Category: The Conversation – Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Joel Lexchin, Associate professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto; York University, Canada; University of Sydney

New drug approvals by Health Canada are based on the results of clinical trials. But before clinical trials can go ahead, they need to be approved by ethics committees known as Research Ethics Boards (REBs).

Virtually all hospitals where research is conducted have REBs, as do universities and other institutions. The REBs are supposed to ensure that patients understand the nature of the research and have given informed consent, that the trials are conducted in an ethical way that minimizes any harm to them and that the investigators are competent to do the research.

Given the crucial role they play, it’s important that REBs are not influenced by factors like financial motives, conflicts of interest or the goals of drug companies. Without oversight, these factors may encroach on the decisions made by REBs in Canada.

REBs in Canada

All that Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations say about REBs is that they need to approve clinical trials.

The Tri-Council Policy Statement does lay out who needs to be on a REB and gives some details about how REBs should operate, but these regulations only apply to research that’s funded by the tri-council, comprising the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the National Science and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Canada has no accreditation or inspection system for REBs and no oversight mechanism for the way that they undertake their reviews. An article in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics noted that: “Aside from identifying information on the REB and its chair, no further information about the REB or its review is required” by Health Canada.

There used to be a National Council on Ethics in Human Research. The organization largely provided education, but there was the possibility that it could have been transformed into a national accrediting and oversight body.

But in 2010, its funding from Health Canada and CIHR was pulled. In its place, the Canadian General Standards Board published the voluntary Canadian Standard for Research Ethics Oversight of Biomedical Clinical Trials, but this guidance was withdrawn in 2018 due to limited use and support for its revision.

The still existing Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards operates as a forum for discussion and has no regulatory powers.

For-profit REBS

The absence of any standards and regulations is becoming increasingly problematic. At least 70 per cent of clinical trials are now being done in the community, outside of health-care institutions and their in-house REBs. In addition, drug companies, which sponsor the vast majority of clinical trials, want a quick turnaround in approval by REBs.

A report by the Law Commission of Canada described academic based REBs as:

“overburdened and … stretched to the breaking point … As the work becomes increasingly complicated with globalization, technology and commercialization, REBs are struggling to find committee chairs or even members.”

In response to the movement of trials into the community where they aren’t covered by institutional REBs, it’s reasonable to assume that the number of for-profit REBs has grown, although there are no definite estimates of their number. Drug companies pay these for-profit REBs a fee to review their trials.

Trudo Lemmens, professor and Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, has argued that the credibility and integrity of the research review is compromised by the perception of a possible conflict-of-interest (COI) when commercial REBs approve a clinical trial.

If the REB turns down too many trials or demands costly changes to the research protocol, companies may be reluctant to continue to submit future research proposals to it. Although to date, there has not been any research to verify or refute this concern, Lemmens argues that the honesty of individual REB members is not enough to remedy this situation.

In early October 2025, the New York Times published an investigation of for-profit Institutional Review Boards in the United States. Institutional review boards are the American equivalent of REBs. The story focused on two companies that dominate the business: WCG and Advarra, the latter controlled by private equity.

According to the Times, both companies “have close corporate relationships with drugmakers. And both have become part of multipronged enterprises selling pharmaceutical companies a wide range of drug-testing services — blurring the line between the reviewer and the reviewed, introducing potential conflicts of interest that threaten the review boards’ mission.”

Several former Advarra employees told the Times that the company had imposed daily quotas on reviewing informed-consent forms for trial volunteers. Alana Levy, a former consent form development editor, said that falling short meant “you get a warning” but if you reviewed over a certain number you could get a bonus. Advarra refuted those allegations and said it “maintains strong safeguards and internal policies to ensure the independence of its Institutional Review Board.”

Advarra also operates in Canada and “supports more Canadian sites than any other partner, offering the broadest provincial coverage and experience in the industry.” On its website, it advertises the speed of its reviews with a turn-around time of four to five days for reviewing protocols and consent forms for trials taking place at multiple sites.

Oversight needed

When good ethical oversight is lacking, the patients in clinical trials may be put at risk. The results from those trials may be compromised, meaning that the information that doctors rely on to prescribe the drugs is unreliable, and their patients are getting suboptimal care.

Health Canada needs to step up and establish regulations for how REBs operate and have an inspection system to ensure that its regulations are being followed.

Alberta is the only jurisdiction in Canada without for-profit REBs. Among its other responsibilities, the Health Research Ethics Board of Alberta oversees ethics approval of research involving human subjects that is done in the community. Other provinces should follow the Alberta model.

Between 2022-2025, Joel Lexchin received payments for writing a brief for a legal firm on the role of promotion in generating prescriptions for opioids, for being on a panel about pharmacare and for co-writing an article for a peer-reviewed medical journal on semaglutide. He is a member of the Boards of Canadian Doctors for Medicare and the Canadian Health Coalition. He receives royalties from University of Toronto Press and James Lorimer & Co. Ltd. for books he has written. He has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in the past.

– ref. In drug trials, lack of oversight of research ethics boards could put Canadian patients at risk – https://theconversation.com/in-drug-trials-lack-of-oversight-of-research-ethics-boards-could-put-canadian-patients-at-risk-262105

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jennifer Wallner, Associate Professor, School of Political Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

When speaking about Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Mazina Giizhik — also known as Justice Murray Sinclair — often declared: “Education has gotten us into this mess, and education will get us out.”

Sinclair captured an essence of formal schooling that is frequently ignored.

Contemporary discourse often draws on older philosophic traditions to discuss education as a force for democracy, liberation and self-expression. But formal schooling is also a structuring force — an instrument of the state.

Through education, states legitimize their authority while helping to cultivate the kinds of citizens the state wishes to govern — in other words, education is a tool of “statecraft.”

Education as statecraft highlights an ambiguity of schooling. Among its objectives, public schooling is a standardization tool, producing great benefits for some with potentially devastating consequences for others. Such ambiguity is strikingly visible in states forged through processes of contested settler-colonialism, like Canada.

Who do we as inhabitants of Turtle Island, or as Canadians, want to be in the era of reconciliation? If we are committed to truth and reconciliation, we must recognize education’s ambivalent role.

This should have implications for reforming public school curricula and teacher competencies, as well acting in partnership with Indigenous governments to support Indigenous governing autonomy and capacity in education and other matters.

We address these questions as scholars whose combined expertise is partly concerned with education policy. Jennifer Wallner, the lead author of this story, is a settler scholar born in Canada of European immigrants, and Gavin Furrey, co-author, is a settler scholar born in the United States of primarily European descent, with Lakota ancestry and Rosebud Sioux tribal citizenship.

Cultivating citizens

The relationship between schooling and the cultivation of citizens is well-documented. According to data from more than 100 countries, governments began to oversee and direct primary schooling on average 65 years before democratizing.

Other analyses suggest schooling in non-democratic regimes is used to quash rebellion and preserve the status quo. Even when schooling was introduced in democratic regimes, education was perceived as a means to instill a certain order,
and help the state shape its desired citizens.

Public schooling played a pivotal role in legitimizing the nascent authority of the future Canadian state.

Emerging from competing British and French colonial projects, settler authorities used education to encourage migration, enforce preferred linguistic, political and economic order and safeguard their peoples and regimes from Indigenous Peoples.

Broader curricular shifts needed

Prior to Confederation in 1867, colonial legislatures introduced measures to establish formal schooling. Consequently, when leaders negotiated the division of powers, provinces claimed jurisdiction over the field — with one key exception.

Provinces retained responsibility for the schooling of settlers while the federal government claimed authority over Indigenous Peoples, who were seen as a threat to the desired order of the Canadian state centred on liberalism, representative democracy, private property and capitalism.

Residential and day schools overseen by the federal government were the key instrument used to “protect” settlers, secure land and assimilate First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples.

The language of instruction was predominantly in English, reflecting the preferred Anglo-dominant order being forged throughout most of the country. Provincial curricula long presented racist images of Indigenous Peoples.

Education researcher Dwayne Donald, a descendent of the Amiskwaciwiyiniwak (Beaver Hills people) and the Papaschase Cree, has shown how in Canadian myth, the separation and exclusion of Indigenous Peoples from everyone else has been enforced through the colonial image of the fort.

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Read more:
Decolonizing history and social studies curricula has a long way to go in Canada

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Deeper and broader curricular shifts are needed, since some provinces’ curricula still does not recognize Indigenous legal traditions or governance practices and Indigenous Peoples are often depicted as being largely without agency.

Investments in schooling infrastructure

Indigenous communities are reckoning with the devastating effects of residential schools and other forms of colonial schooling. Despite the harm caused by colonial policies, Indigenous Peoples note that they continue to survive and thrive through their knowledge, practices, resistance, resilience and activism.

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

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But inadequate funding is a barrier. Between 1996 (the year the last residential school closed) to 2016, there was a 29 per cent growth in the First Nations population. In this same window, a federal cap on the annual growth rate of core program funding to First Nations for elementary and secondary education was in effect.

This led to a to four per cent annual decline in funding per student for First Nations throughout this period, which had a notable impact on schooling infrastructure.

Studies confirm
that the majority of First Nations students must leave their communities for secondary school.

Teachers in First Nations schools are paid less than their provincial counterparts and culturally sensitive post-secondary educational programs and professional development tailored to First Nations are wanting.

Meaningful social, economic participation

The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission emphasized education in two ways: to ensure Indigenous and non-Indigenous students alike are provided the tools for meaningful social and economic participation, and to ensure all Canadians understand the history and legacy of residential schooling.

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Read more:
How Indigenous-led health education in remote communities can make reconciliation real

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It highlighted the importance of integrating Indigenous content and perspectives within mainstream curriculum. The Winnipeg School Division foreshadowed such transformative work since adopting its Indigenous Education Policy in 1996. In Saskatchewan, a 2018 policy framework supports the infusion of Indigenous content, perspectives and ways of knowing to the benefit of all learners.

If treaties are to be understood as a framework for relationships of mutual aid and non-domination, schools are essential for preparing settler society to engage in such a relationship.

Self-determining Peoples

Indigenous scholars also emphasize the importance of educating Indigenous youth to prepare them to be members of a self-determining people.

Mi’kmaw professor of education emeritus Marie Battiste, for example, argues that Indigenous peoples ought to focus on building their own institutions and on cultivating knowledge systems in Indigenous languages rather than simply Indigenizing shared school spaces.

An increasing number of modern treaties or negotiations have improved financing, options for education or local management of education in some scenarios.

But some researchers highlight pernicious problems related to large-scale agreements: for example, while the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement includes a program to recognize and compensate roles in hunting and trapping, it has been criticized for not properly considering women’s realities.

Indigenous signatories to agreements have developed their autonomy steadily as they navigate new questions of how to best invest education funds and what services to prioritize for their students.

Acting in partnership, mutual respect

Problems with collaboration or communication also exist, for example, around secondary diploma accreditation.

Even when funding is available to build schools, limited space can be an issue, as communities also need new homes and other infrastructure for growing populations.

Limited housing for teachers in remote locations contributes to high vacancy rates and impacts what educational services and programs can be offered. Capacities for Indigenous governance, including education governance, are impacted by evolving political, social, economic, geographic, health and environmental factors.

If schools are to fashion a new order of mutual respect between multiple authorities, then settler schools must continue transforming to meet the challenge.

Additionally, federal and provincial authorities must act in partnership with Indigenous governments to support Indigenous governing autonomy and capacity.

Jennifer Wallner received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and is the Jean-Luc Pepin Research Chair in Canadian Politics at the University of Ottawa.

Gavin Furrey works for the Cree School Board as a Project Development Officer.

– ref. Why Canadians need two dramatic educational shifts to honour reconciliation – https://theconversation.com/why-canadians-need-two-dramatic-educational-shifts-to-honour-reconciliation-265164

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Amala Poli, PhD in English (Medical/ Health Humanities), Western University

It’s that time of year again when you grab a tub of popcorn and settle in for a cozy evening with a familiar slasher film — a haunted house, a masked villain and the perfect jump scare that you probably already know is coming but still eagerly anticipate.

While Halloween is a celebration of all things spooky, horror films in particular have seen a significant commercial boom in recent years. Critics dubbed 2023 “the year horror went highbrow” as films like Talk to Me, Beau Is Afraid and Pearl blurred the line between arthouse cinema and mainstream fright in 2022-23.

In 2025, horror remains the highest-grossing genre, earning more than US$54 million at the box office, with Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines and 28 Years Later topping the charts.

Associated in the past with pulpy, low-brow or unserious undertones, horror is increasingly being recognized in academic research as a genre that challenges normative beliefs, disturbs the status quo and exposes collective anxieties.

Horror has always drawn on folklore — South Asian stories of churels (witches), African figures like the Sasabonsam and Indigenous stories of the Wendigo. But Halloween, when horror is most visible in the West, often overlooks the global roots of the genre.

This year, let’s look beyond the western canon and consider the global traditions that terrify us and inspire Hollywood.

As we indulge in our annual horror binge, it’s worth asking: whose fears are we watching on screen and whose stories have we overlooked?

The real nightmare behind Freddy Krueger

What if our dreams were real and the monsters we saw in our sleep could haunt our waking lives?

This idea forms the underlying basis for the enduring popularity of the classic slasher series A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984 original). Freddy Krueger embodies the fear of a nightmare that comes alive. However, few know that Wes Craven was inspired by the dab tsog, a malevolent night spirit identified by the Hmong Laotian community.

In the late 1980s, more than 100 men from the Hmong Laotian immigrant community in the United States died in their sleep without clear explanation, as though they had been scared to death. They were diagnosed as victims of Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS), a mysterious ailment.

The Hmong believed that the dab tsog attacked vulnerable people, producing sensations of breathlessness and chest-crushing pressure.

Hearing about SUNDS and knowing that there was no conclusive scientific evidence about the cause of deaths inspired Craven’s construction of Freddy Krueger. Some Hmong believed that alienation in their new homes and a lack of connection to ancestral spirits caused the dab tsog attacks.

Craven, fascinated by news articles on the subject, was inspired to capture the fear of going to sleep through Krueger’s sleep paralysis attacks.

Greed and the Wendigo warning

Often in horror, the monster outside is a reflection of the one within.

This idea drives Antlers, in which the Wendigo — a legendary spirit from Indigenous North American folklore — manifests as a terrifying creature that preys on human greed and violence.

In Algonquian traditions, the Wendigo is more than a flesh-eating monster: it is a moral warning against unchecked consumption, selfishness and the violation of natural and social order.

The Wendigo legend challenges isolation and greed, emphasizing the importance of community and sustainability.

Director Scott Cooper and writer Nick Antosca drew inspiration from this legend to create a horror story grounded in real-world anxieties such as trauma, poverty and the consequences of human exploitation of the environment.

By translating the Wendigo myth into a cinematic monster, Antlers draws on its ethical warnings as a commentary on the drug crisis in North America.

When the past refuses to rest

What if the ghosts that follow us across borders aren’t just supernatural but memories of generational trauma that we cannot escape?

His House, a horror film set in the aftermath of the South Sudanese civil war, draws on Dinka folklore to explore the haunting of refugee trauma.

The story traces the heartbreak and isolation of Rial and Bol, a couple who grapple with the British immigration system and the dissonance of adjusting to a new country completely alien to their own. Rial tells Bol the story of the apeth, a night witch who torments the Dinka people, which they later encounter in their new home.

In Dinka belief, the apeth is a malevolent force that feeds on guilt and disrupts domestic harmony — a spirit that “eats” the good fortune of its victims. Director Remi Weekes adapted this myth to mirror the couple’s struggle with guilt for escaping and their displacement in a cold and xenophobic British system.

Haunted by migration and heritage

Is migration always haunted by ghosts from another place?

Tracing the complexities of assimilation in the diaspora identity, It Lives Inside follows Samidha, or Sam, an Indian-American teenager struggling to fit into white suburbia while distancing herself from her heritage.

When her estranged friend Tamira warns her of a demonic presence sealed inside a glass jar, Sam dismisses her until the entity, known in Hindu folklore as a Pishacha is unleashed. In Indian mythology, the Pishacha is a flesh-eating demon that feeds on negative emotions and possesses those overcome by shame, anger or grief, devouring the soul from within.

Director Bishal Dutta reimagines this spirit as a metaphor for the cultural and psychological tension of growing up between worlds. The monster that haunts Sam is as much her suppressed East Indian identity as it is a supernatural being — a corporeal embodiment of internalized fear and generational conflict.

Through the language of horror, It Lives Inside transforms the diaspora experience into a chilling allegory of belonging and denial.

What scares us connects us

As horror becomes a genre to reckon with, increasingly immersing us in social critique rather than mere spectacle, it also reminds us that fear is a universal emotion and that the stories we tell about it are profoundly cultural.

From the Hmong’s dab tsog to the Dinka’s apeth, from the Wendigo to the Pishacha, horror offers us ways to rethink the crises of our time — greed, trauma, grief and displacement — through ominous figures familiar to specific communities.

A truly global Halloween looks beyond the usual monsters and toward the myths that continue to unsettle imaginations across the world.

As horror’s commercial success suggests a growing search for catharsis, cultural complexity and emotional depth, it reveals that the genre’s real power lies not only in its ability to frighten us but in how it connects us across borders through our shared fascination with what we fear.

Amala Poli 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 global cross-cultural folklore and legends shape the monsters we fear – https://theconversation.com/how-global-cross-cultural-folklore-and-legends-shape-the-monsters-we-fear-266549

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Tony Silva, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia

What would you say if you were told that paranormal activity exists? Well, nearly half of Canadians would agree.

What is the paranormal, exactly? It refers to phenomena that science cannot explain and are not part of a major religion in a particular society. In contrast, religious phenomena are part of an established doctrine. For example, in Canada, psychic abilities and Bigfoot or Sasquatch are considered paranormal, while angels and demons are associated with religion.

In the summer of 2025, we launched a survey of Canadian attitudes regarding paranormal beliefs in which participation was confidential. And for the first time in decades, we have nationally representative data on paranormal beliefs and encounters in Canada.

Although news outlets regularly publish stories about paranormal beliefs on Halloween, the results they discuss are usually based on convenience samples. Ours is the first study in 20 years to use randomly selected people from the Canadian population to ask these questions — meaning the results are representative.

And it turns out that almost one in two Canadians believe in at least one paranormal phenomenon, and one-quarter report encounters with spirits.

We asked about ghostly hauntings, alien visitations, psychic abilities, telekinesis, astrology and other unexplained phenomena. We also asked about cryptids — animals or creatures whose existence has been suggested but not (yet) proven by science — specific to Canada. They include creatures with roots in First Nations folklore like the large serpentine sea monster, the Cadborosaurus, off the B.C. coast and the Ogopogo in Lake Okanagan.

The believers, the skeptics and the in-between

Canada is one of the world’s most secular societies. Here, religion has little impact on the way people act or view the world.

How Canadians think about the paranormal, however, has been mostly unknown. It’s expensive to gather representative data in Canada and few social scientists think it’s important to study belief in the paranormal. The combination of these two factors has meant Canadian paranormal beliefs have gone unexamined for decades.

What we found is that Canadians have embraced the paranormal — to a point.

Almost half — 44 per cent — believe in at least one paranormal phenomenon. About one-third did not report belief in any paranormal phenomenon but did indicate neutrality about at least one. For example, several respondents did not believe in ghosts, but were on the fence about extraterrestrial visitations.

Only about one-quarter said they did not believe in any of the 10 phenomena we asked about. The percentage of firm non-believers is similar to the 28 per cent figure in the United States and the United Kingdom Belief varied by specific phenomenon. People were most likely to believe in ghostly hauntings.

Overall, it is more common for Canadians to believe in at least one paranormal phenomenon than to not believe in any.

Who is most likely to believe?

Patterns of belief vary somewhat by demographic group.

Women are more likely than men to believe in ghosts and psychics, reflecting how women have a higher probability of being open to phenomena with a spiritual dimension.

People with bachelor’s degrees or higher are less likely to believe in most paranormal phenomena. There are few racial or ethnic differences.

Interestingly, people aged 19-29 are less likely to believe in many paranormal phenomena than those aged 30-44 or 45-64. These findings suggest that young Canadians tend to opt out of any non-scientific belief system, whether religious or paranormal.

Few differences by region or language exist, though Francophones are less likely to believe in Sasquatch than Anglophones are.

Paranormal experiences in Canada

About one-quarter of Canadians claim to have heard, seen or felt a ghost or spirit. Some experiences were connected to religion, such as feeling the Christian Holy Spirit.

More often, experiences were associated with the death of a loved one and were personally meaningful. As one participant explained: “Soon after my mother’s death, I woke up suddenly and she was standing beside my bed. She smiled at me and faded away. I was comforted.”

Others reported spooky encounters associated with a place. A different participant wrote: “I was managing a motel and saw a ghostly man walking along the upper balcony. I asked the locals, and they said on the property that the motel was on, there was a house that burned down — and he lived in the house!”

Cryptid sightings are less common.

“I was operating a high-clearance sprayer, in a 1,300-acre field. I sat about 10 feet in the air in the cab on this machine,” one participant said. “I came around the corner of a bluff and saw a blurry, bipedal creature. It was furry, had a long snout and long arms, and in an instant turned into a moose. I have no idea to this day what that was.”

What our beliefs reveal

Our goal is not to prove or disprove any experience or belief, but to analyze what they mean for individuals and for Canada.

And to that end, our survey showed us that while many Canadians have replaced or supplemented religious belief with paranormal belief, most trust science. Belief in the paranormal or religion does not mean Canadians reject science, but rather that they believe some phenomena cannot yet be explained by science.

While the paranormal is fun — or creepy — to think about around Halloween, it is also part of the everyday belief system of many Canadians.

Tony Silva (as co-applicant) received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the first survey wave of this project, which focused on attitudes about politics and decarbonisation. No grant or taxpayer funds were used for the second survey wave, which included questions about paranormal beliefs.

Emily Huddart received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to support an earlier wave of this project (with Tony Silva).

– ref. New research reveals that almost half of Canadians believe in the paranormal — ghosts and all – https://theconversation.com/new-research-reveals-that-almost-half-of-canadians-believe-in-the-paranormal-ghosts-and-all-267912

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Georgia Teare, Assistant Professor, Management and Leadership in Kinesiology, Western University

By age 14, girls drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys in Canada.

Sport can boost young people’s physical health, mental well-being and social skills, and fewer girls participating means more of them are missing out on these benefits.

But with women’s sports surging worldwide, closing Canada’s gender gap in participation is closer than ever before.

The solution, however, isn’t just more equipment or facilities — it’s showing them who they can become. Canadian Women and Sport’s recent Rally Report reveals that girls and women participate at disproportionately lower rates than boys and men, and that a lack of role models is a key driver of this gap.

Going beyond visibility to participation

With recent investments in elite women’s sport, girls now have unprecedented access to female role models.

Improved Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) airtime, Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) expansion after only two seasons and record viewership of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup, including the gold-medal match between Canada and England, reveal the momentum is undeniable.

Christine Sinclair’s success on the pitch inspired girls and women to play soccer, particularity after Team Canada’s Olympic gold medal win in 2021. Recently, Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh’s success has sparked a surge in popularity of swimming in Canada.

The recently released Future of Sport Commission report confirmed the growth of women’s professional sport as an important driver of sport participation for girls — inspiring them to get involved and stay committed to sport. From the fan perspective, 88 per cent of sports fans think that professional women athletes are impactful role models for young women.

Researchers call this the “demonstration effect” — watching elite athletes perform inspires people to participate themselves. Being inspired by elite sports involves three things: a sense that something special is happening, an automatic emotional response (not a conscious choice) and motivation to take action. Typically the demonstration effect occurs through watching elite sport performances, elite athlete success, living near where a sport competition is hosted or a combination of these factors.

While the demonstration effect sounds promising, there’s a catch. Research also shows that newly inspired athletes often turn to local community sport clubs. But these clubs frequently don’t have the capacity or resources to handle the surge. This means that increasing women’s and girls’ participation in sport is more complicated than showing them that “girls play sport too.”

Sport needs stronger grassroots support

Quality, intentionally designed sport experiences are necessary to keep girls participating.

Improving community club infrastructure and capacity, for example, is a critical step toward providing impactful opportunities. More participants means that community sport clubs need more programming resources such as facility space, qualified coaches and equipment.

And with more participants, community sport clubs need to offer more sessions and maintain adequate instructor-to-participant ratios to ensure top instruction and feedback. But accessing this additional space is a key constraint to community sport club growth.

Clean, safe and accessible facilities must also be maintained — in some cases, even created. For example, there are not enough swimming pools in Canada to accommodate the increased demand.

As girls need athlete role models, they also need to see themselves reflected in coaching and officiating staff. With participant numbers increasing, demands on coaches can lead to burnout. In addition, women and girls participating in coaching and officiating are also disproportionately low compared to boys and men in these roles.

To help girls stay in sport, more efforts from Canadian national, provincial and territorial sport organizations are needed to train and retain women coaches and officials. But these investments are not just needed from government — the corporate world has an opportunity to support girls in sport as well.

Building equitable lasting change

The cost of youth sport is rising. For example, the average cost of playing hockey in Canada is $4,478 per child, with costs increasing with more competitive programming. In addition, youth participants are required to buy their own equipment to participate.

To keep sport accessible, community sport organizations should consider offering basic equipment. With the cost of registration fees, appropriate clothing and transportation, participation becomes financially inaccessible for many families. Community sport clubs can intentionally design low-cost programs and tap into government financial supports to keep girls playing.

When corporate Canada joins the team

Corporate Canada is starting to capitalize on the popularity of women’s elite sport, offering sponsorship or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs to financially support women’s and girls’ sport. There is an opportunity for community clubs to take advantage of this trend to help financially support participants.

Every girl brings different needs and expectations to sport. For example, girls with disabilities face unique structural and program barriers, newcomers to Canada may benefit from culturally specific programming, and club policies could be revisited to create safer spaces for LGBTQ+ youth and racialized girls, along with being more inclusive of all body types.

Community sport clubs that have the infrastructure and capacity to accommodate new participants must also ensure their programs are designed and implemented to provide quality experiences. These programs should reflect the diverse realities their participants face based on their background, identity and circumstances.

This will ensure that everyone can participate in ways that are inclusive and meaningful for them.

Georgia Teare receives funding from Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Laura Misener receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

– ref. The ‘demonstration effect’ can inspire girls to play — but only if communities are ready – https://theconversation.com/the-demonstration-effect-can-inspire-girls-to-play-but-only-if-communities-are-ready-267270

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Emily Huddart, Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia

If you spend time on social media or follow political commentary, you may have heard warnings that Canada is on track to becoming as politically polarized as the United States.

But how divided are we, really?

Our research suggests a more nuanced and positive picture. While Canadians are not immune to partisan animosity, our divisions are much less intense than in the U.S. Canadians express moderate levels of both affective polarization and the deeper hostility known as political sectarianism.

Measuring partisan animosity

Affective polarization refers to the gap in feelings people have toward those they agree with and those on the opposite side. It’s not about policy differences, but about feelings of warmth or hostility.

In the U.S., affective polarization, particularly dislike toward those with opposing views, has risen sharply over the past decade. This kind of division undermines trust, co-operation and democratic norms.

Researchers have expanded the concept to include political sectarianism — “the tendency to adopt a moralized identification with one political group and against another.” When political identities create moral opponents, compromise across parties feels like betrayal and democracy is threatened.

Partisan animosity in Canada

To explore affective polarization and political sectarianism in Canada, we worked with the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research (CHASR) at the University of Saskatchewan to survey a nationally representative sample of 2,503 Canadians in the summer of 2024. Representative surveys are uncommon in Canada, and this survey is the first to measure political sectarianism

We asked respondents to self-identify their political ideology on a scale from zero (extremely left-wing) to 10 (extremely right-wing); moderates selected five. We also asked how warmly people felt toward left-wing and right-wing Canadians. Then we asked how much they agreed with statements capturing the three dimensions of political sectarianism:

1. Aversion — Feeling negatively toward the other side

2. Othering — Seeing the other side as incomprehensible

3. Moralization — Believing the other side is immoral

The results paint a mixed picture.

Feelings about the ‘out-group’

Canadians display moderate affective polarization: both left-wing and right-wing Canadians feel greater warmth for their “in-group” than for the “out-group.” These evaluations are measured using feeling thermometer ratings, which ask respondents how warm or cold they feel toward each group on a 0–100 scale. While the difference in warmth between in-group and out-group is meaningful, the magnitude of the divide is far lower than in the U.S.

Left-wing Canadians express stronger dislike toward the right than right-wing Canadians do toward the left. This same asymmetry exists in other countries and may be explained by different perceptions of social and moral threat.

There are low to moderate levels of political sectarianism in Canada. Left-wing Canadians express moderate “aversion,” but few Canadians view the other side as immoral. Both the right and the left have moderate levels of othering. In short, political differences in Canada are real, but they have not solidified into hatred and dehumanization.

Who is most likely to be polarized?

We found that people on the left are more polarized than people on the right, but otherwise, we didn’t find major differences between most groups.

Supporters of the NDP, the Conservative Party of Canada and the People’s Party are the most polarized. About one-fifth of Canadians are unaffiliated, which could explain why the two right-wing parties are more polarized than the Liberal Party, yet the left is overall more polarized than the right.

Older Canadians are more polarized than younger Canadians, and residents of Atlantic Canada are less polarized than residents of Alberta. Otherwise, we found no evidence that polarization differs by gender, race/ethnicity, level of education, sexual identity or whether someone lives in a rural or urban area.

Why it matters

Democracy depends on citizens’ ability to tolerate and respect one anther across political and other social divides. Partisan animosity can erode that tolerance, reducing trust in institutions and fellow citizens.

The fact that Canada remains only moderately polarized and demonstrates low to moderate political sectarianism is hopeful. But we also see areas of concern: the left’s greater dislike of the right; the left’s higher level of “aversion;” and moderate polarization among NDP, Conservative Party and People’s Party supporters.

Those divides could deepen over time, particularly if social media algorithms, partisan media or political leaders reward outrage over understanding.

Looking ahead

So far, Canada’s political culture seems to offer some protection from the extreme polarization that has taken hold of Americans. Canadians of all political loyalties continue to rely on mainstream media and credible news sources.

Still, the pressures that have intensified polarization elsewhere exist in Canada too: a hostile climate in Parliament and growing gaps in attitudes on social issues across the political left and right. How these forces unfold will depend on how elected representatives, the media and citizens choose to engage those who think differently than them.

For now, the Canadian polarization story is one of caution, not crisis. Our political differences are real, but haven’t yet deeply divided us. That advantage is fragile, but worth protecting.

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Sophia Dimitakopolous, an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia, contributed to this article

Emily Huddart and Tony Silva produced this data with funding support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Canada isn’t deeply polarized — yet. What new research reveals about partisan animosity – https://theconversation.com/canada-isnt-deeply-polarized-yet-what-new-research-reveals-about-partisan-animosity-267719

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Lingshan Li, PhD candidate, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University

Canada’s climate is warming twice as fast as the global average, and many cities will experience at least four times as many extreme heat events (days above 30 C) per year in the coming decades.

In Québec alone, elevated summer temperatures were associated with about 470 deaths, 225 hospitalizations, 36,000 emergency room visits, 7,200 ambulance transports and 15,000 calls to a health hotline every year.

To tackle the crisis of climate change, the government of Canada proposed the 2 Billion Trees program that aims to plant two billion trees by 2031 over a period of 10 years.

But such ambitions come with important questions:

• Where and how to plant these trees?
• How to manage the trees to provide more cooling for the people?
• How to direct the cooling to the most underserved communities?

Colleagues and I recently published a study in Montréal that explores how urban green spaces can reduce surface temperature and help promote environmental justice. We found that even small increases in green spaces can make a notable difference in city temperatures.

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Read more:
Urban trees vs. cool roofs: What’s the best way for cities to beat the heat?

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Why the placement of trees is important

If you’ve ever passed under the shade of a tree on a hot summer day and felt the temperature drop, you know how valuable they are in cities. Both the amount and layout of urban green spaces affect how much they can cool a city.

The way trees, parks and other green areas are arranged can change how they provide shade and release moisture into the air, which together determine how much they can lower the surrounding temperature.

Where urban green spaces are located is also related to an important social issue: environmental justice. Unequally distributed green spaces can restrict residents’ access to cooling in certain neighbourhoods, contributing to social inequalities within a city.

Those living in low-income neighbourhoods feeling the harshest impacts of urban heat can struggle to find green spaces where they can cool off. Young children and the elderly are also more susceptible to the dangers of prolonged heat exposure.

There is a need for municipal governments to get a better view of how well these vulnerable groups receive the cooling provided by urban green infrastructure and what factors have driven the unbalanced distribution.

What we found

Using satellite imagery and laser imaging, we found that having more trees, grass and shrubs in an area can notably reduce temperatures. We developed a model to estimate the cooling effect provided by urban green infrastructure based on several indicators. Those indicators reflect the quantity and quality aspect of the urban greenery.

Our model showed that a 10 per cent increase in tree coverage can lower land surface temperature by approximately 1.4 C. A similar increase in shrubs and grass lowers temperatures by about 0.8 C.

The result also indicated that large, continuous groups of trees cool their surroundings better than small, scattered patches. A 10 per cent increase in the aggregation level of tree cluster (area of the largest patch of trees divided by the total area of trees within a landscape unit) can lower land surface temperature by about 0.2 C.

We also found that the cooling provided by green spaces in many parts of Montréal do no meet the needs of local residents. This mismatch varies a lot between census tracts.

Areas in the city abundant with green spaces include boroughs like Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Outremont, L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève and the village of Senneville. Meanwhile, areas such as Montréal-Est, Saint-Leonard and Saint-Laurent have the least amount of green space.

In addition, areas like Pointe-Claire and Montréal-Nord have good green space, but their mismatch index is still low because many vulnerable people live there. The mismatch index is calculated by supply index minus demand index; that means a higher demand index would lead to a lower mismatch index.

Neighbourhoods with higher median incomes and more highly educated people were mostly associated with positive supply-demand values. That indicates their supply of cooling services as provided by urban green spaces was higher than their demand.

In contrast, census tracts with higher proportion of racialized people and people with a lower level of education tend to lack enough green spaces where residents can cool off.

Vulnerable people (young and elderly individuals) with a higher socio-economic status received more cooling services provided by the urban green spaces. In contrast, those on the other end of the socio-economic spectrum were more likely to struggle to easily find a place to cool off.

What we can do in the future

For cities with similar humid summer months like Montréal, urban planners who want to reduce daytime heat should consolidate tree patches into large, continuous areas where possible.

It is also helpful to design smaller-scale green spaces with more irregularly shaped tree patches and create enhanced connectivity, especially for grass, to support small-scale cooling.

In Montréal and other cities where green spaces are unequally distributed, municipal officials should develop ranked action plans for greening efforts that consider environmental justice and prioritize areas where the need for cooling is greatest.

Lingshan Li receives funding from The Trottier Family Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Climate change is making cities hotter. Here’s how planting trees can help – https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-making-cities-hotter-heres-how-planting-trees-can-help-267827

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Amy Anderson, PHD Student in Art History & Visual Studies, University of Victoria

I was lucky to encounter The Rocky Horror Picture Show early in life, when my mother tracked the DVD down at our local video store so we could watch it together from the comfort of our apartment.

My initial experience lacked some of the context and traditions which, over the last 50 years, have cemented Rocky Horror’s status as the quintessential cult film.

Ironically, in my mother’s case, introducing her child to Rocky Horror required her to remove it from the very setting which gave the film its social significance in the first place: the movie theatre.

While “cult cinema” remains a somewhat nebulous categorization, scholarship consistently ties the term directly to the social situation of audiences receiving films. For cult cinema studies vanguards like Danny Peary, a movie doesn’t achieve cult status by simply inspiring a collective fan base. A cult film is born through ritualistic traditions of audience attendance that must occur in a public, social screening setting like a movie theatre.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show — the Hollywood-funded screen adaptation of Jim Sharman and Richard O’Brien’s successful British stage musical — owes its cult success to independent, repertory cinemas.

Second life after box office flop

Considered a box office flop upon its 1975 release, the film soon found its second life as a midnight movie at New York City’s Waverly Theatre the following year.

At late night screenings, Rocky Horror drew audiences who were attracted to the film’s eclectic use of pastiche and radical depictions of queer sexuality.

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Read more:
At 50, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is ‘imperfectly’ good (and queer) as ever

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Marking its 50th anniversary this year, the film continues to inspire a loyal following. Costumed fans still flock to local theatres, props in hand, to participate in performed traditions of audience participation, some of which have now been passed down for half a century.

Cult films and independent cinemas

One might argue that Rocky Horror’s expansion beyond the raucous, rice-strewn aisles of midnight movie screenings into personal, domestic settings (for example, my childhood living room) signals the precarious existence of both cult cinema and independent theatres.

Indeed, the two phenomena have become increasingly codependent. On the one hand, the Rocky Horror experience cannot be authentically replicated at home, since the exciting novelty of cult film screenings lies in the somewhat unpredictable nature of public, collective viewing practices.

The survival of Rocky Horror as we’ve come to know it hinges on the continued existence of independent cinemas, which provide settings for inclusive self expression and queer celebration that corporate cinema chains are less hospitable to.

In turn, cult cinema’s ephemeral quality makes it resistant to the allure of private, individualized entertainment, hailed by technological developments like VHS and DVD and of course, most recently, online streaming services.

Movie-viewing changes

Throughout my time as the programmer for a non-profit repertory cinema in Victoria, B.C. in the face of post-pandemic attendance declines and online streaming competitors — not to mention Cineplex’s continued monopoly over the Canadian theatrical exhibition landscape — I saw first-hand the economic necessity of screening Rocky Horror.

When independent cinemas are looking for consistent sources of revenue, cult films like Rocky Horror are top of the list.

In my past cinema experience, the only other films that regularly had comparative popularity are now also considered cult titles: the early-aughts favourite The Room and more recently the Twilight movies.

Human experiences, together

Programming The Rocky Horror Picture Show for five years also revealed for me cult cinema’s important relationship to chance. One of the more embarrassing moments of my programming career came when a projectionist unknowingly screened an unappetizingly sepia-toned version of Rocky Horror to a sold-out theatre audience. What remains a mortifying mistake still, I think, captures the essential element of humanness that remains integral to public moviegoing traditions.

Cult cinema exemplifies the adventurous nature of collective viewing. While Rocky Horror screenings traditionally encourage the audience’s self-expression, as with all cinema, each showing is a unique occurrence. This reminds us that it’s sometimes beneficial to suspend our expectations (colour grading aside) of how a film is meant to be seen.

Cult cinema: a paradox of time

In my doctoral research, I examine how moving images continually influence our lived relationship to time. Cinema is, at its heart, a medium of time, since its signature illusion of lifelike movement is created by displaying a collection of still images (or pixels) in a process of successive duration. Film theorist Mary Ann Doane observes that cinema’s unique ties to temporality have profoundly structured many essential aspects of modern human experience.

Cult cinema poses an intriguing paradox with regards to time. At cinemas, we typically aspire to give films our undivided attention. We derive meaning — and hopefully, pleasure — through a concentrated and cohesive understanding of what is occurring on the screen in front of us.

Conversely, showings of Rocky Horror and other cult films require different levels of presence and engagement. The average theatrical Rocky Horror viewer’s focus is divided dramatically between virtual, onscreen space and the physical environment of the theatre, including the audience’s expressions.

Consequently, the spectator’s perception vacillates between the film as an unchanging record of time passed (what Doane calls “cinematic time”) and the more contingent, unpredictable nature of “real” time perceived from and within our physical bodies.

The audience’s movie

Perhaps the magic of cult cinema is formed where these two temporal frequencies meet: when Rocky Horror’s cinematic time occurs in tandem with the delightful unpredictability of a live audience.

This sentiment was maybe best articulated by the actor Barry Bostwick, who played the role of Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in a documentary interview:

“The reason people think [Rocky Horror is] the greatest cult movie of all time is because it’s their movie, they own it. It’s as if they make it every time they go to the theatre.”

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

– ref. How ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ reveals the magic of cult cinema – https://theconversation.com/how-the-rocky-horror-picture-show-reveals-the-magic-of-cult-cinema-267712

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Farinaz Basmechi, Doctoral researcher, Feminist and Gender Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Last month marked the third anniversary of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, an uprising that has been described as the country’s most significant movement since the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

Though authoritarian powers and patriarchal systems continue to oppress, women journalists in the Middle East have combined reporting and activism. Many of these professionals operate under regimes that criminalize dissent. For them, reporting isn’t just a profession, it merges with acts of resistance.

Across the region, journalists like Egypt’s Lina Attalah, who continues to publish investigative reports despite state repression, and Yemen’s Afrah Nasser, whose exile hasn’t silenced her voice, act as catalysts for change, using their platforms to amplify marginalized voices, challenge oppressive systems and mobilize communities in liberation-focused movements.

Through the years, their work has gone far beyond reporting news and has become a vital force for truth, justice and social transformation in the region.

Telling the truth under threat

Ever since social media and blogs became widely accessible, women journalists have stood at the forefront, playing a crucial role in raising awareness of inequality, often in competition with predominantly male-dominated mainstream news outlets that are heavily censored or operate under tight government influence.

My Stealthy Freedom (MSF), for example, one of the most prominent social movements in Iran, was launched in 2014 by exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad. What started as a Facebook page supporting Iranian women’s autonomy in making personal choices about their dress quickly gained more than one million followers.

In May 2017, MSF launched the #WhiteWednesdays campaign, encouraging participants to wear white headscarves or other symbols on Wednesdays as a visible form of protest against the mandatory hijab law. The campaign later expanded through tactical hashtags like #MarchingWithoutHijab and #OurCameraIsOurWeapon.

While Alinejad was working abroad, the government arrested her brother to pressure her to end her activism. In addition, New York police arrested two men involved in a murder-for-hire plot against her.

In Lebanon, independent journalist Luna Safwan, who covers corruption, gender-based violence and protest movements, has experienced co-ordinated online harassment for her critical reporting on Hezbollah and gender inequality. She faced two defamation SLAPP suits from her harasser and his lawyer after she and six other women publicly accused activist Jaafar al-Attar of sexual misconduct in 2021.

Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, one of the few remaining independent media outlets in Egypt, has been detained several times for publishing investigative reports on government corruption and women’s rights. She continues to advocate for press freedom and digital security for journalists under authoritarian regimes.

Award-winning Yemeni journalist and blogger Afrah Nasser was forced to flee into exile after documenting human rights violations and gender-based violence during Yemen’s civil war. As a researcher with Human Rights Watch, she continues to advocate for accountability, freedom of expression and justice for victims of war crimes in Yemen.

Yara Bader, a Syrian Journalist and human rights advocate who leads the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, has exposed state-led detentions, torture and media suppression. Despite facing arrest and exile, she continues to advocate for press freedom and the protection of detained journalists in Syria.

In Tunisia, Lina Ben Mhenni — a blogger, digital activist and journalist — used her blog, A Tunisian Girl, during the Arab Spring to report on rural and under-covered regions. She documented police brutality and government repression and helped expose injustices to both the Tunisian public and the international community. She later became an advocate for human rights and freedom of expression in Tunisia.

Al Jazeera Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda has used her Instagram account to issue calls for global solidarity since 2023. The reporting of Owda and others from Gaza, like Hind Khoudary and Youmna ElSayed, have led to worldwide demonstrations, including a global strike on university campuses in 2024 and, more recently, the global strike in August 2025.

Middle Eastern women journalists like these have been crucial in documenting on-the-ground realities and mobilizing resistance against colonial, authoritarian and patriarchal violence.

Reclaiming the narrative digitally

The truth is that Middle Eastern women journalists have been actively reporting in places like Palestine and covering other conflict zones, often under dangerous conditions, for a long time.

While on the job, for example, veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier during a military operation in Jenin despite wearing a clearly marked “press” flak jacket.

Social media and blogging sites have given women journalists the platforms needed to spread messages of resistance.

And although Middle Eastern women journalists face a dual struggle — against patriarchal state structures and lingering colonial forces — they persist, fighting for a more equitable world and to mobilize others toward that goal.

In today’s world, where human rights seem increasingly fragile, Middle Eastern women journalists demonstrate determination and resilience. They advocate for human rights and fight against gender-based violence while shaping narratives and striving for social transformation within their geopolitical contexts and beyond.

In many Middle Eastern countries, access to official news channels is often reserved for reinforcing authoritarian narratives, while feminist journalists act as agents of change, using widely accessible platforms — particularly social media — to create spaces for awareness and reform.

Women journalists resist oversimplified portrayals of women as oppressed by family, state or colonial power. They reveal women’s role as active agents of change, exposing injustice and advancing movements for equality.

Farinaz Basmechi 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. In the Middle East, women journalists and activists have been driving crucial change – https://theconversation.com/in-the-middle-east-women-journalists-and-activists-have-been-driving-crucial-change-265273

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Laura Doering, Associate Professor of Strategic Management, University of Toronto

Return-to-office mandates are spreading across North America, with Canada’s major banks, the Ontario government, Amazon and Facebook calling employees back into the office.

These moves reverse the flexibility that became widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic, when remote work became the new norm as public health measures emphasized staying home and avoiding large gatherings.

Supporters of these policies often cite collaboration, innovation and mentorship as reasons to bring workers together in person.

But our research shows that these mandates don’t affect everyone equally. For many women, returning to the office means stepping back into environments where gender bias is more pronounced.

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Read more:
As back-to-school season approaches, Canadian employers are making a mistake by mandating workers back to the office

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Everyday discrimination at work

When people think about gender discrimination, many imagine pay gaps or barriers to promotion. But discrimination also plays out in routine interactions — what we refer to as “everyday gender discrimination” in our study.

These are regular slights and offences that can chip away at women’s confidence and sense of belonging over time. They might include being ignored in meetings, being asked to perform administrative tasks outside one’s role, receiving inappropriate comments or having one’s ideas credited to others.

While each single incident might seem trivial, their cumulative effect can make women feel frustrated, dissatisfied with their jobs and more likely to leave their organizations.

As organizations reassess where and how people work in the wake of the pandemic, we decided to examine whether everyday discrimination looks different in remote versus in-person settings.

Clear differences by location

To investigate how location shapes everyday gender discrimination, we surveyed 1,091 professional women in the United States with hybrid jobs, or roles that involved both in-person and remote work. Our design allowed us to compare the same person’s experiences across work locations and pinpoint the impact of location itself.

The results were striking. Women were significantly more likely to experience everyday gender discrimination when working on-site than when working remotely.

In a typical month, 29 per cent of respondents reported experiencing discrimination in the office, compared to just 18 per cent when working from home. These patterns held across types of discrimination, from being underestimated to being excluded from social activities and experiencing sexual harassment.

The contrast was especially sharp for two groups: younger women (under 30) and women who worked mostly with men. Among younger women, the likelihood of experiencing discrimination dropped from 31 per cent on site to just 14 per cent when remote.

Similarly, women who interacted primarily with men saw their likelihood of experiencing discrimination fall from 58 per cent on site to 26 per cent remotely. For these groups, remote work provides a meaningful reduction in exposure to everyday gender discrimination.

The trade-offs of remote work

Still, remote work is no silver bullet for gender inequality. Our findings highlight a key advantage — reduced exposure to everyday discrimination — but there are important trade-offs that need to be considered.

One challenge is that working remotely can limit informal interactions that are crucial for building relationships. It can also reduce access to mentors and feedback and make it harder for women to be considered for high-profile assignments.

Remote work can also make it harder to tell where the office ends and home begins, pulling family duties into the workday and intensifying family obligations even during work hours.

These factors are crucial for career advancement, especially for women. While remote work offers an environment with less everyday gender discrimination, working off-site may also limit women’s professional opportunities.

Understanding these trade-offs is essential as organizations craft return-to-office policies. Rather than treating remote work as inherently good or bad, leaders need nuanced strategies that combine the benefits of both in-person and remote work.

What employers and policymakers can do

As companies and governments push employees to return to the office, they risk overlooking how much location matters for women’s workplace experiences. Here are three steps organizations can take to address this issue:

1. Offer flexibility where possible.

Giving employees the option to work remotely empowers women to choose the environment where they feel most respected and productive. Some companies have adopted remote-first policies, framing them as tools for talent retention. Such policies allow employees to make decisions about the work location that suits them best.

2. Import best practices from remote meetings.

While virtual meetings tend to be less engaging, they are also more efficient and focused, with fewer opportunities for offhand comments or interruptions. Applying that same structure to in-person meetings could reduce discrimination while improving productivity.

Companies should consider formal agendas, structured turn-taking and asynchronous feedback to create fairer, more professional discussions. Amazon, for example, applied this principle by centring in-person meetings around “six-page memos” rather than open-ended discussions.

3. Acknowledge the trade-offs.

Leaders should recognize that, while on-site work can accelerate skill development, it can also magnify gender bias. A frank acknowledgement of this tension is the first step toward creating systems that minimize harm while maximizing opportunity.

One bank we studied in separate research, which hasn’t been published yet, overcame this challenge by pairing junior staff with senior mentors and implementing a project-tracking system to ensure equitable assignment of opportunities.

Location, location, location

Workplace discrimination is not only an ethical problem — it also undermines performance, fuels turnover and exposes firms to legal risks.

Our study shows that where work happens — remotely or on site — plays a central role in shaping women’s exposure to everyday gender discrimination.

As organizations roll back the remote work practices adopted during the pandemic, it’s important to recognize that decisions about location can powerfully shape employees’ experiences and professional opportunities at work.

Thoughtful policies that balance the benefits of in-person interaction with the protections afforded by remote work can help ensure that women face less everyday discrimination and experience greater equality at work.

Laura Doering receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Institute for Gender and the Economy at Rotman, and the Lee-Chin Institute.

András Tilcsik has received research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the University of Toronto’s Institute for Pandemics, and the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the Rotman School of Management.

– ref. Remote work reduced gender discrimination — returning to the office may change that – https://theconversation.com/remote-work-reduced-gender-discrimination-returning-to-the-office-may-change-that-265945