Canada

Harold Coward's Fifty Years of Religious Studies in Canada (2014) would seem to provide the long awaited concluding installment to the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion (CCSR)-sponsored and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded State-of-the-Art Review of the academic study of religion in Canada that began in the early 1980s. Under his general editorship, the series set out to provide a history, description, and comprehensive analysis of Religious Studies as conceived and practiced in its Canadian context. 1 Although all the volumes certainly provided exhaustive and detailed, if now largely out of date, accounts of specific regions, missing was a synthetic and comparative overview to pull them all together. 2 Such a volume would ideally serve as a prolegomenon to writing a national history of the field that could, among other things, note trans-regional themes, document common trends, and so on. That Coward's volume is written as a memoir, however, means that that overview continues to remain a scholarly desideratum. In what follows I wish to reflect on some of the possibilities and problems inherent to the series with an eye toward writing a proper history of the academic study of religion in Canada. 3 Any attempt to write this history has to take into account at least two factors. The first is regionalism (which includes bilingualism) and the second is the general proximity to the United States. Let me take up each of these in turn. Regionalism Canada, as should be clear from even the quickest glances at a globe or map, is a huge country, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean,

The continued preservation of bison is one of Parks Canada’s greatest success stories. Canadian parks have been actively involved in protecting bison for over 100 years. While much has been written about the history of bison and Indigenous peoples, the destruction of the great bison herds in the nineteenth century, and individual conservation herds, there are few works that speak of the history of the Parks Canada bison herds as a whole. Like Distant Thunder combines these disparate threads to form a cohesive narrative of the bison herds managed by Canada.

NATIVE MESSENGERS OF GOD IN CANADA?:
A TEST CASE FOR BAHA’I UNIVERSALISM (1996)

*** Christopher Buck, “Native Messengers of God in Canada?: A Test Case for Baha’i Universalism.” Baha’i Studies Review 6 (1996): 97–133.

*** Award for Excellence in Baha’i Studies. Association for Baha’i Studies, 1994.

EPILOGUE

Thereupon Tekanawitaˀ [Deganawida, the Peacemaker] stood up in the center of the gathering place, and then he said, “First I will answer what it means to say, ‘Now it is arriving, the Good Message.’ This indeed, is what it means: When it stops, the slaughter of your own people who live here on earth, then everywhere peace will come about, by day and also by night, and it will come about that as one travels around, everyone will be related. …

Now again, secondly, I say, ‘Now it is arriving, the power,’ and this means that the different nations, all the nations, will become just a single one, and the Great Law will come into being, so that now all will be related to each other, and there will come to be just a single family, and in the future, in days to come, this family will continue on.

Now in turn, the other, my third saying, ‘Now it is arriving, the Peace,’ this means that everyone will become related, men and also women, and also the young people and the children, and when all are relatives, every nation, then there will be peace as they roam about by day and also by night. …

Then there will be truthfulness, and they will uphold hope and charity, so that it is peace that will unite all the people, indeed, it will be as though they have but one mind, and they are a single person with only one body and one head and one life, which means that there will be unity.” …

When they are functioning, the Good Message and also the Power and the Peace, moreover, these will be the principal things everybody will live by; these will be the great values among the people.”

– Chief John Arthur Gibson, Concerning the League: The Iroquois League as Dictated in Onondaga, newly elicited, edited and translated by Hanni Woodbury in Collaboration with Reg Henry and Harry Webster on the Basis of A.A. Goldenweiser’s Manuscript. Memoir 9 (Winnipeg: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics, 1992): 36–41. 

ABSTRACT

Academic and popular interest has lent prestige to native spirituality and has brought it into prominence. The United Nations proclamation of 1993 as the International Year of Indigenous People gave native peoples international recognition. A corresponding interest in native culture has “valorised” (brought respect to) native spirituality.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada took a position of advocacy on behalf of First Nations Canadians in its formal submission to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in the fall of 1993. The strong native presence in Canadian Bahá’í community life raises the question of the place of native spirituality within a Bahá’í worldview.

Homefront “pioneers” have extended Bahá’í universalism to a recognition of the richness and authenticity of native cultural values. Such recognition has been supported by local Bahá’í policy, as attested in teaching pamphlets addressed to native peoples, in which the concept of First World messengers of God has been validated. Although theoretically acknowledged, explicit recognition of native messengers of God has yet to be formalised in Bahá’í doctrine.

This study discusses the possibilities of incorporating the principle of “Messengers of God to Indigenous Peoples” within formal Bahá’í doctrine, reflecting a development that has already taken place in popular Bahá’í belief in the North American context. A hitherto under-studied Persian text of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá establishes the principle in such a way that its explicit enunciation is now possible.

The problem of historical attestation remains. The prophetic credentials of Iroquois culture hero and statesman Deganawida are critically examined as a test case. The legend of Deganawida has a kernel of historicity overlaid by hagiography, with admitted Christian influence. Nonetheless, if the Bahá’í principle of “Progressive Revelation” can assimilate the Amerindian spiritual legacy as distinct from and developmentally asynchronous with Irano-Semitic and Sino-Indic religious histories, then it might be possible to accord Deganawida a provisional status with Bahá’í prophetology, and still affirm Bahá’u’lláh’s unific role in world history, as oral cultures take their place alongside the more familiar “literate” traditions.

https://www.academia.edu/36294314/_Native_Messengers_of_God_in_Canada_1996_

The welfare state continues to be eroded in the Global North. In Canada and the U.S., food banks are now one of the only systems of relief available. But in both countries, critics have accused food banks of being apolitical and thus taking away government responsibility to address inequality. The rise of food banks has been linked to the decline of the welfare state, leading to an assumption that an increase in public assistance can end the need for food banks. Yet little research exists that examines how other institutions such as the food industry drove food bank growth, or how food banks are politically active. The history of food banks in Canada presents an informative case study because the state was not directly involved in establishing food banks, thus allowing greater insight into the role of industry in the institutionalization of food banks and their political activity. Using environmental institutions and political ecology frameworks we conducted a literature review and interviews of experts, as well as a case study of one food bank. Our findings suggest that the factors leading to the existence of food banks cannot only be linked to cuts in welfare; rather, the influence of industrial decline and centralization of the food industry must also be taken into account, as well as social movements and the policy gap around food waste. Food banks can be political, using available resources as ‘fuel’ to challenge government failure. The case of Canadian food banks indicates that, to address inequality and food insecurity in the Global North, researchers and policy-makers should not only focus on welfare but need to tackle the cost-shifting practices of the food industry and work toward joined-up and nested food policy institutions. Further, food banks, or organizations that look like them, can help address rising food insecurity if they are provided with sufficient legal, political, and financial support.

Climate Emergency: A 26-Week Transition Program for Canada, by Guy Dauncey

What could the government of Canada do if its Ministers, MPs and civil servants really understood the severity of the climate emergency, and the urgency of the need?

This paper shows how we could target a 65% reduction in emissions by 2030 and 100% by 2040. It proposes 164 new policies and programs, financed by $63 billion a year in new investments, without raising taxes or increasing public sector borrowing.

The new programs and policies are announced every Monday morning between January 6th and the end of June. To learn what they are, read on.
https://thepracticalutopian.ca/2020/01/05/climate-emergency-a-26-week-transition-program-for-canada/

« Tu diras à mon frère que je vais descendre à Montréal où mon père Onontio a allumé le feu de paix » à l'été 1700, le chef iroquois teganissorens affiche son intention d'accepter la main tenue française alors que depuis près de cent ans, ses ancêtres ont déployé leurs forces contre la jeune colonie. Onontio, le gouverneur français n'est plus l'ennemi mais le père. Cette étude retrace les motifs et les conséquences d'un conflit colonial singulier, qui bien que lointain, conditionne le développement et la colonisation française en Amérique.

Using a sample of dental students (N=373) from four Canadian dental schools, this longitudinal study determined whether the new Canadian Dental Association (CDA) structured interview was a predictor of clinical and academic performance. The new interview predicted clinical performance in the third and fourth years of dental school, but not academic performance. The Canadian Dental Aptitude Test (DAT) continued to predict first- and second-year academic performance, but not clinical performance in the senior years. A personality factor, "Conscientiousness," predicted clinical and academic performance to various degrees across the four years of dental school. A second personality factor, "Openness to Experience," predicted third-year academic performance. The results suggest that a combination of scores from the DAT, a valid measure of personality, and a well-designed structured interview will provide the best prediction of those applicants who will do well in both...

This article is a very short guide to navigating institutional racism within universities. Focal points of this piece are how institutional racism works, how it can be diagnosed, and how one can invent ways to survive it. The first section of this article is an overall analysis of how institutional racism is set up, particularly in the humanities and arts departments of North American universities. The second section is a step-by-step guide to surviving institutional racism in the university, and particularly in graduate programs. This article is distilled through and explained by first-hand experiences and observations and is written both to archive the structure and affect of the current atmosphere of institutional racism and to document and propose some strategies of awareness and resistance.

When Samuel de Champlain founded the colony of Quebec in 1608, he established elaborate gardens where he sowed French seeds he had brought with him and experimented with indigenous plants that he found in nearby fields and forests. Following Champlain's example, fellow colonists nurtured similar gardens through the Saint Lawrence Valley and Great Lakes region. In A Not-So-New World, Christopher Parsons observes how it was that French colonists began to learn about Native environments and claimed a mandate to cultivate vegetation that did not differ all that much from that which they had left behind. As Parsons relates, colonists soon discovered that there were limits to what they could accomplish in their gardens. The strangeness of New France became woefully apparent, for example, when colonists found that they could not make French wine out of American grapes. They attributed the differences they discovered to Native American neglect and believed that the French colonial project would rehabilitate and restore the plant life in the region. However, the more colonists experimented with indigenous species and communicated their findings to the wider French Atlantic world, the more foreign New France appeared to French naturalists and even to the colonists themselves. Parsons demonstrates how the French experience of attempting to improve American environments supported not only the acquisition and incorporation of Native American knowledge but also the development of an emerging botanical science that focused on naming new species. Exploring the moment in which settlers, missionaries, merchants, and administrators believed in their ability to shape the environment to better resemble the country they left behind, A Not-So-New World reveals that French colonial ambitions were fueled by a vision of an ecologically sustainable empire.

Examining communication and information networks during the period of the Régence (1715-23), this article argues that French metropolitan ministers, imperial planners, colonial administrators, and royal cartographers relied heavily upon backcountry specialists-coureurs de bois, runaway soldiers, and veteran voyageurs-to provide ethnographic, geographic, and strategic knowledge, which informed and shaped the policies of post-Utrecht French North America. Subsequently, colonial officials believed that these French frontier diplomats and negotiators were the key to consolidating imperial control over the geographic, political, and cultural landscapes of the Hudson Bay watershed. These backcountry specialists were embedded within Indigenous information networks that criss-crossed North America and were thus important intermediaries between the French state and Indigenous peoples at the edge of empire. Although coureurs de bois and voyageurs became pivotal informants, explorers, fur traders, and military leaders, they not only were unwavering agents of imperial power but also pursued their own agendas and exercised agency in the Hudson Bay watershed. Backcountry specialists initially made it possible for French colonialism to extend into the watershed, but their own ambivalent relationships with the French colonial government and its representatives also fragmented the imperial authority of the French Empire in North America.

(Cet exposé n'est qu'une esquisse sans pretention) (This presentation is simply an unpretentious sketch)
Unions Métis et réclamations au Québec; est une analyse de recherche conduite de 2006 à 2009 contenant les résultats de recherche généalogiques d’individus réclamant le statut Indien et / ou Métis, en liens avec le registraire des membres de certaines Premières nations au Québec. La recherché fut effectuée par Eric Pouliot-Thisdale, gradué en sciences sociales et membre de la Faculté des Sciences Humaines de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, lors de recherches
universitaires et d’implications pour une association étudiante.

Eric Pouliot-Thisdale est recherchiste depuis 15 années dans le domaine des archives publiques de diverses sources, incluant les archives historiques et démographiques, qui a mené plusieurs recherches pour certains conseils de bande quant aux revendications territoriales politiques, ainsi que pour des particuliers. Il est actuellement chercheur, auteur et chroniqueur historique pour le journal hebdomadaire de la communauté de Kahnawake, gagnant du lauréat de la meilleure entreprise éducative, membre de Quebec Community Newspapers Association en 2016.

Au Québec, un mythe démographique et sociologique collectif laisse supposer que la majorité des habitants de la province sont de souches métisses; métissés par des alliances interethniques avec les indiens.

Cependant, selon la présente analyse basée sur des recherches approfondies accumulées sur 3 années consécutives par le biais de catégories de divers groupes d'âge, ainsi que plusieurs autres analyses démographique déjà effectuées précédemment par d’autres universités; cette spéculation populaire ne semble pas faire le poids sur la réalité fournie par les dossiers archivés.

En prenant compte de l’aperçu des résultats de cette présente étude, rassemblés à partir de recherches qui ont été menées entre 2006-2009, au Québec, pour les personnes qui étaient en quête d'ancêtres autochtones; le pourcentage de réalisme semblait aléatoire dans la plupart des cas. Pour obtenir un aperçu rapide de ces requêtes rencontrées, seulement 21,33% des candidats provenaient de métissages réels. Mais principalement au Québec une population d'environ 50% à 85% serait spéculée métissée, même si les compilations détaillées n'ont encore jamais été suffisamment présentées.

Également, ces résultats semblent avoir été promus plus particulièrement dans les zones où les origines de ces premiers métissages ont eu lieu la plupart du temps, créant donc un certain manque de régularité.

Historiquement, à partir des données découvertes dans les archives, la plupart des gens d'origines françaises vivant à proximité des territoires autochtones n’avaient fondamentalement pas de relations associées, spécifiquement avec les Premières nations, comme l'ont confirmés diverse études précédentes

However, such differences between countries may be due more to differences in the medical systems rather than differences in the quality of patient care. The United States has a very different medical environment, partly because of the highly litigious nature of US culture. 2 The fear of being sued may reduce the incidence of hindsight bias3 in US studies, since physicians may order more tests than are strictly necessary, which makes it more difficult for researchers such as Baker and associates to second-guess their decisions.

We examine whether spousal caregivers face difficulties in meeting their basic household expenses compared to nonspousal caregivers and whether social support mechanisms ameliorate any financial strain from caregiving responsibilities. We use data for caregivers aged 45 and over drawn from a nationally representative, cross-sectional Canadian Community Health Survey—Healthy Aging ( N = 5,067). Spousal caregiving is associated with a 35% increase in the likelihood of experiencing difficulties in meeting basic expenses compared to other types of caregiving. Each of social support mechanisms (affectionate, emotional/informational, and positive social interaction), singularly and combined, lessens financial strain from caregiving. Our findings suggest that spousal caregivers are particularly vulnerable because they have fewer resources to draw on for support and perform much more intensive care. Our results highlight the importance of developing appropriate policies and programs to supp...

This paper examines the public policy value of looking at gambling from a public health perspective. The manner in which social issues are framed will either expand or curtail public policy debates. The existing and traditional frames for gambling (e.g. gambling as a matter of individual freedom, gambling as a form of recreation) fail to consider research on the social and economic impacts of gambling. Because a public health frame offers a broad viewpoint of society, it encompasses a number of social and economic impacts not considered in traditional frames. However, the existing gambling frames enjoy varying degrees of cultural, economic, and political support and, as a result, creating a higher profile for a public health framework will encounter a number of barriers. Research can play a decisive role in overcoming these barriers, as it has in a number of related fields (e.g., tobacco use, addiction and product liability, the epidemiology of AIDS). The paper concludes that research that identifies and quantifies the public health factors of gambling will substantially contribute to a public shift toward a public health frame.

To compare the EULAR and SDAI50 response measures (RMs) and their impact on future response to treatment in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA). Biologic naïve ERA patients from the Canadian early ArThritis CoHort (CATCH) with complete data at baseline, 3 and 6 months were evaluated. Kappa statistics were used to evaluate the agreement between the EULAR (moderate or good response) and SDAI50 RMs. The RMs at 3 months were also compared for their ability to predict low disease activity state (LDAS) or remission (REM) at 6 months. A total of 1124 patients were evaluated. Of those, 215 (30%) and 294 (45%) patients failed to achieve a EULAR and SDAI50 RMs respectively. There was a good agreement between EULAR and SDAI50 RMs with a Kappa of 0.59 (95% CI 0.53- 0.66). Throughout the range of disease activity, the SDAI50 response was shown to be more stringent than the EULAR response. Multivariable linear regression analysis demonstrated that both RMs at 3 months were associated w...

Air quality indices currently in use have been criticized because they do not capture additive effects of multiple pollutants, or reflect the apparent no-threshold concentration-response relationship between air pollution and health. We propose a new air quality health index (AQHI), constructed as the sum of excess mortality risk associated with individual pollutants from a time-series analysis of air pollution and