The Conversation – Canada – Page 4

May 11, 2026

The women’s rights crisis in Afghanistan is an ongoing humanitarian calamity

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Sepita Hatami, Gender Studies researcher; PhD candidate in Comparative Literature, Western University

Where is one of worst places to be a woman? Afghanistan.

That’s what most people think when it comes to the topic of the women’s rights crisis under the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan. But this only tells part of the story.

Focusing on the word “rights” hides something more serious underneath: how people live and survive in this situation. What’s unfolding in Afghanistan is not just a women’s rights crisis, but a humanitarian disaster.

It affects how people access health care, education, food systems and basic supports and whether these system can function at all when half the population has been systematically removed from them. It forces families to deal with women’s limited access to work and services, often pushing households into deeper economic and social vulnerability.

The Taliban has steadily removed women from public spaces including work, health care and education. Recently, for example, female health-care workers were stopped at the gates of a United Nations office and banned from entering the facility by Taliban authorities.

These ongoing removals are incrementally creating a system that determines who has the right to exist, to provide assistance and to receive assistance.

What’s happening in Afghanistan is not simply gender discrimination; rather, it’s pushing an entire gender out of public systems altogether. The predicament of Afghan women is less a social problem and more a structural crisis that shapes institutions and everyday life.

Gender apartheid

This is why the situation in Afghanistan is increasingly referred to as a form of gender apartheid rather than a women’s rights crisis. The exclusion of women reveals how institutions are built and will be maintained in the future.

Gender apartheid refers to a situation in which people are banned from certain spaces or activities based on their gender identity.

This discriminatory and violent practice in Afghanistan has been widely documented and heavily reported on, but the situation continues to deteriorate daily.

Its effects are also accumulative, with each restriction reinforcing others and deepening the overall crisis. These systemic rights violations would be increasingly difficult to reverse even if political bodies and the ruling government changed tomorrow.

That’s because removing women from professional spaces leads to schools losing teachers, hospitals losing trained staff and aid networks losing access to half the population. And this loss isn’t temporary; it limits how systems can respond to the growing needs around them.

When women get barred from institutions, the problem isn’t just that these organizations suffer in their service delivery and performance. It also results in the loss of institutional memory — the skills, professional knowledge and experience that is no longer transferred to future generations.

Over time, institutions also scale down or suspend certain services due to a shortage of female workers. As services shrink, significant gaps appear in the networks of care and support leaving entire groups of people without consistent access to support.

Blocking aid and support

The Taliban refusal to allow female workers into UN and UNICEF offices is one of many examples happening today in Afghanistan that ban qualified women from entering places where they can deliver urgent care and assistance.

This effective crackdown on women’s rights is blocking aid and support in a society where it’s desperately needed.

Male workers are also limited in the ways they can assist female patients due to Taliban gender norms and restrictions, so support for women cannot be simply reassigned to them. This affects several aspects of humanitarian aid including health care, food distribution and protection systems.

It also delegates the burden of these unmet needs into households where women must provide unpaid labour and care-giving responsibilities.

Taliban rule consequently delays or prevents life-saving interventions for women and children, a violation of the human right to survive.

It’s not just UN and UNICEF offices where women workers are banned from entry: they’re being turned away at other aid organizations, hospitals, schools and various public institutions in a widespread erosion of human rights. The Taliban has put in place a network of human rights violations across the entire humanitarian system.

Humanitarian aid also depends on access to information and correct data: who is hungry, who is unsafe and who needs protection. In Afghanistan, where women are limited in who they can interact with and where female staff are largely absent from outreach, surveys and home visits, this information becomes incomplete.

Poor data leads to incomplete distribution of assistance and mismatched allocation of aid. As a result, the most vulnerable populations can remain invisible in official assessments.

This invisibility especially affects households headed by women and those living in remote or rural areas with already limited access.

Normalizing crises

The impact of Aghanistan’s gender apartheid might not be visible to many outside the country, but in the near future, humanitarian systems will break down.

Future generations of female professionals have already been eliminated by the Taliban’s ban of girls from schools.

UNICEF estimates the ban could cost Afghanistan 25,000 teachers and health-care workers. In a country where women are prohibited from receiving care from male providers, banning women from both education and health-care work creates a profound medical emergency.

Over time, systems will be redesigned without women as providers even as they remain central as recipients. As gender restrictions disrupt the flow of resources, knowledge and care, the capacity to deliver services is declining every day despite high demand. Many women are also pushed into informal or hidden work that is insecure and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

Gender apartheid in Afghanistan will not end through recognition alone. Naming systemic terror does not stop it and, without action, repeated exposure to crisis can instead normalize it through compassion fatigue. Humanitarian organizations now face a stark choice: operate under restrictive conditions and risk legitimizing them, or withdraw and leave people without support.

The longer the situation persists, the more the exclusion of women in Afghanistan risks becoming a normalized structure rather than an emergency. The question is no longer only how to restore what’s been lost, but whether systems once dependent on women’s participation can be rebuilt at all.

Sepita Hatami 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 women’s rights crisis in Afghanistan is an ongoing humanitarian calamity – https://theconversation.com/the-womens-rights-crisis-in-afghanistan-is-an-ongoing-humanitarian-calamity-281686

May 11, 2026

Canada’s new sovereign wealth fund is ambitious, but its design raises questions

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Paul Calluzzo, Associate Professor and Toller Family Fellow of Finance, Queen’s University, Ontario

Prime Minister Mark Carney recently announced Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund, the Canada Strong Fund. It’s aimed at investing $25 billion in domestic projects while offering Canadians a chance to invest alongside the government.

The fund has a dual mandate to deliver market-rate returns while also investing in Canadian projects that build a stronger and more resilient economy.

But these goals can conflict, and the fund’s current design raises questions the government has not yet fully answered.

What is a sovereign wealth fund?

A sovereign wealth fund is a pot of money owned and invested by a government to generate returns and build national wealth over time.

More than 100 exist globally, collectively managing more than US$10 trillion in assets. Most are funded from commodity surpluses or foreign-exchange reserves.

They differ from other public funds in important ways. Public pension funds manage money on behalf of retirees. Public banks and development funds lend or invest at below-market rates to achieve policy goals. Central bank reserves are held as a financial buffer, not invested for return.

Sovereign wealth funds are explicitly in the business of growing state capital. Governments can also use them to achieve geopolitical and economic goals.

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, valued at approximately US$2.2 trillion, is the best-known example. It invests oil revenue in a globally diversified portfolio to preserve the country’s resource wealth for future generations.

The Santiago Principles — a set of voluntary governance standards adopted by the international sovereign wealth fund community in 2008 — outline what responsible management looks like.

How does Canada Strong compare?

Canada’s new sovereign wealth fund fits the criteria of being government-owned and seeking market-rate returns. However, it diverges from standard practice in three notable ways.

First, it will be funded from a budget that is already in deficit. Canada’s projected deficit for 2025-26 is $66.9 billion. The $25 billion for the fund will be drawn from the federal budget over three years, meaning the fund is being prioritized over debt reduction and other spending commitments.

Second, the fund will focus on domestic investment. Most sovereign wealth funds invest globally, following best practices from the Santiago Principles to diversify risk.

A fund concentrated in one country’s economy heightens financial risk and is more exposed to political pressure. This concern is serious enough that some sovereign wealth funds have banned domestic investments completly.

Third, it will include an option for retail investors to directly invest in the fund. No existing sovereign wealth fund offers this.

Asset recycling and its risks

To grow the fund over time, the government is also considering raising funds through what it calls “asset recycling” or “asset optimization.”

Pioneered in Australia through a 2014 federal initiative, asset recycling involves selling or leasing public assets to fund new infrastructure.

Early reporting suggests the federal government is considering selling or leasing airports and reinvesting those funds into the Canada Strong Fund.

When asset managers take over public infrastructure, it introduces an additional dimension of risk. The Thames Water company’s record of sewage dumping, crumbling infrastructure and high levels of debt in the United Kingdom offers one cautionary case study.

Research on the privatization of both the Heathrow and Brussels airports highlights increased costs for airlines and passengers, with poorer levels of service.

A dual mandate and its trade-offs

In addition to higher risk, the Canada Strong Fund’s dual mandate may also lead to lower returns. If the fund invests on fully commercial terms alongside private investors, it risks crowding out private capital in projects that would have been funded anyway.

If, instead, it accepts lower returns when supporting strategic projects, it quietly abandons the market-rate mandate and the promise of creating wealth for Canadians.

Where the government identifies infrastructure priorities without a clear business case, it could consider direct public ownership rather than routing investment through the Canada Strong Fund.

When mixing priorities, the trade-off against financial performance is unavoidable. To have a genuine impact, the Canada Strong Fund will need to behave less like a sovereign wealth fund and more like the Canada Infrastructure Bank or the Canada Growth Fund.

Unlike the Canada Strong Fund, however, those two vehicles are upfront about accepting below-market returns to advance their priorities.

What about retail investors?

The most novel feature of the Canada Strong Fund is the retail investment product. The government has said the product will be broadly accessible to Canadians, simple to purchase and structured so investors share in any upside while their initial capital is protected.

According to a 2024 survey conducted for the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, there has been a significant drop in the retirement readiness of Canadians since 2019. A retail product tied to Canadian nation-building could, in principle, help address that gap.

Yet challenges remain. The promise of shared upside with limited downside risk introduces complexity to the product. The performance of complex instruments is lower than the performance of simpler instruments. Retail investors may also struggle to gauge the risk-reward trade-offs associated with the Canada Strong Fund’s dual mandate.

There is also the question of what happens if the fund loses money. The government has stated they will protect the initially invested capital of retail investors, but it is not clear where this money will come from.

If retail investors effectively pay an embedded insurance premium, that premium reduces their return. If the government subsidizes the cost of that protection, it amounts to a cross-subsidy from Canadians who do not participate in the fund to those who do — an outcome that could be regressive, depending on who invests.

What would make it work?

A well-designed Canadian sovereign wealth fund has genuine potential to grow our nation’s generational wealth and financial resilience.

Other sovereign wealth funds have achieved these ends through a focused mandate to invest for financial objectives, as outlined in the Santiago Principles. The odds of Canada Strong Fund succeeding would be improved by pivoting towards these principles.

Canada could follow Norway’s model of running two separate funds. It could leave the existing Canada Growth Fund to pursue domestic strategic investments, and have the Canada Strong Fund invest abroad with the sole goal of building national wealth.

That separation would reduce internal conflict, clarify accountability and give the retail product a cleaner return profile.

Paul Calluzzo receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Dan Cohen receives grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: one on monetary policy (grant number 435-2022-0069) and one on social finance (grant number 4030-2020-00085). He is also a member of the New Democratic Party.

Evan Jo 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. Canada’s new sovereign wealth fund is ambitious, but its design raises questions – https://theconversation.com/canadas-new-sovereign-wealth-fund-is-ambitious-but-its-design-raises-questions-281836

May 11, 2026

Studying racial and ethnic health inequality in Canada: What we need to get right

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chloe Sher, PhD Candidate, Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto

Health disparities across racial and ethnic groups persist in Canada. But how the country can effectively address them hinges upon how it can better study these differences.

In a recent paper I co-authored, we examine how researchers study racial and ethnic inequalities in health. We identify four persistent problems: unclear categories of race and ethnicity, a white-centred lens, heavy reliance on majority-defined health outcomes and limited explanation of why these disparities arise.

We discuss these issues drawing heavily on evidence from the United States. This reflects the state of the field: Much of the research and many of the frameworks used to study racial and ethnic health inequality come from the U.S. and have been widely applied in Canadian research.

Canada and the U.S. share a history of colonialism, structural racism and white dominance that continues to shape persistent health inequalities across racial and ethnic groups.

But Canada is also different in several important ways. It has a larger immigrant population shaped by selective immigration policies, wider variation in social and economic conditions across regions and communities and a higher proportion of Indigenous Peoples. Data are often more limited, and policies such as universal health care shape how inequality is experienced and addressed.

To better understand and address health inequalities in Canada, Canadians must rethink how race and ethnicity are studied and ground approaches in the Canadian context.

Canada is not the U.S.

Canada’s social policies are distinct from American policies. To begin with, the racial and ethnic makeup of the populations differ. Canada, for example, has a smaller Black population and a larger Asian population than the U.S.. These differences reflect broader historical and institutional contexts that shape how racial and ethnic inequalities are structured in each country.

At the same time, Indigenous Peoples are more central to health inequality in Canada. This is because Canada has a relatively high percentage of Indigenous Peoples compared to the U.S. and many other more economically developed nations. The health of Indigenous Peoples is shaped by a long history of colonialism and ongoing structural disadvantage.

Immigrant population also differs. About one-quarter of Canada’s population is foreign-born, compared to about one in seven in the U.S. Canada’s selective immigration system means many immigrants arrive with relatively high levels of education and good health. This contributes to patterns like “the healthy immigrant effect.”

Research has shown that Canada exhibits the healthy immigrant effect, in which newly arrived immigrants tend to have better health than the Canadian-born population, though this advantage often declines over time with longer residence. Inequality does not line up neatly with race.

Policy matters too. Canada promotes multiculturalism, while the U.S. emphasizes assimilation into a single national culture. Canada has universal health care, which reduces financial barriers to basic care.

But this coverage is partial. Services such as prescription drugs, dental care and mental-health support are not fully covered and often depend on employment benefits or where people live. Since health care is organized at the provincial level, access and quality also vary across regions. These gaps shape who gets timely care and who falls through the cracks.

The problem with ‘visible minority’

The term “visible minority” is prevalent in research on racial and ethnic health disparities in Canada. But it often does more harm than good.

At its core, it lumps all non-white, non-Indigenous people into one group. That means populations with vastly different histories, migration paths and socioeconomic status are treated homogeneously. The ability to see meaningful differences in health across groups like Chinese, South Asian and Black communities is diminished.

It also mixes up race and immigration. Many studies don’t separate immigrants from Canadian-born racialized populations. This matters because of the healthy immigrant effect. If newer immigrants are healthier on average, combining them with long-settled groups can make inequalities look smaller than they really are.

The term itself is also ambiguous. People do not always understand or interpret it in the same way, and it’s often taken literally to include anyone visibly different, such as those with disabilities or who are transgender, which complicates its use in health research.

In many ways, the problem stems from data. Canada has limited, inconsistent race-based data. Racial categories are not standardized, and detailed race-based data are often hard to access. Due to limited data availability, researchers could only rely on broad racial terms. This aggravates the problem: instead of revealing inequality, it hides it.

We measure health too narrowly

Another issue is how health is defined in the first place. Most studies rely on standard measures such as life expectancy, chronic illness or mortality. These measures are important, but they only tell part of the story. They reflect a narrow, biomedical view, often omitting how diverse racial and ethnic groups actually experience health and well-being.

Considering Indigenous communities as an example, health is not solely about the absence of disease. It includes connections to land, culture, community and spirituality, alongside physical and mental well-being. Defining health narrowly can marginalize groups by neglecting how different groups understand and experience health.

A narrow focus also makes inequality harder to see. Different groups face distinct health risks and barriers. When we rely on only a few measures, important health problems and inequalities can be overlooked.

A Canadian approach

Studying racial and ethnic health inequality in Canada requires a distinctly Canadian approach. The population, data and policy context differ from those in the U.S., and these differences shape both how inequalities emerge and how they should be studied.

This means moving beyond broad categories, improving race-based data, and using more meaningful and diverse measures of health. It also requires closer attention to context, including Indigenous and rural settings, as well as Canada’s social, immigration and health policy landscape.

To effectively address health disparities, research needs to be grounded in Canada’s realities, not simply adapted from models developed elsewhere.

Chloe Sher previously received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

– ref. Studying racial and ethnic health inequality in Canada: What we need to get right – https://theconversation.com/studying-racial-and-ethnic-health-inequality-in-canada-what-we-need-to-get-right-279104

May 11, 2026

Writing for well-being: How it could be a new way to teach the essay and resist AI

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Lindsey McMaster, Instructor, English Studies and Academic Writing, Nipissing University

Writing the dreaded English essay spikes anxiety for thousands of students, but is there a way for writing to boost students’ well-being instead?

I wanted to know if a new approach to teaching literary studies could tap into the feel-good side of writing and make essays a path to wellness, so I designed an English course to try it out at Nipissing University.

We know that university students are at risk of mental-health struggles, particularly depression and anxiety. If writing can help instead of stress them out, it could be a refreshing change for English studies — and a new way for teachers to introduce essay writing.

Studies show that writing can boost your mental and physical health if you focus on expressing your emotions and digging for insight.

Paying more attention to the positives in our lives, specifically by writing them down, could further enhance short- and long-term well-being.

Starting with journalling

Students first need to find out that writing can actually support well-being.

In the course, they took up a journalling habit, but it wasn’t just about venting their feelings or writing whatever came to mind. We looked at studies on how writing can reshape your thinking and boost positivity.

Three methods stood out:

Write down “three good things” about each day and, importantly, your own role in bringing them about. This technique was pioneered in a study led by psychologist Martin Seligman. Participants who adopted the approach reported feeling happier and less depressed at the one-month, three-month and six-month points. It’s now been widely shared, and it’s a great way to start a new journalling habit because it’s straightforward and effective.
Look to the future and write about your best possible self. When you imagine a fulfilled version of yourself, it will motivate you to do the hard work to get there. According to psychologist Laura A. King, when you imagine a fulfilled version of yourself, you can experience the health benefits of writing without revisiting negatives from the past.
Add creativity to your journalling. Turn a moment from your day into a comic; narrate your day as if it were happening in Middle Earth; write a haiku about your toothpaste. A diary-based study of more than 600 young adults led by psychologist Tamlin Conner showed a straightforward effect where being creative one day boosted well-being the next.

Case study on the self

Where journalling provides a space to play around with techniques, essays give students a place to reflect on their efforts, report on the results and hypothesize about positive effects of the experience.

One of the fascinating things about writing for well-being is that no one knows for certain why it works. Across studies it shows reliable, modest benefits, but the underlying mechanism for its effects hasn’t been pinned down — so students’ own theories could contribute to solving a real mystery.

Writers feed off inspiration. Showing students that authors have been using writing for well-being — and making great art in the process — gives them that extra push to keep writing and go deeper.

Inspiration from literature

Among Canadian authors, L. M. Montgomery’s story is especially compelling. Her famous books like Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon have made a utopia of Prince Edward Island; but inwardly, Montgomery experienced deep mental anguish, leading to addiction in her later life.

Her journals detail this other side to her life and show how she used writing to ease her mental suffering. As she memorably notes in an entry from 1904:

“I feel better for writing it out. It is almost as efficacious as swearing would be and much more respectable.”

Looking to Montgomery as a mentor helped students realize how creative and immersive personal writing can be, in turn motivating them to push forward with their own journalling.

Discussing Montgomery’s life writing in their essays made sense because they could see how her efforts to find solace through writing were relatable to their own.

Easing back on literary jargon

Poetry can beautifully map a state of mind. But traditional approaches to teaching it have a tendency to suck the life out of literature that should be a joy and a delight.

Instead of taking what some teachers call a “technique spotting” approach where you count up the metaphors, teaching English from a well-being perspective taps into poetry’s healing qualities.

In the United Kingdom, the Poetry Pharmacy movement spearheaded by publisher and arts advocate William Sieghart focuses on the healing power of poetry.

His curated poetry collections pair thoughtfully selected poems with one-page prescriptions, highlighting each work’s curative potential for conditions like insecurity, regret, loneliness and more. Both the poem itself and the interpretation serve to advance self-knowledge and alleviate mental suffering.

‘The Healing Power of Poetry’ TEDxOxford talk with William Sieghart.

Students easily ran with this idea. They found joy in poems that spoke to their lived experience, used empathy to recommend poems to others in need and wrote movingly in essays about the mental-health issues they face most often — like academic pressure, fear of failure, homesickness, social anxiety, perfectionism, procrastination and more.

The poetry-remedy concept also lent itself to experiential approaches where students could tape a chosen poem on their mirror, make it the lock screen on their phone, share it with a loved one, create a painting or visual, text it to a distant friend — and ultimately share the story of what happened in essay form or classroom discussion.

Turning away from AI

Essays are a notoriously difficult part of academic life, which is why generative AI presents such an irresistible pull to the stressed-out student. If essay writing is no more than a tedious recital, it’s no wonder they would gladly pass along what AI spews out on such topics.

Writing instead about your own interior world, finding evidence in your own experience and using literature to light a personalized path to growth are tasks that cannot be easily farmed out to a text-generator — because they speak directly to your own humanity.

The idea that writing can offer fresh avenues for growth and betterment is a welcome reminder of what genuine human writing is truly for.

In teaching a course on it, I found writing for well-being to be an exciting expansion of English studies broadly and essay writing in particular. It can support students’ writing and communication skills while genuinely enriching their lives, and it can help us inspire students with what’s most important in the study of literature: a lifetime love of reading and a willingness to take up the pen.

Lindsey McMaster 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. Writing for well-being: How it could be a new way to teach the essay and resist AI – https://theconversation.com/writing-for-well-being-how-it-could-be-a-new-way-to-teach-the-essay-and-resist-ai-263703

May 11, 2026

From AI companions to climate action, we undervalue what lies ahead

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Rahul Ravi, Professor of Finance, Concordia University

Millions of people around the world now use AI companions — for friendship, emotional support, mental health counselling and romantic interactions. This includes 72 per cent of adolescents, according to one study from the United States.

Meanwhile, human-caused climate change has already led to widespread impacts and rising risks, some of them irreversible. Yet emissions remain high.

As a professor of finance, I see these phenomena as different expressions of the same underlying bias: we apply too high a discount rate to the future.

The idea of a discount rate is straightforward. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. The discount rate tells us by how much. Set that rate too high, and you systematically undervalue what lies ahead. Set it too low, and you over-invest in distant outcomes.

In many parts of life, we set this rate too high. Behavioural economist David Laibson showed that people place disproportionate weight on immediate rewards, even when this leads to worse outcomes over time.

In finance, we understand that valuation depends critically on the discount rate applied to future cash flows. In life, we continue to apply a discount rate that is too high, marking down the future to the point where it no longer meaningfully constrains the present.

What feels good now

Psychologist Hal Hershfield’s research on the future self helps explain why. People often perceive their future selves more as another person than as a continuation of who they are now. This makes it easier for the self that benefits today to shift costs onto the self that must bear them tomorrow.

Looking at this through a finance lens, it resembles a “principal-agent problem,” where managers may prioritize short-term incentives over the long-term interests of shareholders.

In both cases, the person making the decision does not fully bear the long-term cost. But the future does not disappear. It simply becomes easier to ignore.

Investment in relationships

This logic becomes easier to see if we look at how we build relationships. Strong relationships require time and a willingness to tolerate discomfort.

Trust and intimacy involve immediate effort but the benefits accumulate gradually. By contrast, autonomy and flexibility offer immediate rewards. They preserve options and reduce constraints, making it easy to defer relational investment.

But relationships, like other forms of capital, depend on sustained investment, and delayed investment is often hard to recover later.

The same logic can also be seen in family structures and broader social connections. Strong ties in families, friendships and communities depend on time and repeated interaction. Without it, those ties weaken.

As those ties weaken, loneliness becomes more likely. Research shows that loneliness and social isolation are associated with significant health risks. In this sense, loneliness can be understood as the long-term consequence of insufficient investment in connection when it was easier to build.

How loneliness is killing us, according to Harvard professor Robert Waldinger.

These patterns are not only individual. They also reflect the way modern life is increasingly organized around immediacy and convenience. Technology makes interaction faster, easier and more responsive, but many of the things that matter most in the long run still require time, patience and discomfort. The result is a social environment that increasingly rewards responsiveness over endurance.

Immediate benefits

Seen in this light, AI companions are not an anomaly. They are emerging in an era of widespread loneliness, where many people are seeking connection that feels reliable and low in emotional cost.

Back in 2002, pioneering research by Clifford Nass and Youngme Moon showed that people apply social rules to computers even when they know they’re not human. Almost 25 years later, research now suggests AI can provide emotional support and a real sense of companionship in the short term. From today’s perspective, this is an efficient solution: the benefits are immediate and reliable.

The concern is not that AI companionship fails. It’s that it succeeds too well in the present. By reducing effort, uncertainty and emotional risk, AI companions make connection easier to access but may also shift expectations in ways that are harder to sustain over time in human relationships. In that sense, they reflect the same trade-off: immediate comfort at the expense of longer-term relational depth.

The same logic extends beyond individual life and helps explain how societies respond to long-term problems.

Climate change is perhaps the clearest example. The impacts of our warming planet are already very evident and yet we’re slow to act. This is, in part, because the economic benefits of extraction and consumption are immediate, while many of the costs are delayed and dispersed across time.

A voiceless future

Across many human domains, from AI and personal relationships to climate change, the structure is the same: The present is immediate and rewarded; the future is abstract, distant and silent. So, decisions skew toward today.

This is not simply a matter of awareness or intention. It is structural. The future has no meaningful representation in present decision-making. It has no voice, no urgency and no direct claim. And so it’s discounted.

This is what Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the “tragedy of the horizon.” Whether in the climate crisis or the loneliness epidemic, the catastrophic impacts will be felt beyond the traditional horizons of investment cycles and political terms.

Because the future has no seat at the board table, it is treated as an externality — a cost we don’t have to account for today, but one that is compounding at an unsustainable rate.

Until we find ways to give the future a real stake in present decisions, we will continue to choose what is easier now and pay for it later.

The tendency to discount the future is deeply human. But in a world increasingly shaped by AI systems, weakening social ties and accelerating climate risk, the costs of doing so are becoming harder to ignore.

Rahul Ravi 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. From AI companions to climate action, we undervalue what lies ahead – https://theconversation.com/from-ai-companions-to-climate-action-we-undervalue-what-lies-ahead-279838

May 10, 2026

New research highlights how wildfires are harming fish

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Philip N. Owens, Professor and FRBC Endowed Research Chair in Landscape Ecology, University of Northern British Columbia

As we transition into spring, wildfires are on the minds of many Canadians. In fact, wildfires have already started in some parts of the country.

Over the last decade, the land burned in Canada and many other parts of the world has increased, resulting in more socially and economically disastrous wildfires. Predictions indicate the Canadian situation could worsen over the next few decades as the climate warms and soils and forests get drier.

While the impacts on humans, forests and the animals that live in them are the most observable effects, wildfires also have devastating impacts on aquatic life, especially fish. Many of these occur during and shortly after the fire is out, but others can continue for years, and potentially, decades.

We recently published research conducted in British Columbia into how wildfires are affecting water resources and fish habitat. We used a rainfall simulator to instigate surface runoff and soil erosion at various sites impacted by the 2023 North Lucas Lake wildfire. We showed that erosion is much worse on severely burned and steep slopes.

More water in rivers

One of the immediate impacts on fish after a wildfire comes from the increase in water draining from the burned land and entering rivers. Without thick forest cover to store and use rainfall, more water runs off over the soil towards rivers.

In some situations, soil can become water-repellent, as gases from the burning vegetation enter and condense below the topsoil, forming a barrier and limiting the amount of rainfall that can infiltrate.

Erosion damage and burned trees in a forested area — Runoff and erosion following a wildfire in the Deadman River watershed, B.C.
(Philip Owens/UNBC), CC BY

The lack of vegetation also means that more heat from the sun reaches the snowpack, which causes snowmelt to occur faster and earlier. This adds to the amount of water entering rivers and also changes the annual timing of spring melt.

The increased supply of runoff entering rivers increases the volume and velocity of water, which can be problematic for fish, including young salmon that, in spring, may be emerging from spawning gravels. These shifts in timing can result in less flow in late summer and fall, a time when adult salmon return to spawn in their natal streams.

More sediment and debris

Roots normally hold the soil together. However, when forests are burned, the soil loses that support system. Our research shows that the lack of vegetation on hill slopes and the increase in runoff also cause more soil erosion.

This eroded sediment gets washed into rivers, increasing the turbidity, or cloudiness, of the water. That can pose serious problems for fish that rely on sight to hunt. Particles in the water column can scratch exposed membranes and tissues, such as gills, eyes and skin, leading to physical damage and impaired function. In extreme cases, it can clog tissues and organs.

Some of the sediment gets deposited on the channel bed. This can smother important food sources, such as insect larvae, snails and worms, and fill in spaces in the gravels where salmon, sturgeon and other species would typically lay their eggs.

The blockage of these spaces in the channel bed prevents water from flowing through the gravels, which should deliver dissolved oxygen and remove harmful carbon dioxide from the gravels. This essentially leads to suffocation.

And there are often debris flows and landslides after wildfires in hilly and mountainous areas, sometimes many years later. This adds further sediment and debris, and in extreme cases can dam rivers, blocking fish stock passage, as happened at the Chilcotin River in British Columbia in 2024.

Another issue is the impact on water temperatures in rivers. Trees provide shade, but when they are gone, sunlight heats the water. Water temperatures are key to the health and survival of many fish and other species, with higher temperatures being a key stressor.

Harmful chemicals

four images of alevin with yolk sacs. One is healthy, the other three exhibit various deformities like a twisted tail and yolk edema. — Comparisons between healthy young Chinook salmon and those with deformities after being exposed to wildfire sediment and higher water temperatures at the Quesnel River Research Centre.
(Smriti Batoye/Quesnel River Research Centre), CC BY-NC-ND

Wildfires can cause chemicals to be flushed into rivers. Nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, while not necessarily toxic, can cause changes in aquatic ecology and fish size in high concentrations due to wildfires.

They also contribute to harmful algal blooms in rivers and lakes. Evidence suggests that nutrients contained in wildfire ash is being deposited on lakes.

There are also often spikes in metals and organic contaminants in rivers and lakes after a fire. While these are natural byproducts of a fire, our research shows that they concentrate in soils and sediments following wildfires. We have determined that these chemicals can change fish behaviour, cause deformities or, at extreme levels, be toxic to fish.

Studies have also shown that fire retardants — chemicals used to control and extinguish fires — can be toxic to rainbow trout.

Protecting fish

It’s not a hopeless situation. Communities, organizations and Indigenous Peoples are developing innovative ways to help protect and remediate rivers and lakes following wildfires.

In British Columbia, the BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund has funded projects to support salmon, including the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s Wildfire Playbook. This resource compiles best practices and offers guidance to integrate salmon into wildfire recovery planning.

The Skeetchestn Indian Band is partnering with the Pacific Salmon Foundation and others using collaborative, multidisciplinary monitoring and research to understand how the Deadman River watershed is recovering following a catastrophic wildfire in 2021, and to help guide restoration priorities.

Elsewhere, others have investigated how beavers and artificially constructed beaver dams can protect aquatic ecosystems after wildfire.

Wildfires will continue to be part of our future. Knowing their impact on rivers and lakes will help communities make informed decisions around protecting fish and other aquatic life, and ultimately, sustain resilient watersheds.

Smriti Batoye, a postdoctoral fellow at UNBC’s Quesnel River Research Centre, co-authored this article.

Philip N. Owens receives funding from the BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, Ecofish Research Ltd, Forest Renewal British Columbia, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Nechako Environmental Enhancement Fund and the University of Northern British Columbia.

Ellen Petticrew receives funding from the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, Forest Renewal British Columbia, Natural Sciences and Engineering Canada, and the University of Northern British Columbia.

Jason Raine receives funding from the BC Salmon and Restoration Fund, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Forest Renewal BC, Natural Resources Canada: Multi-Partner Research Initiative, NSERC Alliance and the University of Northern British Columbia.

Kristen Kieta receives funding from the BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund.

– ref. New research highlights how wildfires are harming fish – https://theconversation.com/new-research-highlights-how-wildfires-are-harming-fish-281127

May 10, 2026

Is an A still an A? The truth behind grade inflation

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Christopher DeLuca, Associate Dean, School of Graduate Studies & Professor, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Ontario

Recently, a spate of news coverage has raised concerns about grade inflation in schools across Canada.

These concerns stem in part from policies stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was widespread cancellation of large-scale tests, freezing of grades during school closures and “compassionate” grading practices that accounted for students’ personal situations.

Together, these changes led to a spike in average student grades and spurred ongoing worries about grade inflation.

But these concerns aren’t new. Grades have been steadily rising in the United States and Canada for decades. Harvard University’s grade point average, for example, has risen almost every year since the 1950s. So just how serious is post-pandemic grade inflation?

What is grade inflation?

Grade inflation refers to the tendency for students to receive higher grades over time, on average.

Put simply, work that might have been awarded an 85 per cent in 1990 might now receive 90 per cent. The implicit assumption is that this rise in grades is unearned and that student performance has not actually improved.

If grades lose their signalling power — that is, if students, families, universities and employers cannot trust grades or no longer know what they mean — then selection, promotion and other important decisions get undermined.

The facts behind grade inflation

Most studies about grade inflation find that students’ average grades have increased steadily over time. Grade increases during the pandemic are also well-documented.

For example, between 2019 and 2021, average grades for Grade 12 students in the Toronto District School Board increased six per cent. Between 2016 and 2021, the percentage of A-level students taking the ACT, a standardized test for U.S. college admissions, rose more than 13 per cent.

Our search for published studies that document grade inflation in Canada since the pandemic did not yield any findings: there has been no concrete data from Canadian elementary or secondary schools on grades being inflated since 2021.

Current conversations about grade inflation often zero in on the role of grades in college and university admissions because most post-secondary programs use students’ grades in the admissions process.

As a CBC investigation of data from the Council of Ontario Universities has shown, entry averages for Grade 12 students have been rising for some time. Data from the council show that across 16 universities, the median entry grade rose from 81.4 per cent in 2006 to 88.2 per cent in 2021.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports that at the University of Manitoba, 40 per cent of high school students admitted in 2024 had a grade of at least 95 per cent.

Post-secondary supply and demand

But a rising admissions average is different than grade inflation in elementary and secondary school. Increases in university admission averages are a function of multiple factors, most directly supply and demand.

Let’s take the Ontario data as an example. Between 2005 and 2022, the number of applications to Ontario’s universities rose 86.5 per cent. That’s 344,000 more applications. At the same time, the number of students who went on to register also rose, but only by 31.2 per cent.

That means that even if average grades had stayed the same, students with lower grades were increasingly less likely to get admitted because they are competing with more applicants. Demand is outpacing supply.

Avoiding difficult courses

The current supply and demand issue has real consequences on students’ pressure to get higher grades in secondary school. Sixty-one per cent of American teenagers say they feel pressured to get good grades. That focus on grades increases student anxiety and makes students more likely to avoid difficult courses.

Teachers and university instructors also report pressure to give good grades, especially when grades and graduation rates are used to evaluate performance.

These pressures are longstanding — there has always been pressure on students to perform and on teachers to award high grades — but the increased competition for seats in post-secondary provides additional fodder for grade inflation.

Providing additional provincial funding to increase spaces at universities and colleges could help address these pressures.

Why have grades increased?

There are multiple reasons grades increase. First, in almost every province, the share of people graduating high school has been increasing for years.

More high school graduates means more passing grades, which typically results in higher average grades.

And we want students to learn and achieve. On average, secondary school graduates live longer, earn more money and are less likely to be incarcerated.

Shifts in assessment policies, teaching

Second, teachers’ use of evidence-based teaching and assessment strategies is supporting better learning. Shifts in school assessment policies over the past 20 years help students better understand what the learning goals are and what success looks like. These also encourage feedback to close the gap between where students are and their learning goal.

Assessment policies have also separated assessing learning skills and habits from assessing curriculum content knowledge.

Manitoba’s assessment policy, for example, tells teachers to base grades on students’ actual achievement, not on things like effort, participation or attitude.

Such policies acknowledge that docked marks or zeroes are sometimes needed for late or missing work, but caution that such practices may misrepresent student achievement. If grades and behaviour aren’t reported separately, it becomes difficult to know what a “B-” grade represents, for example. It may mean proficient achievement, or it may mean “C-level work with A-level effort,” “A-level work that’s late” or something else.

Schools have also made evidence-based teaching advances, such as using differentiated instructional strategies and culturally responsive teaching. One expected result from these changes should be higher grades.

Is an A still an A?

The purpose of grades is to communicate student achievement. While that purpose is less important than the main purpose of assessment — to improve student learning — students, parents and other stakeholders still depend on grades to make decisions.

Importantly, and contrary to many people’s understanding, teachers don’t grade on a bell curve. There is no limit to the number of As and the quality of learning it represents. In fact, having more students achieving higher grades is good, if the grades are warranted and accurately reflect what students know and are able to do.

Should we be concerned?

Even though the pandemic created a spike in grades, the lack of research since means we do not accurately know the current state of grade inflation or how grades may be assigned differently across different groups of students (for example, across family income, race or gender).

While grades are increasing, they continue to hold their signalling power. Grades can still be trusted alongside other measures to make important decisions.

Even when grades rise, we shouldn’t assume that every rise is unearned or indefensible. The full picture is messier than that.

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

– ref. Is an A still an A? The truth behind grade inflation – https://theconversation.com/is-an-a-still-an-a-the-truth-behind-grade-inflation-280653

May 10, 2026

No more ‘just say no’ — Canadian schools will soon have a roadmap to address student substance use

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Tonje Mari Molyneux, Research Scientist and Preventive Pedagogy Specialist, University of British Columbia

The message to students used to be simple: “Just say no.”

But in today’s schools, that message is not only outdated, it may be part of the problem.

Across Canada, student substance use is a growing concern. According to the most recent national student survey, 15 per cent of students in Grades 7-12 reported vaping in the past month, and 18 per cent identified using multiple substances at the same time. Many Grade 7 students could not identify the health risks of substances they can easily access.

Schools want to respond more effectively. But many are doing so without a clear roadmap.

New standard based on evidence

A new cross-Canada standard, to be officially launched soon, aims to change that. It sets out what evidence-informed substance use prevention, education and intervention should look like from kindergarten through Grade 12 (K-12).

Rather than prescribing a single program, it provides a shared, evidence-informed framework, outlining the principles, practices and structures that are most likely to make a difference. And it’s designed to complement what provinces, territories and districts are already doing.

But the standard on its own won’t change what happens in schools. Without system-level support, even the best guidance risks sitting on a shelf.

Our national survey of more than 200 K–12 administrators highlights the gap. Nearly 90 per cent reported frequent student substance use challenges in schools, with vaping as the top concern. While almost two-thirds said they were willing to change their approach, far fewer felt they had the evidence, resources or support to do so effectively.

Without clear alternatives, many schools default to familiar responses, particularly zero-tolerance policies that can lead to suspension or expulsion — approaches that can sever the very connections that help buffer young people from substance use harms in the first place.

This isn’t a failing of individual educators. It’s a systems problem.

The new standard responds to the realities young people are navigating today, including the proliferation of vaping, the legalization of cannabis and an increasingly toxic drug supply. Without shared guidance, current approaches vary widely, and many still rely on scare tactics and abstinence-only messaging, which decades of research show don’t have a lasting impact.

The challenge extends beyond the classroom. Our analysis of nearly a decade of Canadian news coverage found that youth substance use is often framed as an individual problem, with young people portrayed as a threat to themselves.

Missing from these narratives are the broader social and structural factors that shape their substance use. This framing makes it harder for schools to adopt approaches that are more supportive, and ultimately, more effective.

How the new standard is different

The new standard was developed through a national partnership between Wellstream: The Canadian Centre for Innovation in Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of British Columbia, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction and the Canadian Association of School System Administrators.

Physical Health and Education Canada and the Students Commission of Canada joined to support a robust implementation strategy. Educators, researchers, health professionals and Indigenous interest holders all contributed.

Young people also helped shape this work from the beginning. Youth were part of the technical committee and student voices are embedded as a guiding principle. Research shows that youth-partnered approaches are more relevant, more effective and better aligned with real-world experiences.

Different ages, different strategies

At its core, the standard recognizes a simple but often overlooked reality: What works for a 10-year-old will not work for a 17-year-old.

The new standard is organized around developmental stages and tiers of support. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all program, it outlines what effective practice looks like in terms of prevention, education and intervention — from building foundational social-emotional skills in early grades to providing targeted supports for older students who are already using substances.

The evidence is clear that effective approaches must evolve with development. Younger children benefit most from building personal competencies. Early adolescents respond to social norms approaches. Older adolescents require strategies focused on social influence and navigating life transitions.

Our own overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis confirmed that existing programs tend to produce only modest effects, partly because success is often defined too narrowly as abstinence. The new standard broadens this lens, emphasizing outcomes such as well-being, school connectedness and help-seeking.

It also calls for a shift away from punitive responses. When a student is found vaping, suspension may remove the behaviour temporarily, but it doesn’t address the underlying issue and can push them further away from help. In fact, long-term research shows that practices such as exclusionary discipline and increased police presence in schools are associated with higher rates of substance use over time.

Instead, the new standard emphasizes restorative approaches and support plans that prioritize health, safety and continued engagement in school.

What schools need to make this work

Even the strongest standard cannot succeed without the right conditions for implementation.

Educators are already stretched thin. Without dedicated time, resources and training, this risks becoming another well-intentioned but underused initiative.

To support implementation, the standard is accompanied by a self-assessment tool that helps schools identify where their existing practices align with the evidence and where there are opportunities to grow. Rather than functioning as an audit, it’s designed to support continuous improvement, allowing schools to set priorities based on their own context.

But meaningful change will require new tools and investment: time for professional learning, dedicated staff roles and stronger partnerships between education and health systems.

Supporting materials are in development to help bridge this gap. They include training resources, informational materials for school boards, families and students, a network of experienced practitioners and briefs showing how the standard connects to existing international, national and provincial frameworks.

The message to students can no longer be reduced to “just say no.”

Supporting young people today requires approaches that reflect the complexity of their lives — grounded in evidence, connection and care. Schools are ready to move beyond outdated responses. Now education systems must support them in doing so.

Reg Klassen, executive director at Canadian Association of School System Administrators and Ryan Fahey, manager, programs and education, at Physical and Health Education Canada co-authored this story.

This initiative was supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction through its federal funding. The standard was developed under the management of CSA Group.

Emily Jenkins receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through their Canada Research Chairs program.

– ref. No more ‘just say no’ — Canadian schools will soon have a roadmap to address student substance use – https://theconversation.com/no-more-just-say-no-canadian-schools-will-soon-have-a-roadmap-to-address-student-substance-use-280336

May 10, 2026

What the Montreal Canadiens’ hockey playoff run reveals about faith, belonging and the sacred

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Dr. Matt Hoven, Professor and Kule Chair at St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta

With the Montreal Canadiens now competing in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Buffalo Sabres, their fans, often described as les fidèles (the faithful), continue to show devotion for their beloved team, les Glorieux, in perhaps surprising ways.

One rabbi posted a prayer for the Canadiens on his Facebook page. A church in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., hosted watch parties for every playoff game. Some fans in Habs jerseys were even seen crawling up the steps to St. Joseph’s Oratory in the past.

The jerseys are called la sainte flanelle (the holy cloth), while some players wearing them are given otherworldly nicknames. Former NHL goaltenders Patrick Roy and Carey Price are called “St. Patrick” and “Jesus Price.” The late great Guy Lafleur was known as le démon blond.

These acts might look strange to outsiders. But as scholars of religion, we think they reveal something about why hockey matters so much to fans. People often find the religious or spiritual in everyday life, and hockey is no different.

We have written books about connections among sport, spirituality and religion, and told the story of “Hockey Priest” Father David Bauer, who sought higher ideals in the game.

We’re currently drafting a book about what matters most in hockey, centred around three things: beauty, belonging and believing. Together, these explain what is so out-of-the-ordinary and enchanting about hockey, and why it can move people so deeply.

Beauty

Plato, writing in the Phaedrus, described beauty as the thing that “causes the soul to grow wings.” He meant there is something transcendent about beauty, and that our appreciation of beautiful things carries us to higher truths.

Beauty lies at the heart of our attraction to hockey. Skilful displays on the ice — like stickhandling, booming shots and toe-drags — can lift our spirits. Seeing beauty come alive on the ice takes people beyond the humdrum of regular life and toward something transcendent or special.

Players like Lane Hutson stir a sense of wonder. Hutson’s skating and spatial intelligence have been exceptional in the playoffs. In Game 3 of the first round against Tampa Bay, he fielded a pass from Alexandre Texier and scored on a slap shot to win it for the Canadiens in overtime.

Montreal Canadiens’ Lane Hutson delivers a game-winning slap shot in overtime during Game 3 against Tampa Bay.

Beauty is also seen in hockey’s personalities and unforgettable stories. In March 2025, after Brendan Gallagher’s mother died from a battle with Stage 4 brain cancer, a fan reached out to him on social media.

She had won his 2022 Hockey Fights Cancer jersey — the one on which he had written “I Fight For Mom” — at a Canadiens Children’s Foundation auction, and offered to give it back. He accepted, and in April 2025, the two met on the Bell Centre ice for a jersey swap.

It was a beautiful moment of humanity between the two.

Belonging

Belonging is a core spiritual need. When people feel part of a community, they have a greater sense of meaning, self-worth and hope. Hockey, at its best, enhances that sense of belonging.

Even the Canadiens’ nickname, the Habs (or les Habitants), refers to the early French settlers of Québec. The team has always carried a community’s identity, for better or for worse.

This playoff run has provided striking examples of the sport bridging real divides. On May 5, just before Game 1 of the Sabres-Canadiens series, Niagara Falls, on the Canada-U.S. border, glowed in the colours of both teams: the Horseshoe Falls in red and white for the Canadiens, the American Falls in blue and gold for the Sabres. Hockey has the power to unite even amid bitter political division.

The falls were not the only example of this. A week earlier, during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round between the Sabres and the Boston Bruins, the microphone cut out for singer Cami Clune during “O Canada.” Immediately, the crowd at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center stepped in themselves.

As a border city, Buffalo is the only NHL team to play both national anthems before every home game regardless of opponent as a sign of respect and connection.

This mattered more than it might have in another year and in a different political context. Just months earlier, during the 4 Nations Face-Off, fans jeered opposing anthems on both sides of the border. The Buffalo moment was a different kind of answer.

Believing

Researchers have shown that people find the sacred in many different things, including religion, gardening, music and sport. Wherever people find the sacred, they experience a sense of the extraordinary, ineffability and deeper meaning.

Psychologist Kenneth I. Pargament, in fact, defines spirituality as “the search for the sacred.” Philosophers Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Kelly argue that many people have lost the ability to experience the sacred in this secular age, and that sport is one of the few places where people still encounter wonder and beauty.

The thirst for meaning, beauty and wonder doesn’t go away. Hockey is one place where many seem to find a sense of mystery and uplifting hope, passion and awe. Discovering the sacred in hockey helps fans feel a part of something bigger than themselves; something that has meaning beyond the ordinary minutia. Intense moments in sport can bring fans an implicit sense of meaning.

The answer to meaning and happiness may not be a complicated big picture but in these smaller moments of discovering the sacred. But a word of caution: as Paragament and his team have found, when we discover the sacred in something, there are implications for our everyday lives.

Fans organize their schedules around game time. They invest in the team by buying jerseys, tickets and merchandise. They defend their teams fiercely against criticism. And when their team loses, particularly in an elimination game, the grief can be devastating.

That deep sense of loss is intensified for those who experience a sense of the sacred in hockey and their team. This intersection of spirituality with the meaning of hockey can explain why a loss can be more devastating that might seem understandable. For many people, hockey is more than just a game.

Right now, two Montréal teams are competing for championships. The Canadiens and the Sabres are tied after two games. The Victoire — Montréal’s PWHL team — are tied 1-1 with the Minnesota Frost in their semifinal, after captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored a triple-overtime winner on May 6.

Whether either team manages to bring a trophy home, the devotion surrounding both is already extraordinary.

– ref. What the Montreal Canadiens’ hockey playoff run reveals about faith, belonging and the sacred – https://theconversation.com/what-the-montreal-canadiens-hockey-playoff-run-reveals-about-faith-belonging-and-the-sacred-282227

May 10, 2026

Gay men have equal parenting rights in Canada — but not equal access to parenthood

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By S. W. Underwood, Lecturer, Sociology, Simon Fraser University

Since the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada in 2005, and through provincial changes to adoption and parentage laws, gay men have gained formal recognition as parents. But my recent research suggests that access to fatherhood for this cohort remains deeply unequal in practice.

In 2021, six per cent of male same-gender couples in Canada were raising children, compared with 24 per cent of female same-gender couples. While we have no data comparing their desire to parent, the gap points to a deeper reality.

Drawing on interviews with 23 Canadian prospective gay fathers, I found that restrictive pathways to parenthood shape which gay men can become parents. Equal rights, it turns out, have not translated into equal access.

For gay men, becoming parents is a complex, expensive and uncertain project.

Why gay fatherhood is harder to access

Gay men typically build families through highly bureaucratized processes, including traditional and gestational surrogacy, donors, foster care and public and private adoption.

Each comes with its own legal, financial and emotional demands. As a consequence, pursuing parenthood typically requires gay men to spend years planning, researching and co-ordinating across multiple institutions — from fertility clinics and lawyers to social workers and government agencies — and sometimes even across countries and jurisdictions.

Many prospective gay fathers become “project managers” of their own journey to parenthood. They must compare pathways, calculate costs and assess risks with no guarantee of success.

In my research, for example, I came one couple who spent years preparing for an adoption. Although they worried about whether it would become a permanent situation, they bought baby items while waiting for the adoption to be finalized. Unfortunately, the placement fell through. Such uncertainty can fuel an emotionally turbulent cycle of hope, loss and cautious optimism.

Cost is the greatest barrier and varies depending on the pathway.

Public adoption and foster care are affordable but involve long waits and limited control. Private adoption can cost between $15,000 and $30,000. Surrogacy, especially gestational surrogacy — where intended parents reimburse pregnancy-related expenses such as medical costs rather than pay a fee for the pregnancy — can exceed the recommended budget of $100,000.

Yet even lower-cost options come with hidden financial barriers. For example, prospective adoptive parents must pass home studies that assess whether they can afford to raise a child.

Wealthier men are better able to pursue surrogacy, which can offer greater control and a biological connection between parent and child. Men with lower incomes may be more likely to pursue adoption or foster care, which involve fewer choices, longer waits and uncertainty.

Once parents, finances still shape gay fathers’ families, including their access to leave and benefits.

Gay fathers face risk, uncertainty and scrutiny

The journey to gay fatherhood is also emotionally demanding.

Foster placements are temporary. Adoptions can fall through at the last minute. Surrogacy arrangements can fail. Some face repeated setbacks.

Prospective adoptive fathers are subject to background checks, home inspections, interviews and even psychological evaluations. Many of these screening processes exist to protect children and ensure stable placements. But when oversight is excessively burdensome or inconsistently applied, it can also create barriers that some cannot overcome.

In addition, gay men must often educate institutions, correcting parental forms that assume there is a mother or explaining their families to hospitals, schools and insurers.

These men are not just building families. They are working to make their families properly acknowledged within systems that were not designed for them.

What policymakers could do differently

These challenges demand attention as 2SLGBTQI+ families grow and policymakers in B.C. and Ontario, as well as other Canadian jurisdictions, revisit fertility and adoption funding, as well as aspects of child welfare and adoption systems.

Although adoption is only one possible outcome, most youth in care are never adopted. About 2,000 children in child welfare care are adopted each years, while at least 61,104 children and youth were in out-of-home care in Canada in 2022. Reducing barriers to male same-gender parents could help connect more children with stable, supportive homes.

The gap between formal equality and unequal access raises an important question: What does it really take to make gay fatherhood truly accessible? If access depends on income, free time and the ability to navigate complex systems, equality in law is not equality in practice.

There are practical ways to reduce these barriers. Governments could expand tax credits and other financial supports for adoption and surrogacy, standardize fertility coverage across provinces and reduce administrative hurdles.

Insurance companies could cover prospective parents whose costly journey through IVF may produce no viable embryos or pregnancies. Governments and social services can improve information and support so prospective queer parents do not need to research how to navigate these pathways alone. Medical services, insurance companies and law firms can also update policies to better recognize diverse families.

Legal recognition is only the beginning

Since 2005, Canada has made progress in recognizing the rights of 2SLGBTQI+ families. But recognition is not the same as access.

For many gay men, building a two-father family still requires navigating pathways that are complex, uncertain and costly. The significantly lower rates of gay fatherhood, compared with lesbian and heterosexual parenthood, suggest the cumulative effect of these barriers.

If policymakers are serious about supporting 2SLGBTQI+ families, this disparity should be treated as a policy problem. Until these barriers are addressed, Canada cannot claim that parenthood is accessible to all.

S. W. Underwood receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Gay men have equal parenting rights in Canada — but not equal access to parenthood – https://theconversation.com/gay-men-have-equal-parenting-rights-in-canada-but-not-equal-access-to-parenthood-280554