Bridging the gap: museums bring unique solutions to social struggles
Canada’s Indigenous and immigrant populations are growing at rates not seen in generations, as was revealed by the release of the 2016 census numbers by Statistics Canada in end of October. As Canada grows and matures as a country, museums can play a key role in making peace with our past and plotting a brighter […]
Supreme Court sides with federal lawyers to end unpaid mandatory on-call duty
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of federal immigration lawyers on Nov. 3, saying the mandatory unpaid on-call duty Justice Canada imposed on them violated their collective agreement. Ending a seven-year court battle, the Supreme Court ruled in part for the Association of Justice Counsel, a union that represents about 2,600 federal lawyers. […]
The future is interdisciplinary
In the past 20 years, interdisciplinary research—studies involving researchers from multiple academic disciplines—has gone from ‘nice to have’ to ‘need to have.’ Today, given the complexity of social, political, environmental, economic and technological challenges facing the world, it is very quickly becoming something no country can do without. Canada has the skills, talent and capacity […]
Three reasons why Canada should invest more in polytechnic education for innovation
The G7 met in late September to discuss how the nature of work is changing, and how, largely, automation is driving that change. Canada’s Employment, Workforce Development, and Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, along with her counterparts, discussed the challenges presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how to put “people and work at the heart of innovation.” But it […]
More choice, less retailer control wanted in possible Nutrition North overhaul
Food security experts are hoping the federal government’s lack of action six months after releasing a report highlighting criticism of the Nutrition North program is a sign of a coming overhaul that will lead to more choice for participant consumers and increased food security. The program is aimed at reducing high food prices in remote […]
Illiteracy: Canada’s hidden shame
OTTAWA—There is a country where almost half of the adult population cannot read this column. You might presume it’s in the developing world. It’s not: it is Canada. And sadly, few Canadians acknowledge it, and fewer still are doing anything about it. Here are the numbers: about 45 per cent of adult Canadians do not […]
We need to listen to Inuit on global issues, says Ottawa reader
Re: “True North and true Nordic, new opportunities for global solutions,” (The Hill Times, letter to the editor, Sept. 18, p. 8). I was pleased to read the joint letter by the ambassadors of the Nordic countries in Ottawa in support of the prestigious Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. This […]
To diffuse technology or not to diffuse: that’s the question
Let me give you a choice between two compelling narratives on the topic of diffusion—efforts to make technologies available by means of government policies. The first is an argument for the broad diffusion of biotechnologies, including synthetic biology and CRISPR (a genome editing tool). The other is an argument for a slow-down or clamp-down. You be […]
True North and true Nordic, new opportunities for global solutions
This fall, a Nordic studies program opens at the prestigious Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. The program will cover politics, the economy, society, culture, international relations, and history of the Nordic region. The program will be open to undergraduate and graduate students. The initiative is supported by the Nordic Council […]
Schools ought to follow court decision on copyright
Re: “We shouldn’t be paying more for Canadian content,” (The Hill Times, Aug. 14, p. 16). Since the Federal Court of Canada’s decision on Access Copyright v. York University last month, several universities across the country have largely disregarded the court’s guidance, just as Gerald Beasley does in his op-ed. This is odd, since many […]
