Saturday, March 19, 2022

Gas-Powered Delivery Scooters In Seoul To Go 100 Percent Electric By 2025

Enrico Punsalang 

The South Korean capital is taking steps towards greener mobility.

Last-mile delivery services are an essential element in keeping various busy Asian cities running. South Korea’s capital Seoul, for instance, sees thousands of orders placed every single day. It is indisputable that scooters are an essential part of the city’s transport sector. That being said, the shift to green energy has sparked several cities to accelerate the integration of EVs into the mainstream transportation system.


© RideApart.com 

Seoul is no different. The capital city’s Metropolitan Government recently ramped up efforts in shifting the city’s delivery fleet to electric. In 2022 alone, the government plans to distribute a total of 7,000 electric scooters, the largest volume of electric scooters to ever be distributed in the city. Seoul has been working towards a green shift for more than a decade now, with the Metropolitan Government slowly distributing electric scooters for delivery since 2010, with a total of 11,798 units turned over in an 11-year period. The hefty goal of 7,000 scooters for this year is equivalent to 60 percent of all scooters ever distributed.

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Naturally, there are several reasons as to why the city government seeks to replace gas-powered delivery scooters with electric ones. For starters, scooters’ internal combustion engines have been pointed out as one of the primary sources of noise pollution, particularly in residential areas. Additionally, given the massive distances these scooters travel in any given day, they generate substantially more greenhouse gasses than standard motorcycles for personal use.

Overall, Seoul’s Metropolitan Government seeks to convert 100 percent of the city’s full-time delivery motorcycles to electric by 2025. Surely a lofty goal, but clearly, steps are being taken to accelerate this. More particularly, for the first half of 2022, the government targets a total of 4,000 electric two-wheelers to be turned over. After this, another 800 scooters will follow for individual use, 500 units for businesses, and 300 units for those on the city’s priority list.

The use of electric two-wheelers will certainly present individuals and businesses with massive savings potentials, especially now given the rising prices of gasoline in the global market. Other countries in Asia, too, have begun ramping up the incentives surrounding EVs, particularly for use in last-mile delivery services.

Source: The Korea Biz Wire
KENNEY KILLED WHO!
'Maddening, heartbreaking': Alberta records deadliest year for drug overdoses in 2021

Alberta recorded its deadliest year on record for drug overdoses with more than 1,700 deaths in 2021.
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The province released data late Thursday showing 176 people died in both November and December, bringing the yearly total to 1,758.

Not only did both months hit grim milestones – the highest single-month totals ever – but they capped off the worst year since Alberta began collecting data in 2016.

"I don't even have words for it. Heartbreaking doesn't feel strong enough," said Patty Wilson, a Calgary nurse practitioner who works on the front line.

"It's maddening. It's rage-inducing. It's heartbreaking. It feels like your efforts on the front line feel futile because you know what you're doing isn't enough. It's all of those things and even more."

Most fatal overdoses are linked to opioids and took place in Calgary and Edmonton. But Lethbridge had the highest rate of drug poisoning deaths in those final two months, more than doubling the provincial average.

The death toll increased last year by 29.5 per cent compared to 2020, and by 120 per cent when compared to 2019.

Some experts have said the COVID-19 pandemic magnified the emergency but also point to the province's addictions strategy as a reason for the dramatic rise.

Wilson said she would like to see the government address it as a drug poisoning crisis instead of an addiction crisis.

"We need to replace the poison with something that's not poisonous," said Wilson, adding there is a need for safe supply programs, which offer safer alternatives to street-level drugs.


An increase in supervised consumption sites and access to proven services, like injectable opioid agonist therapy, could also help curb needless deaths, she said.


The United Conservative Party government is focused on a recovery-oriented strategy. Access to an opioid dependency program and drug-use sites has been limited.


Mike Ellis, associate minister of mental health and addictions, announced Friday an expansion to its overdose response mobile application and virtual opioid dependency program in Medicine Hat.

Ellis said there is a need for treatment and recovery services at the forefront.

"The answer's not more drugs. The answer is not keeping people in a perpetual state of pain and suffering," he said. "People have a right to access treatments. People have a right to access recovery."

Ellis also announced $825,000 for Our Collective Journey, a Medicine Hat organization that addresses addiction and mental health challenges in the community.

Wilson said the government's response to the crisis is not enough. If it were, deaths wouldn't be skyrocketing, she added.

The Opposition New Democrats slammed the UCP, calling the government's approach to rising overdose deaths a "deadly and catastrophic failure.”


Lori Sigurdson, the NDP critic for mental health and addictions, said in a statement that Ellis and the UCP have failed not only those who have died and their loved ones but health-care, outreach and emergency workers who see the devastation first-hand.

“Albertans cannot trust the UCP to protect lives and deploy an effective, science-based response to this public health crisis," said Sigurdson.

"What has to happen before they admit this approach has utterly failed?"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2022.

Alanna Smith, The Canadian Press

Toxi-City: Deadly drugs in Edmonton — Overdoses are happening across all neighbourhoods and families are bearing the brunt of the crisis

Anna Junker
 Edmonton Journal 
© Provided by Edmonton Journal Faye Gray holds a photo of her daughter, Lindsey Gray, in St. Albert on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022. Lindsey died of an overdose in 2015.

This is part one of a three-part series from reporter Anna Junker exploring the toxic drugs crisis in Edmonton.


Today, we look at how overdoses are killing people in record numbers, and the effect these losses have on families. Part Two, next Saturday: We follow a group of dedicated volunteers who are taking to Edmonton’s streets, alleyways and transit pedways to assist those suffering with addiction. Part Three, April 2: We sit down with Alberta’s associate minister of mental health and addiction to discuss what the province is doing to combat the crisis.

Joshua Corbiere died where his parents believed he would be safest, a recovery centre.

On Aug. 19, 2021, less than 24 hours after he entered Thorpe Recovery Centre, a residential treatment and medical detox facility about 250 km east of Edmonton, Joshua took his last breaths there.

His father, Raymond Corbiere, said his son’s big heart drew great love from those who knew him. He was passionate about sports, particularly baseball and football, the latter of which he played through all three years of high school.

“He was a super, super person just as far as being so kind,” Raymond said, speaking in the backyard of his Edmonton home in mid-January.

“He was always there to help other friends and other people too. That was Josh. He wouldn’t turn anybody down.”

Alberta has had a steady rise in drug poisoning deaths for nearly a decade and in 2016, the province began tracking overdose deaths, publishing quarterly reports. That year, 685 Albertans died by overdose followed by an additional 861 deaths in 2017, and 956 deaths in 2018. The number of deaths dipped in 2019 to 800 people before rising sharply to 1,358 in 2020.

Late Thursday, the Alberta government updated their online database with the latest numbers for 2021. A total of 1,758 Albertans died of drug poisoning last year, the deadliest year on record. Of those 1,602 were from an apparent opioid poisoning, or 91 per cent.In total, 6,418 Albertans have died.

Joshua was ultimately one of 136 Albertans who died from accidental drug poisoning in August 2021.

A medical examiner’s report later showed he had overdosed on Buprenorphine, an opioid that can be used to treat opioid use disorder and acute and chronic pain. Thorpe Recovery Centre declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing investigation into Joshua’s death.
© Greg Southam Ray Corbiere lost his son Joshua to an overdose on Aug. 19, 2021. 
Taken on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022 in Edmonton.

“He was too young,” said his father, tearfully. “Parents aren’t supposed to bury their children, it’s supposed to be the other way around.

“A huge part of my heart was just taken out. I miss my son every day.”
Pinpointing where overdoses happen

It is a common misconception that overdoses are only happening in the streets of Edmonton’s city centre.

But Alberta government data, tracking locations of opioid poisonings since 2016, shows the majority of deaths between 2018 and 2020 occurred in private residences, where the individual who died lived permanently. Previously published quarterly reports provided neighbourhood data and the number of overdoses in each. Since the second quarter of 2020, however, the province stopped location-specific data and now generalizes it in Alberta’s Substance Use Surveillance System .

More recently, the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association’s opioid poisoning committee asked that the province to release local geographical area data for opioid poisoning-related deaths and calls made to emergency medical services.

The committee believes such information would help mobilize resources and efforts in the community to reduce harm and death, and ensure those working on the front lines are where they need to be most.

***

When Crystal Toronchuk gave birth to her son Zachary, she felt she had broken the mould. For her, it was a conscious decision to keep Zachary as an only child.

He graduated high school at 17 and was on his way to becoming an electrician after attending sessions at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

But in the middle of 2017, Crystal noticed her already tall and lanky son was starting to lose weight. By the end of October, the 20-year-old was distant and would make excuses to not attend family events.
© David Bloom Crystal Toronchuk speaks about her son 
Zachary’s 2017 fatal fentanyl overdose, in Edmonton on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022.

On Oct. 30, Zachary confessed he had done cocaine twice at a recent Halloween party.

“I trusted him that that was all that he had done,” Toronchuk said.

About a month later, Zachary came by the house insisting to speak with her, and admitted that he recently used what he believed was heroin two days before.

“My response was, ‘Well, that’s not a smart idea, is it?’ I was careful not to get mad and angry with him because with Zachary that would only push him farther away. And I wanted him to keep talking,” she said.

They talked for about an hour and a half. Crystal begged her son to spend the night with her, go to the hospital, do some research online and figure things out. But Zachary wanted to go home, where he lived with two roommates.

“I remember very clearly saying I love you, giving him a big hug, and watching him leave out the door.”

Crystal told him to call her in the morning and they would go out to Cora’s for breakfast. By 11 a.m., there was no call. She and her husband then repeatedly tried calling him. There was no answer.

Crystal soon made the 10-minute drive, in silence, to her son’s front door. A roommate answered, and said Zachary was sleeping upstairs.

“I said ‘Can you wake him up?’” Crystal said.

“His friend started coming downstairs and said he won’t wake up. I went to his room. And I found him… leaned up against his bed and he had passed.”

An overdose death like Zachary’s, on Nov. 30, 2017, can happen to anyone, anywhere, Crystal stressed.

“We live in an affluent neighbourhood on the south side, stereotypically ‘the burbs,’” she said.

“This is not what we’ve been taught to imagine what drug users look like, how drug users behave. This was very, very quick and extremely unexpected. It’s something I wish I could save every parent from ever having to feel.”

Between January and September 2017, 57 per cent of all drug poisonings recorded in Edmonton occurred in the same place that person called home, a home like Zachary’s.
© Greg Southam Sandy Wright’s son Colin LaFleur died 
of a fentanyl poisoning on Dec. 14, 2020.
 Taken on Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022 in Edmonton.

Dying alone

The second oldest among four boys, Colin LaFleur was charismatic, loved life, had a smile that would light up a room, his mother, Sandy Wright, recalls.

“I don’t think there is a picture … of me and Colin where we’re not hugging each other. He was always such a loving person,” said Wright outside her north Edmonton home.

He also had an addictive personality.


On Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020, after recently being released from Bowden Institution, the 35-year-old visited his mother’s house for coffee and a chat. The pair talked about what LaFleur’s future looked like — he had some money saved up and planned to look for a place of his own. He wanted to get his life back on track.

“As I always do with my children, my family and a lot of my close friends when they go to leave my house, I gave him a hug, a kiss and I told him I loved him. And as I always did with Colin, I was like ‘and behave yourself,’” Wright said.

“He told me he loved me too and he said ‘Mom, I’ll try.'”

He left for his father’s house, where he had been staying. Wright went to bed and happened to leave her cellphone ringer on. At 2:39 a.m. on Dec. 14, a Monday, she received a call from LaFleur’s dad.

“He just said ‘Sandy, it’s about Colin’ and I was like ‘what’s wrong?’ He goes, ‘Colin’s gone.’ I just lost it.”

Her son died in a 7-Eleven bathroom, alone.

LaFleur was among 1,351 Albertans to die of an accidental drug poisoning that year, a sharp climb from 800 in 2019.

“Drugs and alcohol were his bad demons and when he got on those, that’s when he got into trouble,” Wright said of the cycle that had continued for years.

But not every overdose victim has such a history.

Lindsey Gray had not used drugs for very long before dying at 33. Her mother, Faye Gray, says her daughter started hanging out with a group of people who introduced her to methamphetamine just two months prior to her death.

“I think she was looking for something other than what she had at that time, and it sort of snowballed,” Gray said.

For Halloween 2015, the pair took Lindsey’s four-year-old son out trick-or-treating and they spent the weekend together. It was the last time Faye would see her daughter.

On Nov. 2, 2015, police officers arrived at Faye’s door.

“She was found at the drug house and I didn’t know at the time how she died or anything,” said her mother.

Toxic supply

Lindsey didn’t know was there was fentanyl in the meth she was using.

“Once the autopsy was done, it was a lethal dose of fentanyl mixed in with the meth. So it wasn’t the meth that killed her it was the fentanyl that killed her,” said Faye. “Lindsey wasn’t a long-time user or anything like that. She started and then addiction set in and then that was it.


“If fentanyl wouldn’t have been around, I believe, I truly believe that she would still be here with us today.”

Lindsey died two years before the province officially began tracking opioid poisoning deaths.


However, in 2014, “accidental poisonings by and exposure to drugs and other biological substances” were the 30th leading cause of death for Albertans, at 201, according to Alberta government data.

“Poisonings by and exposure to drugs and biological substances with an undetermined intent” were the 13th leading cause of death, with 379 fatalities.

Faye talks about her daughter any chance she gets.

“I miss her a lot. Lindsey had a sense of humour that was unbelievable. And I think she got that from me, which is great,” Faye said, wearing a purple shirt with a photo of Lindsey and ‘Lindsey’s Mom’ printed on the back.

“(She was) always there for her friends. Family was really, really important to her.”

Recently, Lindsey’s son, who Faye now has custody of, said he could no longer remember her voice.

“I have a video of her doing (the ice bucket challenge). And so I showed that to him, ‘ah that’s mommy’s voice!’” Faye said.

What’s in a drug?

Oftentimes, people are unknowingly buying illicit substances laced with a drug that is more toxic. In some cases, they are under the impression they’re purchasing one thing but are in fact being sold something entirely different.

Currently, Alberta has no program in place for people to go to test and identify drugs before use.

When Zachary Toronchuk died, he thought he bought heroin. According to the medical examiner’s report, however, he had consumed fentanyl that included small traces of ketamine.

He was among 226 Edmontonians and 861 Albertans who died of an accidental drug poisoning in 2017.

“To this day, it angers both my husband and I extremely that someone was able to sell him fentanyl expecting to get another drug,” Crystal said.

Five years later, sitting in a park in southwest Edmonton, Crystal said Zachary’s death is still fresh. She can no longer work.

“I am severely depressed. I have been diagnosed with broken heart syndrome. I have pains in my chest constantly. This wasn’t just the act of Zachary using drugs and dying. This has lifelong issues,” Crystal said.

“I’ll never get to see him get married. I’ll never get to see him graduate from NAIT. I will never be a grandmother. I will never get to see the look on his face when he holds his children. None of that.”

LaFleur had also used what he believed to be heroin, a drug he was introduced to in jail. His toxicology report, however, concluded it was fentanyl.

“I think that people that are selling, that are lacing these drugs with fentanyl and stuff like that, to the point that they’re killed, should be charged with murder,” Wright said.

“Because it’s not an accidental overdose, it’s basically murder is how our family looks at it.”
‘You can’t help a dead person’

To address growing calls for safety, Alberta created a legislative committee to examine safe supply .

The committee’s mandate is, in part, to examine the concept of safe supply, as defined as providing pharmaceutical opioids, heroin, crystal meth, cocaine, and other substances and whether that would have an impact on overdoses, drug diversion, or associated health and community impacts.

It is also exploring whether safe supply will increase risks to individuals, the community, or other entities or jurisdictions.

Critics , however, have concerns the committee has a predetermined outcome . The committee is to provide a report with recommendations by April 30.

For families who have had loved ones die of an overdose, providing a safe supply and opening more supervised consumption sites are just a few avenues to halting more deaths.

As Faye puts it: “You can’t help a dead person, they’re already gone.

“Once the addiction takes over … unless you can get help from a professional it’s almost too late like it was for Lindsey,” Faye said.
© David Bloom Crystal Toronchuk speaks about her son Zachary’s 2017 fatal fentanyl overdose, in Edmonton on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022.

Crystal Toronchuk says treatment won’t work unless the addict is ready.

“The only thing that we can do is try to walk with them and support them as much as we possibly can. Until they’re able to make that decision on their own,” she said.

“My ultimate dream would be that there would be safe consumption sites everywhere in Edmonton.

“Drugs are available to children as young as junior high, still in the suburbs, as they are in the downtown core. We need places for people to go so that they can trust going somewhere, a place that will care for them and understand them and help them.”

Wright stresses that drug users are not just expendable.

“They have families, people that love them, people that care about them. They’re not just throwaways to society,” Wright said.

“So many of these people are good, upstanding citizens that have a disease. And it’s a disease. It’s not something you can say, well, you know, you can be clean for a month, and then you can come back and see me.

“That’s like somebody telling cancer patients don’t have cancer for a month and then you can come and see me. It’s a disease, they need help.”
‘These are not safe drugs’

Ultimately, Joshua Corbiere did try to get help.

The 25-year-old loved music, especially rap. He even named his cat Notorious, after the rapper The Notorious B.I.G.

Joshua also had a love for food and his family always told him he should become a chef. But Joshua decided to go another route, following his grandfather’s footsteps — he got a job at CP Rail working with the railway company for about two years as a railway track maintainer.

“CP Rail was really, really good to him. They supported him. He went to rehab, through CP Rail,” his father, Raymond said.

Starting with marijuana, Joshua began using drugs when he was in high school. He then got involved in gang activity, which lead to more drug use and even stronger drugs, including cocaine.

  
© Greg Southam Ray Corbiere lost his son Joshua to an
 overdose on Aug. 19, 2021. Taken on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, in Edmonton.

He entered rehab in December 2020 at Thorpe Recovery Centre and when he got out, he was doing well, his father says. But he relapsed after being introduced to a group of people at the centre who were gang-affiliated.

“(He) went back into that gang life,” Raymond said.

Nevertheless, Joshua wanted to try rehab again.

“He wanted to go. He said these drugs are killing him,” Raymond said.

About a month before he died, Joshua and his father visited Slave Lake for the first time together. He fondly recalls Joshua hanging out by the water; he loved to swim. It’s a favourite memory Raymond has of his son.

“All these families that are getting destroyed because of all these drugs that are in the system. These are not safe drugs. For what was supposed to be a safe place. It was not,” he said.

“I was told by many people, there’s no safe drugs out there. There’s no safe cocaine or whatever drug these children these adults, parents, brothers, sisters, aunts uncles are taking. It’s just very, very disheartening to see how many people are suffering. And our family is suffering.”

ajunker@postmedia.com

@JunkerAnna

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the updated overdose death numbers for 2021.

Not just coding: creative talents flourish in Edmonton video game industry

Stephen David Cook 
CBC
© Craig Ryan/CBC 
Aimee Correia moved from Australia to Edmonton to work at video game developer Beamdog.

Artists, writers and other creatives are building careers in the Edmonton video game development scene.

Major video game productions require input from a slew of skill sets and not just the coding expertise of programmers.

With several larger studios now set up in Edmonton, those job demands are bringing creative talents to the city from abroad while also nurturing them at home.

"It's a misconception that games are made entirely by programmers," said Sean Gouglas, a humanities professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in video games.

"In fact, when you get up to larger companies, the percentage of their labour force that's actually programmers is probably around 20 to 25 per cent."

The video game industry is a major global force that has only grown through the pandemic. A report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada notes the industry contributed $5.5 billion to country's GDP in 2021 — a growth of 35 per cent over two years.

Gouglas is also the co-ordinator for the university's computer game development certificate, which offers courses that see science and arts students collaborate to build their own games.

The program began as a single course in the mid-2000s but has grown to meet demand.

Gouglas said video game-directed programs at North American post-secondary institutions have increased tenfold over the last decade.

Many find a way into the industry through their own circuitous routes, he said, as game production employs artists, musicians, writers and people in other fields.

"Many people in the game industry simply don't have training … in this particular industry, and yet, they still find a successful way into the industry."
'Dream' job

"This is definitely where I want to be and I don't think I would have moved all the way from Sydney [Australia] to here if it wasn't my dream," said Aimee Correia, who has worked for two years at Edmonton-based Beamdog.

As a concept artist, Correia creates artwork that conveys designs, ideas and worlds to be used as foundational imagery for the game itself.

She loves the creativity required for the job and being able to work with a large team to turn her characters and environments into a virtual reality.

Correia took courses to develop her art and spent years working freelance, including on smaller indie game projects. She said those looking to join the industry should build up a portfolio — and prepare for rejections.

"Just keep going," she said. "If you want it, if you want it bad, you'll get it eventually."

For Crystal McCord, video games were never her intended career path. Instead, they were somewhere she found herself after pursuing a career in the arts.

The narrative producer at Bioware started in a NAIT program for television and radio. She did camera work for films, television shows and documentaries while also dabbling in other roles.

"I think trying all of those different disciplines and kind of testing out what I like to do best is really what led me to being a producer at Bioware."

A big-name developer, Bioware has been a mainstay on the Edmonton scene with major properties like the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. Those fantasy and science-fiction worlds were brought to life through artists, animators and programmers.

McCord said the best part of her role is bringing those people together.

"I get to work with these really creative minds, and help them execute on their vision for our video games."
Steven Lewis: Surgical wait times a moral failure that can be fixed

© Provided by Leader Post A surgeon demonstrates a surgery in an operating room at the Regina general Hospital in 2017. 
TROY FLEECE / Regina Leader-Post

Surgical wait times are long and getting longer. The pandemic has made a bad situation worse and better is a long way off. Our system isn’t swift, but what’s scandalous is that it is also grossly unfair.

If it were fair, people with similar needs would wait about the same length of time. They didn’t and they don’t. The differences are huge and the inequities are immoral.

Clearing the enormous backlog — 36,000 cases and rising in Saskatchewan, nearly 600,000 nationally — will take years even if the pandemic permanently loosens its grip on hospital capacity. As of Dec. 31, nearly 8,500 Saskatchewan patients had already waited at least a year.

And that year doesn’t include the weeks and months waiting to see the surgeon. The wait to see a specialist is longer in Canada than in any other rich country.

But only some people wait interminably. Hark back to December 2019, pre-pandemic. In Saskatchewan, 50 per cent of non-emergency patients waited no more than 39 days for their procedures. Yet 10 per cent waited 218 days or more.

Accessibility is one of the five core principles of The Canada Health Act. As with justice, access delayed is access denied.

The inequity is no accident. It’s built into how the system operates. It requires the active complicity of the Saskatchewan Health Authority and doctors to consign thousands of patients to wait time purgatory while most sail through in faster lanes.

Administrators and doctors can’t magically make the backlog disappear or reduce everyone’s wait time to a week. But if they truly cared about fairness, they would ensure that no patients wait five or 10 times longer than others with similar needs.

To be clear: Even a mediocre system can and should be fair. A shortage of capacity or operational inefficiency will increase overall wait times. But there is no reason why the added wait time burden isn’t distributed evenly.

A fair system wouldn’t schedule me for surgery 25 days into my wait for, say, a hip replacement if my neighbour has already been waiting 75 days for hers. She would be moved to the front of the line well before her wait time blew past the norm. Exceptions would have to be justified.

Perfection is impossible; if a surgeon suddenly leaves a small city or a pandemic commandeers all the hospital beds in one region, wait times will spike more for some than others.

But in normal times, the variation in wait times should be small if the system routinely monitors the wait times of all surgical patients and responds nimbly to ensure that no one gets lost in the shuffle. That’s what banks and grocery stores do when the service lines back up or become uneven. It’s called management.

So why doesn’t the system work this way? It’s because it’s a game of inside baseball, where family physicians steer patients to the surgeons they know, surgeons who pile up big wait lists bargain for more operating room time, and OR time means cash in the pocket.

The patients are conscripts in a lottery where some wait 25 days while others wait 250 days. No one, it appears, has to answer for how it plays out.

The injustice is in plain view on the Saskatchewan government website, and the Saskatchewan Health Authority board and executive team no doubt have even more detailed data. Yet nothing happens.

Grotesquely, the very long waits are often weaponized as proof that the system lacks capacity and government regularly ponies up. A large pool of long-suffering patients is good for business.

Maybe a dose of hardball would fix inside baseball. Suppose the median wait for a procedure is 60 days. For every patient who waits more than 90 days, cut the SHA funding for that case by 25 per cent and by a further one per cent for each additional day of waiting.

Do the same for the surgeon’s fee. Exclude cases where patients choose to postpone their surgery or when it would be medically unsafe to proceed.

Airline pilots share the fate of the passengers. If health system insiders had to pay a price for patients’ avoidable suffering, I’d bet these damning inequities would get their attention pretty quickly. Where appeals to conscience and duty fail, a whack to the wallet might do the trick.

Steven Lewis spent 45 years as a health policy analyst and health researcher in Saskatchewan and is currently adjunct professor of health policy at Simon Fraser University. He can be reached at slewistoon1@gmail.com.
How an ER simulation helps medical and engineering students see new points of view

Arianna Mazzeo, McCall MacBain Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University 

Some medical students in Canada are collaborating in a virtual class with design engineering students in Italy. Their mutual goals are to enhance their preparedness and insights regarding their respective real-world professional challenges by working together online in a scenario.

The students log in to an online simulation of a virtual emergency room. The medical students are assigned doctor and nurse avatars, and the engineering students have IT specialist or designer avatars. The scene plays out in response to the collaborative actions the students take.

This is a real learning experience supported by educators at McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Doctors and nurses are engaged in a continuing professional development course with professor of medicine Teresa Chan, who is also associate dean of continuing professional development.

Learning through scenarios and simulations in fields from health care to education isn’t new. But this example provides a glimpse into an expanded future of teaching and learning in post-secondary education in virtual environments.

The ‘co-learning’ open classroom


I am a design researcher, learning innovator and artist whose research focuses on education technology to look for new ways of learning and teaching.

I see students learning together through scenario-based learning, bolstered by artificial intelligence, as a growing trend, and I am interested in how universities can integrate insights from designers committed to enhancing stronger and more participatory civic engagement. Whether collaborative learning is peer-to-peer or in larger groups, the benefits for participants include enhanced critical thinking.

In order for our society to see innovation in virtual learning, we need good design principles and tools for knowledge, sharing and growing. My research, applied practice and teaching at Harvard University’s master’s program in design engineering has been about developing collaborative learning or “co-learning” as a methodology and learning style. This learning is based on design principles such as equality, accessibility, diversity, inclusion and collaboration to solve real problems.

Co-learning can unfold in positive when people collaborate either fully online or in hybrid situations (online and in-person).

Co-learning is about setting up ideal conditions for learning in a peer-to-peer context, whether in community or civic settings focused on civic change or innovation in groups or in formal education.

In an online classroom, co-learning involves interactive course content as a way to create scenarios where students can act and perform, improvise and talk about topics of relevance as a group.


Video: Doctor's high-tech home setup shows just how much things have changed (cbc.ca)

The co-learning open classroom provides students with opportunities to observe and for faculty to listen and co-learn at their own pace. Video-based learning activities and interactive virtual spaces foster students’ work as a team. Virtual learning affords opportunities for such teams to collaborate across geographies. Collaboration is a mindset and a method.

Virtual teaching assistants


Artificial intelligence (AI) also has a role in future co-learning. For example, a course instructor or facilitator video records a lecture on a subject area they want to share. This allows the same video to be viewed by one student or thousands of students.

Through a common platform, students from different parts of the world could ask for help from a virtual teaching assistant: a chatbot.

Read more: AI-powered chatbots, designed ethically, can support high-quality university teaching

The facilitator of the in-person classes could also use the virtual teaching assistant to help students learn from each other: students could use an app on their mobile devices, while the facilitator can guide, mentor and interact with the groups.

No additional facilitators are needed to teach multiple sections of the same course. The facilitator is both a guide and a mediator.
New levels of collaboration and ways of learning

Using such hybrid methods, people globally could share facts, dialogues, materials and projects on the base of common interest to learn by doing. Stories and insights from science and art could be shared and new insights co-created.

Virtual collaboration could also help break academic silos by bringing together people in different fields to realize applied interdisciplinary approaches.

These design-based research scenarios may redefine the way we can make learning more collaborative, and also increase students’ access to talented educators around the world.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.


Read more:
How game worlds are preparing humanitarian workers for high-stakes scenarios

How universities can really help PhD grads get jobs

Arianna Mazzeo 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.

Using artificial intelligence in health sciences education requires interdisciplinary collaboration and risk assessment

Elif Bilgic, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, McMaster University 
Jason M. Harley, Assistant Professor, Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University 


Over the past five years, there has been an increase in research and development related to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in health sciences education in fields such as medicine, nursing and occupational therapy. AI-enhanced technologies have been shown to have educational value and offer flexibility for students. For example, learning scenarios can be repeated and completed remotely, and educational experiences can be standardized.

However, AI’s applications in health sciences education need to be explored further.

To better understand advances in research and applications of AI as a part of the education of health sciences students, we conducted a comprehensive literature review. We also hosted a virtual panel consisting of scholars across Canadian institutions and educational technology companies who are actively involved in AI and health sciences education.

Our panel investigated three themes: current applications of educational theories, performance assessment, and current advances; the role of educational associations and industry; and legal and ethical considerations.

Interdisciplinary collaboration


One of our key findings was that it is important to develop interdisciplinary partnerships and collaborative environments. The effective development and implementation of AI-enhanced educational technologies require different capabilities. These include: possessing the technical know-how required to build and develop AI, understanding the needs of students and educators, applying educational theories to content development and assessment, and considering any legal and ethical issues.

Based on our work, majority of the published studies do not have interdisciplinary teams, hence the call for interdisciplinary collaborations. However, one example that was successful in bringing together individuals from different disciplines is an intelligent tutoring system designed to help medical students with their diagnostic reasoning skills through virtual patient cases.

Therefore, an interdisciplinary team would be able to produce and deliver AI-enhanced education effectively. To achieve this, partnerships should include industry, educational societies, hospitals and universities. Collaborative teams would include researchers and practitioners from health sciences, law, ethics, education, computer science, engineering and other fields.

Enhancing education with educational societies

Educational societies not only play an important role in supporting research and development, but also the use of AI-enhanced educational technologies across health sciences programs.

Future health scientists will require new skills in technology and AI, and the ability to apply them during training and clinical duties. These include understanding issues related to privacy, discrimination, ethical and legal concerns and inherent biases that may create health inequities.

Read more: Artificial intelligence in medicine raises legal and ethical concerns

For example, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, which oversees the training of medical specialists in Canada, has a role in creating new initiatives and support systems to address these emerging needs. The college could add an additional component to the medical curriculum that focuses on core information necessary to use these AI-enhanced technologies. Practising physicians will also need the support of the college to develop technology-supported clinical skills.

Ultimately, if we want to enhance research and applications of AI in health sciences education, collaboration across different fields is key. This is so that both effective and equitable AI technologies can be developed, and that in the future, health scientists can use these technologies while understand their risks and benefits.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:


Healthcare’s technology revolution means a boost for jobs in IT

Why medical technology often doesn’t make it from drawing board to hospital


Jason M. Harley receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Elif Bilgic 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.

FROM THE LEFT
Everyone should have a say on the future of green accounting

Daniela Senkl, Assistant Professor in Accounting, University of Guelph, 
David Cooper, Emeritus Professor of Accounting, University of Alberta, 
 Jeff Everett, Professor of Accounting, York University, Canada 

Accounting is widely considered the language of business — its impact, however, goes far beyond the world of business, reaching far into all of our lives.

Accounting and corporate reports typically — and incorrectly — assume that value can best be expressed in financial terms. They also assume that value is determined through so-called “fair markets” where goods and services are priced accurately and in good faith.

These ideological biases result in more of our lives being understood predominantly in money terms, with people and the environment being treated as commodities. Increasingly, values cease to exist outside the financial realm.

Accounting and the mysterious language of accountants are important to all of us — citizens cannot leave the reporting to the accounting profession and their assumptions about who and what is important. They assume profits are good, however created, but employee well being and environmental degradation are irrelevant.

It suits accountants to be seen as too technical to be understood by the average person — that way, they don’t have to justify their decisions. Recent proposals on sustainability reporting for all significant Canadian organizations reflects this, and should have us all concerned.














Sustainability reporting

Sustainability reporting — sometimes also referred to as environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting — requires organizations to publicly report on a wide range of performance goals, not just profits.

Read more: What is sustainability accounting? What does ESG mean? We have answers

Sustainability reporting is useful to employees, customers, citizens and governments to assess the impact and sustainability of an organization’s activities. The most popular ESG reporting system, developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), highlights environmental issues, employee well being and social contributions made by organizatons.

But over the last few years, the international accounting profession, led by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), has created its own set of rules that focuses solely on the needs of investors.

This issue has recently come to a head in several countries, including Canada. The Canadian accounting profession supports the ISSB, and, dramatically, is proposing to extend this neoliberal approach to every significant organization.
Missing perspectives

Last December, the Canadian accounting profession quietly released their consultation paper on sustainability standard setting in Canada.

There are clearly some positives: It makes some welcome gestures regarding diversity, equity and inclusion, suggests making the setting of standards independent from the accounting profession and it appeals to the public interest.

But the consultation paper does not define who that public is, nor does it offer substantive proposals in any of the above listed areas. It also ignores Indigenous and feminist perspectives, which question the very core of accounting’s definitions of assets and liabilities.

As public policy expert Marilyn Waring pointed out decades ago, if women really counted, then unpaid labour, clean water and air and beautiful landscapes would also count. Canada increasingly recognizes the need to reflect on, and publicly discuss, the important role of language as a tool of colonization and repression.

Language directs our thinking, and the language of business is no exception. Sustainability reporting is an invitation to start discussions about how accounting language structures society and renders important aspects of life invisible.

The Canadian accounting profession has always prioritized male and colonial-settler views, meaning that it prioritizes private ownership and market transactions. For all its talk, the consultation paper focuses on making sure the ISSB’s financial perspective is implemented in Canada.

The proposed sustainability standard board aims to mirror the ISSB, as shown in the terms of reference section of the consultation paper. It does not recognize its own financial, gendered, colonial biases and ignores multi-stakeholder approaches such as the GRI. Instead it paves the way for systematic greenwashing.

The Canadian standards will apply to all significant organizations, not just those listed on a stock exchange. Sustainability reporting, as defined by the ISSB, pressures governments, publicly owned organizations, not-for-profit enterprises and most corporations to focus on investors and bankers while ignoring the concerns of everyone else.

Canadian accountants’ woeful neglect of the public interest ignores the impact these standards will have on future generations and the planet’s capacity to meet the needs of our children.

Now is the time to act

The rules of the Canadian sustainability standards board will eventually make their way into laws and regulations. The most inclusive and sensible approach to encourage genuine sustainability and inclusion is a perspective that includes multiple stakeholders, including the general public.

But without public intervention and outcry — and without public demand that the accounting profession do something different — people in Canada will be left with ESG rules that focus on investors, not the public.

It is important that people in Canada make their voice heard and let the accounting profession (and the government) know that inclusive sustainability rules are essential for Canada. The consultation process is open to anyone to respond until March 31.

The future of ESG reporting, and the future of sustainability in Canada, is at stake. Who makes the rules, and which stakeholders are considered when the rules are set, matter greatly.

The sustainability reporting rules will influence the required disclosures for organizations. This, in turn, will impact decisions and actions relating to sustainability affecting Canadians.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

What is sustainability accounting? What does ESG mean? We have answers

It’s time to train accountants in sustainability


David Cooper has, in the past, received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the former Certified General Accountants of Alberta. He is affiliated with the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project, active in the District Association of the Federal NDP and founder and former editor of the academic journal, Critical Perspectives on Accounting..

Daniela Senkl has, in the past, received Institutional Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and currently receives funding from the Canadian Academic Accounting Association. She is a member of Extinction Rebellion.


Jeff Everett has, in the past, received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
A Week In Toronto, Canada, On A $38,300 Salary

Refinery29 
Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We’re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.

Today: a finance and fundraising coordinator who makes $38,300 per year and spends some of her money this week on an Akari Light Sculpture.

Editor’s Note: All currency has been converted from CAD to USD.

Occupation: Finance and Fundraising Coordinator

Industry: Healthcare

Age: 25

Location: Toronto, Canada

Salary: $38,300

Net Worth: $31,316 (I have $3,916 in an emergency fund and a $27,400 TFSA that I add to each month.)

Debt: $0 (My grandparents generously paid for my education. I don’t have a car loan, credit card balance, or mortgage.)

Paycheck Amount (2x/month): $1,253

Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses

Rent: $704 (This is for my share of the studio I live in with my boyfriend, T. (He pays a bit more in rent and covers our utilities.)

Phone: $43

Internet: T. pays

Health & Vision Insurance: My employer covers this.

Spotify & Netflix: $0 (I’m still on my family’s plans. I pay for our news subscriptions in exchange.)

New York Times, Toronto Star, Patreon & Jacobin: $35.25

TFSA: $297.65

Pension: $203.66 (My employer matches $1.26 for every $1 I put in.)

Travel Savings: $313

Annual Expenses

You Need A Budget Software: $94 (It may seem expensive, but I would be hemorrhaging a lot more money if I didn’t use this.)

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?

Yes, it was expected that I go to undergraduate and graduate school. Both of my parents have master’s degrees and they believe that degrees are necessary to differentiate yourself in today’s world. By the time graduate school rolled around, I was probably independent enough to push back if I really wanted to, but I loved university and was excited to have the chance to study more. It helped that I knew school was already paid for by scholarships and money my grandparents put away for me when I was born.

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?

My parents never talked about money when I was growing up. They both grew up pretty poor. Now that they’ve struck it big, they have very new money attitudes. They live within their means, but they buy all the toys they couldn’t when they were kids. (If you looked at my dad’s credit card statement, you could be forgiven for thinking that a 13-year-old had stolen it.) For them, part of the luxury of having money is that they don’t have to worry about their financial situation. While I completely understand this, it means that I developed some bad habits that I had to break when I became financially independent.

What was your first job and why did you get it?

My first official job was at The Gap when I was 15. I got it so that I could have pocket money. I probably spent it on pizza and anti-acne products.

Did you worry about money growing up?

Rarely. My parents never let on if there was something to worry about.

Do you worry about money now?

Yes! I make okay money for non-profit work but the city is so expensive. I feel grateful that I can pay all my bills and have a little extra to put aside for the future, but as I get older, I feel like I’m falling behind my peers who have enough money for things like condos and weddings!

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?

I became financially independent at 22. If I was ever in a pinch, I could still go to my parents for support. I’m trying to set up a world where I’ll never have to ask, but it’s nice to know I could always borrow money or move home if I needed to.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.

My grandparents generously put money away for my education before they died. This covered my undergraduate and the part of my graduate degree that wasn’t covered by scholarships. This is the only passive money I have received to date. However, if nothing drastic changes, I can expect to inherit a third of my parent’s wealth. I would share this with my two brothers. I feel very privileged to be in this situation and I believe it gives me the ability to worry less about money than many of my peers.



TO READ HER WEEKLY DIARY CLICK HERE
SASKATCHEWAN
Mandryk: CP Rail debate demonstrates what's wrong with the legislature

Murray Mandryk 
© Provided by Leader Post 
Premier Scott Moe had a point at the SARM convention about impact of a CP Rail work stoppage. The issue is where he is sincerely doing what he can to avert it.

The Saskatchewan legislature’s great emergency motion debate on the potential impact of the Canadian Pacific Rail labour dispute accomplished pretty much what it was designed to accomplish Thursday.

This is to say, it accomplished nothing.


It is a place where expectations don’t much go beyond scoring political points with your supporters. This is the way of the legislature. It is a place where there was “virtue signalling” decades before the term became fashionable.

This is not to suggest the potential impact of Canadian Pacific Railways potentially locking out 3,000 workers by Sunday is frivolous or even that Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is wrong to now be petitioning the federal government to finally address the problems created by the duopoly that is the Canadian rail system.

As Moe noted in his address to the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities: Rail service “is essential for communities and for people within the province of Saskatchewan” that’s clearly suffered from too many rail disruptions over the years.

“In no way does this undermine the negotiations that happen in any collective bargaining, but it would preserve that service and the continuity of that service for our province and for all Canadians,” Moe said Wednesday.

The premier is clearly right about the impact of such disruptions of commerce, but he’s not exactly been consistent.

This was the same Premier who opposed Ottawa’s use of the Emergency Act when truck convoy protestors were illegally stopping commerce and trade by blocking Canadian border entry points. When asked to explain his position on CBC’s Power and Politics, Moe said : “I am not going to tell them what to do.”

That six-day border blockade at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor resulted in an estimated $3 to $6 billion worth of goods not crossing the border, according to the University of Windsor’s Cross Border Institute.

The much longer border blockade at Coutts, Alta. had a far more direct effect on western and Saskatchewan trade and agriculture, not to mention several criminal charges involving weapons, assault and conspiracy to commit murder.


What happened at the borders last month was already “catastrophic to the supply chain and movement of Saskatchewan goods.”

Yet Moe somehow couldn’t rebuke those supposedly protesting the federal Liberal government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions. That, after all, would have sent the wrong signal.

(Moe’s refusal to condemn protests at Coutts and the Ambassador Bridge came up in question period this week. He could be heard muttering that there were no blockades specifically in Saskatchewan.)

That said, Moe is still right about the potential “catastrophe” of the CP Rail labour dispute. The question then is: What purpose did the “emergency” debate in the legislature serve to avert it?

Having already petitioned Ottawa to make the rail services essential, Moe didn’t need unanimous support of the Saskatchewan legislature in the form of an emergency resolution vote.

But if he truly did want to send a message of unanimous support that all corners of Saskatchewan desperately wanted to avert any work stoppage, wouldn’t it have required some compromised language that didn’t, as Moe said, “undermine the negotiations that happen in any collective bargaining?”

Instead, the Sask. Party’s initial “emergency” debate motion called for “back-to-work legislation,” which was philosophically untenable to the NDP.

Of course, the NDP had an equal need to virtue signal to their base by opposing what would be considered an “anti-labour” motion. (Perhaps the constant need to do this explains why it’s been than more decade since an NDP MLA has represented a rural seat.)

So Thursday’s great “emergency” debate quickly bogged down into an amendment fight with the government suggesting we must “immediately implement back-to-work legislation should a work stoppage and disruption of the rail service occur” and the NDP demanding negotiation of “a fair deal and to ensure Saskatchewan products keep moving to market without a rail stoppage.”

You can guess how each side voted.

After all, it’s always more important at the legislature to signal where you stand, than actually solve the issue.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

 

Canadian Pacific and union still far apart on agreement, says Teamsters Canada

(Reuters) -The labor union representing Canadian Pacific Railway's employees said on Friday that contract negotiations remain difficult after the company issued a lockout notice, and the parties were still far from reaching an agreement.

© Reuters/Ben Nelms FILE PHOTO: The Canadian Pacific railyard is pictured in Port Coquitlam.

Canada's second-biggest railroad operator notified the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference on Wednesday that it would lock out 3,000 engineers, conductors and yard workers early on Sunday, barring a breakthrough in talks on a deal covering pensions, pay and benefits.

"The negotiations are difficult and the parties are far apart," Teamsters Canada said in a statement, adding that discussions were resuming in Calgary late on Friday afternoon in the presence of a mediator.

Canadian Pacific in an emailed statement to Reuters said that in hopes of avoiding a labor disruption, "CP will continue to bargain in good faith with the TCRC leadership to achieve a negotiated settlement or enter binding arbitration."

Thousands of workers at CP threatened to strike this week, potentially disrupting the movement of grain, potash and coal at a time of soaring commodity prices.

The company says the main issue is the union's demand for higher pension caps, while the Teamsters also flag concerns about pay and benefits.

The last major railway labor disruption was an eight-day Canadian National Railway Co strike in 2019. But in the past 12 years, there have been 12 stoppages due to poor weather, blockades or labor issues, according to the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.

(Reporting by Akriti Sharma and Shubhendu Deshmukh in Bengaluru; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Leslie Adler)


It’s not just that Canadian restaurant workers have left — many have yet to arrive

Maggie Perzyna, Senior Research Technician, CERC Migration Program, Ryerson University 
3/19/2022

Recent media reporting about the hospitality industry has been dominated by stories about mass resignations and workers leaving for white-collar jobs.

Many sources cite a combination of low wages, instability and the lack of a decent working environment as factors pushing workers out of restaurants and into better paying, more secure jobs.

While repeated pandemic lockdowns and closures have pushed workers to find jobs in different sectors, this version of the story ignores that one in four restaurant workers are immigrants and that border closures over the past two years have meant that many potential immigrants have not been able to enter Canada.

Contrary to the headlines, our ongoing research project — based on interviews with immigrants working in Toronto’s restaurant industry — shows that the overwhelming majority of workers planned to return to the industry as soon as pandemic restrictions were lifted.

The labour shortage is not new

Although the pandemic was an accelerant, labour shortages have plagued the hospitality industry for some time. According to Restaurants Canada’s senior economist, Chris Elliott, numbers from Statistics Canada were signaling the trend for years.

Young people generally account for about 40 per cent of all food service workers. In the late 70s and early 80s, 15- to 24-year-olds accounted for about 20 per cent of the overall population in Canada. That number has declined to just 12 per cent.

Before the pandemic, immigration was an important source for filling job vacancies. In contrast, 2020 saw a decrease from 2019 of 145,687 international students alone.

As of December 2021, employment in accommodation and food services remained 206,000 workers short (16.9 per cent) of its pre-COVID level, even though there are more people working now than there were in February 2020.

According to the 2021 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, 2020 saw a record low number of temporary resident visas and electronic travel authorizations delivered as a result of border closures and travel restrictions.

A recent study published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that, rather than leaving the labour market, workers are finding jobs in professional services, leading them to conclude that the Canadian economy is seeing a “major sectoral realignment.”

A highly stratified industry

Accommodation and food services is a broad category, including everything from quick service chains to high-end full-service restaurants. Under this large umbrella, the types of jobs and corresponding pay vary widely. While quick service restaurant jobs tend to be minimum wage, wages in full-service restaurants are supplemented by tips.

Although the lion’s share of tips go to customer-facing servers — as well as managers and chefs sometimes — bussers, food-runners and cooks all make tips on top of hourly wages.

The claim that workers are simply moving to white-collar sectors also obscures structural barriers to being able to freely move between jobs, including racism and discrimination.

Racialized migrants tend to be in back-of-house jobs, such as cooks and light duty cleaners, in comparison to front-of-house jobs like servers and front desk clerks. For example, in Toronto, Filipino workers, Jamaican-born women and Sri Lankan-born men are more than twice as likely to work these jobs as other immigrants.

For many international students and newcomers without recognized foreign credentials, restaurants jobs provide low barriers to entry and flexible hours, where language skills can be honed and the coveted Canadian experience acquired. Many restaurants also sponsor professional cooks, chefs and managers who come to Canada to work in the sector.

A place of opportunity


Low wages, questionable employment practices and precarity are all part of a reckoning that the restaurant industry as a whole must confront if it is to recover from its current image crisis and attract workers in the future.

In the meantime, we need to dig deeper and ask more questions, not just about the leavers, but also about the stayers. We know that COVID-19 had a disproportionate impact on immigrants and racialized people in Canada. It is vital that the hospitality industry that employs many of them is a place of opportunity rather than a source of oppression and exploitation.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

Worker shortage? Or poor work conditions? Here’s what’s really vexing Canadian restaurants

Nobel winner David Card shows immigrants don’t reduce the wages of native-born workers

Maggie Perzyna receives funding from the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration Program.
Google is accused in lawsuit of systemic bias against Black employees

By Jonathan Stempel 
© Reuters/Reuters Staff FILE PHOTO: A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California

(Reuters) - A lawsuit filed on Friday accuses Google of systemic racial bias against Black employees, saying the search engine company steers them to lower-level jobs, pays them less and denies them opportunities to advance because of their race.

According to a complaint seeking class-action status, Google maintains a "racially biased corporate culture" that favors white men, where Black people comprise only 4.4% of employees and about 3% of leadership and its technology workforce.

The plaintiff, April Curley, also said the Alphabet Inc unit subjected Blacks to a hostile work environment, including by often requiring they show identification or be questioned by security at its Mountain View, California campus.

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The complaint was filed in the federal court in San Jose, California.

It came after that state's civil rights regulator, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, began investigating Google's treatment of Black female workers and possible discrimination in their workplace.

Curley said Google hired her in 2014 to design an outreach program to historically Black colleges.

She said her hiring proved to be a "marketing ploy," as supervisors began denigrating her work, stereotyping her as an "angry" Black woman and passing her over for promotions.

Curley said Google fired her in September 2020 after she and her colleagues began working on a list of desired reforms.

"While Google claims that they were looking to increase diversity, they were actually undervaluing, underpaying and mistreating their Black employees," Curley's lawyer Ben Crump said in a statement.

Crump is a civil rights lawyer who also represented the family of George Floyd after he was killed in May 2020 by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Curley's lawsuit seeks to recoup compensatory and punitive damages and lost compensation for current and former Black employees at Google, and to restore them to their appropriate positions and seniority.

The case is Curley v Google LLC, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-01735.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)