Category: The Conversation – Canada

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Empathy as a vice

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

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

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

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

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

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

True ordo amoris

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

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

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

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

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

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

Empathy, mercy, justice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Truth-telling

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

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

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

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

No songs, dances or large gatherings

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

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

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

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

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

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

The foster care crisis

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

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

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

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

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

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

The sterilization of Indigenous women

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

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

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

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

Modern-day remnants of colonialism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reconciliation is an ongoing process

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enhancing indoor air quality

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

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

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

How our model works

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

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

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

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

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

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

Future studies needed

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By J-C Couture, Adjunct faculty and Associate Lecturer, Department of Secondary Education, University of Alberta

If 2022 was the year OpenAI knocked our world off course with the launch of ChatGPT, 2025 will be remembered for the frenzied embrace of AI as the solution to everything. And, yes, this includes teaching and schoolwork.

In today’s breakneck AI innovation race, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), along with the European Commission, have called for the development of unified AI literacy strategies in kindergarten to Grade 12 education.

They have done this through an AI Literacy Framework developed with Code.org, and a range of experts in computational thinking, neuroscience, AI, educational technology and innovation — and with “valuable insights” from the “TeachAI community.”

The “TeachAI community” refers to a larger umbrella project providing web resources targeting teachers, education leaders and “solution providers”. Its advisory committee includes companies like Meta, OpenAI, Amazon and Microsoft and other for-profit ed tech providers, international organizations and government educational agencies and not-for-profit groups.

The rush to establish global standards for AI literacy has been further energized by a recent OECD program announcement.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) — which tests 15-year-old students of member nations in literacy, numeracy and science every three years — is introducing a media and AI literacy assessment in 2029. This is related to what it calls an “innovation domain” of learning.

There have been consultations about the AI literacy framework, but it’s misguided to think that educators and the general public at large would be able to comment on this in an informed way before AI has been widely accessible to the public.

The OECD’s hasty push for PISA 2029 threatens to obscure essential questions about the political economy that is enabling the marketing and popularization of AI, including relationships between business markets and states.

Marketing, popularizing AI

Essential questions include: Who stands to benefit most and profit from proliferating AI in education? And what are the implications for young people when national governments and international organizations appear to be actively promoting the interests of private tech companies?

We agree with a growing community of researchers that regard calls for AI literacy as being based on ill-defined and preliminary concepts: for example, the draft framework speaks about four areas of AI literacy competency that involve: engaging with AI, creating with AI, managing AI and designing AI.

As we try to grasp the meaning of terms such as “AI skills” and “AI knowledge,” the educational landscape becomes both vague and confounding.
Educators are all too familiar with the legacy, often related to commercialization, of attaching various modifiers to notions of literacy — digital literacy, financial literacy, the list goes on.

‘The future’

By framing AI as a distinct, readily measurable capability, the OECD has signalled that it can impose its own understanding onto AI, leaving school communities globally with the task of simply accepting and implementing this presumed all-embracing vision of the future amid profound and alarming existential and practical questions.

Efforts to frame AI literacy as a vehicle to prepare young people for “the future” are a recurring theme of influential global policy bodies like the OECD.

Elsewhere, research has shown how these policy shifts over the past three decades follow a familiar pattern — the OECD functions as an influential policy entity that establishes its own definitions of student progress through standards and benchmarks for assessing the quality of education programs around the globe. In doing so, it imposes a single understanding on what are diverse systems with distinct cultures.

As digital education expert Ben Williamson points out, this burst of “infrastructuring AI literacy” not only involves “building, maintaining and enacting a testing and measurement system” but will also “make AI literacy into a central concern and objective of schooling systems.”

In doing so, it will sideline other important subjects, gear up schools and learners to become uncritical users of AI and turn schools into a testing ground for AI developments.

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Youth social media: Why proposed Ontario and federal legislation won’t fix harms related to data exploitation

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Lack of discussion around teachers

We also have other concerns.

In our preliminary research, yet to be published, we analyzed the AI Literacy Framework document and found a significant lack of discussion regarding the role of teachers. The document directly mentions teachers only 10 times and schools nine times. By comparison, AI is mentioned 442 times, while learners and students are referenced approximately 126 times.

This suggests to us that teachers and formal schooling seem to have been removed from any major role in these frameworks. When they are mentioned, they appear a more of a prop to AI and not a critical mediator.

Educators and national education systems are facing a one-size-fits-all solution to a wider societal issue that attempts to defuse, depoliticize and naturalize what ought to be urgent, engaged conversations by teachers and the education profession about AI, education, learning, sustainability and the future.

Current classroom realities

As political theorist Langdon Winner reminded us more than 40 years ago, technologies have politics that rotate around both problems and opportunities. These politics ignore some realities and amplify others.

Well-intended promoters of AI literacy in schools in Canada call for professional development and resources to support the adoption of AI. Yet these aspirations and hopes for positive change need to be contextualized by the current realities Canadian teachers face:

• 63 per cent of educators report their ministries of education are “not supportive at all;”

• Nearly 80 per cent of educators report struggling to cope;

• 95 per cent of educators are concerned that staff shortages are negatively impacting students.

Proceed with slowly with care

Ours is not a call for educators to be luddites and reject technology. Rather, it’s a call to the profession and the public to collectively question the rush to AI and the current framings of AI literacy as an inevitable policy trajectory and preferred future for education.

Both the limited time frame of the next few months to respond to the AI Literacy Framework — following its May 2025 release — and the pre-emptive decision by the OECD to proceed with its PISA assessment in 2029 signals a race to a finish line.

As with the recent return to school and the annual reminders about the need for caution in school speed zones, we need to avoid distractions — and proceed slowly, with care.

Michele Martini received funding from the European Research Council (Grant agreement No. 837727)

J-C Couture and Susan Lee Robertson 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. Why we should be skeptical of the hasty global push to test 15-year-olds’ AI literacy in 2029 – https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-be-skeptical-of-the-hasty-global-push-to-test-15-year-olds-ai-literacy-in-2029-263695

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jackson Pind, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Methodologies, Chanie Wenjack School of Indigenous Studies, Trent University

Chief Elsie Knott, the first female chief of a First Nation in Canada, disliked the Indian Day School system from her own childhood experiences and wanted something better for the next generation.

As chief of what’s now called Curve Lake First Nation, 25 kilometres northeast of Peterborough, Ont., she bought a retired hearse. Knott used it to drive children from Curve Lake to the public school in Lakefield, Ont. That eventually became a community-run bus service that still operates to this day.

This was one of many powerful stories I encountered in researching my book Students by Day: Colonialism and Resistance at the Curve Lake Indian Day School.

This is the first Ontario book to focus on the history of an Indian Day School, an institution that shaped the lives of generations of Indigenous children but has received little attention compared to residential schools.

This book grew out of my doctoral research, but it was also built on years of working directly with Survivors, families and community leaders in Curve Lake First Nation.

The stories and archival records reveal not only the harms of day schooling, but also the persistence, creativity and resistance of a community determined to care for its children despite the colonial system imposed upon them.

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Read more:
Revisiting the Williams Treaties of 1923: Anishinaabeg perspectives after a century

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Gaps about colonial schooling

Most Canadians have at least heard of residential schools, but far fewer know about day schools. Yet more Indigenous children attended day schools than residential schools.

These institutions operated in communities across the country, run by churches and funded by the federal government. They combined underfunded education with assimilationist policies designed to erase Indigenous languages, cultures and governance systems.

The federal settlement for day school Survivors was only finalized in 2019, over a decade after the residential school settlement.

Even today, there has been no formal apology from the churches involved, and no commission of inquiry dedicated to day schools. That gap in public understanding is what motivated me to write Students by Day.

Researching with Curve Lake

I grew up with ties to Curve Lake First Nation and began this project with the support of then-Chief Emily Whetung and council in 2020. With their guidance, I worked through roughly 10,000 archival files at Library and Archives Canada and paired that record with oral histories from Survivors who wanted their stories told.

Like many researchers during COVID-19, I adapted when in-person visits were no longer possible. But when I could return to Curve Lake, five Survivors came forward to share their stories. Their courage and generosity in speaking publicly about difficult experiences made this book possible.

The archives are full of letters from Curve Lake dating back to the 19th century, demanding better pay for teachers, requesting Indigenous teachers and even asking for their own school boards. Leaders actively worked within the constraints of the system to make schooling serve their people as best as possible.

Stories of resistance

What emerged from the research is not only a record of harm but also of resilience.

A letter written by an Indian agent in the 1920s complained:

“[O]ne of the chief holdbacks of the Chemong (Curve Lake School) is the determination of parents to stick to their own language, with a few expectations. They are quite jealous of it, and and will not favour the use of English by the children when at play.”

Parents constantly resisted the imposition of English-only language education and instead fostered the Ansihinaabeowin language outside of the school.

This kind of community-organized resistance complicates the narrative of Indigenous schooling as one of only trauma. While lasting harm did occur, there were also acts of agency, resilience and a vision to keep their culture into the future.

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Read more:
Acting with one mind: Gwich’in lessons for truth and reconciliation

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Reconciliation with Day School Survivors

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called attention to inequities in education. While today, Curve Lake’s school for children has been locally operated since the early 1980s, funding formulas still leave First Nation schools grossly underfunded in comparison to their peers in the provincial education system.

The federal government has begun digitizing over six million Day School documents, with about 800,000 already accessible. These resources will be invaluable to communities seeking to recover their histories.

As part of the 2019 class-action settlement with Indian Day School Survivors, a $200 million legacy fund was created for healing, language revitalization, commemoration and truth telling.

However, there is still lots of work to be done across the country in examining the lasting impacts of these institutions within First Nation communities.

As Survivors remind us, reconciliation is not just about documents or apologies. It’s about action. Understanding the role of Indian Day Schools, listening to Survivors and addressing ongoing inequalities are all part of Canada’s unfinished work.

Jackson Pind receives funding from the Social Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Curve Lake’s day school history reveals Indigenous activism in the face of colonial schooling – https://theconversation.com/curve-lakes-day-school-history-reveals-indigenous-activism-in-the-face-of-colonial-schooling-265711

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By David Barrett, Research Associate, Aquatic Science, Faculty of Science, University of Calgary

Recent reports of proposed federal government spending cuts to water monitoring and research strike a particularly ominous note for Canada’s Prairies.

The government is considering significant reductions to programs, specifically within the Canada Water Agency, that could severely impact the science and research capabilities of federal government scientists.

The federal government has a history of successfully applying water research in the Prairies through programs like the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, the Watershed Evaluation of Beneficial Management Practices and the National Freshwater Science Agenda led by the Canada Water Agency.

However, federally led research initiatives may be at risk if funding is cut. This fiscal uncertainty comes at a particularly challenging time.

Semi-arid regions in Western Canada, such as the Prairies, are already facing changing mountain seasonal snowpack and ice conditions, increasing droughts and floods, and shifting growing seasons.

Uncertainties related to water availability and quality affect the livelihoods of many as well as the sustainability of ecosystems. They can also impact the agriculture industry that contributes more than $3 billion annually to Alberta’s GDP alone.

While sustained federal investment remains crucial, the path forward requires a nimbler, collaborative and applied research model. Universities, research and advocacy organizations and non-profit groups should work co-operatively and strategically to leverage their respective expertise and resources.

The Prairie reality: drought and deluge

The hydroclimatic conditions in the Prairies have always been about extremes, and this variability is likely to increase with climate change.

Though a wet spring and early summer have helped address previous long-term drought conditions in southern Alberta, northern areas in the province such as Greenview and Grand Prairie have had to grapple with drought conditions.

This paradox of scarcity and surplus creates a massive management challenge. How do provinces store enough water from a brief, intense spring melt to last through a long, dry summer? How do farmers adapt their practices to this increased variability? Are the existing forecast models adequate to make informed decisions?

Answering these questions requires consistent, credible data and innovative research that could potentially be at risk with the proposed funding cuts. Without relevant and timely data, water managers, researchers and agricultural producers are flying blind.

In Alberta, the government has undertaken initiatives and investments such as large-scale irrigation expansion projects and broader community engagement to better prepare the province for future water availability risks. These initiatives rely on foundational work done under a suite of funding programs.

Diversifying research support

Facing the dual challenge of diminishing funding and increasing climate risks, the Prairies must build a more resilient research ecosystem by diversifying funding and expertise across three interconnected pillars.

Prairie universities are powerhouses of fundamental and policy-relevant research. Initiatives include the United Nations University Hub at the University of Calgary, the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security and the Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative at the University of Lethbridge.

These university-led initiatives play a key role in developing the scientific understanding to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate and develop new technologies and science-informed solutions.

Considering fiscal uncertainty, these institutions must increasingly pursue targeted, policy-driven, partnered research initiatives with governments and agricultural stakeholders, creating a more stable funding foundation for essential work that federal programs alone may no longer support.

Collaboration with universities can significantly leverage research funding and expertise while also helping bridge the prevalent gap between scientific research and policymaking.

Organizations like Results Driven Agricultural Research and farmer-led research and advocacy groups enable on-the-ground testing of lab-generated solutions. Their strength lies in working directly with farmers.

They also are nimble and adaptive, enabling them to respond to emerging priorities and identify emerging policy and research opportunities. This sector is critical for testing, evaluation and adoption.

Alberta Innovates operates on a similar mandate: to strengthen the pipeline from university labs to applied research hubs and ensure innovations make it to the field.

Organizations like Alberta’s Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils and farming Smarter Association are also critical to this three-pronged approach.

They engage directly with landowners, facilitate stewardship programs, undertake local water quality monitoring and act as trusted brokers between competing water users. Their grassroots nature makes them ideal partners for universities and governments seeking to apply research where it matters most.

The way forward

Relying on any single source of research funding for a resource as critical as water is a strategic vulnerability. By fostering a diversified and integrated model that leverages the distinct strengths of academia, applied agriculture and community stewardship, the Prairie provinces can build research resiliency.

By building a collaborative research network focused on the semi-arid regions of Western Canada, there is an opportunity to continue pursuing applied research objectives that answer emerging policy and management concerns.

This approach won’t replace the need for strong federal leadership and investment. But it can create a robust network capable of weathering fiscal and climatic storms. The Prairies must come together to protect our most critical resource — the water that defines our landscape, economy and future.

David Barrett is currently running as a councillor candidate in Calgary’s 2025 municipal election. He has previously received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Government of Alberta and the City of Calgary.

Frederick John Wrona receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the University of Calgary Svare Research Chair endowment and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Juhi Huda works for the Simpson Centre for Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Calgary which receives funding from the Government of Alberta and the Bank of Montreal.

– ref. Governments, universities and non-profits must work together to safeguard Canada’s lakes and rivers – https://theconversation.com/governments-universities-and-non-profits-must-work-together-to-safeguard-canadas-lakes-and-rivers-265368

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Renata Roma, Researcher Associate – Pawsitive Connections Lab, University of Saskatchewan

When it comes to caring for pets, some people worry most about physical health, while others are more concerned about financing potential health problems. But what stands out in a recent survey is that many pet guardians are especially focused on their pets’ emotional well-being, with separation anxiety at the top of the list.

The survey involved 600 pet guardians in the United States. Its results align with recent research highlighting shifts in the ways pets are perceived.

As a researcher who specializes in understanding the impact of the human-animal bond on people’s mental health, I am particularly interested in what these findings reveal about how people’s relationships with their pets shape both human well-being and animals’ welfare.

Paying closer attention to pet guardians’ concerns can help us examine how people’s and pets’ well-being are intertwined. It may also inspire policies more sensitive to the realities of pet guardians, supporting both animals and people.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

In recent years, some studies have highlighted pet guardians’ growing concerns about pets’ mental health. For example, in one study with almost 45,000 pet guardians, 99 per cent of them described moderate or severe behavioural problems in their dogs, with attachment issues or separation anxiety as the most prevalent issue.

Another study suggests that COVID-19 lockdowns were detrimental to the mental health of some pets, particularly for those who already had symptoms of separation anxiety. During the pandemic, most people spent more time with their dogs, which might have strengthened the bond in some respects, but it also reduced pets’ privacy and safe spaces, which are essential for their emotional regulation.

Many people also decreased dog walks, and in homes with only one pet, these animals no longer had opportunities to socialize with other pets. Also, when pet guardians returned to their regular routines once lockdowns were lifted, the change was a trigger for some pets, and not only for dogs with a history of anxiety-related problems. When animals started to stay home alone again, some had difficulties coping with separation.

Another survey suggests that anxiety has increased significantly in dogs and cats since the pandemic, including fears of strangers, anxiety related to other pets and separation anxiety.

Taken together, these findings highlight the significant impact of the pandemic on pets’ behavioural issues, showing that these changes might have affected pets more than people realized.

Interconnections between people’s and pets’ mental health

While these problems in pets are indeed relevant, it is worth examining why they matter so profoundly for pet guardians, as these concerns may reveal something about the evolving role of the human-animal bond.

There is evidence that people’s vulnerability to emotional stress may have increased in recent years along with increased rates of anxiety, depression and a sense of loneliness.

Looking further, the stigma around mental health issues is decreasing, and people are gradually becoming less uneasy about acknowledging and talking about their emotional struggles.

Poorer mental health in guardians may be associated with more behavioural issues in pets. It is possible that a greater sensitization to mental health issues, combined with a stronger perception of pets as family members and a broader trend toward their humanization, is impacting pet guardians’ concerns about their pets.

Additionally, some studies have shown an association between elevated anxiety in pet guardians and increased fears and anxiety-related behaviours in pets. In this context, these findings might reflect broader changes in how pets are perceived, while also mirroring society’s increasing attention to mental health issues and the interplay between human and pet behaviours.

People’s concerns with pet’s behavioural and emotional problems may also reflect their synchrony with companion animals at a different level. More specifically, the fact that these anxiety-related problems are taken seriously by pet guardians, shows a growing acknowledgement of pets’ emotional needs.

At the same time, many people are willing to seek specialized help, including training, hotels and pet boarding services, which are expanding markets.

Some people have even left their jobs for reasons related to their pets, and 60 per cent would consider doing the same if their job conflicted with their pet-care needs, which may reflect people’s growing motivation to ensure their pets’ well-being.

This finding is aligned with studies showing that the implementation of pet-friendly policies can enhance employees’ well-being and work engagement.

Broader implications for human and animal well-being

The human-animal bond is evolving, and there is a need to further explore people’s concerns towards their pets. It is also essential to examine how these concerns may be connected with broader issues of pet guardians and their pets, such as attachment, daily routines and shared well-being.

As outlined in past studies, the relationship with pets may have ups and downs, and sometimes may be a source of stress, which in turn may have negative impacts on the quality of the relationship.

In this regard, chronic stress, along with feelings of insecurity in managing pets’ behavioural issues, may contribute to emotional overload and increased anxiety in pet guardians. Similarly, not responding adequately to pets’ needs can negatively affect their overall welfare.

A deeper understanding of the nature and impacts of pet guardians’ concerns may inform policies designed to support this population. Importantly, recognizing and addressing these concerns is, above all, a way of valuing the pets themselves and the significance of the bond people share with them.

This approach may also support people’s mental health, who may already be exposed to several stressors. In this sense, paying closer attention to pets’ needs may be an essential investment in human mental health and well-being.

Renata Roma 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. Pet guardians are increasingly worried about the mental health of their dogs and cats – https://theconversation.com/pet-guardians-are-increasingly-worried-about-the-mental-health-of-their-dogs-and-cats-265563

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Tiffany Dionne Prete, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, University of Lethbridge

As we observe National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, it is relevant to remember the late Pope Francis.

As the first Latin American and Jesuit Pope, his leadership was marked by efforts to face difficult issues, including those affecting Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

One of the most significant moments of his papacy for this country was his historic public apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the Indian Residential School system. This apology was long-awaited by Survivors, their families and Indigenous communities across Canada.

As the actions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) demonstrated, and as the Pope and many others noted during his visit and since that time, reconciliation is not a single event. It is a long and difficult process requiring sustained action, humility and heart.

Reclaiming with Elders

I am a member of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Treaty 7 territory. My work focuses on reclaiming and reinterpreting the history of the Stolen Children Era alongside Blood Tribe Elders who are residential school Survivors. Through archival research and community partnerships, I examine the colonial policies behind multiple models of schooling imposed on Indigenous children, and how these systems operated.

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Read more:
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: Exhibit features stolen Kainai children’s stories of resilience on Treaty 7 lands

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For more than 150 years, First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken from their families and placed in institutions aimed at erasing their identities, cultures and languages. These schools inflicted deep emotional, physical, sexual and spiritual harm.

The trauma of these events has created a legacy that reverberates through generations as intergenerational trauma. The first such school, the Mohawk Institute, opened its doors in 1831. The last, the Gordon Residential School, closed in 1996.

Brave testimonies

In the 1980s, Survivors began to come forward in growing numbers to share the horrors they endured. Though many were initially met with disbelief, their collective voices grew stronger.

Brave testimonies by Survivors like Nora Bernard and many others ultimately led to the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action suit in Canadian history.

As the truth emerged, formal apologies began to follow from various denominations: the United Church of Canada in 1986 and again in 1998; the Anglican Church of Canada in 1993, 2019 and 2022; and the Presbyterian Church in 1994.

Noticeable absence was papal apology

Catholic religious orders or dioceses offered apologies (for example, the Oblate apology in 1991), but noticeably absent for many years was an apology from the highest leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a federal apology following the settlement agreement in 2007.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released 94 Calls to Action, which were concrete policy recommendations meant to guide Canada toward reconciliation. Call to Action No. 58 specifically called upon the Pope to issue an apology on Canadian soil to survivors, their families and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the abuses that took place in residential schools.

Clear action plans?

It was not until July 25, 2022, that Pope Francis formally issued the apology, during a historic visit to Maskwacis, Alberta.

Reactions to the apology have been mixed. For some, it marked a long-overdue acknowledgment, becoming a symbolic step toward healing. For others, it fell short.

Critics noted that Pope Francis spoke of the abuses as being carried out by “members of the church” rather than clearly naming the institutional role of the Roman Catholic Church itself. He also failed to explicitly name all forms of abuse, omitting mention of the sexual and spiritual violence that Survivors so courageously brought to light.

Perhaps most importantly, his apology lacked a clear action plan for justice, reparations or long-term reconciliation.

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Read more:
Pope’s visit to Canada: Indigenous communities await a new apology — and a commitment to justice

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There have been some signs of progress. For example:

• The Canadian Catholic Church launched a $30 million Indigenous Reconciliation Fund, a not-for-profit charity with an independent board and members comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders, to support initiatives related to: healing and reconciliation for communities and families; culture and language revitalization; education and community building; and dialogues for promoting Indigenous spirituality and culture.

• Some funds have supported Indigenous languages and customs in Catholic services or communities; these point to existing or possible emerging practices of churches with Indigenous members that incorporate Indigenous ceremony.

• The Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery in 2023 — an important but symbolic move rejecting the colonial-era justification for land dispossession.

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Read more:
The Vatican just renounced a 500-year-old doctrine that justified colonial land theft … Now what? — Podcast

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• Some Catholics are involved in networks concerned with genuine listening, creating a “culture of encounter” or church governance that is more open, inclusive and accountable.

But many questions remain. For example:

• While there has been some progress accessing church records, significant records remain hard to locate. For example, I am still looking for the intake and discharge ledgers for most of the schools that my People attended. In my experience working with different archives across Canada, some archivists are more forthcoming than others about their material and processes — for example, about whether archival finding aids detail restricted material.

• The church has yet to return Indigenous artifacts held in the Vatican Museums.

• Many Survivors still wait for explicit financial reparations beyond the $30 million fund.

• Christine Jamieson, associate professor of theological studies, has noted there is work to be done around addressing ongoing “spiritual violence” against Indigenous traditions by the Catholic Church and other Christian churches. How churches respond to Indigenous knowledge and theories of knowlege has implications for ethical research, education and religious practices. The TRC’s Calls to Action No. 59 and No. 60 are about church parties to the IRS Settlement Agreement developing ongoing education strategies and curriculum.

Sustained action, humility and heart

As Sen. Murray Sinclair once wisely noted: “It took seven generations to create the harm through the residential schools. It will take a few generations to turn it around.”

Pope Francis took a first step. The path ahead continues to call for sustained honesty, accountability and commitment from Catholic leaders in Canada and in Rome.

Let us hope that work continues to not only build upon Pope Francis’s initial steps, but to have the courage to speak the truth plainly, act with integrity and walk alongside Indigenous Peoples in the ongoing work of meaningful, lasting reconciliation.

This is a commitment that must endure for generations. May this moment be the seed from which true and lasting transformation can continue to grow.

Tiffany Dionne Prete 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. What’s still needed after the Pope’s residential schools apology? Sustained action, humility and heart – https://theconversation.com/whats-still-needed-after-the-popes-residential-schools-apology-sustained-action-humility-and-heart-255166

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Fenwick McKelvey, Associate Professor in Information and Communication Technology Policy, Concordia University

In the rush to cash in on the generative artificial intelligence gold rush, one possible outcome of AI’s future rarely gets discussed: what if the technology never works well enough to replace your co-workers, companies fail to use AI well or most AI startups simply fail?

Current estimates suggest big AI firms face a US$800 billion dollar revenue shortfall.

So far, genAI’s productivity gains are minimal and mostly for programmers and copywriters. GenAI does some neat, helpful things, but it’s not yet the engine of a new economy.

It’s not a bad future, but it’s different from the one currently driving news headlines. And it’s a future that doesn’t fit the narrative AI firms want to tell. Hype fuels new rounds of investment promising massive future profits.

Maybe genAI will turn out to be worthless, and maybe that’s fine.

Indispensable or indefensible?

Free genAI services, and cheap subscription services like ChatGPT and Gemini, cost a lot of money to run. Right now, however, there are growing questions about just how AI firms are going to make any money.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been candid about how much money his firm spends, once quipping that every time ChatGPT says “please” or “thank you,” it costs the firms millions. Exactly how much OpenAI loses per chat is anyone’s guess, but Altman has also said even paid pro accounts lose money because of the high computing costs that come with each query.

Like many startups, genAI firms have followed the classic playbook: burn through money to attract and lock-in users with a killer product they can’t afford to miss out on. But most tech giants have not succeeded by creating high-cost products, but rather by making low-cost products users can’t quit, largely funded by advertising.

When companies try to find new value, the result is what journalist and author Cory Doctorow coined “enshittification,” or the gradual decline of platforms over time. In this case, enshittification means the number of ads increase to make up the loss of offering the free service.

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The internet is worse than it used to be. How did we get here, and can we go back?

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OpenAI is considering bringing ads to ChatGPT, though the company says it is being “very thoughtful and tasteful” about how this is done.

It’s too soon to tell whether this playbook will work for genAI. There is a possibility that advertising might not generate enough revenue to justify the massive spending needed to power it. That is because genAI is becoming something of a liability.

The hidden costs of AI models

Another looming problem for genAI is copyright. Most AI firms are either being sued for using content without permission or entering costly contracts to licences content.

GenAI has “learned” in a lot of dubious ways, including reading copyrighted books and scraping nearly anything said online. One model can recall “from memory” 42 per cent of the first Harry Potter novel.

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Read more:
Canadian news media are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, but will they win?

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Firms face a big financial headache of lobbying to exempt themselves from copyright woes and paying off publishers and creators to protect their models, which might end up a liability no matter what.

American AI startup Anthrophic tried to pay authors around US$3,000 dollars per book to train its models, adding up to proposed settlement that added up to US$1.5 billion dollars. But it was quickly thrown out by the courts for being too simple. Anthrophic’s current valuation of US$183 billion might get eaten up pretty quick in lawsuits.

The end result of all this is that AI is just too expensive to be owned, and is becoming something like a toxic asset: something that is useful but not valuable in and of itself.

Cheap or free genAI

Meta, perhaps strategically, has released its genAI model, Llama, as open source. Whether this was meant to upset its competitors or signal a different ethical stance, it means anyone with a decent computer can run their own local version of Llama for free.

Open AI models are another corporate strategy to lock in market share, with curious side effects. They are not as advanced as Gemini or ChatGPT, but they are good enough, and they are free (or at least cheaper than commercial models).

Open models upset the high valuations being placed on AI firms. Chinese firm DeepSeek momentarily tanked AI stocks when it released an open model that performed as well as the commercial models. DeepSeek’s motives are murky, but it’s success contributes to growing doubts about whether genAI is as valuable as assumed.

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Read more:
Why building big AIs costs billions – and how Chinese startup DeepSeek dramatically changed the calculus

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Open models — these by-products of industrial competition — are ubiquitous and getting easier to access. With enough success, commercial AI firms might be hard pressed to sell their services against free alternatives.

Investors could also become more skeptical of commercial AI, which could potentially dry up the taps of seed money. Even if open access models also end up being sued into oblivion, it will be much harder to remove them from the internet.

Can AI ever be owned?

The idea of genAI being worthless might recognize knowledge is intangibly valuable. The best genAI models are trained off the world’s knowledge — so much information that the true price may be impossible to calculate.

Ironically, these efforts by AI firms to capture and commercialize the world’s knowledge might be the thing damning their products; a resource so valuable a price cannot be attached. These systems may be so indebted to collective intellectual labour such that their outputs cannot truly be owned.

If genAI can’t generate sustainable profits, the consequences will likely be mixed. Creators pursuing deals with AI firms may be out of luck; there will be no big cheques from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google if their models are liabilities.

Progress on genAI could stall, too, leaving consumers with “good enough” tools that are free to use. In that scenario, AI firms may become less important, the technology a little less powerful — and that might be perfectly OK. Users would still benefit from accessible, functional tools while being spared from another round of overhyped pitches doomed to fail.

The threat of AI being worth less than anticipated might be the best defence against the growing power of big tech today. If the business case for generative AI proves unsustainable, what better place for such an empire to crumble than on the balance sheets?

Fenwick McKelvey receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec.

– ref. Generative AI might end up being worthless — and that could be a good thing – https://theconversation.com/generative-ai-might-end-up-being-worthless-and-that-could-be-a-good-thing-266046

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Timothy Naimi, Director, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research; Professor, School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria

Research has revealed a steep increase in liver disease in recent years. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence of health harms from alcohol, including drinking at levels that were previously considered “moderate.” These developments make a persuasive case for viewing alcohol consumption from a public health perspective.

As an internal medicine physician and alcohol epidemiologist, I’m interested in the overlap between liver disease and alcohol use among patients and in the general population. As it turns out, these topics are closely related, but maybe in surprising ways.

The liver is essential: humans need it to live. The liver contributes to metabolism and food storage, produces proteins that help with blood clotting and plays a vital role in the immune system.

At the cellular level, alcohol is a toxic substance that is metabolized (broken down) primarily in the liver. When the dose of alcohol is too high, liver cells become inflamed and damaged (liver inflammation is called hepatitis).

Over time, inflamed or damaged cells are replaced by fibrosis, which is the replacement of normal liver tissue with scar tissue, resulting in cirrhosis, or severe scarring and liver dysfunction. Cirrhosis can be fatal on its own and can also lead to liver cancer.

How does alcohol contribute to liver disease?

Liver disease caused by alcohol is referred to as alcohol-related liver disease or ALD, previously called alcoholic liver disease. The heaviest drinkers, often those who have alcohol use disorder (AUD), can develop cirrhosis and liver failure.

But alcohol-related liver disease does not only affect people with AUD/heavy drinking. A growing body of evidence suggests chronic alcohol use at lower levels may also impact liver function and lead to disease, particularly among those with other risk factors for liver disease.

Patterns of alcohol consumption are also important, including among those who may not consume high amounts of alcohol on average. For example, binge drinking (defined as men consuming five or more drinks or women consuming four or more drinks per occasion) is a pattern of consumption that is very damaging to the liver because it results in high blood alcohol concentrations.

Binge drinking can be harmful to the liver, even among people who don’t drink very much on average or don’t have an alcohol use disorder.

Why are deaths from liver disease increasing?

Deaths from liver disease have been increasing dramatically in Canada and the United States over the past two decades. A key factor is increased alcohol consumption during the same period, but this has been trending down over the past couple of years. Between 2016 and 2022, Canadian deaths from alcohol-caused liver disease increased by 22 per cent.

But alcohol isn’t the only key contributor to the rise in deaths from liver disease. Another is the rise of a condition called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD.

Despite the complicated name, MASLD is a type of liver disease that is caused by the same metabolic disturbances that have accompanied the rise of overweight and obesity coupled with inadequate physical activity. This is the same set of risk factors that have led to the increase in diabetes. So one can conceive of MASLD as the liver equivalent of diabetes.

Hepatis C, which is a blood-borne viral infection that can be acquired through injection drug use and needle sharing, is another important contributor to liver disease and cirrhosis.

Even though medical terminology has historically differentiated between alcohol and non-alcohol-related liver diseases, alcohol contributes to the progression of supposedly non-alcoholic liver disease, including MASLD and hepatitis C.

My colleagues and I studied patients with MASLD from the U.S.-based Framingham Heart Study. We found that even among non-heavy drinkers, there was a dose-dependent relationship between the amount of alcohol use and the severity of both liver inflammation and fibrosis.

Similarly, even low levels of alcohol use can hasten the development of liver cirrhosis among those with hepatitis C. For example, research has shown that in patients with hepatitis C, there is an 11 per cent increase in risk of cirrhosis with each one-drink increase in average drinks per day.

Preventing and reducing alcohol-caused harms to the liver

Beyond providing medical care for individual patients with known liver disease, steps need to be taken upstream within the health system. These include screening around alcohol use in primary care, counselling interventions for those with risky drinking habits and treatment for those with alcohol use disorders. To do this effectively, there needs to be more resources available for all of these interventions.

However, treating individuals does not address the larger public health issue: measures are needed to lower alcohol consumption at the population level.

This is a cornerstone of preventing and reducing liver disease and its resulting disability, hospitalizations and death. And the most effective way to reduce alcohol consumption is through alcohol control policies that:

• Make alcohol more expensive (for example, alcohol taxes and minimum prices);
• Less available (such as restrictions on hours of sale, or the number of locations that sell alcohol), or
• Less desirable socially (such as limits on advertising and marketing or sports sponsorships).

In previous research, we found that states with 10 per cent stronger or more restrictive alcohol policies had lower ALD mortality rates. Furthermore, states that increased restrictiveness by even five per cent showed subsequent reductions in ALD.

Liver harm caused by alcohol is a public health problem. Collectively, we need to take better care of our livers by taking steps to reduce alcohol consumption in the population.

Timothy Naimi 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 alcohol contributes to the epidemic of liver disease – https://theconversation.com/how-alcohol-contributes-to-the-epidemic-of-liver-disease-262902