Category: The Conversation – Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Philippe Le Billon, Professor, Geography Department and School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, University of British Columbia

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has dubbed COP30 the forest COP. Taking place in Belém, a large urban centre in the Amazon, this choice signals a welcome shift from the capital cities of petro-states to the heart of the world’s most bio-diverse rainforest.

Yet, even as Belém hosts global climate negotiators, the Amazon and its coastline are under renewed pressure. While the spotlight is on protecting trees, new oil concessions are being awarded to keep rigs pumping.

On Nov. 11, dozens of Indigenous protesters forced their way into the COP30 venue demanding an end to industrial development in the Amazon. Indigenous leaders attending COP30 are demanding more say in how forests are managed.

Amid this tension, a new financial initiative has emerged as the potential solution: the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). Managed by the World Bank as a multilateral trust fund, it would mobilize US$125 billion from public and private investors to reward forested countries for keeping their forests standing — forever.

The pitch is seductive — save forests, earn profits and mitigate climate change all at once. But the proposal raises two questions that demand scrutiny: Will this scheme actually make a major difference for the climate, and how will it impact communities who live in forests?

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Read more:
From the Amazon, Indigenous Peoples offer new compass to navigate climate change

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Protecting trees

The first question is easier to tackle. Yes, tropical forests store immense amounts of carbon so protecting them is vital. But this contribution is largely contingent on keeping global temperature below 2 C and is dwarfed by the emissions risked if fossil fuels buried beneath those same forests are extracted and burned.

Out of the 74 countries with TFFF-qualifying forests, 68 countries have fossil fuel deposits within them. In total, according to a study by the NGO Leave It In The Ground, there would be some 317 billion tonnes of potential carbon dioxide emissions from recoverable reserves and more than 4.6 trillion tonnes if all deposits were exploited.

Nearly all of it is concentrated in just three countries: China, India and Indonesia. To be truly effective, forest protection must come with a firm commitment: no fossil fuel extraction underneath.

To be equitable, a similar scheme must cover non-TFFF countries, and in particular those with boreal forests covering major fossil fuel deposits, namely in Canada and Russia.

That means prioritizing forests located above fossil fuel reserves and ensuring they remain completely off-limits to exploitation.

For this to happen, countries must make binding commitments, investors must accept lower-risk but longer-term returns and local communities must hold forest tenure rights that cannot be overridden by state ownership of subsoil resources. It’s a tall order — but without such a framework, the “forever forest” concept risks becoming just another limited climate solution.

The term forever forests evokes the advertising slogan of diamond company De Beers — “A Diamond is forever” — and reveals a similar logic: to turn nature into financial assets. A more fitting concept might be what fisheries economist Rashid Sumaila would call the infinity forest — a forest that, like fish stocks, is renewable when soundly managed as a common good.

Many of the world’s forests are not untouched wildernesses but co-created landscapes, shaped through millennia of Indigenous and local stewardship. The Amazon, for instance, is a complex social biome, nurtured through practices such as controlled burning, seed dispersal and farming.

While not all traditional practices are benign, archaeological and ecological evidence shows that many Indigenous and peasant communities have managed forests sustainably — often more effectively than state-led conservation programs and with major implications for biodiversity protection.

In fact, many studies show that biodiversity conservation is more effective in territories governed by Indigenous peoples than in state-managed protected areas.

A financial trap for forest communities

Beyond its likely ineffectiveness for the climate, the TFFF could also have devastating consequences for forest communities. Under Brazil’s current proposal, countries would receive around US$4 for every hectare of protected forest, with 80 cents trickling down to local communities.

But they would be fined US$400 per hectare for any deforestation. This creates a dangerous dynamic: states will crack down on small-scale forest use by local people while giving free rein to industries — such as oil — that generate far higher returns.

In effect, the scheme risks criminalizing traditional forest practices — from small-scale clearing to hunting or gathering — that have sustained these ecosystems for centuries.

As governments seek to avoid penalties, forest communities could face exclusion, forced resettlement or even violence, echoing a long history of displacement caused by “conservation” projects and carbon offset schemes such as REDD+.

Financializing the forest’s future

This brings us to the Indigenous and forest defenders who disrupted COP30 events on Nov. 11. Their protest highlighted the real danger behind the TFFF: the financialization of Indigenous territories.

The scheme does nothing to prevent oil and gas extraction beneath forest lands. What were once commons could become commodities promising investors lucrative returns.

In short, “forever forests” may deliver forever profits — not so much for the people who protect them as for those who exploit their value. This is, bluntly, a new form of green colonialism — a profitable appropriation of the forest’s future.

If the TFFF goes ahead, it must first grant some degree of self-government to Indigenous forest communities — as Colombia recently did — and explicitly prohibit fossil fuel extraction in protected forests.

Investors should pay a premium for forests covering fossil fuel reserves, and both state and community rights must be rebalanced to make no-go zones truly binding. In this way, “forever forests” can become territories of life — not assets of accumulation.

Ultimately, no financial mechanism will save the world’s forests unless it also saves the people who depend on them, and the carbon that must remain buried beneath.

The path to a livable planet runs not through markets or bonds, but through justice: recognition of forest community stewardship and a global commitment to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Philippe Le Billon receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. COP30: Governments must empower forest communities to keep fossil fuels underground – https://theconversation.com/cop30-governments-must-empower-forest-communities-to-keep-fossil-fuels-underground-269686

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Bonnie Campbell, Professeure émérite en économie politique. Département de science politique de l’Université du Québec à Montréal., Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Gold mining operations recently restarted at the Loulo-Gounkoto complex in western Mali after being shut down for several months. In January, the Malian government started blocking exports from the mine owned by Canada-based Barrick Mining (formerly called Barrick Gold).

The government blocked exports and took control of three tonnes of bullion following a dispute with Barrick Mining over alleged unpaid taxes.

This particular case is too complex to be discussed here. But disputes over revenue distribution raise important questions about how mineral-rich countries can benefit from their natural resources.

According to the International Monetary Fund, tax avoidance by multinational mining companies costs African countries between US$470 million and US$730 million per year in tax income.

Generating government revenue through natural resource taxation is critically important for sub-Saharan African countries seeking to improve infrastructure, health services and meet social development goals.

A variety of reasons explain why mineral-rich countries in sub-Saharan Africa are not profiting appropriately from their mineral wealth.

Power imbalances, unfavourable revenues

The Intergovernmental Forum on Mining and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have identified different obstacles to mining revenue collection including faulty legislation, abusive transfer pricing and other artificial profit-shifting.

In addition, fiscal incentives commonly provided to attract mining investment, such as significantly lowering tax and royalty rates, rarely prove to be worth the loss in government revenue.

These excessive concessions to foreign mining companies have led to widespread discontent, poverty and underdevelopment in Africa, despite abundant mineral wealth. This situation has been condemned by leaders across the continent.

In response, the African Union’s African Mining Vision and the policies it has inspired, notably the reform of mining codes, are attempts to ensure a more lasting contribution of the continent’s mineral resources.

Yet the power imbalances between foreign companies and African governments remain very much in place and shape negotiations around mining codes, contracts and practices.

While situations vary from country to country, sector to sector and site to site, research has sought to identify key obstacles to increased State mining revenue.

The unequal influence in negotiations that favours mining companies leads to numerous irregularities. Examples include prolonging stability clauses despite regulatory reforms and prioritizing mining contracts over broader national regulatory frameworks.

At the international level, African states are hindered from implementing policies that benefit local communities due to international trade regime practices, tariff import privileges and bilateral conventions that act as powerful deterrents.

Mali’s mining code

In Mali, the mining sector is a key part of the economy. In 2022, the sector contributed 9.2 per cent of GDP, 76.5 per cent of export revenue and 34.8 per cent of state revenue.

As is the case elsewhere on the continent, new Malian mining legislation aims to help rectify the legacy of environmental damage and disappointing mining revenue. Mali’s 2023 mining code reflects reforms to improve national benefits from the sector similar to measures in Tanzania, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Such reforms included increased state ownership requirements (typically 10-30 per cent), higher royalty and tax rates, local content and employment requirements, greater environmental and social responsibility provisions and enhanced community development obligations.

The 2023 code aims to strengthen Mali’s sovereignty over its resources and bring about a more equitable distribution of the benefits.

The fiscal regime has been reformed so that, among other measures, certain tax exemptions that mining companies received were abolished. Similarly, the new code puts an end to the fiscal concession of 25 per cent for a period of 15 years permitted by former codes. The new code introduces a royalty on production of 10 per cent for that exceeding the quantity projected.

In addition, several funds were created to respond to the needs of the sector and favour social inclusion.

Another important innovation is the law concerning local content in the mining sector. This law aims to encourage the participation of national enterprises and workers in the mining sector.

As occurs in other mineral-rich countries, Mali has faced strong pushback, particularly from the largest and most powerful companies. This has led to an escalation of conflict rather than negotiated solutions.

Significantly, several companies have reached agreements with the Malian government, such as Robex Resources. The U.K.-based Endeavour Mining has negotiated terms with the government to operate under the new mining code.

Two additional gold producers have also signed agreements to operate under the new mining code: Faboula Gold and Bagama Mining.

These projects, while less capital-intensive than others, illustrate the possibility of successful initiatives under the new code. They also provide important employment opportunities in rural areas.

Greater resource sovereignty

Some industry analysts have criticized mineral-rich countries for adopting a “resource nationalism” approach. However, research shows that well-managed, transparent and stable mining revenue in Mali and Senegal could help improve access to health care and social services.

Exercising greater sovereignty over natural resources to ensure the well-being of a country’s population might better be commended as responsible resource nationalism.

There are serious military and security threats facing Mali and its neighbours. By providing revenue and employment, the mining industry can play a key role in addressing these insecurities.

This role involves respecting national regulations and paying a fair share of tax revenue. Ultimately, the industry’s profitability is very much tied to the social stability of the country and the health, social and economic welfare of its people.

Bonnie Campbell has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the International Development Research Centre of Canada.

Moussa Doumbo 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. Why Africa’s mineral-rich countries are not reaping the rewards of their wealth – https://theconversation.com/why-africas-mineral-rich-countries-are-not-reaping-the-rewards-of-their-wealth-262424

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

Canada and Ontario are accelerating efforts to attract global investment and speed up approvals for new mining projects.

Ontario’s government has introduced new policies aimed at attracting investors and accelerate project timelines. Central to this strategy are laws like Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, and Bill 71, the Building More Mines Act.

The surge in global demand for “critical minerals” such as nickel, lithium and cobalt — essential inputs for electric vehicles and clean energy technologies — has positioned mining as a cornerstone of energy transition strategies. Northern Ontario, endowed with vast mineral resources, has become a focal point in Canada’s emerging green economy.

Yet this potential is shadowed by the legacy of “sacrifice zones” — regions where the environmental and social costs of mining have fallen heavily on Anishinaabe, Cree and Oji-Cree Nations and communities, while most benefits have accrued elsewhere.

How governments advance Indigenous inclusion, share prosperity with First Nations and create greater project certainty will depend on principles of respectful partnership, shared rewards and risks and long-term stewardship.

Environmental and Indigenous rights concerns

Canada’s accelerated approach to mining raises major concerns for both the environment and Indigenous rights.

The Hudson Bay Lowlands, for example, are one of the world’s largest carbon sinks and disturbances there could release vast amounts of greenhouse gases. Building mines, roads and energy lines in these sensitive ecosystems threatens biodiversity, water systems and the traditional livelihoods of First Nations communities.

Ontario’s digitized “claim-staking” system allows companies to register mining claims instantly without prior consultation. In some cases, exploration occurs on lands still under legal negotiation or where Indigenous title is unresolved.

Many First Nations have voiced frustration that the current consultation process is too brief and procedural to meet constitutional or treaty obligations.

The Chiefs of Ontario have called for a pause on new mining claims and deeper reforms to ensure that any future developments align with Indigenous consent.

A rights-based approach to mining

A recent OECD report outlines both the opportunities and challenges that rising mineral demand brings to First Nations and local communities in Northern Ontario. The report also lays out a practical road map for a more sustainable mining sector.

As contributing authors, we accompanied the OECD process of extensive interviews and roundtables with First Nations leaders, mining companies, policymakers and community organizations across the region.

We sought to understand on-the-ground realities and to identify ways to align economic development with Indigenous rights and community well-being.

From the recommendations of the report, we interpret three key actions for a rights-based territorial development approach that promotes responsible mining while upholding Indigenous rights.

3 key actions

1. Investing in communities

Many First Nations need major investments in water, housing, infrastructure, health and social supports to meet basic human rights. Without addressing these foundational needs, asymmetrical development will only deepen inequalities between national interests and wealth creation. It is very hard to think about mining development when basic needs are not being met.

2. Gaining Indigenous consent

Following the lead of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories in legally committing to implement UNDRIP (the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), Ontario should build on existing efforts to provide a formal mechanism for guiding companies towards securing free, prior and informed consent and align provincial legislation with UNDRIP.

Indigenous rights-holders must be properly informed, meaningfully consulted and give their consent before any projects go forward. This consent should apply throughout the entire project life cycle, from exploration and feasibility studies to mine closure and land restoration.

This should also pertain to “brownfield” sites (existing mines) and patented lands, some of which are currently exempt from consultation under Ontario’s Mining Act. While major changes to a mine site that could negatively affect Indigenous rights will trigger the duty to consult, smaller changes may not and this is decided on a case-by-case basis. This can create grey areas and a lack of legal levers for communities to renegotiate when amendments are made to mining projects.

3. Capital, equity ownership and royalty frameworks

To move beyond one-time compensation agreements, some First Nations may be interested in securing equity stakes in mining ventures, sharing both risks and rewards through access to capital.

When First Nations participate as co-investors, it signifies that the project has undergone a free, prior and informed consent processes, meaning potential legal, reputational and social risks — including community opposition or court challenges — are significantly minimized.

Indigenous co-investment typically requires the establishment of strong governance mechanisms, including clear arrangements for shared decision-making, benefit sharing, formal agreement-creation and high environmental and social standards, all of which enhance a project’s reputation for responsible operation.

Direct resource revenue-sharing agreements are another option. The Ontario government has already signed such agreements with some First Nations and Tribal Councils. This ensures equity among participating First Nations.

Building a stronger, more prosperous Ontario

The future of mining in northern Ontario sits at a crossroads. Governments want to move quickly to capitalize on mineral demand, but unless this growth is tied to consent (real engagement), equity and stewardship, it risks reproducing past injustices. This is unacceptable risk to all parties.

True prosperity means development that upholds the rights of First Nations, protects their ecosystems and ensures communities share in the benefits.

If implemented, these priorities — consent, ownership and stewardship — could transform the region from a site of resource extraction into a model of partnership and resilience. It means a different kind of mining anchored in respect and sustainability.

The article was co-authored by Andres Sanabria, Coordinator of the OECD Mining Regions and Cities Initiative and Bridget Donovan, Policy Analyst at the OECD.

Tamara Krawchenko consults for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and was a contributing author to the Mining Regions and Cities in Northern Ontario, Canada study. She is a Visiting Scholar with the Institue for Research on Public Policy and a board member of Ecotrust Canada.

Darren Godwell 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 path to responsible mining in northern Ontario starts with Indigenous consent – https://theconversation.com/the-path-to-responsible-mining-in-northern-ontario-starts-with-indigenous-consent-267935

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ilona Dougherty, Managing Director, Youth & Innovation Project, University of Waterloo

Every year on Remembrance Day, I think about my grandfathers — my American grandfather who flew his Stinson L-5 along the coast of Burma and my Hungarian grandfather who fought in the Second World War.

I also reflect upon my grandmothers, one of whom used her language skills to translate for army officers and the other who suffered the loss of her first child while her husband was overseas.

These stories are often shared in our family as remembrances of young people who served and sacrificed during difficult times.

Buried deep in the Liberal government’s recently released 2025 budget is a line that is worth paying attention to: “Modernizing the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) enhances opportunities for youth to serve and lead.” With that one sentence, the federal government connected the dots between Canadian sovereignty, youth employment and youth service.

But if Canada hopes to see its current generation of young people thrive, it must ensure that youth employment and youth service programs are expanded.

The only way this will happen, given the investments outlined in the federal government’s budget, is if organizations dedicated to youth employment issues and youth service work closely together to ensure the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) figures out how to recruit and meaningfully retain young Canadians.

Paltry investments

As outlined in the budget, there is a clear commitment from Mark Carney’s Liberals to rebuild and reinvest in the CAF to protect Canadians and lead internationally. This commitment includes an investment of more than $9 billion in 2025-2026.

An important part of this rebuilding will require recruiting and retaining new members, which is being facilitated by a significant pay increase for the lowest paid recruits.

But as young people in Canada face the worst job market in more than a decade, which is only projected to worsen with the widespread adoption of AI, it was troubling that funding related to tackling youth unemployment was limited in this year’s budget.

The investment in Canada Summer Job placements, while up from the investment made in the 2024, was only brought back to pre-pandemic funding levels, not actually increased.

The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy investment in the budget was up slightly from 2025-2026, but down significantly from 2024-2025 and far below investments made in 2019-2020.

The only significant increase came with the investment in the Student Work Placement Program, which increased by more than $100 million per year.

The most generous read of investments in youth employment-related programs in the 2025 budget would suggest the government is investing approximately $220 million more per year. But this pales in comparison to the $20.4 billion over five years that the government has committed to investing in recruiting and retaining “a strong fighting force” for the CAF.

When it comes to youth service, supporting young people who are struggling to enter the job market — and providing them with opportunities to serve their communities — can be achieved in part through the Youth Climate Corps and the Canada Service Corps. Combined, their budgets represent a moderate increase in spending of about $20 million per year.

But it’s unclear whether the Canada Service Corps will receive additional funding in the future, parallel to the Youth Climate Corps funding, or whether it will be phased out and replaced.

Despite it being touted as a budget containing generational investments, the government has made minimal investments to seriously tackle the youth employment crisis in the 2025 budget.

Recruitment challenges

It’s no secret that recruiting and retaining new members is a significant challenge for the CAF. A 2025 Auditor General of Canada’s report outlines how the CAF is not recruiting and training enough candidates to meet its operational needs.

To make matters worse, even when a recruit does join, a recently leaked internal report suggests that many leave in frustration shortly after joining due to their inability to get trained and to secure roles within the CAF that they’re interested in.

Adding to this is the CAF’s well-documented issues with radicalization and hate speech, racial discrimination and sexual harassment. As an external monitor outlined in a recent report, “a culture that is largely misogynistic has created an environment that allows and sometime encourages unprofessional conduct to persist.”

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Read more:
Not just a few bad apples: The Canadian Armed Forces has a nagging far-right problem

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Despite recent apologies and signs that things are changing for the better within the CAF, these issues make the institution unattractive for young Canadians even if they don’t feel as though they have any other employment options.

There is also the perception that joining the army means going into active combat. Around 65.2 per cent of CAF members ever deploy — and deploying doesn’t necessarily mean active combat. In fact, it can very often mean humanitarian missions either domestically or internationally.

Making the CAF attractive to youth

All of this presents a unique opportunity for Canadian policymakers.

There are many organizations in Canada working to tackle youth employment — and the CAF has just been given what can actually be called a generational investment. That investment could significantly enhance existing government initiatives aimed at addressing the youth employment crisis and preparing young people for the future of work.

For this to happen, youth employment and service organizations must leverage the government’s investment in the CAF to expand their impact. At the same time, the CAF will need to engage with civilian organizations that specialize in recruiting and supporting young people. CAF recruiters should adopt best practices in youth-focused recruitment, training and retention to ensure meaningful participation and long-term success.

Young people will only be attracted to and stay in the CAF if they feel valued, if they’re offered meaningful opportunities to contribute and if intergenerational collaboration is prioritized.

In a time of multiples crises, none of them can be viewed in isolation. Disparate groups need to work together to address their unique challenges.
Canadian young people have a lot to offer — they’re the most educated generation in Canadian history, they have the desire to make a difference, their brains are wired to be bold problem solvers and they have diverse and relevant lived experiences.

This is a generation Canada can’t afford to leave on the sidelines of its economy or in the fight for Canadian sovereignty.

Ilona Dougherty 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. How the Canadian Armed Forces could help solve the youth employment crisis – https://theconversation.com/how-the-canadian-armed-forces-could-help-solve-the-youth-employment-crisis-268433

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Emma Hsiaowen Chen, PhD Candidate in Health & Exercise Science, Concordia University

Exercise can help reduce the risk of falls — a major cause of injuries in older adults — but only four per cent of older Canadian women complete 30 minutes of daily physical activity. As a PhD candidate in health and exercise science at Concordia University, I am interested in developing fun and accessible balance-training programs using online dance classes.

Dance can act as a fun “exercise in disguise.” Studies have consistently shown that dance can inspire social connections, improve mood and aid cognition, while also leading to improvements in mobility, endurance and walking abilities.

It is also an ideal form of balance training because learning various dance steps requires high precision of movement, which can help increase our proprioception (our perception of our body movement and position in space). This can help improve or maintain our postural stability.

Age and postural stability

Postural stability refers to our ability to stay upright and control our body’s position in space. This ability relies on sensory and motor systems. Our vision helps see potential obstacles or tripping hazards, the vestibulocochlear system of the inner ear helps with our sense of orientation as well as hearing, and finally our somatosensory system, which comprises the body’s sense of touch, pain, temperature and position, works to feel the surfaces beneath our feet.

After these sensory signals reach the brain, they are sorted and then the appropriate motor response is selected for our musculoskeletal system to execute

With age, postural stability reduces as the sensory systems experience change. We measure this decline by having people stand as still as possible and observing how much they move or sway. If someone sways more, they are considered less stable and at greater risk of falls.

While research on in-person dance classes of various styles have consistently shown improvements to postural stability and fall risk, these classes are often inaccessible. Many older women face barriers to exercise such as lack of transportation, caregiver roles at home, inaccessible exercise facilities etc. Additionally, specialized dance teachers are often only found in larger cities that act as dance hubs. Online dance classes can offer solutions to reduce barriers and improve access for older adults.

Bringing the dance studio home

Working with Andreas Bergdahl, PhD, and Mary Roberts, PhD, our research published in International Journal of Exercise Science has found that online dance classes improve the postural stability, dynamic balance and calf strength of older women. In this work, we recruited women aged 65+ from Montréal to participate in 75-minute ballet-modern inspired classes twice per week, for 12 weeks over Zoom.

Each dance class started with a 15-minute warm-up followed by:

• Pliés (bending the knees)
• Tendus (standing on one leg and extending the other one out)
• Balancé sequence (a travelling step done to a waltz rhythm)
• Jose Limón/Martha Graham sequence (styles of modern-dance that emphasize fall recovery and rounded shapes of the spine)
• Cooling-down with seated stretches

These exercises were selected because they emphasize transferring weight, balancing on one leg, bringing the body off centre and contracting the leg as well as core muscles. A helper was present on Zoom for each dance class to help with technical support and monitor online participants for safety.

Before the first class, halfway through the study, and at the end, participants completed in-person assessments of their leg strength, dynamic balance and postural stability.

Within six weeks, participants showed reductions in how much they swayed side-to-side while standing still (what is called mediolateral sway) and increases in their dynamic balance. By the end of the program, they also had greater calf-muscle strength, assessed as the number of heel-raises participants completed in 30 seconds.

Improvements in these abilities can translate to greater ease in daily activities that require weight transfers, such as walking, stepping down from the sidewalk or even chores like sweeping the house.

Benefits of online access

Even after COVID-19 lockdowns have ended, online dance classes can serve an important role in reaching people who are traditionally left out.

For those living in remote locations, for caregivers who cannot spend too long away from their loved ones or even for older adults anxious to walk on icy streets in the winter, online programs can provide a level of accessibility and new opportunities to socialize and exercise. They also give opportunities for people to express themselves creatively from the comfort of their own homes.

Our current studies are exploring how different styles of online dance programs, combined with blood flow restriction training, can benefit older adults. This provides more options to suit people’s interests and varying mobility needs. Additionally, we are working to share our program with communities. To date, our research has reached older women across Canada, Mexico, Colombia and Spain, encouraging them to remain active and independent.

While many of us have returned to in-person programming, let’s not forget the benefits of online access. Bringing the dance studio home can still help people connect, socialize and improve their balance.

Emma Hsiaowen Chen receives funding from Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé – Formation de doctorat 2024-2025 (346910). Her MSc work presented here was funded by the Canadian Graduate Scholarships – Master’s Program 2022 and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé – Formation de Maîtrise 2022-2023 (319116). She works as a freelance dance instructor specialized in teaching older adults.

– ref. Bringing the dance studio home can improve balance and reduce the risk of falls for older women – https://theconversation.com/bringing-the-dance-studio-home-can-improve-balance-and-reduce-the-risk-of-falls-for-older-women-268266

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jared Wesley, Professor, Political Science, University of Alberta

Across Canada, elected representatives are opting to toe the party line on major discussions about the future of the country — or even to sit out the debates entirely.

Take recent events in Alberta. Bill 2 (the Back to School Act) ended a provincewide teachers’ strike by imposing a contract and ordering more than 50,000 teachers back to work. Most government members of the Alberta legislature (MLAs) chose to remain silent throughout the entire dispute.

The incident drew national attention because the government also invoked the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ notwithstanding clause to remove the teachers’ Charter right to strike.

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Read more:
The history of the notwithstanding clause

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Limiting debate

But the other half of the story is the process: party discipline helped push the law through the legislature in record time. For Canadians elsewhere, Bill 2 is a window into how hyper-partisanship and polarization can weaken the checks and balances meant to restrain premiers and prime ministers from acting unilaterally.

Here’s what happened in practical terms: the government moved the bill from first reading to final passage in less than 12 hours, after which teachers were ordered back and a four-year agreement was set in law.

Approved by members of the government caucus, debate windows were cut to just one hour and concluded in the early hours of the morning.

The speed mattered as much as the substance: it limited the chance for MLAs to probe details, air local concerns or test alternatives in public. It also sidestepped an important constitutional responsibility: according to the notwithstanding clause, legislatures — not cabinets or premiers — are charged with removing Canadians’ rights.

According to critics of Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party (UCP), that duty is meant to be exercised after meaningful debate.

Why would a legislature — whose members are elected to debate, amend and oversee — vote to shorten its own deliberation on bills, particularly those that affect fundamental freedoms?

Our research in our book No “I” in Team: Party Loyalty in Canadian Politics points to a simple, powerful answer: hyper-partisanship has evolved from traditional “party discipline” (voting together) into “message discipline” (speaking together). Leaders and their entourages co-ordinate what caucus members say and do, reward conformity and punish dissent. In that environment, opposing fast-tracked legislation can feel like deserting “the team.”

Choosing silence

Message discipline reshapes everyday incentives inside caucus.

Rather than seeing alternative arguments as quality control, members learn to treat them as obstacles. Rather than pushing for extended committee study or open negotiation, they face heavy pressure to back procedures that guarantee quick passage and limit the ability of opposing parties to weigh in. This means members of the governing caucus sometimes choose to silence themselves to prevent their opponents from engaging.

Over time, MLAs become more willing to trade their own leverage — floor time, clause-by-clause scrutiny, amendments — for the promise of team unity.

Bill 2 shows how those incentives and tools play out in real life. The government framed speed as a virtue and unity as a necessity; caucus members delivered both. The result was swift law-making on a file with broad public impact and limited room for local voices or cross-party problem-solving.

None of this depends on one leader or one issue. Once normalized, the approach can be applied to labour disputes, health-care reforms, school governance or tax changes — any area where moving quickly is easier than debating in public.

But when disagreements are handled through discipline rather than deliberation, conflict doesn’t disappear. It often relocates, sometimes spilling outside the governing caucus. This is made more likely when constituents pressure their representatives to act as delegates rather than partisans.

Locker-room mentality

Earlier this year, UCP MLA Peter Guthrie resigned from cabinet and was expelled from caucus after sustained criticism of his party’s ethics record.

He has since emerged a steady critic of the government, assuming the role of Independent as Canada’s parliamentary traditions intended all representatives to play: holding the government to account through members’ statements and Question Period. That he felt unable to do so within cabinet or caucus is a symptom of the hyper-partisanship we cover in our book.

For those beyond Alberta, that’s why Bill 2 matters. The notwithstanding clause justifiably drew the most attention, but it isn’t the whole story. Canadians need to pay attention to how hyper-partisanship pushes parliamentarians into decisions that mute their own roles as delegates of their constituents, overseers of government and trustees of the public good.

When legislatures are organized as team locker rooms first and democratic institutions second, elected representatives are more likely to support rule changes and time limits that make government faster and more centralized, and less likely to insist on the public work that tests ideas before they become law.

In that sense, Bill 2 is a case study, not an outlier. The mechanics are portable.

Watch for the telltale signs in other parts of the country: tight debate clocks, late-night sittings, caucus silence in constituencies and message unity presented as proof of strength. Our research suggests those are the symptoms of message discipline at work — and the reason Canadians across the country should pay attention to what happened in Alberta.

Jared Wesley receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Alex Marland received funding from an SSHRC Insight Grant with Jared Wesley and Mireille Lalancette to study Canadian parliamentarians crossing the floor that supported this research.

Mireille Lalancette receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for this project.

– ref. Team work and power plays: What Alberta’s Bill 2 says about Canadian democracy – https://theconversation.com/team-work-and-power-plays-what-albertas-bill-2-says-about-canadian-democracy-269373

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ala Mokhtar, Assistant Professor in Accounting, McMaster University

Auditors play a crucial role in keeping the financial system honest. Their job is to protect investors by making sure financial reports are accurate and trustworthy, helping people have confidence in financial markets.

Auditors are trained to be level-headed, impartial watchdogs that remain skeptical when evaluating evidence so they can give an objective opinion on whether a company’s financial statements are fairly reported.

Without auditors, the public would struggle to trust what companies say about their finances. But this, of course, depends on auditors doing their jobs objectively and consistently.

Our new study, co-authored with Tim Bauer from the University of Waterloo and Sean Hillison from Virginia Tech, shows something unexpectedly human gets in the way of auditors doing their job well: incivility, or rudeness. When clients snap at, dismiss or belittle auditors, it doesn’t just sting — it can wear away at audit quality.

Maintaining audit quality

The quality of audits has become a growing concern among regulators. In recent years, both Canadian and American audit watchdogs have reported concerning rates of audit deficiencies.

These deficiencies include failing to properly test accounting estimates by firms, failing to test key controls that prevent errors or fraud and overlooking whether management’s significant assumptions were reasonable.

Regulators are urging auditors to “step up” by doing a better job of scrutinizing their financial statements.

Understanding and addressing how client incivility affects auditor performance could be a crucial step toward improving audit quality in financial reporting.

When rudeness gets in the way

To find out how often auditors face incivility, my co-researchers and I surveyed 70 auditors across Canada and the United States at all ranks, from entry-level auditors to auditors at the partner level.

We defined incivility as minor disrespectful actions that break workplace norms of mutual respect. These behaviours are often rude and discourteous, displaying a lack of regard for others.

We found that auditors don’t experience incivility from time-to-time — they experience it a lot. Ninety per cent of auditors said they had encountered negative client behaviour at some point in their careers.

Seventy-seven per cent said clients had rudely told them how to do their jobs or questioned their procedures. More than 60 per cent had their skills or abilities questioned and more than 50 per cent had been ignored or faced hostility when approaching a client. One-third reported being bullied — a more serious form of incivility — at some point in their career.

Rude clients, weaker audits

We wanted to know whether auditors’ experiences with incivility actually affected auditors’ judgment and skepticism. Did auditors brush off rude behaviour and continue to diligently do their work?

To test this, we ran an experiment with 114 experienced auditors. We asked them to read a scenario showing an interaction between an auditor and their client. In one version the client was openly rude, while in the other version, the client was not portrayed as rude.

The auditors were then asked how likely they would be to challenge an aggressive accounting choice — that is, a decision by the client to report a preferred inventory write-down amount supported by weak assumptions.

We found that auditors who read about a scenario with an uncivil client became less likely to challenge an obviously aggressive accounting choice by the client — the opposite of what auditing standards call for in a situation where skepticism matters.

Why did this happen? Our findings suggest that emotional distress from interacting with the rude client interfered with auditors’ judgment, leading to less effective scrutiny of the client’s decisions.

How active coping can help

Auditors play a vital role in protecting investors and the public by ensuring that companies’ financial statements can be trusted. Our findings suggest that something as commonplace as everyday discourtesy can have very real, negative effects on audit quality.

But there is some good news. Our research also found that the right coping strategies can help auditors recover their focus.

When auditors were encouraged to use an active coping approach — like looping in a senior colleague to intervene with the situation — their willingness to push back against the aggressive accounting choice largely returned to normal levels. Active coping prevented the distress of the rude exchange from interfering with auditors’ judgment.

By contrast, passive approaches, such as venting or trying to accept the situation, didn’t show the same clear benefit.

Together, these results suggest that client incivility triggers emotional distress that blunts auditors’ judgment, and that active coping helps auditors refocus on the facts and their duty to the public.

Protecting audit quality

For firms and regulators trying to maintain audit quality, negative behaviour from clients should be treated as a risk factor, not a normal, everyday inconvenience. If left unaddressed, persistent rudeness or pressure from clients can undermine auditors’ ability to do their jobs.

Fortunately, the solution is simple and low-cost. Audit firms can equip auditors with concrete coping playbooks and train them to use active coping when they encounter incivility. Rather than expecting auditors to grin and bear rude treatment, firms can equip them to address incivility actively by bringing in a senior member who can handle the rude client.

It’s a simple step that helps prevent audit quality from slowly deteriorating, and protects the integrity of financial reporting and the people responsible for upholding it.

Ala Mokhtar 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. Rudeness is hurting auditors’ ability to protect the public — here’s how – https://theconversation.com/rudeness-is-hurting-auditors-ability-to-protect-the-public-heres-how-267953

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Saidia Ali, Environmental Scientist, PhD Candidate, Toronto Metropolitan University

The world is undergoing rapid electronification and digital transformation, reshaping how we live. Many of us have numerous electronic devices around us at all times, from smartphones and watches to our home appliances and cars.

A sharp increase in e-waste has accompanied the surge in electronic equipment. In 2022, 62 million tons of e-waste was produced globally.

Canada’s e-waste tripled between 2000 and 2019 and is expected to reach 1.2 billion kilograms by 2030. These statistics demonstrate an urgent environmental crisis that demands new ways of thinking and educating future generations.

A key part of tackling the problem is educating people about it. As educators, we need to expand school education to include resource recovery, sustainability and pro-environmental behaviours to inform students on what to do with their old gadgets.

The language and techniques we use to communicate this issue in classrooms play a significant role in helping children understand and engage with safe e-waste management.

Schools and educators must equip youth of all ages with the values, attitudes, knowledge and skills necessary to manage e-waste responsibly.

Gaps and limitations

My research uses machine learning tools to develop effective circular economy policies focused on e-waste management in Canada, with insights reflecting Ontario’s evolving practices.

In Ontario, schools are failing to provide comprehensive and consistent e-waste education, leaving a dangerous gap in our students’ environmental literacy.

Environmental education in Ontario introduces students to the concept of environmental stewardship and the provincially mandated curriculum does include it in a cross-disciplinary manner. However, due to decreased priority and budget cuts, attention on e-waste and resource conservation is absent.

According to a 2024 report by EcoSchools Canada, a number of obstacles exist to successful school e-waste management such as COVID-19, provincial inconsistencies, curriculum disconnect, custodian participation, poor school engagement and a lack of key infrastructure and information.

The Ontario government and municipalities have made efforts in revising the school curriculum, with non-profits stepping in to help bridge the knowledge gap.

For example, in municipalities like Peel Region, teachers’ resources include a plethora of interactive, online activities and lesson plans that focus on the 3Rs and proper sorting, as well as additional workshops, events, games and other resources for students in grades K to 8.

Likewise, Durham Region offers a specific presentation, including one for grades 7 and 8 entitled “Electronic Waste: The Hidden Impact of Our Gadgets,” allowing students to discover the possible environmental, social and economic consequences of devices.

Several schools are also active participants of the EcoSchools program, a certification initiative originally developed by the Toronto District School Board to promote environmental education and action.

The program offers opportunities for student-led projects such as e-waste collection drives and awareness campaigns, providing meaningful experiential learning.

Although these are valuable and necessary, the focus and depth of these initiatives are often at the discretion of individual teachers and schools, leading to an uneven and often limited understanding of the e-waste problem. While commendable, these programs represent a patchwork rather than a cohesive, province-wide strategy.

Furthermore, a lot of education on waste tends to place much emphasis on recycling. While recycling is an important part of the solution, comprehensive e-waste education should also emphasize reducing consumption, repairing and reusing electronics and understanding the principles of a circular economy. Educational institutions and educators need to equip students to be able to critically question our throw-away culture.

The path forward

Educational institutions can play a substantial role in devising initiatives that will help future generations build foundational knowledge about sustainable e-waste management.

At the Montgomery School in Saskatoon, students have taken part in a project that allows them to disassemble old electronics to learn about e-waste, its materials and proper disposal. As part of an initiative, students look through the school’s garbage bins to see what could be reused.

The project links classroom learning with Saskatchewan’s grade 6/7 curriculum of understanding the social effects of sustainability issues, such as waste management, and encouraging students to think critically about technology use and environmental responsibility. The students have been successful in making keychains from old circuit boards that they sold at a school event to raise money for upcoming projects.

Provincial education ministries must take the lead by embedding clear learning expectations into their provincial curriculum in subjects like science, technology, geography, social studies and civics. This will ensure that all students, regardless of their school or location, receive an introductory understanding of this growing issue.

Cross-sectoral collaboration among provincial governments, school boards, municipalities and environmental organizations will be key in developing high-quality curriculum-linked educational materials.

Other initiatives can include organizing field trips to recycling facilities or setting up e-waste collection campaigns to allow students to see the impact of sustainable activities.

Schools can also invite guest speakers to give students an opportunity to learn from front-line environmental experts who have first-hand knowledge of sorting through e-waste.

Integrating e-waste literacy into the curriculum is a crucial step toward creating a more sustainable future. It will involve much more than just teaching students where the recycling bin is. It is about providing the know-how that will help them challenge our throw-away culture and empowering them to become responsible consumers.

Saidia Ali is affiliated with CanRepair Canada.

– ref. To tackle e-waste, teach kids to be responsible consumers – https://theconversation.com/to-tackle-e-waste-teach-kids-to-be-responsible-consumers-265712

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jean-Charles Pelland, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen

Most of us have little trouble working out how many millilitres are in 2.4 litres of water (it’s 2,400). But the same can’t be said when we’re asked how many minutes are in 2.4 hours (it’s 144).

That’s because the Indo-Arabic numerals we often use to represent numbers are base-10, while the system we often use to measure time is base-60.

Expressing time in decimal notation leads to an interaction between these two bases, which can have implications at both the cognitive and cultural level.

Such base interactions and their consequences are among the important topics covered in a new issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society journal, which I co-edited with colleagues Andrea Bender (University of Bergen), Mary Walworth (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and Simon J. Greenhill (University of Auckland).

The themed issue brings together work from anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and psychology to examine how humans conceptualize numbers and the numeral systems we build around them.

What are bases, and why do they matter?

Despite using numeral bases on a daily basis, few of us have reflected on the nature of these cognitive tools. As I explain in my contribution to the issue, bases are special numbers in the numeral systems we use.

Because our memories aren’t unlimited, we can’t represent each number with its own unique label. Instead, we use a small set of numerals to build larger ones, like “three hundred forty-two.”

That’s why most numeral systems are structured around a compositional anchor — a special number with a name that serves as a building block to form names for other numbers. Bases are anchors that exploit powers of a special number to form complex numerical expressions.

The English language, for example, uses a decimal system, meaning it uses the powers of 10 to compose numerals. So we compose “three hundred and forty-two” using three times the second power of 10 (100), four times the first power of 10 (10) and two times the zeroth power of 10 (one).

This base structure allows us to represent numbers of all sizes without overloading our cognitive resources.

Languages affect how we count

Despite the abstract nature of numbers, the degree to which numeral systems transparently reflect their bases has very concrete implications — and not just when we tell time. Languages with less transparent rules will take longer to learn, longer to process and can lead to more calculation and dictation errors.

Take French numerals, for example. While languages like French, English and Mandarin all share the same base of 10, most dialects of French have what could politely be called a quirky way of representing numbers in the 70-99 range.

---

Read more:
How counting by 10 helps children learn about the meaning of numbers

---

Seventy is soixante-dix in French, meaning “six times 10 plus 10,” while 80 uses 20 as an anchor and becomes quatre-vingts, meaning “four twenties” (or “four twenty,” depending on the context). And 90 is quatre vingt dix, meaning “four twenty ten.”

French is far from being alone in being quirky with its numerals. In German, numbers from 10 to 99 are expressed with the ones before the tens, but numbers over 100 switch back to saying the largest unit first.

Even in English, the fact that “twelve” is said instead of “ten two” hides the decimal rules at play. Such irregularities spread far beyond languages.

How bases shape learning and thought

Base-related oddities are spread out across the globe and have very real implications for how easily children learn what numbers are and how they interact with objects such as blocks, and for how efficiently adults manipulate notations.

For example, one study found that lack of base transparency slows down the acquisition of some numerical abilities in children, while another found similar negative effects on how quickly they learn how to count.

Another study found that children from base-transparent languages were quicker to use large blocks worth 10 units to represent larger numbers (for example, expressing 32 using three large blocs and two small ones) than children with base-related irregularities.

While Mandarin’s perfectly transparent decimal structure can simplify learning, a new research method suggests that children may find it easier to learn what numbers are if they are exposed to systems with compositional anchors that are smaller than 10.

In general, how we represent bases has very concrete cognitive implications, including how easily we can learn number systems and which types of systems will tend to be used in which contexts.

At a cultural level, base representation influences our ability to collaborate with scientists across disciplines and across cultures. This was starkly illustrated by the infamous Mars Climate Orbiter incident, when a mix-up between metric and imperial units caused a $327 million spacecraft to crash into Mars in 1999.

Why understanding bases matters

Numeracy — the ability to understand and use numbers — is a crucial part of our modern lives. It has implications for our quality of life and for our ability to make informed decisions in domains like health and finances.

For example, being more familiar with numbers will influence how easily we can choose between retirement plans, how we consider trade-offs between side-effects and benefits when choosing between medications or how well we understand how probabilities apply to our investments.

And yet many struggle to learn what numbers are, with millions suffering from math anxiety. Developing better methods for helping people learn how to manipulate numbers can therefore help millions of people improve their lives.

Research on the cognitive and cultural implications of bases collected in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society journal can help make progress towards our understanding of how we think about numbers, marking an important step towards making numbers more accessible to everyone.

Jean-Charles Pelland’s work has been made possible by financial support from the ‘QUANTA: Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification’ project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 951388).

– ref. How number systems shape our thinking and what it means for learning, language and culture – https://theconversation.com/how-number-systems-shape-our-thinking-and-what-it-means-for-learning-language-and-culture-268168

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jean-Charles Pelland, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen

Most of us have little trouble working out how many millilitres are in 2.4 litres of water (it’s 2,400). But the same can’t be said when we’re asked how many minutes are in 2.4 hours (it’s 144).

That’s because the Indo-Arabic numerals we often use to represent numbers are base-10, while the system we often use to measure time is base-60.

Expressing time in decimal notation leads to an interaction between these two bases, which can have implications at both the cognitive and cultural level.

Such base interactions and their consequences are among the important topics covered in a new issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society journal, which I co-edited with colleagues Andrea Bender (University of Bergen), Mary Walworth (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and Simon J. Greenhill (University of Auckland).

The themed issue brings together work from anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and psychology to examine how humans conceptualize numbers and the numeral systems we build around them.

What are bases, and why do they matter?

Despite using numeral bases on a daily basis, few of us have reflected on the nature of these cognitive tools. As I explain in my contribution to the issue, bases are special numbers in the numeral systems we use.

Because our memories aren’t unlimited, we can’t represent each number with its own unique label. Instead, we use a small set of numerals to build larger ones, like “three hundred forty-two.”

That’s why most numeral systems are structured around a compositional anchor — a special number with a name that serves as a building block to form names for other numbers. Bases are anchors that exploit powers of a special number to form complex numerical expressions.

The English language, for example, uses a decimal system, meaning it uses the powers of 10 to compose numerals. So we compose “three hundred and forty-two” using three times the second power of 10 (100), four times the first power of 10 (10) and two times the zeroth power of 10 (one).

This base structure allows us to represent numbers of all sizes without overloading our cognitive resources.

Languages affect how we count

Despite the abstract nature of numbers, the degree to which numeral systems transparently reflect their bases has very concrete implications — and not just when we tell time. Languages with less transparent rules will take longer to learn, longer to process and can lead to more calculation and dictation errors.

Take French numerals, for example. While languages like French, English and Mandarin all share the same base of 10, most dialects of French have what could politely be called a quirky way of representing numbers in the 70-99 range.

---

Read more:
How counting by 10 helps children learn about the meaning of numbers

---

Seventy is soixante-dix in French, meaning “six times 10 plus 10,” while 80 uses 20 as an anchor and becomes quatre-vingts, meaning “four twenties” (or “four twenty,” depending on the context). And 90 is quatre vingt dix, meaning “four twenty ten.”

French is far from being alone in being quirky with its numerals. In German, numbers from 10 to 99 are expressed with the ones before the tens, but numbers over 100 switch back to saying the largest unit first.

Even in English, the fact that “twelve” is said instead of “ten two” hides the decimal rules at play. Such irregularities spread far beyond languages.

How bases shape learning and thought

Base-related oddities are spread out across the globe and have very real implications for how easily children learn what numbers are and how they interact with objects such as blocks, and for how efficiently adults manipulate notations.

For example, one study found that lack of base transparency slows down the acquisition of some numerical abilities in children, while another found similar negative effects on how quickly they learn how to count.

Another study found that children from base-transparent languages were quicker to use large blocks worth 10 units to represent larger numbers (for example, expressing 32 using three large blocs and two small ones) than children with base-related irregularities.

While Mandarin’s perfectly transparent decimal structure can simplify learning, a new research method suggests that children may find it easier to learn what numbers are if they are exposed to systems with compositional anchors that are smaller than 10.

In general, how we represent bases has very concrete cognitive implications, including how easily we can learn number systems and which types of systems will tend to be used in which contexts.

At a cultural level, base representation influences our ability to collaborate with scientists across disciplines and across cultures. This was starkly illustrated by the infamous Mars Climate Orbiter incident, when a mix-up between metric and imperial units caused a $327 million spacecraft to crash into Mars in 1999.

Why understanding bases matters

Numeracy — the ability to understand and use numbers — is a crucial part of our modern lives. It has implications for our quality of life and for our ability to make informed decisions in domains like health and finances.

For example, being more familiar with numbers will influence how easily we can choose between retirement plans, how we consider trade-offs between side-effects and benefits when choosing between medications or how well we understand how probabilities apply to our investments.

And yet many struggle to learn what numbers are, with millions suffering from math anxiety. Developing better methods for helping people learn how to manipulate numbers can therefore help millions of people improve their lives.

Research on the cognitive and cultural implications of bases collected in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society journal can help make progress towards our understanding of how we think about numbers, marking an important step towards making numbers more accessible to everyone.

Jean-Charles Pelland’s work has been made possible by financial support from the ‘QUANTA: Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification’ project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 951388).

– ref. How number systems shape our thinking, and what this means for learning, language and culture – https://theconversation.com/how-number-systems-shape-our-thinking-and-what-this-means-for-learning-language-and-culture-268168