-term-report-economy/chapter-1-demographic-trends-and-projections">wave of new settlement</a> had already encroached onto Indigenous lands in central Ontario and both the <a href="https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/selective-cuttings/68">forestry</a> and <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/history-ontario-mining-and-lands-commissioner">mining industries</a> had already started operations. </p>
<p>The punishing aspects of the <a href="http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_indian_act/">Indian Act</a>, which included the creation of new reserves, and the implementation of residential and Indian Day Schools, had already existed in this region for decades. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ahtwp.ca/en/explore-and-play/resources/Documents/Alderville-School.pdf">Alderville Manual Training School (later Residential</a>) was first opened in 1836 and numerous other <a href="http://www.indiandayschools.org/">Indian Day Schools existed throughout all seven Williams Treaties First Nations</a>.</p>
<h2>Impacts on lands, <em>manoomin</em>, animals</h2>
<p>These restrictive policies were coupled with a complete reconstruction of Anishinaabek traditional lands and waterways. Through the building of the <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/glep/article/19/3/16/14962/En-gendering-Shoreline-Law-Nishnaabeg-Relational">Trent-Severn waterway, thousands of acres of manoomin (wild rice) were destroyed</a>. </p>
<p>Overharvesting of these regions by settlers resulted in the extirpation of key animals such as <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/fish-management-history">salmon and eels,</a> the extinction of the <a href="https://digitaleditions.library.dal.ca/environmentalscience/chapter/chapter-27-the-biodiversity-crisis/">passenger pigeon, and massive declines in wild turkey populations</a>.</p>
<h2>Continued practise of ways of life</h2>
<p>Under these pressures, the Anishinaabeg communities continued to practise their ways of life and challenged the treaty continually in court. </p>
<p>As Elder <a href="https://www.trentu.ca/news/story/38505">Doug Williams-Ban</a> from Curve Lake First Nation has explained: “<a href="https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/williams-treaty-settlement-looks-huge-in-headlines/article_ca41e002-ac17-59fe-869d-4ccd83d45a95.html">One of our favourite tricks was to plan our fishing expeditions for Saturday nights – we knew the game wardens would be watching Hockey Night in Canada!”</a> </p>
<p>By 1994, the Supreme Court in <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1138/index.do">R. v. Howard</a> ruled that a Hiawatha First Nation man could be charged for fishing out of season as his harvesting rights had been “extinguished” in the 1923 treaty.</p>
<h2>Williams Treaties Settlement, 2018</h2>
<p>In 2018, the Williams Treaties First Nations and the governments of Ontario and Canada came to a final agreement, settling litigation about land claims and harvesting rights in the region. </p>
<p>The 2018 agreement saw governments of Ontario and Canada <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/williams-treaty-reconciliation-1.4910558">apologize and</a> say: <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2018/11/21/williams-treaty-settlement-looks-huge-in-headlines/">“We are sorry … continued injustices provided insufficient compensation and inadequate reserve lands … and failed to recognize and protect your treaty rights</a>.”</p>
<p>The collective Williams Treaties First Nations approved a <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1542370282768/1542370308434">proposed $1.1 billion settlement</a>. The settlement amounted to approximately <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2018/11/21/williams-treaty-settlement-looks-huge-in-headlines/">$85 per acre for land surrendered under the Williams Treaties of 1923</a>. The value of the land during the settlement was between $10,000-15,000. </p>
<p>The agreement outlined four key areas: recognition of pre-existing treaty harvesting rights, financial compensation <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/crown-indigenous-relations-northern-affairs/news/2018/09/canada-ontario-and-williams-treaties-first-nations-reach-negotiated-settlement-agreement-for-alderville-litigation.html">($666 million from Canada and $444 million from Ontario), the opportunity to acquire additional reserve lands (plus the apology)</a>.</p>
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<h2>Family lineage of 1923</h2>
<p>Co-author Jackson Pind’s own great aunt, Ruby Marsden Hicks, was 95 years old and the oldest person from Alderville who received the settlement. </p>
<p>She said “<a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2018/11/21/williams-treaty-settlement-looks-huge-in-headlines/">it was a long time coming … and would have really helped Ma and Pa</a>.” </p>
<p>She remembers that her father, Moses Muskrat Marsden, was there in November 1923 when the Williams Treaties were signed in Alderville. He had said, <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2018/11/21/williams-treaty-settlement-looks-huge-in-headlines/">“The Indians only wanted to know if they would still have their hunting and fishing rights</a> and when they were told they would, they signed.”</p>
<h2>Ongoing questions</h2>
<p>However, the restoration of harvesting rights has caused confusion among members of the Williams Treaties First Nations. </p>
<p>Before the settlement, a status member of the seven Williams Treaties First Nations could hunt and fish on reserve lands or within 50 feet of the “Indian Islands,” established under the islands of the [Trent Treaty of 1856 (Treaty #78)].
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luC8j5qWJlU&t=15s&pp=ygUUZG91ZyB3aWxsaWFtcyB0cmVhdHk%3D">For the Anishinaabek who occupied the north shore of Lake Ontario</a>, that included thousands <a href="https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/ALGQP/article/view/1115">of islands in all the rivers and tributaries</a> that flowed into Lake Ontario. </p>
<p>The settlement’s terms, <a href="https://georginaisland.com/williams-treaty-first-nation-harvesting-rights/">aimed at protecting fish during spawning season, restrict harvesting in these sanctuaries</a>. These sanctuaries are significant historical gathering spots for ceremonial, practical and political activities. </p>
<p>The agreement doesn’t extend harvesting rights beyond pre-existing treaty areas. First Nations harvesting is <a href="https://vitacollections.ca/kl-digitalarchive/3730175/image/4599929">limited to areas up to Silent Lake Provincial Park (Treaty 20)</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Chippewas of Rama First Nation video, Williams Treaties Settlement Agreement Signing Ceremony, Nov. 17, 2018.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Nations incurring tax expenses</h2>
<p>The financial compensation was divided equally among the seven Williams Treaties First Nations, with a portion distributed to members and the rest retained for infrastructure development or land acquisition. </p>
<p>To add new lands, First Nations must navigate the lengthy <a href="https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1465827292799/1611938828195">“Additions to Reserve” (ATR) process</a>, which can take up to 25 years. </p>
<p>The settlement allows for the addition of 11,000 acres to each First Nation’s reserve, but they must first purchase these lands and then undergo a sped-up, five-year ATR process. During this time, the First Nations incur tax expenses on these large land parcels. They indirectly return funds to the governments responsible for treaty malpractice.</p>
<h2>Grappling with legacies</h2>
<p>These communities continue to call on the provincial government to adequately consult <a href="https://tworowtimes.com/news/national/chiefs-of-ontario-demand-return-of-all-removed-greenbelt-land-parcels/">Williams Treaties First Nations when making important decisions on their lands</a>, in the Greenbelt and beyond.</p>
<p>Reflecting on this treaty history, one can imagine that if our great-grandparents truly understood the full implications of their 1923 agreements, they might have chosen to reject the documents that have continually dispossessed their great grandchildren from their ancestral lands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackson Pind receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Hoggarth has previously received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He is affiliated with Curve Lake First Nation and Kawartha Nishnawbe First Nation.</span></em></p>Seven Williams Treaties First Nations continue to call on the provincial government to adequately consult them when making important decisions on their lands in the Greenbelt and beyond.Jackson Pind, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Methodologies, Chanie Wenjack School of Indigenous Studies, Trent UniversityJack Hoggarth, Chair, Anishinaabeg Knowledge and Assistant Professor at Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2167042023-11-06T22:23:20Z2023-11-06T22:23:20ZSarah Jama’s censure: Making people feel uncomfortable is part of the job<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/sarah-jamas-censure-making-people-feel-uncomfortable-is-part-of-the-job" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Sarah Jama, a member of the Ontario legislature for Hamilton Centre, recently faced <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/hamilton-mpp-kicked-out-of-ndp-caucus-censured-by-legislature">censure</a> from Doug Ford’s Conservative government. She was also <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/what-to-know-about-sarah-jama-s-censure-and-ejection-from-ndp-1.6614953">removed from the Ontario NDP caucus</a> by her own party.</p>
<p>The NDP’s disciplinary response and the removal of her from caucus cannot be separated from the current climate. It is right in the middle of a nationwide <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/combatting-islamophobia-canada/canada-special-representative-combatting-islamophobia/statement-meeting-prime-minister-canada-rise-islamophobia-protecting-civil-liberties.html">Islamophobic backlash</a>, where scores of others are also experiencing a wide range of institutional discipline. </p>
<p>Jama’s <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahJama_/status/1711808190889746854">social media statement, released three days after the Hamas attack on Israel</a>, sparked the disciplinary action. In her statement, she called on Canada to “hold true to its history of peacemaking and refrain from military intervention.” She referred to Israel’s siege of Gaza and subsequent bombardment. She also referred to an analysis by the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories calling Israel’s occupation apartheid. Her statement left out any mention of the Hamas attack on Israeli people on Oct. 7. Jama posted an apology for her omission on social media about 24 hours later and condemned Hamas. </p>
<p>But this wasn’t enough for the Progressive Conservative government, who put forward a motion the next week to censure her.</p>
<h2>Controversy is nothing new</h2>
<p>For Jama, a Black disabled Muslim woman of Somali heritage, controversy is nothing new. </p>
<p>As Jama has said: <a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/hamilton-activist-sarah-jama-i-make-people-feel-uncomfortable-sometimes/article_47473f58-3b15-58ea-93ab-d0f1bb916230.html">“Mak[ing] people feel uncomfortable”</a> has always been part of her work.</p>
<p>For example, before her role as a member of provincial parliament (MPP), Jama had been actively organizing in Hamilton, addressing issues of <a href="https://breachmedia.ca/sarah-jama-peter-wiesner-hamilton-byelection-police/">homelessness, racial justice and disability rights</a> where she clearly ruffled more than a few feathers.</p>
<p>On the eve of receiving the <a href="https://twitter.com/YWCA_Hamilton/status/1499558902907736064?lang=en">2022 Woman of Distinction award</a>, Jama was gearing to face a police officer <a href="https://breachmedia.ca/sarah-jama-peter-wiesner-hamilton-byelection-police/">who had charged her with assault — a charge that was later withdrawn</a>. </p>
<h2>Climate of Islamophobia</h2>
<p>But in this case, the issue did not go away. Jama’s current story cannot be separated from the current surge in anti-Muslim racism.</p>
<p>To understand this surge, it’s crucial to recognize the influence of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.13169/islastudj.7.2.0232">“Islamophobia Industry”</a> in Canada. Sociologist Jasmin Zine, a noted authority on Islamophobia, delineates this industry as a conglomerate of media outlets, political figures, far-right, white nationalist groups and Islamophobia influencers and ideologues, among others, fostering an environment where harmful stereotypes of Muslims as innately provocative and violent become commonplace. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-islamophobia-and-anti-palestinian-racism-are-manufactured-through-disinformation-216119">How Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are manufactured through disinformation</a>
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<p>This racialization lumps more than a billion Muslims into an undifferentiated mass, exploited by public discourse that sensationalizes violent narratives, devoid of geopolitical context or history. </p>
<p>This disregard of complexity, diversity and historical context in the operation of anti-Muslim racism means violence perpetuated by the likes of Hamas comes to be conflated with all Palestinians, all Arabs and by extension all Muslims. </p>
<p>This simple racist arithmetic, or Islamophobic math, produces horrific outcomes like the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/16/us/chicago-muslim-boy-stabbing-investigation/index.html">targeted killing of a six-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim boy in Illinois</a>.</p>
<p>Here in Canada, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/more-funding-laws-can-stop-anti-muslim-online-hate-from-causing-violence-senators-1.6628242">according to a Statistics Canada report</a>, hate crimes in general are up. Those against Muslims rose 71 per cent in 2021 from the previous year. And the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), has reported a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CywoRQxIPc9/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==">sharp spike in the number of reports they have received regarding Islamophobic incidents</a> these past few weeks (for example, instead of one report per day as they had previously, they are now receiving 13). </p>
<p>Additionally, Jama is a Black woman and it’s also essential to consider the intersecting and uneven nature of racism. According to the 2023 Black Muslim Initiative (BMI) report, written in collaboration with Toronto Metropolitan University, Black Muslim communities in Canada <a href="https://www.torontomu.ca/diversity/news-events/2023/02/socio-economic-review-of-the-black-muslim-population-in-canada/">consistently endure the highest levels of discrimination and exclusion across various sectors</a>, including employment and housing. </p>
<h2>Examples of anti-Black Islamophobia</h2>
<p>Navigating <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-black-history-month-muslim-canadians-1.5897571">the multiple forms of jeopardy faced by Black Muslim women</a> means simultaneously surviving both interpersonal and structural anti-Blackness and Islamophobia. </p>
<p>Anti-Black, hate-motivated Islamophobia is often directed at women. Here are some examples: </p>
<ul>
<li>Dec. 2021: <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7721850/hate-crime-alberta-attacks-black-muslim-women/">two Black Muslim women wearing hijabs</a> were assaulted while shopping in Edmonton. </li>
<li>Dec. 2021: a young Black Muslim woman was attacked at an Edmonton transit station.</li>
<li>March 2021: A <a href="https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/hate-crime-unit-investigating-attack-on-2-muslim-girls-in-calgary-park-1.5356803">Black Muslim teenage girl in Calgary had her hijab torn off</a>, while suffering a violent physical assault. </li>
<li>June 2023: A <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/olive-garden-attack-winnipeg-muslim-community-1.6909638">Black Muslim woman was stabbed while serving patrons at an Olive Garden</a> in Winnipeg. </li>
</ul>
<p>Feminist geographer Délice Mugabo explains: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5749/jcritethnstud.2.2.0159">“anti-Black Islamophobia” is the exclusion of Black people from the category of the human and Muslims from the category of the citizen</a>. Consequently, fidelity to the nation, and constitution as a person is readily up for interrogation. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/csis-targeting-of-canadian-muslims-reveals-the-importance-of-addressing-institutional-islamophobia-199559">CSIS targeting of Canadian Muslims reveals the importance of addressing institutional Islamophobia</a>
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<h2>The trouble ‘they’ cause</h2>
<p>The swift dismissal of people like Jama reaffirms the interlocking dimensions of oppression. Jama’s censure reveals how a Black woman’s assertion of self is commonly read as troublesome: <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/01/the-angry-black-woman-stereotype-at-work">“hostile, aggressive, overbearing.”</a></p>
<p>In the United States, the only Black Muslim woman in Congress is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/02/house-republicans-vote-out-ilhan-omar-foreign-affairs-committee">Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, who faced censorship and removal from the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee</a> for her comments on Israel last year.</p>
<p>In practice, this double jeopardy leaves Black Muslim communities suspended, saddled with heightened vulnerabilities, and often erased from dominant discourses surrounding both anti-Blackness and Islamophobia. </p>
<p>And living as a suspended community means being the first to go, the first to be discarded. There are few grounds available to provoke so called “trouble.” Trouble is disorder, disturbance, violation of expectations, norms and values. As a Black Muslim, you’re already seen as trouble incarnated.</p>
<h2>Interconnected liberation</h2>
<p>However, just as oppression is interconnected, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/nov/05/pro-palestine-protests-take-place-in-cities-around-the-world-video">so is liberation</a>. Jama made her <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/independent-mpp-sarah-jama-addresses-massive-pro-palestinian-protest-in-toronto-we-must-put-an/article_0d6fe1fd-9182-54a1-b964-e3636f1bd523.html">first public appearance at a peace protest this past weekend in Toronto</a>. She addressed tens of thousands of protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.</p>
<p>The on-going <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/nov/05/pro-palestine-protests-take-place-in-cities-around-the-world-video">global demonstrations</a> and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/grand-central-terminal-gaza-ceasefire-rally/">actions</a> are proving to be the grounds where we can bring our troubles, cries, joy and pain. </p>
<p>Hundreds of activists and academics <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/hundreds-of-activists-academics-sign-le%5B%E2%80%A6%5D-sarah-jama/article_20d412e7-30b2-57dc-b468-686137f4eb8d.html">have signed a letter supporting Jama</a> and she has said she will announce her plans to fight her censure on Nov. 14.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216704/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadiya Nur Ali has received funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). She is also affiliated with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). </span></em></p>The response to Sarah Jama’s comments on Gaza highlights the anti-Black and Islamophobic sentiments within Canadian politics.Nadiya N. Ali, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137462023-09-20T20:59:53Z2023-09-20T20:59:53ZAncient pictograph vandalism at Bon Echo Provincial Park reveals an ongoing disregard for Indigenous history and presence<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/ancient-pictograph-vandalism-at-bon-echo-provincial-park-reveals-an-ongoing-disregard-for-indigenous-history-and-presence" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9952855/national-historic-site-bon-echo-provincial-park-mazinaw-pictographs-vandalized/">Vandalism has once again marred the ancient Indigenous pictographs nestled within Bon Echo Provincial Park</a> about two hours west of Ottawa and north of Kingston, Ont.</p>
<p>For the Anishinaabe, these pictographs — <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pictographs-and-petroglyphs">rock paintings</a> — hold profound cultural significance and meaning. They constitute the largest collection of pictographs in southeastern Ontario, on the shores of Mazinaw Lake, or <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mazinaw-rock">Mazinaabikinigan-zaaga’igan, in Algonquin meaning “painted-image lake.”</a> The <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/algonquin">Algonquin people, a subgroup of the Anishinaabe,</a> share historical and cultural connections, each with distinct languages, traditions and territories within the broader Algonquian language family.</p>
<p>The placement of over <a href="https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=348#">260 pictographs on 65 rock faces</a> is imbued with deep purpose and symbolism. </p>
<p>Grand Council Chief Reg Niganobe of the Anishinabek Nation condemned the vandalism, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2023/09/14/anishinabek-nation-responds-to-the-desecration-of-sacred-site-in-bon-echo-provincial-park/">This blatant destruction is a deliberate attempt to further erase our history and deprives us and future generations of rightful access to our spiritual and sacred sites</a>.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a mixed settler and Anishinaabe historian, I teach about this pictograph site, among three other <a href="https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=487">major ancient sites</a> <a href="https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=341">across southern Ontario</a>, which <a href="https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=511#">display the deep connection</a> the Anishinaabe have to their lands. Some pictographs were used by the Anishinaabe to represent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2009-051">clan identities and to sign early treaty documents</a>.</p>
<p>The recent damage inflicted upon the site is heartbreaking <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/mazinaw-rock-bon-echo-indigenous-pictographs-vandalism-1.6970103">and infuriating</a>. It is also a historic pattern that points to the urgent need to generate solutions to protect this site.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A high rock face topped with trees seen next to reflective water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549120/original/file-20230919-19-qhieka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549120/original/file-20230919-19-qhieka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549120/original/file-20230919-19-qhieka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549120/original/file-20230919-19-qhieka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549120/original/file-20230919-19-qhieka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549120/original/file-20230919-19-qhieka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549120/original/file-20230919-19-qhieka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The placement of over 260 pictographs at Mazinaabikinigan-zaaga’igan (Mazinaw Lake) is imbued with deep purpose and symbolism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shinealight/3767638700/in/photolist-5UopD5-PsMW9U-5Uon4b-5Uj36D-5Uj1BP-5Uj4SV-L5Fn5C-L5Fktw-MEfJnN-MEfJNN-2736xJh-28DNKUd-2UJKuf-hgSDS-9rwX46-LQw334-5qrmz9-29EPnuA-hgSDD-L5Fk31-6JW4Jo-hgSCa-KYfZyG-3PteeF-cu86af-e1LTZw-5Uj7ir-JFvGsY-6JW6HN-e52Pih-adK4bb-5UoqBQ-cu87Qu-JFvEsq-cu84Uu-6JW8HW-cu83FC-JHHwfr-JHHD72-GgBT77-KGgHzE-cu815y-6JT4Up-2HLfzM-cZr9Z-N5NLy-6LiWiT-6JS2pK-74hJu4-2HLdgX">(RM images)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>History of vandalism</h2>
<p>While the Anishinaabe have known and cherished the land now claimed by Ontario’s parks system as part of Bon Echo Park for generations, the arrival of settlers marked a significant turning point. </p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/dglFjwLyYw0?si=deKiBVAyn_LhojGr&t=60">Settlers swiftly clear-cut the old-growth timber</a>. Land in the current park eventually was bought by <a href="https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/bon-echo-inn/">Weston Price, who transformed it into the Bon Echo Inn</a>, catering primarily to the affluent. </p>
<p>Subsequently, the inn was bought by <a href="http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/merrill_flora_macdonald_15E.html">Flora MacDonald Denison</a>, a journalist and notable figure <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/flora-macdonald-denison">in women’s suffrage</a> and artistic movements, with her husband, Howard. With her influence, the Bon Echo Inn was re-imagined to be a home for artists, including members of the Group of Seven.</p>
<p>Denison was an admirer of American poet Walt Whitman. <a href="https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/bon-echo-inn/">In 1920</a>, <a href="https://www.frontenacnews.ca/frontenac-150th-anniversary/item/9442-the-big-three-who-shaped-bon-echo-park">she had a Whitman</a> quotation carved on <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/photograph-records/2003-133">Mazinaw Rock, with the title “Old Walt</a>.” I argue that this was the very first form of graffiti — and vandalism — that physically altered this sacred site.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549378/original/file-20230920-19-o6yd6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A carving seen in stone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549378/original/file-20230920-19-o6yd6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549378/original/file-20230920-19-o6yd6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549378/original/file-20230920-19-o6yd6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549378/original/file-20230920-19-o6yd6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549378/original/file-20230920-19-o6yd6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549378/original/file-20230920-19-o6yd6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549378/original/file-20230920-19-o6yd6a.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘Old Walt’ inscription on Mazinaw Rock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Echo_Provincial_Park#/media/File:OLD_WALT_Today.JPG">(Mariusz S. Cybulski)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To the <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2015/05/13/divergence-traditional-aboriginal-spirituality-and-mother-earth/">Anishinaabe, rocks are animate and have spirits</a>, and this carving beside the pictographs demonstrates a lack of respect for Indigenous history. </p>
<p>Eventually, Denison’s son, Merrill Dension, <a href="https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/forever-protected-bon-echo/">donated the lands</a> to the Ontario government which then created <a href="https://www.frontenacnews.ca/frontenac-150th-anniversary/item/9442-the-big-three-who-shaped-bon-echo-park">Bon Echo Provincial Park in 1965</a>.</p>
<h2>Unpacking stories</h2>
<p>Since stories about the park <a href="https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/bon-echo-inn">continue to memorialize the Old Walt inscription</a> without unpacking its problematic history, it’s unsurprising if recent vandals believed there would be no consequences for their actions or these would also go unpunished. </p>
<p>In 2019, representatives <a href="https://www.eganvilleleader.ca/community/plaque-honoring-mazinaw-is-pictograph-unveiled">of Parks Canada and Ontario Parks</a> gathered with Pikwakanagan First Nation officials when the Mazinaw pictographs <a href="https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=348">were designated as a National Historic Site of Canada</a>. </p>
<p>Yet there is much work to do to <a href="https://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques/Plaque_Lennox24.html">address the proliferation</a> of <a href="https://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques/Plaque_Lennox24.html">stories and</a> metaphors of the land shaped by individualism, anthropocentrism and colonialism. </p>
<p>My recent co-authored research chapter “Toward Indigenous Place-Based Metaphors for Environmental History Education,” in <em><a href="https://canadianscholars.ca/book/land-as-relation/">Land as Relation Teaching and Learning through Place, People, and Practices</a></em> is concerned with land-based education in the watershed regions of Lake Ontario, traditionally shared territory between Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe.</p>
<p>Unless a profound transformation occurs, vandalism etched into the very foundation of Bon Echo Park will continue to persist. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1626226723607179268"}"></div></p>
<h2>Working together, proper cultural protocol</h2>
<p>The Anishinabek Nation said it will be seeking to discuss with parks leadership and the province how to <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2023/09/14/anishinabek-nation-responds-to-the-desecration-of-sacred-site-in-bon-echo-provincial-park/">“work together to properly clean the site with the inclusion of proper cultural protocol and involvement from local community Elders and Knowledge Keepers</a>.”</p>
<p>It also recommends “further protection efforts be examined to ensure that this type of vandalism does not happen again.”</p>
<p>I offer three suggestions for consideration towards rectifying this situation, which will require further consultations with Indigenous nations:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Protective perimeter: Erect a protective barrier that prevents boats from directly approaching the pictographs unless prior permission is granted from the local First Nations. </p></li>
<li><p>Remove all graffiti: Erase the graffiti, including the defacement bearing Whitman’s name, which serves as an invitation for others to follow suit. There have been <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian-Wainwright/publication/328968813_Graffiti_plagues_rock_art_sites/links/5bedf62a4585150b2bba0c27/Graffiti-plagues-rock-art-sites.pdf">previous efforts to remove graffiti and hand carvings that defaced Mazinaw Rock</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>Restore stewardship: By entrusting the stewardship of the park to the local Anishinaabek nations, we <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pictographs-and-petroglyphs">can enhance the preservation of</a> these invaluable heritage sites. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Stewardship models</h2>
<p>Many models for restoring Indigenous stewardship in parks now exist: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.heritage-matters.ca/articles/archeological-treasure-in-a-provincial-park">The partnership between Petroglyphs Provincial Park and Curve Lake First Nation</a>. The community of Curve Lake are the primary caretakers of the site and members work in the welcome centre educating visitors about Kinomagewapkong <a href="https://curvelakefirstnation.ca/cultural-centre">or the Teaching Rocks</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>The partnership to jointly operate Mississagi Provincial Park between <a href="https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/industry-news/tourism/first-nations-city-join-forces-to-run-provincial-park-6462553">Serpent River First Nation, Mississauga First Nation and the City of Elliot Lake</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>The province made a 2015 agreement with <a href="https://macfar.ca/case-studies/beausoleil-springwater-park">Beausoleil First Nation to co-manage and operate Springwater Provincial Park</a>; Tidewater Provincial Park is operated under agreement <a href="https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/tidewater">with the Moose Cree First Nation</a>; <a href="http://www.laclacroixfn.ca/mnr">Lac La Croix First Nation</a> is involved in conservation activities and long-term planning of Quetico Provincial Park. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Such models ensure Indigenous representation is a constant presence. All visitors can then learn about the sacred nature of these places from the descendants of the original stewards. To safeguard Indigenous history, we must invest the necessary resources to protect sacred sites for the benefit of future generations. </p>
<p>I have fond memories of paddling by the pictographs and also hiking to the top of Mazinaw Rock before this recent vandalism. Bon Echo will undoubtedly remain a summer paradise for camping, hiking and canoeing, but its deeper spiritual, cultural and Anishinaabe connections can only endure if we actively commit to their protection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackson Pind receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>The deeper spiritual, cultural and Anishinaabe connections at Bon Echo Park can only endure if we actively commit to their protection.Jackson Pind, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Methodologies, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2095722023-08-31T22:28:00Z2023-08-31T22:28:00ZHow analyzing ancient and modern polar bear samples reveals the full scope of global warming<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545815/original/file-20230831-3676-ueot5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5061%2C3239&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Analyzing samples of polar bears can reveal not only what they ate but also the food web during their lives. Polar bears pictured live in captivity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ronald Zak)</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/how-analyzing-ancient-and-modern-polar-bear-samples-reveals-the-full-scope-of-global-warming" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The global climate is changing and the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/">Arctic is warming rapidly</a>. These are objectively true statements that most people have come to accept. </p>
<p>But it is also true that <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/#:%7E:text=Earth's%20climate%20has%20changed%20throughout%20history.,era%20%E2%80%94%20and%20of%20human%20civilization.">Earth’s climate has never been stagnant</a> and climate anomalies have been frequent throughout the past. </p>
<p>How then, do we understand our current situation relative to past climate shifts? Are the impacts of modern climate change comparable to those of the medieval warm period (MWP) or the little ice age (LIA)? </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213305423000309">recently published study in <em>Anthropocene</em></a> demonstrates a much more substantial impact to polar bears resulting from recent climate change compared to observations over the last 4,000 years. This suggests that current climatic changes are, indeed, unprecedented in human history.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arctic-report-card-2022-the-arctic-is-getting-rainier-and-seasons-are-shifting-with-broad-disturbances-for-people-ecosystems-and-wildlife-196254">Arctic Report Card 2022: The Arctic is getting rainier and seasons are shifting, with broad disturbances for people, ecosystems and wildlife</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ecosystem background</h2>
<p>Predators at the top of the food chain, like polar bears, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4612-3498-2_12">reflect changes across the entire ecosystem</a>, all the way down to microscopic algae. </p>
<p>In the Arctic, the base of the food web is sourced from two categories: sea ice-associated algae and open-water phytoplankton, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s003000050311">which are distinguishable</a> through their carbon isotopes. </p>
<p>In our study area — centred on Lancaster Sound in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago — the food web is fed by a combination of both sea ice algae and phytoplankton. We can assess the relative importance of these two sources through the stable isotopes incorporated into the tissues of animals. </p>
<p>The relative abundance of carbon isotopes does not change as they are transferred through the food web, so these isotopes tell us about <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0016703778901990">the carbon sources</a> at the base of the food web. <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1890/0012-9658(2002)083%5B0703:USITET%5D2.0.CO;2?casa_token=q3M0nAeb-1EAAAAA:p92TARKS7YYyUbX1G0S0YUVN31DqA99kLhmtsC2m178YoxEDkb6olrt_Kcjp5AtTqmvB0i4wKtUa">Nitrogen isotopes do change</a> as they are passed up the food chain, which tells us who is eating whom.</p>
<h2>Results from our study</h2>
<p>In our study we examined stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in polar bear bone collagen. </p>
<p>The polar bears were all from the Lancaster Sound sub-population and spanned the last 4,000 years. We acquired samples of modern polar bear (1998-2007) obtained through hunting and we were able to compare them to samples from archaeological excavations conducted in the region. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1zRGzlWqce4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">National Geographic overview of the life-cycle and eating habits of polar bears.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The span of time captured by the archaeological samples was vast, but by dividing them into time bins associated with the <a href="https://www.avataq.qc.ca/en/L-institut/Departements/Archeologie/Decouvrir-l-archeologie/Chronologie-de-l-Arctique">cultural traditions in the region</a> we were able to compare the samples across time before present (BP): pre-Dorset (4000-2800 years BP), Dorset (1500-700 BP) and Thule (700-500 BP). </p>
<p>The Dorset/Thule cultural transition occurred at the onset of the medieval warm period, so a comparison of these time bins allows us to look at the state of the food web before and during a known climate shift. The Thule time bin also extends into the beginning of the little ice age giving us a glimpse into that period as well.</p>
<h2>What it all means</h2>
<p>First, the good news. The results of the nitrogen isotopes showed that throughout time, 4,000 years BP to the present, the structure of the Lancaster Sound food web was relatively unchanged. Polar bears eat seals, seals eat cod, cod eat zooplankton, et cetera. There were no surprising shifts in the diets of polar bears despite past and present climate change. This is comforting.</p>
<p>The results of the carbon isotopes tell a less encouraging story, however. Throughout the four millennia encapsulated by the ancient time bins, we saw stability in the mixture of sea ice algae and open water phytoplankton. We did not detect a difference in the origin of carbon at the base of the food web resulting from the medieval warm period or the little ice age. </p>
<p>The modern samples, however, showed a significant difference in the source of carbon, resulting from a greater proportion of open water phytoplankton and less reliance on sea ice algae.</p>
<h2>Evidence of a warming climate</h2>
<p>Sea ice is an important habitat in the high Arctic. For polar bears it is a platform for hunting. For ringed seals, the <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/06-0546.1?casa_token=v_UExbec6wcAAAAA%3ALGGzkOG-_AsVsjYSgbln1STf38Upm3hjHZQO2mIm1h_Z_f9LerBLBjMw_0D4Eo15WoUO0VgiXDpE">primary prey of polar bears</a>, it is a platform for denning and raising young.</p>
<p>The algae that grows in association with sea ice is also very important for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0079661115001640">jumpstarting biological productivity</a> before the open water season. Our study shows that the loss of biological productivity associated with sea ice is unprecedented on a very long timescale.</p>
<p>Archaeological materials can provide valuable context to the ongoing climate discussion. Much of the valuable work being undertaken is tracking ecosystem changes on a short timescale, seasons to decades. But as we have demonstrated, the Arctic has already changed, so we should not always assume that we are looking at a pristine or undisturbed state. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/human-garbage-is-a-plentiful-but-dangerous-source-of-food-for-polar-bears-finding-it-harder-to-hunt-seals-on-dwindling-sea-ice-183968">Human garbage is a plentiful but dangerous source of food for polar bears finding it harder to hunt seals on dwindling sea ice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Adding a lens that looks back into the distant past gives resolution and context to our collective understanding of our situation. </p>
<p>In this case, we have illustrated the magnitude of difference occurring in the modern Arctic, relative to past climate anomalies. The medieval warm period and onset of the little ice age were not visible in the isotopes of the Lancaster Sound food web but modern warming is very apparent. We can, therefore, not dismiss calls to action on climate change on the basis that the climate has always fluctuated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research received funding from an NSERC Discovery grant and the Canada Research Chairs program. </span></em></p>Comparison of modern and archaeological polar bears indicates that four millennia of food web stability has been disrupted by modern climate change.Jennifer Routledge, PhD Candidate, Environmental and Life Sciences, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080912023-08-15T19:48:20Z2023-08-15T19:48:20ZOnline outrage can benefit brands that take stances on social issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539078/original/file-20230724-14742-flc4a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C17%2C2982%2C2061&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A large billboard featuring Colin Kaepernick stands on top of a Nike store at Union Square in San Francisco.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)</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/online-outrage-can-benefit-brands-that-take-stances-on-social-issues" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Nike’s advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick sparked a social media firestorm in 2018. Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, first made headlines in 2016 when he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/01/colin-kaepernick-kneeling-history/">protested against police brutality by kneeling during the American national anthem</a>.</p>
<p>Those who deemed Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the anthem as unpatriotic expressed a great deal of outrage and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nike-kaepernick-idUSKCN1LK1DK">called for a Nike boycott</a>. Despite initial concerns about the financial impact of Nike’s decision, the advertisement <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17895704/nike-colin-kaepernick-boycott-6-billion">proved successful for the company</a> — Nike earned $6 billion from the campaign.</p>
<p>One explanation for this success is that existing Nike customers rallied behind the brand, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/09/13/colin-kaepernicks-nike-ad-campaign-gets-more-yeahs-than-nays-from-young-people/">outnumbering those who were outraged</a>. But social media conversations at the time suggested there was an alternative phenomenon taking place. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nikes-courageous-new-ad-campaign-mixing-racial-politics-with-sport-will-be-vindicated-102707">Nike's courageous new ad campaign mixing racial politics with sport will be vindicated</a>
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<p>Some people expressed support for Nike in response to the outrage but not because they were already loyal customers of the brand. This suggests people who shared Kaepernick’s concerns were motivated by online outrage to support Nike as a way of symbolically defending or supporting their beliefs about racial equity and police brutality. </p>
<p>After seeing this example and noticing more brands were taking stances on social issues through marketing campaigns, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1364">we decided to embark on a research project</a>. Our aim was to examine whether brands that take such stances benefit from the ensuing outrage from opposing consumer groups.</p>
<h2>Positive outrage</h2>
<p>We conducted five studies using real examples of brands that took stances on social issues and faced online backlash. Participants were presented a tweet that either expressed outrage or disapproval towards the brand’s social message. We then measured how connected participants felt to the attacked brand and what their intentions to make a purchase from that brand were.</p>
<p>Across all five studies, we found that participants who shared the brand’s promoted values felt more closely connected to it and were more willing to buy its products when they saw an outraged tweet. This was true for the brand that was specifically attacked, but also for other brands with similar social values.</p>
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<img alt="A collage of tweets by people condemning Nike's advertising campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538809/original/file-20230722-41771-xyjt9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&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">Nike’s 2018 advertisement featuring Colin Kaepernick sparked backlash on social media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Twitter)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>The underlying psychological reason for this positive outrage effect was that participants perceived the outrage as a threat to their personal social values.</p>
<p>This is consistent with existing theories that suggest public expressions of outrage can <a href="https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/dgt6u">be seen as a threat to people’s beliefs and values</a>. In response to such threats, individuals respond by engaging in symbolic acts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00135-9">to defend the threatened value</a>.</p>
<p>Importantly, this feeling of threat and the subsequent positive brand consequences occurred under a certain set of conditions. Namely, the positive outcome occurred when the outrage was expressed by a member of a group with opposing values, such as political opponents, or when the outrage had online viral support.</p>
<h2>Managerial implications</h2>
<p>From a managerial perspective, brands have been hesitant to take sides on <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/02/how-do-consumers-feel-when-companies-get-political">contentious social issues</a>, partly because of the risks associated with triggering online outrage. However, consumers are increasingly expecting companies <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/10/when-should-your-company-speak-up-about-a-social-issue">to speak out on social issues that are important to them</a>. </p>
<p>Our research offers optimism, as it indicates outrage can benefit brands by bolstering support from those who share the promoted values. These are the customers companies should be trying to reach in such marketing activities. </p>
<p>But a word of caution: brands need to be mindful of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243720947682">risks of alienating consumers that hold opposing views</a> about the social issue in question, particularly when a brand’s customer base holds diverse social values. Brands can <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bud-light-sales-dropped-21-4-percent-in-april">risk driving away customers and losing profit</a> when they take a stance on social issues.</p>
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<img alt="A case of Bud Light beer bottles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540874/original/file-20230802-6332-5a9zc3.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">After Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, promoted Bud Light on Instagram, a group of consumers called for a boycott of the brand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)</span></span>
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<p>This underscores the importance of ensuring that such social marketing campaigns are aligned with the existing values of a brand’s core customer base. By doing so, brands can navigate the potential risks of alienation while maximizing the potential benefits of generating outrage.</p>
<h2>Societal implications</h2>
<p>As influencial figures, brands have the power to incite social change by taking stances on social issues. To bring about change, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/12/10/colin-kaepernick-partners-with-ben--jerrys-on-namesake-vegan-frozen-dessert/">ideas must spread and gain enough support among the population</a>. </p>
<p>Brands can play a significant role in helping this happen by uniting people and organizations around social issues through marketing campaigns.</p>
<p>While outrage from opposed groups can benefit brands, it’s possible that deliberately courting such controversy may also negatively impact society. One concern that has been raised is that this kind of marketing can <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/companies-increasingly-politics-marketing-risks-experts/story?id=88238066">increase the risk of political polarization</a>. </p>
<p>Polarization has the potential to lead to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-parallel-economy-the-rightwing-movement-creating-a-safe-haven-for-deplatformed-conservative-influencers-201999">rise of parallel economies</a>: one for conservatives and another for liberals. The growing trend of companies positioning themselves as “anti-woke” in the United States is an example of this unfolding.</p>
<p>However, more research is still needed to fully grasp the positive and negative effects of these marketing activities on society. To gain a better understanding of this topic, for example, it would be valuable to study how consumer backlash impacts other entities like company employees, policymakers and investors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Raymond Darke receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theo Noseworthy receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saeid Kermani 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>Brands are increasingly taking stances on contentious social issues and facing mass outrage on social media. New research shows that this outrage can benefit brands.Saeid Kermani, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Trent UniversityPeter Darke, Professor of Marketing, York University, CanadaTheo Noseworthy, Professor of Marketing, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2095692023-08-13T13:38:51Z2023-08-13T13:38:51ZInternational Wolf Day: Why Canadians are no longer afraid of the ‘big bad wolf’<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/international-wolf-day-why-canadians-are-no-longer-afraid-of-the-big-bad-wolf" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Who is afraid of the big bad wolf? Turns out, fewer Canadians than you might think. But that was not always the case. </p>
<p>Aug. 13 marks International Wolf Day. But 100 years ago, it is hard to imagine there would have been any ability to even conceive of such a day, at least on the part of settlers. Celebrating wolves would have seemed ridiculous, even dangerous. </p>
<p>Wolves have historically been viewed with fear by most Canadians. So much so that provincial bounties were established to pay people to kill wolves, and many would not have thought twice about shooting a wolf if they had encountered one on their farm or in the wild. </p>
<p>This was in stark opposition to how many Indigenous nations thought and continue to think about wolves, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-mishomis-book">as kin, brother and a hunter whose skill should be emulated</a>. </p>
<p>So, how did Canadians go from shooting wolves to having a day that honours them? A lot has changed in the intervening years. But do people really want to celebrate wolves? Do they have positive feelings about them and think they deserve protection? That is what we were interested in finding out. </p>
<h2>Canadians have generally positive attitudes toward wolves</h2>
<p>In March 2023, partnering with conservation researcher Valli-Laurente Fraser-Celin and <a href="https://thefurbearers.com/">The Fur-Bearers</a>, a Canadian charitable organization working to protect fur-bearing animals, we <a href="https://thefurbearers.com/blog/the-social-landscape-of-wolves-in-canada-a-national-survey/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=slider&utm_campaign=lww-blog&utm_id=lww-blog">developed a survey that was administered by polling firm Research Co. and completed by 1,000 people</a>. We asked Canadians about their knowledge of, and attitudes about, wolves and what circumstances might prompt them to act for their protection.</p>
<p>What we found is that most Canadians might find the idea of celebrating wolves quite appealing. Across Canada, 70 per cent of survey participants had moderately or very positive attitudes toward wolves. Moreover, 77 per cent considered them to be an iconic species and 83 per cent thought of them as important ecosystem members. </p>
<p>Interestingly, these feelings are remarkably even across gender, income, party preference in the 2021 federal election, and province or territory of residence. It seems we are a country of wolf lovers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wolf-restoration-in-colorado-shows-how-humans-are-rethinking-their-relationships-with-wild-animals-197669">Wolf restoration in Colorado shows how humans are rethinking their relationships with wild animals</a>
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<p>This is perhaps unsurprising given that across Canada, wolves have remained abundant, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/convention-international-trade-endangered-species/non-detriment-findings/grey-wolf.html">occupying nearly 80 per cent of their historic range</a>. This differs from the United States where wolves were <a href="https://wolf.org/wow/united-states/">almost entirely eradicated</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, when Canadians celebrate International Wolf Day, we can proudly claim to be home to approximately 60,000 of the <a href="https://www.canids.org/species/view/PREKLD895731">200,000 to 250,000 grey wolves</a> left in the world.</p>
<p>These positive feelings may also be influenced by the works of writers like Farley Mowat who encouraged readers in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/118183/never-cry-wolf-by-farley-mowat/9780735252905"><em>Never Cry Wolf</em></a> to see wolves as noble, affectionate and playful individuals who live in families much like our own. And the audience for this view only grew when the novel was adapted into a film of the same name.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jADusZXICdQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Clip from BBC Earth showcasing the bonds of wolf families.</span></figcaption>
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<p>When we broke positive attitudes down by community type, the results were even more intriguing. Previous research and conventional wisdom suggests that rural dwellers do not like wolves. This would seem to make sense; rural people are more likely to be ranchers, farmers and hunters whose interactions with wolves can be negative.</p>
<p>However, we found that people in rural and remote communities had the most positive views at 74 per cent, compared to 64 per cent of suburban residents. It may be that familiarity with wolves has bred a degree of tolerance. In Canada, rural and remote dwellers are more likely to see or hear a wolf near their home and are 22 per cent more willing to accept having wolves live within five kilometres of their home.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-defence-of-the-wolf-this-big-bad-animal-is-more-prey-than-predator-118946">In defence of the wolf: this big bad animal is more prey than predator</a>
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<p>It seems that in Canada, wolves are more welcomed in the places they are also more likely to thrive: sparsely populated wild places. </p>
<h2>Livestock loss remains a stumbling block</h2>
<p>While people expressed fondness for wolves, they do not always like what they do. A clear majority of our survey respondents — 60 per cent — felt wolves were a primary threat to livestock. </p>
<p>Wolves do prey on livestock, and those losses are keenly felt, both economically and emotionally. But livestock are not under intense threat from wolves across Canada, even if there are some parts of the country, like Alberta, that experience higher rates of depredation.</p>
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<img alt="A man in a toque stands next to a recently killed wolf." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542346/original/file-20230811-25-ftk7sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542346/original/file-20230811-25-ftk7sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542346/original/file-20230811-25-ftk7sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542346/original/file-20230811-25-ftk7sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542346/original/file-20230811-25-ftk7sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542346/original/file-20230811-25-ftk7sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542346/original/file-20230811-25-ftk7sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&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">Wolf hunting remains an accepted practice in some areas, often fuelled by fears over the danger wolves pose to farm livestock in human captivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/The Grand Rapids Press, Cory Morse)</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108433">Evidence shows that wolves will prey on livestock</a>, especially if they are unprotected. Moreover, if wolves do not have wild prey to eat, they will turn to domesticated animals. Managing wolf predation is linked to making sure that other wild prey like moose, caribou and deer have space to flourish. In this way, wolf protection is tied to broader conservation aims that may also work to alleviate the livestock losses felt by ranchers and farmers. </p>
<h2>Fostering wolf protection</h2>
<p>Our survey also asked participants what would motivate them to act to protect wolves. Put differently, how can we mobilize affection for wolves? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reintroducing-top-predators-to-the-wild-is-risky-but-necessary-heres-how-we-can-ensure-they-survive-199451">Reintroducing top predators to the wild is risky but necessary – here's how we can ensure they survive</a>
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<p>Forty-two per cent of people surveyed reported that they would act if wolf populations decreased. Forty-one per cent reported they would act if they learned more about the ecosystem benefits that wolves provide, while a further 41 per cent said they would act if they learned that a wolf had been killed illegally. Thirty-three per cent reported that they would act if they saw a news report that wolf habitats were threatened.</p>
<p>These answers point to a desire for the preservation of wolf habitats and populations, so they can continue their role as keystone predators. This requires ongoing dialogue and a focus on broader conservation efforts to make sure that next year on International Wolf Day, they continue to thrive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Rutherford has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This research is based on a collaboration between Dr. Stephanie Rutherford, Dr. Valli-Laurente Fraser-Celin and The Fur-Bearers. </span></em></p>Recent survey evidence suggests that most Canadians have positive opinions of wolves and rural Canadians in particular have strongly positive feelings on wolves and their protection.Stephanie Rutherford, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2052552023-05-30T19:06:15Z2023-05-30T19:06:15ZTechnology is far from a silver bullet for solving homelessness or child welfare issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528418/original/file-20230525-29-qcj15c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C414%2C3600%2C1977&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A homeless person lies in a tent pitched in downtown Toronto in April 2020. New research suggests we need to focus less on new technologies to streamline social services and more on the people entwined in these systems.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1921, Nobel Peace Prize laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1921/lange/lecture/">Christian Lous Lange</a> stated: “Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.”</p>
<p>A century later — in a digital landscape where technology giants strive to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-mark-zuckerberg-new-values-move-fast-and-break-things-2022-2?op=1">“move fast and break things,”</a> according to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg — we see an <a href="https://research.carleton.ca/story/moving-fast-and-breaking-public-trust-how-digital-reforms-in-government-must-be-more-accountable-to-citizens/">acceleration in the use of technology</a> to address the most human of problems, including in the areas of <a href="https://bfzcanada.ca/getting-to-zero/">homelessness</a> and <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/childrens-aid-societies#section-7">child welfare</a>. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pol/topic-sujet-eng.aspx?ta=27">digital era of public management</a>, firmly held convictions about how technology can improve the delivery of public services may compel governments and policymakers to embrace new tools <a href="https://www.homelesshub.ca/blog/coordinated-access-and-coordinated-entry-system-processes-housing-and-homelessness-sector">without evidence</a> and enough reflection on <a href="https://www.homelesshub.ca/resource/youth-focused-coordinated-access-systems-considerations-field">the challenges</a> they can cause. </p>
<p>For two years, <a href="https://www.socialchangelab.ca/">our research team at Trent University</a> has been speaking with people working in homeless-serving and child welfare organizations in Ontario to learn how they experience Canada’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/digital-government/government-canada-digital-operations-strategic-plans/canada-digital-ambition.html">digital turn in service delivery</a>. </p>
<p>Our aim is to foster critical engagement with new technologies in support of client welfare. Our work has uncovered how a focus on technological fixes can serve to obscure the root causes of social issues. We’ve also learned the technological solutions themselves often fail to improve the efficacy of public sector work. </p>
<h2>The problem</h2>
<p>Homelessness affects more than <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2021001/article/00002-eng.htm">235,000 people</a> in Canada each year, and there are over <a href="https://cafdn.org/your-impact/why-we-help/">350,000 children and youth</a> across Canada who are currently involved with child welfare services. </p>
<p>These challenges <a href="https://www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/homelessness-101/causes-homelessness">result from</a> structural factors like <a href="https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/navigating-the-housing-crisis-with-poverty-wages">poverty and limited affordable housing</a>; the ongoing <a href="https://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/24BASKINweb.pdf">impacts of colonization</a>; system failures as <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/homelessness-sans-abri/reports-rapports/what-we-heard-ce-que-nous-avons-entendu-eng.html">people leave institutions (including jails, hospitals or foster care/group homes) and experience a lack of public supports</a>; and personal circumstances like <a href="https://homelessresourcenetwork.org/?page_id=1086">physical or mental health conditions, domestic violence or individual crises</a>. </p>
<p>To be effective, responses to homelessness and child welfare concerns must therefore address a decades-old erosion of affordable housing, social services and mental/physical health supports while <a href="https://nativechild.org/child-welfare/decolonizing-child-welfare-learning-series/">incorporating a decolonial lens</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man plays tennis on a public court with a homeless person's tent next to it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528415/original/file-20230525-21-r2rhl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C522%2C3551%2C1848&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528415/original/file-20230525-21-r2rhl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528415/original/file-20230525-21-r2rhl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528415/original/file-20230525-21-r2rhl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528415/original/file-20230525-21-r2rhl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528415/original/file-20230525-21-r2rhl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528415/original/file-20230525-21-r2rhl6.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">A man plays tennis next to a homeless encampment in Toronto in September 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The solution</h2>
<p>The 2019 federal homelessness strategy, <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/homelessness-sans-abri/index-eng.html">Reaching Home</a>, requires funded communities to adopt what it calls a <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/homelessness-sans-abri/directives-eng.html#h2.3-h3.4">Coordinated Access</a> approach to combatting homelessness. </p>
<p>As of last year, the province of Ontario has also directed all service managers to implement what’s known as a <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/service-manager-name-list-2022-guidelines">By-Name List</a>, compiling real-time information about every person experiencing homelessness in their community. </p>
<p>Starting in 2014, Ontario’s child welfare system committed <a href="https://www.itworldcanada.com/post/childrens-aid-computer-network-upgrade-faces-delay">$122 million</a> to develop the Child Protection Information Network (CPIN), a digital database that all children’s aid societies were expected to adopt to organize their data practices. </p>
<p>Like a By-Name List, CPIN is supposed to provide real-time information on families and youth across children’s aid societies in a standardized form. </p>
<p>Both Coordinated Access and CPIN rely on standardized assessment tools and centralized digital information management systems to rationalize how resources are allocated and deliver services.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a park stands next to a sign that reads We Need to Take Care of Each Other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528412/original/file-20230525-23312-wu0fwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528412/original/file-20230525-23312-wu0fwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528412/original/file-20230525-23312-wu0fwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528412/original/file-20230525-23312-wu0fwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528412/original/file-20230525-23312-wu0fwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528412/original/file-20230525-23312-wu0fwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528412/original/file-20230525-23312-wu0fwo.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">An encampment supporter waits for Toronto police to clear Lamport Stadium Park homeless encampment in Toronto in July 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reframing the problem</h2>
<p>Technical solutions like co-ordinated access systems and CPIN are presented as a way to improve economic oversight and government accountability.</p>
<p>The emphasis on data sharing, co-ordination, objective assessments and prioritization suggests “the problem” is in social services due to a lack of organization, worker bias, regulatory compliance failures, bureaucratic sluggishness and inequitable/inefficient distribution of resources. </p>
<p>But what if this characterization is wrong? </p>
<p>None of the aforementioned objectives of co-ordinated access systems or CPIN in and of themselves address the scarcity of resources and the <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/august-2021/redesigning-canadas-social-safety-net-for-the-post-pandemic-economy/">systematic erosion of the public safety net</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, when it comes to a dearth of resources, <a href="https://homelessnesslearninghub.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/HPD_ReachingHomeCoordinatedAccessGuide_EN_20191030-1.pdf">Employment and Social Development Canada</a> explains that if Coordinated Access is “implemented successfully, communities will be able to explain how clients are prioritized for limited resources.”</p>
<p>However, in both child welfare and homeless-serving organizations, insufficient resources have remained so, and the government’s technology and managerial promises have proven misleading.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A child on a swing in a sunny but empty playground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529079/original/file-20230530-19-kw8ao1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529079/original/file-20230530-19-kw8ao1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529079/original/file-20230530-19-kw8ao1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529079/original/file-20230530-19-kw8ao1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529079/original/file-20230530-19-kw8ao1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529079/original/file-20230530-19-kw8ao1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529079/original/file-20230530-19-kw8ao1.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">Inefficient resources in the child welfare sphere haven’t been helped by technological advances.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The implications</h2>
<p>The organizational adjustment to co-ordinated systems is massive. As the <a href="https://www.oacas.org/2016/04/cpin-ready-to-launch-at-five-more-childrens-aid-societies/">Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies</a> states: “CPIN requires every department in an agency to move to new business processes that are consistent across the province.” </p>
<p>Adopting Coordinated Access and maintaining a By-Name List has also proven to be <a href="https://www.socialchangelab.ca/news-and-updates/report-local-stakeholders-say-coordinated-access-is-failing-to-deliver-on-promise-to-end-homelessness-in-peterborough">a complex endeavour for service providers</a>. </p>
<p>Clients and workers in <a href="https://www.socialchangelab.ca/s/DJYC-Midterm-Report-for-KH-CAS.pdf">child welfare</a> and <a href="https://www.socialchangelab.ca/s/Get-In-Line-DIGITAL.pdf">homeless-serving organizations</a> have been telling us that the new systems are cumbersome, time-consuming, resource-intensive and have yet to deliver on their promises. As one frontline worker explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You’re just constantly clicking, constantly repeating yourself. And important information isn’t easy to find.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Increasingly, time and resources are being directed towards maintaining and navigating infrastructure and measuring compliance, not improving client well-being or service quality.</p>
<p>From our interviews, we learned that only 14 per cent of workers’ requests to improve CPIN’s ability to support client well-being or service quality have been instituted since its inception, partially because programmers are required to prioritize requests by government to align the system with legislative changes.</p>
<p>And in Peterborough, Ont. — the location of our lab and an early adopter of the By-Name List — <a href="https://www.socialchangelab.ca/s/PTBO-2022-BNL-Data-Fact-Sheet.pdf">fewer than five per cent</a> of people on the list were offered housing through it in 2022.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>While technology can be a useful tool, it can also divert funding and attention from the root causes of the issues it aims to address. Instead of focusing on resource shortages, professional support, relationality and human well-being, Coordinated Access and CPIN rely on compliance, efficiency and a range of technical fixes as solutions. </p>
<p>In our digital era of public management, innovative approaches can be tempting to policymakers who want to do more with scarce resources. But as we work to support Canada’s fraying social safety net, we need to slow down and fix things by focusing less on new technologies and more on the people entwined in these systems, both workers and clients. </p>
<p>Ending homelessness and ensuring child and family well-being will require a commitment to decolonization and investments in housing, services and other forms of direct support. Technological solutions alone cannot deliver on these goals; worse, they may even detract from them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aron Lee Rosenberg is a post-doctoral researcher with the Research for Social Change Lab at Trent University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Anne Martin is a post-doctoral researcher with the Research for Social Change Lab at Trent University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>As a Principal Investigator, Naomi Nichols receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC); the Canada Research Chairs Program; Making the Shift, a Member of the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) Program; and the United Way. Historically, she has also received Mitacs funding. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Cullingham is a graduate research assistant with the Research for Social Change Lab at Trent University. As a doctoral student, she receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). </span></em></p>While technology can be a useful tool, it can also divert funding and attention from the root causes of the social welfare issues it aims to address.Aron Lee Rosenberg, Postdoctoral Researcher, Educational Studies, Trent UniversityMary Anne Martin, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Research for Social Change Lab, Trent UniversityNaomi Nichols, Associate Professor of Sociology and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2), Community-Partnered Social Justice, Trent UniversitySarah Cullingham, Graduate Research Assistant, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1993072023-02-08T18:21:36Z2023-02-08T18:21:36ZAs we fight to protect species on the brink of extinction, let’s not forget the familiar ones<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508786/original/file-20230208-23-lbcw9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=112%2C251%2C2883%2C1729&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Dolphin and Union Caribou is an endangered species in Canada.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nothing commands attention like rarity. In the natural world, rarity is most starkly represented by the last members of a declining species. These scarce plants and animals are infinitively valuable; they represent the final hope for averting extinction. </p>
<p>Some of these lone individuals — <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/last-male-northern-white-rhino-dies">Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros;</a> <a href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/vertebrate-zoology/birds/collections-overview/martha-last-passenger-pigeon#:%7E:text=">Martha, the last passenger pigeon</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/george-the-lonely-snail-dies-in-hawaii-extinction#:%7E:text=George%2C%20a%20Hawaiian%20tree%20snail,rest%20of%20his%20kin%20died.">George, the last Hawaiian tree snail of his kind</a> — may even be remembered by name. Extinction is most poignant when it’s personal. </p>
<p>The efforts toward conserving rare species have made an immense difference. In the past few decades, declines of many endangered plants and animals have been reversed. Dozens of unique living forms have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1194442">saved from extinction</a>. But a preoccupation with scarcity could come at the expense of overlooking the ordinary. </p>
<p>Commonness is often associated with the bland and mundane, even worthless. It invites complacency. As <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00005718;jsessionid=CB681E51E8ED4A088411C415274517C6#:%7E:text=Most%20human%20beings%20have%20an,for%20taking%20things%20for%20granted.&text=There's%20only%20one%20corner%20of,and%20that's%20your%20own%20self">observed by writer Aldous Huxley</a>, “Most human beings have an absolute and infinite capacity for taking things for granted.” But if we are to conserve nature — and its myriad benefits to people — we must maintain our focus on the familiar.</p>
<h2>When nature is taken for granted</h2>
<p>In the 19th century, some of the most distinguished minds in biology, Jean Baptiste de Lamarck and Thomas Huxley, deemed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/s0169-5347(98)01584-5">extinction at sea impossible</a>, given the reproductive capacity of marine organisms and the impracticality of overfishing. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1552672893800222728"}"></div></p>
<p>In my home province of Ontario, early settlers assumed fish and wildlife were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1577/M01-230AM">inexhaustible</a>. In the early 20th century, the U.S. Bureau of Soils confidently declared that “soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possesses. It is the one resource that <a href="http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/peopleevents/pandeAMEX03.html">cannot be exhausted</a>.” </p>
<p>Such notions of limitless nature carry great risk. The lessons have been hard; the upheaval has been ecological and economic. In North America, they include the extinction of the passenger pigeon, which was once the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12914">most numerous bird in the world</a>; the decimation of northern cod, which at one time was so thick in numbers that they <a href="https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/114276.pdf">slowed the passage of ships</a>; the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511549861">destruction of plains bison</a>, the rapid demise of American chestnut and the decline of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3375/0885-8608(2006)26%5B61:HCIWPP%5D2.0.CO;2">eastern white pine</a>. </p>
<p>These species were once regarded as super-abundant, their decline and disappearance <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2007.11.001">inconceivable</a>. </p>
<h2>Common species are on the decline too</h2>
<p>Abundance provides only a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.281.5377.695">partial buffer against extinction</a>. Common species, even those in seemingly limitless numbers, are not immune to decimation. Increasingly, conservation is turning its sights in this direction — to safeguard what is common, not just what is rare. </p>
<p>There are good reasons to consider the common. Abundant species can serve as the proverbial canaries in a coal mine. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw1313">study of North American birds</a> uncovered that we have lost three billion birds on this continent within the past two generations. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6-sQS4o6scc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">North America has lost around three billion birds since 1970.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These declines include species once deemed widespread and secure, like the common redpoll, whose numbers are down by 29 million, the common grackle, down by 83 million and the common nighthawk, down by 26 million. The staggering losses are a reminder that the mark of a species in trouble is not rarity, but <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1028564310">rate of decline</a>. </p>
<p>Notably, the shifts in abundance of common species can translate into sizeable shifts in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2011.02.022">ecosystem functioning</a>. Birds, despite their diminutive stature, throw their aggregate weight around, owing to the innumerable insects they eat, the flowers they pollinate and the seeds they disperse. </p>
<p>One <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2012/ec/En14-43-10-2011-eng.pdf">caribou herd</a>, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, removes millions of kilograms of forage every year and returns nutrients to the soil in the form of millions of kilograms of fecal pellets.</p>
<p>The value of common species is not just ecological and economic, but psychological. Study after study demonstrates that encounters with the natural world <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0149">improve our mental state</a>. Losing familiar species — whether birds in our backyard or butterflies on our doorstep — is likely to shrink such opportunities for engagement.</p>
<h2>Guarding against the extinction of commonness</h2>
<p>By their sheer numbers, common species can be a force of nature. Well before the finality of extinction, however, such ecological roles can be diminished.</p>
<p>Rarity will always occupy a prominent place in conservation. But in our quest for a sustainable and biodiverse future, we must avoid “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133307076488">the extinction of commonness</a>.” The ingredients for success are at hand: Monitor nature closely, guard against complacency and invest for the long term.</p>
<p>Protecting common creatures is likely to bring immense benefits — to our environment, our economy and our psyche.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Schaefer 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>To guard against extinction, we must advocate for common species.James Schaefer, Professor of Biology, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1984912023-01-26T22:42:40Z2023-01-26T22:42:40ZCanada’s $2.8 billion settlement with Indigenous Day Scholars is a long time coming<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506258/original/file-20230125-26-5bbipe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C68%2C6461%2C4106&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Shane Gottfriedson, left, speaks as hiwus (Chief) Warren Paull, of the shíshálh Nation, listens during a news conference, in Vancouver, on Jan. 21, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eleven years. That’s how long it took the federal government to agree with 325 First Nations over the collective loss of language and culture <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/residential-school-band-class-action-settlement-1.6722014">suffered by Day Scholars in the Residential School system in Canada that existed between the mid 1800s until 1996</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.irsss.ca/faqs/what-are-day-scholars">Day scholars</a> <a href="https://www.justicefordayscholars.com/schools-lists/">attended a Residential School during the day</a> but didn’t sleep there overnight. </p>
<p>While Day Scholars settled an individual <a href="https://www.justicefordayscholars.com">compensation package for just $10,000 each earlier in 2022</a>, this new agreement is specifically aimed at rectifying the systematic and forced removal of language and culture through these institutions. </p>
<h2>Left out of original agreement</h2>
<p>In 2012, members of the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/residential-school-band-class-action-settlement-1.6722014">Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc and shíshálh Nation led by Shane Gottfriedson and Garry Feschuk</a> launched a national class-action lawsuit for Day Scholars who were left out of the original <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015576/1571581687074">Indian Residential School (IRS) Settlement Agreement (2006)</a>.</p>
<p>The Truth and Reconciliation Commission had already determined that abuse was suffered by students who were forced to attend Residential Schools at night, but nearby public schools during the day. </p>
<p>In “The Survivors Speak” section of the report, Emily Kematch who attended the Residential School in Dauphin, Man., which operated under this Day Scholars model at the time explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It wasn’t a good experience. ‘Cause this was my first time too, going to the white system with the white kids and we weren’t treated very well there. We got called down quite a bit. They use to call us squ-ws and neechies, and dirty Indian, you know. They’d drive by in their cars and say awful things to us. Even the girls
didn’t associate with us, the white girls, they didn’t associate with us.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This institution was also where, the “<a href="https://nctr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volume_1_History_Part_2_English_Web.pdf">one recorded prosecution for the abuse</a> of Residential School students in Manitoba” occurred. <a href="https://nctr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volume_1_History_Part_2_English_Web.pdf">The TRC noted</a>: “In 2005, Ernest Constant who had attended the Dauphin school in the early 1960s and worked there in the late 1960 as a supervisor was convicted of indecently assaulting seven Dauphin students.” Day Scholars experienced similar types of abuse as people whose experiences were included under earlier agreements, but it has taken over 16 years to receive some form of justice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People carrying feathers take part in an Indigenous dance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506260/original/file-20230125-18-102fb3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506260/original/file-20230125-18-102fb3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506260/original/file-20230125-18-102fb3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506260/original/file-20230125-18-102fb3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506260/original/file-20230125-18-102fb3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506260/original/file-20230125-18-102fb3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506260/original/file-20230125-18-102fb3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People dance during a ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc announcement of the detection of the remains of 215 children at an unmarked burial site at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, in Kamloops, B.C., on May 23, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Decade-long court battles</h2>
<p>Each one of the subsequent class-action settlement agreements has taken roughly a decade to unfold through the legal process:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015576/1571581687074#sect1">Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement</a> (1990s ca.-2006);</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/">Indian Day School Settlement Agreement</a> (2009-2019); </p></li>
<li><p>and now the <a href="https://www.justicefordayscholars.com/">Indian Residential School Day Scholars Agreement</a> (2012-2023). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Together these agreements represent the largest reparations paid to Indigenous people as a direct result of colonialism. However, each agreement has been earned through the dedication of survivors to fight these battles through court, not the generosity of the Canadian state. </p>
<h2>325 First Nations</h2>
<p>Unlike the previous two agreements, this agreement finally allows for all 325 First Nations to decide themselves how the funding will revitalize their language and culture independently of the government. </p>
<p>Direct ownership of the funding will not funnel through law firms, or government bodies, but rather through the First Nations themselves. If officially settled at the end of February, communities will be provided an initial $200,000 followed by sustained payments over the course of the next two decades to support this revitalization through the hiring of staff, creation of learning centres or in any other way they see fit. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-reckoning-with-colonialism-and-education-must-include-indian-day-schools-185464">Canada’s reckoning with colonialism and education must include Indian Day Schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While this provides an opportunity to protect critically endangered languages, it only provides a small one-time compensation payment of $10,000 for eligible members. </p>
<p>Last January, these one-time-payments were opened, but the Gottfriedson class-action continued to fight for a separate band of funding for language revitalization efforts which was announced last week. </p>
<h2>Defining moment</h2>
<p>On one hand, this prevents the re-victimization of students who suffered through the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cjls.27.1.129">Indian Residential School Settlement Independent Assessment Process</a>. But on the other, it does not provide greater compensation to those who suffered the most. </p>
<p>This agreement also signals a defining moment for the Trudeau government to settle all outstanding claims against the Canadian state. The agreement’s wording suggests that the government will be <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/residential-school-band-class-action-settlement-1.6722014">“Fully, finally and forever”</a> released from collective harms suffered in Residential Schools. </p>
<p>It is not immediately clear if that same condition also falls on the churches in Canada who operated the schools and perpetuated the loss of culture and language along with other horrendous abuses. Last summer, <em>The Canadian Press</em> reported details <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-deal-catholic-church-fundraising-1.6557533">of a 2015 agreement in which Canada agreed to “forever discharge” Catholic entities</a> from their promise to raise $25 million for Residential School survivors. The discharge happened after Catholic entities raised less than $4 million.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/catholic-bishops-30-million-1.6191677">September 2021</a>, in the wake of criticism, Canadian bishops <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8997434/canada-bishops-fundraiser-residential-schools/">pledged to raise $30 million</a> by January 2027. In Nov. 2022, APTN <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/catholic-church-says-it-will-take-4-more-years-to-raise-30m-for-survivors">reported $5.5 million has been raised to date</a> and that the Canadian Catholic Church spent $18.6 million on the papal visit. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reparations-to-indigenous-peoples-are-critical-after-popes-apology-for-residential-schools-187823">Reparations to Indigenous Peoples are critical after Pope's apology for residential schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The back of a figure slightly out of focus seen next to two seated people listening." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506262/original/file-20230125-12-3jz1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506262/original/file-20230125-12-3jz1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506262/original/file-20230125-12-3jz1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506262/original/file-20230125-12-3jz1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506262/original/file-20230125-12-3jz1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506262/original/file-20230125-12-3jz1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506262/original/file-20230125-12-3jz1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phil Fontaine, then Assembly of First Nations chief (left), and Beverly Jacobs, then president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (right), listen as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologizes for Residential Schools in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, June 11, 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Apologize for all colonial schooling</h2>
<p>Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015644/1571589171655">apology for Residential Schools in 2008</a> came before two of the three settlements against Canada. </p>
<p>With this settlement’s ending of all outstanding agreements clause, it is crucial for the federal government to also apologize for all these types of schooling that damaged Indigenous languages.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, with this announcement there will also be a wave of <a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-before-reconciliation-8-ways-to-identify-and-confront-residential-school-denialism-164692">Residential School denialism</a> and criticism over the amount of money spent on this settlement. </p>
<p>For some perspective, Canada has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-announces-military-aid-ukraine-1.6650616">committed over $3 billion for the war in Ukraine</a> which has so far lasted 11 months. It will be paying slightly less for the over 150 years of targeted colonization that devastated Indigenous communities and has <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8604620/bc-researchers-revitalizing-indigenous-language/">left 75 per cent of Indigenous languages endangered in this country</a>.</p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story published Jan. 26, 2023. The earlier story said Day Scholars lived in Residential Schools but attended school during the day in white communities.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackson Pind received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>This new agreement finally allows First Nations to decide for themselves how the funding will revitalize their language and culture independently of the government.Jackson Pind, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Methodologies, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1914132022-10-13T15:43:12Z2022-10-13T15:43:12ZWhy Canada should invest more in teaching kids how to play chess<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488605/original/file-20221006-12-urtylf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3840%2C2160&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The government should invest in chess to foster more Canadian success at international competitions</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chess has recently been in the news far more than usual. First, there was the runaway success of the Netflix miniseries <em>The Queen’s Gambit</em>. That made chessboards the new toilet paper as retailers and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/02/queens-gambit-ignites-sales-for-spanish-chessboard-maker">manufacturers struggled to meet the demand</a>. Now there’s a high-profile <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/oct/04/hans-niemann-chess-com-cheating-investigation-magnus-carlsen">cheating scandal</a> rocking the chess world. </p>
<p>But amid those headlines, the best recent chess news for Canadians is the quieter story of Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, a Québec teen who recently <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-s-shawn-rodrigue-lemieux-becomes-world-chess-champion-1.6073479">won the world under-18 chess championship</a>: a first for a Québecer and only the second time for a Canadian.</p>
<p>Unlike the cheating scandal and the fictional depiction of chess in <em>The Queen’s Gambit</em>, the story of Rodrigue-Lemieux is unequivocally good and real. It should inspire and motivate us as a nation to invest more in chess so that his accomplishment leads to more Canadian success at international competitions. </p>
<p>Success at the highest levels of chess costs money. Investing in chess as a sport and as a mandatory subject in schools would be money well spent.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489206/original/file-20221011-10401-5xogic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large room filled with people sitting at tables playing chess." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489206/original/file-20221011-10401-5xogic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489206/original/file-20221011-10401-5xogic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489206/original/file-20221011-10401-5xogic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489206/original/file-20221011-10401-5xogic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489206/original/file-20221011-10401-5xogic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489206/original/file-20221011-10401-5xogic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489206/original/file-20221011-10401-5xogic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants compete in the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, India on July 29, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Chess as a sport</h2>
<p>This year <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/sport-organizations/national/funding.html">Sport Canada has supported</a> hockey in Canada with nearly $7 million. It has given an additional $1.5 million toward individual hockey players through its athlete assistance program. But Sport Canada isn’t just generous to hockey. It’s giving more than $300,000 to bowling; $5.2 million to curling; $200,000 to surfing; over $1 million to cricket; almost $700,000 to ringette; about $250,000 to skateboarding; and more than $500,000 to archery.</p>
<p>What does chess get from Sport Canada? Nothing.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/funding/sport-support/accountability-framework.html">According to Sport Canada</a>, chess does not qualify for sport funding for the simple reason that chess is not a sport. But chess satisfies every single criterion for being a sport, except one: it is not considered a physical activity. It is merely a “game of skill,” a board game like Monopoly or Scrabble, that requires mental effort but no physical, bodily effort. </p>
<p>Sport Canada’s position on chess may be shared by many Canadians, but it is mistaken and out of step with the position of many other nations for at least two reasons.</p>
<p>First, in 1999, the International Olympic Committee recognized chess as a sport. Chess was even featured as an exhibition event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. There was an effort to get <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-should-chess-be-included-in-the-olympic-games/">chess into the 2024 Paris Olympics, but this was rejected</a>. </p>
<p>When the time comes and chess is featured at the Olympics, Canada will not be ready to compete unless we start funding chess now.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489063/original/file-20221010-19-h87jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a grey suit moves a piece on a chess board." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489063/original/file-20221010-19-h87jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489063/original/file-20221010-19-h87jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489063/original/file-20221010-19-h87jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489063/original/file-20221010-19-h87jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489063/original/file-20221010-19-h87jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489063/original/file-20221010-19-h87jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489063/original/file-20221010-19-h87jk.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">Magnus Carlsen competes at the 2018 World Chess Championship in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, when chess is played at the highest levels, it is indeed a physical activity, contrary to the naïve position of Sport Canada. In a 2014 <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b04mb80d">interview with the BBC</a>, the greatest chess player of all time and current world champion, Magnus Carlsen revealed: “For me chess is first and foremost a sport and then secondly an art and a science.” </p>
<p>Carlsen credited two of his wins against former world champion, Vishy Anand, to his superior athleticism rather than to his superior chess playing. The games were long ones and, according to Carlsen, “were very much decided in the fifth and sixth hours by physical strength.”</p>
<h2>Investing in chess</h2>
<p>The wisest way for Canada to invest in chess would be to follow the examples of other nations, <a href="https://www.thelocal.es/20150212/chess-set-to-become-school-subject-in-spain/">including Spain</a>, <a href="https://bigthink.com/thinking/chess-should-be-required-in-us-schools/">Armenia</a>, and <a href="https://agenda.ge/en/news/2022/1826">Georgia</a>, that have made chess a mandatory subject in elementary or high school.</p>
<p>The case for including chess among school curricula is usually based on the benefits for improving math skills. But this is not the only benefit of chess.</p>
<p>Chess is a prime example of an interdisciplinary activity. The best chess players throughout history have had one thing in common: they saw in chess something far more serious than a game. The first official champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, declared that chess is a science, and <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7251810M/The_modern_chess_instructor.">wrote a treatise on the principles of this science</a>. The next champion, Emanuel Lasker, saw chess as a perfect <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6981278M/Struggle">model of every human struggle</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489062/original/file-20221010-23-yvk1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman and three young children sit around a table with a chess board. The woman holds a chess piece in her hand while the children raise their arms." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489062/original/file-20221010-23-yvk1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489062/original/file-20221010-23-yvk1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489062/original/file-20221010-23-yvk1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489062/original/file-20221010-23-yvk1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489062/original/file-20221010-23-yvk1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489062/original/file-20221010-23-yvk1pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489062/original/file-20221010-23-yvk1pd.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">Teaching chess is school can help children to see the unity of all the other disciplines they learn at school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another champion, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRCvqr7XJAo">Alexander Alekhine</a>, thought chess was an art, an opinion that was corroborated by one of the world’s most famous artists, Marcel Duchamp, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/P/bo44310477.html">who quit making art to focus on chess</a>. Computer scientists frequently turn to chess as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/04/deep-thinking-where-machine-intelligence-ends-human-creativity-begins-garry-kasparov-review">test for artificial intelligence</a>. And former world champion Garry Kasparov has assimilated all of these insights and <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781427202291/howlifeimitateschess">written a book</a> arguing that chess is a model of all aspects of life.</p>
<p>Teaching chess in Canadian schools would train children to see the unity of all the other disciplines they learn at school. It would challenge them to use their minds, and yes, even their bodies, to learn, compete and have fun. While chess is in the spotlight, we should not miss this opportunity to build on the enthusiasm for chess that is present in Canada.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Hickson 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>Chess affords young people a host of interdisciplinary skills, Canada should invest in teaching them how to play it.Michael Hickson, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1854642022-07-12T13:44:00Z2022-07-12T13:44:00ZCanada’s reckoning with colonialism and education must include Indian Day Schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472849/original/file-20220706-10369-x3gutm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2991%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman who attended an Indian Day School joins her daughter as they look at the Orange shirts, shoes, flowers and messages on display outside the B.C. legislature in June 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito</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/canada-s-reckoning-with-colonialism-and-education-must-include-indian-day-schools" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Sparked by the locating of hundreds of possible <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/tkemlups-te-secwepemc-nation-gathers-to-mark-detection-of-unmarked-graves/">unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools across the country</a>, there has been a public reckoning with the ongoing legacies of the residential school system. </p>
<p>Many Canadians are finally coming to terms with the truth that the Canadian government, in co-operation with Christian churches, ran a genocidal school system intended to “<a href="https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system">kill the Indian in the child</a>” for more than a century. </p>
<p>What most people don’t realize, however, is that Canada’s system of “Indian education” was not limited to residential schools. It also included a <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/indigenous/learning-about-indian-day-schools">vast network of nearly 700 federally funded and church-run Indian Day Schools</a>, which were attended by an estimated 200,000 Indigenous people between 1870 and 2000.</p>
<p>Despite making up a large part of Canada’s system of Indian education, day schools were excluded from the <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015576/1571581687074">Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement</a>. A different class action for day schools closes <a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/">on July 13, 2022</a>, and so far over <a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/updates/">150,000</a> people have been included. </p>
<p>In recognition of the brave Survivors who have been fighting for justice and sharing their stories, we argue that Canada’s reckoning with colonialism and education must also include Indian Day Schools. If Canada is serious about putting truth before reconciliation, then the history and ongoing legacies of all kinds of colonial schooling need to be acknowledged and addressed. </p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>Day school and residential school systems need to be understood as interrelated and overlapping parts of Canada’s assimilationist education project. </p>
<p>In the mid-to-late <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/first-nations-call-on-province-to-investigate-day-schools-1.6194271">1700s and early 1800s, Christian missionaries started schools for Indigenous people</a> — most without financial support from government — in an effort to gain converts and control. </p>
<p>By the 1870s, the federal government had officially partnered with churches and offered to pay more for schooling as a way of gaining greater influence and authority over Indigenous Peoples. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A map of Indian Day Schools across Canada" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472396/original/file-20220704-14-wxeyfm.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">Each dot represents the location of a day school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(indiandayschools.org)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new system of Indian education, overseen by the Department of Indian Affairs, had two distinct prongs: day schools, which were often located on reserves where children could return home at the end of the day, and boarding or “residential” schools, where children resided at schools far away from their communities — sometimes children attended both, at different times, during their school years. </p>
<p>The two kinds of schools shared the same goal: to solve the so-called “Indian problem” by <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/lessons-in-legitimacy">undercutting and delegitimizing Indigenous ways of life to better facilitate settler capitalism and Canadian nation-building</a>.</p>
<p>The day school system lasted <a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-day-school-survivors-are-seeking-truth-and-justice-146655">until 2000 with the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and, later, United churches</a> overseeing daily operations of the schools in various parts of the country. </p>
<p>Like at Indian Residential Schools, news stories have also reported <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/federal-day-schools-indigenous-students-deaths-canada">deaths</a>, <a href="https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/local-peterborough/news/2022/04/11/historian-shares-how-curve-lake-indian-day-school-abused-experimented-on-indigenous-students.html">experiments</a> and <a href="https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/local-peterborough/news/2022/04/11/stolen-tears-curve-lake-indian-day-school-survivor-shares-his-story-of-being-abused-in-his-own-community.html">abuse</a> at day schools that have had lasting impacts. </p>
<h2>The reckoning</h2>
<p>For more than a decade, day school Survivors have been fighting for truth and justice. Since the settlement was reached <a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/updates/page/3/">in 2019</a>, both of the original settlements’ founders <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/legacy-of-garry-mclean-lives-on-in-day-school-wellness-fund/">Garry Mclean</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/raymond-mason-residential-school-survivor-passes-away-1.6392120">Raymond Mason</a>, have passed away. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mcleandayschoolssettlementcorporation.ca">Mclean Day School Settlement Corporation</a> was established with a $200 million legacy fund that emerged from the settlement with the federal government and is intended to support “language & culture, healing & wellness, commemoration and truth telling.” The settlement process has had mixed results so far. </p>
<p>Journalist Ka’nhehsí:io Deer found that Survivors have been <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/federal-day-school-settlement-deadline-1.6466640">revictimized by the process</a> and that 85 per cent of the claims that were settled occurred at Level 1 (the lowest amount available, $10,000). </p>
<p>While over <a href="https://indiandayschools.com/en/updates/">150,000 survivors</a> submitted an application, others <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indian-day-school-settlement-extension-request-1.6433146">repeatedly</a> asked for <a href="https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/anishinabek-nation-calls-on-feds-to-extend-day-school-settlement-5511056">more time</a> to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/indian-day-school-compensation-claim-deadline-approaching-1.6495399">tell their stories</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An archive photo of students outside of a day school" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472397/original/file-20220704-16-te7dvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children at Indian Day School in Trout Lake, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Department of Indian and Northern Affairs/Library and Archives Canada, C-068924)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The recent federal budget saw the government <a href="https://budget.gc.ca/2022/report-rapport/chap7-en.html#2022-1">earmark $25 million between 2023 and 2025 for Library and Archives of Canada</a> to “support the digitization of millions of documents relating to the federal Indian Day School System, which will ensure survivors and all Canadians have meaningful access to them.” </p>
<p>This funding is important, but it will come too late to help Survivors <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/08/30/certain-indian-day-school-records-off-limits-to-public-while-province-conducts-investigation.html">with the class action</a>.</p>
<p>Digitization efforts are important because they can generate more awareness and education about the day school system. This is significant because, unlike the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), there will be no national inquiry or final report.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation-universities-and-schools-must-acknowledge-how-colonial-education-has-reproduced-anti-indigenous-racism-123315">National Day for Truth & Reconciliation: Universities and schools must acknowledge how colonial education has reproduced anti-Indigenous racism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Murray Sinclair, chair of the TRC, often says that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/truth-and-reconciliation-chair-urges-canada-to-adopt-un-declaration-on-indigenous-peoples-1.3096225">education got us into this mess so education must get us out</a>. </p>
<p>As part of this process then, people must learn more about the history and legacies of residential schools and day schools (and public schools too) and understand their relationship to Canada’s colonial project. </p>
<p>We encourage readers to check out <a href="https://www.indiandayschools.org">www.indiandayschools.org</a> to find the Indian Day School closest to them and <a href="https://sway.office.com/HTP4bXRfg5ED0KeB?ref=Link">read more about this history</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185464/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Carleton receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackson Pind received funding from the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada and currently receives funding from National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. </span></em></p>People must learn more about the history and legacies of residential schools and day schools and understand their relationship to Canada’s colonial project.Sean Carleton, Assistant Professor, Departments of History and Indigenous Studies, University of ManitobaJackson Pind, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Methodologies, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1820052022-05-15T10:44:42Z2022-05-15T10:44:42ZCanada needs to stop wasting the talent of skilled immigrants<p>Neoliberal democracies across the world <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-canada-is-inspiring-scandinavian-countries-on-immigration-90911">have looked up to Canada</a> as a leader in <a href="https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2017/number/5/article/canadas-immigration-system-lessons-for-europe.html">economically driven immigration</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-merit-based-immigration-system-is-no-magic-bullet-9092">merit-based immigration system</a> was used to fill labour market shortages and has been a go-to solution to the <a href="https://www.cihi.ca/en/infographic-canadas-seniors-population-outlook-uncharted-territory">country’s aging population</a> and recently, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2022/02/new-immigration-plan-to-fill-labour-market-shortages-and-grow-canadas-economy.html">the post-pandemic economic recovery</a>.</p>
<p>We recently undertook a Photovoice project, <a href="https://flipbookpdf.net/web/site/bf8d7baca741cdd4dedb0200a0cdd1064d6ae827FBP24692603.pdf.html"><em>Take a Walk in My Shoes</em></a>, with recent immigrants who shared their experiences of securing professional employment in Durham, Ont., through photographs and interviews depicting their lives. The goal of the project was to explore their experiences, identify gaps in employment services and have skilled immigrants propose solutions to those gaps.</p>
<h2>Labour market integration?</h2>
<p>There is a broad consensus in society that labour market integration of immigrants is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7050076">the most critical indicator of their success</a> in their new home country. However, deskilling and underemployment of immigrants <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2009.00531.x">has been well documented</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Photo of a door opening to a brick wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460383/original/file-20220428-20-qmd7ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460383/original/file-20220428-20-qmd7ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460383/original/file-20220428-20-qmd7ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460383/original/file-20220428-20-qmd7ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460383/original/file-20220428-20-qmd7ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460383/original/file-20220428-20-qmd7ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460383/original/file-20220428-20-qmd7ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photo, called ‘The Other Side,’ is meant to represent the challenges and opportunities one of the study participants, Bushra, experienced while searching for a job.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Bushra)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perceiving immigrants as unable to get their <a href="https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/index.php/cjsae/article/view/1002">credentials recognized by professional bodies in Canada</a> and their “cultural differences” as standing in the way of their <a href="https://wol.iza.org/articles/skill-based-immigration-economic-integration-and-economic-performance/long">successful career development</a> <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/esdc-edsc/documents/programs/foreign-credential-recognition/consultations/FINAL_Transforming_Immigrant_Outcomes_WP-197_EN_V2.pdf">have been part of public sentiment</a>.</p>
<p>Research suggests that the Canadian skilled immigration policy is also grounded in the belief that <a href="https://heqco.ca/pub/immigrant-labour-market-outcomes-and-skills-differences-in-canada/">educational and professional credentials guide immigrants toward professional success</a> in Canada. </p>
<p>However, the collective story of immigrants seeking professional employment (illustrated by a photograph by one of the participants, Bushra) suggests that while Canada has opened the door to some, “it only leads to a brick wall on the other side.”</p>
<h2>A catch-22</h2>
<p>A roadblock to securing professional employment for those who permanently moved to Canada — a country <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/despite-reduction-in-high-skilled-immigrants-canada-will-still-have-the-people-to-fill-jobs-minister">claiming to need their skills</a> — is lack of “Canadian experience,” a condition based on an elusive and often misused concept that tends to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2018.1432872">exclude and discriminate racialized immigrants</a>.</p>
<p>The requirement to have Canadian experience to be hired <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-for-many-newcomers-canadian-experience-remains-a-barrier-to-meaningful">cannot be acquired unless one gets hired</a>. So it is not surprising that skilled immigrants experience labour market integration that is devalued and relegated to precarious, dead-end jobs.</p>
<p>Our research proposes that emphasis on new skilled immigrants’ personal responsibility for integration into the labour market downplays the role of immigration policies and exclusionary attitudes toward them. </p>
<p>The necessity of volunteering services to demonstrate the “fit” for the Canadian work environment, or the ubiquity of the “start from the bottom” narrative as a rite of passage for those who came to Canada with credentials and professional skills, has been captured in the photographs and stories of our research participants. </p>
<p>One participant said a settlement worker told them the accreditation and licensing process is overwhelmingly complicated and long in order to discourage applicants, and that “[v]ery few of our engineer clients pass through the process successfully.” The participant was later offered a survival job in a warehouse: “I realized that [the settlement worker] was completely right about the licensing process and the regulating organizations, so I decided to burn my degree and start from scratch in a field I like.”</p>
<p>Many skilled immigrants <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13557850802227049">experience challenges</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13557858.2016.1180347">job market integration</a> <a href="https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2700/">as a personal failure</a>
and often <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/04/05/3-in-10-young-immigrants-may-leave-canada-in-2-years-survey/">consider leaving the country</a> soon after arriving. </p>
<p>Those who remain regularly end up working dead-end jobs, with many internalizing society’s narrative about their own inadequacy. </p>
<p>Some immigrants, however, don’t lose sight of their pre-immigration accomplishments and understand the role of the system in their plight. <a href="https://flipbookpdf.net/web/site/bf8d7baca741cdd4dedb0200a0cdd1064d6ae827FBP24692603.pdf.html">One of our participants</a> said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I feel like red wine inside [that] bottle. [The] wine that has a complex flavour. From where I came from, I was infused with training, skills and experience — and I felt well-seasoned. I thought I was half-full. Ready to offer what I have. But then, employers have viewed me as half-empty. Not bearing the "made in Canada” label, not bearing any Canadian exposure. I needed to be reprocessed and go through quality control despite the richness of my experience.“</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A glass of red wine in front of a bottle" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461311/original/file-20220504-25-3qzxxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461311/original/file-20220504-25-3qzxxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461311/original/file-20220504-25-3qzxxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461311/original/file-20220504-25-3qzxxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461311/original/file-20220504-25-3qzxxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461311/original/file-20220504-25-3qzxxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461311/original/file-20220504-25-3qzxxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the participants, FLS, took a photo of a bottle of wine to illustrate their experience trying to get a job in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(FLS)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moving beyond the job search</h2>
<p>The government response to the gap between skilled immigrants’ potential and their professional job integration often includes "job search skills training” programs. </p>
<p>Although an important part of labour market integration, utilizing the training and doing everything by the book did not prevent participants in our study from being judged, dealt with suspicion, ghosted by recruiters and employers or outright exploited during their internships or volunteering efforts.</p>
<p>So, do education and professional credentials lead to the successful integration of skilled immigrants? In short, no.</p>
<p>It is clear that we need to challenge the way we think about skilled immigrants’ employment integration and <a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-removing-%E2%80%9Ccanadian-experience%E2%80%9D-barrier">remove the barriers such as the “Canadian experience” requirement</a>. We also need to stop expecting immigrants to be resilient to the challenges they experience and search for solutions to problems that no one should need the resilience to survive in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriela Novotna receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Institute of Health Research, Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, and Alberta Gambling Research Institute.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marina Morgenshtern receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. </span></em></p>Skilled immigrants need barriers like Canadian experience removed in order for them to successfully integrate into the Canadian economy.Gabriela Novotna, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of ReginaMarina Morgenshtern, Assistant Professor, Social Work, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1768422022-03-31T19:29:32Z2022-03-31T19:29:32ZHow we think about immunity can help us navigate COVID-19 risks together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455651/original/file-20220331-26-pfeipc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=724%2C160%2C4643%2C3412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Viewing immunity as a carpet that we weave together evokes labour and artistry, and suggests we have a role in crafting something rather than simply being acted upon by a virus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</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/how-we-think-about-immunity-can-help-us-navigate-covid-19-risks-together" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Back in February, Peter Jüni, then scientific director of Ontario’s <a href="https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/">Scientific Advisory Table</a>, stated on a CBC Radio <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-13-cross-country-checkup/clip/15893561-full-episode-is-start-living-covid-19">call-in show</a> that, “We are continuing to weave a carpet of immunity.” </p>
<p>As a health humanities researcher working on how COVID-19 informs our cultural imagining of immunity, I was struck by Jüni’s metaphor. Now, with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/dr-peter-juni-stepping-down-science-table-new-job-1.6389800">his impending departure</a> coinciding with the end of mask and vaccine mandates, I find myself considering the metaphor anew. </p>
<p>At a time when authorities are advising individuals to <a href="https://www.tvo.org/transcript/2692413/how-ontarians-have-to-manage-their-own-covid-risk">make their own risk assessments</a> as we head into a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8720190/canada-6th-covid-wave-explainer/">sixth COVID-19 wave</a>, public health messaging has never been more important. </p>
<p>Jüni’s metaphorical “carpet of immunity” conjured up an image of something meticulously crafted and spreading protectively over our region. It also illustrated how the language of public health can invite the public to think differently about immunity, a complex biological system that the pandemic has thrust into daily life.</p>
<h2>Language, metaphor and health</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455339/original/file-20220330-5922-dqv7gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Grid of 15 different physical distancing signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455339/original/file-20220330-5922-dqv7gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455339/original/file-20220330-5922-dqv7gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455339/original/file-20220330-5922-dqv7gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455339/original/file-20220330-5922-dqv7gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455339/original/file-20220330-5922-dqv7gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455339/original/file-20220330-5922-dqv7gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455339/original/file-20220330-5922-dqv7gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As we head into a potential sixth wave of COVID-19, individuals are being told to make their own risk assessments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Language matters. Theorists have been making this argument for decades in relation to <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312420130/illnessasmetaphorandaidsanditsmetaphors">cancer</a>, <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/how-to-have-theory-in-an-epidemic/">AIDS</a> and the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo14674212.html">cultural representation of disease</a> more generally. Language can often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/42.3.293">distort our understanding</a> of fundamental concepts of health and medicine, especially <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/204348/flexible-bodies-by-emily-martin/9780807046272">in the case of immunity</a>.</p>
<p>Philipp Dettmer, founder of YouTube science education channel Kurzgesagt and author of <em>Immune</em>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60171592">says of immunity</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“… people lack a good mental image of what the term means. They think of it as an energy shield that you can charge up. But it is not a thing at all, it’s a multitude of things.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a way of making sense of something we can’t see, metaphor often mediates our understanding of immunity. Seeking a more fitting way of imagining immunity, Eula Biss, author of <em>On Immunity: An Inoculation</em>, proposes the naturalistic image of the “garden” as an alternative to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59260294">standard fortress metaphor</a>. The garden image (based on an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/590200">ecological understanding of immunity</a>) suggests something in between the natural and the artificial. As <a href="https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/immunity">Biss explains</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The antibodies that generate immunity following vaccination are manufactured in the human body, not in factories. Using ingredients sourced from organisms, once living or still alive, vaccines invite the immune system to produce its own protection.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Vaccines are not perfectly natural, but neither are they “unnatural,” despite the arguments of wellness communities. In rejecting vaccines, these groups tend to glorify an idea of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22577558/wellness-world-qanon-conspiracy-orientalism">bodily purity</a> based on the frequent misappropriation and <a href="https://www.fridaythings.com/recent-posts/angela-liddon-oh-she-glows-canada-trucker-convoy-2022">misrepresentation</a> of Eastern spirituality. </p>
<p>This notion of the individual body’s ability to boost its “<a href="https://hub.jhu.edu/2021/09/10/infection-from-covid-vs-vaccines/">natural immunity</a>” has further fed resistance to public health measures and restrictions. </p>
<h2>Weaving the carpet</h2>
<p>A garden by its very nature is cultivated but can quite easily run wild if left untended. But a “carpet that we weave together” elegantly evokes labour and artistry. In suggesting that we have a role in crafting something rather than simply being acted upon by a virus, this phrasing offers an antidote, perhaps, to the pandemic-induced feelings of disempowerment seemingly fuelling anti-mandate demonstrations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Close-up of a carpet in progress on a loom" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455484/original/file-20220331-17-vmm62y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C129%2C1599%2C1068&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455484/original/file-20220331-17-vmm62y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455484/original/file-20220331-17-vmm62y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455484/original/file-20220331-17-vmm62y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455484/original/file-20220331-17-vmm62y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455484/original/file-20220331-17-vmm62y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455484/original/file-20220331-17-vmm62y.jpeg?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">Viewing immunity as a carpet that we weave together evokes labour and artistry, and suggests we have a role in crafting something rather than simply being acted upon by a virus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wikipedia Commons/Fulvio Spada)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This metaphor also sidesteps the divide between the artificial and the natural by intertwining both forms of immunity (acquired through either exposure to infection or vaccination) into something figuratively spun on a loom.</p>
<p>Jüni’s metaphor also seemed strategic in its reassuring domesticity: what is more commonplace than a carpet? In this sense, “carpet immunity” rejects <a href="https://www.wbfo.org/binational/2021-04-19/ontario-losing-the-battle-between-the-variants-and-vaccines">politicians</a>’ standard <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2016.1214305">militaristic imagery</a> of vaccines as a front line of defence against COVID-19 and its variants. </p>
<p>In its banality, the image captured what it means to live with the virus. In a biological sense, we “live with” the virus through our immune systems, which had an opportunity to get acquainted with SARS-CoV-2 under the controlled conditions afforded by mandates and vaccine rollouts. </p>
<h2>Immunity as a shared goal and responsibility</h2>
<p>From the early days of the pandemic, public health <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/how-public-health-messaging-backfired/618147/">struggled with its messaging</a> around mandates. But Jüni’s metaphor clearly calls on us to work together. Emerging from the pandemic, this formulation emphasizes mutual responsibility and invites us to think of immunity in social terms rather than simply individual terms.</p>
<p>However, this is a more difficult undertaking than one might expect. Immunity is informed by and layered over with <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/a-body-worth-defending">political</a> and <a href="https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=immunitas-the-protection-and-negation-of-life--9780745649139">legal meanings</a> stretching as far back as ancient Rome and filtered through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-5341-5-1">Enlightenment thought</a>. </p>
<p>As gender studies professor Ed Cohen reflects in <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/a-body-worth-defending"><em>A Body Worth Defending</em></a>, an idea of “immunity-as-defence” charged with maintaining clear boundaries around the individual has been fixed in western thinking since the 19th century. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455347/original/file-20220330-5413-c08ea5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People at a vaccine mandate protest holding signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455347/original/file-20220330-5413-c08ea5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455347/original/file-20220330-5413-c08ea5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455347/original/file-20220330-5413-c08ea5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455347/original/file-20220330-5413-c08ea5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455347/original/file-20220330-5413-c08ea5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455347/original/file-20220330-5413-c08ea5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455347/original/file-20220330-5413-c08ea5.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">Anti-vaccination discourse positions the robust, sovereign body as impervious to both infection and accountability.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, the “immunity as carpet” phrasing has to date been applied to immunity in precisely this original, legal sense. A quick Google search reveals multiple usages of the phrase “<a href="https://thenationonlineng.net/re-traditionalisation-globalisation-politics/">red carpet of immunity</a>” to signify the exemption of high-profile politicians and executives from prosecution. In this double sense, anti-vaccination discourse positions the robust, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/22/leftwingers-far-right-conspiracy-theories-anti-vaxxers-power">sovereign body</a> as impervious to both infection and accountability. </p>
<p>Yet scientists’ imagining of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538382/">collective immunity</a> posits exactly the opposite of exemption (in a social rather than medical sense). “<a href="https://www.un.org/en/un-coronavirus-communications-team/we-are-all-together-human-rights-and-covid-19-response-and">We are all in this together</a>,” we are told, with the same basic biology, entangled <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1261/ContagiousCultures-Carriers-and-the-Outbreak">by webs of contact</a> and the traces we leave behind. </p>
<p>The idea of “carpet immunity” captures the varied <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arq070">complexities of shared immune systems</a>. It is in its own way a unifying image in the weaving together of infection- and vaccination-induced antibodies. Taken together, these antibodies may over time give our society <a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02656-21">some measure of protection</a> against Omicron, its currently surging <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/omicron-subvariant-ba2-1.6393804">subvariant BA.2</a> and subsequent strains of the novel coronavirus. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-new-covid-19-variants-emerge-natural-selection-and-the-evolution-of-sars-cov-2-176030">How new COVID-19 variants emerge: Natural selection and the evolution of SARS-CoV-2</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Finally, “a carpet we weave together” evokes an image of artisans working in close proximity to create something both functional and ornamental. This collectivist metaphor offers an esthetically appealing alternative to the more familiar “herd immunity” increasingly seen as <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/omicron-highlights-fading-hope-of-herd-immunity-from-covid-19-1.5747676">out of reach</a>. It invites us to imagine immunity as a collaborative project, spreading out to protect those among us for whom the end of mandates means <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/ending-mask-mandates-is-a-betrayal-of-disabled-ontarians">increased vulnerability</a>. </p>
<p>Most importantly, this language challenges us to imagine what a post-pandemic future might look like if we commit to continuing to craft a “carpet of immunity” through vaccination, rather than unravelling it while it remains a work in progress. As Peter Jüni prepares to step down from the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, he leaves behind a model for how effective public health messaging can reshape ideas about both our bodies and our communities and affect our everyday practices (if we choose to listen).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly McGuire receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>The metaphor of a collective “carpet of immunity” invites us to imagine immunity as a collaborative project, spreading out to protect those for whom the end of mandates means increased vulnerability.Kelly McGuire, Associate Professor of Gender & Social Justice and English, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1764362022-02-13T13:13:47Z2022-02-13T13:13:47ZThe Canadian flag and the ‘freedom convoy’: The co-opting of Canadian symbols<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446001/original/file-20220211-25-14a0k0e.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C393%2C6895%2C2909&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trucks and supporters travel down Toronto's Bloor Street during a demonstration in support of the "freedom convoy."</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.environicsinstitute.org/docs/default-source/project-documents/focus-canada-2010/canadian-identity-and-symbols.pdf?sfvrsn=da78fcd0_2">Symbols matter to Canadians</a>. As Canadian society has evolved, so too have the symbols that inspire our collective imaginations. It should come as no surprise that the “freedom convoy” has sparked conversation with their use of Canadian symbology.</p>
<p>There are Canadian flags (right side up and upside down), Donald Trump flags and provincial flags alongside known <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/2022/02/03/with-swastikas-in-our-midst-canadians-must-say-no/341990">hate symbols — Confederate flags and swastikas</a> — on the streets of cities and at border crossings across the country. </p>
<p>Their use of symbols is puzzling. Displaying insignia that stands in contradiction to the Canadian notion of freedom alongside the Canadian flag creates challenges in understanding the movement’s message. </p>
<p>Is the co-opting of Canadian symbols shaping a collective sentiment about how they are viewed? And how did Canada land on those symbols in the first place?</p>
<h2>The Canadian flag</h2>
<p>An important point worth raising is that the flag protesters are waving about is a relatively young flag. It was designed and adopted in 1965, after <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP16CH1PA2LE.html">1964’s Great Flag Debate</a>. At the time, Canada was going through a national identity crisis.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/jcs.25.4.64">new flag had been decades in the making</a>. It was seen as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00358536508452535">a controversial move</a>, reflecting a lack of political will to replace <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-the-United-Kingdom">the Union Jack</a> or the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flags-canada-historical/posters.html#a4">Canadian Red Ensign</a>, both of which had served Canada over the years. </p>
<p>It was so controversial that previous prime ministers had <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/flag-debate">postponed the issue of selecting a new flag</a> for Canada on several occasions. Even when the committee met to select the successful design, the issue was hotly contested until it was eventually resolved to meet the looming deadline of Canada’s 1967 centenary celebrations.</p>
<p>When the flag was raised on Parliament Hill for the first time, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flag-canada-history.html">Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson read</a>: “May the land over which this new flag flies remain united in freedom and justice … sensitive, tolerant and compassionate towards all.” </p>
<p>This new flag was designed to articulate Canada as a sovereign nation, no longer bearing the heraldry of a colonial past.</p>
<h2>Inclusive and unified</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022022116687851">flag’s message about Canada as an inclusive, unified and just space</a> has been debated since then — arguably more effectively than in Ottawa these past two weeks. </p>
<p>For many Indigenous Peoples, the symbolism of the Canadian flag is glaringly incommensurate with their colonial experience, a message that has been continuously contested through the development of flags of resistance and alternative imagery — like the Warrior Flag flown by members of the Kanien'kehà:ka community during the <a href="https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/oka-crisis-the-legacy-of-the-warrior-flag">Oka Crisis</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the Canadian flag, in another context, could be seen as reflecting reconciliation — flown at <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-peace-tower-flag-to-remain-at-half-mast-for-canada-day-to-honour/">half-mast nationwide in remembrance of the children lost in residential schools</a>. In this case, the national flag was used precisely because of its importance as a symbol of unity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People walk down a road wearing Canada flags as capes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446004/original/file-20220211-15-1jdi2yh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446004/original/file-20220211-15-1jdi2yh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446004/original/file-20220211-15-1jdi2yh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446004/original/file-20220211-15-1jdi2yh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446004/original/file-20220211-15-1jdi2yh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446004/original/file-20220211-15-1jdi2yh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446004/original/file-20220211-15-1jdi2yh.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">Farmers and other supporters of the ‘freedom convoy’ rally on Highway 402 in Sarnia, Ont., closing off the Bluewater Bridge border crossing to U.S.-bound traffic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Robins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, the convoy’s efforts to <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/02/09/the-canadian-flag-as-a-national-symbol-as-been-critically-injured.html">appropriate national symbols</a> and the Canadian imagination have proven ineffective. </p>
<p>While the jumbled host of flags used by this group is meant to reflect genuine grassroots spontaneity and a relatively small, though united and vocal presence, its effect is just the opposite. The efforts appear as incoherent as the set of symbols they have chosen to deploy in its cause. </p>
<p>The movement in its early days seemed in search of symbols. Parliament buildings, monuments and commemorative statues were all targeted. Part of the project included draping the statue of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/terry-fox-statue-convoy-1.6333867">national hero Terry Fox</a> – who spent his last moments on earth drawing attention to the critical role of scientific and health research — with paraphernalia in support of their cause.</p>
<h2>Does the flag unite Canadians?</h2>
<p>Has the flag outlived its specific use and intended specific political representation? Or will it be now seen as a symbol which has outlived its usefulness? </p>
<p>Will <a href="https://theprovince.com/opinion/paul-keeling-we-should-not-let-freedom-convoy-protest-claim-the-canadian-flag">more and more Canadians become increasingly uncomfortable with its symbolic content</a> after such public demonstrations and its association with such a toxic brand of nationalism? </p>
<p>Wondering if the previously inoffensive symbolism of the maple leaf flag will remain unscathed is not so far-fetched. Can any one symbol suit the purposes of both those who enforce and challenge state laws and regulations equally?</p>
<p>It is hard to know whether to be morally outraged at the trivialization of the hard-won freedoms that the “freedom convoy” has perpetuated, or simply dumbfounded by the sheer nonchalance of the protesters choice of symbolism. For most Canadians, I suspect <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canada-flag-convoy-protest-1.6344027">that it is a little of both</a>.</p>
<p>In the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University, scholars delve into critical examinations across a range of themes — environment, nationalism, sovereignty, Indigeneity, diversity and immigration — exploring the Canadian identity and Canada’s role in the world today. This includes exploring how current issues, including the “freedom convoy”, are perceived by Canadians and people around the world.</p>
<p>The flag Canada first raised in 1965 was a symbol used to unite Canadians as a shared nation — an exciting new symbol that Canadians were proud of. </p>
<p>Feb. 15 marks Flag Day in Canada, and so perhaps this is a good time to ask ourselves if this is still true? Does the flag unite Canadians, or confuse them as its symbolism is used to different ends and causes? Can any symbol really speak for all of us? </p>
<p>Perhaps what will come of this moment in Canadian history is a new set of symbols, arguably not perfect and not uncontested, but reflective of our times.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176436/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Nicol 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>Does the flag unite Canadians, or confuse them as its symbolism is used to different ends and causes?Heather Nicol, Director, School for the Study of Canada & Canadian Studies and the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1735782022-01-03T15:58:40Z2022-01-03T15:58:40ZScientific certainty survival kit: How to push back against skeptics who exploit uncertainty for political gain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438254/original/file-20211217-13309-zl5c72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6025%2C3999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It can be difficult to distinguish between the calls of sincere scientists for more research to reach greater certainty, and the politically motivated criticisms of science skeptics. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</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/scientific-certainty-survival-kit--how-to-push-back-against-skeptics-who-exploit-uncertainty-for-political-gain" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The mathematician Kurt Gödel was obsessed by the fear that he would die by poisoning. He refused to eat a meal unless it was prepared by his wife, the only person he trusted. When she fell ill and was sent to hospital, <a href="https://www.ias.edu/kurt-g%C3%B6del-life-work-and-legacy">Gödel died of starvation</a>.</p>
<p>His death is sad, but also ironic: The man who discovered that even logical systems are incomplete — that some truths are unprovable — died because he demanded complete proof that his food was safe. He demanded more of his lasagne than he did of logic. </p>
<p>“Don’t eat unless you are 100 per cent certain your food is safe” is a principle that will kill a person as certainly as any poison. So, in the face of uncertainty about our food we take precautions and then we eat — knowing there remains the slimmest chance an unknown enemy has laced our meal with arsenic.</p>
<p>The example of Gödel teaches us a lesson: sometimes the demand for absolute certainty can be dangerous and even deadly. Despite this, demands for absolute or near certainty are a common way for those with a political agenda to undermine science and to delay action. Through our combined experience in science, philosophy and cultural theory, we are acquainted with these attempts to undermine science. We want to help readers figure out how to evaluate their merits or lack thereof. </p>
<h2>A brief history of certainty</h2>
<p>Scientists have amassed abundant evidence that <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/basic_info/risk_factors.htm">smoking causes cancer</a>, that the <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/">climate is changing because of humans</a> and that <a href="https://hub.jhu.edu/2017/01/11/vaccines-autism-public-health-expert/">vaccines are safe and effective</a>. But scientists have not proven these results definitively, nor will they ever do so. </p>
<p>Oncology, climate science and epidemiology are not branches of pure mathematics, defined by absolute certainty. Yet it has become something of an industry to disparage the scientific results because they fail to provide certainty equal to 2+2=4. </p>
<p>Some science skeptics say that findings about smoking, global warming and vaccines <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199356102.001.0001/acprof-9780199356102-chapter-10">lack certainty</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22291183/skeptic-covid-vaccine-climate-change-denial-election-fraud">are therefore unreliable</a>. “What if the science is wrong?” they ask. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-denial-2-0-was-on-full-display-at-cop26-but-there-was-also-pushback-171639">Climate change denial 2.0 was on full display at COP26, but there was also pushback</a>
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<p>This concern can be valid; scientists themselves worry about it. But carried to excess, such criticism often serves political agendas by <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/doubt-is-their-product-9780195300673?cc=ca&lang=en&">persuading people to lose trust in science</a> and <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/trend/archive/winter-2021/why-we-must-rebuild-trust-in-science">avoid taking action</a>.</p>
<p>Over 2,000 years ago Aristotle wrote that “<a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.1.i.html">it is the mark of an educated person to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits</a>.” Scientists have agreed for centuries that it is inappropriate to seek absolute certainty from the empirical sciences. </p>
<p>For example, one of the fathers of modern science, Francis Bacon, wrote in 1620 that his “<em>Novum Organum</em>” — a new method or logic for studying and understanding natural phenomenon — would <a href="https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/bacon-novum-organum#Bacon_0415_82">chart a middle path between the excess of dogmatic certainty and the excess of skeptical doubt</a>. This middle path is marked by increasing degrees of probability achieved by careful observation, skilfully executed tests and the collection of evidence. </p>
<p>To demand perfect certainty from scientists now is to be 400 years behind on one’s reading on scientific methodology.</p>
<h2>A certainty survival kit</h2>
<p>It can be difficult to distinguish between the calls of sincere scientists for more research to reach greater certainty, on the one hand, and the politically motivated criticisms of science skeptics, on the other. But there are some ways to tell the difference: First, we highlight some common tactics employed by science skeptics and, second, we provide questions readers might ask when they encounter doubt about scientific certainty.</p>
<p>One common tactic is the old “correlation does not equal causation” chestnut. This one was <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2105%2FAJPH.2011.300292">used by the tobacco industry to challenge the link between smoking and cancer in the 1950s and ‘60s</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A package of cigarettes on a table with one cigarette beside it. The box shows a photograph of a tongue covered in white spots, a form of oral cancer caused primarily by smoking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438253/original/file-20211217-25-sngx0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438253/original/file-20211217-25-sngx0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438253/original/file-20211217-25-sngx0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438253/original/file-20211217-25-sngx0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438253/original/file-20211217-25-sngx0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438253/original/file-20211217-25-sngx0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438253/original/file-20211217-25-sngx0j.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2001, Canada became the first country to introduce photographic warnings on cigarette packages, which often focus on cancer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Denis Savard</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Smoking is merely correlated with cancer, the tobacco industry and their representatives argued, it didn’t necessarily cause cancer. But these critics left out the fact that the correlation is very strong, smoking precedes cancer and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1898525/pdf/procrsmed00196-0010.pdf">other potential causes are unable to account for this correlation</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53010/">the science linking smoking and lung cancer is now quite clear given the decades of research that produced volumes of supporting evidence</a>. This tactic continues to be a mainstay of many science skeptics even though scientists have well-tested abilities to separate simple correlation from cause and effect relationships.</p>
<p>Another tactic argues that science is unable to prove anything positive, that science only tests and ultimately falsifies theories, conjectures and hypotheses. And so, skeptics say, the real work of science is not to establish truths definitively, but to refute falsehoods definitively. If this were true, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-underdetermination/">scientific claims would always be “underdetermined”</a> — the idea that whatever evidence is available may not be sufficient to determine whether we believe something to be true.</p>
<p>For example, science could never prove true the claim that humans are warming the planet. While science may fall short of complete proof, scientists nevertheless amass <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021GL096644">such great evidence that they render their conclusions the most rational among the alternatives</a>. </p>
<p>Science has moved past this criticism of underdetermination, which rests on an outdated philosophy of science made popular by Karl Popper early last century, according to which <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/#BasiStatFalsConv">science merely falsifies, but never proves</a>. Larry Laudan, a philosopher of science, wrote an influential 1990 essay, “<a href="https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/185722/14_12Laudan.pdf">Demystifying underdetermination</a>,” that shows that this objection to scientific methodology is sloppy and exaggerated. </p>
<p>Scientists can reach conclusions that one explanation is more rational than competing claims, even if scientists cannot prove their conclusions through demonstration. These extensive and varied lines of evidence can collectively lead to positive conclusions and allow us to <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM_final.pdf">know with a high level of certainty that humans are indeed warming the planet</a>.</p>
<h2>Scientists can be the target too</h2>
<p>Another way to drum up uncertainty about what we know is through attacks on scientists. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02741-x">Personal attacks on public health officials during the ongoing pandemic are a prime example</a>. These attacks are often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2020.1741420">framed more broadly to implicate scientists as untrustworthy, profit-seeking or politically motivated</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438248/original/file-20211217-13309-c7f4x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Wegener's original black and white schematic showing the Earth's continents locked together like a jigsaw puzzle in the first panel, and spread out into their current configuration in the last." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438248/original/file-20211217-13309-c7f4x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438248/original/file-20211217-13309-c7f4x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438248/original/file-20211217-13309-c7f4x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438248/original/file-20211217-13309-c7f4x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438248/original/file-20211217-13309-c7f4x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1271&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438248/original/file-20211217-13309-c7f4x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1271&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438248/original/file-20211217-13309-c7f4x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1271&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alfred Wegener proposed in 1912 that the continents were once joined together into a single landmass and had drifted apart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De_Wegener_Kontinente_018.jpg">(Alfred Wegener/Wikimedia)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, consensus among scientists is sometimes touted as no guarantee of truth or, in other words, scientists are sometimes wrong. One well-known example involves the theory of plate tectonics, where the scientific community for several decades largely dismissed the idea proposed by geophysicist Alfred Wegener. This consensus rapidly shifted in the 1960s as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/plate-tectonics/">evidence mounted in support of continental drift</a>. </p>
<p>While scientists may be using <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/science-top-10-erroneous-results-mistakes">flawed data, suffer from a lack of data or sometimes misinterpret the data that they have</a>, the scientific approach allows for the reconsideration and rethinking of what is known when new evidence arises. While highlighting the occasional scientific mistake can create sensational headlines and reduce trust in scientists, the reality is that science is transparent about its mistakes and generally self-correcting when these issues arise. This is a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/how-science-changes/266145/">feature of science, not a bug</a>.</p>
<h2>Being mindful about certainty</h2>
<p>When reading critiques that inflate the uncertainty of science, we suggest asking the following questions to determine whether the critique is being made in the interest of advancing science or procuring public health, or whether it is being made by someone with a hidden agenda:</p>
<ol>
<li> Who is making the argument? What are their credentials?</li>
<li> Whose interests are served by the argument?</li>
<li> Is the critique of science selective or focused only on science that runs against the interests represented by the speaker? </li>
<li> Does the argument involve any self-critique?</li>
<li> Is the speaker doubting the existence of the problem? Or asking for delay in action until certainty is obtained? Who stands to benefit from this delay?</li>
<li> Does the speaker require a high level of certainty on the one hand, but not on the other? For instance, if the argument is that the safety of a vaccine is not sufficiently certain, what makes the argument against its safety sufficient? </li>
<li> Has the argument made clear how much uncertainty there is? Has the speaker specified a threshold at which point they would feel certain enough to act?</li>
</ol>
<p>A friend of ours recently encountered a vaccine skeptic who articulated their problem this way: “I don’t know what’s in it.” In fact, we do know what is in vaccines, as much as we can know for certain what is in anything else we put in our bodies. The same question can be fruitfully asked of any argument we put in our minds: “Am I sure I know what’s in it?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173578/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Frost receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Xenopoulos receives funding from Canada Research Chairs and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. She is Editor-in-Chief of JGR: Biogeosciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Epp is affiliated with the NDP as a member and volunteer</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Hickson 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>Skeptics may make demands for absolute certainty to undermine science and delay action. Critiques may not be in the interest of advancing science and public health, but by someone with an agenda.Paul Frost, David Schindler Professor of Aquatic Science, Trent UniversityMarguerite Xenopoulos, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Change of Freshwater Ecosystems, Trent UniversityMichael Epp, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies, Trent UniversityMichael Hickson, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1699352021-11-18T19:46:57Z2021-11-18T19:46:57ZTeaching university students to be ‘age-conscious’ could help address our elder care crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432271/original/file-20211116-17-1vf9b3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=74%2C202%2C4917%2C2956&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What it's like to get older? A course on the psychology of aging helped students gain empathy and curiosity.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How does systemic ageism affect our society? <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-systemic-ageism-to-blame-for-covid-19-deaths-in-quebec-care-homes/">A coroner’s inquest into COVID-19 deaths in long-term care homes in Québec</a> recently heard that ageism was a contributing factor. </p>
<p>This is one of many recent examples of the ways ageism is entrenched into our institutional and social structures, and negatively impacts people and systems.
The pandemic brought the critical consequences of ageism to the forefront, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2020.1764319">older people’s basic human rights were dramatically affected</a>. </p>
<p>Sarah Fraser, a professor in the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at University of Ottawa, and global colleagues, documented how some public reporting throughout the pandemic has misrepresented <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa097">and undervalued older people</a>. For example, they highlight that “younger adults who have died from complications of COVID-19 throughout the world have often generated long and in-depth media reports, while the deaths of thousands of older adults have been simply counted and summarized” and “the failure of the public authorities in France to report mortality figures for older adults in nursing homes.” </p>
<p>Significant health ramifications, social isolation and the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-83040-3">loss of millions of older lives</a> around the world followed.</p>
<p>In 30 years, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/ageing/WorldPopulationAgeing2019-Highlights.pdf">one in six people will be over 65</a>. How do we better safeguard systems against discriminatory practices towards older adults and ageism? </p>
<p>Alongside my colleagues Éric R. Thériault and Amber Colibaba, I recently examined how our society can tackle ageism, starting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0714980821000246">in university classrooms</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People stand outside a long term care home next to a long banner." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432287/original/file-20211116-25-11awqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432287/original/file-20211116-25-11awqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432287/original/file-20211116-25-11awqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432287/original/file-20211116-25-11awqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432287/original/file-20211116-25-11awqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432287/original/file-20211116-25-11awqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432287/original/file-20211116-25-11awqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People place a sign translating to ‘protect our seniors’ outside Maison Herron, a long-term care home in the Montréal suburb of Dorval, in April 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Changing negative archetypes</h2>
<p>Common societal archetypes of aging in the West are <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Prejudice-Stereotyping-and-Discrimination-2nd-Edition/Nelson/p/book/9781848726697">predominantly negative</a>, embodying the repulsive, the deteriorating and the irrelevant. </p>
<p>Though the implications of ageism are dire, concerns about ageism outside of those working with or caring for older people are often quieter. Youth are the next generation of adults who will be interacting with, working with and caring for older people. </p>
<p>The language of ageism as a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305123">global crisis</a>” underlines the urgent need to understand and disrupt ageism, and to advocate for critical, supportive resources for changing cultural attitudes toward older lives.</p>
<h2>Teaching young adults about aging</h2>
<p>Research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ggi.12894">increased exposure to and interactions with older adults</a> can reduce ageist views among college students.
While a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2015.1059139">gold standard of inter-generational learning</a> can be achieved through service learning — when students and older people actively work together on an activity or project — this is often infeasible. </p>
<p>Many universities laud “<a href="https://cou.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/COU-Experiential-Learning-Report-2014.pdf">experiential learning</a>,” yet the onus may fall upon individual faculty members to implement applied inter-generational activities. In an era of limited-term faculty appointments, stretched faculty members and budget trimming, the capacity to fund service learning and develop the required community relationships is limited. </p>
<p>Our study sought to understand how undergraduate students’ attitudes towards older adults and the aging process could shift after completing a lecture-based undergraduate course, that involved no service learning, about the psychology of aging. We analyzed student respones to two similar classes at two Canadian universities between 2019 and 2020.</p>
<h2>Reducing fear</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Two younger women stand beside an older woman in the middle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429755/original/file-20211102-27-ilvtil.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429755/original/file-20211102-27-ilvtil.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429755/original/file-20211102-27-ilvtil.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429755/original/file-20211102-27-ilvtil.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429755/original/file-20211102-27-ilvtil.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429755/original/file-20211102-27-ilvtil.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429755/original/file-20211102-27-ilvtil.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=842&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Danielle Willette (left) and Amber Allen (right), graduating Trent psychology students, with class visitor Ruth Greenley.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Elizabeth Russell)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2017, my class welcomed Ruth Greenley to speak with us, however more recent classes, including those involved in the study, did not include older visitors.
Without interacting with older people, students learned about the theory and research of aging from an intersectional lens that considered determinants of health such as socio-economic status. Voices of older 2SLGBTQ+ and racialized community members were woven throughout each section of the course. </p>
<p>After taking the course offered at Trent University and Cape Breton University, two undergraduate student cohorts at each of these schools participated in semi-structured focus groups/interviews. </p>
<p>Our data showed that simple, lecture-based courses focused on the psychology of aging can facilitate the development of an age-conscious student — those who are not ageist, do not fear aging and are attuned to the aging process.</p>
<h2>Course learning</h2>
<p>Most students taking the course, early on, viewed older people in one of two problemantic ways: critically (as irrelevant) or patronizingly (as dependent). One student summarized this as putting older people “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0714980821000246">in the ‘boomer remover’ camp or the ‘I really like my grandpa’ camp</a>.”
“Boomer remover” was a phrase that emerged early in the pandemic <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/boomer-remover-meme-trends-virus-coronavirus-social-media-covid-19-baby-boomers-1492190">as a kind of cruel shorthand for COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>After finishing the course, many students reflected that both of these previously held polarized views were equally harmful and ageist. Students were more age-conscious and demonstrated greater awareness of varied experiences of aging.</p>
<p>One student said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Learning about the difficulties that different marginalized groups face when they are older … it was something that I never thought about because it’s not a visible issue.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Students also connected personally with aging and, importantly, become less ageist. It was surprising — or, in their words, “eye opening”, “shocking” and “outlook-changing” — that despite health challenges, older people can lead fulfilling and impactful lives. Such insights prompted empathy toward
older adults. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two dapper older men smiling with their arms around each other, one Black and one white." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432286/original/file-20211116-25-puwhrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432286/original/file-20211116-25-puwhrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432286/original/file-20211116-25-puwhrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432286/original/file-20211116-25-puwhrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432286/original/file-20211116-25-puwhrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432286/original/file-20211116-25-puwhrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432286/original/file-20211116-25-puwhrh.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">Some students found it surprising that despite health challenges, older people can lead fulfilling lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One student commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I keep going back to this whole like, deaf and losing your eyesight as you age … that just surprised me so much and it was so impactful. You always think, ‘Oh, the grumpy old man.’… But no. He can’t hear so he can’t talk to you, he can’t listen to his favourite music. I’d be grumpy too.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Universities’ role in reducing ageism</h2>
<p>Our research shows that attitudes can be changed and that universities can play a leading role in developing age-conscious youth. Post-secondary courses focusing on aging in any relevant department offer one way to achieve this. Critically, this study shows that age-consciousness can develop within standard, lecture-based courses focused on aging. </p>
<p>Ageism was present long before the devastating impacts of the pandemic. However, simple interventions to improve inter-generational interactions are needed now more than ever to develop more socially conscious citizens. People may be more willing to speak out against the stigma of aging, and to work towards developing the necessary resources to support growing older with dignity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Russell received funding from SSHRC (SSHRC Explore Grant). </span></em></p>Universities can have a role forming age-conscious students: those who aren’t ageist, don’t fear aging and are attuned to the aging process.Elizabeth Russell, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology; Director, Trent Centre for Aging & Society, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1643762021-10-25T15:39:09Z2021-10-25T15:39:09ZVaccination contre la Covid-19 : le prochain défi sera de convaincre les parents hésitants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411103/original/file-20210713-17-1g2h4cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3676%2C2623&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Un groupe de jeunes élèves font la file pour recevoir leur vaccin contre la Covid-19 dans un centre de vaccination de Deux-Montagnes, au Québec, le jeudi 10 juin 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Ryan Remiorz </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Le développement de plusieurs nouveaux vaccins à ARNm et à vecteur viral en l’espace d’une seule année a changé notre façon de comprendre l’hésitation à la vaccination.</p>
<p>En tant que chercheuse sur le genre et la justice sociale en sciences humaines et de la santé, j’ai commencé à suivre l’hésitation à la vaccination contre la Covid-19 au printemps 2020. Mon assistant de recherche et moi avons analysé les débats sur le sujet dans les médias sociaux et les forums en ligne.</p>
<p>Nous avons constaté que l’hésitation à l’égard du vaccin contre la Covid-19 est imprévisible et instable, car de nouvelles données concernant les vaccins apparaissent sur une base presque hebdomadaire.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/la-reticence-a-se-faire-vacciner-diminue-au-canada-mais-il-est-trop-tot-pour-se-rejouir-165344">La réticence à se faire vacciner diminue au Canada, mais il est trop tôt pour se réjouir</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Comme le nouveau coronavirus n’était pas considéré comme une menace pour les enfants jusqu’à récemment, les efforts de santé publique visant à renforcer la confiance envers les vaccins tout au long de la pandémie ont généralement ciblé la population adulte.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413613/original/file-20210728-25-1gbj1jy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413613/original/file-20210728-25-1gbj1jy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413613/original/file-20210728-25-1gbj1jy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413613/original/file-20210728-25-1gbj1jy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413613/original/file-20210728-25-1gbj1jy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413613/original/file-20210728-25-1gbj1jy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413613/original/file-20210728-25-1gbj1jy.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-fr/topics/confiance-dans-les-vaccins-au-canada-107062">Cliquez ici pour lire d’autres articles de notre série sur les vaccins</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mais voilà que le vaccin pédiatrique de Pfizer-BioNTech sera approuvé très prochainement par Santé Canada.<a href="https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/2021-10-21/vaccin-pfizer-biontech-pour-les-5-11-ans/les-doses-arriveront-tres-peu-apres-une-approbation.php"> Le pays recevra près de 3 millions de doses, </a>soit suffisamment pour injecter une première dose à tous les enfants de 5 à 11 ans, a annoncé Justin Trudeau la semaine dernière.</p>
<p>Mais un récent sondage d’Angus Reid montre que seulement 51 % des parents <a href="https://www.lesoleil.com/actualite/covid-19/vaccination-des-5-a-11-ans-des-parents-qui-hesitent-75a2bce5a03cdc20c1307a055cbabb85">prévoient de faire vacciner immédiatement leurs enfants lorsqu’une dose pédiatrique sera disponible.</a> Et le quart ont déclaré qu’ils ne donneraient jamais à leurs enfants un vaccin contre la Covid-19.</p>
<p>Ainsi, l’hésitation des parents apparaît comme le prochain défi des campagnes de vaccination.</p>
<p>Le vaccin contre la rougeole, les oreillons et la rubéole (ROR a suscité la controverse lorsqu’un <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal1110">article non fondé et discrédité par la suite</a> avait établi un lien entre ce vaccin et l’autisme. Compte tenu de ces associations passées, il est important de s’attarder à la manière dont le vaccin contre la Covid-19 est perçu par les parents.</p>
<h2>Les mères plus réticentes</h2>
<p>Depuis les années 1970, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2013.0047">ce sont surtout les mères</a>, en tant que principales responsables des décisions médicales concernant leurs enfants, qui ont manifesté des réticences face à la vaccination.</p>
<p>Alors qu’un nombre croissant de répondants s’identifiant comme des hommes expriment leur scepticisme – peut-être influencés par les <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X20000409">théories conspirationnistes</a> véhiculées par les médias sociaux – les <a href="https://osf.io/e95bc/">sondages américains</a> suggèrent que les mères (en particulier les jeunes mères) continuent de faire preuve d’une plus grande hésitation que les pères vis-à-vis du vaccin contre la Covid-19.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pourquoi-les-anti-vaccins-prennent-ils-un-tel-risque-de-declencher-une-crise-de-sante-publique-117148">Pourquoi les anti-vaccins prennent-ils un tel risque de déclencher une crise de santé publique ?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Les <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/12/03/intent-to-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-rises-to-60-as-confidence-in-research-and-development-process-increases/">premières recherches</a> suggéraient que les femmes étaient plus hésitantes que les hommes. Cependant, <a href="https://sante-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/couverture-vaccinale/">l’acceptation du vaccin est en fait plus élevée</a> chez les femmes au Canada et aux États-Unis. Dans les faits, l’hésitation des femmes ne s’est pas traduite par un refus plus élevé du vaccin. Ces résultats suggèrent que l’hésitation de la mère ne se traduit pas nécessairement par un rejet de la vaccination pour son enfant.</p>
<h2>Adultes vaccinés = enfants vaccinés ?</h2>
<p>La plupart des adultes nord-américains ont été vaccinés dans leur enfance contre toute une série de maladies contagieuses, des oreillons à la polio. Cependant, en tant qu’adultes, ils peuvent craindre que les ingrédients des vaccins, l’intervalle réduit entre les doses ou que les effets secondaires affectent leurs enfants – même s’ils ont eux-mêmes reçu plusieurs de ces vaccins des années auparavant.</p>
<p>Or avec les vaccins contre la Covid-19, la période entre le moment où les parents se font vacciner et celui où ils emmènent leurs enfants se faire vacciner est beaucoup plus courte qu’avec les vaccins infantiles.</p>
<p>Alors que des décennies séparent la vaccination des parents contre la polio ou la rubéole de celle de leur enfant, il ne s’écoule que quelques semaines ou quelques mois entre les deux générations dans le cas du vaccin contre la Covid-19. L’hésitation des parents, dont plusieurs ont reçu leur première dose et sont en voie – ou ont déjà reçu – la deuxième, diminuera-t-elle dans ce contexte ?</p>
<p>On pourrait s’attendre à ce que les parents qui recevront leurs deux doses fassent les mêmes choix pour leurs enfants. Cependant, selon un <a href="https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/e95bc">article</a> qui n’a pas encore été revu par les pairs et qui provient du <a href="https://covidstates.org">Covid States Project</a> – une enquête menée dans 50 États américains sur la Covid-19 – 26 % des parents interrogés disent qu’ils pourraient choisir la vaccination pour eux-mêmes, mais pas pour leurs enfants.</p>
<p>Plusieurs raisons expliquent pourquoi. Les personnes interrogées peuvent penser que les enfants <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/parenting/coronavirus-children-spread-covid-19.html">« n’attrapent pas la Covid »</a> parce que les cas sont moins fréquents et moins graves chez les jeunes enfants que chez les adultes. Ils peuvent avoir lu de fausses informations selon lesquelles les <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1757050/vaccin-pfizer-biontech-covid-sterile-strilisation-femmes-yeadon-wodarg">vaccins causeraient l’infertilité</a>, ou peuvent considérer que le système immunitaire des adultes est plus robuste que celui des enfants.</p>
<p>Les parents peuvent être prêts à se soumettre à d’éventuels effets indésirables, mais ils ne veulent pas prendre ce risque pour leurs enfants. Ils peuvent aussi hésiter si le vaccin désigné pour leur enfant diffère de celui qu’ils ont reçu.</p>
<p>Quoi qu’il en soit, la perspective que des parents soient immunisés avec des enfants non protégés rouvre les débats éthiques sur la façon dont nous équilibrons les droits individuels et nos responsabilités collectives.</p>
<p>La Covid-19 a changé la donne sur la <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2F1742-7622-3-13">vaccination des enfants</a> qui soulève une polémique à chaque nouvelle éclosion de rougeole depuis quelques années. Comme le <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-covid-19-creuse-les-inegalites-daujourdhui-mais-aussi-celles-de-demain-138288">virus</a> et les <a href="https://theconversation.com/une-pandemie-qui-met-en-lumiere-les-injustices-sociales-135405">tentatives pour le contenir</a> touchent de manière disproportionnée les groupes marginalisés, le concept d’« immunité collective » devient une question de justice sociale.</p>
<h2>Une immunité inégalement répartie</h2>
<p>C’est pourquoi la perspective d’une immunité inégalement répartie, avec une surreprésentation des enfants parmi les personnes non vaccinées, est profondément inquiétante. La résolution du conflit <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-un-impact-plus-grand-chez-les-femmes-138287">travail-famille, qui a touché de manière disproportionnée les femmes</a> l’année dernière, dépend de la réussite d’une campagne de vaccination qui assurera une réouverture complète et permanente des écoles et des garderies.</p>
<p>Les inquiétudes des parents s’estomperont. Malgré certaines tendances récurrentes liées au sexe, certains indicateurs montrent que les préoccupations des parents concernant d’autres vaccins ne sont pas les mêmes dans l’hésitation à l’égard des vaccins contre la Covid-19.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Une fillette reçoit un vaccin dans une salle de classe" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412250/original/file-20210720-21-8dd2b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412250/original/file-20210720-21-8dd2b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412250/original/file-20210720-21-8dd2b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412250/original/file-20210720-21-8dd2b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412250/original/file-20210720-21-8dd2b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412250/original/file-20210720-21-8dd2b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412250/original/file-20210720-21-8dd2b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Les inquiétudes des parents s’estomperont peut-être lorsque les jeunes enfants seront enfin éligibles à la vaccination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>La pandémie nous a appris qu’il sera essentiel de communiquer clairement les enjeux lorsque les vaccins seront approuvés et autorisés pour les jeunes enfants. La confiance des parents est fragile et pourrait se briser devant un <a href="https://theconversation.com/ces-graves-erreurs-de-communication-qui-alimentent-lhesitation-vaccinale-160418">message mixte ou incohérent</a> comme celui envoyé lors du déploiement du vaccin d’AstraZeneca.</p>
<p>Plus important encore, l’hésitation des parents à se faire vacciner peut découler de positions de privilège et de marginalisation. Les membres de certains groupes opprimés <a href="https://harpers.org/2013/01/the-class-politics-of-vaccination/">ont été forcés de se faire vacciner</a> dans le passé. Ainsi, certaines personnes peuvent avoir des raisons historiques de se méfier d’initiatives de santé publique quand elles ont vécu des campagnes de vaccination parrainées par un État qui accordait peu de valeur à la vie de leurs enfants.</p>
<p>Dans le contexte actuel, l’inégalité d’accès et les difficultés logistiques comme celles de devoir s’absenter du travail pour emmener les enfants aux rendez-vous compliquent également cette question de l’hésitation. Ceci est <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32727-6">particulièrement vrai pour les mères</a>, sur qui pèsent généralement ces responsabilités.</p>
<p>À cet égard, la <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/social-justice-9780195375138?cc=ca&lang=en&">justice sociale et les questions d’équité</a> doivent également être des considérations centrales dans la réponse aux préoccupations des parents et de leurs enfants.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Vous avez une question sur les vaccins Covid-19 ? Envoyez-nous un courriel à l’adresse <a href="mailto:ca-vaccination@theconversation.com">ca-vaccination@theconversation.com</a> et des experts répondront à vos questions dans les prochains articles.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164376/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly McGuire 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>Les enfants seront vaccinés dans les prochaines semaines au Québec. Le prochain défi de la campagne de vaccination sera de rassurer les parents.Kelly McGuire, Associate Professor of Gender & Social Justice and English, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1597932021-10-24T12:25:28Z2021-10-24T12:25:28ZWho decides what’s essential? The importance of Indigenous ceremony during COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427273/original/file-20211019-16-yydnbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C4594%2C3055&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At the beginning of the 12-day celebration of life ceremony, Elder Wendy Phillips performs a smudge.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Josh Lyon)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown in September 2020, Ojibway Elder Wendy Phillips and her partner, Mark Phillips conducted an in-person 12-day celebration of life ceremony at their home near Havelock, Ont., despite public health recommendations dictating otherwise. </p>
<p>Indigenous <a href="https://fulcrum.bookstore.ipgbook.com/god-is-red-products-9781555914981.php">ceremonies have been central to Indigenous health</a> and <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-books/9780803275720/">well-being since time immemorial</a>. Despite the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml">genocidal policies</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240">practices exercised by Canada</a>, these ceremonies continue to be an important part of life and sustaining good health for many. </p>
<p>In March 2020, federal and provincial governments announced lockdowns — provinces began <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/covid-suspend-sweat-lodges-pipe-ceremonies-1.5504541">prohibiting communal services and social gatherings and in-person contact was discouraged</a>. In September 2020, the Ontario government announced further restrictions to social gatherings as well as ceremonial and religious gatherings. And those found in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-statistics-september-17-1.5727727">violation could face up to $10,000 in fines</a>.</p>
<p>While COVID-19 exacerbated many of the health disparities Indigenous people face, everyday actions of land-based regenerative resurgence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1177180120968156">including some ceremonies, continued</a>.</p>
<p>Teachings that Elder Phillips and her partner received from their elders about the 12-day celebration of life ceremony, was that it had to be performed, every four years, no matter what. No matter the weather, no matter the situation — with ideally 64 people — regardless of western conventions of public health and politics. </p>
<p>Was this determination to continue with the ceremony an <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12471">act of Indigenous resistance and resurgence</a> and did it reflect reassertion of nationhood and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.200852">self-determination seen elsewhere throughout the pandemic</a>? </p>
<p>This was a question our research team wanted to explore.</p>
<h2>Centring the voice of ceremonialists</h2>
<p>Led by Elder Phillips, Ojibway, Bald Eagle Clan from Wasauksing First Nation, we are a culturally diverse group of Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee elders and knowledge keepers, Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers who were concerned about the potential impacts disrupting ceremony would have on Indigenous Peoples’ health and well-being. We asked those who participated in the ceremony: what is the right thing to do?</p>
<p>Our aim was to listen to ceremonialists who chose to continue despite the provincial government’s rules and public health directives, including directives from Indigenous health authorities (like the <a href="https://www.fnha.ca/about/news-and-events/news/covid-19-advisory-on-sweat-lodges-and-potlatches">COVID-19 Advisory on Sweat Lodges and Potlatches</a>) in recognition that Indigenous autonomy <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.200852">over ceremony has been historically criminalized</a> and is all too often silenced.</p>
<p>The ceremonialists we spoke with talked about how crucial ceremony is as a way of life and well-being, and for some even lifesaving: “Ceremony actually saved my life. It saved my son’s life. It’s saving our people,” said one of the participants. </p>
<p>Although extra precautions and COVID-19 considerations were made — including both Indigenous medicines and consideration for public health recommendations — it was clear that despite the pandemic, taking part in ceremony was essential. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A lodge is shown with a fire in the middle, people sit in a circle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.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">Ceremonialists say ceremony can be lifesaving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Josh Lyon)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ceremony helps people stay connected</h2>
<p>We asked participants to explain why ceremony was important. They talked about identifying ceremony as a way to connect with self and identity, as well as family and community. Being involved in ceremony gave them a sense of connection and belonging within the colonial Canadian context of forced disconnection from culture and community via state annihilation attempts (like <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/intergenerational-trauma-and-residential-schools">residential schools</a>, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sixties-scoop">the ‘60s scoop</a> and <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/movementtowardsreconciliation/chapter/the-indigenous-child-welfare-system/">the child welfare system</a>). </p>
<p>Ceremony was identified as safe space to heal from intergenerational trauma. One of the participants said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What really brings me here is working on myself, being the best person I can be, being the best Anishinaabe, best <em>nijiwakin</em> (father) and best <em>shomis</em> (grandfather) that I can be … this is something my parents couldn’t give me because of residential school and intergenerational trauma and being taught not to practice ceremonies.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition to the individual and community healing part of ceremony, many also voiced a sense of responsibility for the continuation of ceremony and traditional knowledge. </p>
<p>This sense of responsibility was expressed in terms of honouring their ancestors’ historical struggle to protect this knowledge and way of life, as well as ensuring it continues for future generations. “These are important ceremonies for us, and this is important for our well-being and the well-being of future generations,” said one of the participants. “This is why we try to continue to ensure that this knowledge and traditions can continue.”</p>
<h2>Provincial restriction caused frustration and anxiety</h2>
<p>When it came to provincial restrictions, which were intensified during the celebration of life ceremony, participants voiced both frustration at the interference in their way of life, and some anxiety about the potential for police intervention and/or fines. They all however remained unwavering in their commitment to continue participating. </p>
<p>Most often, frustrations were expressed in terms of the historical and ongoing colonial relationship with the government, and ongoing battle to protect Indigenous ways of being. “This isn’t the first time that going to ceremony gets you fined. It’s happened before but I’m following through with what I believe and the faith I have,” said one of the participants.</p>
<p>The federal government banned Indigenous Peoples from conducting their own spiritual ceremonies from 1884 to 1951; fines and prison sentences were the consequences if caught. This aspect of the Indian Act <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/potlatch">was known as the Potlatch Ban</a> because that ceremony, in particular, was deemed “anti-Christian, reckless and wasteful.” Despite such racist and repressive policies, the Potlatch and other ceremonies were never entirely suppressed and have been practised openly since the ban.</p>
<p>One participant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The fine that they are implementing, it might as well be a million dollars. I can’t afford it, but I’m not leaving either. I’m staying. These ceremonies are important. Ceremony has given me quality of life.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman holds a saw as she builds a lodge. The image is closeup, you can see her jacket (red), gloves (yellow)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.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">Many ceremonialists say it is their responsibility to continue with ceremony and pass on traditional knowledge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wiisemis King-Phillips)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Should Indigenous communities continue to fear repercussions at the hands of the government and police for upholding their traditional ways?</p>
<p>During this pandemic, Indigenous communities have <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-with-so-much-as-risk-we-couldnt-just-wait-for-help-indigenous/">reasserted nationhood and their desires for self-determination</a>. However, the government continues to signal that it is not ready to move beyond its colonial relationship through blanket restrictions put in place by the government without regard for <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/efforts-underway-indigenous-ceremonies-essential-services-1.5847779">the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples or consultation with Indigenous people themselves</a>. </p>
<p>Pandemic or not, can we move toward a relationship with the Crown where Indigenous nations are sovereign with the power and authority to decide how to best protect their citizens? So decisions can be rooted in <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/from-risk-resilience-equity-approach-covid-19/indigenous-peoples-covid-19-report.html#a1">culturally safe and community-led solutions</a>? </p>
<p>Indigenous nations are best suited to understand these essential needs, not simply when it comes to protecting their citizens, but also honouring the past and protecting future generations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Mashford-Pringle receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Institute for Health Research, and eCampus Ontario.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Castleden receives funding from CIHR, SSHRC, and the Canada Research Chairs Program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Calabretta receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janice Hill, Jodi John, Mark Dockstator, and Wendy Phillips 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>Was participating in ceremony despite pandemic restrictions an act of Indigenous resistance and resurgence and did it reflect reassertion of nationhood and self-determination?Jodi John, Ph.D. Candidate, Geography and Planning, Queen's University, OntarioAngela Mashford-Pringle, Assistant Professor/Associate Director, Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health, University of TorontoHeather Castleden, Professor and Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health, School of Public Administration, University of VictoriaJanice Hill, Associate Vice-Principal (Indigenous Initiatives and Reconciliation), Queen's University, OntarioMarc Calabretta, Research Program Manager, Health, Environment, and Communities Research Lab, Queen's University, OntarioMark Dockstator, Associate Professor, Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, Trent UniversityWendy Phillips, Elder in Residence, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1646822021-08-12T15:52:37Z2021-08-12T15:52:37ZLong-term care after the COVID-19 disaster: 3 promising ways to move forward<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413649/original/file-20210728-21-1e71yg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=157%2C65%2C3422%2C2673&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The isolation of long-term care homes to protect residents from COVID-19 revealed how much care was coming from visiting family members.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is no question that COVID-19 has had devastating consequences in long-term care for residents, staff and families. Media provided <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/stuff-needs-to-change-family-of-man-who-died-of-covid-19-appalled-by-level-of-care-at-parkview-place-1.5777655">heart-wrenching stories</a> about conditions in care homes and pictures of residents peering through windows. Numerous reports have been <a href="https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_98049.html">documenting the factors</a> that contributed to the disaster, identifying once again what needs to change.</p>
<p>However, as is often the case in disasters, there are signs of light emerging from the devastation. Here we highlight three promising developments based on our current research project, “<a href="https://reltc.apps01.yorku.ca/">COVID-19, Families and Long-Term Care</a>.”</p>
<h2>Family councils</h2>
<p>First, as we have learned through our interviews with family members, more people are participating in family councils and more family councils are becoming highly effective in shaping policies and practices. </p>
<p>A family council is composed of family and friends of a long-term care home’s residents. Although family councils are allowed in Ontario’s <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/07l08#BK74">Long-Term Care Homes Act</a>, the groups are intended to be self-led and democratically run, and determine their own goals. Within their overall purpose of improving quality of life for residents, <a href="https://fco.ngo">their roles can include education, peer support and pursuing positive changes in homes and in the long-term care system</a>. Whether there is a family council and how it operates varies with each home and is determined by it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-some-oecd-countries-helped-control-covid-19-in-long-term-care-homes-141354">How some OECD countries helped control COVID-19 in long-term care homes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Ontario, family councils are included in the legislation governing long-term care but are not required. Certainly, family councils have long played a critical role. But not all homes have had active councils and not all councils have taken the kind of action that pandemic practices have spurred.</p>
<p>During the pandemic:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Cut off from daily life in care homes and limited in the impact they could have individually, more family members joined the councils. </p></li>
<li><p>Frustrated by the poor communications from care homes, more councils became highly effective communicators. </p></li>
<li><p>Provoked by confusing government directives, councils more thoroughly investigated the directives in order to become critical sources of information for families and even sometimes for the management. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>More councils have furthered their efforts both in relation to the home and in relation to government, connecting through family council networks and sharing information across jurisdictions to broaden their advocacy work. At the same time, the pandemic has made more people in the general population <a href="https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/">aware of conditions in long-term care and determined to demand change</a>.</p>
<h2>Essential contributions</h2>
<p>Second, the prohibition against families entering care homes made their essential contributions visible. As we have long learned in our research, families — by which we often mean women — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732317730568">do much more than hug</a>. They prepare culturally appropriate food and activities, purchase supplies and clean clothes and assist in eating and in walking. They monitor, advocate and interpret, and they brush teeth and comb hair — to name only some of the ways they fill the gaps in care.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413650/original/file-20210728-19-1eodb2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A smartphone in a woman's hands, showing a picture of a woman in a mask and a man in a wheelchair" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413650/original/file-20210728-19-1eodb2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413650/original/file-20210728-19-1eodb2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413650/original/file-20210728-19-1eodb2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413650/original/file-20210728-19-1eodb2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413650/original/file-20210728-19-1eodb2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413650/original/file-20210728-19-1eodb2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413650/original/file-20210728-19-1eodb2s.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">Esther Hladkowicz holds an image of her and her father Heinz Ziebell taken during their first visit in eight months because of COVID-19 restrictions, in Ottawa in May 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, one woman who visited her aunt said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I would wash her face. I would cut her hair, which she preferred I do rather than hiring somebody. And I would help her stay groomed. Her hands were often dirty, so I would soak her hands to get them cleaned up. I’d help her clean her dentures, brush her teeth, brush her mouth really. And I would help her with calling to family.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>She also cleaned her aunt’s wheelchair, and cleaned up anything she noticed that didn’t look good. She called staff’s attention to her aunt’s needs, such as her missing eyeglasses. And she would take her aunt outside.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I would take her outside, which is a big thing for me because they’re not entitled to fresh air. I would take her outside as much as I could even if it was just a spin down to the sidewalk and back. And she loved actually being outside and smelling the air and seeing even the traffic go by. I mean, she didn’t care what it was. It was just like being part of life.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>With family visits prohibited, none of these aspects of care were provided for her aunt in the wake of COVID-19.</p>
<p>Although staff shortages were clearly critical during the pandemic, family absences exposed the extent to which <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/662817/pdf">chronic staff shortages</a> before the pandemic have made homes dependent on relatives every day for a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442687790">wide range of care</a>.</p>
<h2>Essential care</h2>
<p>Third, the prohibition against visitors, combined with the enforced isolation of residents in their rooms and the push for staff to focus on clinical care, highlighted the essential nature of both social care and of those services often dismissed as supplementary. These include food, clothing, housekeeping and laundry. </p>
<p>After the Canadian Armed Forces deployed members to provide assistance in long-term care homes during the COVID-19 crisis, a report emphasized the absence of these essential services and the absence of vital social care. Specifically, it noted “<a href="https://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/JTFC-Observations-in-LTCF-in-ON.pdf">not having witnessed any psychosocial support for these residents</a>,” the lack of clean linen and lack of access to sufficient nutrition. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413651/original/file-20210728-21-1nvbqew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413651/original/file-20210728-21-1nvbqew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413651/original/file-20210728-21-1nvbqew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413651/original/file-20210728-21-1nvbqew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413651/original/file-20210728-21-1nvbqew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413651/original/file-20210728-21-1nvbqew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413651/original/file-20210728-21-1nvbqew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413651/original/file-20210728-21-1nvbqew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man looks out the window at the Camilla Care Community Centre in Mississauga, Ont., overlooking crosses representing people who died during the COVID-19 pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The haunting pictures of residents in the windows and the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-investigating-two-long-term-care-homes-1.6026856">reports of death from isolation</a> also speak to a lack of social care. Clinical care is undoubtedly necessary, but COVID-19 makes it obvious it is not sufficient for life.</p>
<p>There is no question that we will have to work hard to make sure that this time the lessons learned from the pandemic do not get lost once again as the immediate crisis passes. This includes supporting families and family councils. It also means recognizing the full range of essential care.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pat Armstrong receives funding from SSHRC and CIHR. She is affiliated with the Canadian Health Coalition and Carewatch </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Armstrong receives funding from SSHRC. He is on the board of the Ontario Health Coalition.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Choiniere, has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council - SSHRC - and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research CIHR for research initiatives. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Struthers has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Lowndes receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for research initiatives.</span></em></p>Research on the catastrophic effects of COVID-19 in long-term care homes is shedding light on avenues for positive change.Pat Armstrong, Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, York University, CanadaHugh Armstrong, Professor Emeritus of Social Work and Political Economy, Carleton UniversityJacqueline Choiniere, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, York University, CanadaJames Struthers, Professor Emeritus Canadian Studies, Trent UniversityRuth Lowndes, Research associate, Department of Sociology, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1643862021-07-25T14:11:28Z2021-07-25T14:11:28Z‘Bat boxes’ could help revive Canada’s depleting bat population<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412552/original/file-20210721-15-2gxnio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A big brown bat and a little brown bat hibernating in an abandoned mine in Ontario.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Karen Vanderwolf)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From habitat loss to disease, bat species across Canada are facing multiple threats. As cities expand, the <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.12945">large old trees</a> that bats call home are being cleared and bats are losing their roosts. </p>
<p>White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease, has devastated bat populations from <a href="http://www.cwhc-rcsf.ca/white_nose_syndrome_reports_and_maps.php">Newfoundland to Manitoba</a>. In some parts of eastern Canada, bat populations have declined by over <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7195">90 per cent</a>. In fact, <a href="https://www.registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=073DC653-">three of the 19 bat species in Canada are now listed as endangered</a> because of white-nose syndrome. </p>
<p>In winter, hibernating bats affected by white-nose syndrome burn off their fat reserves too quickly and die from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-8-135">starvation and dehydration</a>. The surviving <a href="https://doi.org/10.1644/05-MAMM-A-127R1.1">bats need a warm</a> and secure place to roost during the day in summer. A bat box is a simple and effective way to provide such roosts. But <a href="https://doi.org/10.3161/15081109ACC2016.18.1.017">bat boxes have varied designs</a>, and little is known about which designs will most benefit bat species across Canada.</p>
<p>In response, the <a href="https://wcsbats.ca/Our-work-to-save-bats/Batbox-Project/BatBox-Project-Canada-wide">Wildlife Conservation Society Canada</a> and the <a href="https://cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/bats/?src=menu">Canadian Wildlife Federation</a>, with support from Environment and Climate Change Canada, launched the <a href="https://cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/bats/bat-survey-1.html">Canadian Bat Box Project</a> this year to help bat populations recover with the assistance of community scientists across Canada. I am the lead researcher on this project as part of my postdoctoral research. </p>
<h2>Designing bat boxes</h2>
<p><a href="https://batwatch.ca/">Little brown bats</a> are North America’s most common bats, living from coast to coast and from Alaska to Mexico. They are known to use bat boxes throughout Canada. Meanwhile <a href="http://www.crossconservation.org/sites/default/files/Erin%20Miller-%20BatBoxes-Final%20530%20Paper2017.pdf">big brown bats</a>, which are about double the size of little brown bats and are found across southern Canada, use boxes in some parts of Canada. <a href="http://www.batresearchproject.org/media/1045/nogorsen-2009-bat-house-mitigations.pdf">Yuma bats use boxes</a> in British Columbia, the only province this species is found in.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bats roosting inside a bat box." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412546/original/file-20210721-15-1ls81fl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412546/original/file-20210721-15-1ls81fl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412546/original/file-20210721-15-1ls81fl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412546/original/file-20210721-15-1ls81fl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412546/original/file-20210721-15-1ls81fl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412546/original/file-20210721-15-1ls81fl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412546/original/file-20210721-15-1ls81fl.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">Bat box with little brown bats inside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jordi Segers)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Scientists have documented only these three species using bat boxes out of the 19 species found in Canada compared to the United States, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3161/15081109ACC2016.18.1.017">where 13 of those species use them</a>. This difference may simply be due to lack of study in Canada, or potentially because of our colder climate.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/bat-box-study-1.5956703">launched the Canadian Bat Box Project in 2021</a> to study bat box use so that scientists can develop regional and species-specific recommendations for bat box design and placement to increase box success rates. </p>
<p>More than 900 people across Canada have signed up to participate in the project this summer, the first field season in the three-year project. We provide willing participants with a temperature logger to install in their bat box, as well as supplies to collect guano (bat poop) to identify the bat species. Bat box owners that have bats swab the interior of their boxes for <em>Pseudogymnoascus destructans</em>, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. </p>
<p>This fungus grows into the bat’s wings and replaces muscles, blood vessels and other parts of the skin. It disrupts their hibernation and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-8-135">depletes their energy</a>, causing fatalities.</p>
<p>While this fungus is widespread on walls and the floor in caves and has also been <a href="https://doi.org/10.7589/2016-09-206">found on bats in the summer</a>, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3996/102017-JFWM-080">study of bat boxes in New York</a> found that some boxes contained the fungus year-round. </p>
<p>The swabs we receive from the participants of the Canadian Bat Box Project will tell us if bat boxes can contribute to disease spread. Monitoring results may tell us whether the bats are using these roosts for themselves or to produce pups.</p>
<h2>Alternative roosts</h2>
<p>Installing a bat box gives bats an alternative to roosting in your house, and since all bats in Canada eat only insects, you may even notice a decrease in the insect population around your house! </p>
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<img alt="Two bat boxes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411562/original/file-20210715-13-124sgl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411562/original/file-20210715-13-124sgl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411562/original/file-20210715-13-124sgl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411562/original/file-20210715-13-124sgl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411562/original/file-20210715-13-124sgl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411562/original/file-20210715-13-124sgl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411562/original/file-20210715-13-124sgl6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bat boxes provide alternative roosts for the declining bat population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Stephen Cluff)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bat boxes need to mimic tree hollows by having hot temperatures of 27—38 C. But some bat boxes get too hot during the summer, which can increase mortality. Temperatures above 40 C in bat boxes are too hot. Some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/24/race-to-save-bats-flying-foxes-from-overheating-as-temperatures-rise-aoe">bat boxes in Canada</a> and even in the Yukon have recorded temperatures over 50 C! </p>
<p>Installing multiple bat boxes, for example one in the sun and one in the shade, gives bats a choice. These different roosts will have different temperatures depending on the weather. Bats often change roosts from one night to the next and participants have observed bats using different bat boxes on different days.</p>
<p>Once these boxes are set up, bat box owners can <a href="https://trentu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_86og8C3MIgO2ff7">participate in the study</a> and share information about their human-made roosts. </p>
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<img alt="Big brown bat flying out of a bat box." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411558/original/file-20210715-13-1nbgux3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411558/original/file-20210715-13-1nbgux3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411558/original/file-20210715-13-1nbgux3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411558/original/file-20210715-13-1nbgux3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411558/original/file-20210715-13-1nbgux3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411558/original/file-20210715-13-1nbgux3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411558/original/file-20210715-13-1nbgux3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Big brown bat exits a bat box in British Columbia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(John Saremba)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>You can tell whether bats are using your box by searching for guano underneath your box. At dusk in the summer, you may see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqZbyjhC0XI">bats swooping around and catching insects</a> in midair. Dusk is a good time to count bats as they emerge from your box.</p>
<p>You can also shine a light up into the box during the day to see if there are bats inside from May to October in Canada. The boxes will be too cold for bats during the winter. If a box gets too hot, you may observe bats crowding at the entrance of your box or even outside the box. This is a sign of heat stress. Be sure to avoid any physical contact with bats for both your safety and the bats’ safety.</p>
<h2>Project progress… what lies ahead</h2>
<p>Bats are integral to our ecosystems. They eat a variety of insects, including agricultural and forestry pests. These pest-control services are valued at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1201366">US$3.7-53 billion dollars</a> per year in the United States alone. In the tropics, bats also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06004.x">pollinate a variety of fruits</a> including bananas, breadfruits, durians and mangoes.</p>
<p>Seven months into the project, participants of our Canadian Bat Box Project note they are not seeing as many bats as they used to before white-nose syndrome arrived. Overall, about 20 per cent of participants reported success with bats roosting or even producing pups in their bat boxes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Map of the locations of the bat boxes monitored across Canada." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411715/original/file-20210716-27-vkjr2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411715/original/file-20210716-27-vkjr2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411715/original/file-20210716-27-vkjr2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411715/original/file-20210716-27-vkjr2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411715/original/file-20210716-27-vkjr2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411715/original/file-20210716-27-vkjr2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411715/original/file-20210716-27-vkjr2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Almost 1,000 Canadians signed up to participate in the Canadian Bat Box Project. So far, 20 per cent of their bat boxes have been successful bat roosts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Karen Vanderwolf)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We believe that better bat boxes will help the population recover from the effects of white-nose syndrome by increasing reproductive success.</p>
<p>The results of three summers of fieldwork for this project will provide much-needed information about both successful and unsuccessful boxes. Preliminary data analysis will begin this fall and <a href="https://wcsbats.ca/Portals/211/Canadian%20Bat%20Box%20Project%20Newsletter%20Spring%202021%20(3).pdf?ver=2021-04-20-182356-903">results will be released</a> to the public soon after. </p>
<p>Public education is also an important part of this project. Bats are sometimes viewed negatively but the more you learn, the more amazing bats seem. Bats now face additional persecution due to worries about COVID-19, but bats in North America do not have the virus that <a href="https://cwf-fcf.org/en/about-cwf/faq/faqs/should-i-be-worried-bats.html?src=blog">causes COVID-19</a>.</p>
<p>With your help and improved recommendations, we hope to increase the success of bat boxes across Canada.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Vanderwolf 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>White-nose syndrome has wiped out millions of bats in North America, pushing researchers to look at alternative roosts like bat boxes. But the U.S. bat box designs may not suit Canadian bats.Karen Vanderwolf, PhD Candidate, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.