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Copyright of Accounting Perspectives is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) are an important pathway and governance system for area-based conservation led by Indigenous Peoples. While IPCAs have been established across rural and northern regions of Canada, they have received little attention in urbanized landscapes, even though all of Canada's urban areas coincide with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis territory (and thereby underlying Indigenous jurisdiction) and the majority of Indigenous Peoples in the country live in urban centers. Canada's federal government is in the process of establishing six new urban national parks and has committed to working with local Indigenous governments and organizations in parks planning. This study examined the potential for strengthening Indigenous participation in urban parks planning, governance, and management, including the establishment of new urban Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (UIPCAs). The results of spatial analyses of urban Indigenous territory, a review of relevant domestic and international policy and interviews with local Indigenous conservation leaders illuminate the potential for new forms of urban conservation governance that are grounded in Indigenous rights and responsibilities and reflective of Indigenous knowledge systems and biocultural priorities. However, it remains to be seen how urban Indigenous-led conservation, such as UIPCAs, can fit and operate within proposed government urban conservation initiatives, such as Canada's Urban National Parks Program, which do not currently foreground Indigenous-led conservation in the governance of urban green space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies of policy diffusion rely on quantitative or qualitative methods depending on the number of cases and the policy at hand. Studies of diffusion in Canada, for instance, almost exclusively use qualitative techniques due to the limited number of subnational units. In this article, we explore whether machine learning techniques can complement qualitative approaches in these contexts. In 2015, the Canadian federal government decided to impose the legalization of cannabis and gave the provinces and territories a short time frame to develop and implement legislation. Previous qualitative research on this case found that within-province policy development was more salient than interprovincial diffusion. Using a plagiarism detection software, we find limited evidence of exact matches between provincial legislation, but a cosine score approach reveals significant similarities across provinces. These results suggest that computational and qualitative techniques together should be used where possible to identify and analyze policy diffusion in certain contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the October Crisis has often been analyzed through the lens of Quebec. This article wishes to broaden understanding of the repercussions of this crisis outside the borders of the francophone province by looking at the events that shook academic institutions in the Canadian Prairies and the reactions of the student youth that drove them. Based on analysis of student newspapers from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, it attests to the turmoil on university campuses in the months following the implementation of the War Measures Act, when demonstrations, petitions, teach-ins, and intellectual exchanges followed one another. This analysis sheds light on a certain dichotomy of opinions in the West. While Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau was strongly criticized for his official language policy and his economic centralism by the people and governments, a lull occurred with the October events, whose management by the federal government was welcomed. Student newspapers offered another perspective, that of an engaged youth sensitive to the issues of Quebec, trying to show the perverse effects of this War Measures Act, deemed liberticidal, hostile to radical discourse, and affecting the entire country. In revisiting this era, this article also explores the student journalistic style of the era-- a style that sought to be on the fringes of mainstream media, seen as biased in its treatment of Quebec and of separatist movements. In the eyes of certain students, the liberation of Quebec could lead only to the liberation of Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines an interval during 1970–1971 during which the Canadian Federal government established a clandestine body codenamed FAN TAN within the Prime Minister's Office to conduct surveillance of, and 'political action' against, the Quebec separatist movement. This organization, led by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Marc Lalonde, sought to persuade the Security Service of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to provide intelligence in support of what was a party political entity based in the Prime Minister's Office and not in the actual national security machinery of the Privy Council Office. We examine how John Starnes, Director General of the Security Service, went to considerable lengths to resist this effort to politicize his agency, and to warn the government of the potential scandal should FAN TAN become publicly known. We conclude that the FAN TAN affair leaves a number of serious questions to be answered such as: who actually originated the scheme, its legality as well as propriety, what intelligence was used or continued to be collected after the RCMP sought to end its involvement, and why the matter was ignored by the subsequent McDonald Commission that prompted the dissolution of the Security Service.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Federal Government promulgated new and lower NO2 Ambient Air Quality Standards (CAAQS) that went into effect in 2020 with additional decreases scheduled for 2025. The new hourly and annual NO2 CAAQS are 60 and 17 ppb, respectively, and the 2025 hourly and annual CAAQS are 42 and 12 ppb, respectively. The province of Alberta has also promulgated Ambient Air Quality Objectives (AAAQO) for NO2 currently set to 159 and 24 ppb on an hourly and annual basis, respectively. The Wood Buffalo Environmental Association (WBEA) in northeastern Alberta, Canada monitors NO2 at 21 community and industrial sites throughout the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR), for regulatory compliance using Thermo-Environmental (TEI) Model 42i Federal Reference Method (FRM) designated NO-NO2-NOx analyzers. The 42i measures NO directly via NO-O3 chemiluminescence, and NOx following the reduction of oxidized nitrogen to NO by a heated internal molybdenum converter. The difference between the NOx and NO channels is reported as NO2. This study presents the results of a three-year (2018–2021) WBEA comparison of four continuous NO2 analyzers: TEI 42i FRM; the API Model T500U cavity attenuated phase shift (CAPS) Federal Equivalent Method (FEM); a total reactive odd nitrogen analyzer (TEI Model 42i-Y); and a TEI 42i equipped with an external photolytic converter. The study showed that NO2 data from all analyzers were highly correlated and in general agreement, with r2 values (vs. the CAPS) ranging from 0.990–0.997 and slopes ranging from 0.933–0.992. Mean NO2 concentrations over the study period ranged from 7.2–7.5 ppb. Differences between the TEI 42i, TEI 42i-Y, and PhoNO, relative to the CAPS were all positive and highly significant (p < 0.0001), based upon nonparametric tests. The potential impact from the selection of different FRM/FEM measurement methods on current and future Canadian 2025 regulatory compliance in the region is evaluated. Implications: The study objective was to compare/evaluate different regulatory NO2 measurement techniques from a regional monitoring authority in a routine network operational context. Relatively small NO2 differences resulted in significant differences with respect to regulatory compliance triggers, particularly hourly standards based on daily extreme value statistics (e.g., 99th percentiles). For example, mean hourly NO2 △ differences ranged from 0.02–0.26 ppb over the study period but resulted in 2–3 ppb differences in the 3-year hourly CAAQS metrics. These differences could affect regulatory CAAQS and LARP compliance (management level) at monitoring sites observed during 2019 annual and 2020 hourly LARP trigger exceedances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite self-congratulatory rhetoric, Canada compromised COVID-19 vaccine equity with policies impeding a proposed global waiver of vaccine intellectual property (IP) rules. To learn from Canada’s vaccine nationalism we explore the worldview – a coherent textual picture of the world – in a sample of Government of Canada communications regarding global COVID-19 vaccine sharing. Analysed documents portray risks and disparities as unrelated to the dynamics and power relations of the Canadian and international economies. Against this depoliticised backdrop, economic growth fueled by strict IP rules and free trade is advanced as the solution to inequities. Global vaccine access and distribution are pursued via a charity-focused public-private-partnership approach, with proposals to relax international IP rules dismissed as unhelpful. Rather than a puzzling lapse by a good faith ‘middle power’, Canada’s obstruction of global COVID-19 vaccine equity is a logical and deliberate extension of dominant neoliberal economic policy models. Health sector challenges to such models must prioritise equity in global pandemic governance via politically assertive and less conciliatory stances towards national governments and multilateral organisations. Mobilisation for health equity should transform the overall health-damaging macroeconomic model, complementing efforts based on specific individual health determinants or medical technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document provides an overview of various regional and country-specific developments concerning Indigenous peoples' rights and issues worldwide. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing and protecting Indigenous peoples' land rights, ensuring their access to education, and safeguarding their land and resources. The document also highlights the need to guarantee freedom of religion, combat human trafficking, and protect Indigenous land and environmental defenders. Specific events and situations in Canada, Guatemala, and Colombia are mentioned, along with issues faced by Indigenous communities in South America, such as slow progress in seeking justice for a massacre in Colombia, the victory of Indigenous peoples in Ecuador in blocking oil drilling, and concerns about the annulment of prison sentences for the murder of Indigenous leaders in Peru. The text also discusses the ongoing challenges faced by the Yanomami people in Brazil, the violation of Indigenous rights in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the worsening Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh, and the impact of climate change on Indigenous peoples. The lack of progress in phasing out fossil fuels and the influence of oil companies are also highlighted. [Extracted from the article]

Since the late 1980s, there has been no explicit regional policy in Canada. Indirectly, though, equalization payments, industrial policies, as well as regional agencies encouraging the adoption of federal industrial and innovation policies, impact regional economies. In 2017, the federal government appeared to alter its approach: the Supercluster initiative was announced, drawing upon the idea that localized networks of interrelated firms can generate innovation and local development. In this paper, we discuss the mechanisms through which spatially focused industrial innovation policy can lead to regional development. We then focus on Canada's Ocean Supercluster initiative. The question we address is as follows: to what extent can this initiative (and, more widely, Canada's Supercluster policy) be understood as a regional development strategy driven by a coherent rationale for regional intervention? Apart from the fact that each Supercluster focuses on a pre‐existing core of firms located within a region, there is little evidence that the Supercluster initiative has regional development objectives or impacts. Key messages: In 2018, Canada's federal government implemented the Supercluster policy. Five regionally focussed clusters were selected for support for business‐led innovation initiatives.Superclusters were presented as a means both to develop regional economies and to enhance Canada's global innovation impact, in a manner similar to Europe's smart specialization.Despite the initial regional dimension, Superclusters are geared towards national, not regional, objectives and do not focus upon regional development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workplace violence against nurses is a significant global occupational health problem, with incidents of violence increasing in frequency since the COVID-19 pandemic began. In this article, we provide a review of recent legislative amendments meant to bolster workplace safety in health care in Canada, analyze legal cases where nurses were the victims of violence, and discuss what these legal reforms and decisions reveal about how nurses' work is treated within the Canadian legal system. Under criminal law, the limited number of cases we could find with oral or written sentencing decisions show that, historically, the fact a victim was a nurse was not always considered an aggravating factor on sentencing. Recent legislative amendments make this a specified aggravating factor and it is important to track the impact of these amendments when judges exercise their discretion in sentencing. Under employment law, it appears that, despite the government's efforts to increase the deterrence factor under legislation with significantly increased fines for employers who fail to protect their employees from injury, courts remain reluctant to impose such sanctions. In these cases, it is also important to track the impact of harsher penalties. We conclude that combating the widespread normalization of workplace violence in health care, and specifically against nurses, is acutely needed to help ensure that these ongoing legal reforms aimed at improving the safety of health workers are effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses and compares disability policies for working-age individuals in Canada with a focus on the mode of policy provision and type of measure to determine the degree to which direct funding is used in this country. To consider policy diversity in this federal system, policies are compared using a mixed-methods approach. Using quantitative methods, federal, provincial and territorial policies are first compared using hierarchical cluster analysis. This provides evidence of three distinct clusters in Canada according to policy provision and measure type. In a second, qualitative analysis, the disability strategies of four provinces' (British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec) are compared, to determine over arching policy orientations. Findings indicate that policy provision in Canada largely favours money over services. Furthermore, most provinces emphasize either health or integration measures over substantive measures. Despite these commonalities, significant variation persists across Canada. This extends to poverty and disability reduction strategies with two of the four provinces having a broader orientation while the other two provinces focus specifically on employment as a means of social inclusion. The article concludes with a discussion on the state of employment policies for individuals with a disability in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student mobility constitutes a core pillar of higher education internationalisation. Reflecting wider global trends, Canada and the EU have increasingly prioritised equity and inclusion in their student mobility programmes. Canada’s Global Skills Opportunity programme, launched in 2021, provides federal funding specifically to low‐income students, students with disabilities, and Indigenous students. The EU’s Erasmus Programme has a long‐standing tradition of community‐building through inclusive student mobility. This article traces the principle of inclusion as a mobility rationale and analyses the role of the federal government in Canada and the European Commission in the EU supporting it. Using a policy framing lens, this study compares problem definitions, policy rationales, and solutions for federal/supranational involvement in student mobility. Findings show that inclusiveness has been an underlying silent value, yet it has mostly supported larger political and economic goals in both contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational evaluation policies describe how evaluation practices should be structured and implemented. As such, they provide key insights into organizational priorities and values regarding evaluation. However, the link between evaluation policies and how evaluation policies translate into concrete practices has seldom been explored until now. Our study examines the implementation of two Canadian federal government evaluation policies over a 10-year timespan, through the secondary analysis of reports produced on behalf of governmental evaluation functions. Our findings show that some policy elements have been fully implemented, but the way in which these have been implemented varies between organizations. Further, we observed that the level of control of various organizational members responsible for implementing policy elements, as well as time, can influence implementation of certain policy requirements. We conclude by proposing further directions for research to examine the policy-practice link. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoking a potent concentration of salvia divinorum (hereafter salvia) has the capacity to dissolve one's ego and sense of self. Due to the catatonic state a strong dose of salvia produces, the substance has been considered alarming by claims-makers including politicians, media officials, police, and citizen groups. This paper examines news media accounts of salvia use in Canada and salvia's regulation by the Canadian federal government. Providing a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles spanning 1991–2019 regarding claims made about salvia, we draw from literature on moral panics and drugs to conceptualize the police and political response to salvia in Canada. We trace the shifting claims made by an array of claims-makers, showing how the focus changed from curiosity to claims about risk. The banning of salvia in Canada displays the hallmarks of a moral panic, though in this case the claims-making about the harm and risk of salvia went on for years before the substance was made illegal. We apply the notions of slow panic and panic policy to salvia regulation in Canada and reflect on the implications for literatures regarding drug panics and the new psychedelic renaissance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada entered the COVID‐19 pandemic with a strong fiscal position, which gave it room to mitigate its economic impacts. Of interest in this paper is the history of Canada's financial position in terms of net debt as reported in the Government of Canada's annual financial statements. Net debt is a measure of fiscal sustainability that has been reported in the Government of Canada's public accounts since the country's earliest days. It created (and continues to create) a particular visibility of the "effectiveness" of the federal government's financial management and of the country's financial position at a particular point in time but also impacts future political policy. Although there were periods of sharp increases in the federal net debt over the country's history, the federal government was always able to regain control, and this has resulted in the reasonable level of net debt the country has today. This study shows how this net debt changed, was sustained over time, and was influenced by the political and economic context in which it was situated. We find evidence of its use for supporting government accountability to the population but also as an accounting measure employed by the government to influence public opinion and thereby gain support for government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a time of rapid urban growth and development, it is becoming ever more important to monitor the carbon fluxes of our cities. Unlike Canada's commercially managed forests that have a long history of inventory and modelling tools, there is both a lack of coordinated data and considerable uncertainty on assessment procedures for urban forest carbon. Nonetheless, independent studies have been carried out across Canada. To improve upon Canada's federal government reporting on carbon storage and sequestration by urban forests, this study builds on existing data to develop an updated assessment of carbon storage and sequestration for Canada's urban forests. Using canopy cover estimates derived from ortho-imagery and satellite imagery ranging from 2008 to 2012 and field-based urban forest inventory and assessment data from 16 Canadian cities and one US city, this study found that Canadian urban forests store approximately 27,297.8 kt C (− 37%, + 45%) in above and belowground biomass and sequester approximately 1497.7 kt C year−1 (− 26%, + 28%). In comparison with the previous national assessment of urban forest carbon, this study suggested that in urban areas carbon storage has been overestimated and carbon sequestration has been underestimated. Maximizing urban forest carbon sinks will contribute to Canada's mitigation efforts and, while being a smaller carbon sink compared to commercial forests, will also provide important ecosystem services and co-benefits to approximately 83% of Canadian people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the policy analytical capacity (PAC) of governments has suffered in the past from the anecdotal nature of most studies, leading to different evaluations of specific analytical activities and of the overall competences and capacities of governments as a whole. What is needed to advance the field is a set of metrics that can generate insights into the capabilities of different units and how changes to their and overall government capacity develop over time. Focusing on this component of policy capacity, we map and measure the distribution of policy professionals in the provincial, territorial, and federal governments in Canada. Our measures are tested against two major findings regarding PAC: first that variation among governmental PAC varies by size of the civil service, with smaller jurisdictions likely to have less capacity, and second, that concentration of professionals in specific issue areas underscores that area's political and/or policy salience to the government concerned. Both measures prove robust in assessing Canadian government activities in these areas. Points for practitioners: Policy capacity is acknowledged as a significant perquisite for policy success.While some general frameworks exist highlighting policy relevant competences and capabilities important to policy success, how to measure these remains under‐investigated.Focusing on policy analytical capacity, this paper draws on the literature on policy professionals to develop two measures of this component of policy capacity linked to the extent to which an agency focuses on analysis and the proportion of their staff who work on the subject compared to other agencies.The measures are deployed in an illustrative case of Canada and Canadian governments at the territorial, provincial, and federal level which confirms their utility and robustness as indicators of the different levels of analytical capacity different agencies employ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forestry Chronicle is the property of Canadian Institute of Forestry and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The poem "DOTS AND CROSSES: Images and Incantations" by Suparna Ghosh is presented. First Line: Manu means "man" in Sanskrit, which represents one of the oldest branches of the; Last Line: her eyes still turned to the drooping sky.

Historically, there is a documented lack of support for women leaving their communities to give birth. Due to an over-emphasis on risk discourse (no distinction between low- or high-risk pregnancies with options to birth at home, the large geographical distances to regional centres within circumpolar regions, remoteness of communities, lack of qualified staff, and limited resources), women are forced to travel great distances to give birth. In Canada until 2017, women travelled alone or bore the burden of paying out of pocket for someone to travel with them for support with the births of their babies. A recent policy change has allowed for one paid escort to accompany a pregnant woman. The purpose of this paper is to provide an outcome assessment of the perinatal transport and non-medical escort policy implemented by the federal government in Canada. The paper utilises a narrative literature review along with preliminary Indigenous photovoice results to illuminate the perspectives of Indigenous families. There are numerous challenges women face when travelling for birth including feelings of loneliness and fear, stress and separation from their children, lack of community connection, financial concerns, and a loss of self-determination. Women are given an opportunity in decision-making about who will travel with them as an escort. This does little to address the disparity of delivering their babies away from their families and communities, the burden of figuring out who cares for the children at home, and the impact their absences have on health of their families. Although, additional support has been provided for birthing women in northern Canada, there continues to be little effort to return to community birthing creating safety for Indigenous families through traditional practices, Indigenous midwifery, and community ceremonies and changing the disproportionate burden of poor outcomes experienced by Indigenous women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lean In has started a worldwide conversation about the representation of women in senior leadership roles. However, the conversation has focused on individual factors that could assist women in their leadership journeys. In this paper, we draw on research about gender stereotypes in three streams ("think manager—think male," the glass cliff, and childcare) to argue that the who, what, and when of leaning in as presented in this book are problematic. Our synthesis of the literature leads us to conclude that gender stereotypes form subtle systemic barriers to the advancement of significant numbers of women into these roles at the group level. To circumvent these stereotypes, increasing the representation of women in senior leadership roles is a necessary first step, not an eventual outcome. We illustrate our point with an example from the Canadian federal government. To change the numbers of women in top leadership roles, individuals in powerful positions in organizations (mainly men) need to make the proportional representation of women in senior leadership roles a priority—one that is enforced through measurement, tracking, and reinforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of incorporating Indigenous knowledge into scientific research, particularly in the field of entomology. Indigenous peoples have a deep understanding of the interconnectedness and dynamics of ecosystems, and their knowledge can provide valuable insights for researchers. However, traditional knowledge is often overlooked or dismissed in scientific studies. The article emphasizes the need to respect and value Indigenous knowledge, conduct consultations with Indigenous communities, foster relationships and build trust, and collaborate with traditional knowledge holders. By embracing Indigenous knowledge, researchers can gain a more holistic understanding of entomological complexities and promote cultural preservation and equity in academia. [Extracted from the article]

In 1942, Japanese Canadians living in coastal British Columbia, Canada, were forcibly incarcerated in internment camps far from the Pacific coast and had their fishing boats and other property confiscated and auctioned off. At the end of World War II, they expected to return to the coast, but permission was not granted until 1949. Some were sent to Japan, and many others migrated east of the Rocky Mountains. In 1988, the Canadian federal government acknowledged the wrongs committed as part of Redress, but in more localized spaces, little was acknowledged. The silence was deafening. In this article, I consider recent anti-racist work to address the legacies of anti-Japanese Canadian racism in Central Vancouver Island. This includes: (1) advocating to change the names of a school and street in Port Alberni honorifically named after A.W. Neill, (2) removing an anti-Asian racist covenant from properties that A.W. Neill owned in Port Alberni, (3) activism to receive a public apology for a 1947 city council resolution to not allow returning Japanese Canadians in Tofino, and (4) memorializing a pre-WWII Japanese Canadian community in Cumberland. These efforts can be theorized as anti-racist work associated with Japanese Canadian spaces. This article contributes to critical human geography by emphasizing that while national level efforts to reconcile past wrongs are crucial, localized work also requires considerable attention. It is therefore necessary to be attentive to the importance of scale with regard to the geographies of anti-racist activism and the remaking of commemorative landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the Canadian federal government's recently enacted Food Policy for Canada (FPC). Three arguments are developed. First, the development and vision statement of the FPC implies that improving Canadian food security is a specific objective of the policy. Second, if assessed by the measure of food insecurity promulgated by Statistics Canada, the effectiveness of the FPC in reducing Canadian food insecurity will primarily depend on the extent to which it improves household incomes and/or lowers food prices. We evaluate the current programmatic content by these criteria. Third, and related to the second point, we argue that the variation in the severity of food insecurity is an important consideration in assessing the effectiveness of FPC programs in reducing food insecurity as measured by Statistics Canada. Finally, we combine these three arguments into a simple figure/heuristic that can serve as a guide to the assessment and development of FPC programs seeking to enhance food insecurity in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, Canada's federal government made a historic commitment to develop a national school food policy. Among overlapping challenges of increasing food insecurity, rising food costs, and the impact on food systems from climate change, there is now an opportunity to create a school food environment that ensures universal access to nutritious foods and supports sustainability in food systems. A universal school food program can ensure that all children, regardless of income, access the recommended nutritious foods and can promote climate-friendly diets. Such school food programs can also support local farmers and regional economies. In this paper, we outline the policy context for the new Canada's Food Guide and the researched benefits of school food. We argue that Canada's Food Guide can support a healthy school environment that is equitable and that promotes sustainability in the food system by embracing founding principles of diet equity and sustainability. Our concluding discussion outlines issues to be addressed in implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Foreign Policy Journal (CFPJ) is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduction: Unhealthy food and beverage marketing in various media and settings contributes to children's poor dietary intake. In 2019, the Canadian federal government recommended the introduction of new restrictions on food marketing to children. This scoping review aimed to provide an up-to-date assessment of the frequency of food marketing to children and youth in Canada as well as children's exposure to this marketing in various media and settings in order to determine where gaps exist in the research. Methods: For this scoping review, detailed search strategies were used to identify relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature published between October 2016 and November 2021. Two reviewers screened all results. Results: A total of 32 relevant and unique articles were identified; 28 were peer reviewed and 4 were from the grey literature. The majority of the studies (n = 26) examined the frequency of food marketing while 6 examined actual exposure to food marketing. Most research focussed on children from Ontario and Quebec and television and digital media. There was little research exploring food marketing to children by age, geographical location, sex/gender, race/ethnicity and/or socioeconomic status. Conclusion: Our synthesis suggests that unhealthy food marketing to children and adolescents is extensive and that current self-regulatory policies are insufficient at reducing the presence of such marketing. Research assessing the frequency of food marketing and preschooler, child and adolescent exposure to this marketing is needed across a variety of media and settings to inform future government policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although contraceptive and abortion care are medically necessary services, healthcare providers in Canada are permitted by professional associations to refuse to provide care or referrals for care on the basis of their personal beliefs. Regulating policies vary between provinces and often have vague phrasing, leading to confusion and controversy. Some evidence suggests that belief-based denial of legal and necessary services can lead to harmful outcomes, but rigorous research is scant. We undertook this qualitative study to explore Canadians' experiences with belief-based denial of contraception and abortion care and the consequences of this refusal in Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with individuals who had experienced refusal of contraception or abortion care from November 2022 to March 2023. Eligible participants were sufficiently fluent in English to complete an interview and had access to a telephone or Internet. We employed a multimodal recruitment strategy including posts through community organizations and social media. We obtained oral consent prior to interviews. Interviews included questions about the participants' demographic characteristics, reproductive health histories, experiences with denial of health care, and perspectives on how abortion services could be improved. We audio-recorded and transcribed all interviews and used ATLAS.ti to manage our data. We analyzed our interviews for content and themes using deductive and inductive techniques. We organized our results around domains of inquiry and showcased key themes through narrative vignettes. The Research Ethics Board at the University of Ottawa approved this study. Our 30 participants ranged in age from 21 to 53 (mean 31.6) years; 27 used she/her pronouns, 2 used he/him pronouns, and 1 used they/them pronouns. Our participants identified as white (n=19); Black (n=2), Chinese/East Asian (n=3), South Asian (n=2), Hispanic (n=1), Indigenous (n=1), and Bi-racial (n=2). Twenty participants reported being denied contraception (including sterilization, the intra-uterine device, hormonal methods, and emergency contraceptive pills), 9 participants reported being denied abortion care, and 1 reported being denied both. Participants reported being denied tubal ligation or vasectomy because of age or parity; several participants repeatedly tried to get a tubal ligation over several years and were repeatedly denied the service. Participants reported that denial of abortion care was related to the provider's religious beliefs, the religious affiliation of the hospital/facility, and because of very low gestational age. After being denied care, participants felt angry, scared, disappointed, and frustrated. Some expressed concern over not having reproductive autonomy and described healthcare as sexist. Participants consistently voiced their opposition to policies that allow providers to refuse reproductive health services on the basis of their beliefs. The Canadian federal government has repeatedly supported the provision of a full range of respectful, timely, and accessible contraception and abortion. However, allowing healthcare providers to deny care based on their personal beliefs creates barriers to accessing necessary health services. Policymakers and clinicians should consider reforming these regulations with attention to patient-centered outcomes that are informed by patient experiences, establishing avenues for patients to report violations of practice standards, and creating enforcement mechanisms to ensure that Canadians receive the comprehensive reproductive health services they need and deserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the employment-related information seeking behaviour of Bangladeshi immigrants in Canada. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 Bangladeshi immigrants in Ontario, Canada, and obtained 205 survey responses. The study highlights the centrality of employment-related settlement among Bangladeshi immigrants in Ontario and reports many immigrants not being able to utilize their education and skills after arrival in Canada. The results show that Bangladeshi immigrants utilize various information sources for their employment in Canada, including friends and professional colleagues, online searchers, and settlement agencies. Although Bangladeshi immigrants utilized a large array of information sources for meeting their employment-related information needs, many interview participants emphasized that the employment-related benefits they received was because of their access to friends and professional colleagues in Canada. The survey results echoed the interview findings. The cross-tabulation results on post-arrival information sources and occupation status as well as first job information sources and occupational status in Canada show a significant association among the use of the information source "friends and professional colleagues in Canada" and immigrants' occupational status. The study highlights the benefits of professional colleagues among immigrants in employment-related settlement contexts. It also reports the challenges faced by many immigrant professionals related to employment-related settlement because of the lack of access to their professional friends and colleagues in Canada. The author urges the Federal Government of Canada, provincial governments, and settlement agencies working with newcomers to offer services that would connect highly skilled immigrants with their professional networks in Canada, in order to get proper guidance related to obtaining a professional job or alternative career. The author calls for further studies on employment-related information seeking by immigrants to better understand the role information plays in their settlement in a new country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supercluster is a new initiative promoted by the Canadian federal government to strengthen Canada's most promising clusters and allow innovative firms to operate more productively in sourcing inputs and accessing information, knowledge, and technology. This paper contributes to the scientific research on superclusters and pursues two objectives. First, we discuss the origins of the supercluster initiative and trace its roots back to major research traditions on regional agglomerations and territorial innovation models, in particular the cluster theory, the regional innovation system, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem approaches. Second, we conduct a critical analysis and identify four critical questions (or challenges) that need to be addressed to clarify the scope and objectives of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural resources management (NRM) is complex and relies on decisions supported by evidence, including Western-based science (WBS) and Indigenous and local knowledge. However, it has been shown that there is a disconnect between WBS and its application, whereby managers often draw on non-empirical sources of information (i.e., intuition or advice from colleagues). This article focuses on the role of WBS in decisions made in management of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the province of British Columbia, Canada. We conducted open-ended interviews with NRM branches of Indigenous and parliamentary governments, as well as with nongovernmental stakeholder groups, to examine (a) sources of WBS consulted in decision-making and (b) barriers to accessing WBS by managers. We found that respondents involved with NRM relied on a diverse set of sources for WBS, seldom relying exclusively on one source. However, respondents relied more on internal sources (government databases) compared to external ones (peer-reviewed journal articles). We also found that respondents described WBS as valuable and generally accessible, yet barriers were identified with respect to the interface and organization of government grey data and literature, paywalls associated with peer-reviewed journals and articles, and institutional capacity, time, and support. We recommend strategies and tools to facilitate accessibility of WBS in support of bridging the knowledge-action divide, including increased publishing of open access data/articles, systematic reviews, use of knowledge brokers, specialized WBS training, and knowledge co-production. It is our hope that identification of barriers and the implementation of improved access to WBS will result in more effective NRM by giving managers access to the tools and knowledge they need for evidence-based decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic offered Canadians a glimpse of the digital healthcare system we could have here if we are willing to clear away the traditional roadblocks that stand in the way. However, as the pandemic slowly recedes, the opportunity to keep moving forward, with a health-care system that fully embraces digital, will likely require the federal government asserting itself as a leader in a policy area that falls within provincial jurisdiction, despite the controversy and contention that federal intervention would arouse. The pandemic's urgent demands on the health system forced jurisdictions to clear many barriers that have impeded digital-health innovation until now. Within weeks of the onset of the pandemic, virtual care exploded to previously unimaginable levels, with health-related telephone and video calls rapidly rising from less than two per cent of all ambulatory visits at the beginning of 2020, to as high as 70 per cent by mid-May the same year. The bureaucracy around procurement, privacy and security was reduced, while digital-health innovators were given the opportunity to take a larger role in the health system. Digital health care is much more than just a doctor making a Zoom call, however. Seizing the momentum to realize broader change will require a national approach. This should include several policies, many requiring federal leadership, such as enshrining digital care within the definition of "medically necessary" care, insured under the Canada Health Act. Digital health also includes giving patients ownership of their personal health data, while ensuring data interoperability across Canada. The current, fragmented, provincial approach to health care is a drag on innovation, creating barriers to the efficient procurement of technologies, interoperability and data sharing. Our heavily siloed system disadvantages not only the health-care system and patients, but Canadian digital-health companies who, because they are unable to scale up in Canada, will find it hard to compete in the growing global digital-health industry. The federal government can show leadership by innovating with digital health policy for those citizens that fall under its health-care purview, such as Indigenous Canadians and members of the Canadian Armed Forces. Ensuring that Canadians everywhere realize the benefits of digital health care, however, will require Ottawa taking a more active role in breaking down barriers between provinces and territories, making it clear that our slow-to-innovate health-care silos are no longer sustainable in a digital world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2016, Canada's federal government has pledged to factor in upstream emissions during the environmental impact assessment of fossil fuel energy projects. The upstream emissions attributable to a proposed project could be compared against a rejection threshold—a maximum permissible level of emissions—or the firm could be mandated to offset the attributed emissions. We adopt a cooperative game-theoretic model and propose the nucleolus mechanism to apportion upstream emission responsibilities in a fossil fuel supply chain, represented by a directed tree, wherein the nodes correspond to various entities in the supply chain such as extractors, distributors, refineries, and end consumers. The nucleolus allocation avoids the distortionary effects of double counting and exhibits a certain consistency property that is especially important in a regulatory context wherein fossil fuel supply chains span multiple legal jurisdictions. We develop a polynomial-time algorithm to compute the nucleolus and further prove that it arises as the unique subgame perfect equilibrium allocation of a noncooperative game induced by two easily stated and verifiable policies, thereby providing an implementation framework. We then demonstrate the strong Nash stability of the nucleolus mechanism subject to the two policies, study its sensitivity to parameter changes, and characterize it on the basis of fairness considerations. Furthermore, under the common assumption that the emissions allocated to a firm and the resulting financial penalties do not impact the revenues from the firm's core operations, we also provide lower-bound guarantees on the welfare gains it delivers to firms in the fossil fuel supply chain and on the incentives it offers such firms to adopt emission abatement technologies. Finally, we contextualize our discussion with a case study on a proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline in Western Canada. This paper was accepted by Chung Piaw Teo, optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare flexible low‐carbon regulations in the transportation sector and their interaction and sequencing with greenhouse gas emissions trading systems in California and Quebec. As momentum builds for greater climate action, it is necessary to better understand how carbon markets and other low‐carbon transportation policies influence one another. First, we demonstrate that emissions trading between California and Quebec has been asymmetric, with linking having little influence on carbon prices from California's perspective but leading to a considerable cost reduction from the point of view of Quebec. Second, we present evidence that Quebec has replicated many of California's low‐carbon transportation policies that promote increased electric vehicle use, where Quebec has an advantage, while deferring to the Canadian federal government with regard to policies that incentivize the production of other low‐carbon transportation fuels. Third, we demonstrate that while the stringency of the policy mix of carbon pricing and flexible transportation regulations has increased over time in both jurisdictions, the stringency of flexible regulations has been more aggressively ratcheted up and is expected to continue to dominate. Overall, our findings suggest that the policy sequence observed in California and Quebec can be attributed to the political economy benefits that the selected instruments confer to governments seeking to move from the middle towards the bottom of the clean technology experience curve. We discuss a number of important research questions and associated hypotheses emanating from our findings, which provide the basis for more in‐depth studies involving a larger universe of cases and economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the start of the opioid epidemic in 2016, the Downtown Eastside community of Vancouver, Canada, has lost many pioneering leaders, activists and visionaries to the war on drugs. The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS), and the British Columbia Association People on Opiate Maintenance (BCAPOM) are truly concerned about the increasing overdose deaths that have continued since 2016 and have been exacerbated by the novel coronavirus (SARS-COVID-19) despite many unique and timely harm reduction announcements by the British Columbia (BC) government. Some of these unique interventions in BC, although in many cases only mere announcements with limited scope, are based on the philosophy of safe supply to illegal street drugs. Despite all the efforts during the pandemic, overdose deaths have spiked by over 100% compared to the previous year. Therefore, we urge the Canadian federal government, specifically the Honorable Patty Hajdu, the federal Minister of Health, to decriminalize simple possession immediately by granting exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The Canadian federal government has a moral obligation under Sect. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect the basic human rights of marginalized Canadians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation policies are purposefully designed to give guidance on evaluation practice. The authors' examination confirms not only how evaluation policy influences the character of government departments that direct evaluations and various aspects of evaluation practice but also how evaluation practice can influence evaluation policy. [Extracted from the article]

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments around the world to take extraordinary measures to mitigate the virus's deadly impact. These measures include the approval, procurement, and distribution of vaccines to citizens. This paper examines the likelihood of a class action against the Canadian federal government being certified under British Columbia's Class Proceedings Act, RSBC 1996, c 50 for Adverse Effects Following Immunization [AEFI] caused after receiving a dose of a government-approved vaccine. Intended as a thought experiment, this essay is not a case study of an actual action, but rather a study of how the Act and the courts would approach such a case, were it brought. It explores what the proper cause of action would be, what potential class definition would be chosen, what the proposed common issues would be, and the viability of alternative procedures for resolving claims for AEFI. This has been done through an examination of the currently available data relating to the vaccine approval process, and a review of relevant jurisprudence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]