Category: The Conversation – Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Emine Fidan Elcioglu, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto

There is a widely held misconception that young people are politically disengaged. This is based on narrow measures like voter turnout. But this overlooks the fact that many young people are deeply curious, especially when politics is understood more broadly: as a way to make sense of society, power and everyday life.

In my research with youth in the Greater Toronto Area, I explored how their views on inequality, identity and government form over time.

My findings build on my earlier research, conducted with second-generation Chinese and South Asian Canadians, where I found that many of them turned to conservative ideas to access feelings of dignity and belonging. For them, embracing meritocracy wasn’t about denying racism — it was a way to prove they’d succeeded by Canada’s rules.

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Read more:
Why are so many second-generation South Asian and Chinese Canadians planning to vote Conservative?

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In this new study, I wanted to understand what shapes that gap — what makes some students more likely to see power as structural, and others more likely to see it as personal or cultural.

I found that young people now form political beliefs through two competing knowledge systems: a hollowed-out university, and YouTube’s attention economy. In the university classroom, students learn to connect experience to systems like racism or class inequality. On YouTube, other students encounter simplified stories or common-sense clichés.

The result is a generation pulled between critique and clarity, where YouTube offers answers that feel true.

Changes to postsecondary education

Post-secondary institutions in Canada have historically played a central role in public life. They offered young people a place to explore political ideas, learn history and develop critical thinking skills. That mission has since eroded.

In Ontario, former premier Mike Harris’s so-called “Common Sense Revolution” marked a turning point in government approaches to education. Post-secondary education was rebranded as an individual investment rather than a public good. The cost of tuition increased, public funding stagnated and student debt rose.

As a result, academic paths became stratified. Lower-income students pursued vocational degrees, while their wealthier peers could afford less lucrative paths, like the social sciences and humanities.

The ability to encounter transformative ideas narrowed along class lines.

Market priorities

At the same time, disciplines like sociology and history began to lose institutional standing as universities became increasingly reliant on tuition fees, corporate partnerships and research tied to economic outcomes. Funding shifted toward programs seen to deliver market returns — like business and technology — while fields focused on critique or public interest were sidelined.

This reorientation entrenched the idea that higher education exists to serve the market. So it was no surprise when Ontario announced $750 million in new post-secondary funding; none for the social sciences and far below the $2.5 billion recommended by a government-appointed group tasked with reviewing the financial sustainability of Ontario’s post-secondary system.

Universities are now judged by job outcomes for graduates, with less support for courses that analyze, critique or challenge inequality or power.

YouTube steps in

As universities retreat, platforms like YouTube have increasingly stepped in as a political educator. This is accelerating a shift that may have happened anyway, but has now taken on a new urgency in this hollowed-out educational landscape.

In 2015, YouTube’s algorithm shifted to maximize watch time, pushing content independent of its quality.

I found that for students in technical or vocational programs — where inequality is rarely addressed — YouTube often becomes their main source of political learning.

Conservative influencers offer simplified narratives: inequality reflects natural differences, tradition ensures order, progressivism is elitist.

These messages land because progressive ideas remain concentrated in universities, out of reach for many working-class youth. This dynamic has also expanded across platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where short-form content delivers similar emotionally charged explanations.

When critical education is confined to elite spaces, structural thinking becomes a privilege and not a public tool. This matters because it shapes who feels entitled to analyze power and imagine alternatives — and who is left to make sense of inequality through personal experience and YouTube algorithms.

Some young people are pushing back: BreadTube creators, civic tech projects and public sociology podcasts translate progressive ideas for digital audiences.

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Read more:
Meet BreadTube, the YouTube activists trying to beat the far-right at their own game

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But these efforts remain small compared to the reach and resources of right-wing media. Without broader infrastructure — from education funding to algorithmic transparency — even the most compelling content struggles to shift how people understand the world.

The decline of progressive institutions

Universities were never the only sites of political education. In earlier generations, unions, political parties and community groups shaped public consciousness.

They established adult education programs, published newspapers and linked political ideas to everyday life. Feminist and anti-racist traditions added their own spaces, from women’s consciousness-raising circles to Black political study groups.

Civic initiatives like Company of Young Canadians, supported youth in under-served communities with political engagement and collective action. These institutions helped working people identify shared interests and organize for change.

That world has largely disappeared, especially with the decline of unions in Canada, driven by decades of neoliberal restructuring that weakened collective bargaining and eroded political education.

In Canada, the New Democratic Party has increasingly prioritized electoral success over grassroots organizing. This isn’t unique to the NDP. Across the North America, left-leaning organizations often function as symbolic communities, struggling to build collective power.

Their abstract language feels out of step with people navigating material problems like rent hikes and job precarity.

In contrast, the political right speaks plainly. And, its messages may be simple, but they are easy to find.

Cultivating critical thought

When universities retreat and progressive organizations lose influence, new forces shape how people come to understand the world.

My research found that the way Canadian youth explained inequality differed depending on their access to education. Students with post-secondary social science education connected personal experience to systemic inequality. Those outside these spaces — especially those relying on YouTube — were more likely to see inequality as natural, rooted in individual effort or cultural values.

This divergence reflects a deeper shift: the pipeline for developing structural literacy has broken down. Where critical thinking was once nurtured through unions, political parties and public education systems, those institutions have thinned out.

With unions weakened and parties consumed with electoral success, the university remains one of the few institutions still cultivating critical thought — and conservative leaders know it.

Ahead of the 2025 election, the Conservative Party pledged to end the “imposition of woke ideology” in university research funding and steer university hiring “away from ideology.”

For from neutral, these efforts turn universities into places where challenging ideas are no longer welcome. In their place, young people are left to navigate politics through platforms shaped by algorithms, where nuance is rare.

A different future

If we want a different future, where more people feel equipped to understand and change the world, we need institutions that foster imagination, inclusion and collective purpose. That means rebuilding unions, community-based groups and civic networks.

It also means rethinking what political parties and universities are for.

Political parties must organize, not just campaign. Universities must educate for democratic participation, not just employability. These institutions must do the slow, relational work of building solidarity: helping people understand the systems they live in and feel part of something larger than themselves.

Without that kind of infrastructure, progressive ideas stay abstract: visible to some, but disconnected from the everyday lives of most.

Emine Fidan Elcioglu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. YouTube shapes young people’s political education, but the site simplifies complex issues – https://theconversation.com/youtube-shapes-young-peoples-political-education-but-the-site-simplifies-complex-issues-260758

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Tamara Krawchenko, Associate Professor, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria

As Canada advances toward its 2050 net-zero emissions target, it’s facing a fundamental challenge: ensuring all parts of the country can participate in and benefit from the transition to a clean economy.

Canada’s regional economies are diverse, spanning Alberta’s oilsands, Québec’s hydroelectric systems, northern mining operations and urban tech hubs. These differences mean that net-zero transitions will manifest differently, creating opportunities for some regions and vulnerabilities for others.

Rural and remote regions accounted for 52 per cent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 alone, and these regions in particular face complex transition dynamics. These regions host oil, gas, coal and mining industries that power Canada’s economic development.

An equitable net-zero transition requires promoting regional competitiveness while ensuring no place is left behind; in other words, cohesion. Successful sustainability transitions demand both innovation-driven growth strategies and support for regions facing economic disruption.

Canada needs to ensure a net-zero transition translates into broadly shared prosperity rather than exacerbated regional inequalities. Doing so can help rectify the historical pattern of resource extraction that has not always benefited local communities.

Challenges faced by rural and remote regions

Rural and remote communities are typically less economically diverse than urban centres. They are often built around one or more dominant industries and have smaller labour markets with fewer specialists. They also have limited access to the financial and human capital necessary for transitioning to net-zero.

Energy transitions can create new industries and transform existing ones to be cleaner. They can replace old industries with new ones and diversify the economy. However, they can also phase out industries in areas where there aren’t enough replacement options. Communities that depend on a single industry are often hit the hardest by these changes.

Canada’s transition policies are rightly focused on regional competitiveness and innovation through, for example, the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation and the Global Innovation Clusters programs. However, they often fail to proactively support the rural, remote and resource-dependent regions and communities most vulnerable to the disruptions of transitions.

This results in reactive policies and programs that are often deployed only after economic shocks. They rarely target the most at-risk groups and governance frameworks lack clear mechanisms for co-ordinated action, accountability and consideration of Indigenous rights and local well-being.

European precedents

The European Union’s 55 billion euro Just Transition Mechanism provides valuable insights for Canadian policymakers. The EU initiative combines both competitiveness and compensation strategies within a comprehensive development model.

The mechanism integrates investment schemes that promote innovation in clean technologies with targeted support for the regions most vulnerable to job losses and economic downturns. Each EU member state develops just transition plans identifying specific regions and industries requiring support, alongside dedicated investment programs tailored to local economic conditions.

This approach recognizes that effective sustainability transitions require incentives for innovation and protections for disrupted communities.

In addition, the EU’s Just Transition Fund specifically targets regions that are socially, economically and environmentally most vulnerable to transition impacts, while simultaneously encouraging investments in emerging sectors critical for reaching net-zero.

Canadian regional development approaches have historically emphasized competitiveness and innovation, with transition management remaining largely reactive rather than proactive.

An exception is the Canada Coal Transition Initiative, which provided flexible, locally tailored approaches and co-ordinated support across federal, provincial and local levels. That approach is essential for sustainable and equitable transition outcomes in diverse regions.

But Canada has generally been reluctant to explicitly identify and designate regions most at-risk from net-zero transitions. This hesitancy may leave vulnerable communities without targeted support.

Institutional capacity and governance challenges

The effectiveness of both competitiveness and cohesion strategies depends on a region’s institutional capacity and governance. On this point, rural and remote regions are often at a disadvantage. They have smaller administrations, fewer resources and limited capacity to manage complex transitions.

The Canadian government’s Regional Energy and Resource Tables offer a new collaborative approach to help bridge these gaps by bringing federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners together.

The tables aim to co-ordinate expertise, resources and partnerships to identify economic priorities and build the capacity to pursue low-carbon growth opportunities. Ten tables are presently underway. This will be an important initiative to watch and evaluate.

Other collaborations can also facilitate peer learning and shared problem-solving. For example, Yukon University’s Northern Energy Innovation group partners with First Nations and utility companies to provide place-based solutions and facilitate knowledge networks. The challenge here lies in connecting these local strengths with external resources and expertise and to expand them as needed.

Sustainable transitions

As Canada encourages new economic activities essential for net-zero transitions, such as critical minerals development, it’s crucial that past inequalities are not reproduced, particularly regarding Indigenous rights holders on territories where these projects are operating.

Canadian governments have substantial room for improvement in this regard, as a lot of rural policy in Cananda continues to treat these regions as sites of resource extraction detached from broader development strategies.

The stakes of this transition are considerable. Managed effectively, net-zero transitions can put Canada on a path to sustainable and inclusive growth. Managed poorly, they risk deepening territorial divisions and creating new patterns of regional disadvantage.

The policies adopted today will determine which of these futures emerge, making the integration of competitiveness and cohesion approaches not merely desirable but essential for Canadian prosperity and social cohesion in the decades ahead.

Tamara Krawchenko received funding for this research from the Centre for Net-Zero Industrial Policy. She is an expert panelist with the Canadian Climate Institute, a Visiting Scholar with the Institute for Research on Public Policy, and a Board member for Ecotrust Canada.

– ref. How Canada can support rural regions in its net-zero transition – https://theconversation.com/how-canada-can-support-rural-regions-in-its-net-zero-transition-264747

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Andrew Buzzell, Postdoctoral Fellow, Rotman Institute of Philosophy, Western University

On Sept. 25, the Donald Trump administration in the United States again extended the TikTok ban-or-divest law, possibly for the last time. The latest extension to the law, which was passed in 2024 by the Joe Biden administration, includes a deal to transfer TikTok to American owners as a condition required to avoid a ban.

This raises the question on the validity of the warnings about the app as a tool of Chinese influence and whether American ownership will help.

Canada should be watching closely, because anxieties about foreign manipulation and social media exist north of the border, too. These range from bans on TikTok and concerns about Beijing-linked surveillance to efforts like Bill C-18 aimed at safeguarding domestic news sources.

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Read more:
Concerns over TikTok feeding user data to Beijing are back – and there’s good evidence to support them

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What happens in the Canadian information environment has always been shaped by the U.S., a dependence that is even more precarious now that American politics has turned hostile to Canada.

TikTok concerns

TikTok is not the only digital media platform susceptible to worries about hostile influence. All major platforms introduce the same vulnerabilities. If the policy objective is to enhance the security of democracy, then a focus on TikTok is too narrow and divestment as a solution accomplishes little (especially because it appears China will retain control of the algorithm).

Worries about TikTok come down to two big fears. The first is that it functions as a spying machine, feeding data to the Chinese government. The spying concern isn’t just about espionage, learning about sensitive infrastructure and activities, but also personal — the software itself might be unsafe and can be used to track individuals.

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Canada’s decision to ban TikTok from government devices is bad news for the NDP’s election strategy

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As a result, many countries have banned the app on government devices, and securing data along national borders may well address this.

The second fear, more vivid in the public and political imagination, is that TikTok functions as an influence machine. Its algorithm can be tweaked to push propaganda, sway opinion, censor views or even meddle in elections.

Such worries reached a fever pitch in America in 2023, when Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” suddenly went viral on TikTok. Lawmakers seized on this as evidence that TikTok could amplify extremist content, reinforcing fears that the platform can be weaponized.

These worries aren’t merely speculative. Investigations have shown that topics sensitive to China, such as Tiananmen Square and Tibet, are harder to find or conspicuously absent on TikTok compared to other platforms.

Social media is also used as a tool for influence by hostile groups, corporations and governments, and concerns about ownership are often a proxy for deeper anxieties about the platforms themselves.

As users, we know little about how our feeds work, what’s shaping them, what they might look if they were built differently and how they are affecting us.

There is a rational basis to be mistrustful, and this cuts both ways. It’s not just the fear that we could be manipulated without realizing it; it’s also the temptation to see our opponents as manipulated, too, as if every disagreement might be product of someone rigging the system.

Manipulated anxieties

Fear of TikTok as an influence machine continues to play a substantial role in politics, as “Washington has said that TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance remarked that the executive order would “ensure that the algorithm is not being used as a propaganda tool by a foreign government… the American businesspeople … will make the determination about what’s actually happening with TikTok.”

Meanwhile, Trump ostensibly joked that he’d make TikTok “100 per cent MAGA” before adding “everyone’s going to be treated fairly.” And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience of content creators that “weapons change over time… the most important one is social media,” stressing the importance of divestment of TikTok to U.S. owners.

One implication of these comments is that divestment doesn’t change the threat of manipulation — it just changes who’s doing the manipulating. Divestment is framed as resisting foreign propaganda, but at the same time domestic manipulation is legitimized as politics as usual.

Collective dependence

This is a squandered opportunity for the U.S. By treating TikTok as a weapon to be seized, leaders have passed up the chance to model a more enduring form of soft power: building open, transparent, trustworthy information systems that others would want to emulate. Instead, what is gained is a temporary and possibly illusory sharp power advantage, at the expense of an enduring source of legitimacy.

The bigger problem is that the normalization of social media as a weapon is, to borrow a fear familiar to Trump, riggable. We know that social media can be manipulated, and yet we rely on it more and more as a source of news. And even if we ourselves don’t, we are influenced indirectly by those who do.

This collective dependence makes the platforms more powerful and their vulnerabilities more dangerous.

Protecting the public sphere

Canada has already had its own TikTok moment: the Online News Act (C-18), which required platforms to pay news outlets for sharing their content. This was intended to strengthen Canadian journalism, but in response, Meta banned news on its platforms (Facebook, Instagram) in Canada in August 2023, leading to an 85 per cent drop in engagement. Instead of strengthening Canadian journalism, Bill C-18 risks making it more fragile.

If we’re serious about protecting the public sphere from manipulation, what matters is the outsized power the platforms have, and the extent to which that power can be bought, sold or stolen. This power includes the surveillance power to know what we will like, the algorithmic power to curate our information diet and control of platform incentives, rules and features that affect who gains influence.

Bargaining with this power, as Canada tried with Bill C-18 — and as the U.S. is now doing with China and TikTok — only concedes to it. If we want to protect democratic information systems, we need to focus on reducing the vulnerabilities in our relationship with media platforms and support domestic journalism that can compete for influence.

The biggest challenge is to make platforms less riggable, and thus less weaponizable, if only for the reason that motivated the TikTok ban: we don’t want our adversaries, foreign or domestic, to have power over us.

Andrew Buzzell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The American TikTok deal doesn’t address the platform’s potential for manipulation, only who profits – https://theconversation.com/the-american-tiktok-deal-doesnt-address-the-platforms-potential-for-manipulation-only-who-profits-266441

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jeremie Molho, Senior Research Associate, Canada Excellence Chair in Migration and Integration Program, Toronto Metropolitan University

Settling in a new country is often imagined as a sequential process, built on a supposed hierarchy of needs. You accomplish one priority, then another, and another and then you’re integrated into the country and economy.

Material and essential matters — housing, employment, language classes — come first. Cultural or spiritual matters — a sense of belonging, community connections, civic participation — come second.

The recently released research I conducted with Toronto Arts Council (TAC) on its Program for Newcomers and Refugees (PNR), however, suggests this logic needs to be challenged.

What does art have to do with settlement?

Founded in 1974, TAC is an independent funding organization that operates at arm’s length from the City of Toronto. Its mission is to enrich the quality of life in the city by supporting the arts. The decision to create a program specifically for newcomers was driven by research highlighting the barriers newcomer artists faced in finding work and navigating the Canadian arts landscape.

The PNR launched in 2017 and has allocated about $2.92 million between its inception and 2023. Forty organizations received support through the Newcomer and Refugee Arts Engagement stream, while 176 individual artists received Newcomer and Refugee Artist Mentorship grants.

Two years ago, along with TAC, I began researching to learn about who benefited from this support and how. We held focus groups with newcomer artists, arts managers and settlement organizations, analyzed program data and produced film portraits of two artists.

Our goal was to understand what the arts contribute to integration and what challenges newcomer artists face. Our findings show that the divide between settlement and the arts should be reconsidered.

Instead of being treated as separate domains, they can complement each other in ways that strengthen integration.

The arts as holistic settlement support

The Newcomer and Refugee Arts Engagement stream provides grants to organizations — including settlement agencies, community arts organizations and artistic institutions — with experience serving newcomers through artistic activities. Beneficiaries of the engagement stream showed that arts projects are not cosmetic add-ons.

Community arts professionals work hand in hand with settlement workers to address practical barriers from the outset.

Child care is arranged so mothers can attend. Interpreters support multilingual workshops. Programs offer snacks and Toronto Transit Commission fare. Schedules are adapted to hospitality and shift-work hours. These small design choices make participation possible.

The outcomes are multidimensional. Arts programs support language learning in low-pressure, confidence-building settings. They open pathways to employment through the acquisition of digital skills, production experience and access to professional networks. They reduce isolation and support mental health by creating safe, culturally sensitive spaces.

Newcomers Dance Too!, a free dance class for refugee-background women and girls in Flemington Park run by dancers from Fusion Cardio Toronto — which was promoted in Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi and other languages — is one example.

StoryCentre Canada, a non-profit that empowers short multimedia first-person narratives, set up digital storytelling workshops that taught photography and video editing while letting participants share their stories in the language of their choice, building both technical and communication skills. Hinprov, a collective of South Asian improvisers, created spaces where expression was possible even for those still learning English.

Arts projects also spark civic conversations. At Matthew House, which offers transitional housing settlement assistance, a mural led by a refugee artist-in-residence prompted neighbours to ask questions about refugees, opening dialogue that challenged stereotypes. Another PNR project collaborated with LGBTQ+ newcomers, using photography and film to counter stigma and create networks of care.

These initiatives show how the arts allow creative newcomers to assert their voices and identities on their own terms, positioning them not simply as guests but as active shapers of the cultural fabric of their new country.

Newcomer artists face systemic barriers

Newcomer artists design and deliver effective arts-based projects. Their ability to contribute, however, is limited by systemic obstacles.

General settlement services rarely provide tailored guidance for creative careers. Newcomer artists are directed toward generic job markets or told to pursue “Canadian credentials,” with little information about arts funding, networks or sector norms.

Discrimination compounds these hurdles: accents and linguistic differences become barriers to casting and collaboration; racial bias and expectations about “ethnic” content narrow opportunities; western-centrism and unfamiliarity with certain artistic traditions from outside the West devalue skills gained abroad. For instance, an Indian musician criticized the tendency to classify Indian classical music as “world music” rather than recognizing it as a classical form, limiting its appropriate recognition and funding.

Administrative rules add further exclusions. Temporary residents may be ineligible for public arts funding. Artists living in the Toronto area but outside the city proper can be excluded by residency requirements, even when they exhibit and perform in Toronto. These policies limit access to precisely the resources that help artists integrate into local scenes.

As part of our project, we worked with filmmaker Ogo Eze to produce two short portraits of newcomer artists: Iranian artist Aitak Sorahitalab and Palestinian-Syrian musician Tarek Ghriri.

Both stories illustrate how, despite formidable challenges, newcomers can become community leaders, using their art to support other newcomers while enriching Toronto’s cultural scene. Their stories show resilience but also underline how much potential is lost when systemic barriers remain in place.

Mending the arts and settlement divide

We have too often treated settlement and the arts as separate and incompatible worlds. Bridging them requires a shift on both sides.

On the settlement side, we must move away from sequential-needs thinking that relegates the arts to the bottom of the priority list or treats cultural activities as communications window dressing. This underestimates the concrete, multifaceted support community arts professionals can provide and sidelines newcomer artists.

On the arts side, TAC’s program is a promising template. By offering targeted support to newcomers, the PNR acknowledges the particular challenges they face when starting out, while avoiding the trap of permanently labelling them as “migrant artists.”

Given that only two per cent of Canadian arts funders offer targeted support for newcomers, lessons from this program can guide similar initiatives across Canada and beyond.

Jeremie Molho received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant for the project Fostering Integration through the Arts: Learning from Toronto Arts Council’s Program for Newcomers and Refugees’, conducted in partnership with Toronto Arts Council

– ref. How the arts strengthen newcomer settlement in Canada – https://theconversation.com/how-the-arts-strengthen-newcomer-settlement-in-canada-265462

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Debra M Haak, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Ontario

Canada recently introduced the Combatting Hate Act, legislation that will create three new criminal offences intended to strengthen protections against hate.

The first new offence targets hate crimes directly for the first time in Canada. The second targets intimidation and obstruction. The third expands an existing criminal law targeting wilful promotion of hatred.

Canada’s hate crime laws apply to acts of hatred towards identifiable groups, those distinguished by colour, race, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or mental or physical disability.

Hate crimes are under-reported, under-recorded and under-prosecuted in most jurisdictions where legislation exists.

Data from Statistics Canada shows that in 2019, nearly 250,000 people reported they were victims of hate-motivated incidents, but fewer than one per cent were investigated as hate crimes.

Sex-motivated violence is common

Acts of hatred towards women and girls regularly occur in Canada. Some involve violence. Femicide is defined as the killing of women and girls because of their sex or gender. However, sex-motivated violence is rarely treated as hate crime.

The Montréal Massacre is the best known example of sex-motivated killing in Canada. On Dec. 6, 1989, a lone white male, armed with a gun, entered École Polytechnique at the Université of Montréal and killed 14 women. He killed them because they were women and, in his view, feminists, towards whom he expressed hatred.

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Montréal Massacre anniversary: The media must play a key role in fighting femicide

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This mass femicide has never been officially recognized as a hate-motivated crime in Canada.

Other mass killings of women also reveal sex-motivated hatred. The Toronto van attack in 2018 was perpetrated by a male who admitted he drew inspiration from the so-called incel online subculture of men united by sexual frustration and a hatred of women.

The fact that the attack was motivated by hatred towards women does not appear to have been considered at sentencing.

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Read more:
Toronto van attack: Guilty verdict, but Canada still needs to tackle ideological violence

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Hatred based on sex

In June 2022, the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario held an inquest into one of the worst instances of intimate partner femicide in Canadian history. It involved the killings of three women by one man in eastern Ontario in 2015.

In that case, the sentencing judge said the perpetrator was “a violent, vindictive, calculating abuser of women” who “took his hatred to its ultimate climax and committed triple murders.”

Sex-motivated violence is not limited to mass killings. A woman or girl is killed every other day in Canada. A significant number of these deaths are also motivated by hatred based on sex.

In many cases, violence against women and girls is not only sex-motivated. It is well-documented that many of the disappearances and deaths of Indigenous women and girls also involve racially motivated hatred as well as systemic misogyny and racism, particularly by police.

Sex-motivated violence not treated as hate

Yet our research has revealed that violence motivated by hatred of women and girls is relatively invisible in crime reporting data, sentencing and public discourse.

Sex-motivated violence against women and girls is seldom recorded as hate crime. Sex has never comprised more than three per cent of police-reported hate crime in Canada, despite self-reported data showing at least 22 per cent of Canadians — mostly women — have experienced hate.

Sex-motivated hate, in fact, was the most under-reported category of hate crime when comparing self-reported data to police data.

Neither is sex-motivated violence sentenced as a hate crime, despite the fact that the Criminal Code already provides for increased sentences when there is evidence an offence was motivated by hate.

Canada’s Department of Justice has found that sex-motivated hatred was one of the least commonly addressed grounds when applying hate as an aggravating factor at sentencing. Based on a review of more than 40 years of case law up to 2020, only seven cases were found to focus on sex. Two of these cases were unsuccessful.

Male violence against women, girls is hate

Hate-motivated crime is significant in Canada. In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, overall hate crimes reported to police increased by 37 per cent compared to 2019.

The first pillar of Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate is empowering communities to identify hate. That currently does not happen in cases of male violence against women, even though sex is an identified group in Canadian criminal laws targeting hate.

Here are three ways it could happen:

• Canada should enhance monitoring of hate-motivated gender-based violence.
• To increase responsiveness to sex-motivated violence, existing and proposed laws targeting sex-motivated hate must be implemented and enforced.
• Canada should promote an understanding of male violence against women and girls as a form of hate. The new laws and the focus they bring to this issue could help.

For hate crime legislation to be more than symbolic, crimes motivated by hatred must be reported, recorded, prosecuted and sentenced as hate crimes for all identifiable groups — not just some of them.

Debra M Haak receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Bar Association Law for the Future Fund.

Myrna Dawson received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and British Columbia’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner.

– ref. Sex-motivated violence should be treated as a hate crime – https://theconversation.com/sex-motivated-violence-should-be-treated-as-a-hate-crime-265927

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Steve Granger, Assistant Professor, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University

Consider two teenagers searching for summer work. One is offered an opportunity to assist a project manager at their uncle’s construction company. The other submits a dozen retail applications, hoping for a call back. Who is more likely to hold a formal leadership position in their 20s?

Stories like this play out across families of different economic backgrounds every day. Our recent research shows that pathways to leadership often begin much earlier than many assume, and are shaped by social capital that accumulates throughout childhood and adolescence.

We studied more than 6,700 people born in the same week in April 1970 across Great Britain, tracked from birth to age 26 through the British Cohort Study.

Rather than measuring socioeconomic status at just one point in time, we were able to capture it repeatedly: at birth, and ages 5, 10 and 16. This gave us a rare opportunity to see how persistent exposure to either wealth or adversity shaped who went on to take up formal leadership roles as young adults and who did not.

Affluence versus adversity

Our findings revealed a striking pattern. Children who grew up in persistent wealth — whose parents consistently held managerial or professional occupations — were more likely to occupy leadership roles by their mid-20s.

Conversely, those who grew up in persistent adversity — whose parents consistently worked in lower-skilled or semi-skilled occupations, such as routine service, manual or support roles as defined in the U.K. National Statistics Socio-economic Classification — were less likely to hold similar leadership positions.

But what makes these findings particularly revealing is that persistent exposure to wealth or adversity isn’t simply being on opposite ends of one continuum. Instead, they represent two very different paths that result in distinct socialization experiences.

On one hand, persistent wealth creates cumulative benefits by providing repeated access to resources, enriching experiences and better-connected social networks. On the other hand, persistent adversity can compound barriers, limiting opportunities for skill development, access to quality education and early exposure to professional environments.

Both paths land young people at very different career starting points that either open or close doors to leadership opportunities.

Pathways through social networks

For children from affluent families, leadership pathways often run through social networks. Access to what we call “nepotistic opportunities” — job connections through family and friends — partially explained why these children were more likely to emerge as leaders later on.

This isn’t always blatant favouritism. Instead, it reflects how affluent families more easily provide access to “weak ties” — the kinds of looser connections that open doors to new information and opportunities.

Consider again the teenager whose uncle arranges a summer job on a construction site. They don’t just earn money; they also learn about co-ordinating teams in professional environments and they form relationships. These encounters build social capital that can shape their path to leadership.

Not just a lack of connections

By contrast, we expected that children from disadvantaged backgrounds would show the mirror image of this pattern: that missing out on opportunities to build their social network would explain their lower odds of becoming leaders.

But our data told a different story.

Persistent early life adversity was linked to fewer leadership roles in adulthood, but not simply because of missed social opportunities. The teenager cold-applying to retail jobs does indeed face barriers to later leadership, but more complex and deeper-rooted factors are likely at play.

The disadvantages of growing up in persistent adversity may be rooted in other factors not measured in our study, such as reduced access to non-parental mentors, lower quality schooling or the toll of long-term economic stress on well-being.

What organizations can do

Addressing disadvantage requires tackling the deeper, systemic ways persistent economic wealth and adversity shape development. Employers can help level the playing field.

Acknowledging that social class differences exist in organizations is a crucial first step. This lays the groundwork for reducing bias in leadership recruitment, selection, retention efforts and improving access to leadership development.

Recruiting more widely through non-traditional networks and providing employer-sponsored preparation opportunities can make pathways into formal leadership positions more accessible. Dispelling myths about social class, for example through training, can also help reduce bias in selection and improve retention.

Finally, creating developmental networks and mentorship programs can provide the kind of career guidance and connections that affluent families often provide informally.

Leadership isn’t predetermined

The influence of childhood conditions can have lasting effects on career trajectories. In our study, the effects of early socioeconomic status conditions were still visible when participants reached their mid-20s, long after they had finished school and entered the workforce.

Addressing leadership diversity requires not just workplace interventions, but also early investment in supporting childhood development across all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Investments in quality education, mentorship programs and opportunities for young people to build professional networks is crucial for creating more equitable pathways to leadership.

While our findings highlight advantages for affluent youth and barriers for disadvantaged youth, they don’t dictate destiny. Among those who experienced at least some persistent adversity, 34 per cent still rose to leadership positions (compared to 46 per cent of those who experienced at least some persistent wealth).

What our research identifies is how socioeconomic status advantages and disadvantages compound over time, widening the disparity in social experiences that generate leadership opportunities.

Recognizing the distinction between these cumulative effects can help motivate us to create more equitable family and organizational systems where leadership potential is nurtured no matter where you start.

Steve Granger receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Julian Barling receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Borden Chair of Leadership.

Nick Turner receives research funding from Cenovus Energy Inc., Haskayne School of Business’s Future Fund, Mitacs, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

– ref. Childhood wealth and social status can help people get leadership roles in adulthood – https://theconversation.com/childhood-wealth-and-social-status-can-help-people-get-leadership-roles-in-adulthood-265457

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Robert Danisch, Professor, Department of Communication Arts, University of Waterloo

Cancellation, elimination, subtraction, removal, invalidation — these synonyms describe a core, pervasive principle in our current political moment.

A common fantasy from those on all positions of the ideological spectrum is the belief that if one group, or several groups, of people were simply removed from public discourse, problems would be solved and politics would become functional.

Whether it’s United States President Donald Trump insisting the homeless population of Washington D.C., should be removed or Jimmy Kimmel and other late-night comedians should be taken off the air, the goal is to practise politics by subtraction.

Many on the left got caught up in stories about Trump’s declining health and the possibility that illness would remove him from office. Others, like American author and professor Roxanne Gay, argue that liberals cannot, and should not, engage with or be civil to conservatives, who are simply terrible people.

The animating belief of a politics of cancellation is that a functional society just beneath the surface will emerge if only the right people are removed.

Cancellation at odds with democracy

In the United States, cancellation is everywhere right now: there are calls to remove trans people from public life, to label the opposition party a “domestic, extremist organization,” to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

But this is largely political theatre, not a constructive form of collective problem-solving.

Removing homeless people from Washington, D.C., or any other city may make urban streets appear “clean” or “safe” to some, but the structural and moral issues represented by homelessness will persist and metastasize out of sight. The unhoused still won’t have homes.

Remove Trump, and J.D. Vance becomes president, amplifying the hard right turn of the last year in the U.S. In politics, collective problems cannot be solved by cancellation or removal.

Perhaps even more importantly, democracy cannot survive the practice of cancellation, nor will it produce the stability imagined once one group of people is eliminated from public discourse.

The work of democracy is always inclusion. Effective, collective decision-making rests on the possibility of persuasion to change minds and create consensus from disagreement.

Cancellation or subtraction are moves to eliminate the possibility of persuasion in favour of silence. To eliminate the practice of persuasion is to transform a society from democracy to authoritarianism.

Reconciling differences

In interpersonal communication, we know that when partners stonewall, silence or turn away from their significant other, the relationship runs into deep trouble.

The same is true for the kinds of constructive relationships between strangers required by democracy — when we turn away from our fellow citizens or silence them, functional communication processes and the possibility of persuasion are no longer available.

Even if we managed to cancel or subtract some group, the challenge of collective decision-making remains. There is no utopia just beyond successful cancellation, nor could there be given the requirements of democracy to reconcile differences in productive ways.

In interpersonal relationships, we know how damaging the Ziegarnik effect can be, which is the way unprocessed negative interactions stick with people and gradually erode trust. In other words, a problem unresolved is like a pebble stuck in our shoe, digging at us and causing additional problems.

The ideas and perspectives of people who face cancellation continue to circulate, stuck in our collective public discourse, causing deeper, future problems. Inclusion is a prerequisite for persuasion, transformation and change because it allows us to deal squarely with the problems we confront instead of leaving them unresolved.

Cancellation is a primary tool of fascism and authoritarianism. To blame and demonize one group of people for society’s ills is an easy way to explain away problems and consolidate power.

But the antidote to cancellation cannot be more cancellation. Jimmy Kimmel actively showed the way in his monologue upon returning from temporary cancellation. He offered a sophisticated defence of free speech that practised the inclusion of voices he usually criticized. Kimmel was civil in a deep way that is essential for democracy.

The importance of comedy

Comedy itself is a mode of criticism that can preserve the social order and resist the urge to cancel. This is why comedy is woven into the social fabric of democracies and not into authoritarian governments.

We poke fun to let others know we disagree, sometimes vehemently, but that kind of engagement keeps the conversation going and opens possibilities for change.

Those on the left, the remaining defenders of democracy, make a mistake when they attempt to practise a politics of cancellation, as do those on the right. A politics of inclusion is always the antidote and the best method of problem-solving.

Societies flourish and prosperity grows through inclusion not subtraction. Historians of democracy know this.

Robert Danisch receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Why the politics of cancellation never works – https://theconversation.com/why-the-politics-of-cancellation-never-works-266034

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jane Barter, Professor, Department of Religion and Culture, University of Winnipeg

The grief that attended American political activist Charlie Kirk’s murder was not solely poured out by the political right. Liberal commentators also participated; journalist Ezra Klein expressed grief in an essay for The New York Times (“I was and am grieving for Kirk himself”), while Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew stated that “we have to have empathy for other people in our society.”

Kirk would likely be surprised, and perhaps a bit put off, by this display of empathy by his opponents: “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, New Age term that does a lot of damage, but it is very effective when it comes to politics. Sympathy I prefer more than empathy.”

Empathy, to Kirk, meant trying to feel someone else’s pain or sorrow as if it were your own. He cited Bill Clinton as an example of phony and opportunistic use of empathy. Sympathy, on the other hand, means acknowledging another’s pain without claiming to actually share or internalize that pain. Sympathy keeps the suffering of others at arm’s length.

What troubled Kirk about empathy was its fixation on people “out there” instead of those who should be the focus of Americans’ concern:

“The soldiers discharged for the jab, the children mutilated by Big Medicine, or the lives devastated by fentanyl pouring over the border. Spare me your fake outrage, your fake science and your fake moral superiority.”

Empathy, according to Kirk, ought to have limits; it should be directed to those being “mutilated” by vaccines and “devastated” by fentanyl.

Empathy as a vice

What does the rhetoric of one’s own versus another’s pain signal? And how can empathy for another’s pain possibly be conceived as a Christian vice, as it has been portrayed by political leaders in the United States?

For a more developed theological critique of empathy from the right, we need to turn to Kirk’s close friend, JD Vance, who offers what he takes to be a distinctly Catholic perspective on empathy. Vance cites the Catholic doctrine originating from Saint Thomas Aquinas, ordo amoris, or order of love or charity.

“Your compassion should first and foremost be with your fellow citizens,” Vance asserted. “That doesn’t mean you hate people from outside our borders, but your priority should be the safety and well-being of Americans.”

According to Vance, Americans on the left have inverted the ordo amoris:

“You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”

During a Fox News interview, Vance used Catholic theology to justify ICE’s cruel arrests and detention of undocumented immigrants, including children, in centres lacking basic standards of care or human rights.

True ordo amoris

As one of his last acts before his death, Pope Francis, observing the growing cruelty against immigrants in the U.S. and in response to Vance’s evocation of the teaching of ordo amoris, made a surprisingly direct intervention in American politics.

In a letter addressed to U.S. Catholic Bishops, Francis elaborated the true meaning of the ordo amoris:

“The true ordo amoris … is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ … by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”

In other words, the ordo amoris is a rooting of love in justice. Neither mere empathy nor a concern for one’s own first, mercy involves perception of the other’s pain no matter whose pain it is. It is open to all, without exception.

In his encyclical (a papal letter sent to Catholic bishops) titled Fratelli Tutti, Francis expands: “Mercy is a call to acknowledge the dignity of every human being and to build a society where that dignity is not only respected but honored.”

Mercy demands not only a feeling of sorrow for a person who is suffering, but a political response that is rooted in justice.

Empathy, mercy, justice

Empathy is indeed only partial in Catholic thought, but it is partial not because of the ordo amoris, as Vance understands it, but for the precise opposite reasons. Empathy must become mercy, and mercy involves justice for all. Mercy is not selective; indeed, according to Francis: “The name of God is Mercy.”

One may rightly counter that the Catholic Church has, like American politicians, been far too selective in the mercy it has shown. We would be right to question such mercy as it has gone so horrifically awry, as in the case of residential schools in Canada.

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Read more:
‘I am sorry’ — A reflection on Pope Francis’s apology on residential schools

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But perhaps, in this case, theology nevertheless is a reproof against the church’s own unmerciful acts. For mercy — construed as love and justice — calls the church, and its many errant members, to a profound and urgent moral reckoning.

As for the rest of us, in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder, we should refrain from mere empathy — we should display mercy instead. For mercy cries for justice, even while it weeps with those deprived of it.

Jane Barter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Charlie Kirk’s legacy is the beneficiary of empathy, but he couldn’t stand the term – https://theconversation.com/charlie-kirks-legacy-is-the-beneficiary-of-empathy-but-he-couldnt-stand-the-term-264831

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Wade Paul, Phd Candidate, Concordia University

Sept. 30 is upon us once again, the fourth year this day will be observed as a time to reflect on the history of colonialism, and its ongoing impacts, on the Indigenous Peoples and communities in what is now called Canada.

This day first became recognized as Orange Shirt Day by grassroots organizers in 2013, the day Canadians honour the Survivors of Residential Schools and acknowledge the intergenerational impacts of these institutions on Indigenous Peoples.

Inspired by Survivor Phyllis Webstad’s testimony shared with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) — where she described how the orange shirt her grandmother had given her was taken away on her first day of Residential School — the orange shirt emerged as an enduring symbol of Indigenous resilience.

While we continue to wear orange shirts to honour Survivors and acknowledge that not every child returned home, the federal government in 2021 officially declared Sept. 30 a statutory holiday and called it the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR).

Truth-telling

In this country, reconciliation is an ongoing process of repairing and rebuilding the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and settlers, and the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian government.

It has often taken the form of truth-telling probes such as the TRC, which ran from 2008 to 2015, collecting testimony from Survivors and their communities and examining the systemic harms caused.

Understanding the Residential Schools system has been an important starting point. That said, it was only one of the many destructive and assimilationist tactics imposed upon Indigenous Peoples.

This year, in addition to learning more about Residential Schools, I invite you to learn about some of the many other culturally devastating practices: the Potlatch Ban, the Sixties Scoop, the Millennium Scoop, the forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women and the contemporary concerns Indigenous Nations and groups face today as a result of this history.

No songs, dances or large gatherings

While Residential Schools were designed to cut off Indigenous children from their languages, families and teachings, the Potlatch Ban sought to suppress associations and criminalize cultural and spiritual practices among adults.

The Potlatch Ban, instituted in 1885 through an amendment to the Indian Act, prohibited Indigenous ceremonies, including songs, dances and gatherings that were deemed to be too large or threatening to colonial authorities.

This effectively made potlatches (ceremonial assemblies practised by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast to mark important events such as births, marriages or funerals), sun dances (sacred ceremonies of spiritual renewal that are held annually by many First Nations peoples from the Prairies) and powwows (gatherings featuring music, dancing, eating and the trading or selling of goods) illegal until the ban was lifted in 1951.

These ceremonies, however, continued underground, with one of the most infamous instances being Chief Dan Cranmer’s potlatch on Christmas Day in 1921. Although the potlatch was held in secret, it was attended by at least 300 guests and was ultimately raided by Indian agents, resulting in 45 people being arrested and charged.

Officials confiscated more than 750 cultural items used in the potlach, the bulk of which were sent to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, the Museum of the American Indian in New York and the then‐National Museum in Ottawa, now called the Canadian Museum of History.

The museums held these items in their collection from 1922 until the ROM began the process of repatriation by returning its portion of the collection in 1988.

The foster care crisis

Many Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families and placed in non-Indigenous homes by child welfare authorities in a practice known as the Sixties Scoop, which went on from the 1960s to the 1980s.

It is estimated that more than 20,000 Indigenous children were separated from their families and funnelled into the Canadian child welfare system for assimilationist purposes.

Families were dismantled as siblings were dispersed to new homes, sometimes even in different countries. This succeeded in disconnecting Indigenous children from their roots and families. Many of these adopted children discovered their true heritage only later in life as adults.

Since 2021, Survivors of the Sixties Scoop have been calling for a separate national inquiry to trace the histories of erasure and loss experienced by the displaced children.

Even more alarming is that the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families continues today, a reality now often referred to as the Millennium Scoop.

According to Statistics Canada, although Indigenous children account for only 7.7 per cent of Canada’s child population, they comprise more than 53 per cent of children in foster care.

The sterilization of Indigenous women

Indigenous women have borne a disproportionate amount of this colonial violence. This reality was acknowledged and further investigated through the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

One harrowing example is the forced or coerced sterilization of Indigenous women. In her 2015 book An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and the Sterilization of Aboriginal Women, women’s and gender studies scholar Karen Stote detailed how more than 500 Indigenous women were sterilized in federal hospitals between 1971 and 1974.

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Read more:
Forced sterilizations of Indigenous women: One more act of genocide

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In 2021, a report from the Canadian Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights concluded that the prevalence of the practice is both “under-reported and under-estimated” and continues to occur today. In 2023, Sen. Yvonne Boyer stated that although it’s hard to determine precisely, at least 12,000 Indigenous women were affected between 1971 and 2018 — some as young as 17.

Modern-day remnants of colonialism

It’s important to remember that Indigenous Peoples and their concerns are not simply a part of Canada’s history. The issues facing them have evolved, as have their needs.

The Aamjiwnaang First Nation, for example, an Anishinaabe community situated near Sarnia, Ont. along the St. Clair River in a patch of land commonly known as “Chemical Valley,” has a highly localized challenge. The region has been home to 40 per cent of the country’s petrochemical companies, including Shell Canada, Bayer, Dow Chemical and DuPont.

The sustained presence of these businesses has resulted in significantly elevated levels of chemical pollution. Air monitoring data show that residents of Aamjiwnaang are exposed to 30 times more benzene than people living in Toronto or Ottawa.

The region, including Aamjiwnaang and the city of Sarnia, records more hospitalizations for respiratory illnesses than nearby Windsor and London. Similarly, a Western University study found that 25 per cent of children in Sarnia have been diagnosed with asthma, compared to only 17 per cent in London.

Additionally, other troubling trends have been observed in Aamjiwnaang regarding gender distribution among newborns, where males made up about 35 per cent of children instead of the expected 51 per cent.

Another ongoing and pervasive challenge facing a number of Indigenous communities is the lack of access to clean drinking water.

Though the right to clean drinking water was at the core of then-Liberal candidate Justin Trudeau’s 2015 campaign promise to end boil-water advisories within five years, a decade later there remain 39 long-term and 38 short-term advisories affecting First Nations across the country.

Reconciliation is an ongoing process

As the Canadian settler state and Indigenous Peoples continue this process of truth-telling and reconciliation, it’s important to remember that Residential Schools were one part of a much larger colonial strategy to assimilate Indigenous Peoples and erase Indigenous cultures, languages, traditions, practices and governance systems.

And as you observe this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, consider learning even more about the many other tactics.

This way, we can acknowledge past harms, work to address current realities and look to foster meaningful engagements with Indigenous communities.

Wade Paul receives funding for his PhD from St. Mary’s First Nation Education Department and The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). He is a member of Sitansisk (St. Mary’s First Nation).

– ref. Reconciliation includes recognizing Residential Schools are not the only colonial atrocity – https://theconversation.com/reconciliation-includes-recognizing-residential-schools-are-not-the-only-colonial-atrocity-265527

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Hoda Khalil, Adjunct Research Professor and Lecturer, Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University

A recent report from the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index found that wildfires are worsening air quality in Canada. The report found that in 2023, wildfires caused concentrations of particulate matter to rise to levels not seen since the index started taking records in 1998.

This summer, Canada experienced one of the worst wildfire seasons on record. Fires caused thousands to evacuate their homes and smoke periodically blanketed cities, causing outdoor air quality to deteriorate.

When we smell or see smoke, the first thing many of us might think to do is close our windows. However, wildfire smoke contains small fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that can pass through small openings or gaps.

In 2023, wildfires in Canada caused more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources combined. That means designing safer indoor spaces is a public health imperative. But how can we develop indoor spaces that are well-ventilated and safe from the harmful effects of smoke?

Enhancing indoor air quality

Answering this question would traditionally require going through a real-world process of trial and error in various spaces. Such a process is time-consuming and not always feasible. However, we recently developed a framework integrating modelling and simulation with deep learning techniques to help answer this question.

We know that enhancing indoor air quality, whether through improved ventilation, an optimal occupancy-to-area ratio or other room setting adjustments, can improve health and reduce the spread of infections.

The next step for researchers and designers is to determine the best indoor design features to reduce carbon dioxide concentration. Such features include rooms dimensions, the location of ventilation ports, ventilation levels, where windows are, maximum number of occupants, seating arrangements and so on.

How our model works

Our framework tackles two pertinent problems: the lack of verified, accurate information and the inefficiency of producing and studying simulation results for many combinations of settings.

We use an advanced mathematical model and associated software tools that allow us to simulate varied enclosed spaces with different settings, and to collect simulation results.

The simulated data is then further used to form a data set to train an AI algorithm — in this case, using a deep neural network. Designers can use the trained network to predict unknown settings of the closed space when other settings are altered.

The framework allows designers to simulate how changes in room layout, such as the number vents and where they are placed, or the density of occupants, could impact well-being. For example, the framework can estimate how many people might get sick in a given space, helping architects and planners adjust configurations to minimize infection risk before construction begins.

We used several case studies from university laboratory settings to validate the framework. In one case study, our research team could create 600 simulation scenarios of different laboratory designs. The simulation results produced a rich dataset that would be nearly impossible to replicate in real life due to cost and logistical constraints.

The resulting dataset is used to train a machine learning algorithm to predict where and how many people might be exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide. With that information in hand, it’s easier to make smart decisions about where to place ventilation ports or how many people should safely occupy a room under specific conditions.

Future studies needed

Across Canada, researchers are leveraging machine learning to study indoor air quality in homes, schools and offices. Our findings suggest that this approach is well-suited for studying how carbon dioxide spreads in indoor environments.

However, broader study is still needed. To date, case studies have focused exclusively on a university environment. Yet our framework is designed to be scaleable and adaptable to wide range of indoor spaces. Future research should expand to schools, gymnasiums and residential buildings to strengthen the trust in the framework and refine its predictive power.

As climate change intensifies wildfire seasons, Canadians will spend more time indoors avoiding smoke. The good news is that we have the tools, data and the scientific insight to make indoor spaces healthier and safer for everyone.

We may not have the means to control the air outside, but we can design our spaces to control the quality of the air inside.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Our AI model can help improve indoor ventilation during wildfire season – https://theconversation.com/our-ai-model-can-help-improve-indoor-ventilation-during-wildfire-season-263600