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Background: Improving equity and early access to palliative care for underserved populations in Canada is a priority. Little is known regarding access to palliative and end-of-life care in the Black population. Methods: We undertook a scoping review using the framework by Arksey and O'Malley to identify knowledge, access gaps, and experiences of palliative and end-of-life care among Blacks living with life-limiting illnesses in Canada. Primary studies, discussion papers, books, and reports were considered eligible. We followed a comprehensive search strategy developed by an information scientist. Searches were performed in the following bibliographic databases: Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO via OVID, CINAHL via EBSCOhost, Scopus and Cochrane Library via Wiley. The search strategy was derived from three main concepts: (1) Black people; (2) Canada and Canadian provinces; (3) Palliative, hospice, or end-of-life care. No publication date or language limits were applied. Titles and abstracts were screened for eligibility by one reviewer and full text by two independent reviewers. Results: The search yielded 233 articles. Nineteen articles were selected for full-text review, and 7 articles met the inclusion criteria. These studies were published between 2010 and 2021, and conducted in the provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia only. Studies used both quantitative and qualitative methods and included cancer decedents, next of kin, family caregivers and religious leaders. Sample sizes in various studies ranged from 6 − 2,606 participants. Included studies reported a general lack of understanding about palliative and end-of-life care, positive and negative experiences, and limited access to palliative and end-of-life care for Blacks, across all care settings. Conclusion: Findings suggest limited knowledge of palliative care and inequities in access to palliative and end-of-life care for Blacks living with life-limiting illnesses in 2 Canadian provinces. There is an urgent need for research to inform tailored and culturally acceptable strategies to improve understanding and access to palliative care and end-of-life care among Blacks in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since the Great Recession, many cities around the world have undergone extreme demographic changes as people and capital resettle into urban areas. This has resulted in issues of gentrification and displacement forcing many governments to address growing concerns of housing insecurity. Housing policy is a function of political ideologies and social conditions drawing from market‐based housing supply (MBHS) solutions or demand‐side interventions (DSI) to alleviate housing cost burdens. Yet, debates on their effectiveness have often undermined their ability to grow to scale leaving many households in precarious housing situations. This paper focuses on the 2022 Ontario provincial election to uncover how Canadian political parties frame housing insecurity and their policy platforms. This paper finds all political parties promote the MBHS framework, yet various degrees of the DSI framework. Embedded within this variation are questions of federalism with responsibility shifting between provincial and municipal governments. The findings reveal while different forms of neoliberal ideology inform the policy platforms of political parties, federalism plays a significant role in framing the level and scale of government involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how policymakers interpret and deploy cultural economy approaches within municipal economic development strategies and cultural plans. Focusing on the 33 largest municipalities in Ontario, Canada, we conduct a keyword analysis of 63 municipal planning documents, supplemented with key informant interviews with economic development and cultural planning staff. Our analysis reveals that the use of cultural economy approaches in economic development and cultural plans varies depending upon city size, municipal governance structure and municipal organizational structure. However, despite the widespread use of cultural economy ideas in planning documents, we conclude that its uptake in municipal policymaking fails to reflect its professional and scholarly popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of rural service decline and population aging, some rural libraries rely on volunteers to keep them open within the community. This paper outlines the challenges of sustaining such volunteer-based rural libraries, drawing on a case study of a volunteer-based library in rural Ontario, Canada. Findings suggest that age of volunteers, volunteer participation, territoriality, branch polarization and the burden of volunteering present challenges in sustaining the volunteer program at the library, yet the library contributes to the community through community engagement, enabling aging in place and through economic development. The paper concludes with recommendations from the case study on how the sustain such a volunteer program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has been carried out on young people transitioning out of care in Canada. The objective of this paper was to describe and comment on the services provided to youth leaving care systems in Canada, with a focus on the four provinces with the largest populations (Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta). The Quebec government offers only one limited-access transition program, which has just been extended to age 25. Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta offer several transition programs, which include financial, education, and life skills components. In British Columbia, these offer support up to age 29. The 6 remaining provinces and the 3 territories offer support to a maximum age that ranges from 21 to 26. Most offer a general financial allowance, and some offer additional supports that can include a housing allowance, tuition waivers, and job training. British Columbia and Ontario offer the most supports, including medical assistance, tuition waivers, and mental health supports. Research is needed to find out which supports are most beneficial, and under which circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Rural & Community Development is the property of Brandon University, Rural Development Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the political history of the failed struggle to require companies to justify their plant closing decisions in Canada's industrial heartland of Ontario. Demands for the public review of plant closing decisions began, locally, in the auto town of Windsor in the 1950s and 1960s and reached Toronto with the closure of Dunlop Tire in 1970. Another wave of closures struck in 1980, this time reaching deep into rural and small-town Ontario as well as larger industrial towns and cities, generalizing concern. The resulting Select Committee on Plant Shutdowns and Employee Adjustment, created by the Ontario legislature, took it upon itself to conduct the kind of public review of recent closures that was long demanded. Due to the strength of the political opposition to any interference with management rights, it was essential that proponents could point to precedents in Western Europe. Trade unionists also grounded their argument in favour of government regulation in the moral economy idea that long-service workers accrued a proprietary right to their jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use intersectionality-based policy analysis (IBPA) to examine how COVID-19 income support policies enacted in Ontario, Canada, affected people living with poverty. We find that the privileging of formal labor market attachment in eligibility requirements systemically excluded constituencies most likely to be living with poverty. More broadly, these exclusions represent a retrenchment of neoliberal logics in social policy, and the rejection of universal social welfare programs. In conclusion, we suggest that the experiences of people living with poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic further highlight the need for comprehensive social welfare programs, including a universal basic income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Homelessness is becoming an international public health issue in most developed countries, including Canada. Homelessness is regarded as both political and socioeconomic problems warranting broad and consistent result-oriented approaches.Methods: This paper represents the qualitative findings of a project that explored risk factors associated with family homelessness and strategies that could mitigate and prevent homelessness among families using a focused ethnographic study guided by the principles of participatory action research (PAR). The sample includes 36 family members residing at a family shelter who participated in focus groups over two years (between April 2016 and December 2017). Most of the participants were single-parent women.Results: The analysis yielded five major themes including, life challenges, lack of understanding of the system, existing power differentials, escaping from hardship, and a theme of proposed solutions for reducing family homelessness in the community.Conclusion: The findings illustrated the complex nature of family homelessness in Ontario; that the interaction of multiple systems can put families at risk of homelessness. Findings from this study underscore the need for urgent housing protocols aimed at educating homeless families on how to navigate and understand the system, enhance their conflict resolution skills, and develop strategies beyond relocation to help them to cope with difficulties with housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline in the prevalence of the Standard Employment Relationship in Canada has created challenges for Canadian unions. This article reviews the available estimates of the prevalence of precarious employment and gig work in Canada. Using data from the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) research group it evaluates both the success of unions in organising workers in precarious employment and bargaining for them. The last section reviews recent union strategies to organise workers in precarious employment with a focus on the subset of precarious employment referred to as gig work. Organising gig workers presents unique challenges for unions as many are deemed by their employers as independent contractors and as a result not covered by existing Canadian labour legislation and hence not eligible for union membership. The paper concludes by arguing that organising precarious workers is a work in progress, whose ultimate outcome remains uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular discourse on making and makerspaces is laden with optimistic narratives suggesting that makerspaces act as key institutions that support more inclusive and sustainable forms of local economic development. Despite their popularity, we know little about how makerspaces actually support entrepreneurship and innovation and even less about how they advance the goals of environmental sustainability and social inclusion, particularly in the Canadian context. In an effort to redress these gaps, this paper uses a unique database of makerspaces, complemented with findings from in-depth case studies, to examine the practices of makerspaces in southern Ontario (Canada). Our study finds that while makerspaces offer access to technologies and basic skills training, we find limited evidence that makerspaces generate the promised economic or social outcomes so often attributed to them. Moreover, we find very limited evidence that makerspaces actively seek to be socially inclusive in their membership and programming or encourage environmentally sustainable practices. In other words, the potential of makerspaces, in their current form, to contribute to more inclusive and sustainable forms of local economic and community development is not yet fully realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a framework for a financial, economic, and stakeholder analysis of a residential rooftop solar net-metering program. The empirical focus of the paper is the net-metering program in Ontario, Canada, but the methodology is applicable to evaluating other public programs. The results highlight that without the Federal Government's subsidy for the initial investment cost, net-metered solar systems are not financially viable for representative households. Moreover, the stakeholder analysis reveals that for each additional net-metered system installed in Ontario, non-net-metered households experience financial losses of six times the benefits to the net-metered households. The net losses to the Federal Government of Canada and the Canadian economy are five and nine times the benefit to the net-metered households, respectively. The only stakeholder who benefits marginally is the Government of Ontario. In terms of environmental benefits, our estimate of the cost of greenhouse gas abatement by residential net-metered solar is 325 CAD per ton of CO 2 , which is significantly higher than the current (65 CAD in 2023) and future (170 CAD by 2030) national carbon price set by the Government of Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The prevalence of substance use disorders among incarcerated individuals in Canada is substantially higher than in the general population. Many incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorder remain untreated due to inadequate access to opioid agonist therapy (OAT). A considerable proportion of overdose-related deaths in the province of Ontario are individuals who have recently been released from prison. The purpose of this paper is to highlight that discontinuation of OAT as a disciplinary measure remains an active concern within prisons in Canada and places individuals with opioid use disorder at increased risk of relapse and resultant overdose death.Design/methodology/approach: This case report describes an incarcerated client with opioid use disorder who was initially stable on OAT, but was forcibly tapered off OAT as a disciplinary measure and subsequently relapsed to illicit opioid use while in custody.Findings: This case calls attention to concerns regarding treatment of opioid use disorder during incarceration, as forcible detoxification from OAT as a disciplinary measure is a highly dangerous practice. The authors discuss concerns regarding diversion and ways in which prison-based OAT programs can be improved to increase their safety and acceptability among correctional staff. Ongoing advocacy is required on the part of health-care workers and policymakers to ensure that individuals are able to appropriately access this life-saving therapy while incarcerated.Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first case report to describe forcible tapering of OAT as a disciplinary measure during incarceration. Despite existing evidence emphasizing the significant risk of overdose associated with detoxification from opioids, this case highlights the need for further research into the causes and prevalence of this practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over the last three decades, there has been worldwide recognition of peer support contributions to improve mental healthcare provision. However, in the current literature, little attention has been paid to exploring perspectives of peer supporters on their involvement in mental health services provision. The purpose of the present study was to examine peer supporters' perspectives on the implementation of a transitional discharge model (TDM), an intervention for the community integration of people with mental illness. Methods: This paper represents ethnographic qualitative data collected as part of a study that used mixed methods to evaluate the implementation of TDM across nine hospitals from the Province of Ontario, in Canada. The study involved a sample of 66 peer supporters, who were recruited from participating Consumer/Survivor Initiative Organizations and Peer Support Programs. The study collected data using two sets of focus groups, which were held at 6 months and 1-year post implementation. Data analysis used an ethnography model of qualitative analysis. Results: Peer supporters expressed that their involvement in mental healthcare enhanced clients' autonomy and hope about their recovery, as well as established a safety net and reduced hospital readmissions. Peer supporters articulated that they assumed several roles to facilitate clients' transition from hospital to the community. These roles included: assisting clients in building their capacity and developing healthy routines; attending regular on-ward and community meetings; accompanying clients to their appointments; and working with clients to set goals for their recovery. The study showed hindrances to effective implementation of peer support programs, such as a lack of understanding and appreciation of peer supporter roles, lack of careful allocation of peer supporters to clients, and an absence of appropriate protocols for ensuring the safety and supervision of the peer supporters. Conclusions: Results of the TDM implementation demonstrated that involving peer supporters in mental healthcare delivery may benefit clients by enhancing autonomy and hope about their recovery, as well as establishing a safety net and reducing hospital readmissions. Results from the study have the potential to inform healthcare professionals and managers of strategies for developing effective peer support programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Set within the framework of the birthplace effect literature and the seminal work of Curtis and Birch, this paper draws information from the publicly available database www.hockeydb.com and from the Census to examine the hometowns of Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) players from 1970 to 2015. It found that from a regional perspective, the distribution of players' hometowns remained fairly stable over the 46-year period with Ontario and the three Prairie provinces being prominent. Players from small centres have been well represented in the NHL. While larger urban areas have historically produced the most players, there has been a marked increase in 'big city' players while the odds of making it are low. However, when the analysis is adjusted according to the population aged 10-19, boys growing up in small and mid-sized centres were at advantage in reaching the NHL until 2009. Finally, we discuss whether the growing presence of big city players in the NHL will affect the image of hockey as a national sport, as for many, small-town hockey remains at the heart of Canadian sporting culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to provide insights to relevant theories, challenges and the future opportunities for binational tourism in the Niagara region. Design/methodology/approach — A selected cross-section of relevant publications including news media items are reviewed. Data gathered by a group of graduate students from Niagara College during their externships with the Binational Tourism Alliance, are utilized. Binational tourism initiatives from different parts of the world are analyzed. Findings — This paper implies that in order to strategize binational tourism in Niagara, relevant theories, international best practices, historic developments of binational initiatives in Niagara as well as news media reports should be analysed. It concludes that Niagara's tourism industry, on both sides of the border, must continue to work in close partnership on their binational tourism strategy and binational positioning in order to remain competitive as a major tourist destination in the world. Originality/value — Inputs from the Executive Director of the Binational Tourism Alliance of the Niagara region as a co-author, enhances the practical value of this paper. Not much research has been undertaken on the topic of binational tourism in Niagara. Therefore, particularly, the tourism policy makers as well as other stakeholders of tourism in the Niagara region should benefit from this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research pertaining to racial disparities for Black families in child welfare is relatively limited in Canada. Recent research reveals that the overrepresentation of Black families in Canadian child welfare systems typically begins at the reporting or investigation stage and continues throughout the child welfare service and decision-making continuum. This research is occurring against the backdrop of increasing public acknowledgement of Canada's historic anti-Black policy-making and institutional relationships to Black communities. Though there is increased awareness about anti-Black racism, there has been limited exploration of the connection between anti-Black racism in child welfare legislation and how this policy generates disparities for Black families in both child welfare involvement and outcomes – this paper seeks to fill this gap in knowledge. The objective of this paper is to explore the entrenchment of anti-Black racism within the child welfare system by critically assessing the language and absence of language within the guiding legislative and implementation policies. Utilizing a critical race discourse analysis method, this study explores the entrenchment of anti-Black racism within the Ontario child welfare system by critically assessing the language and absence of language within the guiding legislative policies that shape practice for Black children, youth, and families. The findings revealed that though the legislation does not explicitly address anti-Black racism, there were instances where the legislation indicated that race and culture may be considered in responding to children and families. The lack of specificity, particularly in the Duty to Report, has the potential to contribute to disparate reporting and decision-making for Black families. Policy makers should acknowledge the history of anti-Black racism that informed the development of the legislation in Ontario and move towards tackling systemic injustices that disproportionately affect Black families. More explicit language will shape future policies and practices to ensure that the impact of anti-Black racism is considered across the child welfare continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floating Catchment Area (FCA) methods are a popular tool to investigate accessibility to public facilities, in particular health care services. FCA approaches are attractive because, unlike other accessibility measures, they take into account the potential for congestion of facilities. This is done by 1) considering the population within the catchment area of a facility to calculate a variable that measures level of service, and then 2) aggregating the level of service by population centers subject to catchment area constraints. In this paper we discuss an effect of FCA approaches, an artifact that we term demand and level of service inflation. These artifacts are present in previous implementations of FCA methods. We argue that inflation makes interpretation of estimates of accessibility difficult, which has possible deleterious consequences for decision making. Next, we propose a simple and intuitive approach to proportionally allocate demandand and level of service in FCA calculations. The approach is based on a standardization of the impedance matrix, similar to approaches popular in the spatial statistics and econometrics literature. The result is a more intiuitive measure of accessibility that 1) provides a local version of the provider-to-population ratio; and 2) preserves the level of demand and the level of supply in a system. We illustrate the relevant issues with some examples, and then empirically by means of a case study of accessibility to family physicians in the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), in Ontario, Canada. Results indicate that demand and supply inflation/deflation affect the interpretation of accessibility analysis using existing FCA methods, and that the proposed adjustment can lead to more intuitive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study reports on physicians’ experiences with chronic pain management. For over a decade prescription opioids have been a primary treatment for chronic pain in North America. However, the current opioid epidemic has complicated long-standing practices for chronic pain management which historically involved prescribing pain medication. Caring for patients with chronic pain occurs within a context in which a growing proportion of patients suffer from chronic rather than acute conditions alongside rising social inequities. Methods: Our team undertook an ethnographic approach known as institutional ethnography in the province of Ontario, Canada in order to explore the social organization of chronic pain management from the standpoint of primary care physicians. This paper reports on a subset of this study data, specifically interviews with 19 primary care clinicians and 8 nurses supplemented by 40 hours of observations. The clinicians in our sample were largely primary care physicians and nurses working in urban, rural and Northern settings. Findings: In their reflections on providing care for patients with chronic pain, many providers describe being most challenged by the work involved in helping patients who also struggled with poverty, mental health and addiction. These frustrations were often complicated by concerns that they could lose their license for inappropriate prescribing, thus shifting their work from providing treatment and care to policing their patients for malingering and opioid abuse. Interpretation: Our findings show that care providers find the treatment of patients with chronic pain–especially those patients also experiencing poverty–to be challenging at best, and at worst frustrating and overwhelming. In many instances, their narratives suggested experiences of depersonalization, loss of job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in relation to providing care for these patients, key dimensions of burnout. In essence, the work that they performed in relation to their patients’ social rather than medical needs seems to contribute to these experiences. Their experiences were further exacerbated by the fact that restricting and reducing opioid dosing in patients with chronic pain has become a major focus of care provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widely held view is that effective action on climate change requires commitment by national governments to international agreements. Developed nations like Canada and Australia continue to fall short in their commitments to emissions reduction targets established under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Australia refused to ratify its Kyoto commitments until 2008 and Canada withdrew its commitment in 2011. Subnational governments in both countries have been active in developing policy responses to climate change yet remain largely excluded as serious policy partners in national mitigation and adaptation initiatives. This paper utilizes Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework to consider why subnational governments address climate change and the main factors shaping their policy choices. The experiences of the Australian state of Victoria and the Canadian province of Ontario provide examples through which to explore the factors contributing to climate policy opportunities and constraints faced by subnational governments in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New carbon-sequestration geosystem paradigm proposed for screening CO 2 repositories. • Deposition, burial history 1st-order controls on repository attributes, traps, etc. • Genetic understanding of geology enables property prediction away from data control. • Case-study application to heavily industrialized region of onshore Canada. In this paper, I propose a new geoscience paradigm for evaluating potential carbon-sequestration targets. I introduce the term carbon-sequestration geosystem to study and describe portions of sedimentary basins where all the geologic components necessary for the safe and long-term storage of CO 2 are present. The purpose of this type of analysis, most appropriately applied at a basin-screening stage, is to derive a holistic, genetic, and predictive understanding of the geology – the depositional systems, structural setting and other factors that are direct controls on storage, injectivity, potential for induced seismicity, and other critical factors. To illustrate the concepts, I present a re-evaluation of the geologic carbon-sequestration options in Southern Ontario (Canada) where business and environmental needs, mostly associated with hard-to-abate industries, require urgent action. Legacy wireline-logs, core, and outcrop data are the main data sources available in this onshore setting. The results of this new, independent study are broadly similar to those of previous studies: the Cambrian section, a saline aquifer, is the most likely candidate to be a CO 2 repository. However, the methodology used identified several issues (e.g., stratigraphic heterogeneity, proximity to basement) that will need addressing by targeted data collection and/or analysis before site-selection for a test should be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of individuals globally. However, less is known about the characteristics that contributed to some people having mental health problems during the pandemic, while others did not. Mental health problems can be understood on a continuum, ranging from acute (e.g., depression following a stressful event) to severe (e.g., chronic conditions that disrupt everyday functioning). Therefore, the purpose of this article was to generate profiles of adults who were more or less at risk for the development of mental health problems, in general, during the first 16-months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada. Data were collected via online surveys at two time points: April-July 2020 and July-August 2021; 2,188 adults (Mage = 43.15 years; SD = 8.82) participated. Surveys included a demographic questionnaire and four previously validated tools to measure participants' mental health, subjective wellbeing, physical activity and sedentary behaviour, and sleep. A decision tree was generated at each time point for those with mental health problems, and those with no mental health problems. Results showed that subjective wellbeing was the biggest contributor to mental health status. Characteristics associated with no mental health problems among adults included having good wellbeing, being a good sleeper (quantity, quality, and patterns of sleep), and being over the age of 42. Characteristics associated with mental health problems included having poor wellbeing and being a poor sleeper. Findings revealed that specific characteristics interacted to contribute to adults' mental health status during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that wellbeing was the biggest contributor to mental health, researchers should focus on targeting adults' wellbeing to improve their mental health during future health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than fifty years, Jamaican farm workers have been seasonally employed in Canada under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). In Canada, these workers live and work in conditions that make them vulnerable to various health issues, including poor mental health. This ethnographic study investigated Jamaican SAWP workers' mental health experiences in Southern Ontario. Several common factors that engender psychological distress among Jamaican workers, ranging from mild to extreme suffering, were uncovered and organised into five themes: (1) family, (2) work environments and SAWP relations, (3) living conditions and isolation, (4) racism and social exclusion, and (5) illness and injury. I found that Jamaican workers predominantly use the term 'stress' to articulate distress, and they associate experiences of suffering with historic plantation slavery. Analysis of workers' stress discourses revealed their experiences of psychological distress are structured by the conditions of the SAWP and their social marginalisation in Ontario. This article presents and discusses these findings in the context of SAWP power dynamics and concludes with policy recommendations aimed at improving the mental health of all SAWP workers. In foregrounding the experiences of Jamaican workers, this study addresses the dearth of research on the health and wellbeing of Caribbean SAWP workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we contend neo-liberal education policy which supports the creation of schooling choices in public education systems is reshaping, conflating and branding ethnicity. We make these points in reference to school choice in Toronto, Canada, and the establishment of an Africentric ethno-centric school. We argue that one of the registers within which education and ethnicity in Toronto operates relates to the conflation of commodification, ethnicity and geography, and that this conflation indicates one of the limits of school choice as a possible way to redress Black student disadvantage. We suggest education policy, which enables the establishment of ethno-centric schools, enters the realm of other debates about race, equity and difference that include the practices of marketing and branding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the principalship is that of an expert in assessment, instruction, curriculum and data analysis. In the past, aspiring principals obtained their training through many years of teaching, leading departments, perhaps administering summer programs to gain additional experiences. However , the expectations of working long, unpaid hours; dealing with teacher dissatisfaction; student discipline, public scrutiny on school management issues and the public display of student achievement outcomes from standardized tests have challenged many new principals. This paper attempts to share some preliminary findings from an exploratory conducted with six newly appointed school administrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The paper aims to describe a framework for a summer research/writing workshop for new university students, and its evolution over time and across institutions. Design/methodology/approach — The University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC) has successfully offered its award-winning two-day Summer Learning Institute on Research, Writing and Presentation Skills for four years (2004-2007), to increasing enrolments. Memorial University of Newfoundland (Memorial) adapted the UTSC model and successfully piloted its four-day workshop, Summer Program in Academic Research and Communication (SPARC), in August 2006. Both programs were low-cost, non-credit summer workshops for new students to help them prepare for university-level research and writing. Memorial offered its program a second time in August 2007. This paper focuses on the Memorial experience. Findings — The success of these programs is attributed to a common framework used in each case: program planning, marketing, and delivery and assessment. Practical implications — The framework described in this paper could be adapted by other institutions wishing to implement such a program. In addition, the SPARC team will continually improve the program by reflecting on each part of the framework. Originality/value — Much research has been done to identify and address the specific needs of first-year university students. For example, some institutions offer "first year experience" courses for credit, while others place first-year students into Interest Groups. Most academic libraries offer information literacy sessions to groups of undergraduate students during the regular semester. This paper presents a model for reaching first year students before they take their first class at university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the election of a neo-liberal provincial government in 1995, Ontario was at the forefront of work-based welfare reform in Canada. Many of the sweeping reforms carried out under the banner of the“Common Sense Revolution” received widespread coverage: for example, reductions in welfare rates, the introduction of the Ontario Works programme, the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy for so-called welfare fraud, and changes to the rules relating to common-law spousal relationships. However, much less attention has focused upon significant changes to the ways welfare is delivered. This paper critically interrogates a number of key changes to the Service Delivery Model in Ontario. After the passage of federal legislation in 1995, national entitlements to welfare have been terminated, replaced with local responsibility; this decentralization is changing not only the hierarchy of the regulation of poor people, but also the form and function of provision. In particular, there is evidence of the reinvention of administration towards the micro-regulation of job search and personal behaviour and the deterrence of welfare receipt as applicants and recipients are bureaucratically disentitled. Although administrative practices have historically acted as a secondary barrier to welfare receipt, the paper suggests that the current incarnation of work-enforcing reforms could be especially significant as the worlds of welfare and work continue to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I draw on interviews with professional visual artists in Toronto, Canada to reconstruct an occupation-specific reading of the urban landscape. I use a detailed examination of one specific occupational identity to reveal the intricate relationship between self, work, and context at different spatial scales. The underlying mechanism that supports the articulation and negotiation of artistic identities, I argue, is the sustained tension between absence and presence, visibility and invisibility within different spaces of the urban fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1823, the Ontario House, a hotel and tavern, was built near Niagara Falls, Canada. In addition to providing a location for travelers and tourists to drink and lodge, Ontario House, like many other establishments, billeted soldiers when the need arose. The 2012 excavation of the midden and features of the Ontario House produced a large assemblage of artifacts including ceramics, buttons, numismatics, and military accoutrements. Of particular interest is an East Indian coin, found in the natural topsoil, which can be associated with the 67th Regiment of Foot's brief occupation of Ontario House in 1841. This paper addresses the significance of this coin and associated finds in regards to the global movement of the regiment and the socio-political context of Ontario House within regional history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroecology and food sovereignty have gained a significant foothold in the Global South; however, in the Global North, there are significant challenges hindering the adoption of these concepts. Drawing on participants' insights following an Agroecology Field School and Research Summit held in Ontario, Canada in 2018, this paper presents the context for agroecology's potential expansion in this country. We argue that three key dimensions must be addressed in order for the concept to be advanced: 1) Engagement in food system governance; 2) Building networks of solidarity between academics, activists, and food producers/harvesters; and 3) Realization of Indigenous food sovereignty. • Politics remain one of the most significant challenges facing agroecology in Canada. • Agroecology can strengthen food governance at community and government levels. • Agroecology requires solidarity between academics, organizers, and food producers. • Agroecology must address historical and ongoing injustices facing Indigenous people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid Earth's ongoing sixth mass extinction event, numerous measures have been proposed to recover the populations of species at risk of extinction. However, the methods and objectives of different species' recovery plans sometimes conflict with each other, causing a conundrum we refer to as recovery–action antagonism. Recovery–action antagonism reduces the cost‐effectiveness of conservation programs and can increase the extinction risk of nontarget species. We describe a method to identify interactions between recovery actions, including antagonisms proposed for different at‐risk species in a given location. The method includes a process to evaluate potential drivers of recovery‐action antagonism and other interaction types using principal coordinates analysis and distance‐based redundancy analysis. We illustrate various applications of the method through case studies performed in Pelee Island and Rouge National Urban Park, two biodiverse areas in Ontario, Canada. Potential antagonism was identified between 1.5% (Pelee) and 5% (Rouge) of the evaluated recovery actions. Although the rate of antagonism was low in our case studies, the method allows the identification of a variety of interactions, which can help to prioritize similar and complementary actions that will benefit a large number of species while minimizing actions that may have competing outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Canada, youth apprenticeships have been promoted as an educational alternative that leads to the development of valuable skills, allows for the opportunity to earn an income while learning and helps youth to gain a head start into lucrative, creative and in-demand careers. Yet, these programmes have remained rather marginal and continue to be perceived as being of lower-status compared to traditional post-secondary educational pathways, such as those leading to university or community college. In this paper, we draw on interview data with former youth apprentices in the province of Ontario to explore their reasons for entering apprenticeships in high school, their experiences in them and their own perceptions about the status and social recognition of apprenticeships. We suggest that policies regarding apprenticeship programmes in Canada need to expand their focus. While emphasis is currently placed on recruiting students by highlighting relatively utilitarian benefits, we argue that more focus needs to be placed on the training offered to apprentices including the commitment of employers to provide quality training on the job, the integration of classroom and on-the-job training and the opportunity for apprentices to move from partial to full participation in communities of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews the Starfield pillars and the Canadian health system. An objective and subjective evaluation are applied to the system through the lenses of access, longitudinality, integrality, and coordination of care. System vulnerabilities, actions, and proposals that are underway to improve these aspects, both nationally and in the province of Ontario, are discussed. Worth highlighting is the opportunity to establish a national free drug system, and the several challenges to advance the agenda of reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This article answers criticisms about the malleability of the resilience concept. • The three necessary features of the resilience concept are clarified. • A parallel concept, 'resistance', is introduced and its necessary features defined. • Introduction of 'resistance' reinforces both what 'resilience' is and what it is not. • Clarifying resilience as distinct from resistance has implications for policy. Despite criticisms that emphasize the ambiguity surrounding its definition and applications, the concept of resilience is featured prominently in studies of regional economies and regionally-based industries. This paper builds on this literature through a case study of Canada's automotive industry, an old industrial region (OIR) situated primarily in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. It also provides heightened definitional rigour to the concept of resilience and in so doing, advances the concept of 'resistance.' We argue that resistance better characterizes regional economies and regionally-based industries whose competitive advantages have eroded, are resistant to change, and remain locked into trajectories of slow decline but persist through shocks, disruptions and interventions, policy-oriented or otherwise. The clarification of resilience as distinct from resistance carries significant implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the implementation of new policies supporting renewable natural gas production from organic wastes, Canada began replacing traditional disposal methods with highly integrated biogas production strategies. Herein, data from published papers, Canadian Biogas Association, Canada's national statistical agency, and energy companies' websites were gathered to gain insight into the current status of anaerobic digestion plants in recovering energy and resource from organic wastes. The availability of materials prepared for recycling by companies and local waste management organizations and existing infrastructures for municipal solid waste management were examined. Governmental incentives and discouragements in Canada and world anaerobic digestion leaders regarding organic fraction municipal solid waste management were comprehensively reviewed to identify the opportunities for developing large-scale anaerobic digestion in Canada. A range of anaerobic digestion facilities, including water resource recovery facilities, standalone digesters, and on-farm digesters throughout Ontario, were compared in terms of digestion type, digester volume, feedstock (s), and electricity capacity to better understand the current role of biogas plants in this province. Finally, technology perspectives, solutions, and roadmaps were discussed to shape the future in terms of organic fraction municipal solid waste management. The findings suggested that the biogas industry growth in Canada relies on provincial energy and waste management policies, advanced technologies for diverting organic waste from landfills, improving biogas yield using existing pretreatment methods, and educating farmers regarding digester operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Law & Society/Revue Canadienne Droit et Societe (Cambridge University Press) is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Platform-mediated work, whether location-based, as in the case of Uber, or cloudbased, as in the case of Amazon Mechanical Turk, poses severe challenges to effective occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation. While the work performed in the platform environment is not usually very different from work performed in more traditional employment settings, the platform environment often exacerbates those risks by, for example, increasing stress and incentivizing long hours and work intensification. Regulating these hazards is impeded by ambiguities surrounding the legal relationship between platform operators and platform workers that make it uncertain whether the OHS regime even applies. As well the regime itself was not designed to address the conditions of platform work or many of the risks and exacerbating factors it produces. Drawing on existing studies, this article explores the structure of platform-mediated work, examines its incidence in Ontario, Canada, summarizes its associated OHS risks, and provides a detailed analysis of the obstacles to effective regulation under Ontario's OHS regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Canada's population is aging and there are concerns that the welfare system may not support the increased demands on it. Integrated health and social care (IHSC) produces positive health and system outcomes but it needs to be better understood within a Canadian context. The purpose of this collective case study of three IHSC initiatives in Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia was to determine the factors that support successful services integration among different healthcare and social services organizations serving older adults within a Canadian context. Design/methodology/approach: This study used the Cheng and Catallo (2020) IHSC conceptual framework (CF) to guide the research. Primary data were based on key informant interviews of representatives from organizations that comprised each case and focus groups. A cross-case analysis was undertaken to determine common themes. Findings: The cross-case analysis revealed that the three cases shared common integration and external influence factors based on the Cheng and Catallo (2020) CF. Some new factors were identified. Originality/value: The study revealed that the Canadian context was important in influencing integration in the three cases and that there is a unique Canadian aspect to IHSC. The study offers up practical insights for government leaders and service administrators to improve IHSC for older adults. The study also identifies how the Cheng and Catallo (2020) IHSC CF can be enhanced and points to research opportunities to test the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional design and evaluation procedures usually classify steel through-truss bridges as single-load-path structures; however, their historic performance has demonstrated considerable structural resiliency. This paper presents a study of the Grand River Bridge, a Pratt through-truss bridge in Cayuga, Ontario, Canada, that systematically investigates the load paths not conventionally assumed in design and evaluation. The bridge with individual truss members removed was analyzed using nonlinear finite-element analyses to investigate the alternative load paths and associated critical members and responses. A system reliability analysis was conducted to evaluate the failure probabilities of the bridge accounting for the member resistance uncertainties. The bridge was found to be sufficient to carry its nominal dead load, even for the worst case of removal of an end post. The end bottom chord and hanger vertical were found to be the critical tension chord and web member, respectively. If multiple alternative load paths exist, the variability of the system collapse load is much less than that of the critical member resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Labour geography has yet to pay full attention to the experiences of public sector workers and their employer (the state). This article addresses this lacuna and provides some insight into the labour geographies of public sector workers through an empirical analysis of the centralization of governance, employment relations, and collective bargaining in Ontario, Canada’s publicly-funded elementary and secondary schools. This case demonstrates how one particular group of public sector workers – teachers – and their unions located and exercised agency in the arenas of politics and collective bargaining through a rescaling of their activities from the local to the provincial level. The paper also argues that the rescaling of politics and collective bargaining is problematic. Questions remain regarding whether or not Ontario’s teachers were able to increase their aggregate bargaining power through centralization or merely transferred agency and authority from one scale to another. Moreover, the paper engages with the fast-developing geographies of education literature, and is consistent with an outward-looking approach that links education to wider political and economic processes. In so doing, it extends the scope of the geographies of education to the employees of publicly-funded schools and their administrative bodies, and suggests value a theoretically- and empirically-informed dialogue between geographers interested in education and those interested in labour. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose - This paper aims to explore the transportation needs of adults in Toronto who have acquired brain injuries (ABIs).Design/methodology/approach - A survey was completed by staff working with clients in a community brain injury organization.Findings - The survey showed that that some people with ABIs who do not use mobility devices and/or do not have obvious physical disabilities, could benefit from the city's door-to-door accessible public transit service (Wheel-Trans). They are currently excluded from Wheel-Trans based on the eligibility criteria for this service.Research limitations/implications - This survey only looks at people with ABIs who are accessing services from an ABI community agency, thus it overlooks those who are not and may not be doing so due to lack of transportation. Also the survey is completed by staff rather than ABI clients, which may lead to different answers/perspectives.Practical implications - A change to the eligibility criteria of Wheel-Trans could increase the independence of some people with ABIs and could also increase their participation in society.Originality/value - Based on a literature review by the author, there is no existing research that examines transportation and ABIs in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconciling diverse forest values within policy and decision-making processes is an ongoing challenge in forestry. The use of environmental impact assessment (EIA) provides potential for improving forest management and making it more responsive to diverse interests. This paper examines EIA in Canadian and Finnish forest planning. In Finland there has been a reluctance to see EIA as a tool for forest planning while in Canada some provinces have long applied EIA to forest management. Ontario, Canada, provides one example of applying EIA to forest planning at a range of scales in order to advance integrated planning and help conflict management. The paper provides a brief analysis of the Finnish forest planning system, an illustration of the Ontario EIA forest management experience, and then considers the application of EIA to Finnish forest management. The paper concludes that EIA may be workable for Finnish state forests and would likely enhance planning and management, but given the existing institutional frameworks EIA would be difficult to apply to private forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural planning is often explained as a strategic approach to urban cultural development; an approach that involves the 'mapping' and leveraging of a wide range of 'cultural resources' (arts, culture, and heritage). However, it is increasingly being questioned whether cultural planning is anything more than a fairly traditional arts policy with a different name. In particular, it has been observed in Australia that cultural plans usually fail to address more than arts sector concerns. The objective of this paper is to investigate whether this assessment applies to cultural planning practice in Ontario, the province at the forefront of the current 'municipal cultural planning' push in Canada. An examination of all cultural plans in Ontario's mid-size cities and interviews conducted with municipal staff members overseeing these initiatives shows that whereas several municipalities do follow an arts-driven policy agenda, this is not the case with most mid-size cities in the province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two sociolinguistic lexical variables, 'work' and 'to dwell,' in the spoken French of former immersion students in their first or fourth year at a bilingual university in Ontario, Canada. Their patterns of use are compared to those of non-immersion graduates in the same institution, to Ontario high school immersion students, to former immersion students living in daily contact with French in Montreal, Canada, and to native speakers of Canadian French. The results suggest that, while under-performing in relation to the Montreal learners and the native speakers, the former immersion university students are at an advantage over their non-immersion university and their high school immersion counterparts in mastering socially stratified lexical variants, but that this advantage does not extend to socially neutral variants. The results are discussed in light of the relative levels of exposure to 'naturalistic' French experienced by the various speaker groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the provision of mobility options being one of the important policy areas vital to addressing transportation accessibility of the elderly. A provincial analysis, taking the case of the Province of Ontario in Canada, is warranted given that the country’s highly decentralized system puts provincial policies at the forefront in meeting this challenge. The paper evaluates the important progress made in this policy area and stressed the need to go beyond the traditional policy focus on the less able-bodied elderly and consider the increased heterogeneity of the elderly population with respect to lifestyle, preferences, resources, health and physical abilities. While significant efforts have been made, a more explicit recognition of population aging in Ontario’s transport policy motivation that could strongly influence transport strategies and investments attuned to the mobility concerns in an aging society remains to be seen. The paper summarizes the general concerns in the literature, policy developments, and the challenges in crafting solutions in terms of policy and research for Ontario and other regions with similar institutional setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada’s book trade is fascinating not only because it really consists of two book trades—the Anglophone and the Francophone—but also because it is a site of intense and sustained policy interventions designed to foster greater domestic control. Examining the country’s book policies, Statistics Canada data, trade association membership rosters and trade directories, this paper reveals that Canada’s contemporary book trade is characterized by three features: circa 40 years of government interventions in response to foreign dominance; the central role of foreign firms despite these interventions; and the dominance of Toronto and Montreal as domestic sites of book production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Title. Career trajectories of nurses leaving the hospital sector in Ontario, Canada (1993–2004). Aim. This paper is a report of an analysis of the career trajectories of nurses 1 year after leaving hospitals. Background. Although hospitals are traditionally the largest employers of nurses, technological advances and budgetary constraints have resulted in many countries in relative shrinkage of the hospital sector and a shift of care (and jobs) into home/community settings. It has been often assumed that nurses displaced from hospitals will move to work in the other workplaces, especially the community sector. Method. Employment patterns were tracked by examining a longitudinal database of all 201,463 nurses registered with the College of Nurses Ontario (Canada) between 1993 and 2004. Focusing on the employment categories Active (Working in nursing), Eligible-Seeking nursing employment or Dropout from the nursing labour market, year-to-year transition matrixes were generated by sector and sub-sector of employment, nurse type, age group and work status. Findings. For every nurse practising nursing in any non-hospital job or in the community a year after leaving hospitals, an average of 1·3 and four nurses, respectively, dropped out of Ontario’s labour market. The proportion of nurses leaving hospitals transitioning to the Dropout category ranged from 63·3% (1994–95) to 38·6% (2001–02). The proportion dropping out of Ontario’s market was higher for Registered Practical Nurses (compared to Registered Nurses), increased with age and decreased with degree of casualization in nurses’ jobs. Conclusion. Downsizing hospitals without attention to the potentially negative impact on the nursing workforce can lead to retention difficulties and adversely affects the overall supply of nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Round Table is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Rural broadband strategies in Canada face data and mapping challenges. • Research shows challenges with being deemed "served" or "underserved". • In southwestern Ontario rural Internet quality levels may fall below the government's aspirational targets. • We recommend provider reported data cross-referenced with user experience data and detailed mapping. This paper examines challenges to evidence-based decision-making in the design and implementation of rural broadband investment programs. Our focus is on Canada, and the apparent need for further intra-rural broadband research and better data and mapping for informing public investment decisions, but similar challenges are evident in the international literature. Based on proprietary telecommunication provider datasets, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) estimates that broadband services with advertised speeds that meet its basic universal service targets (50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload) are available to 87.4 percent of households in Canada. In rural areas however, services that meet CRTC's speed targets are available to 45.6 percent of households. Moreover, effective speeds and service quality levels that suppliers deliver and users experience tend to fall well below the government's aspirational targets. In response to demand for better broadband, a variety of initiatives are directing public investment to the deployment of regional and rural broadband networks, which are typically owned and operated by private companies. There remains a serious lack of relevant data and its effective use in creating rural broadband strategies and managing public investment projects. Evidence from the literature suggest that this affects the degree and quality of geo-spatial and econometric analysis that results in a limited empirical basis to allocate scarce public investments, aggregate demand of consumers/communities, and assess the outcomes of rural broadband initiatives ex post. This paper provides a historical overview of rural broadband development in Canada and questions if the body of knowledge to inform public investment initiatives has grown sufficiently to ensure their effectiveness and sustainability. With a regional case from southwestern Ontario, Canada, we discuss the findings of the literature review, characterize the broadband data challenge, and discuss the importance of proprietary provider data cross-referenced with Internet user experience data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]