Urban Canada Research Articles

These Well-Wooded Towns: Supplying Fuel Wood to Central Canadian Urban Markets, 1867–1921

In the late 1860s, Toronto subsidized two narrow gauge rail lines in an effort to meet rising energy demands, make use of its hinterland’s ability to supply firewood, and utilize railway charters to enforce cheap transportation of firewood from the hinterland to the city. Several of the new Dominion’s earliest railways were thus not the typical trunk lines for connecting distant population centres; rather, they were narrow gauge lines that ran into the forest for the purpose of supplying fuel to urban Canadians. Rising fuel prices, however, resulted in debates over what some considered “cordwood monopolies” and broken rail charters. An examination of the records of urban fuel merchants, statistics of locomotive fuel consumption, and Geographic Information System (GIS) maps of national railway freight reveal where firewood markets expanded and how urban firewood consumption intensified in southern Ontario cities. Wood remained an integral part of the modern urban energy system until at least the early 1920s, a period usually considered Canada’s age of coal, because firewood and coal had much in common as solid fuels and railway expansion created new markets for firewood from the Canadian Shield.

Cumulative air pollution indicators highlight unique patterns of injustice in urban Canada

Disparities in air pollution exposure are a form of distributional environmental injustice that has been documented in many jurisdictions around the world. In Canada, although there is a growing literature characterizing exposure inequalities, an important gap is research that captures the cumulative impact of the multiple air pollutants to which communities are exposed. Here, we present a screening-level analysis of inequalities in single pollutant and cumulative air pollution burdens in three major cities in Canada: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. We construct three cumulative hazard indices (CHIs), using previously published national datasets for PM2.5, NO2, SO2, and O3 concentrations for illustrative year 2012. We describe the ways in which patterns of inequality differ between pollutants, between ways of calculating cumulative burden, and between cities. Different methods of constructing CHIs can yield different understandings of the spatial distribution of pollution, and in turn, inequality. We find the largest spatial variations for a CHI based on whether each pollutant exceeds an external benchmark (here, air quality guidelines), which translates into the largest calculated disparities in cumulative air pollution burdens for marginalized groups. We observe distinct patterns of inequality between the cities, in terms of which marginalized groups consistently experience higher cumulative air pollution burdens (Vancouver: Indigenous residents, Montreal: immigrant residents, Toronto: low-income residents). Results also highlight the importance of using a suite of socio-demographic indicators as patterns can differ between individual racialized/ethnic groups, and between different measures of socio-economic status. This work illustrates how a range of cumulative hazard screening indicators could be used in a policy context in Canada and elsewhere, while highlighting some of the methodological complexities in how environmental and social risks are characterized and combined. Given these complexities, we suggest that community input should inform the design of environmental justice indicators, as an important component of procedural justice.

Comparison of Canadian Urban and Small-town Exhibition Practices 1914-1929

Because of Canada’s geographic location, the business of film exhibition has always been tied to the United States and ultimately controlled by Hollywood. In order to understand the historical cinematic experience of Canadians in different regions, this paper seeks to compare opening playdates in urban Canada to the northern mining community in Timmins, Ontario from 1914 to 1929, a pivotal period during which Paramount controlled Famous Players came to dominate both film exhibition and distribution in the country. I also analyse holiday programming at Christmas and Easter during this same time period. My analysis demonstrates that there was a variance of film premiere dates throughout urban Canada. This article also shows that even though small towns like Timmins had films much later than urban locations they were still able to create a unique cinema culture through special programming during holidays that was unique from other locations in Canada.

The Opioid/Overdose Crisis as a Dialectics of Pain, Despair, and One-Sided Struggle.

The opioid/overdose crisis in the United States and Canada has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and has become a major field for research and interventions. It has embroiled pharmaceutical companies in lawsuits and possible bankruptcy filings. Effective interventions and policies toward this and future drug-related outbreaks may be improved by understanding the sociostructural roots of this outbreak. Much of the literature on roots of the opioid/overdose outbreak focuses on (1) the actions of pharmaceutical companies in inappropriately promoting the use of prescription opioids; (2) “deaths of despair” based on the deindustrialization of much of rural and urban Canada and the United States, and on the related marginalization and demoralization of those facing lifetimes of joblessness or precarious employment in poorly paid, often dangerous work; and (3) increase in occupationally-induced pain and injuries in the population. All three of these roots of the crisis—pharmaceutical misconduct and unethical marketing practices, despair based on deindustrialization and increased occupational pain—can be traced back, in part, to what has been called the “one-sided class war” that became prominent in the 1970s, became institutionalized as neo-liberalism in and since the 1980s, and may now be beginning to be challenged. We describe this one-sided class war, and how processes it sparked enabled pharmaceutical corporations in their misconduct, nurtured individualistic ideologies that fed into despair and drug use, weakened institutions that created social support in communities, and reduced barriers against injuries and other occupational pain at workplaces by reducing unionization, weakening surviving unions, and weakening the enforcement of rules about workplace safety and health. We then briefly discuss the implications of this analysis for programs and policies to mitigate or reverse the opioid/overdose outbreak.

Association between time-weighted activity space-based exposures to fast food outlets and fast food consumption among young adults in urban Canada

BackgroundDespite increased attention on retail food environments and fast food consumption, results from previous studies have been inconsistent. Variation in measurement of exposure to retail food environments and the context of the built environment are possible reasons for inconsistencies. The purpose of the current study is to examine the association between exposure to fast food environment and fast food consumption among young adults, and to explore possible associations between built environment and fast food consumption.MethodsWe employed an observational, cross-sectional study design. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2016 and 2017. In a sample of 591 young adults aged 16–30 years in five Canadian cities, we constructed and computed individual-level time-weighted number and ratio of fast food outlets in activity spaces derived from GPS trajectory data. Negative binomial regression models estimated the associations between exposure measures and frequency of fast food consumption (number of times consuming fast food meals in a seven-day period), controlling for built environment characterization and individual-level characteristics.ResultsSignificant positive associations were found between time-weighted number of fast food outlets and count of fast food meals consumed per week in models using a radius of 500 m (IRR = 1.078, 95% CI: 0.999, 1.163), 1 km (IRR = 1.135, 95% CI: 1.024, 1.259), or 1.5 km (IRR = 1.138, 95% CI: 1.004, 1.289) around GPS tracks, when generating activity spaces. However, time-weighted ratio of fast food outlets was only significantly associated with count of fast food meals consumed when a radius of 500 m is used (IRR = 1.478, 95% CI: 1.032, 2.123). The time-weighted Active Living Environment Index with Transit measure was significantly negatively related to count of fast food meals consumed across all models.ConclusionsOur study demonstrated associations of time-weighted activity space-based exposure to fast food outlets and fast food consumption frequency in a sample of young adults in urban Canada, and provides evidence of the association between context of built environment and fast food consumption, furthering discussion on the utility of individual-level, activity space-based data and methods in food environment research. These results imply that both food retail composition and activity spaces in urban areas are important factors to consider when studying diets.

Reconnecting the Housing Market to the Labour Market: Foreign Ownership and Housing Affordability in Urban Canada

Toronto and Vancouver have been struggling with intense housing affordability problems in recent years. This article looks at one important factor in these affordability challenges: foreign ownership. Foreign ownership helps decouple the housing market from the labour market, pushing market prices for prized forms of housing beyond what local incomes can afford. The author investigates the role played by foreign ownership in the recent housing crises in Toronto and Vancouver before presenting a few possible policy approaches to address this dynamic. He concludes that some means of continuously taxing foreign ownership at a steep rate is needed in core urban regions of the country. Foreign buyer taxes and the Speculation and Vacancy Tax in British Columbia are evaluated in that context.

Calibrating the go-along for the Anthropocene

ABSTRACTThis article contends that the ‘go-along’ contains more technical and ontological agility as a methodology for social research than is often assumed. After distinguishing the central spectrums of technical and ontological agility rooted in different research designs and philosophical orientations, I examine how researchers can nourish it while refining the go-along’s moral purpose in the context of environmental and related mobility crises that define the Anthropocene. I argue researchers can cultivate the go-along’s agility and moral purpose by deploying it with a quantitative context, comparing go-along case studies, moving past human supremacism and illuminating ecologically just forms of mobility that respect other species of life and their habitats. To show one way that the go-along can accomplish these things, I present two vignettes of cycling in urban Canada, drawing on a mobile video ethnography of cycling, a funded study in sociology, conducted between 2014 and 2018.

The reproductive success of sandhill cranes in midwestern landscapes

ABSTRACTA number of wildlife species have recovered from the brink of extinction to flourish and, in some cases, even become a commonly recognized urban species (e.g., Canada goose [Branta canadensis]). Broadly extirpated from much of their historical range in North America, the sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) demonstrated this potential for population recovery. The trajectory of the eastern population of greater sandhill cranes is remarkable—perhaps as many as 90,000 cranes now occur throughout the same Great Lakes states that reported only dozens of birds less than a century ago. However, understanding future population growth of the species remains uncertain because breeding birds are increasingly exposed to the pressures of urban sprawl and a changing agricultural landscape. From 2009 to 2014 we investigated the survival of sandhill crane nests and young up to 11 weeks of age (the point at which they are capable of flight) in the core of the eastern population's range in central Wisconsin and at its peripheral extent in a rapidly developing urban region of northeastern Illinois, USA. We located crane nests via systematic surveys on foot and from helicopters, we then radio‐tagged the young and monitored them until they died or were capable to sustained flight. Overall, young were more likely to hatch from nests in Illinois (60%) than in central Wisconsin (46%), regardless of differences in land cover surrounding the nest site. In contrast, the survivorship of young was positively correlated with urban land cover in both regions but higher in central Wisconsin (54%) than in northeast Illinois (27%). Overall, the probability of producing young was greater in landscapes with more urban development, regardless of region. We suggest that differences in predator composition, predator behavior, and crane density between rural and urban areas is the primary reason for the difference in crane productivity. Higher recruitment of sandhill cranes using urban landscapes may allow cranes to echo the population trajectory of urban Canada geese. We anticipate that sandhill cranes will continue to use urban landscapes, and likely expand their geographic range as breeding pairs benefit from the increased survivorship of young in those landscapes. © The Wildlife Society, 2019

Household income, active travel, and their interacting impact on body mass index in a sample of urban Canadians: a Bayesian spatial analysis

BackgroundActive travel for utilitarian purposes contributes to total physical activity and may help counter the obesity epidemic. However, the evidence linking active travel and individual-level body weight is equivocal. Statistical modeling that accounts for spatial autocorrelation and unmeasured spatial predictors has not yet used to explore whether the health benefits of active travel are shared equally across socioeconomic groups.MethodsBayesian hierarchical models with spatial random effects were developed using travel survey data from Saskatoon, Canada (N = 4625). Differences in log-transformed body mass index (BMI) were estimated for levels of active travel use (vehicular travel only, mixed vehicular/active travel, and active travel only), household income, and neighbourhood deprivation after controlling for sociodemographic and physical activity variables. The modifying effect of household income on the association between active travel and BMI was also evaluated.ResultsSignificant and meaningful decreases in BMI were observed for mixed (β = − 0.02, CrI − 0.036 to − 0.004) and active only (β = − 0.043, CrI − 0.06 to − 0.025) compared to vehicular only travelers. BMI was significantly associated with levels of household income and neighbourhood deprivation. Accounting for the interaction between travel mode and household income, decreases in BMI were observed for active only compared to vehicular only travellers in the highest income category (β = − 0.061, CrI − 0.115 to − 0.007).ConclusionStrategies to increase active travel use can support healthy weight loss and maintenance, but the opportunity to benefit from active travel use may be limited by low income. Considerations should be given to how interventions to increase active transportation might exacerbate social inequalities in BMI. Spatial statistical models are needed to account for unmeasured but spatially structured neighbourhood factors.

10. Psychosocial Effects of Homonegative Verbal Interaction Among High School Students In Canada

Homonegative verbal comments, i.e., degrading or stigmatizing comments in reference to sexual orientation, whether they are direct or overheard, can have negative effects on youth. However, less is known about the association between the source (friends and non-friends) of homonegative comments and psychosocial well-being. Canada has adopted clear laws against discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, and schools have established practices and policies to protect and empower sexual minority youth. In an increasingly inclusive context like Canada, this investigation examined the effect of the sources of hearing and overhearing comments on psychosocial well-being. Further, participants’ gender identity and sexual minority status were tested as moderators of the links between homonegative comments and psychosocial well-being. Data were obtained from a cohort of students in the second year of a four-year school-based Wellness Initiative in urban western Canada (N=1371; 51% male, mean age = 15.26 years, SD 1.5). Students were in grades 8 to 12, and 21% identified as a sexual minority (including mostly heterosexual as members of the sexual minority group). The survey was administered during regular school hours on individual tablets running survey software. Self-reported measures included the Homophobic Content Agent Target (HCAT) Scale, Mattering to Others Questionnaire (MTOQ), Modified Depression Scale (MDS) and Perceived Safety at School Scale. Analyses included chi-square to compare prevalence of overhearing and being targets of homonegative comments by gender and orientation, and by source of the comments (none, friends, others and both). 2 X 4 ANOVAS for gender by source of comments, and for orientation by source, were used to test associations between exposure to homonegative comments and mattering to others, depressive symptoms, and perceived safety. Homonegative comments were pervasive: only one third (34%) reported no homonegative comments, 13% overheard only friends, another 13% overheard only others, and 37% overheard homonegative comments by both; being directly targeted was somewhat less common, with 53% reporting no comments, 12% targeted by friends, 8% by others, and 24% targeted for comments by both friends and others. Boys reported overhearing [χ2(3)=54.76, p<.001] and being targeted [χ2(3)=161.24, p<.001] for homonegative comments more than girls, and sexual minority boys and girls were more likely to overhear homonegative comments than non-sexual minorities. ANOVAs showed regardless of orientation, youth who were both targeted and overhead homonegative comments were less likely to perceive themselves as mattering to friends, and had higher scores on depressive symptoms than youth who never heard or were targeted by comments. Gender moderated the association between comments and mattering to friends with boys affected more than girls. Students’ sense of safety at school was positively associated with the absence of homonegative speech or only hearing it from friends, rather than others. In Canada, despite efforts towards reducing discrimination and fostering inclusion for sexual minority and gender diverse youth, homonegative speech is still present in schools, and sexual minority and heterosexual youth alike continue to experience its negative effects on their sense of safety, mattering to others, and mental wellbeing.

Interdependence and Depression: Does an Interdependent Culture Provide Effective Buffer Against Depression?

This literature review examines the cultural factor which potentially contributes to the difference between high rates of depression in Western nations and significantly lower rates in the East. Somatisation of depressive symptoms by the Chinese is addressed and attempted to be explained from the perspective of emotion as a relational component of self as opposed to residing discretely within a person. The possibility of an interdependent cultural environment which provides a buffer against the higher risk of depression amongst Asians as observed from their greater frequency of serotonin transporter polymorphism genotype may explain the low prevalence of depression in East-Asian countries. The lower risk-taking tendency of East Asians, promoted by interdependent cultural philosophy and mediated by increased amygdala reactivity, may serve as an additional means to counter greater genetic susceptibility to clinical depression. Upon analysing the trend in the United States shortly after World War II, it is possible to link together the concurrent increase in individualism and rates of depression in the country. Social factors appeared to have affected the surging rates amongst high-risk groups of women and the young population. The rate of depression in more interdependent rural areas was lower than urban regions of the United States, with a similar difference observed between rural and urban Canada. The lower rate in rural settings was related to its residents’ stronger sense of community belonging. Overall, research findings give further weight to the relationship between the interdependence of a culture and the depression rates of its people.

Statues in Time: Canadian Days and Holidays

Statues in Time:Canadian Days and Holidays Colin M. Coates (bio) CITIZENS AND GOVERNMENTS USE ANNIVERSARIES AND HOLIDAYS to confirm a connection to a past and to gaze towards a future. These special days embody values that serve as lessons and guides, but they may also serve goals unintended by the promoters and sponsors. In a self-referential twist, Celebrating Canada, Raymond B. Blake's and Matthew Hayday's two-volume collection of essays examining the history of remembering in Canada, represents a project linked to the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation: these books about commemoration are themselves a product of the commemoration process.1 Aiming at a publication to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the country's current constitutional framework, the authors presented their papers at an initial workshop at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau in 2014. Holidays and commemorative events, as these volumes illustrate, have often produced a lot of fodder for analysis, but it is hard to predict how much tangible evidence the sesquicentennial will leave behind. For those of us in Ontario, one of the most newsworthy features connected to the anniversary was the tour of a huge, plastic yellow duck to various towns around the Great Lakes. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's statement on the anniversary was a balanced and limited endorsement of the state of the nation, including his reflections on the relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples: "As we mark Canada 150, we also recognize that for many, today is not an occasion for celebration. Indigenous Peoples in this country have faced oppression for centuries."2 In 1967, many Canadians chose to celebrate different avenues into what they termed "modernity," but 2017 was a low-key affair. It is worth noting [End Page 241] that Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson's Dominion Day address on 1 July 1967 also struck a cautionary note: "As the world, to survive the nuclear future, must become a community of peace for all mankind, so must our country be a true homeland for all Canadians as it moves into its second century."3 In 1967 Centennial building projects changed the face of urban Canada, but there will be few lasting legacies of Canada 150. Perhaps a 150th anniversary does not have the same cachet as a centenary or the fairly recent change in the federal government may have made it difficult to plan events (although Robert Cupido notes that the committee to celebrate the 60th anniversary was only incorporated in February of the same year).4 Clearly, the community enthusiasm that sparked so much of the energy of the 1967 Centennial was not as apparent in 2017. Whether this reflects apathy or honesty about the project of "Canada" is a subject worthy of debate. Nonetheless, in scholarly work, a certain number of projects, like this one, will leave their mark. Universities disbursed federal funds that galvanized some collective works, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council targeted scholarly conferences linked to the anniversary.5 It is true that for historians there was nothing on the academic scale of the Canadian Centenary Series, which began with Tryggvi J. Oleson's 1963 study of the early European exploration of what later became Canada and which ultimately came to completion with Morris Zaslow's The Northward Expansion of Canada, 1914-1967 in 1988.6 Perhaps historians today wisely anticipate the long timeframe involved in such projects. Equally likely, historians may shy away from synthesis and globalizing statements about nation even when divided into the regions and discrete time periods reflected in the Canadian Centenary Series. [End Page 242] Blake and Hayday's two-volume collection of essays reinforces the difficulties of seeing a unified approach to the project of "Canada." Moreover, we live in a time when we, appropriately, apply critical analysis to the commemorative process and therefore we academics may hesitate to engage in it ourselves too deeply; in contrast, historians like George Wrong and A.G. Doughty were fully involved in the 1927 Diamond Jubilee planning. Today we may recognize more clearly how contingent and arbitrary the designation of specific dates for the purposes of rekindling and enshrining historical memory may be, and...

Availability of health workforce in urban and rural areas in relation to Canadian seniors.

Geographic imbalances in health human resources exist in a health care system when the composition, level, or use of health care providers does not lead to the same optimal health-system goals in all regions. This can lead to inequitable distribution of health care services, particularly for rural and remote populations. This study aims to determine to what extent the distribution of regulated health professionals and seniors in urban and rural areas of the Canadian jurisdictions is different from one another and from the national average. Data used in this study are for the 2016 calendar year. Information about physicians was obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) Scott's Medical Database. The data for nurses (nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses) were also sourced from CIHI, Health Workforce Database. Geographic information is based on the postal code of physicians' preferred mailing address, and the residence in the case of nurses and the population. Using the Statistical Area Classification from Statistics Canada, each physician and nurse was assigned to either an urban metropolitan, urban non-metropolitan, or rural/remote area. Findings indicate that there were twice as many nurses per 1000 seniors in urban Canada than in rural Canada. However, this gap was threefold in the case of physicians. Provinces with the largest and lowest gap and international comparisons are also provided. Three broad strategies are offered for policymakers in order to mitigate this health workforce imbalance and reduce the regional shortage of nurses and physicians.

Effects of urban development on future multi-hazard risk: the case of Vancouver, Canada

Disaster risk reduction should anticipate how future natural hazard risk would be influenced by changes in urban vulnerability. This paper investigates the effect of one key driver of change, urban development. It models current and future risk for the year 2041 in a rapidly growing urban area, Vancouver, Canada, from both earthquake and coastal flood hazard. Three urban development futures are considered—status quo, compact, and sprawled development—that differ in the housing stock configuration used to accommodate an identical, projected increase in population and dwellings. Results indicate that while exposure is expected to increase substantially in future, the implications for risk vary greatly between hazards and impact types. For earthquake, population increase is attenuated by improvements in the building stock, whereas for flooding, disaster impacts increase at a much higher rate than population growth. Overall, disruption impacts are more sensitive than damage to changes in population and development. The effect of urban development on future risk is not unidirectional, but depends upon hazard type, impact type, and degree of climate change. None of the development futures is consistently best from a risk perspective, but along many dimensions, compact development yields more severe disaster impacts relative to status quo development. The findings underscore the importance of considering natural hazard risk in urban development planning, and of recognizing the inherent differences between hazards and impact types in this planning.

Daily Time in Transportation and Traffic by Urban Canadians

Traffic is an ever-present issue in urban centers and exposure to traffic and traffic-related air pollution is associated with wide-ranging health effects. Results from the Canadian Human Activity Pattern Survey (CHAPS) 2 were used to evaluate daily time spent in transportation and traffic by urban Canadians. It was estimated that Canadians spend 4-7% of daily time in on- or near-road locations, mainly from time spent in a vehicle with smaller contributions from time spent in active transportation. Furthermore, when in a vehicle, 44-61% of the target population was in moderate to heavy traffic. In addition, 11-22% of the target population was in moderate to heavy traffic while engaged in active transportation. Over 60% of the target population reported living near a busy roadway, which varied with income level and city of residence. People living near major roadways also spent more daily time in the vicinity of moderate to heavy traffic. Over 55% of the target population &amp;#8804;18 years reported attending a school or daycare in close proximity to a busy roadway, with little variation based on income level and city. Overall, these results indicate that urban Canadians spend a considerable amount of daily time in transportation and traffic-influenced microenvironments. Quantitative measures of time spent in these microenvironments provide support for initiatives or strategies designed to mitigate population exposure to traffic and traffic-related air pollution.

Associations between Living Near Water and Risk of Mortality among Urban Canadians.

Background:Increasing evidence suggests that residential exposures to natural environments, such as green spaces, are associated with many health benefits. Only a single study has examined the potential link between living near water and mortality.Objective:We sought to examine whether residential proximity to large, natural water features (e.g., lakes, rivers, coasts, “blue space”) was associated with cause-specific mortality.Methods:Our study is based on a population-based cohort of nonimmigrant adults living in the 30 largest Canadian cities [i.e., the 2001 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort) (CanCHEC)]. Subjects were drawn from the mandatory 2001 Statistics Canada long-form census, who were linked to the Canadian mortality database and to annual income-tax filings, through 2011. We estimated associations between living within of blue space and deaths from several common causes of death. We adjusted models for many personal and contextual covariates, as well as for exposures to residential greenness and ambient air pollution.Results:Our cohort included approximately 1.3 million subjects at baseline, 106,180 of whom died from nonaccidental causes during follow-up. We found significant, reduced risks of mortality in the range of 12–17% associated with living within of water in comparison with living farther away, among all causes of death examined, except with external/accidental causes. Protective effects were found to be higher among women and all older adults than among other subjects, and protective effects were found to be highest against deaths from stroke and respiratory-related causes.Conclusions:Our findings suggest that living near blue spaces in urban areas has important benefits to health, but further work is needed to better understand the drivers of this association. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3397

A Presentation to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Bill C-71: Speaking Notes

Bill C-71 is fundamentally misguided. Public gun ownership does not threaten public safety. High-quality, peer-reviewed research finds no evidence that public gun ownership is linked to criminal violence. Based on StatsCan data, PAL holders are much less apt to commit murder than are other Canadians. Rural Canadians have more guns per capita than urban Canadians, but firearm homicide rates are lower in rural areas than in bigger cities. Guns can be mis-used, but they can also be used for good. It is vitally important to teach proper firearms handling at a young age. It teaches character. Bill C-71 falsely assumes gangsters get their guns from lawful domestic sources. This claim is based entirely on secret changes to the traditional definition of “crime gun.” There is no evidence that the source of crime guns has recently changed other than what is hidden in secret police reports. In reality -- only the definition has changed. The new definition of “crime gun” includes paper crimes -- firearms found at the homes of suicides and absent-minded PAL holders. But the police secretly changed the definition – to include “illegally acquired” – which now means that “found guns” are now “crime guns.” “Found guns” have not been used in a crime, but are just found by police during or after a contact, Any kind of contact, including suicides. This new definition equates paper crimes with criminal violence. A firearm unsafely stored – is a “crime gun.” The Minister uses “domestic sources” as if it meant PAL holders. This is false. There is a large pool of firearms with questionable legality. In 2001, between one-third and one-half of then-law-abiding Canadian gun owners declined to apply for a PAL or POL. Government has not provided solid justification why more regulations would improve public safety. Nor has the government published an evaluation of the present regulatory system showing that it is effective in preventing violence. Other than police claims, based on a secret, bloated definition, there is no support for a change in the source of crime guns. According to StatsCan, lawful owners cannot be a major source of crime guns. According to StatsCan data, PAL holders are much less apt to commit murder than are other Canadians.Increased regulatory complexity does not mean greater public safety. Additional rules merely increases the work load for the Firearms Program staff. This can only harass legitimate owners and decrease public safety. Why is the government scapegoating PAL holders?

Su1835 - Disparities in the Care of Rural and Urban Canadians with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Population-Based Study from the Canadian Gastro-Intestinal Epidemiology Consortium

Su1835 - Disparities in the Care of Rural and Urban Canadians with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Population-Based Study from the Canadian Gastro-Intestinal Epidemiology Consortium

Information triangulation: A complex and agentic everyday information practice

In contemporary urban settings, information seekers may face challenges assessing and making use of the large quantity of information to which they have access. Such challenges may be particularly acute when laypeople are considering specialized or technical information pertaining to topics over which knowledge is contested. Within a constructivist grounded theory study of the health information practices of 39 young parents in urban Canada, a complex practice of information triangulation was observed. Triangulation comprised an iterative process of seeking, assessment, and sense‐making, and typically resulted in a decision or action. This paper examines the emergent concept of information triangulation in everyday life, using data from the young parent study. Triangulation processes in this study could be classified as one of four types, and functioned as an exercise of agency in the face of structures of expertise and exclusion. Although triangulation has long been described and discussed as a practice among scientific researchers wishing to validate and enrich their data, it has rarely been identified as an everyday practice in information behavior research. Future investigations should consider the use of information triangulation for other types of information, including by other populations and in other areas of contested knowledge.

"Efficiency and Evangelism": Peter Bryce and the Making of Liberal Protestantism at Toronto's Earlscourt Methodist Church

This paper examines the work of Rev. Peter Bryce in establishing a progressive “institutional church” in Toronto’s Earlscourt district during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Ministering to a congregation largely made up of British immigrant working people, Bryce incorporated in his program the tenets of the church efficiency movement, which gained adherents in urban Canada in the prewar years. In order to better reach the urban working class, the movement advocated updated institutional arrangements and business-like clerical management. From this standpoint, Bryce’s broader objective at Earlscourt was to promote the “efficient” gendered functioning of the working-class family within the new industrial order and to encourage accommodation between labour and capital. Located firmly within liberal social Christianity, this approach reimagined the institutional role of the church in industrial life while advancing a moderate position on capitalist social relations.