During Wednesday’s videotaped announcement of policies targeting Alberta’s trans community, Premier Danielle Smith said one of those policies would prohibit trans women from competing in womens’ sports. Smith suggested a trans athlete has “advantages” over their cisgender counterparts. “There are obvious biological realities that […]
Category: Society
Does Religion Get You High? – Psychology Today [2024-01-31]
Karl Marx once said religion is the opiate of the masses. His metaphor may have a whiff of literal truth, even if it was intended as a hostile attack on religion from an atheistic perspective. It may be worth considering the possibility that religion […]
4 million Canadians have a criminal record. Companies not hiring them are missing out, say advocates – CBC News [2024-01-31]
During her time in prison, Emily O’Brien came to the conclusion that it would be difficult to find a job after her release, so she developed an idea for starting her own business. Now as chief executive of her company, Comeback Snacks, O’Brien makes […]
Doubling social assistance rates would make ‘life-changing difference,’ recipient says – CBC News [2024-01-25]
Whether she’s riding the bus to an appointment, packing her son’s school lunch or taking courses so she can get a good job, Tia is constantly running numbers in her head. “I crunch numbers all day long to figure out what I have, what […]
Council urged to support permanent funding for public washrooms downtown – CTV News [2024-01-18]
Coun. Skylar Franke said a movement towards ‘needs-based budgeting’ at city hall must include support for basic human needs like public washrooms. “A lot of places require that you purchase something like a coffee or a bagel to use their washrooms and that’s not […]
He slept on night buses and in a storage locker to avoid homeless shelters – CBC News [2024-01-04]
Three days before Christmas, John Grant Yusak was evicted from the closest thing he’d had to a home in months. It was a storage locker. At six feet tall, he could barely squeeze into the space. He piled up his bins, laid an air […]
How does Ontario enforce its accessibility legislation? It doesn’t, advocates say – CBC News [2024-01-04]
In her years of advocating for people with disabilities, Alex Wilding says complaints to the province about organizations failing to comply with its accessibility law have gone nowhere. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) was meant to remove barriers for those with […]
Stigma of criminal record ‘is massive,’ say advocates who want to reform pardon process – CBC News [2024-01-02]
When Steven Deveau describes his frustration with the process to suspend a criminal record, he keeps coming back to two women. The women were hoping to attend a nursing program. But because of their records from past convictions — and small unpaid fines related […]
Quebec City looks to Finland’s successful approach to ending homelessness – Global News [2023-12-31]
As Quebec faces a worsening homelessness crisis, some politicians, including Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand, have suggested the solution may be a Finnish model that aims to give everyone a home. But while Finland has managed to massively reduce the number of people experiencing […]
Expert says number of police shootings in Canada ‘spectacularly unrelenting’ – CTV News [2023-12-30]
The family of a woman shot by an officer in Edmonton during a wellness check says her death was unnecessary, as the number of police shootings across Canada show little sign of relenting over the past four years. “I see my daughter’s death as […]
Trigger warnings do not work, according to recent meta-analysis – PsyPost [2023-12-28]
Trigger warnings are statements designed to forewarn viewers about potentially distressing content. A recent meta-analysis of 12 studies concluded trigger warnings have no effect on emotional responding to negative material or educational outcomes. This research was published in Clinical Psychological Science. While some advocate […]
Why Bad Grammar Activates Our Fight-or-Flight Response – Psychology Today [2023-12-14]
Does grammar matter? And did you have a teacher in your youth who insisted on drumming the rules of good grammar into you—and was that teacher on the stern and grumpy side of the instructional continuum? My anecdotal research into these questions over the […]
Woman who threw hot burrito bowl at Chipotle worker sentenced to fast food job – CBC News [2023-12-06]
A woman who threw a hot burrito bowl in a Chipotle worker’s face because she didn’t like the way it was prepared may soon learn what it’s like to be on the other side of the counter. An Ohio judge sentenced 39-year-old Rosemary Hayne […]
Musk uses expletive to tell audience he doesn’t care about advertisers that fled X over hate speech – CTV News [2023-11-29]
Billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday that advertisers who have halted spending on his social media platform X in response to antisemitic and other hateful material are engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away. “Don’t advertise,” Musk said. He […]
Developmentally Disabled People Are Being Pushed into Homelessness – The Tyee [2023-11-28]
Just before the summer started, Jon Harry was told he’d have to leave his room at a Duncan motel because the owner planned to renovate. ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS & MORE FROM TYEE AND SELECT PARTNERSThe Tyee Is 20. So We’re Partying by Debating the Fate […]
After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer offer a magazine – The Verge [2023-11-27]
After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer be available to purchase as a magazine. In a statement to The Verge, Cathy Hebert, the communications director for PopSci owner Recurrent Ventures, says the outlet needs to “evolve” beyond its magazine product, which published its […]
Why several big-box stores have ditched their self-checkouts – CBC News [2023-11-22]
After Dwayne Ouelette took over the Canadian Tire in North Bay, Ont., last year, he decided to buck the trend and ditch the store’s four self-checkout machines — which had been there for a decade. “I’m not comfortable using them and I don’t think […]
Loneliness is as bad for you as smoking, research shows. But the stigma stops people getting help – CBC News [2023-11-21]
Top health officials say loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking, but one doctor warns that the stigma around feeling lonely still stops people from reaching out for support. “Just like thirst is a signal you need hydration, loneliness is a signal […]
IBM, EU, Disney and others pull ads from Elon Musk’s X as concerns about antisemitism fuel backlash – CTV News [2023-11-18]
Advertisers are fleeing social media platform X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with billionaire owner Elon Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory. IBM, NBCUniversal […]
Libraries and Homelessness: Libraries provide more than just books – Psychology Today [2023-11-11]
Yesterday, at a community homelessness resource and health fair where I was a faculty preceptor for a footcare clinic with some of our medical and nursing students, I was reminded of the powerful role of libraries in the lives of people experiencing homelessness. Among […]
People with permanent tattoos are more likely to be arrested, convicted, and incarcerated, study finds – PsyPost [2023-11-06]
A new study indicate that both men and women with permanent tattoos are at a significantly higher risk of arrest, conviction, and incarceration compared to those without tattoos, potentially due to stigmatization. This correlation persists even after adjusting for self-reported criminal behavior, levels of […]
Why AI Lies – For chatbots, the truth is elusive; it is for humans, too – Psychology Today [2023-10-27]
Attorney Steven Schwartz heard about large language models (LLMs) from his children. He read a few articles on the subject, one saying that the new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots could make legal research obsolete. Schwartz asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help him with the research […]
Housing first: The case for social prescribing of housing in emergency departments – Healthy Debate [2023-10-03]
The past decade in Canada has seen a material escalation in visible homelessness. With a highly financialized housing market driving housing unaffordability and escalating inflation putting pressure on mortgages, rents and food, the crisis of homelessness has continued to worsen. This has resulted in […]
New apartments opening for homeless people with ‘complex health needs’ – CBC News [2023-10-11]
People who have nowhere to live and are dealing with complex health needs will now have 25 supportive housing units where they stay so they don’t end up on the street. The London Health Sciences Centre and London Cares have partnered to offer the […]
Ontarians on social supports ‘worse off’ than before pandemic, study suggests – Global News [2023-09-20]
Some Ontario researchers say residents in the province who were already among the poorest and most vulnerable prior to COVID-19 are now worse off than they were before. A new report McMaster University’s political science and labour studies department is highlighting how things are […]
