Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Mexico, Brazil fall behind in anti-corruption efforts, ranking shows

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MEXICO CITY — Brazil and Mexico were among the countries registering the biggest declines in anti-corruption efforts as the pandemic and inflation pushed fighting graft lower on public agendas in Latin America, according to a ranking released Wednesday.

The 2022 Capacity to Combat Corruption Index, published jointly by Americas Society/Council of the Americas and Control Risks, pointed to “new setbacks for key institutions and the anti-corruption environment as a whole” in Latin America’s two largest economies.

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The index, which evaluates 15 Latin American countries on how effectively they uncover, punish, and deter corruption, presented a “mixed picture” with rising inflation and COVID-19 distracting from anti-corruption efforts, the report said.

“Overall, the willingness and capacity of governments across the region to combat corruption appears to have plateaued against the backdrop of other, more immediate concerns,” said Geert Aalbers, partner at consultancy Control Risks and one of the report’s authors.

Mexico is ranked 12 out of the 15, with one of the highest declines in the index, as “the country experienced setbacks in all categories, but the steepest decline was within democracy and political institutions,” the report said.

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It cited President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s proposal to replace Mexico’s national electoral institute with a body chosen by voters.

Brazil fell four places to 10, declining for the third straight year. President Jair Bolsonaro has clashed repeatedly with Brazil’s judiciary.

Anger over corruption accusations was a driving factor in elections that booted incumbents in Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, Chile and Ecuador in the last couple of years.

Guatemala saw the biggest decline in the corruption index, following the attorney general’s sacking of an anti-graft prosecutor.

The Dominican Republic saw the biggest jump, while Uruguay ranked first for the third consecutive year. (Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Tanzania ruling party now says it 'insists' on constitutional reform

FILE PHOTO: COP26 in Glasgow

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania’s ruling party said on Wednesday it "insists" on reforming the East African country's constitution after fending off years of sustained pressure by opposition parties and rights groups to do just that.

A previous attempt to make changes to the constitution failed in 2014. At the time, a draft constitution left out changes such as trimming the president's powers, establishment of an independent electoral commission and allowing legal challenges to presidential election results.

Since then, opposition and rights groups have been pushing for the completion of the reforms, and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party said on Wednesday it welcomed change.

"I would like to inform you that Chama Cha Mapinduzi insists on the need of having a new constitution...,” Shaka Hamdu Shaka, the party's ideology and publicity secretary, told reporters. “The party is supporting President Samia’s reconciliation efforts.”

Last July the head of the leading opposition party, CHADEMA, and 10 others were detained while planning a meeting to discuss proposals for a new constitution.

CHADEMA said the arrests of its supporters was proof that President Samia Suluhu Hassan was following in the authoritarian footsteps of her predecessor, John Magufuli, who died in March last year. The government has denied the allegations.

(Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by James Macharia Chege and Nick Macfie)

ATHENS (Reuters) – Human rights defenders in Greece, particularly those documenting the treatment of migrants and refugees, face smear campaigns and are treated like criminals, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor said on Wednesday.

Lawlor was presenting her preliminary findings at the end of a 10-day visit to Greece where she met ministers in Athens and also visited the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos which were on the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015 and 2016.

“I am concerned about the increasing criminalisation of humanitarian assistance in Greece. Solidarity should never be punished and compassion should never be put on trial,” Lawlor said.

“At the tip of the spear are prosecutions, where acts of solidarity are reinterpreted as criminal activity, specifically the crime of people smuggling,” she added.

Lawlor said human rights defenders had found it increasingly difficult to carry out their work since 2019, especially in fields that might be considered “controversial or geopolitically complicated or sensitive”.

“The negative impact of such cases is multiplied by smear campaigns perpetuating this false image of defenders,” Lawlor said.

This policy created a “climate of fear and insecurity” that was reinforced by elements of the legal framework as well as statements from high-ranking government representatives attacking the work of NGOs, she added.

Responding to Lawlor, the migration ministry said Greece “fully respects the action of organized or individual human rights defenders active in the field of migration and asylum”.

Greece has also repeatedly denied accusations of so-called pushbacks of asylum-seekers, saying it intercepts boats at sea to protect its borders.

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Nick Macfie)



UK 

Research uncovers ‘digital poverty’ across North West’s rural communities with one in four struggling to complete key tasks online

A new study by researchers at Lancaster University reveals 28% of the population in North West England are not confident completing key tasks online, such as applying for a job or making an online call

Reports and Proceedings

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY

Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation 

IMAGE: BEN HARRISON, DIRECTOR OF THE WORK FOUNDATION view more 

CREDIT: WORK FOUNDATION

A new study by researchers at Lancaster University reveals 28% of the population in North West England are not confident completing key tasks online, such as applying for a job or making an online call. Most alarmingly, over half of those aged 65 and above and those on lower incomes lack digital skills, meaning those most in need of online services are least likely to be able to access them. 

The research features in a new Work Foundation policy briefing, published today, and is based on a survey of more than 500 people living in rural communities in the North West between February and March 2022, as well as 16 in-depth interviews.  

It finds that while 95% of residents have access to the internet, only a quarter feel able to make the most of it. A significant proportion of people lack digital confidence, and risk missing out on key services and employment opportunities.  In particular, 26% of rural residents are not confident in applying for jobs online, and 23% are unable to confidently make video calls via Zoom or Microsoft Teams

To get around the problem, one in five say they would have to ask family or friends for help - which was a particular problem for older participants and those on lower incomes. 

Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation, said: “It is clear that for those in the rural North West a lack of digital confidence and skills are bigger barriers to accessing key services and employment opportunities than internet connectivity. 

“Given the seismic shift to remote and hybrid working we’ve seen since the beginning of the pandemic, it is alarming that such a high proportion of the rural population still really struggle with these skills – especially older residents and low earners who are most likely to benefit from accessing digital services.” 

The North West is also one of the lowest performing regions in terms of closing the digital divide. While Government set out an ambition in its 2014 Digital Inclusion Strategy to reduce the number of people offline by 25% every two years, the North West only achieved a 15.4% reduction rate between 2017-2019 – ranking ninth out of twelve UK regions.  

Affordability remains a significant issue for many. 19% of the sample found either their PC, home broadband, a smartphone headset or mobile data unaffordable, rising to 36% among households with an income of £20,000 or less. 13% said they have poor quality or no Wi-Fi, and 1 in 5 have no mobile broadband. 

“It was concerning to hear in our interviews that low levels of consumer confidence and technical understanding can result in people committing to costly and sub-optimal contracts, that they are then tied in to,” Ben Harrison adds. “For example, we heard of instances where people were tied into contracts but unable to get any reliable connectivity at home– so felt they had to take out another contract at the same time, facing huge costs.  

“People living in rural areas also tend to face higher costs for fast broadband connectivity, which can be enough to deter some from engaging with the online world completely and this could worsen as families struggle to make ends meet during the cost of living crisis. If Government ambitions to Level Up the UK are to become a reality, clearly more needs to be done to provide people living in the rural North West with the digital skills and access they need.” 

The Work Foundation briefings set out a series of recommendations for local authorities and Government. These include calls for: 

  • Ofcom to ensure providers openly disclose the full range of charges included within mobile or broadband packages and ensure this information reaches vulnerable consumers in clearly understandable terms 
  • Help to ensure claimants of Universal Credit know they may be eligible for social tariffs which allow individuals to benefit from broadband connection at a reduced cost 
  • Job search platforms, recruiters and local bodies such as councils and LEPs to work in partnership to build confidence among rural residents in searching and applying for jobs online, through outreach activities in local settings and at home 
  • Local authorities to provide educational outreach to rural residents at the greatest risk of digital poverty, to equip them with the key skills needed to search and apply for jobs online 
  • Local authorities to collaborate with third parties to undertake peer-to-peer outreach to boost confidence in accessing digital services, using intermediaries and trusted individuals and via accessible community settings 

The full briefings are available on the Work Foundation website: www.theworkfoundation.com  

Ends 

Reducing air pollution can support healthy brain development: Study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

A new study finds that having a portable air cleaner in the home can reduce the negative impacts of air pollution on brain development in children.

Simon Fraser University researchers collaborated with U.S. and Mongolian scientists to study the benefits of using air filters to reduce exposure to air pollution during pregnancy, and assessed the impact on children’s intelligence.

The researchers note that their randomized controlled trial is the first study of its kind to document the impacts of air pollution reduction on cognition in children.

Beginning in 2014, the team recruited 540 pregnant women in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to participate in the Ulaanbaatar Gestation and Air Pollution Research (UGAAR) study. Ulaanbaatar has some of the worst air quality in the world, well exceeding guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The women were less than 18 weeks into their pregnancies and non-smokers who had not previously used air filtering devices in their homes. They were randomly assigned to either the control or intervention group. The intervention group was provided with one or two HEPA filter air cleaners and encouraged to run the air cleaners continuously for the duration of their pregnancies. The air cleaners were removed from the home once the child was born.

The researchers later measured the children’s full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) at four years of age using the Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence.

They found that the children born to mothers who had used the air cleaners had an average FSIQ that was 2.8-points higher than the group that did not use an air cleaner during pregnancy.

“These results, combined with evidence from previous studies, strongly implicate air pollution as a threat to brain development,” says Ryan Allen, professor of environmental health in SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences. “But the good news is that reducing exposure had clear benefits.”

Children in the intervention group also had significantly greater average verbal comprehension index scores, which is consistent with results from previous observational studies. The research suggests that a child’s verbal skills may be particularly sensitive to air pollution exposure.

More than 90 per cent of the world’s population breathes air with particulate matter concentrations above the WHO guidelines. The researchers suggest the population-level impact of air pollution on brain development could be substantive even if the individual-level effects are modest.

Their study results indicate that reducing exposure to air pollution during pregnancy could improve children’s cognitive development around the world.

“Air pollution is everywhere, and it is preventing children from reaching their full potential,” adds Allen. “Air cleaners may provide some protection, but ultimately the only way to protect all children is to reduce emissions.”

Edmonton councillor wants mansion tax, city studies progressive taxation

Lauren Boothby - Yesterday 
Edmonton Journal

A mansion in the Edmonton area.

An Edmonton councillor wants to see mansion owners pay higher property taxes, arguing those with more wealth should pay more as the city plans for a tough fiscal year.

Coun. Michael Janz wants to see multimillion-dollar property owners paying even higher rates of taxes. On Monday, city council asked staff to investigate what it would mean to charge different tax rates for residential properties in different categories, such as those of higher values. A report on options is due at the end of September.

The current property tax system already charges higher amounts based on property values. Even so, Janz said with taxpayers potentially facing a steep tax hike next year and how the pandemic has increased inequality, people who have more wealth should pay more.

“It’s a question of fairness, and it’s a question of adequately resourcing the needs that will help everyone,” he said in a recent interview. “We can’t keep, as a city, saying we don’t have enough when we aren’t truly looking at have we exhausted every opportunity at our disposal.”

At the Monday meeting, Janz told councillors that having a progressive tax rate is based on the idea that taxes for a $300,000 home and $3-million home shouldn’t be evaluated in the same way.

“That’s outdated and I think that’s wrong,” he said Monday. “What I’m looking for here is an ability to help better reflect the challenges that we (have) around equity in our community.”


© David BloomHomes along Westbrook Drive, in Edmonton are seen Tuesday, June 21, 2022.

Janz noted income tax is progressive in Canada, and some provinces have progressive taxation.

“Those who have a little bit more, and built this wealth through property, which is one of the most reliable and safe ways to have wealth, should be able to pay a little bit more,” he said.

Janz’s initial motion, which was changed for Monday’s meeting, asked for information on tax subclasses for residential homes valued in the top one per cent, at $1 million, $2 million or $3 million, and that extra revenue could be used for community safety and well-being and eliminating poverty.

Instead, council passed a motion 11-2 requesting a report “that discusses how the property tax system might be changed to create a more progressive taxation system,” due to executive committee Sept. 28. Councillors Karen Principe and Jennifer Rice opposed.



Ahead of the vote, Coun. Jo-Anne Wright worried if some, including seniors, could be negatively impacted by such a change.

“My concern would be for those whose property values have appreciated just because of time, and maybe those are some of the seniors that can’t necessarily afford the higher property tax,” she said. “But I’m interested to see if there’s something we can do differently, so I appreciate the motion.”

Asked how the current system would differ, Anton Szabo, a director of the city’s taxation branch, said in the current system, people pay an amount proportional to the value of their home.

For example, someone who owns a $400,000 home pays half of what someone owning a $800,000 home pays.

Property tax, Szabo said, is an attempt to find “fairness and equity in the distribution of tax levy” based on property value. While the current system and a progressive taxation system would both be based on wealth and not income, they are different.

“Progressive (tax) would suggest that the more value you own, you actually pay more relative to others,” he said.

“It could be based on the value of property, it could be based off the quality of property, size of property — you can do a variety of different kinds of ways,” he said. “I think the focus is what are other ways we can get around to the ability to pay beyond the baseline market value assessment approach.”








THEY BURN RECYLED TIRES FOR FUEL
Lafarge cement plant cuts production, adding to B.C.'s concrete shortage

CEMENT COMPANIES ARE MAJOR METHANE EMITTERS

Katie DeRosa - Yesterday 

© Provided by Vancouver SunThe Lafarge cement plant in Richmond has curtailed production while it races to repair damage from a May 31 fire.

One of B.C.’s largest cement plants has temporarily cut production, exacerbating Metro Vancouver’s shortage of concrete and forcing some construction companies to halt projects.

Lafarge’s Richmond cement plant has been operating at limited capacity since a May 31 fire in part of the pre-heater tower.

Cement is a key ingredient in making concrete, a substance used in almost every construction project.

The Lafarge woes, coupled with a strike by some truck drivers, is severely choking the supply of concrete in the Lower Mainland.

“It’s almost like the perfect storm,” said Racy Sidhu, chairman of Concrete B.C. and owner of Yard At A Time Concrete in Delta. “The demand is far outreaching the supply.”

“Concrete is critical to everything we do,” Sidhu said, noting it’s the foundation of most infrastructure — sidewalks, schools, bridges, homes and condo buildings.

Lafarge’s Richmond plant is a major supplier of cement in B.C., Alberta and the Northwestern U.S., producing about a million tons of cement a year. according to Sidhu.

The Richmond cement plant “is undergoing electric repairs to an isolated area,” Lafarge spokesperson Christa Broadfoot said by email. “We expect to resume full production capacity shortly and are leveraging our strong production and supply network in an effort to minimize impact to our customers.”

Broadfoot did not say when the plant will be back to full capacity and did not indicate the extent to which supply has been constrained.

The May 31 fire at the Richmond plant resulted in an inspection by WorkSafeBC. Lafarge was responsible for conducting an incident investigation into the cause of the fire and provide a final report to WorkSafeBC within 30 days of the incident, WorkSafeBC spokesperson Alexandra Skinner said.

“WorkSafeBC did not issue a stop-work order, so any stoppage of production was a decision by Lafarge,” Skinner said.

Concrete companies have been told the Lafarge plant has limited inventory because it is not currently producing clinker, a solid material used to bind the cement, Sidhu said. The plant is grinding stockpiled clinker, he said.

Broadfoot did not respond to follow up questions to confirm these details.

About 160 Rempel Bros. Concrete employees have been on strike since May 20 and an additional 110 Ocean Concrete and 24 Allied Concrete employees are also not crossing picket lines. The union, Teamsters Local 213, was at the negotiating table Tuesday with Lehigh Hanson, Inc., the Texas-based company that owns Rempel and the two sides are set to meet again Wednesday.

Sidhu said his company was recently approached by contractors on the Broadway SkyTrain extension project asking if he can supply concrete. He had to turn them down.

Construction on the Millennium Line’s 5.7-kilometre Broadway Extension began in May 2021 and is expected to be completed by 2025.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said in a statement Tuesday that t he shortage has not caused any work stoppages on any Transportation Investment Corporation projects including the Broadway Subway Project and the Pattullo Bridge replacement.

“The project teams are working to mitigate any potential future impacts,” a ministry spokeperson said. “At this time, it does not appear there are any delays to other capital projects, including any of the major flood repair projects.”

Sidhu said he’s heard from companies in Northern Alberta that have stopped making concrete because there’s no cement supply.

The concrete shortage will have a domino effect on every other building trade, said Jake Jinjoe, co-owner of Vancouver-based Raven Concrete.

“The first thing you do when you build something you pour foundation, right?” Jinjoe said. If there’s no concrete to pour the foundation of a home or highrise, the carpenters, electricians, plumbers and painters can’t start their work, he said.

The concrete shortage has forced him to halt a townhome project in North Vancouver.

“We’re at a standstill,” Jinjoe said. “It’s tough because it’s just putting projects at a standstill or crawl because we can’t get concrete.”

Vancouver Concrete Contractors office manager Tyler Mertens said the company has had t o halt most of their major projects.

“It’s not just our business,” Mertens said. “E very other concrete business is probably going through something similar.”

The pent-up demand means that even when the strike comes to an end and Lafarge resumes full production, the cement and concrete shortage will likely extend right through the summer, Sidhu said.

That’s why he wants to see the provincial government identify cement as a strategic resource which would require cement producers to supply Canadian companies first before exporting to the U.S. About 40 to 50 per cent of the cement produced in B.C. — which has a handful of cement-making plants — is shipped to U.S. markets, he said.

kderosa@postmedia.com
AMERICANIZATION OF OUR POLITICS
Poilievre pitches a 'pay-as-you-go' law to rein in federal spending
TIRED OLD NEOLIBERALISM

John Paul Tasker - 

Conservative leadership contender Pierre Poilievre said Wednesday, if elected, he'd introduce new legislation that would force the federal government to offset every dollar of new spending with a cut to something else — a program he's calling a "pay-as-you-go" approach to budgeting.

Poilievre's plan is to essentially cap federal spending so it doesn't go much higher than it is now. The legislation, if passed, would require the government to find money for new measures within existing budgets, rather than increasing the debt and taxes to cover new costs.

The Conservative MP's campaign said there would be exemptions for spending related to "national emergencies like wars, pandemics and natural disasters." It also said "spending increases that were previously budgeted" like the annual increase to the Canada Health Transfer and increases to military spending would be exempt.

As it stands, the Poilievre campaign said, there's "no incentive for anyone in government to root out failing or wasteful programs."

TRUMP INTRODUCED THIS IN THE USA

"Under pay-as-you-go, ministers would not be able to introduce new programs without getting rid of old ones, they would need to scour for waste that would otherwise go on robbing taxpayers into perpetuity," the campaign said in a backgrounder sent to reporters.


Poilievre has blamed the Liberal government's big-spending budgets for inflation — a charge the government has rejected, saying the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine are largely to blame for recent price spikes.

Inflation rising

Canada's inflation rate has been rising fast. According to data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday, the overall inflation rate hit 7.7 per cent in May — a surge driven in large part by a massive uptick in the price of gasoline over the last year.

The government has defended its COVID-related spending, saying it helped the country avoid economic ruin during the worst of the pandemic.

"The cost of government is driving up the cost of living," Poilievre said in a statement. "Half-a-trillion dollars of inflationary deficits have bid up the cost of goods and inflationary taxes have increased the costs to businesses that make those goods. Why are deficits and taxes so high? To fund colossal spending increases."


© Ben Nelms/CBC
Gas is pictured at over $2 a litre at a gas station in Vancouver. Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre blamed federal government spending for inflation, while the Liberal government maintains COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine are largely responsible for price increases.

Poilievre said many families and businesses already follow a pay-as-you-go approach when drawing up their budgets and so too should the federal government.

"When they spend more on one thing, they spend less on another. A family budget can afford a $2,000 vacation or a $2,000 renovation. Not both. They must pick," Poilievre said.
Ideas on fiscal responsibility


Kevin Page, the former parliamentary budget officer (PBO), and an expert on federal fiscal matters, said it's difficult to compare government spending to what Canadians do every month with their own chequebooks.

The fiscal firepower of the federal government just doesn't compare to the average Canadian household, he said.

"There are limits to good comparisons of government and household budgeting. Governments address wide ranging public good issues with different time perspectives and can borrow money [at much lower rates] than private households," Page told CBC News.

He said any pay-as-you-go program should be flexible to account for changes in the economy — and there should be carve outs for spending on capital goods, like major infrastructure projects, because they represent "returns that are much larger for future generations."

"Many economists are generally concerned about deficit bias in governments and so are heartened to hear about spending rules," Page said, referring to the tendency of governments to allow deficit and public debt levels to continually increase.

"It is a good thing that Conservative leaders are presenting ideas on fiscal responsibility," he said.

The U.S. Congress has had a pay-as-you-go approach to budgeting at different times over the last three decades. The program was successful in the 1990s as the U.S. eliminated its deficit after pursuing a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts.

But the rule has regularly been ignored by legislators with Republicans pushing through tax cuts without offsets and the Democrats introducing new social programs without changes to other so-called "entitlement" programs like pensions and health care for the elderly.

The pay-as-you-go rule, also known as PAYGO, is designed to encourage Congress to offset the cost of any legislation that increases spending on entitlement programs or reduces revenues so it doesn’t expand the deficit. Under PAYGO, Congress must pay for such legislation by reducing other entitlement spending or increasing other revenues. Updated
www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/the-pay-as-you-go-budget-rule
www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/the-pay-as-you-go-budget-rule




Opinion: Poilievre's proposed intrusion into universities misguided

James Gacek - 

Federal Conservative party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre speaks at The Roundhouse in Toronto, Tuesday April 19, 2022.
 [Photo Peter J Thompson/National Post]

In a tweet on Monday, Pierre Poilievre, Member of Parliament for Carleton and candidate hopeful for leader of the federal Conservative party, posted a message saying: “My message to universities: Protect free speech and academic freedom to keep federal grants. I will appoint a Free Speech Guardian, a retired judge, to ensure academic freedom is defended.”

This was followed by an image of a university with the text “Universities must protect free speech and academic freedom. Those that don’t will not receive federal research grants or other grants”.

This type of messaging is misguided and, frankly, dangerous. The censorship of researchers is concerning, especially when politicians suggest, without evidence, that researchers and their work are ethically or intellectually compromised in some way.

Of course, problems exist among researchers’ perceptions and not institutions per se (perhaps also tied to the odd truths around who receives funding, access and ethical clearance versus who does not and the feeling such discrepancies evoke).

These are ongoing matters Canadian universities face, but when paired with this kind of political messaging, the consequences remain unfortunate for both researchers and knowledge generation.

The production of knowledge is already regulated by and through several modes of university and federal governance, including the politics of winning contracts and grants; restricted and procedural access to information; negotiating or bargaining for independence; the failure to publicly release research findings; and the list goes on.

There are already accountability structures, like ethics clearance, in place to ensure the researcher reports knowledge accurately and fairly. So the pressure upon the researcher, from pre- to post-project completion, already impacts knowledge creation and production.

Political interference in this process is certainly not needed, nor should it be used as an illusory wedge-point to suggest universities somehow do not uphold academic freedom; many Canadian universities already properly protect this freedom in our respective collective bargaining agreements.

No matter how it’s arrived at, questioning the academic and intellectual freedom of researchers can leave individual researchers in rather discouraging and unwarranted positions.

And moreover such practices breed a culture of being suspicious of institutions and institutions being suspicious of researchers — a feeling faculty may unintentionally extend to their students and future generations of Canadian researchers.

Politicians peddling dangerous rhetoric, ignorance and misinformation do so to score political points for their own advantage — but at what cost to the public? Is it not detrimental to the public to be kept from the knowledge universities and their researchers produce?

If universities become more involved with select political interests, they may become less likely to support research or researchers that are unsupportive or threaten these interests.

Rather than focus on issues around who is awarded funding, attention should be directed toward taking heed of when politicians creep too far into university governance and the funding of higher education research.

When political ‘guardianship’ (i.e., censorship) hampers the ability for researchers to give voice to unheard marginalized populations — at what point is guardianship doing more harm than good?

Social scientific research is controlled and contained when normative (rather than critical) questions are posed, especially when the expression of political ideology pretends to be ethics.

Avoiding the knowledge about the suffering of others runs the risk of creating a generation of researchers (and the public) that become desensitized to injustices in their communities.

We must continue to make higher education a priority. Evidence-based education is human development; it opens windows and doors of opportunity, but also hearts and minds.

Education is a public, common good; it constantly evolves and we along with it. For the sake of research, the creeping messaging like Mr. Poilievre’s must be resisted, lest we allow the silencing of researchers and the thought-provoking insight they produce.

Elected officials who attack knowledge or are afraid of education should reconsider whether they are serving the public interest.

James Gacek is an assistant professor in the Department of Justice Studies at the University of Regina.

Related

Norepinephrine: How the Brain Responds to Surprising Events

Brain Surprise Neuroscience

According to a new research study, your brain can send out a burst of norepinephrine when it needs you to pay attention to something important.

Unexpected outcomes trigger the release of noradrenaline, which helps the brain focus its attention and learn from the event.

When your brain needs you to pay attention to something important, one way it can do that is to send out a burst of noradrenaline, according to a new MIT study.

This neuromodulator, produced by a structure deep in the brain called the locus coeruleus, can have widespread effects throughout the brain. In a study of mice, the MIT team found that one key role of noradrenaline, also known as norepinephrine, is to help the brain learn from surprising outcomes.

Norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline, is a chemical made by some nerve cells and in the adrenal gland. It can function as both a neurotransmitter (a chemical messenger used by nerve cells) and a hormone (a chemical that travels in the blood and controls the actions of other cells or organs). Norepinephrine is released by the adrenal gland in response to stress and low blood pressure.

“What this work shows is that the locus coeruleus encodes unexpected events, and paying attention to those surprising events is crucial for the brain to take stock of its environment,” says Mriganka Sur, the Newton Professor of Neuroscience in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, a member of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and director of the Simons Center for the Social Brain.

In addition to its role in signaling surprise, the researchers also discovered that noradrenaline helps to stimulate behavior that leads to a reward, particularly in situations where there is uncertainty over whether a reward will be offered.

Sur is the senior author of the new study, which was published on June 1, 2022, in the journal Nature. Vincent Breton-Provencher, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at Laval University, and Gabrielle Drummond, an MIT graduate student, are the lead authors of the paper.

Modulating behavior

Noradrenaline is one of several neuromodulators that influence the brain, along with dopamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine. Unlike neurotransmitters, which enable cell-to-cell communication, neuromodulators are released over large swathes of the brain, allowing them to exert more general effects.

“Neuromodulatory substances are thought to perfuse large areas of the brain and thereby alter the excitatory or inhibitory drive that neurons are receiving in a more point-to-point fashion,” Sur says. “This suggests they must have very crucial brain-wide functions that are important for survival and for brain state regulation.”

Brain Locus Coeruleus Nuclei Noradrenaline

Most of the brain’s noradrenaline is produced by the two locus coeruleus nuclei, one in each brain hemisphere. The neurons of the locus coeruleus are labeled with green fluorescent protein. Credit: Gabi Drummond

While scientists have learned much about the role of dopamine in motivation and reward pursuit, less is known about the other neuromodulators, including noradrenaline. It has been linked to arousal and boosting alertness, but too much noradrenaline can lead to anxiety.

Previous studies of the locus coeruleus, the brain’s primary source of noradrenaline, have shown that it receives input from many parts of the brain and also sends its signals far and wide. In the new study, the MIT team set out to study its role in a specific type of learning called reinforcement learning, or learning by trial and error.

For this study, the researchers trained mice to push a lever when they heard a high-frequency tone, but not when they heard a low-frequency tone. When the mice responded correctly to the high-frequency tone, they received water, but if they pushed the lever when they heard a low-frequency tone, they received an unpleasant puff of air.

The mice also learned to push the lever harder when the tones were louder. When the volume was lower, they were more uncertain about whether they should push or not. And, when the researchers inhibited activity of the locus coeruleus, the mice became much more hesitant to push the lever when they heard low volume tones, suggesting that noradrenaline promotes taking a chance on getting a reward in situations where the payoff is uncertain.

“The animal is pushing because it wants a reward, and the locus coeruleus provides critical signals to say, push now, because the reward will come,” Sur says.

The researchers also found that the neurons that generate this noradrenaline signal appear to send most of their output to the motor cortex, which offers more evidence that this signal stimulates the animals to take action.

Signaling surprise

While that initial burst of noradrenaline appears to stimulate the mice to take action, the researchers also found that a second burst often occurs after the trial is finished. When the mice received an expected reward, these bursts were small. However, when the outcome of the trial was a surprise, the bursts were much larger. For example, when a mouse received a puff of air instead of the reward it was expecting, the locus coeruleus sent out a large burst of noradrenaline.

In subsequent trials, that mouse would be much less likely to push the lever when it was uncertain it would receive a reward. “The animal is constantly adjusting its behavior,” Sur says. “Even though it has already learned the task, it’s adjusting its behavior based on what it has just done.”

The mice also showed bursts of noradrenaline on trials when they received an unexpected reward. These bursts appeared to spread noradrenaline to many parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, where planning and other higher cognitive functions occur.

“The surprise-encoding function of the locus coeruleus seem to be much more widespread in the brain, and that may make sense because everything we do is moderated by surprise,” Sur says.

The researchers now plan to explore the possible synergy between noradrenaline and other neuromodulators, especially dopamine, which also responds to unexpected rewards. They also hope to learn more about how the prefrontal cortex stores the short-term memory of the input from the locus coeruleus to help the animals improve their performance in future trials.

Reference: “Spatiotemporal dynamics of noradrenaline during learned behaviour” by Vincent Breton-Provencher, Gabrielle T. Drummond, Jiesi Feng, Yulong Li and Mriganka Sur, 1 June 2022, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04782-2

The research was funded, in part, by the Quebec Research Funds, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, a NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative through the Simons Center for the Social Brain, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the NIH BRAIN Initiative.