John Bennett
Quoi Media

I still love them. Is that Crazy?

In the pilot episode of the Big Bang Theory, Penny revealed that even though she hated her lying cheating ex-boyfriend, she still loved him. “Is that crazy?” she asked.

“No,” said Leonard, “it’s a paradox. A paradox is part of nature!” Two opposing things can be true at the same time. It is certainly true for conservation in Canada. 

Prime Minister Trudeau kicked off the recent Biodiversity Conference in Montreal announcing $800 million for Indigenous led conservation projects. Like the Big Bang Theory, United Nations’ sponsored biodiversity negotiations have been going on for a long time. 

Climate change and biodiversity were recognized as important global issues at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Since then, nearly 200 countries have been negotiating targets and protocols while greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and loss of biodiversity have continued to grow.  

Traditionally, the host country kicks off each session with a positive announcement, so the Prime Minister’s announcement was no surprise.  He said Canada is committed to preserving 30 per cent of our territory by 2030, one of the targets set by previous biodiversity conferences. However, none of this preserving will interfere with business as usual nor be close to any urban area. 

Paradoxically, the announcement came on the heels of Ontario’s Premier Ford gutting the Greenbelt around Toronto after promising he wouldn’t touch it. The Greenbelt was seen internationally as a groundbreaking achievement in preserving our natural environment. A paradox within this paradox is the fact that the Ontario government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force report states, “A shortage of land isn’t the cause of the problem (lack of affordable housing).”

By the way, Ontario is touting its investment in a car battery plant as a major contribution to fighting greenhouse gas emissions, but it cancelled all its renewable energy projects and plans to replace them with gas fired power plants and unproven experimental small nuclear reactors. 

Meanwhile in Alberta, the newly minted Premier, Danielle Smith, began her tenure with the “Alberta Sovereignty Act.” This is a law to “protect the interests of Alberta” that gives her the power to ignore federal laws she doesn’t like. Isn’t this just double-speak for protecting oil and gas production from imminent federal emissions regulations? 

Even as the federal government says Canada is moving to conserve more of our natural environment, two of its largest provinces are moving in the other direction.

Then there is the paradox within the federal government itself.

The Montreal Port Authority (an arm’s length federal agency) is pushing ahead with a huge expansion to facilitate increased marine traffic. Not only will it mean significant increases in carbon and other air pollution (ships burn the dirtiest types of oil), the site is one of the last bits of habitat of the copper redhorse – a species of fish native to Quebec and the first species identified as threatened in the province. Scientists have told us for almost 20 years that urban development, agricultural practices and building dams have severely reduced the numbers of this fish.

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, the activist turned politician who is the epitome of a paradox, won’t intervene. He says the federal government wants to get politics out of environmental decisions. So why were all the politicians, including the minister, at the Biodiversity Conference in Montreal? 

Isn’t it pretty clear that politics are behind the federal government deciding to buy and build a pipeline across British Columbia, approve the Bay du Nord offshore oil development and give the nuclear industry a billion dollars for unproven experimental technology? 

I’m with Penny. I hate our “lying cheating” politicians, but I’d love to believe they’ll act on their new promises especially the new Global Framework for Biodiversity, which sets targets to protect and restore 30 per cent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030 and commits to addressing plastic waste and reducing the use of pesticides and hazardous chemicals by 50 per cent by 2030.

Is that crazy? Or am I just stuck in endless reruns too?
John Bennett is a Senior Policy Advisor at Friends of the Earth Canada.

The numbers from Canada’s latest census data, released in late October, grabbed national headlines. In the last five years, 1.3 million newcomers arrived in Canada, the highest number ever recorded by a Canadian census. Canada is now home to the largest proportion of immigrants in the country’s history: twenty-three per cent.

With the federal government’s recently-announced plans to bring in 500,000 immigrants per year by 2025, including 301,000 in the economic class, newcomers will be the primary driver of our population growth and are projected to represent one-third of all Canadians by 2041.

These numbers reflect the widely held view that immigrants are key to the success and sustainability of Canada’s economy. Unfortunately, too few of them are contributing at the level they want or our economy needs. This is a longstanding and serious problem in a country with approximately one million job vacancies and 40 per cent of businesses report staffing shortages.

The Business Council of Canada says the country is in desperate need of skilled IT workers. We are bombarded by media reports of a health care system in crisis due to a lack of sufficient staffing, and yet, according to a recent report from the OECD, more than 60 per cent of internationally educated doctors and nurses in Canada are not practicing in the professions they trained for.

According to a recent Scotiabank report, although two-thirds of newly arrived immigrants hold university degrees, only about 40 per cent work in jobs requiring them compared to 60 per cent of those born in Canada.

We recruit the best and brightest talent to this country, ready to fill these voids within our labour force — but more needs to be done to ensure this talent doesn’t languish.

Skilled immigrants and refugees deserve the opportunity to realize their professional potential, and Canada needs them to be contributing their skills to our economy. Empowering newcomers to apply their expertise to our labour force or to upgrade it to Canadian standards should be an all-hands-on-deck endeavour, more critical than ever, as the number of immigrants grows.

In a recent survey of Canadian businesses, most agreed corporations have an important role in helping newcomers succeed. This includes recognizing foreign credentials, offering training and support to immigrant employees and working with charity and community organizations that empower new Canadians.

Scotiabank says skilled newcomers working in roles that under-utilize their skills and knowledge can cost those workers as much as $25,000 annually in lost income. Nationally, addressing this underutilization issue could add approximately $16 billion to the Canadian economy.

However, the reason for addressing this issue goes beyond economics.

A recent survey of younger immigrants indicates approximately 30 per cent would consider leaving this country because of what Institute of Canadian Citizenship CEO Daniel Bernhard calls a “crisis of confidence in Canada.” Many university-educated immigrants who participated in the survey perceived the country’s job market as unfair and weren’t satisfied with Canadian salaries.

As the proportion of immigrants and refugees in this country expands, ensuring government, regulators, businesses, educational institutions and the settlement sector continue to collaborate on new policies that enable internationally-educated professionals to leverage their skills will be critically important.

Doing so isn’t just important for filling current labour shortages, but also to send a signal to the best and brightest around the world who are weighing their options about where to immigrate. Canada needs to support the economic mobility and professional integration of immigrants if we want to continue to rely on them as a key driver of our growth and prosperity.

Claudia Hepburn is CEO of Windmill Microlending, a national charity that empowers skilled immigrants to achieve economic prosperity through affordable loans and supports.

Carole Estabrooks
QUOI Media

Canada needs trauma-informed aged care, training and strategies in long-term care homes across the country.

“Trauma” is a heavy word, but it’s the right word.

“Trauma” describes what has been happening in long-term care facilities across Canada during the pandemic, where the majority of COVID-19 deaths have occurred, and where highly restrictive visitor policies and short staffing have meant extreme isolation and deprivation for the residents who live there.

But there are often two layers of trauma in long-term care.

Overlooked in these discussions is how the pandemic can also trigger symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in seniors who have experienced psychological trauma earlier in their lives. Earlier trauma could have resulted from any number of events that caused deep psychological harm, such as a car accident, physical or sexual abuse or fleeing an armed conflict, for example.

In our recently published analysis and review, we highlight how PTSD in long-term care residents is significantly more common than previously understood, how the pandemic has exacerbated PTSD in some residents, and recommend ways that nursing homes can manage the effects of trauma.

While not everyone who has experienced trauma will develop PTSD, those who do are likely to see symptoms re-emerge as they age, develop dementia or are admitted to a long-term care home, which can also be a traumatic event in itself. For vulnerable seniors living in care, the spread of a deadly virus can also trigger intense PTSD symptoms including intrusive thoughts, nightmares and feelings of panic.

Well over two thirds of seniors living in long-term care have some form of dementia. PTSD symptoms can occur when practices or environmental sights and sounds in the home inadvertently trigger an individual. When this occurs on top of dementia, it may cause extreme behaviors.

What’s more, symptoms associated with PTSD are similar to behaviours exhibited by those living with dementia such as anger, aggression or agitation. Since long-term care homes do not routinely screen for a history of psychological trauma on admission, staff may have a difficult time identifying which behaviours stem from PTSD and which stem from dementia.

All of this points to an urgent need for more person-centered care and well-trained staff who are equipped to meet the needs of residents.
Through trauma-informed practices, ensuring the quality of life of residents becomes an achievable goal and individuals living with PTSD will receive the care they need.

With the proper resources and training, nursing homes can be transformed into places worth living.

So, what does trauma informed care look like?

It means creating a safe environment with adequate staffing, training the workforce, screening residents for trauma upon admission and taking a personal history to be used as the basis for future care. It means management consults residents, their loved ones, and staff in all aspects of care planning as well as providing staff with access to specialized services like mental health teams.

It means incorporating strategies to support residents that focus on bodily senses to address symptoms and behaviours associated with PTSD. This includes the use of weighted blankets, music, breathing exercises or animal-assisted therapy to increase sleep quality, improve mental health and decrease pain and agitation.

A trauma informed approach also means centering staff well-being.

When visitation from caregivers and companions became severely restricted, staff who already did not have time to provide residents with adequate care saw their workload increase. Additionally, staff dealt with the moral injury of watching residents suffer and die alone.

Burnout levels amongst staff are nearing catastrophic levels and supporting staff with trauma means introducing cognitively based processes that regulate attention and set intention or somatic-based processes such as modified yoga therapies and stress reduction strategies.

While policy makers develop important industry wide standards and practices, we need to work locally towards fully integrating trauma-informed methods into long-term care homes across the country.

COVID-19 is a psychological wrecking ball and only trauma-informed practices and policies can build a sturdier system able to withstand the next pandemic or catastrophic event. This requires a commitment from those managing long-term care homes to work towards ensuring a trauma informed approach in their facilities.

Staff must be equipped with the basic knowledge of the effects of trauma and receive training on how to integrate this knowledge into their daily care routines. Additionally, supporting residents as well as staff means providing them with access to educators, nurse practitioners and those who have specialized knowledge of mental health.

Vulnerable seniors in LTC have suffered enough. It’s time for policymakers, funders and long-term care home managers to prioritize trauma-informed aged care.

Dr. Carole Estabrooks is the scientific director of Translating Research in Elder Care (TREC) and a professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta.

I just walked 120km over five days on the South Downs Way along the southeast coast of the United Kingdom. It was a beautiful walk through the pastoral English countryside, culminating in the dramatic chalk cliffs near the coastal town of Eastbourne. While not a technically difficult walk, there were certainly enough hills to climb, high winds and rainy days, to make us ready for our evening pub dinners.

Walking is the most popular aerobic physical activity, and one associated with improved mental and physical health. Yet, despite its benefits, as people age, levels of physical activity tend to decrease. Women of all ages are less active than men.

Globally, about 32 per cent of women are inactive compared to about 23 per cent of men.

Four of us walked together, and as is our habit, we tracked out progress by map and phone. On the longest day, the days with the most ups and downs, we completed over 34,000 steps and 2,000 feet of climbing.

As a geriatrician, and researcher very interested in promoting equity for women and health and well-being with age, I took note of who we encountered each day.

During the weekdays, we passed few people, but the majority of walkers were women, and of older age. In contrast, almost all of those we saw on mountain bikes were men. Perhaps this is a reflection of gender norms even on the hills — where more men participated in more aggressive types of physical activity than women.

All physical activity is so important – especially as we age.

The WHO Global Status Report on Physical Activity 2022, released recently, identifies physical inactivity as a global health issue that requires immediate attention. They note inactivity is higher in high-income countries, likely due to more use of cars.

Physical activity, like walking, is so important that the WHO has created a target that aims to reduce physical inactivity internationally by 10 per cent by 2025.

Physical inactivity is a risk factor for chronic conditions and impacts quality of life. It is estimated that about eight per cent of heart disease, depression and dementia could be prevented if people were more active.

Walking is one of the simplest and most accessible ways to effectively increase our level of physical activity, though it is too often ignored. This matters for older people because with age, individuals often accumulate not just one, but often multiple chronic conditions.

We need to encourage more walking, especially for older women, who experience chronic conditions from arthritis to dementia more commonly than men. Conditions that could be reduced or delayed through the health benefits of simply walking.

Walking can also be done outside, making it a particularly attractive way to connect with friends while minimizing the concerns around COVID-19.

Governments need to create policies and strategies to incentivize and normalize active transportation. Walking is not only a key form of exercise, but also as an alternative mode of transportation for short trips, or as an add on to public transit, to avoid the need to drive. From improved and enhanced transit and sidewalks to more trailheads and public health campaigns – there’s plenty that every level of government can do to get older people walking.

Driving contributes to physical inactivity and negatively impacts mental health. Walking provides an opportunity to really see the world around you — things missed when you drive by in a car.

On our first day, while walking over a small bridge in the remote English countryside, we saw an animal swimming in the river below, its head just visible. We wondered if it could be an otter, thinking about Beatrix Potter and her stories of animals living in the UK countryside, although this did strike us as quite large.

That evening, we told our bed and breakfast host about the animal we saw. Her immediate response was that we must have seen “Gavin, the seal.” Gavin had garnered national attention via the BBC because he was found swimming in a river, far upstream in the countryside, where seals are just not expected.

Seeing Gavin gave us a lot to talk about and illustrated that when you walk, not only do you get good exercise, you see things, even strange things like lost seals, that you would certainly never see otherwise.

Dr. Paula Rochon is the founding director of the Women’s Age Lab at Women’s College Hospital and the RTOERO Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Between the Queen’s passing and Pierre Poilievre’s ascension as head of the Conservative Party, there’s been a lot of talk lately in Canada about leadership.

The margin by which Poilievre was able to secure the leadership and the interest he has garnered from younger and more diverse Canadians must not be ignored. Nor should the sentiments and concerns of the many Canadians who occupied Ottawa in February, and those across the country who supported them.

Poilievre’s message resonates. Less government, more voice of the people.

But Poilievre, like most political leaders, only focuses on pocket-book issues and doesn’t actually suggest a mechanism to listen to the voices of Canadians. And he doesn’t offer a means to give people more control over politics. This is where a new political opportunity lies – not only for Poilievre and the Conservatives, but for all parties.

Canadians have been through a lot over the last two and a half years. They want leadership that listens and policies that represent their interests. And despite the disruptive tactics and the anti-science, anti-reason approach, if the Freedom Convoy tells us anything, it’s that when a call for participation is issued, people are willing to dedicate their time and energy — potentially even going to extreme lengths — to have their voices heard. 

While protest is important and valuable, public participation can be much more productive. Clearly, we need better channels to bring people together with leadership to propel our democracy forward.

The struggles we are seeing in democracies around the world are not a sign that democracy is dying, they are a sign of the frustration that people feel and a desire to break through. They illuminate the urgent need for the next step in democracy’s evolution.

Now is the time to harness the energy of the public to get involved in a thoughtful, tested, effective way. The active inclusion of people in politics is an approach that we’ve seen developed in small ways in this country over the last 15 years, and explode in Europe and around the world, through something called ‘deliberative democracy.’

Deliberative democracy includes processes like Citizens’ Assemblies that bring together randomly selected, yet demographically representative residents of a particular jurisdiction to learn about an issue, problem solve and then work collectively to develop tangible recommendations for policymakers. It’s about trusting that the public, as a whole, are more interested in coming together to overcome differences than to exacerbate them. 

In Ireland, a real leader in Citizens’ Assemblies, they have been been employed to tackle seemingly intractable political hot potatoes like abortion and same-sex marriage. In many countries in Europe, they have been working towards action on climate change and have led to France banning short haul flights within the country.

Here in Canada, we are using Citizens’ Assemblies to ensure the real perspectives of Canadians are incorporated into the government’s thinking on how to manage online harms while protecting free expression.

The method has an impressive track record, and perhaps most importantly, effectively brings people with very different backgrounds, ideas, perspectives and political leanings together to have meaningful conversations that lead to consensus.

Citizens’ Assemblies are the antithesis of oppositional politics and offer a collaborative approach that allows political leadership to show us to ourselves, to bring people together to participate in their democracy and propel policy that really does represent the thoughtful recommendations of the electorate.

Now is the time for leadership across this country, from the smallest municipality to the Senate of Canada, from red to blue to green and orange, to take up the task of revitalizing democracy by bringing people into the heart of the policy-making process.

Leadership is not telling people what they need and it’s also not blindly pandering to uninformed opinions. Leadership is about appreciating that one’s role as an elected representative is to believe in the people you represent and give them the chance to put their time and energy into solving our problems together.  

It’s time Canada’s leaders not only listened to the people – but gave them a purposeful role in building our democracy as well.

Sarah Yaffe has built a wide-ranging career in the arts, culture and urban innovation fields as a leader in public engagement programming. She is a Director at MASS LBP and sits on the board of the YWCA Toronto.

Despite layoffs in recent months, technology workers are in high demand in Canada. A look at online job postings reveals many opportunities for software developers, data scientists and other workers in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
There seem to be more jobs than there are qualified people to do them. In fact, an ICTC report last year estimated that the country’s employers would need to fill an additional 250,000 technology jobs by 2025.
Where are employers going to find these workers?
If Canada and Canadian employers want to compete successfully in today’s increasingly digital world, we need to embrace innovative solutions that give employers access to a larger pool of high-skilled workers.
We can do this by creating new, flexible pathways to post-secondary education for individuals who may not have previously considered or been able to afford an education leading to a career in the high-tech sector, including those who are Indigenous, Black, women, economically disadvantaged or otherwise marginalized.
This is what the Lassonde School of Engineering at Toronto’s York University is doing. We’ve collaborated with senior technology experts from the private and public sector to design and develop a new degree program that will provide a unique alternative to the traditional way that university students learn. These trailblazers include Ceridian, CGI, Cinchy Inc., Cisco Canada, Connected, EY Canada, General Motors of Canada Company, IBM Canada, mimik Technology Inc., RBC, Saa Dene Group, Shopify, TELUS Health, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and TribalScale Inc.
Beginning fall 2023, the School will launch a new Digital Technologies work-integrated degree program. It will be the first of its kind in Canada.
Students who enrol will study towards a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) degree over four years while working full time for the same employer. They will be able to specialize to become software developers, cyber security analysts or data scientists, with the knowledge, skills, experience and professionalism they need to succeed.
Like traditional university programs, students in a work-integrated degree program will earn 30 credits a year, but instead of spending all their time in the classroom, their education will include a combination of in-class learning and workplace experience. Approximately 20 percent of their work time will be set aside for theoretical learning during intensive five-day block periods every six-to-seven weeks on campus, with the remainder of their work hours spent at the workplace, continually applying and integrating their academic learning as they gain experience and contribute to their employer’s goals.
Allowing students to work and earn a full-time salary while studying makes the degree more affordable, reducing financial barriers to post-secondary education.
Whether the students are recent high school graduates or experienced employees, the program will provide coaching and mentoring to help them succeed and build a network of contacts.
Besides providing a larger pool of high-skilled workers, programs like this offer other benefits for employers. Existing employees who enrol in the program to earn a degree or build on their skills can gain access to the latest expertise, knowledge and resources, helping to close skills gaps in their workplace. By participating in innovative programs, employers might become a magnet for new workers with highly sought-after knowledge and skills.
The program’s format enables students to immediately apply what they learn in class to their job, giving employers the benefit of fresh ideas with a reduced learning curve.
The program can also help employers enhance their equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives by opening the door to individuals from groups who have not been traditionally represented in the industry. This is important, with research showing that employers with a more diverse workforce perform better financially than those without one.
While work-integrated degree programs are new to Canada, a similar model is widely used at most universities in the United Kingdom. Manchester Metropolitan University, one of the leading providers of this model in the UK, is forecast to have more than 2,300 students enrolled in this type of program, offered in partnership with 544 employers.
A report that Manchester Met released last year showed the positive impact that its degree apprenticeship programs have had on helping traditionally disadvantaged groups become more socially mobile, while enabling employers to address skills shortages by finding and growing the talent that they need.
Canada needs bold approaches like the work-integrated degree program to address its skills shortage in the ICT sector and help traditionally underrepresented groups succeed. Programs like the one that Lassonde will be offering exclusively through York University’s Markham Campus have the potential to transform the future of both education and employment in Canada.
Jane Goodyer is the dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University.