Category: The Conversation – Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jean Ketterling, Assistant Professor, Political Studies – Women’s and Gender Studies Program, University of Saskatchewan

Following a campaign by Australian anti-porn organization Collective Shout, the video game distribution platforms Steam and itch.io recently made changes to their policies about hosting games with adult themes.

While Steam removed many games, the campaign has had a particularly strong effect on itch.io because it is a smaller company with low barriers for creators who want to publish their games. The changes meant all content deemed adult NSFW (not suitable for work) on itch.io was unsearchable.

The campaign has also involved pressuring payment processing companies to “cease processing payments” to platforms hosting games that Collective Shout views as objectionable.

Itch.io has since announced it will be re-indexing free adult NSFW content, making it searchable again, and is “actively reaching out to other payment processors that are more willing to work with this kind of content.”

The battle over NSFW content is provoking concern about censorship and threatening game makers’ livelihoods. As game studies scholars who focus on sex, sexuality, gender and sexual violence, we are concerned about censorship campaigns that target pornography, and the knock-on effects on queer creators and sexual education content.

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Read more:
Thousands of games have been censored from major platforms, with LGBTQIA+ creators caught in the crossfire

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What happened to NSFW content on itch.io and Steam?

According to a timeline published by Collective Shout, the campaign began in March 2025 as an effort to have the controversial game No Mercy removed from Steam. While the developer removed the game in April, Collective Shout then called on payment processors to stop processing payments for similar content.

The campaign is less interested in the content or context of these games than achieving the organization’s broader anti-pornography goals.

As journalist Emanuel Maiberg writes, while No Mercy may aim to shock, it retreads many commonplace pornographic tropes, and Steam offers users tools to filter out adult content.

Nonetheless, bringing such games to payment processors’ attention set off a chain reaction and provoked heightened scrutiny on a wide range of sexual content.

On July 16, the third-party data website Steam DB posted that Steam had updated its content policy and removed many games that appeared to have incest themes.

On July 24, itch.io released a statement explaining that it had de-indexed all adult NSFW content while it conducted a “comprehensive audit of content” to ensure that the platform “can meet the requirements of our payment processors.”

De-indexing content makes it impossible to find via a browser search (although it remains available through a direct link), provoking concern about censorship and loss of livelihood.

A counter-campaign to protest censorship also emerged and various industry groups responded.

Platform policies and pornography

Feminist movements have a long history of debating pornography, and nuanced research is readily available that carefully analyzes pornography, including in a dedicated academic journal. Similarly, there is a growing body of research on sex and sexuality in video games.

Anti-pornography movements, however, do not seem to be informed by these discussions and debates. Rather, campaigns like Collective Shout’s rely on feelings of discomfort, disgust and shock to bring about broad censorship.

This can undermine the diversity of sexual expression, punishes non-normative and kinky content and disproportionately affects LGBTQ+ creators.

Steam’s updated policy states that developers should not use their platform to publish content that violates payment processor or card network policy, “in particular, certain kinds of adult only content.”

Itch.io clarified its existing policy by providing a list of content prohibited by payment processors, including real or implied non-consensual content, underage or “barely legal” themes, incest or pseudo-incest content, bestiality or animal-related content and fetish content involving bodily waste or extreme harm, among others.

Such prohibitions may feel like common sense. However, there is a danger these provisions could be used to de-platform broad swaths of content. This could include games made by survivors of sexual violence or child abuse reflecting on their experiences, or consent education games such as Hurt Me Plenty.

Research has shown similar policies on porn platforms are interpreted so broadly that they de-platform otherwise legal content. When implemented, these policies impact creators’ abilities to earn a living.

De-platforming sex in games

Video game censorship is not new. American game developer Brenda Romero describes the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994 as the industry’s attempt to self-regulate after several controversies regarding violent and sexual content.

The ESRB was created by the Entertainment Software Association to assign age ratings to games in North America. While creating the ESRB helped stave off governmental regulation, it did so by curtailing the space for sexual expression in games.

Video games with explicit sexual content are likely to receive an adults only rating and large box chain retailers may refuse to stock them.

To be economically viable, game developers are forced to remove references to sexual activity from their games, as was the case with the infamous “hot coffee” modification in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

This type of self-censorship is a problem that extends beyond games. According to feminist media scholar Susanna Paasonen, platforms often conceptualize sex as risky, objectionable and lacking expressive value, imposing their subjective understanding of obscenity and risk on culturally diverse audiences.

Many arguments for censorship rely on an assumption that games predominately have an audience of children. However, the average American gamer is 36 years old, and removing access to diverse sexual content for adults is to deny an entire realm of human experience.

Thus, the “de-sexing” of platforms is a problem in and of itself.

Payment processors dictating content

Collective Shout’s appeal to payment processors is a strategy that exploits the power these companies have, because payment processors and credit card networks have significant influence on the sex industry. By refusing to process payments for certain products or services, they have the power to effectively censor anything they deem unnacceptable.

The process leaves little room for transparency around what qualifies as unacceptable, and can leave those impacted by such bans with limited ability to challenge them.

Given that payment processors focus more on protecting their brand reputation than promoting a diversity of sexual expression, they are vulnerable to the agendas of outspoken organizations that use them as a backdoor to police sexual expression.

As researchers, we are equally concerned with the ways these policies threaten the preservation of video games. Despite their long history, sex and pornography games are a neglected archive.

It is imperative to build and sustain public game archives that can withstand such targeted attacks and preserve the record of human desire from multiple perspectives.

Jean Ketterling is the principal investigator of The Pornography, Platforms & Play Project, which is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is the vice-president of the Canadian Game Studies Association.

Ashley ML Guajardo is president of the Digital Games Research Association.

Carl Therrien and Kenzie Gordon 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. Censoring video games with sexual content suppresses the diversity of human desire – https://theconversation.com/censoring-video-games-with-sexual-content-suppresses-the-diversity-of-human-desire-262436

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jessica M. Theodor, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary

Last year, a Stegosaurus nicknamed “Apex” sold at auction for US$40.5 million. A juvenile Ceratosaurus fetched US$30.5 million just last month.

Supporters of these sales argue that they’re harmless, or even good for science. Others compare fossils to art objects, praising their beauty or historical charm.

As paleontologists, we say plainly: these views could not be more misguided.

Fossils are neither art objects nor trophies. They are scientific data that provide a tangible record of Earth’s deep history. Fossils are essential tools for understanding evolution, extinction, climate change and the origins and disappearances of ecosystems.

Their true value lies not in their price tags, but in what they teach. Of course, some fossils are beautiful. So are endangered white rhinoceros, but no one argues that rhinos should be auctioned off to the highest bidder. A fossil’s worth isn’t defined by it’s beauty, but by its permanent scientific accessibility.

Science versus ownership

Paleontologists are historians of deep time, studying life through millions of years. Our field is a science built upon the same fundamental principles as any other scientific disciplines. Data must be transparent, accessible, replicable and verifiable. For that to happen in paleontology, fossil specimens must be housed in public institutions with permanent collections.

Paleontological research is only scientific if the specimens under study are catalogued in public institutions that ensure access in perpetuity, so that other researchers can examine and continually assess and reassess the data fossils preserve.

That’s what makes the 1997 auction of the Tyrannosaurus rex specimen known as Sue different from today’s fossil auctions. Though it was a private sale, Sue was purchased by a public-private consortium, which included the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) in Chicago, the Walt Disney Company, McDonald’s Corporation and private donors. Sue’s skeleton was immediately placed in the public trust at the FMNH, an accredited museum, and formally catalogued.

Sue didn’t vanish into the private collection of an anonymous buyer. Instead, the T. rex became an accessible scientific resource for scientists and the public. This is exactly what should happen with all scientifically significant fossils.

Increasingly, some of the most remarkable fossils unearthed have gone into the vaults of private collectors. Even when buyers temporarily loan specimens to museums, as with Apex the Stegosaurus, these fossils remain off limits to meaningful scientific study.

Perpetual access

Leading scientific journals won’t publish research based on them for a simple reason: science demands permanent access.

Paleontological science depends on transparency, reproducibility and data reproducibility. A privately held fossil, no matter how spectacular, can disappear at any time on the whim of an owner. That uncertainty makes it impossible to guarantee that we can verify findings, repeat analyses, or use new technologies or methods on original material in the future.

Contrast that with fossils that are held in the public trust, like Sue the T. rex. Sue’s skeleton has been on display for nearly 20 years, and has been studied again and again. And as technology evolves, we address new scientific questions about ancient remains and deepen our understanding of the distant past, one study at a time.

Professional standards matter

It may be tempting to justify the commercial fossil trade by pointing to dinosaur-themed movies and toys, as if pop culture is a stand-in for real science. That is akin to arguing that paint-by-numbers kits are a good substitute for the art held in the Louvre. High-profile sales mislead the public by promoting the idea that completeness or large size are the only things that make a fossil significant.

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the world’s largest organization of professional paleontologists, has created ethical guidelines to reflect professional research standards. Critics have called them too strict, saying the rules should be “loosened.” But loosening our ethical standards would mean abandoning the very core of the scientific method in favour of convenience and profit.

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It is unethical to sell human fossils or cultural artifacts to private collectors. The same standard should apply to dinosaurs and other fossil vertebrates. Fossils, whether common or spectacular and rare, are an irreplaceable record of our planet’s history.

Funding the future

Science should not be for sale. We suggest that fossil-loving millionaires and billionaires put their money where it can make a transformative difference. Instead of buying one skeleton, we encourage these fans to support the research, museums, students and scientific societies that breathe new life into ancient bones.

One single fossil’s price tag could fund years of groundbreaking discoveries, education and exhibitions. That’s a legacy worth leaving, especially at a time when funding for science is dwindling.

Jessica M. Theodor receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She is a former president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Kenshu Shimada is chair of Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s Government Affairs Committee.

Kristi Curry Rogers is Vice President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Stuart Sumida is president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

– ref. Fossils are scientific evidence, and shouldn’t be auctioned for millions to private buyers – https://theconversation.com/fossils-are-scientific-evidence-and-shouldnt-be-auctioned-for-millions-to-private-buyers-262777

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Kent Mundle, Senior Researcher, Lecturer in Architecture, University of Hong Kong

This summer, wildfires have caused evacuations across Canada and recently forced thousands of people to flee their homes in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Some of the biggest impacts are being felt in the Prairies. In Manitoba, authorities recently issued evacuation orders for 15,000 people, mostly in the province’s north. Many evacuees are brought to larger cities like Winnipeg, overwhelming hotels and emergency housing.

In Canada, climate-driven migration is often imagined as a distant threat that affects others in the world. But these evacuations foreshadow a future where internal displacement becomes a regular feature of Canadian life — and where cities must rethink how they plan for disruption.

Events like the 88,000-person evacuation from Fort McMurray, Alta. in 2016 and the destruction of Lytton, B.C. in 2021 show how fast rural populations can be displaced.

Manitoba’s evacuations are among largest in recent memory, and many evacuated communities are remote and poorly connected to infrastructure. For them, evacuation may soon become an annual reality.

At the University of Hong Kong’s District Development Unit research lab (DDU), we develop architectural and urban strategies for rapidly urbanising regions in the Global South, where settlements are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. We’ve seen how post-disaster migration reshapes cities. These shifts are predictable in places where infrastructure and governance haven’t kept pace with climate volatility.

Rural-to-urban climate migration

Across Canada, services and infrastructure are already under stress. Housing is increasingly unaffordable, including in rural areas. Many rural regions, especially those with large Indigenous populations, struggle to access basic services.

Though these areas are home to 18 per cent of the population, they are served by only eight per cent of Canada’s physicians. More than one quarter of rural school districts report closures or consolidations due to underfunding. These structural weaknesses form the backdrop to a slow-moving crisis — one that climate events are accelerating.

Elsewhere in the world, disasters regularly drive rural-to-urban migration and permanent urban change. In countries like Nepal and the Philippines — where our lab works — these movements are often rapid, informal and far beyond the scope of traditional planning.

In Kathmandu, the 2015 earthquake struck a city already marked by informal housing and fragile services. It accelerated a haphazard urban transformation characterized by uncontrolled sprawl, unsafe informal construction and overstretched infrastructure.

In the Philippines, typhoon recovery is often driven by necessity, with residents rebuilding informally. This results in growing slums and increasing vulnerability to future disasters.

These dynamics create new urban landscapes. In some cases, local governments are taking the lead, for example, by establishing local evacuation centres in the Philippines.

Elsewhere, informal encampments, home extensions and land occupations take hold. These are responses that reflect not only survival, but governance: provisional infrastructures are built through necessity, negotiation and collective care.

Canada’s climate urbanism

Canada is not exempt from these dynamics. When disaster strikes, evacuees often seek refuge in cities, where better public infrastructure offers some stability. As climate change fuels ever-larger wildfires, this trend will grow, with smaller urban centres absorbing more people fleeing climate-stressed regions.

Yet policy remains far behind. There is no national framework for climate-induced displacement. Canada’s immigration and housing policies have no category for internal climate migration. Disaster response remains reactive, coordinated mainly by municipalities and provinces through short-term tools like 211 or temporary shelters.

Interjurisdictional planning is minimal. Municipal climate plans rarely anticipate population surges or extended pressure on housing. Displacement is still treated as an occasional event, not as an enduring part of Canadian urban life.

Canada must begin to learn from places already living this future.

In Taiwan, civic centres double as emergency shelters, equipped with backup power, water tanks and seismic isolation systems. In Japan, disaster-prevention parks embed solar lighting, cooking stations and toilets into public green spaces.

And in Mongolia, our lab has developed incremental urban strategies for Ulaanbaatar’s ger districts — clustering growth, infrastructure and housing to adapt to rapid, uncertain settlement patterns.

These examples reflect a model of urbanism in which emergency response and long-term development are not separate, but part of a continuous, negotiated process.

What Canada can do

Canada’s geography, governance and urban forms demand their own set of protocols and prototypes. While lessons from elsewhere can guide us, they cannot be copied wholesale.

This means it is vital to develop a national framework for internal climate migration that integrates climate displacement into the National Housing Strategy.

All orders of governments should focus of developing multi-use resilience infrastructure, such as community centres and schools equipped for emergency response, and advancing adaptive housing policies that can expand or contract with demand.

Canada once helped shape global thinking on the transformation of urban areas. The 1976 United Nations Habitat Conference in Vancouver, catalyzed by the efforts of architects and planners, called for new models of settlement and development grounded in equity, participation and awareness of our planet’s limits.

Nearly 50 years later, that unfinished legacy has a new urgency.

Today, climate displacement calls for a shift in how architects engage with the built environment — moving toward coordinated action with communities, policymakers and allied fields, and embracing models of practice that move beyond the traditional role of service provider — to actively initiate change.

Architects must engage not only with buildings, but with the frameworks that govern land, infrastructure and migration itself. This means challenging the professional neutrality that too often aligns design with extractive systems, and instead welcoming practices capable of working across institutions, jurisdictions and communities.

A national summit could mark the beginning of this shift by creating a forum to discuss climate migration and design the tools, policies and partnerships that will shape its outcomes.

The question is not whether climate movement will occur, but whether we will be prepared to meet it with intention, care and foresight.

Any proceeds from the DDU are reinvested in the research lab based at the University of Hong Kong.

– ref. Canadian cities are unprepared for climate-driven migration — here’s what they can do – https://theconversation.com/canadian-cities-are-unprepared-for-climate-driven-migration-heres-what-they-can-do-262490

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Stephanie Bogue Kerr, Adjunct professor, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Addiction is a widespread health issue that will affect about one in five Canadians over their lifetimes. For example, addiction to opioids has led to opioid and overdose crises in many cities, which has brought the social question of addiction to the forefront.

Treating addiction can be challenging, because different approaches work for different people. Some provinces are considering forced treatments, doubling down on approaches that have shown limited success.

As social work researchers in addiction and sport, we believe it is time to consider alternative approaches.

On the surface, overcoming addiction may appear as simple as choosing not to sip, smoke or snort a substance. However, it is more complex than that. Addiction is a relationship with a substance. Seen this way, recovery can be understood as a process of learning to move forward from the relationship, which requires living differently without it.

Research suggests exercise might help with recovery from addiction. It is a substance-free pleasure that might boost mood, and help alleviate cravings and mental health symptoms, which could protect against relapse. Even though there are running groups for people in recovery, particularly in the United States, most research has been done on treadmills in clinics during addiction treatment. This leaves many questions about how people use running in their recovery processes over time, who benefits, and why.

We adopted a research approach that we hoped would provide context. We wanted to understand how running helped people make the transition from using drugs or alcohol to a life without them. For example:

• How did running experiences build up over time to the point where these came to replace drugs or alcohol?
• How did sensations experienced by the person (heartbeat, breathing) and the environment (city noises, nature sounds) shape the relationship to running and to the body?
• What was the importance of community, gear, goals, and races?

We ran with 11 people who had lived with addiction and had used running in their recovery, talking to them about their experiences. Participants were adults in their mid-30s to mid-50s, who self-identified as having been addicted to a substance and had been engaged in a recovery process for three or more years. Most identified alcohol as their main substance.

We conducted two running interviews with each person, in and around Metropolitan Vancouver, in places where they regularly ran.

Non-linear process

The results show that lives organized around drugs or alcohol were slowly organized by running.

At first, most participants were motivated by weight-loss goals, not recovery. They continued taking substances while they trained for races, sometimes having a quick drink before setting out on a long run.

As goals were met, runs became longer and faster. New challenges motivated structured training, better nutrition and sleep, and substance use slowly faded as life became increasingly organized around running.

Many policies and programs aim for abstinence, and it is not unusual for people to be kicked out of treatment because they relapsed, which is a known symptom of addiction. In running, participants found a way to ease into change, finding hope in glimpses of the life it offered. Their processes suggest abstinence was not necessary for running to have psychosocial benefits.

Community

Addiction often strains relationships with friends and family, so it can be a lonely experience. This is compounded by the stigma of addiction, which can make it difficult to access treatment. Alone with your thoughts, it is hard to imagine another life is possible. This is another complication of addiction. Soothing loneliness is an important part of recovery, but being with others can be very vulnerable when someone feels fragile.

In this study, the malleability of running was important. Since it can be practised alone or in groups, participants could pace their involvement with the run community. Through light conversations about running shoes, participants experimented and practised at building new friendships.

These discussions and relationships deepened over time through longer and longer runs. Most participants had become active members of the run community, participating not only in group training, but also taking on roles in race operations, volunteering and coaching.

Run groups are widely available and open to anyone with a will to run. Perhaps most importantly, they do not carry the stigma of addiction, but rather the social values associated with discipline and hard work.

Childhood sport

Interestingly, all participants had childhood experiences of sport that had been interrupted during adolescence or young adulthood.

Being in a state of addiction meant the participants’ physical sensations of their own bodies were preoccupied with the presence or absence of the substance. At times though, participants recalled the joy of movement that they had previously known and were motivated to find it again. This suggests that running may be a particularly effective intervention for those with childhood experiences of sport.

For participants of our study, recovery started from the body. The organizational structure that running provided, complete with tangible goals and a community to support their achievements, made it possible for participants to envision a new life before they chose to change their use of substances.

Running instilled within them hope for a better life, which they embraced with a resounding enthusiasm that echoed the cheers at the finish line.

Stephanie Bogue Kerr receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Nicolas Moreau 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. Running is a substance-free pleasure that supports addiction recovery – https://theconversation.com/running-is-a-substance-free-pleasure-that-supports-addiction-recovery-261918

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Catherine Frost, Professor of Political Science, McMaster University

Canada and the United Kingdom have said they will recognize Palestinian statehood during the United Nations General Assembly in September, provided certain conditions are met.

Canada’s position is premised on seeing political and military reform from the Palestinian Authority, the governing body responsible for the autonomous Palestinian territories.

The U.K., responding to a severe food crisis in Gaza, said it would extend recognition unless the Israeli government agrees to a ceasefire, takes steps to “end the appalling situation in Gaza” and commits to a “long-term, sustainable peace.”

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These cautious, conditional endorsements reflect the workings of a dated international system that governs the birth of states. France, by contrast, has opted to recognize Palestine without conditions. What explains these different approaches?

Officially, state recognition is governed by international law. In practice, it is subject to a complex mix of national, global and moral considerations.

This process grants existing states significant discretion in recognizing new ones, with the expectation that such decisions serve international peace. But this can result in an uneven statehood process for aspiring nations.

How states are born

The 1933 Montevideo Convention outlines the core criteria for statehood recognition: a permanent population, control over a defined territory, a functioning government and the capacity to open relations with other states.

When recognition is given on this basis, it is essentially acknowledging that these qualities are already in place. Yet these requirements are not iron clad, and some experts have argued that recognition can also be extended on humanitarian or moral grounds, such as in response to human rights violations.

In such cases, recognition becomes more of a statement that a state should have the opportunity to exist, rather than a confirmation that it already does. The classic case would be a group facing colonial domination. The American colonies appealed to this principle in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, for example.

Because individual states decide when such exceptions apply, these measures provide uncertain relief for aspiring nations.

As a final step, new states can apply for membership in the UN. This application is first considered by the UN Security Council. If nine states agree, and none of the council’s permanent members object, the application continues to the UN General Assembly for approval.

But a single veto from any of the five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the United States — can paralyze statehood at the start. In 2024, for example, the U.S. vetoed Palestine’s request for full UN membership.

Statehood in waiting

To date, 147 of 193 states in the United Nations recognize Palestinian statehood. Palestine has also had special observer status at the UN since 2012, and before that it had limited standing before international courts typically reserved for states.

But Palestine is not the only instance where the international system has struggled to address atypical or contested statehood.

After a wave of recognitions in post-colonial Africa and post-Second World War Europe, the recognition of new states slowed to a crawl toward the end of the 20th century. This trend suggests there is a conservative quality to the recognition system.

Wary of rewarding violent separatism, international bodies have traditionally favoured negotiated solutions for state birth, including upholding a parent-state veto over any independence efforts.

This principle was most clearly articulated by the Canadian Supreme Court in a 1998 advisory opinion. It warned that an independent Québec, without first agreeing on terms of exit with the rest of Canada, was unlikely to gain international recognition.

There is wisdom to this approach, but such rules cannot prevent political breakdown in every case. A growing number of unrecognized states have left millions stranded in political limbo.

This includes Somaliland, which split from Somalia in 1991 and has been operating as a de facto state ever since without receiving formal recognition from any other country.

Palestine is not an instance of state breakup, but rather an unresolved case of colonization and occupation. Decades of negotiations with Israel, the occupying power, have failed. Yet formal statehood has still proven elusive. A cumbersome recognition system may be helping to keep the problem alive.

Cracks in the system

Even when recognition occurs, the results can be disappointing.

South Sudan, the UN’s newest member, was universally recognized in 2011 under close UN supervision and with the consent of its parent state, Sudan. Yet it quickly descended into civil war — a conflict it has yet to fully emerged from.

Kosovo was recognized by states like the U.S. and Canada when it declared independence in 2008 following the breakup of Yugoslavia, but it still has fewer recognitions than Palestine.

A handful of states like Togo and Sierra Leone even began de-recognizing it under pressure from Kosovo’s one-time parent state, Serbia, although there is a broadly accepted principle that once a state is recognized, barring any complete disaster, it should remain recognized.

Meanwhile, rising sea levels threaten to leave some island states like Tuvalu without the territorial requirements for normal statehood. The International Court of Justice has signalled the statehood of such nations should survive, but has not said how.

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These examples suggest the current state recognition system is ill equipped to face today’s changing world.

Allowing established states to set the rules for who qualifies is unlikely to solve these current problems. While setting special terms for new entrants may have value in the short term, the longer term need is for a more fair and transparent system.

Experts are working on ways to make the system more inclusive for aspiring states and unrepresented peoples, including by opening up access to diplomatic venues. If successful, these measures could change the way future states are born.

Catherine Frost receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Canada and the U.K.’s conditional recognition of Palestine reveal the uneven rules of statehood – https://theconversation.com/canada-and-the-u-k-s-conditional-recognition-of-palestine-reveal-the-uneven-rules-of-statehood-262418

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jerit Leo Mitchell, Physics PhD Candidate, University of Regina

Despite the fact that much of the current research in paleontology focuses on trying to find traces of organic remains in fossils, dinosaur DNA has unfortunately never been recovered.

A lot of what we know about dinosaurs comes from preserved bones and teeth that are dug out of the ground. These hard tissues alone, however, are limited in the information they provide.

Soft tissues are extremely rare in the fossil record, but can help provide a much more life-like reconstruction of ancient life. This includes things like muscles and ligaments, pigments or even skin (like scales or feathers), which contain detailed information on how dinosaurs lived and what they looked like.

Another interesting soft tissue that can be found in bones are blood vessels. My research team and I discovered blood vessels preserved in a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, and our findings were recently published in Scientific Reports.

As an undergraduate physics student at the University of Regina, I joined a research team using particle accelerators to study fossils. There, I first discovered blood vessels in a bone from a T. rex using advanced 3D models. It’s been nearly six years since that moment; I am now working on my PhD where I use my background in physics to advance analysis techniques in fossil research.

An extraordinary specimen

The vessels were found in a remarkable T. rex specimen nicknamed Scotty. Held in the Royal Saskatchewan Museum’s collection in Canada, Scotty is the largest T. rex ever unearthed. The fossil also remains one of the most complete specimens of T. rex.

Scotty appeared to have had a rough life 66 million years ago; many of the recovered bones appeared to have injuries, possibly due to a fight with another dinosaur, or disease. One bone in particular, a section of rib, features a large partially healed fracture.

In general, after bones experience a traumatic event like a fracture, there is a huge increase in the activity of blood vessels in the affected area as part of the healing process. We believe this is what was found in Scotty’s rib: an extensive network of mineralized vessels that we were able to examine using reconstructed 3D models.

Revolutionizing paleontology research

When analyzing fossil bones, there are two main challenges. The first is how to examine the interior of the bones without damaging the fossil. And second, the bones are very large and can be quite dense due to the fossilization process, where minerals replace and fill in original organic materials.

At first, we thought we could perform an computed topography (CT) scan of the bone, similar to what is used for medical purposes, which allows imaging of bones without damaging them. While this solves the first problem, the second problem means that a conventional medical CT machine is not nearly powerful enough to penetrate the dense bone.

For our examination, we used synchrotron light, special high-intensity x-rays. These are produced at select particle accelerator labs, and allow us to investigate microstructures such as blood vessels in the bone with ease.

Synchrotron x-rays can also be useful for chemical analysis. We found the vessels were preserved as iron-rich mineralized casts, a common form of fossilization, but in two distinct layers. This layering is due to the complicated environmental history that led to the exceptional preservation seen in Scotty’s rib.

Written in blood vessels

By analyzing blood vessels produced by an incompletely healed fracture, we can hopefully learn how T. rex healed, helping speculation on how Scotty was able to survive after sustaining injuries. This could lead to evolutionary information comparing the vessel structures seen in Scotty to other dinosaur species, as well as modern relatives to dinosaurs like birds.

The results may also help future fossil exploration by guiding scientists to target bones that show signs of injury or disease, potentially increasing the chances of discovering more vessels or other types of preserved soft tissues.

With cross-disciplinary research and novel applications of advanced technologies, there is so much potential to recreate the past lives of dinosaurs like never before.

Jerit Leo Mitchell receives funding from Mitacs Accelerate and the Sylvia Fedoruk Centre for Nuclear Innovation.

– ref. I’m a physicist who studies fossils, and I recently discovered preserved blood vessels in the world’s largest T. rex – https://theconversation.com/im-a-physicist-who-studies-fossils-and-i-recently-discovered-preserved-blood-vessels-in-the-worlds-largest-t-rex-261786

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Scott Mills, PhD Candidate, Kinesiology and Health Studies, University of Regina

Creatine supplementation is booming among those seeking greater muscle size and performance.

Although creatine is certainly not a new discovery, with research dating back to the 1830s, its popularity and sales have continued to grow, and have expanded beyond bodybuilders and athletes to clinical applications and benefits beyond muscle performance.

Today, creatine stands as one of the most researched supplements, and new findings continue to support its use for consistent and measurable results in bodybuilding, fitness and overall health.

While creatine is naturally found in foods like red meat and seafood, and also produced naturally in the body, supplementation has surged in popularity, especially among young men.

This growth in popularity is largely due to young men’s desire to increase muscle size and muscle strength. Several meta-analyses have looked at the effects of creatine supplementation during resistance training on properties of muscle, and support its use and effectiveness when combined with resistance training.

Simply put, creatine can help maintain energy levels, especially during short-duration, high-intensity exercise like weight training.

Creatine’s role in the body

From a physiological perspective, once in the body, the majority of creatine is stored in the muscle as phosphocreatine (PCr). In this form, it can help maintain energy levels through the maintenance of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the body’s primary energy currency.

Because creatine supplementation increases intramuscular levels of creatine, it may enable resistance training at a higher intensity and for longer durations, leading to greater gains in the gym.

Although creatine’s impact on muscle performance may be more well known, it does not paint the whole picture. Research is revealing creatine’s positive impact outside the muscular system, showing positive effects on the storage and metabolism of glucose, blood-flow dynamics, anti-inflammatory effects and positive benefits for cognition and brain function, to name a few.

Dosage and safety

From a research perspective, dosage recommendations for men can vary, but typically either five grams of creatine daily, or a customized dosage based on bodyweight of (0.1 grams per kilogram per day) have been shown to be well-tolerated and effective for increasing muscle performance.

From a food intake perspective, to consume about five grams of creatine in the diet, an individual would have to consume about 1.15 kilograms of beef, or about a kilogram of pork, for example. This means even a diet that is high in creatine-containing foods may not be enough to maximize its benefits.

The high calorie content of eating enough of these foods to reach the target creatine intake makes supplementation a practical and appealing option, both for ease of consumption and calorie considerations.

Also, from a cost perspective, at about $0.50 per serving, it’s an easy and cost-effective strategy to reach creatine intake goals. With new forms of creatine seemingly being released all the time (capsules, gummies and flavoured powders), it makes it easy to maintain intake.

Regarding the safety of creatine supplementation, a position stand paper by the International Society of Sports Nutrition concluded that creatine supplementation poses no greater adverse effects in healthy individuals compared to placebo, even with higher dosages.

With that being said, creatine hasn’t been immune to its share of negative claims. Anecdotally, creatine may have some whispers of undesirable side-effects; however, research looking at common myths and misconceptions of creatine (including concerns about water retention, hair loss and dehydration) have largely removed many of the fears.

Resistance training is key

It’s important to note that while creatine consumption on its own may still show some positive effects, it is largely creatine consumption in combination with resistance training that leads to benefits.

Resistance training can increase measures of muscle growth and performance (muscle power, muscle strength and muscle endurance) and it’s the combination of creatine with resistance training that will maximize its effects. So resistance training is a paramount component to the positive effects of creatine.

Of course, creatine is not an essential nutrient. Individuals can see improvements in muscle growth and muscle performance while focusing on the intake of high-quality and nutrient-rich foods, a well-designed individualized resistance training program, combined with adequate high-quality sleep and proper stress management without the need to supplement creatine.

A healthy lifestyle is the foundation of well-being, including the groundwork for effectively building muscle.

Creatine supplementation has made its way into the hands of those seeking the secret to greater muscle size and performance. It is well researched and widely accepted, and it continues to increase in popularity due to the positive effects when paired with a solid resistance training program, its safe risk profile when consumed at evidence-based dosages and its low-cost.

While creatine supplementation is not essential, it may be a practical, affordable and effective choice for those seeking muscle growth benefits and beyond.

Scott Mills 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 creatine boom: Trends and facts about supplements and use – https://theconversation.com/the-creatine-boom-trends-and-facts-about-supplements-and-use-261817

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Anne-Marie Nicol, Associate Professor, Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University

In recent decades, the number and severity of wildfires across Canada has increased due to climate change and a more wildfire-prone landscape.

While wildfires can wreak havoc in their immediate area, wildfire smoke can travel thousands of kilometres, putting millions more people at risk from the adverse impacts.

Research on wildfire smoke and health shows that smoke is more than just an irritant. It is increasingly clear that older adults, pregnant people and young children face higher risks to their health, including premature birth, hospitalization and premature death.

One way to reduce smoke exposure is to stay indoors and create a “clean air shelter” by closing the doors, windows and using an air cleaner to remove smoke and other particles from the air.

However, that is easier said than done for many people. While effective, store-bought air cleaners can be expensive and require pricey replacement filters.

In addition, many homes don’t have air conditioners and easily trap heat. Closing all windows means reducing ventilation, and can make hot summer days even more unpleasant. Another option, popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the idea of building your own air cleaner, using easily sourced parts from local hardware stores.

Do-it-yourself air cleaners

In British Columbia, we started The BREATHE Project to study the impacts of wildfires and distribute information about DIY air cleaners.

A 2023 article by the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health compiled evidence on the effectiveness of do-it-yourself (DIY) air cleaners as an alternative to store-bought units.

The results showed that DIY air cleaners are not only more affordable and accessible, but are equally as effective, as long as the correct parts are used and the room size is taken into consideration.

This includes the use of a MERV-13 filter, a minimum 75-watt box fan, duct tape and a shroud cover on the front corners of the fan. One unit can clean a small room, and multiple units can be used for larger spaces.

DIY air cleaners also help reduce other air contaminants including allergens, mold spores, emissions from woodstoves, respiratory pathogens, dust, and traffic related air pollutants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found similar results in their analysis of DIY air cleaners and determined that the units are safe to use as built.

The BREATHE Project

Our team at Simon Fraser University partnered with the BC Lung Foundation to share this knowledge about cleaner indoor air with communities across British Columbia.

In 2023, we launched a pilot project in the Lower Mainland to find out if workshops about making DIY air cleaners could be feasible. These workshops were held in community centers, libraries, seniors’ centers and neighbourhood houses, with the average participant being over 70 years old and with at least one medical condition.

We were surprised to find that our workshops were fully booked within days of advertising, and that news of our project was quickly spreading by word of mouth within communities.

We used participant feedback to fine-tune our materials and created instructional videos, and a train-the-trainer manual to guide other organizations on how to host similar workshops.

In 2024, we took the project into B.C.’s Interior Health Authority region, where fires were more frequent and more severe.

We named our project BREATHE: Building Resilience to Emerging Airborne Threats and Heat Events and have since added additional resources for communities grappling with the co-exposure of wildfire smoke and extreme heat.

BREATHE has now partnered with all of B.C.’s health authorities. We have hosted over 90 workshops so far this year, many in northern, rural and remote regions. Workshops have been held in the Cowichan Valley, Lower Mainland, Central Okanagan, the Kootenays and the Northern Rockies.

The project has helped build over 2,500 air cleaners and brought important information about community resilience to people directly impacted by these exposures.

BREATHE also serves as a launchpad for research on the impacts of wildfire smoke on at-risk populations across the province.

Everyone can take steps to protect their health when it is smoky outside. Our resources, including our train-the-Trainer guides and step-by-step videos are free and available on our website. If you are interested in hosting your own workshops, or seeking a collaboration, please reach out through our website.

Anne-Marie Nicol is a Knowledge Mobilization Specialist at the BC Centre for Disease Control.

Prem Gundarah 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. DIY air cleaners are an easy and cost-effective way to help ventilate homes during wildfires – https://theconversation.com/diy-air-cleaners-are-an-easy-and-cost-effective-way-to-help-ventilate-homes-during-wildfires-261336

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Afsoon Soudi, Assistant Professor, RTA school of Media, Toronto Metropolitan University

Many writers, actors and other creatives are currently experiencing a small wave of panic about artificial intelligence (AI) taking over their jobs.

Generative AI (GenAI) is making machine learning and creative work more accessible to everyone. But for industry professionals, the rise of generative AI can signal the destruction of creative jobs.

Yet, according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum, AI will create more jobs in the next five years than it will displace.

We are four scholars in different creative industries hoping to explore educational approaches to AI. We want to help prepare the next generation to innovate within human-AI collaborative frameworks. To do this, we have begun to confer with other creative professionals through an online survey.

What if AI can actually support human creativity and productivity? Can we use these technologies to our advantage? What we can expect for the future?

We believe creative professionals can harness new technologies while still upholding their foundational creative and ethical principles.

How AI is being used in creative sectors

AI is becoming deeply embedded within the operational workflows of creative industries, from a nascent concept to an integrated reality.

Media and creative workers have gone on strike to protest the use of AI, sparking important conversations. For example, Screenwriters in Hollywood and the Writers’ Union of Canada have raised concerns and helped shape new policies around AI and creative work.

Within media production, large language models (LLMs) can facilitate the rapid prototyping of narrative concepts, scripts and audiovisual materials, while automated editing platforms and AI-driven visual effects create massive efficiency gains in post-production. This technological integration allows creators to shift their focus from laborious manual tasks to higher-level creative refinement.

In graphic communication and packaging, AI and machine learning are acknowledged drivers of change. AI can enhance processes from ideation to production logistics like sorting and personalized web-to-print platforms. In the realm of Digital Asset Management, AI is instrumental in improving asset discoverability and utility through automated metadata tagging and sophisticated image recognition.

Journalism is also undergoing a significant transformation. AI has been used for a while now to analyze large datasets for investigative reporting, but LLMs now routinely streamline article summarization. More advanced applications are emerging: AI systems are designed to identify news values and auto-generate articles from live events. Major news organizations like the Financial Times and The New York Times are already deploying AI tools in their newsrooms.

Ethical challenges

The integration of AI is not without considerable challenges.

The generation of fabricated information and non-existent sources are documented failures. These examples highlight critical issues with accuracy and reliability.

Many people have said they do not fully understand the extent to which AI is incorporated into their standard software. This disparity between deployment and user consciousness underscores the subtle yet pervasive nature of AI’s integration. This points to an urgent need for greater transparency and digital literacy.

Bias and intellectual property

Models trained on vast, uncurated internet data often replicate and amplify existing societal biases. For example, studies demonstrate persistent issues such as anti-Muslim bias in LLMs.

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Read more:
Artificial intelligence can discriminate on the basis of race and gender, and also age

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At the same time, urgent ethical and legal questions regarding intellectual property have emerged. The training of LLMs on copyrighted content without compensation has created significant friction. For example, the pending New York Times litigation against OpenAI highlights unresolved issues of fair use and remuneration for creative work.

Conversely, GenAI demonstrates considerable potential to democratize creative production. These tools, by lowering technical barriers and automating complex processes, can provide access to individuals and groups historically excluded from creative fields due to resource or educational constraints.

Specific applications are already enhancing media accessibility, such as AI-powered tools that automatically generate alt text for images and subtitles for video content.

Navigating this dual-use landscape necessitates the adoption of robust governance frameworks. Fostering industry-wide equity, diversity and innovation education is essential to mitigate risks while harnessing GenAI’s potential for an inclusive creative ecosystem.

Labour and skill evolution

Technological revolutions have historically catalyzed significant transformations in creative labour markets and GenAI represents the latest disruptive force.

The proliferation of GenAI has once again reshaped the creative industries, demanding new professional competencies.

Human creativity and intervention are indispensable, providing cultural and contextual accuracy. Humans must also review AI-generated content for quality and inclusivity.

In response to this shift, higher education institutions need to recalibrate curricula from tool-specific training towards fostering curiosity, ethical reasoning and AI literacy.

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. Is AI coming for your creative job? Maybe not – with some human intervention – https://theconversation.com/is-ai-coming-for-your-creative-job-maybe-not-with-some-human-intervention-252796

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Tamara de Szegheo Lang, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Film and Media, Queen’s University, Ontario

“If coming out of the closet was really as much fun as it is for the sexually adventurous youths in Better Than Chocolate, then everybody would be doing it, even straight people.”

So wrote film critic Bruce Kirkland in his 1999 review of the lesbian romantic comedy by Canadian filmmaker Anne Wheeler.

Kirkland pointed out that real life for queer and trans community members was “tougher, harsher and nastier” than portrayed in the 90-minute romp, but also wrote: “To hell with reality, at least for an hour-and-a-half. This movie is a little treasure and offers a lot of pleasure.”

The endearing rom-com won audience choice awards at a number of gay and lesbian film festivals, including in its hometown of Vancouver.

Today, more than a quarter century later, with hate crimes against queer and trans people on the rise and legal protections, especially in the United States, being threatened or ripped away, the film’s lens on romance — and the joy, safety and complications of being in community — may resonate with contemporary viewers and offer a brief reprieve from the heaviness of the political fight.

Like many Canadian lesbian-driven films from the 1990s, it also serves as an example of filmmakers working in queer communities to highlight once-censored voices, and reflects the sheer ingenuity and creative force of community collaboration in this moment — something that has been underrepresented in broader histories of queer and Canadian national cinema.

Whirlwind romance

In Better Than Chocolate, bookstore employee Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) and nomadic artist Kim (Christina Cox) start a whirlwind romance, moving in together within a matter of hours (echoing the classic U-Haul lesbian stereotype).

Their love story is complicated by the arrival of Maggie’s mother Lila (Wendy Crewson), a judgmental woman fresh off a divorce who doesn’t know her daughter is a lesbian. Comedic chaos ensues as the two young lovebirds navigate romantic, familial and community conflicts, all of which are neatly wrapped up by the end.

Though Better Than Chocolate may ultimately be a feel-good comedy, the film captures a community under attack from outside and within.

Skinheads harass Maggie and Kim, culminating in violence. Judy (Peter Outerbridge) is accosted for being transgender and is consistently misgendered by other lesbians.

The Canadian Border Services Agency purposefully targets neurotic bookstore owner, Frances (played by actor, author, playwright and Canadian lesbian icon Ann-Marie Macdonald), for selling queer literature.

Lesbian-centred 90s film

Better Than Chocolate is only one in a wave of lesbian-centred 90s films made in Canada. In this decade, creatives produced at least 12 narrative feature-length lesbian-centred films, several documentaries and over 400 short films.

Some echo Better Than Chocolate’s romantic tone, but the wave includes a diversity of genres – including erotic thrillers, family dramas and experimental dreamscapes.

Some of these films are well-recognized in the Canadian film canon, including Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996) and Patricia Rozema’s When Night is Falling (1995), while others have been largely forgotten and prove hard to access today, like Patricia Rivera Spencer’s Dreamers of the Day (1990) and Jeanne Crépeau’s Revoir Julie (1998).

Ecosystem behind lesbian Canadian film

Canadian economic, social and artistic contexts offered a vital creative ecosystem that facilitated such a vibrant era of lesbian-driven cinema.

Feminist filmmaking collectives in the 1970s — like Women in Focus (Vancouver), intervisions/ARC (Toronto) and Reel Life (Halifax) — alongside the launch of Studio D at the National Film Board of Canada in 1974 — provided dedicated space for training talent and for producing films about women’s issues.

Wheeler came up through Studio D, co-directing the studio’s first film in 1975.

Canadian artists also had access to several funding sources, including federal, provincial and local arts councils. Beginning in the late 80s, such funding sources were soliciting more diverse content, a result of community activism driven by marginalized artists.

Importantly, a growing network of queer film festivals aided the development of an invested audience willing to pay to watch queer stories.

From 1985 to 2000, at least 11 annual queer festivals were founded in Canada, including Reel Pride (Winnipeg, 1985); Out on Screen (Vancouver, 1988); image+nation (Montréal, 1989); London Lesbian Film Festival (London, 1991); and Inside Out (Toronto, 1991).

With increasing venues to screen queer work and growing audiences came the demand for more films.

A Vancouver lesbian story

Alongside the broader Canadian context, local contexts also encouraged more filmmakers to tell lesbian stories.

Wheeler had long been committed to making films about lesser-represented Western Canada. While most of her films were set in Alberta, Better Than Chocolate moved her focus to Vancouver and its local queer politics.

The dramatic subplot between bookstore owner Frances and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is a clear reference to the then-ongoing Supreme Court of Canada case involving Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver.

Little Sister’s, a queer bookstore, had been targeted for years by the CBSA, which would delay shipments while confiscating and sometimes damaging materials that it considered obscene.

The film publicized the homophobia of the CBSA, with Frances comedically demanding to know why books such as Little Red Riding Hood had been confiscated.

As we discovered in our archival research, Janine Fuller, the manager of Little Sister’s, provided feedback on an early draft of the screenplay. A flyer from the film’s production company was also used to raise the visibility of the court case.

Local community ties

The film’s community ties extended further. As noted in archival documents and the film’s press package, Canadian trans activist and performance artist Star Maris inspired the filmmakers when crafting the character of Judy. Her song, “I’m Not a Fucking Drag Queen,” was solicited for use within the film.

Vancouver’s lesbian community was invited to participate as extras in a bar scene, with an advertisement stating, “This is an excellent opportunity to meet new friends, party with old ones, have much fun being in a movie.”

Finally, as Anne Wheeler told Eye Weekly in 1999: “Right from the development phase on, we had a group of 12 young lesbian women whom we consulted with and they told us very specifically what they did and didn’t want to see. … So we set out very intentionally to break the mould and dispose of the old perceptions about gay women.”

In returning to Better Than Chocolate and other films, queer audiences may find entertaining gems, but may also be reminded of the power of survival of queer communities.

Better Than Chocolate is now available on CTV. Don’t stop there! In addition to films named above, check out these other Canadian lesbian-centred 90s feature films.

Tokyo Cowboy (1994)

Skin Deep (1994)

Devotion (1995)

Cat Swallows Parakeet and Speaks (1996)

High Art (1998)

2 Seconds (1998)

Emporte-Moi (1999)

Tamara de Szegheo Lang receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
for the project “Bodies on Fire: Rekindling Canada’s Decade of Lesbian-Driven Filmmaking.”

Dan Vena receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for the project “Bodies on Fire: Rekindling Canada’s Decade of Lesbian-Driven Filmmaking.”

– ref. ‘Better Than Chocolate’ highlights lost 90s decade of lesbian Canadian cinema – https://theconversation.com/better-than-chocolate-highlights-lost-90s-decade-of-lesbian-canadian-cinema-259494