Category: The Conversation – Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jennifer LP Protudjer, Associate Professor and Endowed Research Chair in Allergy, Asthma and the Environment, University of Manitoba

A plate of freshly baked cookies, a glass of perfectly garnished eggnog. For many, these images may conjure up warm memories and the anticipation of the forthcoming holiday season.

But for those with dietary restrictions, these goodies — and other holiday treats — can contribute to other emotions as well. During a season filled with parties and food, navigating the holidays while avoiding certain foods can be harrowing.

Well-intentioned hosts may prepare a selection of treats in a kitchen that includes flavours of the season. But without clear communication, detailed food labels and assurance of good practices to prevent cross-contact of foods, navigating a holiday tray or buffet line involves risk.

As an allergy researcher, my focus is on understanding the impacts of a food allergy diagnosis on people, families and communities, and what types of food allergy supports are most meaningful.

Many Canadians are increasingly aware of the foods they are eating, for reasons including but not limited to food costs, health and medical dietary restrictions. This latter reason can include efforts to reduce sodium or refined sugars, or avoid certain carbohydrates such as lactose or gluten for those with lactose intolerance or celiac disease, respectively.

But for the seven to nine per cent of Canadians with food allergies, the need to avoid is critical because of the risk of an acute allergic reaction. The most severe presentation of allergic reaction is anaphylaxis, which is potentially life-threatening.

Allergies and diet restrictions during holidays

Canadian research shows that, unlike holidays like Halloween and Easter during which children “hunt” for candy, rates of emergency department visits due to anaphylaxis during the winter holiday season are similar to the rates seen throughout the year. But that doesn’t mean food allergy restrictions don’t have an impact during these holidays.

Dietary restrictions can involve the need to avoid a range of foods. Health Canada has identified 11 priority allergens that are commonly associated with food allergies and allergic reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, crustaceans and molluscs, fish, mustard, sesame seeds, soy, sulphites, and wheat and triticale. Notably, many of these foods commonly appear as ingredients in a holiday recipe, or as a single food item.

In a series of interviews with 21 families, colleagues and I identified that families dealing with food allergy learn quickly how to “decline something politely” stressing that they cannot eat the food, rather than being a picky eater. Nonetheless, they note feelings of grief, depression and anxiety as they strive to navigate events with their extended family and social circles. In some cases, families who manage multiple food allergies feel isolated, while some note that they are not invited to events because of their food allergy.

There are many ways that both those with dietary restrictions, and hosts, can lessen these impacts.

Practical actions

For anyone with a dietary restriction, there are certain actions that make holiday visiting more enjoyable and safer.

First, be certain to clearly communicate, in writing, any dietary restrictions to the host, at the time of accepting the invitation. Detailing which food options work within your dietary restrictions provides opportunity for the host to consider the menu, and to ask any questions at a calmer time than with a room full of guests.

You may also wish to bring a holiday treat that meets your restrictions. Eating a small snack ahead of any festivities can keep hunger at bay in case there are limited safe food options available. When in doubt about a food, do not consume it. Even if you have previously consumed the food, ingredient lists change occasionally.

Specific to those with food allergies, additional steps are warranted. Before leaving home, ensure that you have at least one epinephrine autoinjector that a trusted person can easily locate and use if anaphylaxis is suspected.

Food Allergy Canada offers some other practical tips for dining out. Awareness of the potential for co-factors to worsen the severity of a reaction is also needed. In addition to co-existing medical conditions, such as heart disease or asthma, research supports that alcohol, exercise, medication/drugs and possibly emotional stress may influence reaction severity.

Hosting this holiday season?

Welcoming guests can be joyful. But as the Canadian Psychological Association notes, there may be expectations of perfection, which — when not achieved — can contribute to stress. When inviting guests, ask about any dietary restrictions and bear these in mind while planning menus. Single food items or simple dishes may help your guests navigate food choices. Having a list of ingredients on hand, and adding labels and dedicated serving utensils to each dish, are similarly helpful.

The holiday season often involves sharing festive treats. By emphasizing joy and togetherness, memories can be made to cherish for a lifetime. With greater awareness of the needs of those with dietary restrictions, we can collectively work to ensure that everyone can safely indulge.

Jennifer LP Protudjer receives funding from from Canadian Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Foundation; Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Research Manitoba; Health Sciences Centre Foundation (Manitoba); Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba; University of Manitoba; and, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

JLP Protudjer is Section Head, Allied Health; and Co-Lead, Research Pillar for the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and is on the steering committee for Canada’s National Food Allergy Action Plan. She reports speaker fees from Ajinomoto Cambrooke, Novartis, Nutricia, ALK Abelló, and FOODiversity, and Texas Children’s Food Allergy Symposium . She is an associate editor for Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology; and, and editorial board member, Pediatric Allergy & Immunology; and, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

– ref. Managing food allergies and dietary restrictions during the holidays – https://theconversation.com/managing-food-allergies-and-dietary-restrictions-during-the-holidays-270265

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Shannon Welbourn, Assistant Professor and Technological Education Program Coordinator, Brock University

The recent killing of a 20-year-old tradeswoman in Minnesota has struck a nerve across Canada’s skilled trades community. Amber Czech, a welder, was slain by a male colleague while on a work site.

Statements from labour unions and personal stories from tradeswomen shared recurring themes of harassment, exclusion, unsafe conditions and retaliation for reporting.

This tragedy is not isolated to the United States, and exposes a larger pattern of hostile and unsafe work sites for women and gender-diverse workers.

The timing of Czech’s death has fuelled calls to action. In Canada, Dec. 6 marks the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, honouring 14 women students murdered in 1989 at École Polytechnique. Preventing gender-based violence is not only a labour issue, but also an education issue.

A long-standing pattern

As a researcher and educator in technological education, I see an opportunity. I help experienced tradespeople become high school teachers. They become certified to teach in one of the 10 broad-based technology subject areas — communications, computers, construction, green industries, hairstyling and esthetics, health care, hospitality and tourism, manufacturing, technological design or transportation.

The culture of industry has an impact on the adults who enter teacher education, and those teachers in turn shape the culture of tomorrow’s shops and labs. For safer workplaces, the work of prevention must start long before anyone steps onto a job site.

Czech’s death reflects painful familiarity that research has documented for decades. Studies across construction, transportation and manufacturing show that women and gender-diverse workers continue to face barriers.

These extend beyond individual incidents, including exclusion from key tasks, minimal mentorship and ineffective or risky reporting systems.

Canadian reports from the Canadian Labour Congress, the B.C. Centre for Women in the Trades and the Canadian Association of Women in Construction highlight recurring issues. These problems are rooted in workplace culture and everyday norms that determine who gets opportunities, whose concerns are taken seriously and how co-workers respond when something goes wrong. These shape whether workers feel safe.

These patterns are not new. Interviews with tradeswomen from the 1970s and ‘80s described similar conditions. The fact that the same issues are still being raised decades later reveals a deep systemic culture that has been slow to transform.

Efforts at progress

There are initiatives happening aimed at bringing about change. Fostering women in trades, the federal Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy announced several projects in March 2024. These were funded under the Women in the Skilled Trades Initiative.

The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, a non-profit organization that connects the country’s apprenticeship community, has an initiative entitled Supporting Equity in Trades (SET).

In Ontario, the province says its recently announced Skills Development Fund is investing more than $8.6 million to support women in the skilled trades. The province’s College Trades organization highlights young women’s initiatives and pathways to the trades.

Shared responsibility is also highlighted in the federal government’s National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence:

“Preventing and addressing GBV (gender-based-violence) in Canada requires a co-ordinated national approach, with federal, provincial and territorial governments working in close partnership with survivors, Indigenous partners, direct service providers, experts, advocates, municipalities, the private sector and researchers … Joint efforts in support of this National Action Plan will align with and complement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Calls for Justice.”

A broader context of violence

Global statistics are reinforcing the urgency. The United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women report 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024, or one every 10 minutes.

While home is unsafe, so too are workplaces. Violence reflects broader societal norms that shape all institutions, including education. Yet many trades and apprenticeship systems lack the structures to protect women.

At first glance, the slaying of a U.S. welder may seem distant from Canadian high school classrooms. But in technological education, the connection is direct.

In Ontario, the pathway to becoming a technological education teacher begins with years of related industry experience. Those, who are transitioning from the trades in favour of a second career as a high school teacher, come from spaces where these cultural issues persist.

They bring valuable practical expertise but also the norms, assumptions and coping strategies formed in their prior workplace environments.

Some have spent years navigating exclusion or witnessing harassment. Others come from supportive workplaces and are surprised to learn how widespread these issues are. This means teacher education programs cannot assume shared understanding of safety, inclusion or harassment.

Instead, programs must deliberately prepare future teachers to recognize and challenge the norms that reproduce inequity.

This dynamic creates both a responsibility and an opportunity. Technological Education teachers shape learning spaces where young people first encounter trades culture. They influence whether girls, gender-diverse students and other underrepresented learners feel welcome or pushed out, long before they reach apprenticeships.

4 ways to help aspiring teachers tackle GBV

Teacher education programs can help shift ingrained attitudes in trades-related fields. Research on adult learning, workplace culture and gender-equity education points to several effective strategies:

1. Explicitly teach about gender-based violence in trades contexts

Gender-based violence is often taught as a general social issue, not as a trades-specific concern. Programs should address how harassment and exclusion appear in shops, labs, apprenticeships, co-operative placements and how school reporting structures differ from those in industry.

2. Use experiential, reflective learning

Experiential learning emphasizes structured reflection. Case studies, workplace scenarios and opportunities to practice inclusive responses in realistic contexts deepen learning more effectively than policy readings alone. For second-career learners, connecting personal experience with broader patterns is especially meaningful.

3. Teach candidates to identify early warning signs

High school technological education environments can subtly reproduce workplace hierarchies, for example with task assignments, uneven access to tools or normalizing jokes about who is naturally mechanical. Teacher candidates need practice spotting and interrupting these patterns early.

4. Position tech ed teachers to lead and advocate workplace culture

Technological education teachers often maintain close ties to industry, apprenticeship and co-ops. They can advocate for safe placement sites, challenge stereotypes about who belongs in the trades and create spaces where all students feel welcome. Preparing candidates for these responsibilities means inspiring them to be culture shapers.

Cultural change begins before the job site

The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women reminds Canadians to confront the roots of gender-based violence and commit to dismantling them.

Czech’s killing is a painful reminder that the trades remain a vocation where cultural transformation initiatives are urgently needed.

But responsibility cannot rest solely with employers and unions. It must extend into teacher education programs and the high school classrooms where young people first experience skilled trades instruction.

By equipping future technological education teachers to recognize, prevent and challenge gender-based violence, we take meaningful steps toward safe workplaces and a skilled trades sector where everyone truly belongs.

Shannon Welbourn 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. Preventing gender-based violence in trades is both a labour issue and an education one – https://theconversation.com/preventing-gender-based-violence-in-trades-is-both-a-labour-issue-and-an-education-one-270932

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Gio Dolcecore, Assistant Professor, Social Work, Mount Royal University

Alberta’s Fairness and Safety in Sport Act promises protection. The reality is that it discriminates and decides who gets to belong in sport.

The act, which received royal assent in December 2024 and came into effect on Sept. 1, 2025, requires organizations like school divisions, post-secondary institutions and provincial sport bodies to create and implement policies for athlete eligibility, including limiting eligibility for female-only divisions to people assigned female at birth.

While framed by the province’s United Conservative Party government as a measure to protect competition and ensure athletes “are able to participate in the sports they love fairly, safely, and meaningfully,” the act bans transgender girls aged 12 years and older from participating in competitive sports for women.

As there is no consistent evidence to show that transgender athletes have an inherent advantage, the act appears to be part of an organized anti-trans backlash occurring across the country, and a broader targeting of transgender and gender-nonconforming athletes internationally.

Far from just a local or niche issue, the implementation of this act exposes inconsistencies in sport policy and raises urgent questions about how anti-trans politics are shaping access to sport.

The impact on youth

The Fairness and Safety in Sport Act empowers just about anyone to file a complaint related to an organizations’ eligibility determinations. Incidents like one in British Columbia in 2023 —
a man attending a girls’ track and field meet demanded that a nine-year-old cisgender girl with a pixie cut prove she was not a boy through documentation — demonstrate the impact of this type of gender policing.

The consequences fall on transgender and gender non-conforming youth. For them, being banned from participation brings not only the loss of athletic opportunities, but also heightened experiences of exclusion and stigma.

Teammates and coaches must also navigate fractured team dynamics and a school-based athletic culture that risks becoming less about belonging and more about surveillance. The policy undermines the very developmental and educational values that sport is meant to cultivate.

It also places heavy and often invisible demands on the people who support these children. Parents and caregivers are left to shoulder the emotional work of helping their children process the psychological repercussions of exclusion in ways that surpass the normal responsibilities of parenting.

Research consistently shows that parents of transgender and gender-diverse children face significantly elevated levels of stress compared to parents of non-transgender children. This is largely due to the chronic strain of stigma, discrimination and navigating hostile environments along with the emotional labour of advocating within schools, health care and peer groups.

The impact on society

The act also has implications for varsity athletics and broader sporting cultures at post-secondary institutions.

Universities across the province have been forced to create new internal policies and procedures to align with the act, which place incoming and existing athletes participating in women’s varsity sport under increased scrutiny.

An inconsistency emerges when Alberta athletes step onto fields, rinks and courts outside the province.

Since the national institution for post-secondary sport in Canada (U Sport) still allows transgender athletes to compete according to their gender identity, Alberta now risks excluding its own youth while requiring them to compete under different eligibility standards when facing athletes from other provinces.

In addition, implementing this act will eventually create financial strain for organizations. Administering exclusionary rules requires new systems of eligibility verification, monitoring and appeals — an administrative burden that smaller leagues in particular are ill-equipped to manage.

A 2024 statement by the Alberta 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce even urged the government to reject this trans-exclusionary legislation on the basis that it would also reduce Alberta’s market share of tourism and 2SLGBTQI+ travel revenue.

Resistance is necessary

Public response so far to the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act has been mixed.

Since it’s provincial law, school districts and universities have complied, creating internal policies and processes to fulfil the requirements of the act even while its trans-exclusionary nature runs counter to many of their values and commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion.

Some, however, have taken action. One University of Lethbridge faculty member, for example, resigned from the Board of Governors after it was forced to accept the new act.

Egale Canada, a national 2SLGBTQI organization — which, along with Calgary-based non-profit support organization Skipping Stone — has launched legal action against the Alberta government, challenging the constitutionality of the province’s anti-trans laws, and released a statement condemning the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act.

On Nov. 17, the Alberta government tabled legislation that seeks to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to insulate its laws from legal challenges. Using the clause would prevent courts from striking down laws for being unconstitutional, and in this context specifically, overrides the Charter rights of gender-diverse people.

This action has spurred widespread condemnation, including from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Alberta Medical Association. Albertans are also making their views heard through MLA recall petitions and public protests.

The human toll of the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act must be recognized and challenged. When people refuse to accept exclusion and the overriding of basic human rights in sport, it can become a space for play, belonging and personal growth.

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. Fairness for whom? The human toll of Alberta’s trans-exclusionary sports law – https://theconversation.com/fairness-for-whom-the-human-toll-of-albertas-trans-exclusionary-sports-law-265565

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Myrna Dawson, Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Guelph

It’s been 36 years since a mass femicide occurred at École Polytechnique in Montréal. A man shot and killed 14 women because of their sex.

Described as “violent misogyny” by the federal government, the killings have nonetheless never officially been called femicide in Canada despite its global recognition as one of the most vivid examples of femicide in the western world.

Women and girls continue to be killed every two days somewhere in Canada, mostly by men. And the numbers continue to rise.

The majority of these killings are femicide, according to the United Nations statistical framework for measuring the gender-related killing of women and girls. Femicide is broadly defined as the killing of a woman or girl because of their sex or gender.

Podcast focused on femicide

For these reasons, the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) launched its Too True Crime podcast on Nov. 25, 2025, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The podcast spotlights the stories of 580 women and girls killed by men in cases of femicide since 2020.

It only includes cases where available information indicated it was a femicide; some may have flown under the radar of authorities and remain unknown. But since the observatory launched in 2018, more than 1,100 women and girls were documented to have been killed by men.

Part of the podcast’s calls to action include a petition asking Canada to officially recognize the crime of femicide and include it in the Criminal Code.

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Read more:
Canada’s shadow pandemic: Femicide

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Laws help bring about change

Italy is the most recent country to create a stand-alone femicide offence in its national laws. According to the World Bank, 30 countries now define femicide in law.

This approach has its critics. They argue:

• It does not emphasize prevention;
• It does not address the culture facilitating femicide;
• It may produce unintended consequences;
• It’s difficult to achieve consensus on a definition of femicide;
• It has not reduced femicide.

But criminalization versus prevention is not an either/or question.

Laws are a key element of a public health approach to violence prevention. National femicide laws have generally been accompanied by prevention programs, training for law enforcement and public awareness campaigns. Italy’s law, for example, includes stronger measures against gender-based crimes like stalking and revenge porn.

Laws are not stand-alone responses. They are only one part of multi-sector responses to a social problem that must include monitoring of implementation processes and outcomes.

Changing laws can change cultures

In Italy, some women’s advocates have complained the law doesn’t go far enough, especially in changing the country’s culture. In Canada, one feminist lawyer suggests that a “radical rethink” about the entire issue may be required instead of creating a new offence in the Criminal Code.

But to call the crime femicide — a sex- or gender-specific term — is in fact a radical rethink in a climate of neutrality that too often masks the disproportionate burden women and girls bear for some forms of male violence.

State responses through laws reflect cultural values. At the moment, these values regard femicide as an individual problem rather than the product of social structures and processes built on entrenched inequalities.

A femicide law would recognize that male violence against women and girls is systemic and requires attitudinal shifts in Canada’s cultural values.

Helping women and marginalized populations

Laws meant to provide protections for women can have unintended consequences, as documented by mandatory charging for intimate partner violence where police are required to lay charges if they have reasonable grounds to believe an assault occurred. And gender-neutral laws may work against rather than for women, especially some women and girls, when applied within a sexist and racist environment.

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Read more:
Criminalizing coercive control may seem like a good idea, but could it further victimize women?

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That’s why Canada needs to include femicide in its Criminal Code. Femicide is not gender-neutral, and recognizing it formally will help define how and why women are killed by men, which is crucial for effective prevention.

Such a law could also benefit particular groups of women and girls whose deaths are often discounted because of who they are and where, how and by whom they were killed.

A femicide law isn’t about increasing penalties; it’s about ensuring charges, convictions and sentences are appropriate and perpetrators are held accountable in the killings of women and girls from all walks of life.

Achieving consensus is possible

Canada needs to achieve consensus on what is meant by femicide and to clearly identify its elements.

All countries with femicide laws have achieved consensus, although not all have defined femicide the same way. But there is significant guidance to be found in model protocols and model laws available to countries that are considering including femicide in their national laws and criminal codes.

Some research suggests femicide laws are failing; they haven’t reduced cases of femicide. But others point out femicide laws have increased accountability and improved reporting, survivor protections and awareness about all forms of gender-based violence.

The varying impacts of a law depends on context, including who knows about it, whether it’s clear and concise and whether those tasked with applying it are responsive.

Femicide laws on their own won’t immediately reduce the number of women being killed by men or other forms of gender-based violence. Few laws have that kind of power. The key challenge is whether and how a femicide law is implemented.

A whole-of-society response

Femicide laws are about prevention and they can change our culture. They could benefit women and girls, particularly those whose lives and deaths are now marginalized and discounted.

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Read more:
Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls: An epidemic on both sides of the Medicine Line

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Like many countries have, Canada can reach a consensus on what femicide is and produce a femicide law that leads to meaningful change. But it requires proactive consultations, political will and leaders who listen.

The 580 stories in Too True Crime demonstrate clearly and starkly that the lives of women and girls depend on it.

Myrna Dawson has received prior funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canada Research Chair program.

– ref. Why Canada needs to recognize the crime of femicide — on Dec. 6 and beyond – https://theconversation.com/why-canada-needs-to-recognize-the-crime-of-femicide-on-dec-6-and-beyond-271055

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Samadhee Kaluarachchi, PhD Student in Forest Hydrology, University of British Columbia

Flood management is a priority for many governments around the world. Recent floods have led to hundreds of deaths and caused significant damage in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Albania, Kenya and elsewhere.

Canada too is no stranger to floods. Notably, in 2021, flooding in British Columbia cut off access to Metro Vancouver from the rest of the country and caused up to $14 billion in damages.

While many scientific and technical reports show that floods are becoming larger and more common, these reports may be underestimating how their frequency is changing. Flood sizes get the spotlight, however governments and experts need to also consider their frequency to address implications overlooked by traditional management methods.

Frequency and size together must tell the story, because even modest increases in size can lead to surprisingly big jumps in frequency. For example, timber harvesting in the B.C. Interior has led to a 19 to 26 per cent increase in flood size, and turned the former 100-year flood into a once-a-decade flood. Despite floods becoming more frequent, today’s practices still dominantly focus on flood size.

The consequences are severe. We can build infrastructure like dikes and dams bigger so they withstand larger once-in-a-century floods. But if we don’t capture how floods of all sizes (including the 100- and 200-year events) are becoming way more common, infrastructure can weaken and fail faster than we expect.

In our recently published study, we examined a range of scientific, technical and governmental documents to assess whether practices today help us reliably predict flood risks. We found that many of the factors contributing to the severity of a flood could respond much more strongly to climate and landscape changes than traditional methods imply, calling for change in our flood prediction practices.

We’re underestimating flood risk

Nature’s flood “ingredients” include rainfall, snow, soil wetness and energy for snowmelt, which combine in many “recipes” to trigger floods. Human influences like climate change, land use and land cover changes can alter these recipes, making floods bigger and more common. Understanding how human activity causes these effects on floods means predicting flood frequency and size together.

However, short flood records make it difficult to estimate the frequency and size of large floods. Without overcoming this challenge, assessments can produce unreliable results.

Additionally, many studies lump distant flood records with more recent records, suggesting that floods today have similar odds as those decades ago. Yet, experts agree that changes in the climate and landscape alter floods more strongly today.

These practices together produced a widespread perception in risk assessments where flood sizes rise rapidly, or steeply, per change in frequency (called a “heavier tail”).

Our recently published study challenges that perception, which implies that human influence shouldn’t greatly alter floods. In many places, human activities are making large floods more common. By giving little attention to how our activities affect flood frequencies, our practices don’t seem to capture just how sensitive floods are and how much they’re changing.

Without adapting our practices, we risk the loss of lives and livelihoods, misallocating funds, economic losses and lawsuits against governments, municipalities and professionals. Reliable flood projection and management is vital.

Considering flood frequency

To make reliable flood projections, we first need to identify a region’s natural flood frequencies and sizes, and which climate and landscape features drive them. With this solid baseline, we can determine how human activities shift flood frequencies and sizes, if floods are sensitive to human influence and what this means for society.

We can do this by predicting how different human activities affect floods through modelling or landscape experiments. We can work with flood records, using methods that recognize how current and future floods are far more affected by human activities than past floods.

We can use existing techniques to overcome challenges with short records and ensure that our estimates reflect a strong understanding of the natural and human drivers of flood frequencies and sizes.

By adopting stronger practices, our study predicts that many regions could see very different frequency-size relations: flood sizes could increase more slowly per change in frequency.

It signals a more “fragile,” or super sensitive, flood regime than what current methods imply. When we disturb the climate or landscape, large floods can react strongly; they become much more common, reflecting what we see in many places today.

This knowledge can help governments effectively manage the land while mitigating major jumps in flood frequency.

The way forward

Effective flood management must include strong policies, nature-based solutions, and infrastructure designed for size and strength to withstand both larger and more frequent floods.

Nature-based solutions such as green areas, permeable surfaces and water-retaining features are being adopted by governments worldwide. Studies suggest that measures like increased forest cover have little impact on large floods; however, this may reflect the focus on flood size. Natural landscapes like forests can greatly reduce flood frequencies, even for very large floods.

In B.C., landscape features like mountains, forests, lakes, wetlands and floodplains spread out floods, lowering their peaks and making large events rarer. However, these same features make floods react strongly to changes in the climate and landscape.

Flood risk management must work with nature, maintaining or increasing the landscapes’ ability to store floodwaters. Our policies must address flood risk at the source through effective land management, recognizing that key causes of urban floods could lie thousands of kilometres away in the distant uplands. With strong policies and interventions both upstream and downstream, we can proactively manage floods.

Samadhee Kaluarachchi receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, the Gordon and Nora Bailey Fellowship in Sustainable Forestry, and the Mary and David Macaree Fellowship.

Younes Alila receives funding from Mitacs Canada and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Governments need to prepare for more frequent large floods – https://theconversation.com/governments-need-to-prepare-for-more-frequent-large-floods-269251

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Alfiya Battalova, Assistant Professor in Justice Studies, Royal Roads University

This year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities centres on “fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.”

The theme recognizes persistent barriers faced by disabled people: disproportionate poverty, employment discrimination, inadequate social protection and the denial of dignity and autonomy in care systems.

Accessibility gains and losses

In 2022, the disability rate for people aged 15 years and over in Canada was 27 per cent. Nearly eight million people identified as having one or more disabilities, an increase of 1.7 million people over 2017, when the disability rate was 22 per cent.

The United Nations’ latest review of Canada’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities praised Canada’s progress in adopting the Accessible Canada Act and accessibility legislation at the provincial/territorial levels.

At the same time, the committee identified several areas of deep concern, such as the expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) for disabled people whose death is not foreseeable. The report warns that inadequate supports risk normalizing death as a “solution” to poverty, lack of services and discrimination, and that the concept of choice can create a false dichotomy, enabling death without guaranteeing support.

All policies tell stories

All policies convey narratives and stories that carry values. They deal with questions of “why” as well as “how.”

Narratives distil and reflect a particular understanding of social and political relations. A story about disability as a phenomenon can be told from different perspectives. A medical model of disability views disability as a personal problem, a social model focuses on removing the barriers, and a human rights model introduces a language of rights and their protection. We often hear deficit-based stories rooted in the medical model about disability.

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Track 2 in Canada tell contradictory stories about disability rights and state responsibility.

The ACA is framed as a landmark piece of human rights legislation, emphasizing inclusion, accessibility and the removal of barriers to ensure full participation for people with disabilities, with a vision of a barrier-free Canada by 2040. Disability activists played a central role in its development, and the law is celebrated for its systemic, proactive approach to tackling exclusion and discrimination, offering rights to consultation, representation and accessible information.

In contrast, the MAID regime, especially after the expansion through Bill C-7, has been criticized for normalizing assisted death as a response to suffering caused by lack of access to medical, disability and social support, rather than addressing the underlying barriers and systemic failures that the ACA promises to remove.

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Read more:
A dangerous path: Why expanding access to medical assistance in dying keeps us up at night

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Research shows that the odds for having unmet needs for health-care services, medications, assistive aids or devices, or help with everyday activities increases with disability severity. A coalition of disability rights organizations and two personally affected individuals have filed a Charter challenge with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice opposing Track 2 of the MAID law, which extends eligibility to people whose death is not reasonably foreseeable.

Narrative accounts like the ones below, and research in bioethics, highlights that many people seek MAID not because they are terminally ill, but because they face poverty, inadequate housing and lack of care. This reveals a troubling contradiction: while the ACA proclaims a commitment to inclusion and support, MAID often functions as a default solution for those failed by the very systems the ACA aims to fix.

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Read more:
Ontario Chief Coroner reports raise concerns that MAID policy and practice focus on access rather than protection

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The stories told by these two policies — on one hand, the promise of full inclusion and on the other, the normalization of state-facilitated death for those marginalized by inadequate support — reveal a profound tension in Canada’s approach to disability rights and social responsibility.

Troubling cases

Cases are emerging where people access MAID due to intolerable suffering caused by systemic failures. There is a story of 66-year-old Normand Meunier who requested medical assistance in dying following a hospital stay last year that left him with a severe bedsore. He died a few weeks later.

The coroner’s report on Meunier’s case highlights the need for guaranteed and prompt access to therapeutic mattresses for patients with spinal cord injuries. Québec coroner Dave Kimpton also calls on the province to create an advisory committee aimed at preventing and treating bedsores with new tools and training. Kimpton observes:

“It is now undeniable to me, after this research, that the body of someone with a spinal cord injury speaks a different language, and that health-care professionals must learn to decode it if they are to anticipate and effectively manage medical complications.”

The stories of disabled people advocating for life-saving treatment is an example of continuing devaluation of disabled lives. Jeremy Bray of Manitoba pleaded for continued coverage of medication for his Type 2 spinal muscular atrophy. In British Columbia, Charleigh Pollock’s family fought for continued coverage of the medication for her neurological disorder. These stories individualize disability and promote a medical model approach.

Disability justice, as championed by the late activist Alice Wong and her Disability Visibility project, insists that storytelling is not “add-on” advocacy — it is evidence that exposes how policies like MAID, income-testing and institutionalization feel on the ground. Wong’s work demonstrates that disabled people’s stories are a powerful form of resistance, providing evidence that disabled people exist in societies that often erase them.

In her book Dispatches from Disabled Country, activist, educator and researcher Catherine Frazee provides an alternative vision of living with a disability. She uses a metaphor of Disabled Country to describe a “place of refuge for outlaws from the rules of fitting in a place where the value of human life is intrinsic, not contingent on a place that yields itself to our being and our capacity to flourish.”

Re-examining Canada’s disability policy story

From a policy-research perspective, understanding these narrative dynamics is essential for evaluating the effects of laws such as the ACA and for anticipating the implications of MAID expansion.

Scholars argue that policy narratives influence everything from budget priorities to program eligibility criteria and institutional cultures. They also shape how disabled people imagine their futures — an increasingly important dimension of well-being research.

As Canada reflects on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, emerging evidence underscores the importance of aligning disability policy with the lived realities documented through research, monitoring processes and personal accounts.

Examining the narratives embedded in policy frameworks can help clarify how laws and institutions either support or hinder long-term flourishing for disabled people, and can offer insights into how stories told in policies ultimately align with societal values.

Alfiya Battalova 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. Disability rights are shaped by the narratives embedded in policies like the Accessible Canada Act and MAID – https://theconversation.com/disability-rights-are-shaped-by-the-narratives-embedded-in-policies-like-the-accessible-canada-act-and-maid-271094

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mehnaz Rafi, PhD Candidate, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more integrated into workplace systems and operations, it’s reshaping both how work tasks are completed and the very experience of work itself.

For many employees, AI is stress-testing their tolerance for uncertainty and job insecurity. Some positions are being automated entirely. Others are becoming redundant. In many cases, full-time roles are being reduced to part-time or contract work.

These changes have been very visible in this year’s news headlines. UPS, for example, announced 20,000 layoffs in April while expressing interest in deploying humanoid robots from Figure AI to take over warehouse tasks.

Recently, this disruption has moved beyond front-line roles. Amazon has revealed plans to cut 14,000 corporate jobs to reorganize around AI-enhanced efficiency. Microsoft laid off roughly 6,000 employees — most of them software engineers and programmers — as AI systems now generate up to 30 per cent of new code on its projects.

Employees do not stand on equal footing in the face of these changes, nor do they experience the same level of vulnerability. The capacity to respond to AI-related job threats varies sharply based on income, education, race and digital access.

These disparities ultimately shape who can adapt and leverage new technological opportunities, and who becomes excluded from them and left behind.

AI’s uneven impact on the workforce

Employees face unequal vulnerability to AI-related job threats largely because automation disproportionately targets entry-level and front-line positions. These are typically lower-wage roles, often held by people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and marginalized communities.

Such positions typically involve routine or repetitive tasks in sectors like customer service, retail, administration, warehousing and food service. Reports show these jobs are up to 14 times more likely to be displaced than higher-wage positions. Women are 1.5 times more likely than men to be pushed into new occupations as a result.

People in these roles also face greater barriers in accessing employment and advancement opportunities, which perpetuates cycles of economic insecurity among groups that are already vulnerable.

In contrast, AI is significantly boosting efficiency and productivity for knowledge workers in higher-wage positions. Surveys show 75 per cent of knowledge workers now use AI tools and report a 66 per cent average increase in productivity.

These employees are far better positioned to integrate AI into their workflow. For example, national data shows that Canadian employees benefit most from AI when their jobs involve “complementary” tasks. These are tasks that AI can augment or enhance.

This complementarity is strongly tied to education. It is highest among employees with graduate degrees and steadily declines as education levels drop. As a result, the benefits associated with AI flow disproportionately to higher-educated, high-income professional workers, enabling them to manage larger workloads and complete tasks faster. Some workers save up to one-third of their work hours.

AI can also improve the quality of their work. Research shows consultants who use AI produce work that is more than 40 per cent higher in quality than those who don’t use AI. These advantages can accelerate career progression and income growth for people already in privileged socioeconomic positions.

These patterns reinforce existing class inequities by expanding opportunities for those in high-income, professional roles while deepening precarity for those in low-income, entry-level and front-line roles.

Uneven access to skills training

Upskilling and reskilling are often presented as solutions to AI-related job threats, but access to these opportunities is unevenly distributed across social groups.

Upskilling refers to developing more advanced skills within a current role, while reskilling involves learning entirely new skills to transition into a different job. High-income, highly educated professionals receive far more institutional support to upskill or reskill, such as employer-funded training, paid time to learn new tools and access to advanced digital tools.

In contrast, workers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and low-income jobs often lack the financial means, time and organizational support needed to develop new skills.

These structural gaps are reflected in participation rates: a survey by Gallup and Amazon shows that 75 per cent of workers in computer-related occupations engage in upskilling, compared with less than one-third of workers in office administration, food service, production and transportation roles.

As a result, workers in precarious and vulnerable positions are further disadvantaged by the barriers they face in accessing opportunities to respond to technological threats.

Digital access shapes who benefits

Differences in digital access and literacy create another layer of inequality in how different groups experience AI.

The digital divide is tied to disparities in digital and AI literacy across income, geography, age, education and occupation.

People in high-income, white-collar roles, urban areas and well-resourced institutions typically have reliable internet, AI tools and access to digital skills training. They also develop AI literacy through formal education and job training, which gives them more opportunities to experiment with AI and integrate it into their work.

However, those in manual jobs, rural areas, low-income households, marginalized communities and older age groups often lack stable connectivity, updated technology and access to formal training, making AI adoption more difficult for them.

This leaves them more vulnerable to AI-related job threats. These gaps in access and skills reinforce existing socioeconomic inequalities by concentrating the benefits of AI among advantaged groups while heightening the risks for those with fewer resources.

AI holds great potential to positively impact employees, organizations and the workplace. However, without equitable access to upskilling, reskilling, training, digital resources and AI literacy, the technology can deepen the disparities between different social groups. Closing these gaps and creating fair opportunities for adaptation is essential if AI is to benefit our society more broadly and equitably.

Mehnaz Rafi 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. AI promises efficiency, but it’s also amplifying labour inequality – https://theconversation.com/ai-promises-efficiency-but-its-also-amplifying-labour-inequality-258772

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Alfiya Battalova, Assistant Professor in Justice Studies, Royal Roads University

This year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities centres on “fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.”

The theme recognizes persistent barriers faced by disabled people: disproportionate poverty, employment discrimination, inadequate social protection and the denial of dignity and autonomy in care systems.

Accessibility gains and losses

In 2022, the disability rate for people aged 15 years and over in Canada was 27 per cent. Nearly eight million people identified as having one or more disabilities, an increase of 1.7 million people over 2017, when the disability rate was 22 per cent.

The United Nations’ latest review of Canada’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities praised Canada’s progress in adopting the Accessible Canada Act and accessibility legislation at the provincial/territorial levels.

At the same time, the committee identified several areas of deep concern, such as the expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) for disabled people whose death is not foreseeable. The report warns that inadequate supports risk normalizing death as a “solution” to poverty, lack of services and discrimination, and that the concept of choice can create a false dichotomy, enabling death without guaranteeing support.

All policies tell stories

All policies convey narratives and stories that carry values. They deal with questions of “why” as well as “how.”

Narratives distil and reflect a particular understanding of social and political relations. A story about disability as a phenomenon can be told from different perspectives. A medical model of disability views disability as a personal problem, a social model focuses on removing the barriers, and a human rights model introduces a language of rights and their protection. We often hear deficit-based stories rooted in the medical model about disability.

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Track 2 in Canada tell contradictory stories about disability rights and state responsibility.

The ACA is framed as a landmark piece of human rights legislation, emphasizing inclusion, accessibility and the removal of barriers to ensure full participation for people with disabilities, with a vision of a barrier-free Canada by 2040. Disability activists played a central role in its development, and the law is celebrated for its systemic, proactive approach to tackling exclusion and discrimination, offering rights to consultation, representation and accessible information.

In contrast, the MAID regime, especially after the expansion through Bill C-7, has been criticized for normalizing assisted death as a response to suffering caused by lack of access to medical, disability and social support, rather than addressing the underlying barriers and systemic failures that the ACA promises to remove.

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Read more:
A dangerous path: Why expanding access to medical assistance in dying keeps us up at night

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Research shows that the odds for having unmet needs for health-care services, medications, assistive aids or devices, or help with everyday activities increases with disability severity. A coalition of disability rights organizations and two personally affected individuals have filed a Charter challenge with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice opposing Track 2 of the MAID law, which extends eligibility to people whose death is not reasonably foreseeable.

Narrative accounts like the ones below, and research in bioethics, highlights that many people seek MAID not because they are terminally ill, but because they face poverty, inadequate housing and lack of care. This reveals a troubling contradiction: while the ACA proclaims a commitment to inclusion and support, MAID often functions as a default solution for those failed by the very systems the ACA aims to fix.

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Read more:
Ontario Chief Coroner reports raise concerns that MAID policy and practice focus on access rather than protection

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The stories told by these two policies — on one hand, the promise of full inclusion and on the other, the normalization of state-facilitated death for those marginalized by inadequate support — reveal a profound tension in Canada’s approach to disability rights and social responsibility.

Troubling cases

Cases are emerging where people access MAID due to intolerable suffering caused by systemic failures. There is a story of 66-year-old Normand Meunier who requested medical assistance in dying following a hospital stay last year that left him with a severe bedsore. He died a few weeks later.

The coroner’s report on Meunier’s case highlights the need for guaranteed and prompt access to therapeutic mattresses for patients with spinal cord injuries. Québec coroner Dave Kimpton also calls on the province to create an advisory committee aimed at preventing and treating bedsores with new tools and training. Kimpton observes:

“It is now undeniable to me, after this research, that the body of someone with a spinal cord injury speaks a different language, and that health-care professionals must learn to decode it if they are to anticipate and effectively manage medical complications.”

The stories of disabled people advocating for life-saving treatment is an example of continuing devaluation of disabled lives. Jeremy Bray of Manitoba pleaded for continued coverage of medication for his Type 2 spinal muscular atrophy. In British Columbia, Charleigh Pollock’s family fought for continued coverage of the medication for her neurological disorder. These stories individualize disability and promote a medical model approach.

Disability justice, as championed by the late activist Alice Wong and her Disability Visibility project, insists that storytelling is not “add-on” advocacy — it is evidence that exposes how policies like MAID, income-testing and institutionalization feel on the ground. Wong’s work demonstrates that disabled people’s stories are a powerful form of resistance, providing evidence that disabled people exist in societies that often erase them.

In her book Dispatches from Disabled Country, activist, educator and researcher Catherine Frazee provides an alternative vision of living with a disability. She uses a metaphor of Disabled Country to describe a “place of refuge for outlaws from the rules of fitting in a place where the value of human life is intrinsic, not contingent on a place that yields itself to our being and our capacity to flourish.”

Re-examining Canada’s disability policy story

From a policy-research perspective, understanding these narrative dynamics is essential for evaluating the effects of laws such as the ACA and for anticipating the implications of MAID expansion.

Scholars argue that policy narratives influence everything from budget priorities to program eligibility criteria and institutional cultures. They also shape how disabled people imagine their futures — an increasingly important dimension of well-being research.

As Canada reflects on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, emerging evidence underscores the importance of aligning disability policy with the lived realities documented through research, monitoring processes and personal accounts.

Examining the narratives embedded in policy frameworks can help clarify how laws and institutions either support or hinder long-term flourishing for disabled people, and can offer insights into how stories told in policies ultimately align with societal values.

Alfiya Battalova 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. Disability rights and services are shaped by the narratives embedded in policies like the Accessible Canada Act and MAID – https://theconversation.com/disability-rights-and-services-are-shaped-by-the-narratives-embedded-in-policies-like-the-accessible-canada-act-and-maid-271094

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mitchell McLarnon, Assistant Professor, Adult Education, Concordia University

Over the last decade, I’ve worked closely with Montréal educators and students to better understand how climate change education occurs in schools — and how climate change curricula and policies shape everyday experiences there.

In 2019, as part of a wider climate action plan, Montréal ambitiously committed to transitioning to zero waste by 2030.

With hopes of further reducing landfill waste, 22 schools across four school boards in Montréal were promised compost collection as part of the city’s zero-waste plan.

I interviewed three teachers from three different schools, one principal from another school and a school board employee to hear their analyses of how this program unfolded. The research suggests that to effectively expand composting and zero-waste climate action through schools, the labour of educators and other school workers must be factored into a “just transition.”

As a conceptual framework and practice, a “just transition” is an approach for connecting mechanisms of climate action with social fairness.

Importance of ‘just transition’

Montréal has goals to use a zero-waste model to reduce its emissions because food waste accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of emissions in the city. The aim is to ensure food waste is either being composted or that still-edible food finds its way to people experiencing food insecurity.

As communities grapple with climate change mitigation and adaption, efforts to realize global and local climate policy ambitions like zero waste are often premised upon the concept of a just transition.

Just transitions typically seek to reconcile environmental and social issues with a low-carbon and fossil-fuel-free future. Much of the research on just transitions encircles worker and labour rights from the energy, manufacturing, transport and related sectors as they move toward zero-emission outcomes.

My research points to teachers and other educational workers as key contributors for policy development toward a just transition. Because ecological and social crises are constructed and reproduced through power imbalances, a just transition away from fossil fuels and ecologically destructive practices also needs to be a departure from unequal and extractive ways of relating.

Zero waste by 2030?

During the pilot phase of the zero-waste plan’s implementation in schools, educational workers I partnered with stated they experienced a top-down policy implementation that created additional labour and misunderstandings while undercutting existing school composting programs and other established processes.

School board and city policymakers did not initially consider who would actually take on different compost-related tasks like sorting and transporting waste, and how this might intersect with labour relations and collective bargaining agreements.

As such, teachers and other school staff were compelled to take on additional and onerous tasks, such as organizing waste across the school, raising awareness and communicating with city workers.

For example, one participant said the only support and resources offered to their school by the city came in the form of two large composting bins and a short workshop on what goes into the city’s compost bins. They also felt there was an assumption that the compost would simply sort itself when someone needed to be present to ensure that organic matter ended up in the right place.

When the implementation of city-mediated school composting didn’t work well, some teachers intervened. In different schools, each having its own set of patterns, behaviours and peculiarities, varied responses emerged to the composting program.

One educator opted to work with the city on structuring the kind of compost support that would be pertinent for their school, while another motivated their students to participate during instructional time.

Teachers as key players

Increasingly, climate change education is included in provincial curricula. Along with this are mounting pressures on teachers to add climate change content into existing courses. In this way, teachers are being positioned as key players in addressing the global climate crisis.

Unfortunately, decades of austerity reforms to public education are now coupled with a growing list of unmet social, environmental and health needs (for example, pertaining to child and youth mental health, food insecurity and nutrition) that schools are tasked with addressing. Yet teachers are not structurally supported to take on this important new work.

It’s important that teachers and other educational workers be included in any large-scale policy implementation addressing students or educational spaces. For example, beyond the zero-waste project, the Canadian government announced a National School Food Policy in 2024 to address hunger and health inequities among Canadian youth, boost their mental and physical wellness and promote environmentally sustainable practices. Teacher expertise is crucial for equitable outcomes.

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Read more:
School lunches, the French way: It’s not just about nutrition, but togetherness and _bon appetit_

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Recognizing people’s labour

Montréal’s 2024 zero-waste report (Montréal objectif
zéro déchet) notes that the city now has 418 educational institutions with organic waste pickup. However, how much school waste is being diverted through the program and how it fits into the larger city’s zero-waste plans are unclear.

Policymakers mean well, but municipal policies need stronger social and structural supports to help stakeholders meet climate-action goals.

If our governments are indeed committed to connecting social justice and climate action, then they should also provide additional funding and labour to local schools to acknowledge the immense efforts required to develop and sustain these kinds of climate policies.

To sketch out where we might begin, I encourage governments to:

1. Realize that climate policy like composting and notions of zero waste in schools are dependent on the labour and care of students and multiple education workers, including custodians, teachers, day-care workers, principals and others who fell outside of the scope of my research;

2. Engage, recognize and compensate teachers and other school staff for their time, feedback and expertise on issues that impact them;

3. Incorporate teacher, student and school-based reactions to proposed projects’ overall goals. Use their input to make the proposed budget realistic and relevant;

4. Commit to transparency that allows local schools, teachers, education workers and organizers to receive meaningful and detailed updates on climate change mitigation data, benchmarks and budgetary allocations; and

5. Rather than contracting or using “experts” from outside of a school and its community, work with people in the education sector to hire local climate-engaged teachers and school staff to manage the initiatives.

All climate change mitigation efforts from cities, schools and individuals ought to be applauded and encouraged for attempting to better improve and adapt to the current climate crisis.

But as a society, we shouldn’t pretend that ineffective responses are good enough — instead, climate-engaged educators and policymakers must resolve to learn from experience and insight to improve responsive policy and practice.

Mitchell McLarnon receives funding from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec, le Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec and the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada

– ref. Zero waste in schools? Why factoring in labour is essential – https://theconversation.com/zero-waste-in-schools-why-factoring-in-labour-is-essential-263689

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Eddy Ng, Smith Professor of Equity and Inclusion in Business, Queen’s University, Ontario

As Generation Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 — enters the workforce in growing numbers, Canadian employers are encountering a cohort whose expectations and behaviours signal a fundamental shift from current norms.

Unlike previous generations, Gen Z brings pragmatic sensibilities shaped by the unique social, economic and technological landscapes of their upbringing.

Gen Z grew up amid economic uncertainty, technological upheaval and heightened social awareness. Unlike millennials, who entered the job market with “great expectations” for rapid promotions and pay raises, Gen Z is more pragmatic.

And so if Canadian organizations want to attract, engage with and retain this generation of talent, it’s essential to understand what makes them tick.

Purpose, values and why Gen Z stays

Recent research shows that this generation values job security, work-life balance and mental health above all else. These preferences are shaped by formative experiences, including observing their Gen X parents navigate dual-career households and witnessing economic disruptions and automation-driven restructuring.

For Gen Z, stability is seen as essential for their well-being at work.

This generation is ambitious, albeit in ways that diverge from traditional hierarchical advancement. Rather than prioritizing vertical mobility, they seek roles that provide flexibility, meaningful contribution and alignment with personal values.

Central to Gen Z’s workplace vision is a desire to work for organizations that prioritize diversity, inclusion and corporate social responsibility. This generation is the most racially diverse in Canadian history and has grown up in a more socially conscious environment. They tend to hold strong views around equal treatment and environmental sustainability, often expecting their employers to “walk the talk.”

One report suggests that Gen Z employees are significantly more likely to remain with organizations that offer purpose-driven work, with retention likelihood increasing by a factor of 3.6 when such alignment exists.

The rise of “conscious unbossing”

One notable trend within Gen Z is the preference for collaboration over authority.

A recent survey reveals that nearly half of Gen Z professionals favour promotions that do not entail supervisory responsibilities. This reluctance stems from the perceived drawbacks of traditional leadership roles, including heightened stress, rigid scheduling and diminished autonomy.

Some Gen Z workers even indicate a willingness to accept reduced compensation to avoid managerial obligations. This phenomenon, described as “conscious unbossing,” presents a structural challenge for organizations anticipating leadership gaps as baby boomers retire and millennials ascend to senior positions. This means a reconceptualization of leadership, emphasizing project-based authority, mentorship opportunities and expertise-driven influence rather than hierarchical control.

This generation is also the first to grow up entirely within a digital ecosystem, resulting in expectations for seamless technological integration across work processes. Gen Z actively leverages AI tools for skill development, yet formal organizational training often lags behind these self-directed practices. If organizations don’t offer structured, technnology-based learning, digital gaps among employees will grow.

Employers will need to invest in continuous learning opportunities such as micro-credentialing, AI-driven platforms and intergenerational mentorship that can enhance skill acquisition while respecting Gen Z’s preference for autonomy.

Flexible work arrangements also constitute an important characteristic of Gen Z workers’ employment preferences. Having studied and entered the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, they view remote and hybrid work arrangements as normal rather than an exception.

Flexible scheduling and outcome-based performance metrics are perceived as baseline expectations rather than discretionary benefits. Employers that adhere rigidly to traditional work structures risk attrition among Gen Z employees. Instead, employers should prioritize policies that emphasize results over physical presence.

How employers must adapt or risk losing talent

To attract and retain Gen Z talent, Canadian employers should adopt evidence-based strategies that include redefining career pathways by moving away from traditional linear models toward frameworks that emphasize lateral mobility, project leadership and skills-based advancement.

As AI and algorithmic HR systems become more prevalent, employers must consider how these tools align with Gen Z’s ways of working. They expect technology to enhance — but not replace — the human side of work.

While AI and automation can improve efficiency, Gen Z places a premium on trust and authentic relationships. Employers should ensure transparency in algorithmic decision-making and maintain opportunities for personal interaction, as these elements are critical to engagement and retention for this cohort that values connection as much as convenience.

Sustainability is another priority for Gen Z. For this generation, climate action is not a marketing slogan, but a moral imperative. Employers must move beyond superficial “greenwashing” and embed sustainability into employment practices, from eco-friendly benefits to green office policies.

These initiatives should be inclusive, ensuring that environmental efforts also advance equity and deliver tangible benefits for all employees. Gen Z expects organizations to demonstrate measurable progress on both ecological and social fronts. Likewise, diversity and inclusion will remain critical for Gen Z, even in politically polarized environments.

And because this generation values guidance but prefers collaborative, non-hierarchical relationships, mentorship must also evolve. Employers should expand mentoring programs to include underrepresented groups, creating pathways for career stability and growth.

Understanding Gen Z and taking the steps to meet these new professionals where they are will help employers create the necessary trust for meaningful growth.

Eddy Ng receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. The future of work — according to Generation Z — is purposeful, digital and flexible – https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-work-according-to-generation-z-is-purposeful-digital-and-flexible-268951