Category: The Conversation

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But in today’s schools, that message is not only outdated, it may be part of the problem.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

Read more:
Vaping in schools: Ontario’s $30 million for surveillance and security won’t address student needs

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.

Read more:
Solving teacher shortages depends on coming together around shared aspirations for children

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

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.

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.

Read more:
Warming winters are reshaping Canada’s snowpack

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.

Read more:
Heat-resistant corals could help reefs adapt to climate change

Harmful chemicals

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

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.

Read more:
What will happen to school grades during the coronavirus pandemic?

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).

Read more:
Are ‘top scholar’ students really so remarkable — or are teachers inflating their grades?

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

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.

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.

Read more:
Why sport is a spiritual experience – and failure can help

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.

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. 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