Fair dealing is a right, not a privilege
This week at schools and campuses across the country, teachers, students, and librarians are celebrating Fair Dealing Week. This annual event increases awareness of a little-known—but well-used—feature of the Copyright Act: fair dealing. The Copyright Act touches all Canadians. At its core, copyright determines under what conditions artistic and literary works (including ebooks, computer software, […]
Time for the grown-ups to stand up against cyberbullies
Often when we talk about cyberbullying, we focus on children—and rightly so. Nearly half (42 per cent) of school-aged kids have experienced cyber abuse in the past four weeks, and 60 per cent have witnessed others being tormented online. In truth, though, cyberbullying can happen to anyone, including adults. Indeed, in this hyper-connected digital age, […]
How Canada is building a nation of innovators
The winds of change are powerful and persistent in the global economy. New technologies and new applications of data and digital tools are driving a fourth industrial revolution in economies and societies around the world. We can either put our heads in the sand and lose our opportunity for leadership, or we can take charge […]
Canada’s economy needs workers with global learning experiences
In a column published recently in The Hill Times, Perrin Beatty and Paul Davidson argued that Canada has to up its game when it comes to connecting post-secondary students with international learning experiences. “In our rapidly changing world,” they wrote, “Canadian employers need workers who are culturally aware, resilient, and adaptable—skilled in problem solving, communication, […]
Polytechnics and colleges, natural allies to businesses, deserve more access to government funding
Canada is at an innovation crossroads. Productivity measures have long lagged behind our international counterparts and, as a country of small businesses, our firms often lack the internal resources to fulfill their potential. Developing new prototypes, adopting new technologies, and designing new processes takes time, money, and human resources. As Canada’s economic engines, small- […]
Better education needed to warn youth of weed risks
The legalization of recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, 2018 was a popular move. The legislation’s attraction stems from the perceived advantages of legalization: getting organized crime out of the marijuana business, removing the heavy hand of the criminal justice system from large sections of the population, especially minors, and the proper regulation and control of […]
We need a holistic approach to health care
Looking back, I now realize that I learned many fundamental lessons of good health care at a very young age. The traditional life skills my people demonstrated while living off the land taught that responsibility and resilience through social capital (we-chi-e-twin) were instrumental to the concept of preventing sickness, starvation, and other ailments. I mimicked […]
Canada’s research capacity in the North lags other countries
The changing Arctic is a new frontier of scientific discovery, industrial development, and socio-economic innovation. From China’s plan for a Polar Silk Road to Norway’s Nansen Legacy program on the Barents Sea and adjacent Arctic basin; from Russia’s intense extraction of its Arctic resources to Canada’s reconciliation with its Indigenous people; from the building worldwide […]
We must go from Inuit exclusion to self-determination in research
Inuit are one of the most researched peoples in the world. We are also one of the fastest-growing populations, yet the number of peer-reviewed publications and dissertations that focus on Inuit and Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland, has outpaced the rate of our population growth by a wide margin. In 1996 there was one publication […]
Time for action on neglected Naylor report advice
OTTAWA—As the Trudeau government gears up for the coming election year, recommendations from the 2017 expert panel on Canada’s Fundamental Science Review, chaired by former University of Toronto president David Naylor and commissioned by the federal science minister, are coming to the fore. In the past few weeks, federal ministers have fanned out across the […]
