A new era for working from home
With COVID-19 lockdowns restricting our mobility, working from home (i.e., telecommuting) has become a ‘norm’ for many sectors. We’ve been trying to figure out this “new” normal, and what it will look like going forward. Telecommuting has had many positive outcomes, at least from the transportation point of view. This includes reduced traffic congestion and […]
Get on with it: Senate cuts a year off feds’ deadline for new oil rig regs
The Senate has chopped in half an extension the government proposed to give itself for making permanent health and safety regulations for offshore oil and gas platforms. Senators and oil industry executives have expressed concern about the government’s failure to meet its latest deadline to enact those regulations. Senators from multiple groups in the Upper […]
Research excellence requires equity, diversity, and inclusion
OTTAWA—As a mathematician, I am drawn to numbers, and one particular set caught my eye not long ago. According to data compiled in 2019 by the Diversity Gap Canada, a project by University of Calgary political science professor Dr. Malinda Smith, the deans of Canada’s top 15 universities are mostly white and male, and only […]
The time for innovation in higher education is now
This month, Concordia University is launching its Innovation Lab, a bold move to support students to become skilled and confident innovators who can turn ideas into solutions that make the world a better place. The Lab is one response to the era of profound changes arriving at dizzying speeds, prompted by the growth and spread […]
Does the response to the Payette scandal signal a change in the treatment of bullying and harassment victims?
The scandal at Rideau Hall appears to have brought #MeToo back to life in Ottawa. It’s toppled its biggest figure yet, the governor general. It also may have brought about a change in the way whistleblowers on abuse and harassment are treated. It’s about time. The workplace is littered with the broken careers and shattered lives […]
Pandemic exposing critical gaps in health workforce planning
Health workers in Canada experience endemic levels of burnout directly related to understaffing and work overload. Leaves of absence from work for mental health and stress related issues are 1.5 times higher among health workers than the rest of the population. Increasingly, health workers are significantly reducing their hours worked, just to cope, or leaving […]
Creating one million jobs requires co-operation
In its Speech from the Throne last September, the federal government committed to making “the largest investment in Canadian history in training for workers.” That investment will be crucial to achieving its ambitious goal of creating more than one million jobs to restore employment to pre-pandemic levels. Achieving that goal will require co-operation between governments, […]
Canada cannot afford a knowledge recession
As countries around the world continue to grapple with new dangers presented by COVID-19, Canada must also work to stave off a danger of a different kind: a knowledge recession. Last year ended with more hope than we have had in a while. With vaccines starting to roll out, it was possible to imagine a […]
Bring back core funding for women’s groups, say MPs as new report warns sector at risk of ‘financial devastation’
Canada should return core funding to women’s groups, say MPs after a report warns the sector faces “financial devastation,” with organizations struggling to stay in operation under the weight of the pandemic’s gendered impact. The report, released Tuesday, said a survey of women-serving agencies and equity-seeking organizations shows more than half of the sector has […]
Polarization in Canada, real or not?
OAKVILLE, ONT.—When it comes to politics, we Canadians are becoming increasingly polarized. Or are we? After all, maybe all the gloomy warnings we’re hearing these days about how our society is becoming divided along stark ideological lines is nothing but media hype or exaggeration. So, always eager to get to the bottom of things, I […]
