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The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly disrupted daily life in Canada. This study assesses changes in health behaviours during the early stages of the pandemic and examines socio-demographic disparities associated with these changes.We analyze data on adults age 25 and older (N = 4383) from the public-use Canadian Perspectives Survey Series 1: Impacts of COVID-19 (CPSS-COVID). Multinomial regression models assess the association between demographic and socio-economic characteristics with increases or decreases in six health behaviours: alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use, junk food consumption, and TV and internet screen time.While findings varied across the six behaviours, overall, there was an increase in negative health behaviours: 14% of Canadian adults reported increasing their alcohol use (95% CI = 0.12, 0.15), 25% increased their junk food consumption (95% CI = 0.23, 0.27), and over 60% increased their screen time (62%, 95% CI = 0.60, 0.65 for TV and 66%, 95% CI = 0.63, 0.68 for internet). Younger and Canada-born adults were more likely to increase negative health behaviours than older and immigrant Canadians. Adults who reported financial impact of COVID-19 were more likely to increase all negative health behaviours (e.g., for increased junk food consumption, the relative risk ratio (RRR) = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.49, 2.20 relative to group reporting no impact).Our study documents the overall deterioration of health behaviours during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. To minimize long-term harm to the Canadian population's health, the results highlight the need to tailor interventions, especially for younger Canadians, and the importance of mitigating financial impacts, which are linked to negative changes in health behaviours.RéSUMé: OBJECTIFS: La pandémie de COVID-19 perturbe profondément la vie quotidienne au Canada. Notre étude évalue les changements survenus dans les comportements de santé aux premiers stades de la pandémie et examine les disparités sociodémographiques associées à ces changements. MéTHODE: Nous analysons les données sur les adultes de 25 ans et plus (N = 4 383) tirées de la Série d’enquêtes sur les perspectives canadiennes 1 : Répercussions de la COVID-19 (SEPC-COVID) d’usage public. Des modèles de régression multinomiale permettent d’évaluer l’association entre les caractéristiques démographiques et socioéconomiques et les augmentations ou les diminutions de six comportements de santé : usage de l’alcool, du tabac et du cannabis, consommation d’aliments vides et temps passé devant la télévision et sur Internet. RéSULTATS: Nos constatations varient entre ces six comportements, mais dans l’ensemble, il y a eu une augmentation des comportements de santé négatifs : 14 % des Canadiens adultes ont dit avoir accru leur usage de l’alcool (IC de 95 % = 0,12, 0,15), 25 % ont accru leur consommation d’aliments vides (IC de 95 % = 0,23, 0,27), et plus de 60 % ont accru leur temps d’écran (62 %, IC de 95 % = 0,60, 0,65 pour la télévision et 66 %, IC de 95 % = 0,63, 0,68 pour Internet). Les jeunes adultes et les adultes nés au Canada étaient plus susceptibles d’avoir accru leurs comportements de santé négatifs que les adultes âgés et ceux ayant immigré au Canada. Les adultes ayant dit subir des contrecoups financiers de la COVID-19 étaient plus susceptibles d’avoir accru tous leurs comportements de santé négatifs (p. ex., pour la consommation accrue d’aliments vides, le rapport de risque relatif [RRR] = 1,81, IC de 95 % = 1,49, 2,20, comparativement au groupe n’ayant pas subi de contrecoups financiers). CONCLUSION: Notre étude décrit la détérioration globale des comportements de santé aux premiers stades de la pandémie de COVID-19. Pour réduire les torts que cela peut causer à long terme à la santé de la population canadienne, il faut, selon les résultats, adapter les interventions, surtout aux jeunes Canadiens, et atténuer les contrecoups financiers de la pandémie, qui sont liés à des changements négatifs dans les comportements de santé.

Research on American secondary cities has largely focused on so–called “rust belt” cities and has found that they tend to have economic stagnation, racialization, and urban decay in their urban cores occurring after economic crises. Most urban research on Canadian cities has, by contrast, focused on the country's largest cities, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, and has found that urban cores are getting richer, less diverse, and undergoing infrastructural improvements. We examine each model by looking at four secondary Atlantic Canadian cities (Halifax, Moncton, St. John's, and Charlottetown) that all faced major economic crisis in the 1990s to see whether these models can explain the sociospatial changes occurring in them. Analysis of 1996 and 2006 Canadian Census data finds unlike “rust belt” cities or changes seen in larger Canadian cities, there is no clear sociospatial concentration of change. Rather, change is seen through “hot spots” of economic and physical characteristics of neighborhoods.

In an era in which unprecedented data on migration are collected, accessing and using it, as well as understanding the kinds of questions that can be engaged with it, often are under-examined. In this chapter, using the Canadian case, we assess how census and survey data collected by national statistics agencies, administrative data, and other data sources can be used in an unprecedented era of migration and data gathering. The chapter explores issues of data access, consistency of units of analysis and concepts, technical skill deficits, and what is missed in existing data sources. Finally, we assess the need for creating data spines and common protocols. Overall, we offer insights from our navigation of the Canadian data ecosystem and a practical assessment of what can be done with different types of data regarding the researching of migration and immigrant settlement.

Background Prior to COVID-19, postnatal resettled refugee women in Canada reported barriers to healthcare and low levels of social support, contributing to maternal health morbidities. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be further exacerbating health inequities for marginalized populations. The experiences of resettled refugee women are not fully known. Aim To understand Syrian refugee women’s experiences accessing postnatal healthcare services and supports during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Semi-structured, virtual interviews were conducted with eight resettled Syrian refugee women living in Nova Scotia (Canada) who were postnatal between March and August 2020. Data analysis was informed by constructivist grounded theory. Findings Three themes emerged: “the impacts of COVID-19 on postnatal healthcare;” “loss of informal support;” and “grief and anxiety.” Women experienced difficult healthcare interactions, including socially and physically isolated deliveries, challenges accessing in-person interpreters, and cancelled or unavailable in-home services (e.g., public health nurse and doula visits). Increased childcare responsibilities and limited informal supports due to pandemic restrictions left women feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Stay-at-home orders resulted in some women reporting feelings of isolation and loss, as they were unable to share in person postnatal moments with friends and family, ultimately impacting their mental wellness. Conclusions COVID-19 and associated public health restrictions had significant impacts on postnatal Syrian refugee women. Data presented in this study demonstrated the ways in which the pandemic environment and related restrictions amplified pre-existing barriers to care and postnatal health inequalities for resettled refugee women—particularly a lack of postnatal informal supports and systemic barriers to care.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees reports that more than half of the 65 million refugees and displaced people identified worldwide are under the age of 18. For this reason, researchers, practitioners and policymakers need to understand the consequences of forced migration on the integration of refugee children and youth in receiving countries. A first step to do that is to scope out the state of current research on these issues and identify possible gaps. To that end, the article offers a scoping review of peer-reviewed English and German academic articles on refugee children and youth’s integration over a 20-year period. The review finds: little consensus on the definitions of ‘children’ or ‘youth’; most studies focus on girls and boys that are between 12 and 19 years old; there is a focus on refugees landing in developed countries; and there is a lack of longitudinal and quantitative studies.

Given that children and adolescents constitute a growing and significant share of forced migrants worldwide, assessing the state of research on and the methods used to study the acculturation of this group is both timely and essential. The acculturation of refugee children and adolescents in host countries occurs primarily within educational institutions and through the acquisition of the language of the new host society. This scoping review of peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1987 and 2016 (N = 192 eligible studies) examined the extent to which individual-level factors (e.g., gender, age) and contextual factors (e.g., country of residence) emphasized by acculturation models have been considered in research involving young refugees in the educational domain. In addition, the research designs and methods applied in these studies were evaluated, and content analysis was performed to examine whether individual-level factors considered in the sample of studies were related to educational outcomes of young refugees. Overall, the review revealed that very few studies provided adequate information on sample composition, or considered individual and contextual factors, thus leaving crucial gaps in the knowledge about the acculturation of young refugees. Guidelines for future research are proposed to remedy the identified research deficits.

Small cities across North America are experiencing rapid changes, but methodological obstacles hamper researchers’ ability to analyze them. This research note explores some of the methodological challenges faced by researchers and offers solutions. Using Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, as a case study, we show that a major challenge lies in choosing meaningful geographic units for small city neighborhoods, and we evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of several geographical options. Another major challenge is that the boundaries of existing units change between census years, demanding an approach to reconstructing them to allow for temporal analysis. We propose two feasible solutions for re-creating neighborhood geographic units over time: ‘moving forward’ and ‘going backward.’ Both involve selecting units from a particular census year to serve as a fixed point of reference for the re-creation of boundaries across multiple census years. We conclude by cautioning that studying changes in small cities over longer time periods in Canada is not feasible because of the extensive and complex boundary changes that have occurred between census years. We offer an approach for looking at shorter time periods. SSHRC Insight Grant

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-021-00162-5

Cet article etudie de quelle facon et a quel moment les journaux, les ONG environnementales, les entreprises privees et le gouvernement convergent autour des evenements environnementaux. En utilisant les donnees sur le deversement de petrole BP en 2010 tirees des journaux aux Etats-Unis, au Canada et en Grande-Bretagne et des communiques de presses de Greenpeace, du Club Sierra, de Halliburton, de Transocean, d’Exxon/Mobil et les annonce de presse de la secretaire de presse pour le Maison Blanche, nous etudions la capacite d'un evenement a faire converger des actions sociales et politiques. En concevant les evenements comme des actants, nous verifions les arguments tires des publications sur les mouvements sociaux et sur la definition de l'agenda politique a propos du timing, de la simplicite et de la visualite afin de comprendre comment les acteurs politiques convergent. Nous observons que l'effet de convergence est lie au timing, mais pas a la simplicite ou a la visualite. This paper examines how and when newspapers, environmental nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and the government converge on environmental events. Using data on the 2010 BP Oil Spill from newspaper articles in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, press releases by Greenpeace and Sierra Club, press releases by BP, Halliburton, Transocean, ExxonMobil, and Shell, and press statements by the White House Press Secretary, we examine an event's potential to trigger convergence of social and political action. By treating events as political actants, we examine arguments from the agenda-setting and social movement literatures on timing, simplicity, and visuality to understand when political actors converge. We find that convergence is related to temporal cycles but not simplicity or visuality.

Many social movement researchers question the usefulness of political opportunity as a concept. However, others argue that it can be refined by disaggregating different opportunities for actors and outcomes to understand the underlying mechanisms that influence each. This research extends this analysis by asking "political opportunity for whom?" Looking at Canadian Aboriginal mobilization, it assesses how different opportunities influence a broad range of movement actors and organizations. Using data from a 50-year period it assesses how contemporaneous, lagged and change regression modeling of opportunities affect results. The article finds that structural opportunities around resources robustly influence a wide range of mobilization.

What influences the Northern media's coverage of events and abuses in explicit human rights terms? Do international NGOs have an impact, and, if so, when are they most effective? This article addresses these questions with regression analysis of human rights reporting by The Economist and Newsweek from 1986 to 2000, covering 145 countries. First, it finds that these two media sources cover abuses in human rights terms more frequently when they occur in countries with higher levels of state repression, economic development, population, and Amnesty International attention. There is also some evidence that political openness, number of battle-deaths, and civil societies affect coverage, although these effects were not robust. Second, it finds that Amnesty International's press releases appear to have less impact on media coverage when discussing abuses in countries that are central to the media's zone of concern. Indeed, Amnesty's press advocacy may be more effective when addressing violations in lesser-noticed countries. The article attributes this to the saturation of coverage of abuses in highly mediatized countries. Cumulative attention by multiple journalists and others raises a country's media profile but also makes it more difficult for any one voice to be heard. The authors conclude that Amnesty's press advocacy may have greater media impact when focusing on abuses in countries located away from the media's core areas of concern. Overall, the authors are encouraged by the Northern media's sensitivity to actual patterns of repression and to Amnesty's lobbying, since both indicate that the media is potentially a useful ally in efforts to combat abuses worldwide. Yet, the discouraging effects of poverty on the media's human rights coverage are cause for concern.

The severity of abuse may be be less important than a nation's policy relevance to the West, the ability of journalists to investigate freely, and attention from rights activists.

Drawing on the social movement literature, this paper tests whether or not Canadian Aboriginal protest, 1951-2000, can be explained by resource mobilization, political opportunities, or the construction of a PanAboriginal collective identity. Using regression analysis it argues that the strongest influences on protest are the founding of new organizations, federal monies, media attention, and successful resolution of land claims. The paper also concludes that differences among "status groups," and their access to resources and opportunities, inhibit broad based PanAboriginal protest. Resume: Cet article se base sur la discipline de mouvements sociaux pour tester si les demonstrations d'autochtones canadiens peuvent etre expliquees par les theories de mobilisation de ressources, d'opportunites politiques ou d'identite collective Pan- Autochtones. En utilisant une analyse de regression, l'article maintient que les influences les plus considerables sur les demonstrations sont l'etablissement de nouveaux organismes, l'aide federal, l'attention mediatique ainsi que la resolution favorable de disputes territoriales. L'article conclu egalement que des differences entre les « groupes de statuts » ainsi que dans leur acces a des ressources et opportunites ont une influence nefaste sur les demonstrations Pan-Autochtones plus etendu. During the 1990s, Canada experienced a rise of Aboriginal contentious action. Opposition against the Meech Lake Accord, its defeat, the violent standoff at Oka, the Dudley George shooting at Ipperwash Park, or the Mi'qmak lobster crisis in the Maritimes are just some examples. 1 However

What shapes the transnational activist agenda? Do non-governmental organizations with a global mandate focus on the world's most pressing problems, or is their reporting also affected by additional considerations? To address these questions, we study the determinants of country reporting by an exemplary transnational actor, Amnesty International, during 1986–2000. We find that while human rights conditions are associated with the volume of their country reporting, other factors also matter, including previous reporting efforts, state power, U.S. military assistance, and a country's media profile. Drawing on interviews with Amnesty and Human Rights Watch staff, we interpret our findings as evidence of Amnesty International's social movement-style “information politics.” The group produces more written work on some countries than others to maximize advocacy opportunities, shape international standards, promote greater awareness, and raise its profile. This approach has both strengths and weaknesses, which we consider after extending our analysis to other transnational sectors.

Dominique Clement, Canada's Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social Change, 1937-82. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008, 296 pp. $32.95 paper (978-0-7748-1480-5), $85.00 hardcover (978-0-7748-1479-9) Canada's Rights Revolution is an ambitious book on the history of Canadian civil liberty and human rights advocacy over the 1937-1982 period. It grapples with a number of key issues facing social movements, including generational differences among activists, ideological tensions, and the struggle to launch national bodies. Most interesting is its critical engagement of the role of federal government funding in Canadian mobilization. The book's early chapters introduce readers to concepts that frame the rest of the analysis. These include understandings of negative versus positive rights, differences between civil liberty and human rights advocacy, and generational shifts between early campaigns seeking antidiscrimination for particular groups versus later ones fighting for the universal legal entrenchment of individual and socioeconomic and cultural rights. Clement argues that early generations of rights activists faced an uphill battle against the Canadian state, which branded many as radicals or communists, and repressed their organizations as a result. The government was reluctant to abandon Parliamentary supremacy in protecting the rights of Canadians, which accordingly generated harsh divisions with the movement between leftists and liberals. Despite these tensions, the book argues that through fighting discriminatory practices early advocates were successful in gaining rights legislation that protected negative rights, or those relating to civil and political liberties. Thus, early rights activists were essentially civil libertarians. Human rights activism and broader conceptions of rights, seeking to protect positive rights, did not fully emerge until the late 1960s and peaked during the 1970s. Clement notes a generational shift from earlier advocacy, seen in the emergence of new organizations and a younger generation of activists. They sought more than just civil and political equality, instead looking to protect group rights, such as language, and demanding that the state protect socioeconomic and cultural minorities. The new generation had unprecedented political opportunities to mobilize as a consequence of Canadian nation-state building, which saw increased resources distributed by the federal Secretary of State, geared to building a stronger Canadian civil society. They also had new institutional forums open to their advocacy, such as the courts. …

Achieving tenure and promotion are significant milestones in the career of a university faculty member. However, research often indicates that racialized and female faculty do not achieve tenure and promotion at the same rate as their non-racialized and male counterparts. Using new original survey data on faculty in eight Canadian universities, this paper examines differences in tenure and promotion among racialized and female faculty and investigates the extent to which explanations of human capital theory and cultural or identity taxation account for these disparities. Logistic regression confirms that controlling for human capital and cultural or identity taxation washes away the differences between male and female faculty for achieving both tenure and promotion. However, differences for racialized faculty remain, thereby offering evidence of discrimination in the academic system.

The environment is increasingly seen as a meta-injustice or master frame of the politics of the new century. If this is indeed the case, environmental concerns should transcend national and organizational boundaries and should have a discursive claims-making space of their own. Research on environmental advocacy, however, shows that many claims for environmental justice are rooted in specific locales and advocacy is often mediated through, and at times overshadowed by, other dimensions of power. Using Nancy Fraser’s conception of dimensions of justice, and a Bourdieusian inspired field approach, this paper maps Greenpeace and Sierra Club’s press advocacy between 2006 and 2010. In doing so, the paper identifies environmental advocacy spaces and argues that non-parametric approaches to analysing ENGO media advocacy are needed to explain the complexity of multi-scaled political contexts.